I’m finally back home again after a great training module in China, which included presentations, soft skills training, factory tours, nice dinners, etc etc. But before I left for China I made sure to enjoy my final weeks in Japan, which were just as good as the first ones. I visited a lot of suppliers but of course I also took the chance to discover more of what Japan has to offer outside work, which turned out to be a lot. Sumo wrestling, theme restaurants (robots and Alcatraz), the world’s biggest fish market, karaoke, hot springs, mountain hiking or cherry blossom photographing were just some of the activities I spent my weekends on. Like many people have discovered before me, spring time in Japan surely is something special and I was lucky enough to spot a lot of plum trees and early cherry blossom trees in full bloom before I left.

Cherry bloosom in Japan

Back home, I have just finished my second week on my new assignment in Brands & Marketing. This reminds me of my first assignment as a trainee, everything (well, most things) is new and sometimes I don’t fully grasp what people are talking about in the meetings. But I feel that I’m gradually picking up the marketing language and all its TLA’s (three-letter acronyms) and it sure is a very interesting area, especially since I come from Sourcing and haven’t had very much to do with this department before. So even if it’s a little difficult now in the beginning, I feel very excited about this assignment, which will be my last in the trainee program.

Speaking of which, since we will have a new batch of trainees joining Husqvarna Group in August and hopefully some of you might be reading this, I would like to take this opportunity to give you some tips that I think has given me a good trainee experience so far:

Say yes to everything – well, obviously with some limitations and of course your schedule must allow it, but the best way to learn things is to practice them so take every opportunity you get to involve yourself in new tasks. If you stay curious and are eager to learn, the trainee rotations will be so much more valuable.

Speak up – dare to ask when there is something you don’t understand, no one expects you to know a lot in the beginning. Also don’t be afraid to speak your opinion and question things if you don’t agree.

Reach out to your colleagues and offer them your help – if you have some time over or a colleague is having a problem with something, ask if you can help them! Most people appreciate some support and the next time it might be you who need help. For me, it felt especially good during my first assignment when I could start to help people since I spent most of my first weeks (or let’s be honest, months) asking for help myself.

Ask for feedback – through the trainee program you will have planned feedback sessions but I would recommend you to try to ask for feedback even outside these sessions. My experience is that most people find it hard to give constructive criticism, but I think that this kind of feedback is very important for personal development. After you have finished a big task or a project, ask the people involved if they think you could have done anything differently and make sure to remember the feedback for your next project.

Learn how to utilize your network – one of the biggest benefits of being a trainee is undoubtedly the extensive network the rotations and training modules will give you. Knowing how to use this efficiently may help you in getting quick support or valuable input for your work tasks.

Take initiatives – this probably goes without saying but I’ll put it on my list anyway.

Have fun and socialize – very important! Work isn’t just about isolating yourself in front of an Excel sheet 40 hours a week, it gives you so much more energy and inspiration if you can chat and laugh with your colleagues over a coffee now and then. By interacting and having fun, you are also keeping your network alive and it might very well lead to some new good ideas or insights for your current project.

Zero-turn mower testing – typical trainee activity

Finally I want to finish by wishing all potential new trainees good luck in the final stage of the recruitment process and I very much look forward to see you after the summer!

Lisa Barrehag
Global Trainee
Husqvarna Group

Think of the chair that you are currently sitting in (or if you are reading this on the go, think of your favorite chair). Someone designed that chair, someone put all the pieces together, someone had it displayed in a showroom perhaps. This means that before you got to sit down in a nice, comfortable chair, a lot of different things had to happen to bring that to you as a customer. If you were responsible for bringing the next generation sitting experience to the market, what would you do different compared to what is available today?

Me outside the White House, but what does the president think of his current chair?

After 1,5 years at Husqvarna Group – working in Sweden, Malaysia and the US – I realize how complex this challenge is. Because the customer in Sweden might want something different from the one in Malaysia and the US, but you still need to find a way to cater to as many customers as possible without compromising too much on each individual customer experience. The good thing about Husqvarna Group’s trainee program is that I have gotten to meet with a lot of customers and I have been able to build a network within Husqvarna Group with people that can help me find a good balance when it is time to bring new products or services to the market.

Like Andriy wrote in his blogpost this a an exciting time to be working at Husqvarna Group, because digitalization is affecting our industry like many other. So getting back into the chair, if you believe that the market is going to be fundamentally different from today, what parts of the existing value chain would you still use and what parts would be changed? One of IKEA’s greatest strength in their business model is you, the customer. Because you are willing to go to IKEA and buy a flat pack and assemble it yourself. In return you are able to get affordable and stylish furniture which to many and myself included counts as a good deal. Is this the best way to sell chairs or can it be improved even further? Amazon has been experimenting with drone delivery, what if the drone would deliver the flat pack to you or what if IKEA would re-engineer their products so that the chairs could be delivered and assembled by drones?

Inspiration and chair examples together!

If you are at the edge of your seat wanting to realize the next generation sitting experience, there are a couple of frameworks that you can utilize to try out your ideas. Two good ones that are easy to apply to most business scenarios are Porter’s five forces and in conjunction with that you can flesh out your new business model with the Business Model Canvas framework. By using frameworks, global trends, your network and ideas it is possible to find new possibilities and thereby improve the customers’ experience no matter if it is a better chair or if it is a better landscaping experience.

But frameworks can only guide you to what kind of questions you should be asking yourself, before that can happen you need to find the inspiration for your ideas! For me traveling, meeting with new people or having drinks with friends, are some examples of how I might get new ideas. Because you find new ways of looking at existing knowledge and you learn new things in which you see potential business opportunities. Further this is yet another reason for why I enjoy working at Husqvarna Group, I feel that we have a great atmosphere that encourages new ideas and innovations in which we put the customer experience in the center. So lean back in your nice comfortable chair and start to think about how you can change the chair industry!

Alexander Fornell
Global Trainee
Product Management & Development

Times flies. It’s almost the end of my international assignment in Arkansas USA. 6 months seemed to be a long period of time when I first got here, but right now I wish I would have 48 hours a day to extend my stay here.

It’s been a blessing to work with this wonderful team of Husqvarna talents and live in the peaceful countryside of Arkansas. I have been reflecting a lot lately and I am glad to achieve a lot more than I expected in the past 6 months. I have concluded the following 3 tips to ensure such a fulfilling work experience.

1) A great plan and clear goal set are the prerequisite for a successful assignment. Before the assignment started I spent time with my manager going through the learning plan and performance objectives so that I could get a better understanding of what to expect from the job and what should be my delivery. From time to time I would go back to the objectives and make sure it is on track. 6-month is almost over now, I am confident to say I completed all deliverables as agreed at the beginning.

2) The only thing constant is change. The unexpected would always happen at work. It is very important to keep yourself flexible to adapt to different business needs. Because of an organizational change I am currently taking over a buyer’s responsibility while at the same time working on the original job descriptions of the trainee assignment. It was hard to manage the time at first but I believe you can learn the most from changes and challenges. The buyer’s job may seem to be very different from the original plan, but I got the chance to manage accounts of our sister companies overseas. As the only Asian here, I also try to create a better platform of communication for the Nashville office to our Asian counterparts. This overall is a great opportunity to look at the supply chain of this Group in a global scale, at the same time letting the Nashville team to understand about how to convey messages to our business partners in another culture.

3) Personal goal is as important as career goal. Try to do something different in a foreign environment. I personally had three goals for the time in US, 1) be a Chinese ambassador 2)try public speaking in the foreign environment 3)road trip. With that in mind I have been actively seeking opportunities to do these. So far I have had celebrated Chinese New Year with my colleagues in office, speaking in a speech contest in Texas, and drove all the way to New Orleans by myself last month. This week I will have a sharing session at the local high school on the topic of East Meets West. Doing all of these made the whole experience even more remarkable.

Materials Group in Husqvarna Nashville, Arkansas

10 more days I will be moving back to Shanghai for the last assignment in Marketing. It is going to be a new environment (we have a new office in Shanghai), new organization and new role for me. I can feel the butterflies in my stomach already. Meanwhile I am wrapping up my assignment here in Arkansas. It’s hard to say goodbye, but I am up for the new challenge, and again try to get the most out of it.

Lois Lau
Global Trainee

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

My time in Shanghai has now come to an end and it was with mixed emotions I left for Japan a few weeks ago. I already miss all of the new friends and colleagues I met in Shanghai and also the city’s fantastic selection of good restaurants, bars, nightclubs, etc. However, Tokyo has turned out to be just as amazing as I thought it would be and I cannot lie about how much I love the fresh air, blue sky and not-so-crowded-streets of Kawagoe.

Visit to Pearl Tower in Shanghai, China

In my last post I promised to tell you more about Tokyo and I will, but before I do that I would like to give a few conclusions on some things I have learned about living in China. First, I present to you some basic survival tips:

1. Learn Chinese. Or to be honest, English knowledge in Shanghai is a lot better than I expected but in many situations it’s still useful to know some basic Chinese (taxis, local restaurants, room service, spying, etc. etc.) If you insist on speaking English, try to speak slowly
2. Become best friends with Yahoo and Baidu Maps. Don’t rely on always having a working VPN (or any Internet connection at all for that matter)
3. Get used to carefully check the streets before crossing, even if you have a green light. I cannot count all the times I was a millisecond from being run over by a scooter running against a red light
4. Don’t trust anything that is suspiciously cheap – if a glass of whisky costs 20 RMB, it probably isn’t whisky

On a more serious note I would say that one big difference I have noticed during meetings and discussions is that people don’t tend to speak up and ask questions as much as in Sweden. Quite often I got the feeling that people counted on me to be the one leading the meetings. Of course, this might have to do with that in all the meetings I attended we only spoke English, and a lot of people I met in China had a tendency to underestimate their English skills. Another thing some of you might already know, is that people in China don’t like to say “no” or “I don’t know” which might lead to somewhat confusing situations, particularly when asking for directions. At one occasion, this caused me to run an extra lap around People’s Park looking for a restaurant, and those of you who have been to Shanghai knows that this is not a small park…

Old warehouse street in Kawagoe, Japan

But coming back to Japan: At the moment, I live and work in Kawagoe, a small and quiet city in the outskirts of Tokyo. I am pretty much the only Westerner in this area (can count the other ones I have seen so far on one hand) so it feels really exotic to live here. In addition, people’s English skills outside the company are very limited and there is usually not much information provided in English so I have had to seriously sharpen my problem solving skills to get around. Sometimes it actually helps knowing some Chinese characters since many of them have the same meaning, but different pronunciation, in Japanese.

However, Kawagoe is only a 50 min train ride from central Tokyo so of course I take every chance I get to visit this Asian metropolis during the weekends. It really is an enormous city, especially for a Swede, but the few parts of the city that I have had time to visit so far have left me feeling very impressed. The food, the shopping, the parks, the nightlife, the art and culture – Tokyo really has it all!

Tokyo Tower, Shinjuku Gyoen Garden, Snowy Kawagoe, Mount Fuji seen from the high speed rail, Meju Jingu Temple

Otherwise I spend the weekdays at the office in Kawagoe, working on my different projects. I have also had the opportunity to participate in supplier visits in different areas of Japan. During my second week here, I got to join some experienced colleagues in rapid plant assessments at two supplier sites, something that felt very interesting for me and which I learned a lot from. After hearing so much about lean production, 5S, Kaizen, etc. during my university studies, I was extra excited about seeing how (or if!) it actually works in the country where these concepts were born. Of course, it also feels pretty good when you get the opportunity to ask challenging questions to a Japanese CEO.

The next time I write here, I will be back home in Sweden again, working on my last assignment which will be within Brands & Marketing with focus on the Automower. Although I look forward to coming home and going back to my normal life again (there is no place like home, right?), I feel very grateful that I had this opportunity to live and work in China and Japan. It has truly been an amazing experience and I feel that I have grown a lot, not only professionally but also personally. Moreover, I have been lucky enough to meet so many wonderful people and I sure look forward to seeing everyone again in the future!

Lisa Barrehag
Global Trainee Sourcing

One big part of the outdoor power equipment industry is tradeshows. Tradeshows allow dealers and end-customers to meet with representatives from different brands to see and try the latest products. I have taken part in three tradeshows so far, one in India and two in the US and it is always a great experience. The best part is that you get to meet with so many different people in a short period of time plus that it is interesting to see how different companies try attract customers to their booths.
This year at the Green Industry & Equipment Expo in Louisville, Kentucky Husqvarna had a chainsaw carver who did carvings in Husqvarna’s outdoor booth. It was quite interesting to see the process because when the carver started it was literally just a piece of log that was standing up right. But then he started to remove wood with his Husqvarna chainsaw and once he was finished with the cutting he also painted the carving so that he could add more details to the piece. Another company had brought a WW2 tank to their area, so it is not always that the main attraction is directly linked to the company but it can be exciting nonetheless.

The best part of the GIE tradeshow is that more or less all brands are represented and after working with Husqvarna for one and a half year I have become somewhat of an outdoor power equipment nerd. When I started I had a vague idea of what type of products are used but it was never a big interest of mine. But today, I cannot walk past a green space crew without noting what brands and equipment they are using as well as how they are using the products. When I was on vacation earlier this year on a very nice island in Malaysia I heard the familiar sound of a 2-stroke engine so of course I had to walk away from my spot on the beach to investigate, something that I would never had done two years ago!

Lunch break at GIE tradeshow

Further, depending on the main focus of the tradeshow and where it is conducted one will get very different experiences. For example, the one that I visited in India focused on both outdoor power equipment for forestry and green space, but there were also many companies that were targeting farmers in India. Since farming is mostly done in a small scale in India I got to see a lot of equipment that reflected on that and there were a lot of smaller wheeled products and handheld equipment instead of the large tractors that you would find in Europe.

Finally, since my last blog post I have returned home to Sweden after finishing my assignment abroad in the US. So now I will get to work with R&D and Product Quality in Sweden as my last assignment. It really is amazing how much I have been able to do since joining Husqvarna, I have worked with different departments in different countries and it feels like I have learned and experienced something new every day. So if you want to continue to learn new things every day I highly recommend you to apply to Husqvarna’s trainee program!

Alexander Fornell
Global Trainee
Product Management & Development

It’s been almost 1.5 years since I became a Global Trainee at Husqvarna Group and I have been living in fruitful life ever since. There are many job opportunities out there and Husqvarna Group is definitely not the only company that offers a management trainee program, so why did I choose Husqvarna Global Trainee Program?

First of all, the learning path of each trainee is different and flexible. Unlike many well-known trainee programs that have a well-development training framework, the Husqvarna Group Trainee Program is rather new – only 2.5 years old! – and managers are opened to adapting the program to suit each individual trainee. I had many discussions with HR and my managers about the job descriptions of the assignments and my development plan throughout the program. For example, even though I am a Manufacturing Trainee, I will still get to work in marketing in an upcoming assignment. The flexibility in the program will open your eyes and offer you more opportunities to explore your future career path.

Secondly, this program is international, meaning you can gain exposure and job experience in a global perspective. Husqvarna Group is a very diverse organization. It is not unusual to have more than five nationalities working in one project team. You will have the chance to attend training overseas and interact with foreign trainees. As a Global Trainee, I am given a lot of opportunities to work with colleagues or consultants overseas. One of my favorite project experiences was acting as Supplier Quality Engineer to make sure components were fit for mass production of a new product. I had to work closely with the R&D team from Japan to communicate requirements to suppliers. There were a lot of video conferences and emails exchanged. The best moment was towards the end of the project, on the night of Christmas Eve last year, a Japanese engineer and I finally finalized a report and greeted each other Merry Christmas! A lot of lessons learnt in a multi-national project experience, it’s all worth it!

The other important part of this program is the international working experience, which put trainees to work on an overseas assignment for 6-months. I am currently working in Nashville, USA. Moving from the big city of Shanghai to the small town of Nashville, every day is like an adventure for me, both at work and in daily life. Working in a foreign country is so different from working on a global project. You have to immerse to a new and unfamiliar environment and adapt quickly. It’s really challenging, but you will be supported by colleagues. This kind of opportunity is rather unusual in other management trainee programs, which makes the Husqvarna Group’s program very special.

Last but not least, you can learn a lot from your fellow trainees in the program. I am really glad to be surrounded by a group of young, ambitious and knowledgeable international talents in the program. We interact during each training module overseas, and sometimes we work on the same project during our international assignments. I really enjoyed the moment during our last training module when trainees from Ukraine, Sweden, the U.S. and China, discussed the topic of Generation Y at the workplace. There are many differences in our point of view of course. However, we all face similar challenges and have our own solutions to tackle them. There are simply so much that we can learn from each other. The trainee group eventually becomes a great platform to share and gain knowledge from different functions of the organization and different parts of the world. It simply feels great to learn and grow with a group of awesome individuals.

I am very glad to have made the decision to apply for the Husqvarna Global Trainee Program, it gives me the flexibility to develop myself in a global platform and workplace and grow and learn with a group of amazing talents. If you are planning your next step, I hope you apply for this program that offers an exciting life like mine, and give a chance to Husqvarna Group to welcome a great asset like you!

Lois Lau
Global Trainee from Shanghai, China

Open positions are published on the Husqvarna Group website

More posts by Lois:

Living in the diversity of Husqvarna Group

Life-changing experience with unique exposure

How do you make a Swede panic? Easy, put her in a 35°C hot Shanghai subway station in the middle of rush hour. For a person growing up in a municipality with a population of around 10 000 people, a city of 24 million can take some time getting used to. However, once you learn how to take a deep breath and relax in the crowds (and just accept that you’ll never be able to walk in the pace you want), Shanghai can be a really fun place to live! There sure isn’t a lack of things to do anyway. I won’t go into too much detail here (come visit Shanghai and I can tell you more over a beer instead) but during my time here I have been singing my throat dry in a KTV, visited tons of tourist spots, spent a Saturday on an international beer festival and last but not least: enjoyed an amazing team building activity in a mountain area outside the city.

So what about work? Well, believe it or not but I actually do spend some time on work as well. Just as I suspected in my last blogpost, November has been extremely busy, probably my most intense month as a trainee so far. However, I see this as a good way to challenge myself since I know that if I want to excel in my career, these stressful periods will undoubtedly be part of it. Moreover, the extra hours don’t feel that heavy since the projects I am working on are so interesting. One of the best parts of the trainee program, as I see it, is that I get to take on much responsibility and that the tasks that are given to me feel very challenging. It’s encouraging to see that colleagues at Husqvarna Group trust us trainees with difficult tasks and want to see us develop.

Last week I spent most of my time running a value engineering workshop in product packaging. We had a cross-functional team working hard to come up with good ideas for improvement and we received a lot of valuable input from the different functions. Additionally, we had one day where we invited suppliers to participate in the workshop, which gave us even more interesting ideas and insights. This goes back to what I wrote about in my last post: that the suppliers are the experts when it comes to their specific parts and by including them, we can get new ideas that we could not possibly come up with ourselves. Another fun thing about this workshop was that Husqvarna Group’s President and CEO actually paid us a (very) short visit, it’s encouraging to see that even top management take an interest in these kind of projects.

This week however, it’s time to shift focus and prepare for long days at the office, because in only one week from now we will be holding our Asian supplier day in our Changzhou plant in China. This time, I have been assigned project leader for this event, which of course puts a lot of responsibility on me but, as I already mentioned, this is something I enjoy and I have a really great team to work with. Anyway, I should probably go back to work now since I have a meeting coming up soon. A planning meeting for one of the five (!) innovation workshops we will run on the next supplier day.

Next time you hear from me I will be in Japan, looking forward to give you an update about Tokyo!

Lisa Barrehag
Global Trainee
Sourcing

Other posts by Lisa

• Collaboration is the key to success
• Facing everyday challenges in EXCITEing times

I’m back in Huskvarna, enjoying Swedish November in it’s prime. This is a usual period for me to concentrate on work, improving routines, catching up on reading and attempting to outrun treadmills in a local gym. The time is also right to gather my thoughts and reflect on my current experience. Thanks to a small push from the corporate communications department (hej Karin!), I also get to share them with you.

It’s been over a month since the start of my marketing assignment. It was perfectly timed to kick off with the Global Online meeting in Frankfurt, Germany. At the moment, Husqvarna Group is in the middle of rolling out the next generation of websites for all its brands across tens of markets all around the globe. This is a large scale undertaking, which goes beyond a trivial design update, challenging the way we approach user experience in an omni channel environment, redefining content management practices and setting up a number of important building blocks that will shape the online presence of the company for the years to come. It’s a very exciting initiative and the timing is perfect for me to contribute. Expect updates!

Still, it was more to the Global Online meeting than just aligning teams with the current state of affairs. All four days were full of workshops, best-practice sharing and inspirational sessions with our partners. One of which had a rather surprising twist for myself. We were in the middle of a vivid discussion about the innovative possibilities offered by new technology and suddenly I found myself to be the most skeptical person in the room – something you would never expect if you’ve ever met me or read any of my previous posts. However, that was the role I had to assume in the discussion, as my perception was that the participants were mainly overoptimistic about the technology and hardly ever mentioned unavoidable limitations, placing trust and hoping that the technology will contain a solution in itself – a classic silver bullet illusion.

You might also to refer to it as ‘panacea’ or ‘magic pill’. Essentially, all of these terms describe the same, comfortable to a human mind belief into an ultimate flawless solution to a complex problem. Typically, it can raise two types of issues: endless search for a silver bullet or ephemeral confidence that you had already found it. I’m personally much more inclined to the former one – I can spend days chasing a mirage of a better solution that will solve more general problem and excel strategically until somebody taps me on the shoulder and reminds of the deadline. However, it requires more than an injection of pragmatism to fight off the later pitfall, even though the solution is very similar in nature – the key is to have your team rightly balanced with people of diverse personalities and backgrounds that can look at a problem and assess solutions from different perspectives. Obviously, building such a team is a problem on its own and, keeping in line with the main message of the post, do not expect me to provide a bulletproof solution to that. Nonetheless, do take a look at Predictive Index. All the Global Trainees were introduced to this tool during our visit to our American headquarters in Charlotte, USA. It has proven very effective for The Husqvarna Construction Division and might benefit you too.

Even though no solution is perfect and technological limitations should be always accounted for, sometimes it’s useful to cut them loose and let yourself dream. This is exactly what a group of designers from our office in Stockholm did, which resulted in an exciting concept for our future products. Check out this video. It’s a great inspiration for us all at Husqvarna Group and fills me with the confidence that my future with the company will be anything but boring.

Cheers!
Andriy Shyshka
Global Trainee
Digital Solutions and Services

I’ve now been in the U.S. for close to two months in our regional sales organization working together with sales, marketing and product management. For me it has been rewarding to be here in the U.S. as the market for outdoor power products is quite different from the one you find in Sweden. Here, homeownership is about 63% (the lowest since 1967) compared to Sweden where about 40% of households are living in a house. Further, in the U.S. the reservation wage is lower, which means that many homeowners outsource maintenance of their yard to contracting companies.

Thus, when looking at the U.S. market for outdoor power products it needs to be done through these and other lenses in order to understand the end-customer and their needs. This might sound obvious, however as time is always a constraint, one might easily fall in the trap of making decisions based on what oneself would want if one where to buy a product. When you work with a specific category of products everyday it becomes second nature why some features make a product better than others, but as a matter of fact to an average customer that buy the product, it might have been several years since they bought that specific product.

Thus, if you add features to a product or service that are beyond the must-haves you need to be able to articulate the explicit benefits to the customer and why he or she should pay extra for these benefits. This also means that you need to consider what channel the product is being sold through. Does it sit on a shelf at a retailer waiting to be bought or is it sold through a dealer that can talk to the customer regarding the benefits of it? And when creating a product for a professional user, one need to consider that the product’s performance is only one part of the considerations – you need a complete offering that includes service and maintenance for the commercial customer, because in the end the product will only be as good as the service and support offering is, since the professional customer is interested in efficient up-time.

My trainee colleagues and I visited Charlotte Motor Speedway during our latest trainee week in the U.S.

I enjoy working as a trainee at Husqvarna Group, as the company encourages me to travel and meet with end-customers in different countries in order for me to collect the lenses one needs to create an attractive offer to our customers. Thus, when I finish my program and start working in product management I will have many experiences from my trainee program that can be used in my future role.

Alexander Fornell
Global Trainee
Product Management & Development