Decided is not done.
I am an interim executive and senior advisor. I help companies turn an operational change into everyday practice that still works after the project team has left.
See what you getWhen I get the call
Most often after a big operational decision has been made and someone has to make it work. Increasingly also before it, when the leadership team wants to know what it is committing to. I come from outside the company, take the decision into everyday work, and leave when it runs without me.
PICK A SITUATION AND I WILL TELL YOU HOW I HELP
Change into everyday work
A readiness review in three weeks before go-live. After that, advisory or an interim role until the new way of working holds without the project team.
Typical format: diagnostic 2–4 weeks, then advisory 3–9 months
Change into everyday work
I work alongside the person who owns the change, one or two days a week. You get a written operating rhythm, named owners and a measure you can read without me.
Typical format: advisory 3–9 months
Customer operations and channels at scale
Vendor transitions in either direction, with service, people and customers intact. I have brought a partner team of more than 300 people in-house without a break in service.
Typical format: interim 6–12 months
Customer operations and channels at scale
I take the role in the line organization and run it until a successor is in place and the results hold. I have taken a site from worst performing to best in six months.
Typical format: interim 6–12 months
Verified benefits from development investments
Nothing enters the backlog without a defined benefit, an owner and a measure. Benefits are verified after adoption. Built once from scratch, with an impact above 10 million euros.
Typical format: advisory 3–9 months
AI in leadership decisions
A leadership team program on AI in recurring decisions. We list the decisions and answer three questions for each one. Then we design the model for three to five real decisions.
Typical format: leadership program 8–10 weeks
What you get from me
Four service lines and a confidential thinking partnership. All from the same starting point: I have run these myself.
Change into everyday work.
The core service. A decided change becomes the way the work is done. Readiness review in three weeks. Advisory or an interim role until the new way holds. Vendor transitions in either direction, with service, people and customers intact.
Customer operations and channels at scale.
Customer operations, workforce planning and capacity, omnichannel and self-service, churn prevention, sales planning and incentives, unit turnarounds. Run by someone who has run them for more than 1,000 service professionals and 5.5 million customer contacts a year.
Verified benefits from development investments.
Nothing enters the backlog without a defined benefit, an owner and a measure. Benefits are verified after adoption. Customer validation built into development. Built once from scratch, with an impact above 10 million euros.
AI in leadership decisions.
A leadership team program on AI in recurring decisions. Operating models where people and AI agents share the work with clear roles, controls and accountability. Read more
Five ways in. One outcome.
The same work in different sizes. The format follows how deep into the organization the change has to go.
A written verdict and a recommendation on what to do next. The recommendation can be that you do not need me.
I work alongside the person who owns the change, one or two days a week, until the new way is the normal way. You keep the change leader’s role, I bring the experience.
I take the role in the line organization and run it full-time, until a successor is in place and the results hold.
AI in recurring decisions, practiced on the leadership team’s own decisions.
A confidential, recurring thinking partner for an executive who owns operations, customer service or change. Your agenda, my line experience.
Not sure which one fits? Start with a diagnostic.
Every engagement ends the same way: a written operating rhythm, named owners, and a measure you can read without me.
I have run it myself
All figures from executive roles at Telia, over more than 20 years.
I brought a partner team of more than 300 people in-house without a break in service.
SituationA partner’s service team had to be brought in-house. Customer contacts do not wait, and uncertainty among people shows in the service immediately.
What I didI designed the transfer from the service side first and the organization second. Every team had a named receiver, a weekly status view and one shared measure for the duration.
I helped design and scale Telia’s first churn prevention model. More than 100,000 at-risk customers stayed.
SituationBroadband customers were leaving, and churn was addressed only after the cancellation. The channels took orders instead of selling.
What I didWe built a model that identified at-risk customers before they left and routed the contact to the right channel. At the same time I turned a 200-person unit from order taking into active selling.
I raised customer-validated development initiatives from zero to 67 percent in six months.
SituationThe backlog filled with initiatives whose benefit and user need nobody had verified. The business ordered, development delivered, the customer fell between them.
What I didI brought customer validation into the development process for every initiative. I trained the analysts to assess benefit, need, feasibility and data impact before anything entered the backlog.
Employee engagement stayed above 90 percent through repeated organizational change.
SituationRepeated organizational change wears people down. Engagement usually drops with every round and recovers slowly, if it recovers.
What I didI started every change from the why before the how. The managers carried the change, and each of them had a named responsibility and a rhythm.
Millions of customer contacts. Millions in sales impact. A development portfolio worth millions. Millions in annual savings. At this size the decision is the easy part. The hard part is handling the complexity.
Juha Haapala
Did people understand the why before they were told the how?
Juha Haapala is an interim executive and senior advisor who takes a decided operational change into everyday work and makes it run without him.
Good leadership multiplies what people are capable of. That is why I do this. I lead with clarity and build with people. In my experience the difference between a change that sticks and one that fades is always that question.
I designed the service. I also ran the production. That is why I see the parts of a plan that others notice only at go-live.
I spent 21 years at Telia, from frontline technical support to Head of Design & Analysis. For six years I led channel efficiency. That meant workforce planning for more than 1,000 service professionals, sales planning and incentives for a 2,000-strong sales organization, and the operational backbone for 5.5 million customer contacts a year. Before that I turned a 200-person broadband unit from order taking into active selling and helped design Telia’s first churn prevention model. Later I built the benefit verification model that brought profit and loss accountability into development investments.
I did this for one company for 21 years. Now I do it for several.
Based in Turku, Finland. Working languages Finnish and English.
Work history on LinkedInAI in your decisions. Someone is still accountable.
AI is already in the daily work. In the leadership team’s own decisions it has changed nothing.
Three questions before anyone acts on what AI produces:
- 1Does AI belong in this decision at all?
- 2What has to be true before we act on its output?
- 3Who stays accountable for the call?
The work usually starts with a two-week scan. We list the leadership team’s recurring decisions and answer these three questions for each one. Then we design the model for three to five real decisions, together with your leadership team.
From first call to kickoff
- 1Intake call, 20 minutes. Your situation, the decision made or in preparation, and what “working” would look like. Teams or phone, whichever suits.
- 2Scoping note, one page. Situation, outcome, format, duration and start date. Within three working days.
- 3Kickoff and why-session. With the sponsor and the managers who will carry the change.
- 4Weekly working rhythm, monthly one-page memo. No slide decks between us.
- 5Handover and a 60-day check. Included in every diagnostic, advisory and interim engagement.
The questions that come before the call
How quickly can we start?
The proposal is one page and comes within three working days of the intake call. It covers the situation, the outcome, the format, the duration and the start date.
How do I know whether I am the right client?
By the end of the intake call you will know whether I am the right person for your situation. If I am not, I will say so and point you elsewhere. A diagnostic can also end in the recommendation that you do not need me.
How, where and in which languages do you work?
I am based in Turku and work across Finland and the Nordics. An interim role is full-time. In an advisory role I work one or two days a week. My working languages are Finnish and English.
What is left behind when the engagement ends?
An engagement leaves a written operating rhythm, named owners and a measure you can read without me. A handover and a 60-day check are part of every diagnostic, advisory and interim engagement.
Why hire an interim executive instead of recruiting someone permanent?
An interim executive is the answer when the change cannot wait for a recruitment. I start within weeks, take the role and carry the change into everyday work. At the same time I prepare the seat for a permanent successor, and I succeed when your organization carries on without me.
When the change has to work
Book a 20-minute intake call or send a message. By the end of the call you will know whether I am the right person. If I am not, I will say so and point you elsewhere.
- [email protected]
- +358 40 254 7135
- linkedin.com/in/juhahaapala
- Turku · Finland and the Nordics