Finnish modesty aside, Finland is one of the best countries in the world at developing new innovations. This is how Good News from Finland (GNF) startsits story on HVAC security. GNF is part of Finpro, whose mission is to promote the success of Finnish innovation worldwide.
GNF puts the drainage lock for private houses developed by LVIturva among Finnish inventions that are spreading around the world, such as the safety reflector and the new era of earplugs.
How is innovation created?
We don’t know much about innovation. We know the technology and the people who live in Finnish detached houses. Our job is to make living safe and easy, not to innovate for the joy of inventing.
But here are three points we want to share with everyone who has a little inventor in them.
1. Questioning the old way
In 2014, we asked why drains in private houses are not replaced by socketing. For decades, sewers in apartment blocks and cities had been renovated by inserting a new pipe into an old one. Why not do the same for detached houses?
2. Listen to your customers
The aim was to develop a cost-effective, safe and hassle-free pipe renovation. The kind that’s over in a few days but that you can rely on for decades after the job is done. Our goals were born purely out of our customers’ wishes, needs and concerns.
3. Work to develop a solution
We started a work in progress, the duration of which no one could predict, because we were creating something new. Fortunately, we found suitable suppliers fairly quickly. The challenge was to develop a method suitable for the narrower sewer pipes in detached houses. In practice, everything had to be smaller: the diameter of the pipes, the tools and even the installation truck had to be smaller to allow easy access to the houses’ yards.
Within a year, we had succeeded in creating what we knew was the world’s first service dedicated to the damming of drains in private houses.
What did we learn?
Innovation is all about attitude: question the old, listen to your customers and work hard to develop new, better solutions.
We believe that thanks to these principles, you will hear many more innovations under our name in the field of building services and comfort in detached houses.
Best regards
Juhana Kilpeläinen, Managing Director
