Hi again blog-readers!

It’s been a year since I last wrote a blog post and in Husqvarna Group’s Global Trainee Program, a lot can happen in 365 days.

Assignment 1: Finishing up in Stockholm

My first assignment working in Stockholm as the Global Social Media Coordinator culminated in me participating in the Husqvarna Forest & Garden division’s two biggest product launches of 2019 – a pair of 50cc chainsaws, and a game-changing robotic lawnmower. We showcased the new chainsaws in the wintery forests of Huskvarna, while the latter product was introduced at the Mobile World Congress in sunny Barcelona. My task was to document these events in photo and video and distributing the content to all my social media colleagues throughout the globe. As I’d worked with the social media communication plans for both of these campaigns, it was a perfect way to end the assignment.

Trainee week in Germany

Between assignments, the trainees meet up for a week for presentations, factory tours, trainings and more. Trainee week #2 took us to Ulm, Germany, where the headquarters of the Gardena-division is located, and where the brand was born. Fun fact about Ulm: despite being quite a small city, it is home to the tallest church in the world – the Ulmer Münster! Also, Einstein was born there. 

Assignment 2: Digital marketing in Paris

Assignment number two brought me to Paris, where I would spend six months working with the regional marketing team, focusing on digital marketing for the French market. This included creating Facebook campaigns for several different products and optimizing the French website – optimizing content and continuously improving the user experience. The highlight of the assignment, was that I was given the task to create, plan and run my very own campaign! To formulate an idea of my own, plan it out, execute and then measure the outcome was a huge learning experience, and lots of fun!

Assignment 3: APAC Regional Marketing in Kuala Lumpur

Fast forward to today – I’ve now been in Kuala Lumpur for roughly three weeks, doing my best to understand the vastly diverse and different market that is Asia-Pacific. My core project here will be to plan the Husqvarna Forest & Garden Division’s participation as main sponsor of the Asia Pacific Tree Climbing Championships, where this region’s best tree-climbing arborists will compete. I’ll also be supporting different ongoing marketing activities within the APAC markets, such as India, Japan and China. At the time of writing, I’ve just returned from a week of meetings in India, where our sales company was started about three years ago. At 330 years old, Husqvarna Group is still new in some parts of the world. Exciting times lay ahead, for Husqvarna Group and for me!

Thanks for reading

/Oscar

Hi, blog-readers!

I’m the Global Trainee in Brand & Marketing in the Husqvarna division, Oscar Gezelius. I’m 24 years old from Stockholm, Sweden and the first trainee in our new group to write a blog post. Even though it’s just over a month since the Trainee Program started, I’ve been here since the beginning of May, since both me and my superior thought – “why not start straightaway if we’re both ready for it?”. Even though I’ve been here for over five months, I still feel really new in a few ways. There’s a lot to learn here and new experiences and new people to meet every day. This was part of the charm of working at a larger company like Husqvarna Group and one of the reasons I applied for this program.

As a Swede, Husqvarna is a brand which I’ve known for most of my life – even if I’ve known it for products which aren’t manufactured today – and the great history of the brand really attracted me to the company. This, coupled with the development possibilities and the promise of at least 6 months abroad is what made me apply in the end. And I’m really glad I did!

As my first assignment, I work as a Social Media Coordinator, working with all aspects of our channels on a global level. I was handed lots of fun tasks and responsibility from the get-go:

• Being part of developing and implementing a global social media strategy
• Evaluating, investing and rolling out a social media management software internationally
• Being responsible for social media campaign and influencer management for one of our biggest global launches for 2018
• Heading up a new influencer marketing program.

These are my major projects, but I keep busy with other stuff as well. So there’s a lot of trust put in you from the beginning, something I hope will be the case in my other assignments as well. My colleagues have been very welcoming and are eager to help (something I’ve noticed everywhere in this company) which makes this a whole lot easier!

Looking ahead, I’m really excited about what’s in store for the coming two years – going to Paris for my next rotation is one of those things but also the training modules we will have in China, USA and Germany! As a keen traveller, the international spread of this company means there are doors to the world everywhere. Not only that, but you are given important assignments and a lot of possibilities to really have an impact on the business as well as your own development.

Until next time!