Innokas Medical’s CEO Jouni Toijala: ”In co-creation, all parties have a competitive edge and are able to add more value compared to the previous business models.”
Mr. Jouni Toijala (MBA & BSc, Information Technology) was appointed as new CEO of Innokas Medical. 48-year old Toijala joined Innokas in April from Symbio Finland Oy, where he was holding Managing Director position since 2012. Toijala sees the health technology is facing the same changes which have already challenged other industrial sectors: everything is getting much more complicated due to digitalization.
“I’ve liked working at Innokas very much! I’ve been very busy during my first months at Innokas, but my daily work has been very interesting and diversified. The very talented team that works at Innokas as well as Innokas’ strong commitment with quality and regulatory issues have made an impression to me from the very first day here”, Toijala tells.
Toijala came to work at Innokas from Symbio Finland Oy in April 2016. Symbio Finland employs 300 software and quality assurance professionals who work with local and global customers. Before joining Symbio Toijala has gained significant experience in leadership and R&D as he has been working in several senior management positions in Finland and abroad, for example at Meridea Financial Software and at Nokia in Finland, England and France.Toijala feels his previous strong experience in management in the international B2B environment, as well as his wide experience in digitalization and IoT-knowledge will help him with his new challenges at Innokas.
“I see the health technology is facing the phase of changes due to digitalization; the technologies are developed even more rapidly. Especially the impact of software is growing and wireless features are increasing. Creating new, competitive products and services at a fast rate is becoming increasingly challenging – and in addition, when one further adds the burdensome and complicated regulation governing health technology, one has a very complex equation to solve.But I believe that my previous working experience will certainly be useful to me when managing Innokas successfully in these new challenges. The excellent team and the strong industry knowhow we have will surely help our company to keep up with the global competition”, Toijala says.
Innokas seeks and offers partnerships
Toijala has a very strong opinion about the future of health technology: everything is getting much more complicated. He sees the companies that are unable to change their mindsets and organizations are doomed to failure as they cannot run along with the competition.In much more complex industry, an equipment manufacturer may not be able to recruit the right expertise at the right time, despite the fact that it intends to keep all the knowhow in house. As a result, such a company may not remain competitive. Toijala sees that the solution to these issues is co-creation, an organizational model which brings together all the participants from end-users to experts for the development of new products or services. The end result is a better outcome than in the traditional organization, as the co-creation model emphasizes cooperation and the company selects the partners it needs in order to ensure the needed expertise is available.
“In co-creation, all parties have a competitive edge and are able to add more value compared to the previous business models. I believe in that use of the co-creation model will spread in health technology too. Innokas has already changed its processes to fit this new organizational culture, and will develop its activities further in future also. The former traditional contract manufacturer and designer in which way Innokas maybe was positioned earlier, seeks and offers now partnerships”, Toijala tells.
Toijala sees the healthcare technology industry as the industry of the future, and he finds it very inspiring to work on an ethically meaningful industry that has a deeper purpose and effect on the quality of people´s lives.
“The healthcare technology is growing steadily, and it has a deeper purpose and effect on the quality of people´s lives. With the high quality devices and services we can help people to live better and healthier life, and this is the thing I find the healthcare technology industry very inspiring to work in. What can be more meaningful when talking about your daily work?”, Toijala concludes.
