PEOPLE BEHIND BENLIGHTEN: JOONA

The “People Behind BENLIGHTEN” series introduces the behind-the-scenes stories of our colleagues – the people contributing to BENLIGHTEN’s growth and success. In the premiere story, we’d like to present Joona, the Business Development Manager of BENLIGHTEN.

“People Behind BENLIGHTEN” is the blog series that takes you behind the scenes of BENLIGHTEN. You’ll get to know the talented, warm-hearted, and hard-working members of our team who turn BENLIGHTEN’s mission into a reality. In the first part of the series, we have Joona, our Business Development Manager, shedding light on his life, from his approach to manage a team to his sources of daily inspiration.

1. Tell us a little bit about your job at BENLIGHTEN?

As a Business Development Manager, my role is to take responsibility for the overall sales process and the direction of our amazing business development team.

2. What is your approach to managing the business development team?

To lead is to serve, I feel everyone should be able to express freedom in their work and be given trust into what they do. It’s important that everyone’s voice is heard throughout the process. A good manager should be available, supportive and most importantly, willing to learn from their team members instead of trying to force the team to follow their decisions. If the team does well, you’ll also do well.

3. What gets you up in the morning?

No matter how grey the morning is, after a warm cup of coffee and a nice song, I’m always excited to get to work with my colleagues and help the international talent at BENLIGHTEN to find the opportunities they so much deserve.

4. What is your number one thing to do when you need to recharge your batteries?

Playing music is the one vice that gets my mind totally relaxed and fuels my creativity. If I’m on a holiday, you probably will find a guitar somewhere next to me all the time.

5. What do you enjoy most about working at BENLIGHTEN?

Working at a startup brings constant change. It’s exciting to be able to say that I work in a place where everyone works for a common goal and is ready to change directions fast when needed. It truly is an atmosphere I’ve never been a part of before. There is so much potential in the company and I can only imagine where we will be in a few years time.

6. Any last words that you want to say to your colleagues?

It’s the end of the year as I’m writing this so I’d really like to thank ALL of my colleagues that I’ve been working with this whole year from the interns to the managers. It’s been a crazy ride through COVID-19 with all the new challenges we faced but we have come out stronger than ever. With this incredible team and superb work ethics, I can’t wait to see what the future holds.