The Many Faces of Responsibility
with Sebi Tauciuc, Futurice
Sometimes a single person makes a big difference in the company’s future. In far 2011, Sebi Tauciuc challenged Futurice to contribute to a cause, and to his surprise, he was fully supported.
Sebi has co-led Corporate Social Responsibility efforts at Futurice via Chilicorn Fund and Spice Programme, both aimed at contributing to social impact causes. Since then, sign language therapy for autistic children, a networking tool for refugee entrepreneurs, and awareness in LGBT and arms trade were put out to the world.
We met Sebi in a cosy Futurice office, where people were just getting back to work after the Christmas holidays. “In 2020, I have a mission to promote circular economy thinking”, said Sebi, “in Futurice and with our clients.”
Our interview was held in a small booth and we talked about big ideas. As for bringing big ideas to life, we have absolutely no doubt that Sebi will succeed in his mission.
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Sebi, have you always wanted to be a designer?
We assume that all designers have a mission-driven attitude, but it’s not the case. Some designers are more art-oriented and love to express themselves. It’s a whole scale of how people see design work and design profession.
As for me, I wanted to design for people when I was in a computer science university. Most of the courses there were not my cup of tea until I took a course about a graphical user interface. At that time I was also reading a book on human-centred design, and that was much more interesting. I wanted to continue from there.
I’m passionate about the circular economy where digital has a huge role to play. But it can also have detrimental effects if we don’t play it right.
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This year marks nearly 10 years of your employment in Futurice. Over this decade, a real social change took place. Companies act more philanthropically, stay careful with investing their funds, review their value chain — all to address the climate crisis and build a foundation for sustainable future.
Another major trend — digitalisation — stays on the rise. We often think that it’s the world of production that needs to adjust. How can good for society and environment be done in the realm of digital?
We have to understand that digital is shaping everything. The digital consultancies are driving that change, and that comes with a lot of responsibility that was not traditionally there. We’re just beginning to understand that.
There’s a lot of potential for good and there’s a lot of potential for bad with digital. What kind of decisions people make, what kind of systems and policy we have in place play — all play its part.
I’m passionate about the circular economy where digital has a huge role to play. But it can also have detrimental effects if we don’t play it right.
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In your talk at Kommenttipuheenvuoro in 2018, you said “I don’t really believe that business is only about profit. The companies should have a reason to exist.”
What reason does Futurice have to exist?
As we know, companies that have a proper mission are likely to be more successful. To my knowledge, the Founders and Head of Culture are now in the process of redefining the mission for Futurice.
Futurice is a company that exists to explore, to challenge the status quo, and to share the knowledge that we gain. We create our impact through the work that we do with our clients because we challenge them to be better versions of themselves. Lastly, we impact the whole world by sharing tools & knowledge that we generate with it.
With Spice Programme and Chilicorn Fund, we have the condition that everything made with our support must be open-source. I think that the culture of sharing comes with the software developer culture. A lot of our developers are into open source. You know, outsourcing Lean Service Creation and other tools we create — that’s a habit that developed itself in the last few years and became an integral part of our culture.
I feel that, by default, it’s not about sharing the tools. It’s about thinking how can I do the design work the best I can.
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So, developers have a strong sharing attitude. What about designers though? Has this sharing-inspired culture changed the perception of design?
I did have this question all the time: how can I contribute with my design skills? I feel that, by default, it’s not about sharing the tools. It’s about thinking how can I do the design work the best I can.
If designers need a tool for solving this particular type of design challenge, maybe they will create a toolkit. And if they create a toolkit, they’ll make sure to share it with the world, make it open-source.
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We hear a lot of talk about making an impact, even though it’s certainly hard to gain an understanding of how to capture or observe impact itself.
What’s your take on measuring impact from Corporate Social Responsibility activities?
It needs a lot of time investment. With Chilicorn fund, for instance, we did pro-bono projects using our competency. There we’ve done quite a bit of measuring on employee engagement, employee happiness, and recruitment.
As for client projects we’ve been selecting, we had evaluation criteria. It wasn’t just a gut feeling. We had to use a kind of evidence that we found on the brand value side. Some newspaper articles or some people mentioned us, those sort of metrics.
Responsibility work, to do it right, it can’t be on the sidelines. It’s not enough.
Everything that we talk about here inevitably brings us to the core of the problem, which is that responsibility work, to do it right, it can’t be on the sidelines. It’s not enough.
We realized that if we want meaningful projects and if we want to generate impact through our work, we need to focus on what are we offering to our clients and what kind of decisions we are making there.
In the end, it’s not about investing into measuring impact, it’s about making sure that the core of your business is working before you can afford anything else.
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Futurice has strong values shared across employees and leaders alike: trust, transparency, care. These values act as pillars of a sustainable organisation, as they reinforce autonomy & responsibility for all.
Nevertheless, some organisations fall short on catching up with sustainability. What basic principles do they need to establish to start their journey towards sustainability?
The values certainly form the culture and the culture has to touch the whole organization. So if you start thinking about sustainability and corporate responsibility just because you should, because someone said that you should and it’s good for business, it’s going to show. It’s not going to bring you that many results.
I think that to get the best out of it, you need to be genuine. And to get there, it has to touch the whole senior leadership. They need to understand and listen to the voices of the new generation. Leadership style and thinking process have to adjust.
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In one of your blog posts, you state that “Societal impact is not a CSR’s job. It’s everyone’s job.” There’s a 3x2 decision-making model in Futurice, that stands for the rule that every decision has to benefit employees, numbers, and clients, now and in the future.
This model is a great reminder that we don’t exist in a moment and that our decisions might have a long-term effect. But more importantly, 3x2 model de-centralises the company and gives full autonomy & independence to the people.
How did this model come to be, and what changes has Futurice observed since then?
This model was introduced over 10 years ago. What I remember though, in the beginning when the company was small, the leadership found themselves having to make decisions that they shouldn’t be making. So they began envisioning an alternative leadership style, to find ways to give the authority to the right people to make day-to-day choices. But, also as a way to free up founders mind space for more important decisions.
With this power, we need to understand that we are creating the next society through digital services.
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This cultural setting is very strong and empowering, and from my personal experience, it’s hard to leave it behind and move on to a new employer. The bond such a cultural setting creates is incredibly strong.
Let’s get back to design talks for a little bit. The modern world, as we know it, is fully designed. We didn’t only design objects that surround us, but also whole systems — governmental, economic, organisational. It’s an incredible realisation, and that gives an incredible power — and with that a heavy responsibility — to designers.
As humanity is facing a profound challenge of climate change and a cascade of other problems, would you say that designers today have a bigger role to play?
Being a designer is an important role, but I fear we don’t have accountability that comes with the kind of responsibility that we professionally have. We’ve done a great job over the last decades in terms of creating value for individuals and creating business value for companies.
With this power, we need to understand that we are creating the next society through digital services, for example. That’s a huge responsibility that we need to step up to.
This reminds me of a discussion that I had with a good designer friend of mine, Minna Mustakallio (edit. former Designer Director at Futurice, currently Head of Product at Saidot). I wondered whether designers should embrace big problems, they should be up to the task. But Minna stopped me and said that designers often don’t know what they’re doing. They only care about a single user. Some only care about buttons and visuals, or worse, their final portfolio.
That was an eye-opening moment for me. It’s also about an individual in question, so we shouldn’t slip into thinking that we have all the power and that we are up to the task.
We certainly need a policy to regulate our processes, like we see in large companies there were systemic failures that led to wrong decisions being made. Capitalism certainly isn’t working as well as intended to serve the best interests in the world.
That’s why we need everyone to contribute.
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UN has presented a framework for tackling global problems via Sustainable Development Goals.
Let’s imagine for a moment all of the global problems got solved. What’s the next biggest problem humanity would face?
Perhaps, it would be difficult for people to find a new mission. If everything works, what would people live for? We need to struggle for something, solve something.
Maybe we’ll even have some AI tool that figures out what people need and what kind of challenges to give them.
Sebi was interviewed on January 7, 2020
Edited & written by Anastasiia Kozina, host & creator of The Dot Podcast
👉 Sebi recommends…
The pure magic of Chilicorn Fund
Products & tools straight from Futurice Culture
Valoisa Tulevaisuus podcast by Futurice (in Finnish)
🚀 Listen to The Dot Podcast episode featuring Sebi where we explore how responsibility can help us be better humans, companies, and societies
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