Project management training strengthens Caruna’s ability to deliver successful projects

Caruna is committed to leading this transition in line with its values. The extensive project management training offered to both employees and contractors is a practical example of this commitment.

Kumura, which has since become part of IQI, was selected as Caruna’s training partner.

Petri Mäkituuli, Head of Investment Projects and Portfolio Manager for Caruna’s electricity network construction projects, has worked with projects throughout his career.

Effective project work makes significant change possible

For Mäkituuli, successful project work is built on strong collaboration. It is this collaboration that makes significant change possible.

Caruna has approximately 30 in-house project managers, but its projects involve a total of around 500 to 800 professionals working across its partner network.

“In joint projects, everyone must work towards the same goal. It is in the interests of every company involved that we succeed together,” Mäkituuli says.

Mäkituuli believes that modern working life increasingly takes place within networks and ecosystems. This requires organisations to look beyond their traditional responsibilities and boundaries. Caruna’s values, which include courage and working together, support this approach.

“Too often, the customer’s role is limited to placing an order and waiting for the service to be delivered. But could the relationship involve more genuine collaboration and shared responsibility for the results? Both the supplier and the customer have an impact on whether the project succeeds,” Mäkituuli says.

Caruna wanted to turn this principle into practice.

Project management expertise is a critical success factor

Caruna considers project management expertise a critical success factor and therefore saw a clear need to strengthen the capabilities of everyone involved in its projects.

The company selected IQI’s established PM Professional® programme to provide in-depth project management training supported by experienced project management specialists.

In a forward-looking approach, the project management training was offered not only to Caruna’s own project managers but also to the contractors working on its projects.

“We launched the Project Academy for our contractors, giving their project managers the opportunity to strengthen their expertise through IQI’s project management training. The programme provided valuable tools for managing schedules, resources and costs.”

Petri Mäkituuli
Head of Investment Projects and Portfolio Manager, Electricity Network Construction

A significant investment in collaboration

The scale of Caruna’s commitment is demonstrated by the fact that the project management training was not delivered as a one-off course. Instead, participants completed a six-month programme designed to build in-depth project management expertise.

The programme included several instructor-led training days, independent study and follow-up sessions where participants shared practical advice on applying what they had learned.

“We believe that project management expertise has a major impact on project success. Successful projects are led according to shared project management principles, and everyone involved needs to understand those principles.”

PM Professional provides a proven approach to project management training

Mäkituuli considers it particularly important that the programme gave project managers practical tools for resourcing and scheduling, which are often among the greatest challenges in project delivery.

Participant feedback also highlighted these tools as some of the most valuable elements of the programme, alongside risk management and project communication.

“The training was extremely successful. PM Professional is an excellent programme, and IQI is a highly knowledgeable partner. I can recommend them without hesitation.”

Petri Mäkituuli
Head of Investment Projects and Portfolio Manager, Electricity Network Construction

Because the project management training was tailored to Caruna’s needs, participants were also able to learn from exercises based on real projects and from the discussions these exercises generated.

Learning from quality observations on site

Alongside its investment in training, Caruna decided to develop its approach as a customer to make it even more responsible.

An external supervision partner conducts inspections on site at several stages of the work. This allows any installation issues to be identified early, before the same methods are extended across hundreds of work locations.

The aim is to monitor quality and learn throughout the project rather than only after completion.

Successful results provide a strong foundation for further development

Although Caruna’s initial investment focused on collaboration between its own project professionals and those working for its contractors, Mäkituuli believes the new practices will also strengthen the wider partnership between the organisations.

“We wanted to take a positive step that would help strengthen the entire industry. The results have been good, and they provide an excellent foundation for continuing the work.”

Image credit: Caruna media library.