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Biography Tomi T Ahonen, MBA, 3G Strategy Consultant
"The combination of personalisation,
location information and a willingness
to pay makes all kinds of new business
models possible," said Tomi Ahonen.
The Economist
October 13, 2001
Tomi T Ahonen, MBA
Author, Consultant
and Motivational Speaker
Tomi T Ahonen is a six-time
bestselling author of hardcover telecoms/tech books who has also released a
series of three eBooks in 2009. An independent consultant and motivational
speaker in the converging areas of mobile telecoms, internet, media,
advertising, credit and banking, social networking and virtual reality, Tomi is
based in Hong Kong. He lectures on these topics at Oxford
University for which developed the short courses for 3G
services, 3G business, mobile-TV and 7th Mass Media. Mr Ahonen is seen annually
at about 20 conferences on six continents. The father of several of the industry's
most used theories, tools and concepts, and a founding member of several
industry groups, as well as being the holder of a telecoms competitiveness
world record, Tomi Ahonen has been quoted in over 300 press articles starting
with the Wall Street Journal,
Financial Times, Business Week, Economist, etc and is regularly
seen on TV; he writes several columns and articles to industry press every
year. He blogs daily, twitters, and has profiles on Facebook and Linked In.
Tomi is considered a significant
thought-leader for the industry, best indicated by the unparallelled endorsement
of his ideas by his peers, as he and his thoughts are referenced in 50 books by
other authors. The inventor of the mobile industry's only
service-creation tool, the 5 M's / 6 M's (with Joe Barrett of Nokia and Paul
Golding of Motorola) is referenced by a dozen other authors, Tomi is also the
father of several widely referenced industry concepts and theories, including
the Hockey Sticks theory, Connected Age concept, Generation-C for Community,
and the 7th Mass Media taxonomy, each of which has also already been referenced
in books by other industry thought-leaders.
With Fortune 500 companies as his
reference customers, Tomi provides seminars, workshops and training around the
creation of advanced digital services; the marketing, pricing and launch;
strategy and competition; and partnerships and cooperation for the main players
such as telecoms operators/carriers; equipment manufacturers; IT and internet
companies; TV and radio broadcasters; print media; advertising; banking and
credit card companies; etc. Tomi assists in the value-chain and revenue-sharing
calculations and also acts as expert witness for intellectual property
attorneys. Tomi also provides general business case presentations
to isolate profit opportunities for interested parties. Mr Ahonen is also a
motivational speaker in the area of telecoms telecoms marketing, sales,
product development and innovation.
The world's
leading authority on making money with advanced wireless services, and the
undisputed global evangelist for successful mobile applications, at public
conferences Tomi Ahonen has described over 1,000 existing services making
money today in mobile, while his books outline over 700. He has been seen at
most major 3G and mobile internet events such as delivering the strategy
keynote to the world's largest telecoms event, 3GSM
World Congress in Cannes in 2005, and opened the topic of
services and applications for 4G, at the CTIA in New Orleans in 2004. Tomi is
co-inventor on several patents in the mobile telecoms area and serves on the
boards of several innovative high tech companies. Tomi is a founding member or
co-founder of the Wireless Watch, Engagement Alliance, Carnival of the
Mobilists, Every Single One of Us, and Forum Oxford.
Tomi
Ahonen's first book, Services for UMTS:
Creating Killer Applications in 3G (with Joe Barrett) was the
world's first book on 3G services. Released in March 2002, the book became the
world's best-selling book on 3G topics in only six months after release and has
now been translated into Chinese. For more including reviews see [Services
for UMTS]. His second book, m-Profits: Making Money from 3G Services
was the world's first business book on 3G and advanced wireless telecoms, which
became the world's best-selling 3G book for the months of October and December
2003. Still today the book has no rivalsa nd is considered the bible for the how
the mobile industry makes its money today. For more information including
reviews see [m-Profits]. Ahonen's third book was 3G
Marketing: Communities and Strategic Partnerships (with Timo
Kasper and Sara Melkko) the book on how to win in telecoms customer loyalty and
marketshare wars, which was released July 2004 and sold out so fast that in
five months the book went into its second printing, and was cited as the world's
fastest selling telecoms book ever by John Wiley & Sons, the world's
largest publisher of engineering and technology books. It has been translated
into Chinese. Information on the book is at
[3G Marketing]
Tomi's fourth book Communities Dominate Brands
(with Alan Moore) was the world's first book on the business of social
networking and also introduced the cutting-edge concept in marketing called
"engagement marketing". The book went into second printing in six
months and is being adopted as a university textbook being used at various
institutions from Australia the USA. More at [Communities Dominate]
Tomi's fifth book, is on the most advanced digitally converged country, South
Korea, and is called Digital Korea
(with Jim O'Reilly). This was the first time any book by Tomi has been
serialized, which was in the Korea IT Times in 2007. There is a book website at
[Digital Korea]. Tomi's sixth book
is Mobile as 7th of the
Mass Media, about why mobile offers a compelling and soon
dominating proposition for any media owners to reach audiences better, faster
and more engagingly than in any previous six media, including the internet.
There is a blogsite for the book at [Seventh
Mass Media Blog].
In 2009
Tomi Ahonen released a series of eBooks/mobile books, at 171 page length each.
He features 50 case studies in each of his Pearls volumes. Pearls
Vol 1 dealt with Mobile Advertising
in January 2009 and Pearls Vol 2 dealt with Mobile Social Networking in April
2009. Tomi also released an industry statistical compendium as the Tomi Ahonen Almanac 2009, with 60
charts, tables and figures of the latest industry facts, also in 171 page eBook
format. The eBooks have been remarkably well received by industry
thought-leaders and became instantly widely referenced resources used
throughout the industry. For more see [Tomi Ahonen eBooks]
Considered the global authority
on making money with new wireless services, Tomi Ahonen delivered over 200 papers at industry conferences
on six continents dealing with topics relating to 3G and advanced wireless
services and digital convergence to industry statistics and forecasts for the
future of mobile and digital convergence. He regularly runs full-day to industry
analysts, bankers, venture capital community, telecoms consultancies, press and
other parties involved in understanding the profit potential of new mobile
services of 3G. Many of the world's largest manufacturers, operators,
consultancies, analysts and other interested parties site him as their topmost
expert. 11 separate companies and organizations have invited Tomi to present as
the independet expert at their press
conferences worldwide. Tomi's current reference list reads like the who's who
of 3G mobile telecoms, starting with the worlds largest handset manufacturer Nokia, largest mobile networks
supplier Ericsson, the largest computer
manufacturer Hewlett-Packard, biggest IT
engineering corporation Siemens,
the largest mobile operator group Vodafone,
the largest mobile applications developer Buongiorno, the largest mobile internet
service provider NTT DoCoMo, etc etc etc. He
also has provided consultancy on telecoms and digital convergence to leading
internet, broadcast and print media, gaming, music, advertising and banking
customers. Most of his current consultancy work is, however, so strategic to be
under strictest commitments to confidentiality. Tomi's work consistently
achieves reviews such as "opened my eyes", "best presentation I
have ever seen", "not only met my considerable expectations, but
managed to exceed them" and "we want to bring you back." His
repeat business is best proof of his value.
Tomi Ahonen has worked with major
industry and trade associations including the Korean IT Promotion Agency,
Communications Industry Association of Japan, The Infocomm Development Agency
of Singapore, the Mobile Computer Users Group, the Periodical Publishers
Association, the Global Billing Association, the Wireless Advertising
Association, the Israel Mobile Internet Forum, the Irish Marketing Society, the
Slovenian Marketing Association, Asian Mobility Initiative, the Canadian
Wireless Telecoms Association, etc. Tomi is an active member
on numerous professional discussion boards and groups, such as LinkedIn,
Ecademy, the Tribe, etc. He is a strong supporter of the Mobile
Monday movement and has been a guest speaker at numerous MoMo chapters from San Francisco to
Beijing as well as serving on MoMo's global advisory board. Tomi was a founding member or co-founder of the
Wireless Watch, Carnival of the Mobilists,
Engagement Alliance, Every Single One of Us and Forum Oxford where he is also
co-moderator.
Tomi serves on the Editorial
Board of the Journal of
Telecommunications Management and is an editor at the Forum Oxford Journal. He regularly
contributes columns and articles on the status of the industry to such
periodicals as the Telecommunications, 3G
Mobile, European Communications, Total Telecom, Mobile Communications, the IEE
Communications Engineer, Asia-Pacific Telecommunications, Mobile Handset
Analyst, The 3G Portal, etc. He also regularly supports the
industries interested in digital convergence, such as advertising, banking,
media, etc. Tomi Ahonen has been quoted in over 300 press
articles in a dozen languages relating to 3G and new mobile
services including the Wall Street Journal,
Financial Times, the Economist, Business Week, Barrons, Revolution,
ComputerWorld, 3G Mobile, Wireless Asia, etc as well as many leading
national papers such as Canadian Business,
Finanstidningen, Wirtschaftswoche, La Republica, Taloussanomat, Nikkei etc.
[See Tomi in
Press]
Earlier Tomi Ahonen set up and
headed Nokia's Global 3G Business
Consultancy Department which provides business modelling,
market research and other management consultancy to practically all major
mobile operators/wireless carriers. Tomi Ahonen also oversaw Nokia's 3G Research Centre which
provides end-user research and had run a number of surveys covering over 60,000
consumers around the world. Previously at Nokia Mr
Ahonen was Nokia's first Segmentation Manager and before that he managed Indirect Access
services. In 1999 he wrote Nokia's White Paper on Indirect Access which was the
first industry White Paper to introduce ways to bring internet services to
mobile. At Nokia Tomi provided customer consultancy to over three dozen
operators on six continents, including Vodafone HQ and
a dozen Vodafone Group affiliates worldwide, and
several Orange, T-Mobile and Telenor affiliates;
as well as individual operators such as Sonera, Sonofon,
Partner/Orange, Starhub, AIS, Globe, China Mobile, China Unicom, SK Telecom,
Telecom New Zealand, etc.
Before that Tomi Ahonen was
employed for 3 years by Elisa Corporation
(best known for its Radiolinja unit which was the world's first digital mobile
operator on the GSM standard, and also the mobile operator that introduced
competition to mobile markets) and with Finnet International as
the Product Line Manager for international voice services which captured a 29%
market share as a challenger. This was widely reported as the world
record for taking market share from the incumbent under
fully open telecoms competition. Mr Ahonen represented the Group in telecoms standardising bodies for
several years including chairing the first specification for mobile VPNs. He
managed pioneering telecoms integration projects with AT&T
Unisource, Global One, Radiolinja, Sonera, Tele2 and Telia. These included the world's first fixed-mobile
service bundle, and a pioneering multi-operator
billing solution for over 45 independent operators. He provided
training for the independent Finnish operators now known as the mobile operator
DNA and the Finnet Group.
He also provided competition training for Matav and EPT. Tomi also advised most of Finland's largest
corporations including Nokia, Kemira, Pohjola and the Bank of Finland, on
telecoms.
Earlier Tomi Ahonen has worked
for 3 years as Director of Sales and Network Engineer for OCSNY,
a Manhattan based ISP and networking company where his customers
included The United Nations Security Council, The Economist Group, and The NY
Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Among his accomplishments were the introduction of
OCSNY as Manhattan Yellow Pages' first Internet Service
Provider effectively becoming the first ISP in New York City
(and yes, they are still in business and still profitable today) and creating
the world's first computer company advertisement onto
the Internet. Before that Tomi Ahonen worked for 2 years as the
Controller and Head of IT for Financo Inc, a Wall Street investment banking
firm.
Tomi Ahonen holds an MBA (with
hons) in International Finance from St John's University NY and a bachelors
degree (with hons) in international marketing with certificates in computer
science, international management and foreign policy. He currently resides in
Hong Kong.
Tomi T Ahonen's Digital
Footprint:
Tomi's daily blog co-authored
with Alan Moore since 2005 is at www.communities-dominate.blogs.com
The exceptionally widely
respected blog with over 1,000 reader comments and over 400 separate websites
or blogsites linking to it, has a high Technorati rating and is syndicated at many
sites and services including Business Week, NY Times, CNBC, Wireless Watch,
Socially Minded and Mobile/Alltop. The site has frequently been voted among the
most influential and has dozens of times been selected for best posting of the
week by peers associated with the Carnival of the Mobilists.
Tomi's mobile-related blog since
2008 is at www.7thmassmedia.com
Tomi's daily Twitter feed since
2008 is @tomiahonen.com
Tomi's occasional hobby blog
related to Formula One racing since 2008 is at
www.tomiahonenf1.blogspot.com
Tomi co-moderates the mobile
industry's topmost global thought leadership online panel, Forum Oxford, where
he contributes daily since 2005
Tomi has considerable further online
contributions, discussions and postings professionally at Ecademy since 2002
and The Tribe since 2004 as well as some hobby related reviews at Epinions and
book reviews at Amazon
This tomiahonen.com website went
live as Tomi's professional public face in 2001
Tomi had a mobile comedy related
website as www.hatrat.com from 2001 to 2004
Tomi has a public profiles at
Linked In since 2003 with mostly CEO level links and seven public references
Tomi has a public profile at
Facebook since 2007
Tomi ran a podcast with Alan
Moore under the Communities Dominate brand for the Horizon channel in 2006
Tomi is a published citizen
journalist/contributor with Ohmy News (South Korea)
Tomi has a Habbo avatar inside
Habbo Hotel (UK)
Tomi has out-of-date profiles
also at Ecademy and The Tribe
Tomi Ahonen has several mentions for
mobile innovation and leadership in Wikipedia
Tomi's six hardcover books each have multiple reviews on Amazon.com and
Amazon.co.uk since 2002.
Nokia lists Tomi's first book Services for UMTS as an official Nokia
book at the Nokia website.
Tomi's fourth book Communities Dominate Brands has over a dozen
endorsements and reviews at Financial Times business book of the year
Tomi is available to support your
company, from executive-level seminars and briefings, to hands-on workshops,
training etc. He is frequently used as a motivational speaker as well as a
"visiting expert" if in-house knowhow or expertise is not enough and
a global guru is needed to bring in the decision-makers and executives of your
customer-companies.
For recent
press clippings and web links which quote Tomi T Ahonen see [See
Tomi in Press]
For
information on his first book Services for UMTS, available now, see [Services
for UMTS].
For
information on his second book m-Profits, see [m-Profits]
For
upcoming conference appearances and recent speakerships see [Tomi in Conferences]
For
business consulting workshops and services see
[3G Workshops &
Consulting]
To request
workshop availability or any other contact, send e-mail to tomi@tomiahonen.com
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To request
workshop availability or any other contact, send e-mail to tomi@tomiahonen.com
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