Tomi Hugg is the new Direc­tor of Design Ser­vices at Innokas

Tomi Hugg looks for­ward to explor­ing the close col­lab­o­ra­tion between devel­op­ment and pro­duc­tion under one roof, con­nect­ing with Innokas’ cus­tomers, and fur­ther devel­op­ing the com­pa­ny’s design ser­vices.

‘The deep tech­no­log­i­cal exper­tise at Innokas across indus­tries was a major rea­son for my deci­sion to apply,” Tomi says.

While Innokas oper­ates across var­i­ous indus­tries, long expe­ri­ence and core in health presents a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to gain true, hands-on exper­tise in chal­leng­ing prod­uct devel­op­ment. He finds it par­tic­u­lar­ly remark­able that Innokas has both pro­duc­tion and devel­op­ment under one roof, which he sees as a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty and strength.

“I am look­ing for­ward to see­ing how these two areas work togeth­er and learn­ing from that col­lab­o­ra­tion.”

Long his­to­ry in prod­uct devel­op­ment

Tomi has been with Innokas for a few weeks at the time of this arti­cle’s release. An indus­try vet­er­an in design engi­neer­ing, he brings over twen­ty years of expe­ri­ence in heavy indus­try from com­pa­nies of var­i­ous sizes. This marks Tomi’s first ven­ture into a com­pa­ny that also spe­cial­izes in med­ical and oth­er safe­ty-crit­i­cal tech­nolo­gies, and he is eager to take on the chal­lenges that lie ahead. All the new peo­ple and tech­nolo­gies have inspired me to get start­ed,” he shares about this tran­si­tion. He also notes a strong bal­ance between famil­iar sys­tems and excit­ing new oppor­tu­ni­ties that he is eager to explore.

“I haven’t expe­ri­enced too much of a cul­ture shock just yet,” Tomi con­tin­ues about his future in inno­v­a­tive safe­ty-crit­i­cal tech­nol­o­gy spe­cial­ized com­pa­ny. “The most notable dif­fer­ence in mov­ing into this field is the entire­ly new world of reg­u­la­tions. Of course, any­thing made respon­si­bly is sub­ject to reg­u­la­tion, but when it comes to human health and qual­i­ty of life, the need for pre­ci­sion increas­es expo­nen­tial­ly. There’s very lit­tle room for error in the final stages, which makes it all the more impor­tant to get every­thing right at the begin­ning when defin­ing the project’s direc­tion.”

Con­nect­ing with the cus­tomer base and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment

Tomi high­lights that he is also look­ing for­ward to get­ting to know Innokas’ cus­tomer base, con­nect­ing and learn­ing about their ambi­tions and visions for the future. “Innokas is very in touch with its cus­tomer base, so I’m expect­ing to meet many of them per­son­al­ly very soon.” Tomi has already met many of the fel­low Innokas experts. In the head­er image he can be seen on the left hav­ing a break with Senior Mechan­ics Engi­neer Mika Hen­riks­son, Innokas CEO Janne Kosta­mo and Mar­ket­ing Spe­cial­ist Tei­ja Tuli­nen.

He is also intrigued by the increas­ing focus on sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. “It’s a new direc­tion for growth, but it’s quick­ly becom­ing a way of life, an inte­gral part of how prod­uct design is approached. This shift feels more prac­ti­cal and tan­gi­ble than ever before.” Innokas com­plet­ed its Cir­cu­lar Design Play­book in 2024, a guide to help prod­uct devel­op­ers advance toward more sus­tain­able smart tech­nol­o­gy. “This is the first time I tru­ly get to dive deep into it,” he adds.

Out­look for the future

When asked about his out­look for the future, Tomi shares, “I’m already start­ing to form a clear pic­ture of the path ahead. The Design Ser­vices here at Innokas are already well in order. The enthu­si­asm comes from the oppor­tu­ni­ty to take some­thing good and make it even bet­ter.”

Source: Innokas