In our latest Introducing article, we spoke with Jarmo Levo about his appointment to the role of Business Unit Manager (Finland). Let’s listen in to what Jarmo had to say about his past, eCommerce in Finland and what are the key things for him to succeed.
Can you tell us about your past experience and what led you to this role at Vaimo Finland?
I always knew that I wanted to work in the software industry. It all goes back to when I was 9 years old and asked my mother to buy me a book on how to programme video games. Fast forward a few years and there I was graduating as an Electronics Engineer. After university I started my career in technical sales for National Instruments (American Test & Measurements Corporation). Working for the company gave me an excellent opportunity to be in a position where I was able to simplify how technology is explained. After that, I was offered an opportunity to establish a sales team and manage a team of developers for a startup called Profilence. Next, I was offered a job with a company called Mustapekka, which was facing a lot of difficulties, especially in the IT front. I saw this as an exciting challenge and successfully drove their standstill IT projects to completion within a year. As a next step, I really wanted to combine my knowledge in IT & sales and applied for a PM position at Vaimo.
What are the three most important things on your mind currently as a fresh Business Unit Manager?
For me the 3 most important things are:
- Employee satisfaction – The people we work with is the key to our success.
- Innovation – I am a true believer that trying and testing new things will help us grow. Innovative technology makes everyday work exciting and as a plus also helps our clients succeed.
- Business strategy – Focussing where our business is going and to build our capability within the key areas that are most important for our company, our customers and our team.
Tell us a bit more about yourself: what’s been your proudest achievement at Vaimo and away from Vaimo?
My proudest achievement at Vaimo has been working with Team Falcon and seeing the developers grow. When I started at Vaimo I started with a team of many young developers and it’s great to see how they are getting better and improving each day.
Away from Vaimo my proudest moment was when I landed an internship position in the United States. This happened in 2014 and allowed me to improve my skills in the US.
What does your family think you do all day?
My family thinks I’m mostly involved with customer work drinking coffee all day and browsing through online stores for inspiration. My baby boy thinks that all daddy does each day is play on his mobile and laptop. If only!
What does a typical day actually look like?
For me a typical day involves a mix of many responsibilities. This means one to two customer meetings, one internal meeting involving development projects in Oulu office. On a typical day I try to keep my calendar as empty as possible is I can make sure that I can get things done and leave enough room to think and figure out how we can become better at what we do. I have a lot of ideas and I like to leave time to be able to discuss them with the team and test them out quickly.
From your own experience, what’s the current state of eCommerce in Finland and what should businesses be focusing on?
eCommerce in Finland is moving forward but companies are still quite shy and uneducated about where they should invest in. Finnish customers are getting better at understanding how eCommerce works technically but marketing and CX is still a big learning curve for most of the businesses. Learning to serve their customers through digital channels is where we can assist and support local brands!
To wrap this up, please can you describe Vaimo to us in just 3 words?
Exciting, determined and consistent.
