Presenting Kuopio Health members: Navigatio Oy
Navigatio Oy helps companies and organizations succeed
Navigatio Oy is an expert company established in 2018. The company’s clients include businesses and public agencies, such as cities, higher education institutions and research institutes. The company’s entrepreneur and managing director is Juhamatti Huusko and its second partner and assisting consultant is Anne Huusko. Juhamatti has a doctorate in social sciences and a master’s degree in economics and social sciences. He is also trained as a vocational teacher.
“We actually launched our business already five years ago but then, after a discussion I had at a startup event, I was asked to work at Savonia, in a Neurocenter Finland project. The same year, I also began working on my doctoral thesis. As a result, I was working in my company part-time. Now that the dissertation is finished, it’s time for full-time entrepreneurship again. My PhD provides me with more tools for my work as an expert and my background as a researcher helps me conduct various studies and investigations”, Juhamatti Huusko explains.
The company’s core expertise includes strong business knowledge and understanding of different industries. While its clients represent various industries, particularly IT and health technology are key areas. The company’s service range includes studies and reports, support for commercialization, development of a sales strategy and sales process, support for applying for business funding, and project management services.
Navigatio’s experts are professionals with long-term experience. Their versatile experience includes both private and public sector projects. The company is a service producer under the business development services (Kehpat) organised by the ELY Centre, which is one of the main instruments in Navigatio’s activities. Becoming a Kehpat service producer requires both education and training as well as a sufficient number of references, which makes companies eligible for competitive tendering processes.
“As a Kehpat service producer, we offer companies both consulting and analysis services. Our analysis service includes reviewing the company’s operations as a whole, investigating its current status as well as any development targets. Our clients are mostly from around Finland, as our status as a Kehpat service producer means that our clients can obtain services from service producers operating nationwide”, Huusko notes.
Navigatio is also a Business Finland innovation voucher service provider. Companies can apply for the voucher from Business Finland and use it to purchase services from the companies of their choice. In practice, the service voucher provides companies with moderate support for tasks such as developing a pilot solution and it is primarily intended for refining new ideas or innovations.
Everything revolves around development
As a word, Navigatio refers to following a route or sailing. Navigatio supports companies in choosing their path and guides them along the way. The company’s main values include understanding its clients, an entrepreneurial attitude and collaboration.
“We find it important to understand our clients’ true needs and look for possible solutions. We’re committed to our work and have a passion for it. Successful collaboration benefits everyone involved. For example, when you’re looking to get a better understanding of your clients, Navigatio will help you carry out a questionnaire and interview survey”, Huusko says.
Navigatio primarily uses three instruments to measure customer experience; NPS (Net Promoter Score) measures the likelihood that customers would recommend a company, product, or service, CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) measures customer satisfaction and CES (Customer Effort Score) measures the ease with which customers can use a product or service.
“These are well-known, simple and commonly used tools. This is why we have also included them in our range. We carry out interviews to further advance the information collected from the instruments. Conducting high-quality studies and surveys requires high-quality tools and a genuine understanding of the topic of study. We have experience from several industries and many companies”, Huusko continues.
“It is often the case that the companies merely assume that their customers are highly satisfied with their products and services, but once you investigate and measure it, it may be revealed that this belief was fully accurate. Companies should survey the situation from time to time to stay on track. An extra pair of eyes may help entrepreneurs detect some development targets that they do not notice in their day-to-day operations. Interviews help us find out in more detail why customers are unsatisfied and tackle related factors. In addition to bringing a new perspective, a consultant can also bring the best practices and operating models from other industries that you might not think about in a certain sector. It is about coaching and sparring but also serving as a partner in discussion. For example, the work of entrepreneurs and managing directors can be a bit lonely at times, and as a consultant, you may also play a role as a conversation partner”, Huusko adds.
Among other things, Navigatio has performed an impact assessment of the Savonia ecosystem project. Theme interviews and document analyses were utilised in the assessment process, and the target groups were ecosystems and clusters operating in North Savo with both national and international significance: the Agri-Food Cluster North Savo, the Bio and Circular Cluster North Savo, Energy Cluster North Savo, Kuopio Health, KesTech Competence Center and Kuopio Water Cluster.
Value to the ecosystem
“I’ve been familiar with Kuopio Health as an ecosystem and operator for several years now, thanks to my work in the Neurocenter Finland project and Kuopio Living Lab. So you didn’t exactly have to sell me the idea of joining the ecosystem. My doctoral dissertation is also related to health tech companies and I wish to work with companies in the field, particularly helping them in commercialisation and research issues. Navigatio can particularly contribute competence in research and understanding of customers and the commercialisation process to the ecosystem. I have experience in areas such as sales in IT and I’ve also been involved in a health tech start-up, so I have a lot of perspective on health technology as a whole”, Huusko says related to joining Kuopio Health.
“I find that the events and networking opportunities that Kuopio Health provides play a key role from the members’ perspective. The events could include more speed dating type features. This would enable us to further develop the encounters with new operators and create opportunities for new ideas and innovations”, Huusko concludes.