Meet the Pride: Mia Koskinen

Travel to Finland to meet Mia Koskinen, Account Executive for Lionbridge. Koskinen works with large Finnish-based accounts and helps her customers discover new Lionbridge solutions and services. She also enjoys cooking, golfing and participating in dog shows with her two Irish Glen of Imaal Terriers.

Tell me a little about your role at Lionbridge.

I am an account executive, working mainly with large localization customers who have their headquarters in Finland. I look after their contracts and find new solutions and services for them from our portfolio. Customer satisfaction is also my responsibility for these existing large accounts. I also look for new business within my region, which includes Finland and other Nordic countries.

What do you enjoy most about your role and working in account management?

I enjoy discovering the needs of our customers and then finding solutions to those needs. I love helping our customers discover things they didn’t even know were possible and delighting them with our solutions and our quality.

Particularly with the large companies I work with, there is always still a pocket somewhere where they don’t know about us or they don’t know we have a service that would improve their business. It’s exciting to go have those conversations with customers and expand our footprint.

How long have you been at Lionbridge? How have you seen Lionbridge change over that time?

I’ve been at Lionbridge since 1996 in various roles, and I’ve been working in a sales role since 2007. In that time, we’ve become more digital, as have our customers. Almost all deals nowadays include a connector between our systems and the customer’s systems. Lionbridge prides itself on being a global company. Our focus on being digital means that we use the same tools and systems no matter where you work. That’s important in being able to respond to the customer needs in these very international companies that I work with. We might be working with a Finnish company, but then we also work with their subsidiaries in different countries. No matter where our customers are, we still use the same Lionbridge policies, systems and tools.

What does a typical workday look like for you?

I have a lot of calls and meetings (online these days) with customers. I prepare for these customer conversations by getting the background story from our operational colleagues and media sources. Prospecting for new contacts or new companies is also part of my job. In sales, your work is never done. There’s always something you could still do.

What’s the most exciting opportunity on the horizon for your team this year?

Last year has shown our customers the importance of being digital and having strong connections between their systems and the systems of their language service provider. The biggest opportunities this year lie in expanding that connectivity between us and our customers.

Where are you located? What do you enjoy most about living there?

I live in Hämeenkyrö, in the countryside. It’s about two hours north of Helsinki. Besides the peace and quiet, I really enjoy the nature. I have forests and fields just outside of my home. I also have two dogs, so it’s a nice place to live for them. For the fourth year in a row, Finland ranked as the happiest country in the world—easy access to nature is certainly part of the reason. Then again, we also are first in coffee consumption.

What’s something a tourist visiting your area shouldn’t miss?

All the tourist attractions here are related to our national author, Frans Emil Sillanpää. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1939. His birthplace is here, and we have an outdoor theater in the summer where his plays are put on.

Favorite local saying?

“Rapatessa roiskuu,” The literal translation is, "When plastering, there is splattering.” It’s used to describe something like, "When you take action, some collateral damage is expected.”

Which languages do you speak?

At different points in my life, I’ve learned Finnish, Swedish, English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Malay, Hindi, Latin and Simplified Chinese—so eleven in total! I’ve always enjoyed learning languages. For me, it’s like math: After learning the basics, it’s all about vocabulary. But then again, if you don’t actively use a language, you tend to forget it. Out of those eleven languages, only six are currently of any use to me.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I love participating in dog shows. I have two Irish Glen of Imaal Terriers, and they are a rare breed. Right now, dog shows are not happening, but hopefully they will this summer. I also enjoy cooking, golfing and playing Pokémon Go in my free time.