Pirkka Kaijanen joins Columbia Road

Hi Pirkka, How did you get good at what you do?

I studied two subjects, marketing and consumer economics, because I have always been very interested in what kind of consumption decisions people make and why – and how to make the experience smoother and more enjoyable. From there it was quite natural to leap into doing CRM and customer engagement, and I have been diving deeper into that territory in some shape or form ever since, whether it was CRM, marketing automation, ecommerce, end-to-end or lead-to-order-to-cash work, or some other digital marketing solution.

Where have you earned your spurs?

I started my career at Accenture working around Siebel CRM (which was the Rolls-Royce of CRMs at that point). I worked my way from the entry level roles onto leading teams and projects and to building solution architectures.

When the world and especially CRM was quickly moving to cloud, I switched to a growing local cloud CRM/ERP consultancy where I had the chance to start working with Salesforce and to build the practice in that area. It was an eye-opening period, being able to see how quickly technology changed and enabled new innovation. Being able to build a team from 0 to a unique position in the Salesforce market has been one of the highlights of my career. The impact of our work was eminent, and created an enormous change for all our Nordic customers from startups to global players. When we were finally acquired by Sofigate, the Salesforce competence we built played a major factor in the deal.

Why Columbia Road?

I really like the lean and practical but still very business and result oriented approach that Columbia Road has. Having been close to 15 years in different implementation consultancies, I’ve had the possibility to take part in building numerous great solutions that have made an impact on people's lives. Still, we did not always get to see the results and to improve on them. At Columbia Road I feel there is constantly a possibility to do work that creates a concrete and a significant change in our customers’ businesses.

Sampo, what will make our clients love Pirkka?

“Pirkka is quick to form an overview of customers’ businesses and what are their needs. He’s always ready to go that extra mile to understand the little details of customers’ current situation, which is essential in building trust. Pirkka doesn’t only have extensive technology and business process skills, but also the ability to understand tools and the possibilities combining them offer. Being it growth hacking methodology, technology or the skills of people around him, he has the ability to apply them to make 2+2 more than 4. Pirkka continuously keeps his eyes on the horizon in everything he does, and seeks for the unfamiliar paths that challenge him to push a bit harder and go a bit further,” says Sampo Hämäläinen, Managing Partner at Columbia Road.

What makes your heart beat a little faster?

“Anybody who has spent more than a couple of hours with me will know that it’s football, in all shapes and forms. Whether it is playing, watching and debating about it, or travelling to watch football games, football never fails to excite me. I think everyone needs something that they truly enjoy and that they can immerse themselves into. Something that really takes their minds off the hectic everyday life – and football does that for me," says Pirkka.