Reputation success story: CEO Turkka Kuusisto sheds light on the record-breaking reputation rise of Finland’s main postal service Posti

Riku Ruokolahti, Development Director at Reputation and Trust Analytics, interviewed Turkka Kuusisto, CEO of Posti, Finland’s leading postal service. The 385-year-old company achieved Finland’s largest measured increase in reputation in 2023: how has a deep understanding of data helped management on its reputation journey?

Posti has shown a positive trend in the Reputation & Trust survey for four years, and the company recorded its biggest increase in reputation in 2023. The company achieved a staggering increase of 0.18 points to a score of 2.68. The tone of this interview is very different from that of the Ruokolahti-Kuusisto meeting four years ago.

“At that time, Posti’s reputation had been declining for several years in a row. In my opinion, in such a situation, there was no other option but to break down the survey and its results into parts and decide how to proceed,” recalls Turkka Kuusisto.

 

 

Posti’s overall reputation score had been declining since 2016, reaching 2.26, the lowest reputation level recorded for the company at that time. This is a very low reputation score in the Reputation&Trust model.

“It’s not pleasant to present such results,” says Riku Ruokolahti, adding that Kuusisto did not attempt to explain the reputation situation, but instead took immediate action. Kuusisto sat down with his colleagues and spent several hours trying to understand Posti’s current situation so that they could develop an action plan to improve reputation and trust scores.

“What is the point of explaining the results of an objective survey? Rather, it is worth sitting down and trying to understand what explains the results and the factors driving them. We began by acknowledging the facts with my colleagues and then took an engineering approach to the research results. We identified the key issues and created a clear action plan. At the same time, we updated the company’s raison d’être, strategy, values, and leadership principles. They have supported each other along the way and gone hand in hand with our reputation. I believe that our work has been successful in this way,” says Kuusisto.

 

 

“It was worth taking the time,” says Ruokolahti. Since 2020, Posti’s reputation has improved every year. Based on historical data from the Reputation & Trust survey, the changes in Posti’s reputation are exceptional in the business world.

“Obviously, it took a lot of determination and willpower. But with better management, a company’s reputation can be turned around from a downward trend to growth,” says Kuusisto.

 

“A black belt management trick” – working systematically to build Posti’s reputation

Posti’s reputation and trust ratings from four years ago prompted investments in management, the workplace, and corporate responsibility. Kuusisto says that systematic efforts have been made in these three areas, both through large-scale initiatives and smaller, day-to-day actions.

“I am very proud of all Posti’s employees for the positive improvement in our results,” says Kuusisto.

Posti is a remarkably large and labor-intensive company, employing some 17,000 professionals. “It is jokingly said that Posti is the size of a small village,” says Kuusisto, adding that change in an organization of Posti’s size takes time and that he is therefore surprised that the turnaround in reputation has happened so quickly.

“From our point of view, this is a black belt management trick,” says Ruokolahti, commenting on the speed of the turnaround.

“I thought it would be like a marathon. Or a triathlon. I’ve been thinking about the recipe for success, and the main one is that we’ve grown closer as a working community and set out to develop the post office together in a common direction and with a common purpose,” says Kuusisto.

Kuusisto believes that the key elements of Posti’s recovery are the development of the workforce, better management, and shared responsibility.

 

The Reputation & Trust Survey is a measure of overall quality

The Reputation & Trust model is a comprehensive measure of overall quality: everything the company does influences the results of the survey. Posti has the largest distribution network in Finland, with postal workers visiting approximately three million homes and businesses every weekday.

“All their processes affect the measurement results. Every interaction, from recruitment to service and finally to products. It’s a huge maze of interactions,” says Ruokolahti, asking Kuusisto how Posti has managed to get all its stakeholders on board with the change.

“Honesty, transparency, and dialogue. At the end of the day, that’s all there is to it,” says Kuusisto.

 

Posti has made significant progress in improving its image as an employer

Looking at the annual results of Posti’s Reputation & Trust survey, the company has made the most significant progress as an employer. In 2020, the general public gave Posti a very low score (1.82) in the workplace category. By 2023, that score will have risen by a staggering 0.68 points to a reputation score of 2.50.

 

 

“Posti is a 385-year-old institution, and I have had the privilege of leading it for four years. I am proud and grateful that Posti’s employees have managed to give its reputation such a boost,” says Kuusisto.

“When I started as CEO, Posti was in a very different place. Now, four years later, I would like to believe and see that Posti is an organization that lives up to its purpose, with a clear vision, a well-defined strategy, and, above all, a stronger workforce that has been able to improve customer satisfaction.”

 

TURKKA KUUSISTO is a Finnish business leader. 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 Development Director at Reputation and Trust Analytics. He developed the Reputation&Trust model and coaches senior executives and management teams on holistic reputation management.