Let us present: Markku Aarni, IPMA® Level A Certified Executive Consultant & Coach.
Markku is a Master of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki and Finland’s first IPMA® Level A Certified Executive Consultant & Coach.

“I’m originally just an ordinary boy from northern Finland, in the small City of Pudasjärvi. Enjoying the wilderness and relaxing with my own “construction and carpentry projects”, and to mention, I’m also eager activist in the Project Management Professionals Association. The CCT certification process involves a very thorough review of your own consulting career and professional development. It was really useful to take a break and look back at my own career. There are a lot of important experiences along the way, which tend to fade to the back in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It is even quite surprising to recall what I have been able to do as a consultant. The CCT certification also gave me fresh ideas about the direction in which I would like to develop professionally in the future. I would highly recommend the same exercise to all of my experienced colleagues in the consultancy career. I also want give credit for IPMA: IPMA has done a commendable job in defining the requirements for CCT certification in order to structure the competences for consultancy. What has been lacking in consulting until now is a clear representation of the various components and competencies of consulting in a meaningful and understandable way. The IPMA CCT Certification does exactly that.”

What’s behind this nice-sounding job title? With over 25 years of experience in project management, consulting and sparring project professionals and leaders in a variety of business environments and leadership cultures, it’s worth bringing the person to the podium! Especially when backed up by the brand new, first ever IPMA® CCT Level A certification in Finland!

Many project management professionals/leaders have worked with Marku Aarni at the same flipchart, solving project management challenges or innovating to increase efficiency, quality or even designing completely new ways of working. Markku’s over twenty-year career in the demanding PM consultancy & Training business includes hundreds of client engagements and a truly wide range of assignments and customers. Coaching for project managers, leadership and PMO professionals at various levels is often part of the package.

A consultant is called in when there is need to put into practice issues for which there is insufficient in-house expertise and experience. Or when there already is an emergency on the horizon and challenges that are central to the success or even the very existence of the organisation needs to be addressed. The consultant is the catalyst and facilitator of his client’s development – and damn it, he has to get the job done!

It’s not enough just to be clever “besserwisser”, or to present elegant slides, the consultant’s job is to bring about change. The consultant helps customer to find the right direction, the effective means, and the meaning of the change, so that the staff can get up to new speed to make the change happen.

The customer always sets the consultant very high expectations and pressure to succeed. It is extremely important for the consultancy business that now the CCT certification provides the consultancy’s clientele with a reliable selection criterion when considering who to work with. The IPMA CCT certification is an indisputable way of verifying both experience and the other competences and qualities required in consultancy.

Like consultancy, the IPMA certifications are competency-based, i.e. they verify a person’s knowledge, skills and experience.  In CCT Certification, IPMA has also defined the key complementary competencies, characteristic for consultancy professionals.

Read more about IPMA Certification for Consultants, Coaches and Trainers: https://cct.ipma.world/