Prohoc's fourth generation

Matti Manner's journey at the helm of Prohoc began 12 years ago when he became CEO of the family business founded by his father. Manner had experience from 10 years of international positions at ABB.

Prohoc is an industrial services company founded in 1996. In the first phase, the entrepreneur-led company was operated in a man-and-van style. In 2011, a partial generational change was made when Matti Manner and his siblings were included on the board.

"In 2013, I started as CEO. We focused on seeking stronger development and growth. We built the organization in a new way and introduced new services."

In 2018, the company entered the next growth phase. Operations were scaled up, focusing on specific services and their development. In 2021, Manner moved to the role of Chairman of the Board, responsible for leading the growth program. A new CEO was found from within the company.

Manner describes the years 2019–2024 as a growth spurt, during which Prohoc's number of employees grew from about a hundred to four hundred and turnover from 10 million to about 35 million. Then it was evident that a new kind of thinking was needed from outside the organisation to grow the family business.

In 2024, the ongoing transformation, Prohoc's fourth generation, began. A new ownership strategy was drawn up for the company, which defined the main lines and goals of the next phase. The management team was renewed, and the seven-person management team currently includes two old and five new members.

"Considering the size of our company, we made a really big change in management," says Manner.

Away from customer cycles  

As an industrial service company, Prohoc has always been involved in the service business. As CEO, Manner witnessed how Prohoc reached a point of growth and development with its old methods that was difficult to surpass.

“We needed a new, more sustainable business for the future. We started to develop services into products, and started developing them with a new approach.”

Seeking a new direction has meant that the owners and the board of directors have had to analyse what the life cycle of services is. The management also had to consider how technological development and artificial intelligence are changing and will change Prohoc’s services.

Previously, Prohoc focussed on expert services for industrial construction, in practice project management consulting. Prohoc was involved in projects for Finnish technology export builders around the world, especially in the construction phase of industrial plants.

Then Prohoc began to take steps towards more hand-on service.

“Field service, maintenance and other manual work will withstand the AI ​​and technology transformation in a different way than the expert side.”

Manner explains his thinking. In the future, construction sites will be managed by fewer supervisors and projects can be managed by smaller project teams. Scheduling, cost and documentation management will be made more efficient with artificial intelligence.

The fourth generation of Prohoc therefore focuses on ensuring that Prohoc's partnership with customers lasts from the construction of industrial plants to operation and maintenance. This way the business is on a more stable basis. Even if customers do not have new investment projects, there is daily operation and maintenance, in which Prohoc is involved. A key new service is the Global Field Service service aimed at technology customers, where Prohoc supports its customers' aftermarket business globally.

The fourth generation is above all about building major international growth and new service concepts. In early 2025, Prohoc expanded into North America through an acquisition, and the subsidiary was named Prohoc North America Inc. Prohoc established a country subsidiary in Guatemala two years ago.

It currently operates in a total of five countries. In the companies international expansion, the focus has been on ensuring that Prohoc can offer local expertise in new markets.

Manner believes that making a major transformation requires upfront investments.

“It is rare to be able to grow in a way that the cost structure and topline are constantly growing at the same pace."

The owner strategy needs to be clear

The most important value in Prohoc's ownership strategy is the culture of caring. It is visible in business with customers, and especially internally within the company. According to Manner, caring as a value and at the center of the culture is a sustainable foundation on which to build.

The need for talent and the expertise profile have changed and expanded during the company's four phases. It has partly grown from a autonomous expert organisation towards a close-management organisation.

Prohoc invests in supervisor training and competence development. Manner finds it rewarding to be able to give more responsibility in one's own organisation and to develop new leaders as the business grows.

As a family business, Prohoc's owners are also strongly present on the board of directors.

In terms of the company's success, Manner sees a clear ownership strategy as the owners' greatest responsibility and task. The board's most important task, in turn, is to ensure that the ownership strategy is implemented through the definition and implementation of the business strategy by the management.

“It is impossible to form a business strategy without a clear ownership strategy. The company's management needs a clear direction and goals to be successful in implementation.”

It is also difficult to assess the company's development if common guidelines are missing.

Prohoc's growth strategy also partly aims at internationalising the organisation. Compared to the early years, language proficiency requirements and understanding of the international business world have risen as criteria alongside expertise.

Rising ambition levels from the Growth Collective

On his growth journey, Manner has noticed that small growth can often be achieved with almost the same amount of work as a more impressive, big change.

In the Growth Collective, Manner has been able to raise his ambition level in particular.

“I am really happy that I was able to join the Growth Collective. When I joined, the turnover was around 10 million and we employed around 100 people. We have managed to take one growth leap and now we are aiming for the next one.”

Peer support in the Growth Collective has enabled support and, on the other hand, introduced him to other growth stories.

“In growth, no matter what industry the company is in, the challenges are pretty much the same: increasing the capabilities of the organisation, scaling operations and especially scaling sales.”‍