Story of Ouro

 

The dream of Ouro’s founder and CEO, Antti Pohjonen, had always been to have his own IT company. The idea of establishing his own business started to grow in the thoughts of the young student under the Brazilian sun. While studying for his master’s degree in engineering, Antti worked in the product development of a telecommunications company, and later as a consultant for other companies. He soon understood that this was not exactly what he wanted from his life.  

Antti wanted to create a company, where the ways of working of the traditional consulting businesses would be challenged.  He observed that there were opportunities, in the “traditional” way of handling customer needs and expectations, that could be grabbed by a discerning consultant. A better approach was to provide a more tailored and down-to-earth consulting service, where the employees who are delivering the solutions, are involved early on in assessing the customer needs. This way of working kept things on a more realistic level and made everyone (both customer and employees) happier. This last point was important, as Antti envisioned a company, where the core elements would be the employees’ well-being at work, their training and career development. 

Ouro as a company was established in August 2019. Antti had previously founded a similar company called Omenia, focusing on test automation, software automation and software product development. When Omenia was sold to Siili Solutions Oyj in 2017, Antti and other Omenia employees started working for Siili. 

A few years passed at Siili Solutions, until the idea of ​​establishing a new business of his own began to take shape in Antti´s mind again. Working in a larger organization did not feel right. The agility and freedom of a small business to create and develop their own processes seemed more attractive. The other old Omenia colleagues had similar feelings, and when the client companies showed interest in continuing the cooperation that had gone so well with Antti in the past, it was not difficult to make a decision. 

When coming up with a name for his new venture, Antti’s thoughts went back under the Brazilian sun, and he remembered the Portuguese language spoken there. The name Ouro is Portuguese and means ‘gold’ in English. 

Antti then inquired about the willingness of a few of his old colleagues to get involved in starting a new company and just like that, Ouro was born. Ouro’s current CFO Markku Lauronen has been involved since the very beginning, as well Software Automation Specialists Riikka Jokinen and Eeva Terkki. Janne Holm, Software Automation Developer, became a partner a little later. Since its founding in August 2019, the Ouro family has grown to 11 at the time of writing (April 2022).

Ouro’s culture, vision, mission, and values 

Antti’s vision has always been to create a better working life for everyone: customers, partners, customers’ employees, competitors’ employees and, of course, our own employees. Antti thinks that cooperation works better for customers when everyone is satisfied with their work. A better working life also includes delivering functional, tailored solutions for customers and taking care that employees work in a learning and well-being-oriented environment. All in all, a work environment where the co-workers are comfortable, and the work atmosphere is good. 

At Ouro, people think that an excellent work atmosphere arises from meaningful work that has a purpose. And meaningful working life includes the right to self-determination: the flexibility of work regardless of time and place, financial independence, competitive salaries, high quality tools and interesting projects. 

Customer orientation, respect for others, renewal and well-being at work are high in our values.  Work can be fun! 

Our mission is to enjoy a working life where employees are happy, where everyone is offered the right amount of challenges and interesting tasks. Everyone can participate in the development of the company and working life in whichever way suits them.  We make every effort to keep a good spirit of cooperation between Ouro and its stakeholders. 

Our vision is to build workable and tailored solutions together with our customers and strive for an excellent customer experience. 

Author of this blog is Ouro’s Human Relations and Social Media Specialist Mari Tarkiainen 

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