I am a service business professional. The essential part of a professional service business is that the customer/end user is always engaged in developing the service. In addition, co-creation is a fundamental part of a the operating culture in a good service organization. Service design, undertaken professionally through co-creation, also creates insightful knowledge to assist in decision-making.
I increased a lot of my practical knowledge when operating as an entrepreneur with my sister in Juhlapalvelu Gourmande Ltd for almost 20 years. In the catering field, engaging the clients and facilitating events were part of the tasks I took part in during daily routines. Our service promise “something new for each party” challenged me to create new customer-focused service packages almost weekly. Our business had 300 to 350 customer orders each year. We sold our company in 2010.
So far, I have held over 500 trainings, consulting projects and workshops that were focused on service business development. I also oversaw and implemented the execution of several projects. In addition to consulting and acting as an entrepreneur, I’ve also worked as a lecturer, researcher, project manager, research leader, director of entrepreneurship and innovation manager at e.g. Laurea University of Applied Sciences, which is a global developer in service design. I also have a strong background and expertise in pedagogical knowledge.
Because I wanted to challenge my learning on a deeper level, in 2010 I started to create a doctoral dissertation on co-creation, service design and service innovation at Cambridge University. In 2015, I created my thesis. Some people may think I focused entirely on theory at this point, but during the process I developed and productized the innovative CoCo Tool Kit to develop services. I also gathered the thesis information and data by playing the CoCo Cosmos service design game. A game, that has won an innovation award and is for sale on the market and around which business has formed. My dissertation work involved cooperation with 12 Finnish organisations.
As my latest innovation project, I’ve developed a game called Boost+Inno which was funded by a Business Finland project called Boosting Innovations Into Business. It boosts the commercialization of innovative ideas and helps to picture what the innovation process/developing new activities is about.
My strengths in addition to my professional skills are energizing and exciting people into action.
