The evolving needs of the international markets call for continuous development in the defence sector. “This sentence excellently sums up the starting point for the planning of our new operating model in the year 2020. Now, after this intensive, challenging and rewarding journey, I can full-heartedly say that we are up and running for growth,” Ville Jaakonsalo, Patria’s CFO says.
Jaakonsalo headed the company-wide transformation throughout the 2021, and the New Patria started its operations on January 1, 2022. The transformation was the biggest in Patria’s history, and it impacted all business units and operations. “A huge step out of our comfort zones, I would say. We did a company-wide redirection of our operations to become a customer-centric market builder,” Jaakonsalo continues.
At the heart of the new strategy is the development of Patria’s sales. From now on, Patria’s customers are served through two new divisions and Millog Oy, which continues in its current role as a key strategic partner to the FDF.The Finland division offers full-scale services to all defence sectors of the Finnish Defence Forces from one place. The Global division helps customers in three market areas – Nordics, Europe and World. This structure enables cost-efficient, scalable and competitive solutions, and also improves our customer understanding and service culture.
“We have unique knowledge and knowhow of e.g. advanced life-cycle support services, high-end products and technology solutions. They were spread across different businesses, and we wanted to make them better available for all customers. Today, all knowledge and knowhow are combined under the new Patria Portfolio organisation, boosting innovation and the development of world-class products, platforms and system integration for the modern defence,” Jaakonsalo describes. Part of this is also the active search of new partners and growth opportunities.
Patria’s production is also consolidated into one Operations function. This is our biggest function taking care of deliveries on time and within budget. “We believe that integrated operations form the most cost-efficient, sustainable and compliant model for the customer, and enables focusing on continuous improvement of efficiency and quality,” Jaakonsalo concludes.
