The new triumvirate of Hakala, Kumlander, and Honkanen have set a few short- and long-term goals for the Finnish company. Hakala specifically cited improvement of what he called "the initial stage" for Cimcorp customers. In short, he wants the company to get into customer plans earlier, to help them plan for automation throughout the process.
"When they start to plan new products and lines or even pre-plans, we want to be a part of that initial process already," he said. "That way, we can really kind of impact our customers when they are considering the automation from the beginning."
Hakala credits Peltomaki for putting the company in the position it holds in the automation space. He said that after the former CEO's four years of work, he mostly just wants to be a steady hand on the steering wheel, keeping customer retention rate high as Cimcorp grows into the future.
"I think my goal, definitely, is to remember why we are where we are at the moment," he said. "You need to understand the history. You need to understand why we have selected these (business) segments. From the history, together with our customers, we can plan a kind of future path: how to further develop our solutions, how to further utilize the AI or any kind of developments in technology."
Hakala believes that Cimcorp is set for further growth in moderate, sustainable increments. As the rubber industry moves into 2025 and beyond, he believes that Cimcorp has positioned itself well as a global leader in manufacturing automation.
"We want to keep our existing customers in our focus," Hakala said. "And then have a kind of sustainable growth with new customers, in some new areas in the future."