09 | 2022 Olli Laine, Co-founder & CEO
From its very first steps, Kipinä was involved in creating a shared ecosystem with a number of companies sharing the same values. Many people have asked us about the background and ideas behind our ecosystem. Timo Korander of Luoto Company wrote well about our common ideas and answered the question "why an ecosystem?". Read Timo's blog below.
Olli Laine
Why we created the ecosystem of service companies
Ecosystems have been a frequent topic of discussion in the Finnish IT sector lately. Rather than just talking about it, we decided to build one. We believe in an ecosystem-based model, the benefits of which boil down to two key aspects.
Experts want to work in small companies.
Clients want to source comprehensive services from a reliable partner.
Experts want to know their colleagues.
Competition for experienced professionals is fierce, and experts have increasingly high expectations for service companies. Many of the top talents prefer to operate as entrepreneurs, retaining a say in their workplace matters and sharing in the company's financial success. At the same time, however, they want to work in a human-scale company where colleagues and their individual strengths are truly known.
Since day one at Luoto Company, we have believed in a human-centric approach and wanted to build a professional life where the principle of fairness drives more equitable growth for both our clients and our shareholders. This core value remains at the heart of everything we do, and we will continue to champion it in the future. Over the years, our unique co-ownership business model has proven that fairness brings experienced professionals together as a genuine team, enabling us to outperform individual-centric execution in an increasingly international market.
Our shared ecosystem has grown strongly into a community of 130 experienced professionals, with an average of over 15 years of industry experience. This growth reinforces our conviction that we are on the right path. The industry's top talent wants to work in small-scale companies while simultaneously learning from their seasoned peers.
Clients do not have the time to deal with an endless number of partners.
Ecosystem-based structures have long proven their effectiveness in product business, such as in the automotive industry, where components produced by various entities come together to form a functional end product. By operating as an ecosystem, smaller, agile, and tightly focused players are uniquely positioned to drive rapid innovation. We believe the entire service company market is moving toward an ecosystem model.
For service companies, and ecosystems in particular, delivering a superior customer experience compared to traditional competitors is essential. When the service provider truly knows their colleagues, finding the absolute best expert for the job is guaranteed. Searching for expertise from a pool of hundreds of unfamiliar workers increases the risk of a mismatch.
At the same time, clients do not want to manage a different partner for every single need or unnecessarily complicate their own operations. Therefore, the ability to serve clients as an ecosystem is vital. Together, we can continuously refine the customer experience and our service offering to better serve our clients.
To succeed, a company must excel in both the client and expert markets. A small operational scale combined with an ecosystem built on shared values creates the foundation for new breakthroughs.
Together, Luoto Company, Vuolu, Kipinä Software, NorthCode, and Asteroid form an ecosystem where over 130 experienced professionals serve our clients. As our foundation and unifying factor, we share the same value base and ownership model.
Timo Korander, Luoto Company