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Future Maker - Anne Jortikka from ELY

Anne Jortikka, strategy manager of the Satakunta ELY center, is actively building and developing the customer orientation and customer experience of the ELY centers.

In Valo's Future Makers series, Anne summarizes her lessons on strengthening a customer-oriented culture and tells what the future looks like.

Who are you?

I am a curious lifelong learner. I work as the strategy manager of the ELY center in Satakunta. An important part of my job is also the national development work of ELY centers in customer matters and strengthening customer orientation.

If you had to describe yourself as hashtags, which words would you choose?

#crazyforplants #nature #constantlearning #development

The best thing about my job

Versatility. This work gives quite an overview of the field - here you can look at the operating environment and its changes from a wide range of angles: from biodiversity to rural and business development and employment management. And also for enabling lifelong learning and developing working life in general. On the other hand, it also makes you humble, in this job you are never ready. Here you can and should learn all the time and look far ahead.

The best thing about my work are the customers and stakeholders, they inspire me every time. Without them we would be nothing.

"Customer orientation is a mindset that takes time to learn."

My top three lessons

ELY centers are creating a sustainable future - for the good of people and regions. You play an active role in building an even more customer-oriented ELY center.
If you had to summarize three lessons in strengthening a customer-centric culture, what would they be?

1 Keep it simple!
You shouldn't fall into overly theoretical models. The common goal must be clear and easy to understand.

2 Inspire the staff and be persistent
Personnel must be actively involved and inspired, it won't work if everything is just given from above - customer orientation is a mindset that takes time to create. It requires a cultural change and in this change people, and everyone's work must be valued.

3 Invest in customer-oriented management in everyday life
The management and supervisors must set an example and actively lead joint activities, otherwise there will be no change in the culture. The common vision and direction must be clear and must be committed to. This does not happen by itself, management and supervisors also need coaching and internal sparring.

Looking towards the year 2030

What does the future look like? What will a public sector actor or ELY be like in 2030? What changes, what is highlighted?

You have to be humble when working with your customers. We have to constantly develop our own operations and services together with our customers. As long as we are able to produce a service that is socially significant and useful for customers, and redeem their trust, we have our place. We must always be one step ahead of our customers. The rapid change in the operating environment challenges us to operate even more agilely. 

 

The role of ELY centers is important, for example, in matters of climate change, and it will be a cross-cutting theme in all our activities. Immigration and ensuring the availability of skilled labor are also visible in our work even more. The themes are enormously broad and also bring us many new challenges to solve. A sustainable future can only be created by being active - which is incredibly exciting!

In Valo's Future shaper -series, we interview interesting people who follow the changes in their field and shape the future of their operating environment in their everyday life.

Read more interviews of the Future shapers - series.

Socio-culture & Strategy

Sosiokulttuurinen strategia- ja näkemystoimisto Valo Future on erikoistunut kunnianhimoisen ihmis- ja tulevaisuuslähtöisen menestyksen tukemiseen.

Strategia, ihmis-& tulevaisuuslähtöisyys Tiitta Vaulos, +358 50 5727859

Strategia, brändi, osallistaminen
Kirsi Saloranta, +358 40 512 3286

etunimi.sukunimi(at)valofuture.fi