Marco Mäkinen wrote his Master's thesis on the non-fiction novel and narrative frameworks. His thesis for his minor, comparative literature, was something completely different: Kun veri täyttää tyhjyyden: Bret Easton Ellisin American Psycho ('When blood fills the emptiness: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis').

Mäkinen became acquainted with Bret Easton Ellis, the author of American Psycho, during a year studying in the United States. His professor of comparative literature had enthused about the book from the moment it was released in 1991 and suggested it to his students as the subject of their theses. Mäkinen became interested; later he even interviewed Ellis in Finland for Image magazine.

According to Mäkinen, the protagonist of American Psycho, the totally cold and emotionless Patrick Bateman, is a perfect symbol of Wall Street capitalism, which has made the book a cult classic. Although the book is gruesome reading in its attention to detail – Ellis used post-mortem reports as reference material – it is also a skilfully drawn metaphor for the world of capitalism.

Mäkinen has always been interested in narration as a concept and a framework, narration itself, not so much as it is manifested in a particular work. In his current job he has seen the subjects of his theses come to life. Much of his work deals with brands and corporate stories.

– I try to provide companies with stories and frameworks that describe their relationship with the world, and the way I do it is through a narrative framework.

One example of applying a narrative framework in practice is Finland’s nation branding project, to which Dr Mäkinen contributed with the story of Nokia Corporation. In the early 1990s, before Nokia became a great Finnish success story, he had already noticed Nokia people telling the story of their company to illustrate the kind of company they were.

– Later the story changed, and today the story of Nokia is different again. Stories live and evolve, just like companies.