Turkka Kuusisto explains the background to Posti’s rise in reputation: “We set out to develop Posti together, guided by a shared vision and purpose”

 

Riku Ruokolahti, Head of Development at T-Media, interviewed Turkka Kuusisto, CEO of Posti, who is moving to Finnair. Posti achieved Finland’s biggest jump in reputation in 2023: how did they pull off this leap in reputation, and what kind of legacy will Turkka leave behind as he moves on to his new employer?

Posti has a proven track record of four years of rising reputation, and the company recorded the largest increase in reputation in 2023. Reputation&Trust previous Reputation&Trust, Posti surged by a staggering 0.18 points to a score of 2.68. The mood is markedly different from the meeting in Ruokolahti and Kuusisto four years ago, where Posti’s reputation results at the time were reviewed.

“At that time, our reputation had been declining for many years in a row. In my opinion, in a situation like that, there was no other option but to break down the study in question and its results into their constituent parts and decide how to proceed from there,” recalls Turkka Kuusisto.

 

 

Posti’s overall reputation scores had been declining since 2016, reaching the company’s lowest-ever measured reputation level of 2.26 at the time of the Ruokolahti and Kuusisto meeting four years ago. This figure represents an extremely poor result Reputation&Trust T-Media’s Reputation&Trust.

“Delivering results like these isn’t exactly fun,” Ruokolahti says, adding that Kuusisto didn’t just sit around explaining the situation but took immediate action. Kuusisto sat down with his colleagues and spent several hours analyzing the situation so they could develop an action plan to restore the company’s reputation and level of trust.

“Why bother trying to explain the results of an objective study? Instead, we should sit down and, above all, try to understand what explains the results and what the driving factors behind them are. First, we acknowledged the facts, and then we took an engineering approach to the results. We broke the issue down into its components and identified the pain points specific to our company and our work community. Through this process, we created a clear action plan. At the same time, we updated the company’s purpose, strategy, values, and leadership principles. All of these have supported one another on this journey; they have gone hand in hand. I would like to see that, through this process, we have succeeded in turning these results into growth,” Kuusisto says.

Reputation&Trust: The Evolution of Posti’s Reputation, 2014–2023.

 

“It was worth sitting down,” Ruokolahti says. Posti’s reputation has soared every year since 2020. Based on data Reputation&Trust, the changes in Posti’s reputation are exceptional in the business world.

“Of course, it has taken a great deal of determination and willpower to turn this area around from a downward trend to growth through better management,” Kuusisto says.

 

“The Black Belt Leadership Trick” – Posti has made a systematic effort to build its reputation

 

Posti’s reputation and trust ratings from four years ago have inspired Posti employees to focus on leadership, making Posti a better place to work, and the company’s corporate responsibility. Turkka Kuusisto explains that very systematic work has been done around these three themes, ranging from major initiatives to smaller, day-to-day actions.

“I’m very proud of all the postal workers and of the fact that the results are slowly starting to improve,” Kuusisto says happily.

Posti is a remarkably large and labor-intensive company: it employs approximately 17,000 professionals. “People sometimes joke that Posti is the size of a small village,” Kuusisto says, explaining that in an organization, work community, and system the size of Posti, change takes time, which is why he is surprised that the turnaround in its reputation has happened so quickly.

“From our perspective, this is a black belt leadership move,” Ruokolahti commented on the speed of the turnaround.

“I had thought of this as being like a marathon—or a triathlon. I’ve been reflecting on what the recipe for success has been, and above all, it’s that we’ve grown closer as a work community and set out to develop Posti together, guided by a shared direction and a shared purpose,” Kuusisto says.

Kuusisto says he believes that the key factors behind Posti’s improved reputation are the development of the workplace community, better leadership, and collaborative efforts in corporate responsibility.

 

T-Media's Reputation & Reputation&Trust is a measure of overall quality

 

T-Media’s Reputation&Trust is a holistic measure of overall quality: the survey’s results are influenced by everything the company does. Posti has Finland’s most extensive delivery network, and on weekdays, Posti’s employees visit approximately three million households and businesses.

“All of your processes affect the measurement results. Every interaction, from the recruitment process all the way through to service processes, and ultimately to the products. It’s a vast jungle where interactions take place,” Ruokolahti says, asking Kuusisto how Posti has managed to get all its stakeholders on board with the change.

“Honesty, openness, and two-way dialogue. At the end of the day, it’s really nothing more complicated than that,” Kuusisto says.

 

The most significant improvement in Posti's reputation has occurred as an employer

 

A review of the annual results Reputation&Trust Posti’s Reputation&Trust reveals that the company has made the most significant progress in the area of reputation as an employer. In 2020, the general public rated Posti as a workplace at a very low level (1.82). By 2023, Posti had improved by a staggering 0.68 points to a reputation score of 2.50.

 

Reputation&Trust: Trends in Posti’s Reputation Sub-Areas, 2014–2023. Posti was evaluated using T-Media’s Reputation&Trust, in which an organization’s reputation score is calculated as the average of eight different sub-areas. These areas are corporate governance, finance, leadership, innovation, interaction, products & services, workplace, and corporate responsibility. The study used a five-point rating scale (1–5).

 

“The Post is a 385-year-old institution, and I have had the privilege of leading it for four years. I am both proud and grateful that the Post’s employees have managed to bring about such a turnaround for us,” Kuusisto says happily.

“The situation when I first started as CEO was very different. Now, four years later, I’d like to believe and see that Posti is an organization that is deeply committed to its purpose, with a clear vision, a highly focused strategy, and, above all, a healthier work community—which has, in turn, enabled it to achieve higher customer satisfaction.”

 

TURKKA KUUSISTO is a Finnish business executive. He has served as CEO of Posti Group Oyj since February 6, 2020. Kuusisto will become CEO of Finnair in the summer of 2024.

RIKU RUOKOLAHTI is the Director of Development at T-Media. He has developed Reputation&Trust and coaches senior executives and management teams on comprehensive reputation management.

 

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