Lindström Finland is creating the industry’s first innovation community
Lindström Finland, which offers textile rental services, provides its customers with a new community-based way of developing innovations. The Lindström Lounge solution is the industry’s first innovation community where ideas are developed across industry boundaries.
Lindström Lounge is an active community to which Lindström Finland invites its key customers. The goal is to solve customer challenges and develop future processes, services, and products with the help of collaborative planning and collected data. Lindström Finland plans to organize up to 400 workshops events around Finland every year.
The Lounge community generates new innovations and opportunities as well as supports the development of the employees of both Lindström and customer company employers. By involving customers in the planning, Lindström also wants to improve their customer experience and help customers succeed at both corporate and individual levels.
Founded 170 years ago, Lindström is a family-owned business and one of the leading textile services companies in Europe.
”Lindström is a traditional company, we keep our feet on the ground and appreciate our long history but also want to meet today’s requirements. We see ourselves as the innovator of our industry, developing new solutions for customers. Lindström has continuously taken things forward and among others has been a valued trendsetter in circular economy, says Pasi Saarinen, Vice President of Lindström Oy, Finland.
”Innovations do not emerge within four walls, but in ecosystems. The best innovations are generated when people meet each other across organizational boundaries. Everyone will benefit from ideas colliding. By becoming immersed in the challenges of the industry, we can also get information that helps us serve our customers better,” Saarinen sums up.
Lindström Lounge is also a major internal cultural transformation for Lindström, which among others has trained more than 100 employees to take advantage of inclusion with their own customers.
”We have been passionate about the project, and all key account managers are trained in the secrets of co-development. The workshops are attended by experts from virtually all industries, and customer workshops make use of different methods, a community-produced vision and data from future researchers. The results are collected digitally, and with the outcome, it is possible to deliver a completely unique view of future challenges and opportunities. This view is shared between the members of the Lounge,” explains Saarinen.
For Lindström, Lounge is a step towards a data-managed future and influence: it is part of continuous development. Community thinking and innovative work will be reflected in the customer experience in both the short and long term.
”It is essentially a cultural transformation and not only a takeover of a method and technical platform. Hopefully, we will soon see innovations like Returnable shopping bag or Workwear Flex Service that will take the whole textile rental sector forward,” says Saarinen.
Additional information:
Pasi Saarinen, Vice President, Finland, Lindström Oy
pasi.saarinen@lindstromgroup.com
Tel. +358 40 836 6172