Board Member in Spotlight pt. 9: Tuukka Eloranta
“I believe that we cannot even imagine yet what the best results of these activities are going to be!”
It’s not the membership that counts, it’s the participation
While Finnish companies have traditionally met one another at seminars and trade fairs, engaging in constant, practical collaboration within the sector has been limited. That’s not how it should be: we have a lot of great companies and intelligent people around here!
Kuopio Health’s task is to help its members discover new opportunities for collaboration with as low threshold as possible. I have personally noticed that, as a result of Kuopio Health, there are already better connections between those operating in the industry. I believe that we cannot even imagine yet what the best results of these activities are going to be!
Easy to connect with people
I returned here from Finland’s capital region ten years ago. I can tell from experience that, in Kuopio, collaboration is not prevented by an inability to reach people or rigid hierarchies. I can simply not think of a situation where I would have failed to reach the new people I wanted to reach here.
In fact, this sort of straightforwardness is definitely one of the advantages of our region. However, we still need to have more courage to show initiative and work on our ability to spot hidden opportunities.
Indeed, Kuopio Health can contribute to building structures that make it easier for people and operators to get to know one another better.
While the local CEOs are primarily already familiar with one another, ultimately, effective collaboration occurs on a wider front. This makes it important for those operating in the health sector to know one another, share experiences, and learn from each other more comprehensively. I see a lot of potential for cooperation in the future in areas such as product management, procurement and quality. We don’t all have to keep reinventing the wheel.
As board members and leaders in the member companies, we play a key role in facilitating this sort of “cross pollination”.
As both current and potential members, we should aim at keeping barriers low. Just being a member of Kuopio Health does not produce anything – instead, you need to participate actively to make the most of it.
Even informal collaboration produces benefits
I hope that we will be able to experience, do and learn things together. However, ultimately, trust and collaboration feed off each other.
Creating your first contact is not difficult, all you need to do is give a call or send an email.
The collaboration doesn’t always have to be all that formal, either. All it often takes to get great new ideas is having lunch together and chat about challenges, opportunities, ideas and problems. What could be better than realising that the person you’re talking to has actually already solved a problem similar to the one you are struggling with?
I like to think that we need new initiatives to find the people we can collaborate with. But as such, generating ideas openly and exchanging thoughts are important.
This year’s themes have been selected
At Kuopio Health, we are currently at an interesting stage. We have completed the routines and background work needed for establishing the network, and now it’s the time to finally proceed from structures to content. For this year, we have selected two development themes around which we have created working groups of the ecosystem members. The first theme is concerned with the potential of health and wellbeing data. In the future, appropriate measures, more effective treatment chains and new product innovations will be built on smart data.
The second theme involves reflecting on the collaboration between companies and large RDI organisations. In this context, I think the most important area involves the development of research and education activities in the health sector: how can we constantly support the competence of our member organisations and staff?
Read more board member presentations HERE.
Read more about the membership HERE.