Interview with Pekka Asikainen

Kespet Oy became part of the IPCOM group in 2021. Can you tell us a bit more about the company and your journey at Kespet Oy?

Kespet was originally founded in 1977 (I still remember it like yesterday 😉) and it was a contracting company doing insulation projects for HVAC and industry. At some point, the contracting business was separated from the workshop and the idea of offering prefabricated sheet metal products for other companies was born.

I joined the Kespet forces in 2007, when I moved to Jyväskylä after my military service. It was a two-year apprenticeship in the production. After receiving my “insulation tinsmith” papers, I continued the work till 2011. Then I left and moved to sunny Australia.

In 2012, I came back to Finland and was offered a job as a production foreman. We had some good results in the production efficiency, and consequently I was offered a job as an executive director to take care of all the logistics and the sheet metal production.

In 2015, I became co-owner of the company together with 7 other colleagues. One year later, I took the role of managing director and since then it has been only sunshine, butterflies and rainbows.

Today we are the number one sheet metal cladding producer in Europe, and I have no intentions to give that podium to someone else anytime soon. That´s why we keep developing the working methods and monitoring and improving production efficiency, employee well-being, money flow, logistics and other important topics.

What, in your view, distinguishes Kespet Oy from its competitors, and why do clients and partners enjoy working with you and your team?

I´m not sure if I have ever asked if someone enjoys working with me, but I do know that our customer service and expertise is top notch. We aim to keep it simple. We want to be recognized as reliable and responsible forerunner in the insulation market and according to our latest customer survey, that is working out at 9,2/10!

Of course, our own sheet metal production gives us a nice head start comparing to those traditional trading companies who buy and sell. We can offer the full package for any insulation project around the world.

The last but not the least, some partners and customers might even like our dry and dark sense of humor.

Within Kespet, you were already “cladding the future”. But recently you also got promoted to Head of cladding operations for IPCOM. What are the challenges and opportunities in this position?

First, I need to say I´m very grateful for this opportunity and I´m ready to rock´n roll. I´m not after title or status but this is my turf and I know what I´m doing. Also, the fact that potential is huge all-around Europe, gives me that energy and rush I need to put the A-game on.

Once we have handled the upcoming changes in Finland by the end of this year, then I can really start focusing on this new field and start the journey of “Cladding the Europe”.

The market is already there and the need for these kinds of prefabricated solutions is huge. Most of the contracting companies don`t have the people to do the sheet metal products and things won´t be any easier for them in the future. The HVAC market is one thing and brings in the bread, but the big industrial projects can really make difference for the ISOPARTNER companies.

Of course, this is not done overnight. We need to start from the bottom and set up some common base for calculation, ordering, logistics, stocking and everything else involved, but when we have the “IPCOM system” ready and all the productions working at the same efficiency and quality levels, we are the Deadpool of all the superheroes. Unstoppable.

Everybody can buy machines; people make the difference. What I need to do is to make everything as easy as possible to chew, so that we have one direction as a group of people.

With the slogan “Make Insulation Great Again”, you prove to be a true believer in the importance of insulation and sustainability. Which other initiatives are you and Kespet taking to put social responsibility on the agenda?

The next marketing trick will be printing one-dollar notes with a text “In-Sulation We Trust” to all the shipments. No, not really.

I am a nature guy. Whatever we do, we aim to respect the one globe we have, and our ISO14001-certificate is a huge part and a guideline to our operations. Our metal suppliers are doing a great job to reduce the CO2 and saving energy with new ways of producing the coils.

We have also created some sustainability goals for all of our processes which include for example; energy savings, vehicle use, CO2 calculations, logistics and recycling.

“No one will blame you for destroying the earth, except your children.”

The other side of the social responsibility are our actions with the local children. We have decided that we focus our sponsoring only on kids; “Every kid has a chance to play”. So, we are involved with plenty of local teams and athletes to support the children and their right to be a part of something.

On social media, we sometimes see very light-hearted and funny posts from you. How important is humor for you?

For me, it´s a way to survive. Some might say these funny things could have negative impact on my credibility, but I don´t believe that. This is me, and for a relatively young guy, I have seen enough to know that I wouldn´t even want to work with some uptight and bitter bureaucrat. That`s why I´m happy to be a part of a group like IPCOM.

I know we all work hard, try to balance between different circles and everybody has his own problems and weight to carry but a good laugh always works. I don´t want younger people to think that moving forward with their goals is all about suits, conference rooms and boring diagrams. You can enjoy and have fun while doing it. The positive vibes will spread and if I can make somebody to at least smile, it´s well worth it.

If you can take everything life has to offer, you can certainly take a joke too.

What do you consider as your greatest achievement in your professional life?

To still be around. Patience is not my strongest quality and especially the younger me could have done something fast & furious 😊

Second thing would be that I have been able to prove, that well-being of the employees and genuine interest and focus on that, will have positive influence on the productivity of the company.

I really like the people I´m working with, which is great.

IPCOM’s values in a nutshell are these: Integrity, Passion, Together, Out of the box, Flexibility and Accountability. If you had to choose one, which one do you consider as most important?

I like them all but go with “passion”. If you´re passionate of what you´re doing, nothing is impossible and if not, you are in a wrong place. I don´t believe in Unicorns which everybody seems to be looking for, I believe in passion and hard work.

“Out of the box” is great number two. There are two things that make me want to throw up and they are plum pudding and the sentence “this is the way it has always been done”.