Antti Kokkonen – the fastest man of Filtrabit

Team Filtrabit profile: Early insights from Business Development Manager and former Track and Field athlete Antti Kokkonen, who joined the Filtrabit team in May of 2024.

Can you tell us a bit about your background?

My educational background is technical but as Business Development Manager, my role is more focused on human interactions than technology. I studied Process Engineering at the University of Oulu and completed my degree of M.Sc. (Tech.) in Automation Technology. While I was still finishing my studies, I started my professional career at Metso Automation. The company brand evolved into Valmet Automation, and I continued as Product Manager – a role that included supporting and training sales teams on a global scope.

Supporting sales in customer meetings was the best part of my job at the time. It was interesting and instructive to be involved in two important launch cycles of product development, productization and commercialization.

Starting in 2020, I worked as Business Development Manager in Buckman, offering chemical products and smart technologies, like new measurement technology for the Pulp & Paper industry in the Finnish market.

On a more personal note, I have a background in Track and Field athletics. I ran the 400 meters competitively until 2018, when I retired to fitness runner status.

How has your athletic career contributed to your professional career?

How would you describe the work of Business Development Manager at Filtrabit?

At Filtrabit I work with named key accounts, and I’m based at the office in Oulu, which is also where I live. The reception has been great, and I feel I’m already well integrated into the team.

In B2B sales, I strive for a long-term relationship. Building trust requires a lot of communication and time.

The core of my business philosophy is bringing strategic value to the customer.

I’ve always focused on finding value-creating elements – new ROI flows. With Filtrabit, I’m excited about the several new sources of ROI for the customer: recovered materials, maintenance savings, effects on employee health and the environment. These take on a strategic level of importance to our customers.

Clean air will probably also have a measurable economic value at some point. That’s when the value of Filtrabit’s innovation rises to a new height. The Green Industrial Revolution necessarily means more demand and more value for clean air – less air pollution, PM2.5 or PM10 – the core value proposition of Filtrabit dust filtration.

How does your role differ between interacting with the customer and the internal team?

I truly think of my job as doing teamwork with the customers as well as our own team. In customer organizations, numerous people and levels of the organization participate in the procurement process. All of whom you must be able to get to know and whose different perspectives you must consider.

My role towards our own organization is a mirror image of my role towards the customer. I’ll represent the customer perspective and their true needs. Together with our product and project teams we are delivering on promises we have given during the sales process. Value propositions are real promises to the customer.

Filtrabit sales and technology teams work seamlessly in every customer project from the very beginning of the sales process all the way through the installation and the maintenance phase – for the whole life cycle of the operating lease contract period. It is truly long-term work, as industrial procurements for new and replacement projects are planned and implemented on the basis of thorough groundwork and accurate calculations.

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Studio photographs by Reijo Koirikivi / Studio P.S.V., track photo by Juha Åman / Juha Åman Photography.