International colleagues

For almost four years I have worked only in Swedish and Norwegian (spoken and written) during my time at Nidar and Göteborgs Kex. I must say that I have missed to practice my English and I have been a little afraid to lose my vocabulary (which I have, you can see it here in my blog not to mention ;)), but now when I started at Axellus this is changed. Today I write many documents in English and  have a lot of contact with international colleagues. This week I have participated in two workshops and colleagues from Norway, Denmark, Poland, Finland and Lithuania were there. That is really fun and interesting to work with other cultures and not at least, instructive and very good for me. So hopefully, you will see how much better my English language will be from now on ;). 

Hectic week

Even if I enjoyed last week I was longing for the past weekend. It felt so nice just too be home after an intense week. The three latest weeks I have been traveling a lot. It is fun but it takes a lot of energy when you are new at a job. You need to be focused 100 % all the time, new people and new information. It feels like overload in my head sometimes and then I even do not need to deliver right now since I am in a learning-period. It feels good ;).

During last week I was at a conference here in Stockholm and two days in Copenhagen for a work shop about vitamin and minerals and intro with danish colleagues, very interesting! Copenhagen showed its best side with great weather so I took a long jog and cleared my mind before a dinner with my colleague, lovely.

For me, even if it takes a lot of energy to be new at a job it is very fun! Right now when I writing this it is in the evening and I am already looking forward to tomorrow morning ;).

A new job!

One upside (among many) of being part of a big cooperation as Orkla is the opportunity to move between companies. Today I am 31 years old and I started to work in Orkla in 2009. Back then I worked as a Trade Marketing Manager at Nidar (candy) in Oslo, Norway. After 1, 5 years at Nidar within the Category department, I moved to Göteborgs Kex (cookies) in Stockholm where I have worked as a Brand Manager for three years. I have really enjoyed my time at both Nidar and Göteborgs Kex but now it is time for me to move on again. On the 2nd of September I will start as a Senior Brand Manager at Axellus, another company in Orkla. So after 4, 5 years within the cooperate group I will now jump on my third job and I am really excited.


Axellus works with health food/vitamins and has a broad portfolio. Last week I joined them on their conference in Berlin which was tons of fun. At the picture below you can see some of my new colleagues. They are really nice ;)

   

A new product will be launched

Before a new product is launched on the market it needs to go through several steps. First of all you need to find out what the market wants. Is there a need for a special product or a special taste in the specific category? Are there any trends that figures or has a certain topic been buzzed in the news? When you have done this research you need to find out if we are able to produce this certain cookie in our factory in Gothenburg or what kind of investments that are needed.

After this, you need to convince that it is a great business case and something that we should spend money on. You create a project group and start to develop this new cookie. During this phase you need to show the case continuously for the top management so that they know how the process runs and can plan for in the budget.

Until the new cookie will be launched these steps take approximately one year. This is one year of work and usually filled with difficult problems. It is a challenge to be a project leader and to develop a new launch in this category. But that is my job and I see the challenge as something fun and that I learn from it.

Last week I was in the factory in Gothenburg to overview the first production of a new cookie that will be launched after the summer. The production fell out well and that is a really great feeling. Finally, it will soon be on the market…

TV-production

A few weeks ago I was in Jönköping, a city centered between Stockholm and Gothenburg, for a TV-production. It lasted for one day and the result of that are four short tv-programs that is each approximately 3-4 minutes. That is amazing how long time it takes to produce something, a full day from morning to the evening. And then I even do not even know how long it takes for the cameraman to correct everything until it is ready to show on tv.

Göteborgs Utvalda is our brand that is sponsoring a concept that TV4 (one of the biggest tv-channels in Sweden) runs. The program wants to highlight how we can embrace Swedish food, nature, culture and the reasons why we should be proud over Swedish tastes. This fits our brand Göteborgs Utvalda very well since it a very Swedish brand.
I have been in Jönköping for a tv-production before with the same crew, studio, cameraman and set up. Jenny Svensson (expert on cheese) and Tommy Myllymäki ( famous chef in Sweden) were the people who acted (at the picture below). They talked about which cheese that are the most suitable to what kind of biscuit, gave tips of desserts and drinks until Swedish midsummer, made meals in which our biscuits were included and so on.

This day were very funny and completely something else what I usually do at office. When I came home I really thought to myself, wow I have such a funny job!

Master thesis at Orkla

Right now two girls are writing their master thesis at Göteborgs Kex. Their names are Johanna and Lina and they study their last semester at KTH (Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan) here in Stockholm. They have soon finished the program of industrial economy but first they are helping me with a real project. Johanna and Lina are helping me to find the next strategic step for one of our big brands. What should we do with the brand, what actions should we take to be able to increase the volume and profitability. What kind of actions will be the best for the brand? They have conducted several interviews with consumers, done their own research in stores and mixed it with theories in books. Both Johanna and Lina are ambitious girls and work hard. I am looking forward to hear their final presentation that we have booked in the end of May.

At the picture below you can see Lina and Johanna when they recently visited our fabric in Gotenburg.

Spring conference

Three times a year we have a conference with the sales force. We get together, usually somewhere close to Stockholm, for some days. The sales and market departments present the news for the upcoming period which the sales force will work with. This time we were at Bergendahls conference center approximately 30 minutes north of Stockholm. It was a really nice place with great surroundings, rooms and awesome food. At the picture below you can see me and some of my colleagues during a break at the conference.

Billboards

It is fascinating how 5 seconds of TV can take more than two hours to produce. Recently I was with TV4 and recorded new billboards for our cheese biscuits that we will show this spring. It was very fun but when I left TV4´s building I reflected over the working hours for only a few seconds of TV.

A billboard is a short TV-sequence before and after a program that shows tasteful biscuits (in our case) and a voice that says “this program is sponsored by….”.

It the pictures below you can see our two different billboards this time. I am very happy with the results since I think the biscuits look delicious and the voice sounds great. So whenever I see this billboard on TV4 nowadays I remind myself that these 5 seconds is a reflection of two hours of work ;).

Do I have the tastiest job ever?

How many of you have meetings that say “tasting new cookies” of a certain brand? Not many I guess. Look at the picture below. It shows a meeting that I ran for a few weeks ago. We tested new samples of Ballerina cookies that our R&D-department had produced for us. This time I was a little bit rude against my colleagues since I arranged the meeting at 9.30 am in the morning. That is usually not the time during the day that you feel the most for sugar. But I had no choice, they were all stuck in meeting the rest of the day and I needed a sign of which way to go towards the R&D-department. So when you have tasted 10-12 cookies in the morning you do not have big cravings for lunch that I can promise for sure… ;)