Koskisen

Issue: 3/2011 Category: Editorial Recommended:

Customer-focussed development work

Customer-focussed development work

Kari Koskinen, Director, Business Development at Koskisen.
A central theme of Koskisen’s 2015 strategy is customer focus. Our goal is to produce high-quality products and solutions for our customers. We have set growth targets both for our services business and for new products. We want to grow along with our selected partners. We don’t have to do everything alone. We must strive for constant renewal and develop new products across unit boundaries. With these strategic goals as the starting point, we have launched two development projects.

Lahti School of Innovation

Koskisen’s sales, product manager and product development structures have been renewed this year in accordance with the new strategy. We previously operated strictly on a business-unit basis. In future, we must begin to operate seamlessly across unit boundaries and find innovative operating models.

We have started a development project with the Lahti School of Innovation in order to find these new operating models. In Lahti on 6 September 2011, the current situation and its inherent problems were communicated through the medium of drama. The turnout was very good and the feedback on the day was extremely positive.

Future sessions will focus on developing new and improved operating models together. The intention is to include three selected Finnish customers in the development work next year, when the project will also be broadened to foreign offices and customers outside of Finland.

Product development work together with customers

Koskisen is known in the wood products industry as being an innovative company. We have often been the first to boldly introduce many new products in the markets based on our view of customer needs and how they are developing.

In our everyday customer service we continuously solve problems faced by our customers – and in this, we excel. Developing a new product requires a deeper understanding of customer needs. Our goal is to strengthen the co-operation with our customers in developing new products. The seller/buyer contact interface will no longer be sufficient in future. To strengthen our co-operation, we want to create deeper ties with our customers, particularly where product development is concerned. Strengthening co-operation creates a win-win situation for both parties.

We have a number of development projects currently under way that will soon be entering the customer co-operation phase. Co-operation has already actively begun with a few companies. The goal is to develop a new operating model that will assist us in responding to the challenges of tightening competition.

20 September 2011 Kari Koskinen

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