Update

I recently got back from a wonderful vacation and thrown straight back into all the exciting projects and vital milestones that Q3 & Q4 entails.

First, I can gladly announce that Johan & I finished a rather large project, the ISO Certification Project. The ISO certification process was a great learning curve since we were exposed to the entire organisations internal and external processes. It’s also been a key milestone for a growing company like ours! The project took roughly 6 months and I managed the qualitative parts while Johan managed the environmental parts simultaneously. In Sweden we certified 3 companies, Handheld Group, Handheld Europe, and Handheld Scandinavia. Please let me know if you want thorough explanations on the actual organisational structure. While we can put “check” on the ISO project we have more projects under development and even more coming up. These projects involve new revolutionising products, organisational structure and lots more. This is going to be an interesting year

The next milestone is a move to the US in September. In roughly two weeks, Johan and I will catch the flight to Corvallis, Oregon to start a new journey at the Handheld US subsidiary.  More on this is coming up…

I am currently working out of Handhelds office in Deventer (Holland), where one of our subsidiaries is located. Right now it is just above 30 degrees in my office and all I can think of is grabbing a drink and   watch the game between Holland and Brazil. I have been working here for a week to get an insight in the sales process and also get some deeper knowledge on our coming projects and products. It has been a good week, very intense and even though I did not expect it I have seen some cultural differences compared to Sweden.

During the last weeks a lot of things have happened. First we had our yearly Business Partner Conference in the beginning of June. At the Business Partner Conference all major partners that we have throughout the world are invited for a few days of seminars, product launches and mingling. This year it was held at the brand new Elite Hotel Marine Tower. After a long day of seminars a boat took us out for a four our ride in Stockholm archipelago, a very appreciated event.

This week Handheld got certified according to the ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 standards. Me and Christian has worked as project leader on this project. Which has meant no sleep for the last few weeks, we have for real been living in our office. Even though it is quite exhausting to work like this it is very motivating when you can see the end not too far ahead.

That’s all for me right know!

/J

I just got back from The Netherlands…

Handheld Benelux is one of our subsidiaries and located in The Netherlands. The idea behind my trip to The Netherlands was to acknowledge how the Benelux colleagues are conducting business and implement the advantages to the relevant subsidiaries across the world.  Another reason of visiting the actual Benelux office was also to be part of an exceptional project with the idea of bringing that knowledge across several countries and states. I am truly amazed by the Dutch hospitality and the English skills. And of course World Cup started when I was there and the entire nation turned orange. Hup Holland:-)

There has been a lot of focus on the actual trainee program so I figured that some of you would be interest in the practicalities around our International Management Trainee Program.

HQ

Handheld headquarter is situated in Lidköping, Sweden which is roughly 1 ½ hour drive from Gothenburg and 4 hours from Stockholm. The apartments in Lidköping are rather cheap but there are also a lot of rentals if you prefer that.  When it comes to exercising and sports we play floorball (innebandy) weekly and all the Handheld employees has got free memberships at the local gym. There are also several local sport activities that anyone can join.

Overseas

Handheld stand for all the costs as accommodation, car, flights etc so you don’t have to worry about these kinds of practicalities. We always stay at nice hotels with access to gym & sauna etc. We also host an annual ski trip to the Alps where we catch up with all our international colleagues for a nice off-piste and one or two après-skis.

Something I forgot???    If so, please post a comment!

All the best

Christian

Who am I?: Firstly I want to give you a brief introduction of myself. I was born and raised in Ullstorp, a small village outside Kristianstad in Skåne. In 2005 I moved to Jönköping to study economics at Jönköping International Business School (JIBS). During my studies I spent one semester at Edhec in Nice and one semester at RMIT in Melbourne. If you get the chance from your uni to go abroad, take it! When I am of work I spend most of the time training, running, cycling or sailing. I also spend a lot of time with my friends.

Fairs, seminars and ISO: During the last weeks me and Christian has been traveling around Sweden, visiting fairs and seminars. Last week we attended a seminar on International sales with ITM in Malmö, here we discussed all the dangerous pitfalls that exists in international trade.

The Office: As you probably know we are working on different internal projects. Our projects are now well on the way and in some cases we can clearly see the end. Working with this project based approach gives us a chance to learn and develop different segments of the organization at the same time. At least for me it is more exciting to work with different tasks and this is not something that is only for the trainee program, our whole organization apply the project approach when we work. How work is conducted within SMEs is very crucial due to the limited number of people and the financial limits, the resources need to be allocated as efficient as possible.

What’s next?: The coming weeks we will continue our work on ISO 9001 and 14001. We will also take part in the product development process. In our trainee program we are going to spend some time abroad, first one week in Deventer, Holland with Handheld Benelux BV., then three months in Corvallis, USA with Handheld US Inc. We are currently in the planning phase for these months abroad.

 

        Welcome to the Handheld Trainee Blog

First 3 months

It’s been 3 rather hectic months with lots of responsibility and fun. I must say that the trainee program is more than I expected. I am already responsible for several major projects, i.e. Market Research/Entry Project, ISO certification Project, Product Development/Launch etc. It’s quite rare to be running several major and vital projects during the first months but being an SME means responsibility, multitasking, and pace. If you are a goal oriented person with an entrepreneurial mind who wants a rewarding and developing workplace; apply!

Me, Myself, and I

Before starting at Handheld I finished my Master’s degree in International Business from the University of Queensland, Australia. I lived in Australia for 5 years and when I approached Scandinavian soil in 2009 I realised that I needed a job with an international company. Handheld has subsidiaries and distributors across the world and the opportunities ends when you want them to end. I have already been in Austria, Germany and countries as US, Netherlands, and Asia is on the agenda.

Theory vs Practice

ITM Worldwide Foundation provides us with the theoretical part of the trainee program. The ITM lectures are held continuously throughout the program with approximately 12 sessions. These lectures are held by international industry professionals who teach for example Trade Finance, International Trade Strategies, and International Market Research.

Hope this gave you all a clear view of the first part of the program.

Kind regards

Christian

Christoffer in action!

Relaxing for a minute.

The best rugged tablet in the entire world.

Handheld trainee blog is up and running!

Firstly we would like to welcome you to our blog. The idea of Handhelds blog is to give you as a student or graduate a deeper insight into how we work within our program and company. You have probably heard about how trainee programs work and how they shape the individuals into their organization, forget that here we the employees shape the organization!

For you who do not know what Handheld do I will give you a brief introduction. Handheld is one of the fastest growing rugged computer companies, we supply our rugged computers to a wide range of users. You can see our entire product line on www.handheldgroup.com.

Me and my colleague Christian joined Handheld Group AB in the middle of January 2010. From there we have gone through extensive product training, project management, market research and sales training. On our schedule for the near future we have finance at Nordea, more sales training, more project management and also studies within export management at ITM. You can read more about the ITM Export Management program on www.itmworldwide.org.

In the beginning of February the whole Handheld team went to Zillertal in Austria for a few days of skiing and fun. For me who never had been skiing before this was really exciting and I was quite confident until I was on one of the summits, IT WAS STEEP! But both me and Christian survived and where gladly back in the office the day after we left Zillertal.

Last week me and Christian went to Hannover and CeBit. For you who don’t know, CeBit is the largest IT-fair in the world. If you cannot find the gadgets you are looking for here they do not exist.

We have really got a great start of our careers and now live by the rule “If you cannot find it in your outlook calendar it will not happen”!

Have a great day and see you soon!

/Johan