The Human Side of Innovation: Tomi Krogerus

Every innovation has two sides: the undeniable technical achievement and the measurable impact. But equally important is The Human Side. The one who dares to try, tests uncertain ideas, fails and tries again, and challenges “the way we’ve always done it”. It’s about curiosity and courage. This article series celebrates Kalmar colleagues who live our core behavior, Experiment. 

In this feature, we celebrate Tomi Krogerus, the Senior Manager of the Analytics & AI team in Digital Solutions. Tomi is an Innovation Role Model who truly shows us what Experiment looks like. He was a co-winner in the 2025 Kalmar Innovation challenge with this concept designed to revolutionize load handling equipment service and reliability. 

Let’s ask Tomi to share his insights on innovating.

What originally drew you to this industry and job?

I hold a Doctor of Science in Technology (D.Sc. (Tech.)) and worked nearly 20 years at Tampere University of Technology. I have always wanted to apply research into practice, which led me to actively collaborate with equipment manufacturers and lead many co-innovation projects during my university years. Moving into the industry world at Cargotec in 2018 was therefore a natural transition to scale that impact.

My professional background is a unique mix of mechanical engineering and data science. However, I have learned that driving innovation demands much more than technical expertise; it is fundamentally a team effort. While this technical crossover gives me a deep analytical mindset, it’s empowering our top talent that truly enables us to think beyond the conventional and discover novel solutions together. 

What are your current responsibilities? 

I am the Senior Manager of the Analytics & AI team in Digital Solutions. I lead a team of highly skilled professionals focused on advancing innovation in industrial equipment and services. Our work is dynamic - it revolves around exploring bold experimentation and proof-of-concept initiatives to drive active innovation. Alongside this exploration, we are executing a high-level vision to safely scale AI capabilities across our digital solutions.

Ultimately, my role is to ensure we harness trustworthy AI to lead in sustainable material handling, making every move safer, cleaner, and smarter.

What motivates you to innovate?

Innovation is what keeps me moving forward. Because repetitive work quickly loses my interest, I stay engaged by continuously seeking out new ideas and fresh perspectives. I’m keen on exploring how different concepts and insights intersect across various domains. My approach is always to find inspiration from solutions developed for completely different application areas, such as medicine, and imagine how those same principles could be applied in our industry.

Can you share some innovation you've developed?

During my years in university research, I worked on a project focused on predictive maintenance for transport systems. Drawing directly from my interest in cross-domain inspiration, we took analytical models originally designed for the medical field - methods used to monitor patient health and populations - and applied them to machine sensor data. By treating the equipment's telemetry similarly to human vitals, we developed a novel framework to analyze the condition and health of these machines on a global, fleet-wide level. It was a great reminder of how looking completely outside your own industry can lead to breakthroughs in how we understand and maintain complex equipment.

What advice would you give to future innovators?

I encourage everyone to think big and far ahead. We often focus on existing problems and immediate solutions, but I encourage you to pursue ideas regardless of whether they can be implemented today. Don’t be constrained by the present. Always set your ambitions high. I also strongly advocate for a culture of bold experimentation.