Imagine yourself to be an architect , commencing your career in New York with an ambitions dream to build a skyscraper that will alter a skyline of this great city. Think about all the enormous effort that such undertaking will require (demolishing existing buildings, making changes to a live infrastructure, compromising and accounting for surrounding buildings, etc.) and think about what a little difference it will make to a skyline so longstanding and dense; not mentioning that it’s very unlikely that a newbie architect will be let anywhere close to such a project 🙂

Now, picture yourself in the very same situation, but the time and place are different. You’re in Shanghai and its 1990. There is no Pudong financial district yet to be seen, no 80+ skyscrapers and no Oriental Perl Tower (and definitely no KTV that Lisa enjoys so much) – only a green field of opportunities waiting for you to make them into life. You are given resources, money and as much freedom to innovate as you can carry (as long as the party approves, of course). Imagine the excitement to look at the blueprint of possibilities drawing themselves onto the canvas of a skyline to be. Do this and you will get a grasp of what it feels like for me to enter 2016 with Husqvarna Group.

Shanghai skyline (source: commons.wikimedia.org, edited)

This year is the year! This year is when the topic of digitalization is even higher on company’s agenda. If you read my early posts, my elation really becomes self-explanatory. However, it wouldn’t be fair not to acknowledge how narrow my perspective was back then and how my experience as a Global Trainee – a jack of all trades wandering between departments and divisions – helped it to broaden.

It became most apparent during my current assignment with Brands and Marketing, when I was fortunate to take part in two out of three key sub streams of the digital strategy development for the group bundled with several pilots that will be soon rolled out to selected markets. This brought me into the same room with people whose competence lies far beyond marketing alone. Numerous interviews and ideation workshops helped me to develop empathy towards our customers: both internal and external, to understand their needs and requirements they will place on services we develop. Just by reflecting on all those times people bought the word ‘data’ into the conversation, I can confidently say that my career as a Data Scientist at Husqvarna Group is secured for the years to come.

It’s Huskvarna, it’s 2016 and the field is greener than ever!

Andriy Shyshka
Global Trainee, Digital Solutions and Services