Mirjami Malleus-Lemettinen and Janne Lemettinen: ‘Remaking’ Finnish Business
- Mirjami in action
Here is a couple that makes old things new. Turning fabric scraps into head-turning attire, old ideas and business processes into relevant, values-based companies, Mirjami Malleus-Lemettinen and Janne Lemettinen are among those intrepid Finns driving innovative businesses with a social and environmental touch. Together they head a values-based company called Remake (from "REhellinen MAailman KEhittäjä": “Honest - World - Developer”), which is part clothing, and part consulting company.
In this interview Mirjami and Janne talk about the past, present and future of Remake, and reflect on how their values of honesty, openness, trust and sustainable development (among others) shine through on their work.
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EBBF: So Mirjami, tell me a little more about the EkoDesign part of Remake.
Mirjami: Well, we’ve been around since 2007, and we have a custom-made clothing service which produces different kinds of clothing and other products out of recycled or used material. Right now there are two women working at EkoDesign, but in a few months there will be one more. We work in collaboration with the customer, for at Remake the customer is the main designer. Remake's duty is to inspire the customers to be creative.
That is the business side. We also provide meaningful internships for students of textile arts, and give lectures on responsible entrepreneurship, sustainable development and values-based activity.
EBBF: Can you give me an example of how the ‘remaking’ works? What does it look like to make recycled clothing in cooperation with a customer?
Mirjami: Well, customers can either bring in their own old fabric, clothes or material—a blanket, a curtain or even a leather jacket—or give us an assignment to look for a certain kind of material. Then, in consultation with him or her we make just what they need and want. We can repair or totally remake clothing and we have done everything from bras to wedding gowns. And we really try to make the remade cloths look like new creations (unless of course the customer prefers otherwise).
- 'Remade' Wedding Attire
EBBF: Why is this work important for you? What was it that motivated you to do this?
Mirjami: My work—or our work—is important to me, because I love to encourage people to rethink and find new ways to see things. In my work it means that I encourage the customer to see that these old or recycled materials are not only what they are now, but what they can become. Very often I hear customers, who at first did not believe that something could be done with their old clothes or fabric, say how amazed they are when what we make goes beyond their expectations. So even though we work in a ‘material’ field, we are still essentially working with immaterial reality–people’s thoughts and ways of thinking—and I find it very fascinating.
I also love to be a little bit of a rebel and defy conventional ways of thinking. Normally we think that design is something that only especially talented people can do. Well, I attempt to change or ‘remake’ that belief. I believe that we all have the capability to be creative; we only need to be inspired to do so. Finally, there is an ecological reason. I think we have really bad habits as consumers, and very soon we will be drowning in textile waste if we don’t change them!
EBBF: How do your customers respond to being guided through what sounds like a creative process?
Mirjami: Well, very often our customer does not have the ability to describe what kind of trousers he or she wants, for example. Although we as professionals very quickly get the idea where we should go with the idea, we only ask simple questions to help the customer have control over the creation. Normally when we go on with this asking process they “wake up” at some point and say, “No, not like this, I want it more like this”, and then we encourage them to go forward with that insight. And I think that this creative experience gives these people the courage to try to be creative in other areas of their lives. He or she has broken the belief of not being able to create, has experience really turning his or her inner ideas into a concrete manifestation, and maybe she or he will use this experience somewhere else.
EBBF: It sounds almost like a therapeutic process! Do you think you are also helping people change their mindsets about recycling fabric and recycling in general?
Mirjami: Of course, but mostly our purpose is to help our customers to create, and to see potential in a place where we normally only see waste. To help them be able to see beauty in something that did not seem to even have the opportunity to be anything anymore.
- Janne modelling an 'Ekodesign' jacket
EBBF: And Janne, what did you bring to Remake?
Janne: Well I joined in 2008 as an executive assistant to further boost the company's idea. We started to expand from just remaking clothes to remaking people and companies. In a sense, we’ve expanded the idea from remaking the clothes to remaking people and companies. One new project we’re working on is starting up a co-operative to support companies that want to work in new, values-based ways, and make entrepreneurship much easier. We have also worked hard to bring the idea of social entrepreneurship to Finland.
EBBF: What does the co-operative do?
Janne: Our co-operative is a brand new idea whose purpose is to remake people, habits, processes, organizations and other things that we have created. We want to offer an easier way for people to be entrepreneurial. Starting a company is not an easy task in Finland so we want to make it simpler. We want to bring together people with new social entrepreneurship-based business ideas and people wanting to work for meaningful companies. We are currently working through the concept and plan to launch it in Spring of this year.
Some of the services we'd offer include training for individuals and organizations to act from their values. You see, many ventures lose their purpose in an ever-degenerating business-world. We need new methods for business to flourish. The co-operative offers ‘life skills coaching’ for individuals and for groups to help them find their purpose in life. Also our purpose is to give opportunities for people to work in areas they are passionate about. We work in areas of business development, marketing, event management, training and art.
There are lots of new startups that need like-minded people and enterprises as partners in order to make their business succeed. Like now, many people doing business in recycling need to work together to make the problem of waste disappear. We hope the cooperative can provide this space where they can build partnerships, networks and collaborative projects.
Also, Finland is a promised land for NGOs—that is, there are a lot of them!—, and many of these associations could improve their operations to become more like business or collaborate with already existing social enterprises in order to have a larger social impact. There are huge opportunities for creating new startups in Finland. We need just to promote these collaborations and support these new companies, and we hope that the cooperative together with SYY [Social Entrepreneurs' Association of Finland, www.syy.fi] can do just that.
All we have done so far has been a great success. All the parties we have met strongly support the cause and want to be part of this big movement. We have met people from various organizations, from small NGOs to the ministry of employment and economy, and there are some discussions going on around changing the laws to support social entrepreneurship in our country.
- Holding their newest creation
EBBF: Why did you decide to do this?
Janne: My motivation to do this is that my way of life is service. Remake and other businesses I work with are enterprises whose purpose go beyond profit; they are enlightened enterprises with a spiritual mission.
EBBF: What do you mean by a ‘spiritual’ mission? And what do you mean your way of life is service?
Janne: Spirituality is not something that is separated from our everyday behavior. It's something that needs to be integrated into our every action. This means that doing business is also spiritual when a person does that as a service for humankind. Normally we don't talk about spirituality because it's misunderstood as a ceremonial behavior of a certain sect. But really spirituality is a way of seeing things consciously and serving others. Serving others is quite unfamiliar in business world and my opinion is that social entrepreneurship is the new way of doing it.
You know, I have spent over one year officially unemployed with a really low income, but I made it through with the support of my loving family. This helped me realize that money is nothing compared to loving affection you receive from the people you are close to. I have also never worked as hard as now, when there is no money in the way; my motivation comes from my desire to serve, by better understanding and meeting the needs of people who don’t have well-paying careers or opportunities to prosper. And I am beginning to understand that the very act of giving away from the little that I have is much more than anything material I can get out of it.
When Remake is in action with people our value base plays a big part. Many times we are in close contact with our customers and our values of honesty, openness, and trust can always be seen in our work. As a result we build strong relationships with our customers, and we think that the customers absorb some of these values as well. And this for me is spirituality.
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Biographical notes: Mirjami has worked in the textile industry for 12 years since the age of 16, and has a professional seamstress degree and another one in cobbling. She also has a professional diploma in life skills coaching. In 2007 she created the business plan for Remake and built the company with her colleague, Pia Leikas. A proud mother of three, when she has time she loves writing and reading and studying all the mysteries in life.
Janne has 10 years of experience in the IT industry. He is currently an independent sales agent working for several companies, and Chairman of the Social Entrepreneurs Association of Finland (SYY ry), as well as Executive Advisor at Remake EkoDesign Ay.
His passions include composing and playing music (you may have seen him at EBBF’s annual conference performing Finnish throat singing), values-based leadership, on which he gives lectures and workshops. Janne is also a proud father of an almost four-year-old son from an earlier relationship.
Their story together begins several years ago, when Janne came to Remake to say hello to his old friend Pia, who is, you will recall, the co-founder of Remake Ekodesign. For Janne and Mirjami it was love at first sight, who found they shared so much in common. They soon married and just welcomed a baby boy in the beginning of December to their home in Helsinki.
