Innokas Medical increased its investment in marketing and sales at the end of last year. Mr. Tommi Kaasalainen (M.Sc. (Tech.) & M.Sc. (Econ. & Bus. Adm.)) was appointed Innokas Medical’s VP, Sales and Marketing, from 2.12.2013 on. Before coming to work at Innokas, Kaasalainen was employed by Ixonos Plc. as Key Account Manager, and also by Nokia in Finland and Germany.
The main reason for reinforcing marketing is to strengthen and develop existing customer relationships. These arrangements will also provide more capability to acquire new customers. Over the long term, Innokas Medical expects most of its growth will come from international customers worldwide. A major challenge with increasing revenue is globalization. Kaasalainen feels his previous strong experience in customer relationship management and development of customer relationships in the international B2B environment will help him with his new challenges at Innokas.
"My previous experience in taking care of customers and developing customer relationships in the B2B environment in such a way that value is increased for both the customer and the supplier will certainly be useful to me also in my new challenges at Innokas", Kaasalainen says.
Kaasalainen has adapted to Innokas very well. He acknowledges that the pressures involved in everyday life at Innokas have been intense, but he has still been able to become familiar with Innokas’ customers, also.
"I’ve been very busy during my first half-year at Innokas, where the resources of sales have been quite limited, the processes have needed to be developed, and I’ve been trying to find some time to get to know our customers, also. The challenges of the work are faced best at the customer interface, so I’m trying to maximize the time I spend there", he says.
In addition of his new challenges at work, there have been some challenges at home, also—but in a positive sense. Kaasalainen, who likes different kinds of ball games, joined the Helsinki City Run this May when his wife signed him up to participate. Result orientation, which is usually the main characteristic of a sales person, was also reflected in Kaasalainen’s running challenge.
"The Helsinki City Run was a very interesting project this spring. By surprise and without asking, my wife signed me up to join the run in February—and of course, I didn’t want to spend more than two hours in the running event, so I had to jog quite a bit during the spring. In addition to this, different kinds of ball games, like badminton and floor hockey, have always been close to my heart", Kaasalainen says.
Kaasalainen feels that Innokas’ unbuttoned and professional atmosphere has positively affected his adaptation to his new job. When asked about Innokas’ strengths, Kaasalainen wants to raise Innokas’ strong competence in different areas in medical technology, which helps Innokas meet even the most demanding challenges and projects that customers bring to Innokas.
"The staff at Innokas is very unbuttoned but professional. Our strength lies in the fact that the organization has very strong expertise in different areas in medical technology, and that’s why we can meet even the most challenging projects in both engineering and manufacturing processes", Kaasalainen says.