Stora Enso implements shared project practices

Stora Enso Guangxi Forestry Company has implemented shared project practices throughout the organization. Kumura held an online training of project management for the forestry operations staff and for the shared IT department. Everyone is now familiar with project terminology and understands the project process tailored for the company.

Company implements shared project practices

Part of the bioeconomy, Stora Enso is a leading global provider of renewable solutions in packaging, biomaterials, wooden construction and paper. Stora Enso has a total of approximately 22 000 employees on all continents.

In China, mills in Dongguan, Jiashan, Qian’an and Changzhou, mills belong to Packaging Materials division. The division aims to be a global leader in circular economy with Stora Enso high-quality renewable packaging materials based on both virgin and recycled fiber. The Beihai Mill in Guangxi region, southern China, is a board mill with 1000 employees producing high-grade carton board products.

In September 2019, 16 employees of Stora Enso Guangxi Forestry company and local IT department in Beihai participated online in a project management training by Kumura.

How did it go, and what was the impact of the training? Hanna Andersson interviewed Kari Marjakangas, Head of Process and Technical Development at Stora Enso Guangxi Forestry Company.

Kari Marjakangas has a long international career at Stora Enso.
Since April 2019, he is the Head of Process and Technical Development
at Stora Enso Guangxi Forestry Company.

The training was held on the Beihai Mill site where both the mill’s and Stora Ensos’s forestry operations’ headquarters are located. Prior to the training, the organization was renewed in September 2019: a designated development unit was founded in the business department of forestry.

Preparing for future opportunities

“Previously, only IT projects were actually called ’projects’, and we lacked a unified and efficient way of working in all other development tasks. Now all IT and technical development is projectized and followed up by the PMO manager in the development unit,” Mr. Marjakangas explains.

“This training was tailored for the forestry operations staff and that of our shared IT department. The participants were selected according to future project needs. A major part of our upcoming projects is IT-related, but there will also be R&D and technical development as well as business development projects.”

Creating a shared project mindset

With the organizational structure in place, the next step was to provide the staff with the knowledge and tools to start working accordingly. As a result, project competence became a key competence for the organization, enabling a shared understanding of work processes and phases on different organizational levels.

“As this is a whole new mindset and way of working especially for the forestry operations, we needed to offer our staff training on the basics of project work, roles and responsibilities,” Mr. Marjakangas says.

“For example, it’s important for our internal communication that everyone is now familiar with the project terminology. Also, now everyone understands the project process: how projects are initiated, managed and documented, and how the roles in the project organization differ from those of the line organization. Next, we need to update also the management on project ownership and steering group work for the entire organization to share the same understanding of project work.”

”It’s important for our internal communication that everyone is now familiar with the project terminology. Also, now everyone understands the project process.”

Interactive learning online

The training was held via Skype in four modules, covering project initiation, roles and responsibilities, project processes, risk management and stakeholder management, as well as monitoring, controlling and change management in the project execution phase.

“Online training sessions can be really exhausting at their worst, but Kumura’s trainer Teppo Nurminen did a good work activating the participants regularly during the sessions to keep up a feeling of interactivity,” says Mr. Marjakangas.

“The geographical distance can present a challenge for learning. Therefore, anything that is facilitated remotely, must be carefully planned. The focus must be in constant interaction with the participants and in the practical tasks that they perform and present online”, states Mr. Nurminen,.

“I can tell the training was impactful,” Mr. Marjakangas continues, “as the participants have come up to me with good and constructive questions afterward, asking about how something they picked up in the training has been defined or organized in our department. It seems that they have assimilated the logic of project management really well. For example, the function of reporting and documenting is now much clearer, as the project managers see the big picture of how their status documentation serves portfolio management.”

”The function of reporting and documenting is now much clearer, as the project managers see the big picture of how their status documentation serves portfolio management.”

For professional project management

How does Mr. Marjakangas see their project organization developing?

“For now, our PMO consists of a PMO manager and our project managers, most of whom manage projects part-time. In the future, we hope to have more full-time, professional project managers, so that we can be sure that especially the most complex projects are properly managed.

We already know that some members of our staff are interested in a project manager career, which is good – it’s definitely easier to manage a complex IT project if you also have the substance knowledge needed as well as an understanding of our business.

Project culture develops through learning and understanding, and I find it important that we continue supporting and coaching people working in projects.”