My name is Lois, I’m a Global Trainee from Shanghai, China. Working in a multinational corporation like Husqvarna Group I have had many chances to work on projects with colleagues from all over the world. However, working in a project is completely different from working in a foreign country. I am currently working on my international assignment at our facility in Nashville, USA, focusing on Materials Management. I moved from one of the biggest cities in China, to the American countryside where I will be for 6 months.

Being a Global Trainee requires a high level of adaptability to new environments. Here in the U.S. I am challenged by the cultural difference from the workplace in China every day. The colleagues here have a much higher sense of cost-effectiveness and are much result-orientated. The conversations at work can be very direct sometimes, so it requires a different way of problem solving and business communication. Language is another challenge for me since I learnt British English and used mostly Chinese back in the Shanghai office. But the immersion here helped me to pick up the American English gradually.

I am involved in tasks related to Asian factories/suppliers. Being the only Asian here, I feel responsible for explaining to my American colleagues the Asian business culture and mindset. Sometimes I help translate the ‘indirect’ message in a more ‘direct’ way so my colleagues can understand more about the meaning behind a message. I am very glad that my colleagues are open to these new ideas and I believe this can be beneficial for the cooperation across the world. And I wish to continue to do that to create a better platform of communication for the Nashville office to our Asian counterparts.

Besides the work, in the Nashville office, we may not have fika like in Sweden, but we have a monthly Potluck where all team members will bring a dish to the office and everyone share some great food together! It is a great chance to mingle with people from different departments as well. I have decided that next month I will bring some authentic Chinese food (not fried spring roll nor chow mien) to the Potluck for everyone to get a taste of China.

Our monthly Potluck in the Nashville office

Since it is a really small town with only around 5000 people, everyone knows each other and everyone takes care of each other. Even though I came here alone, I never feel ‘lonely as a pine tree in a parking lot’. Being a newbie in town, my colleagues show me around and introduce me to people here. They also invite me to their family events and to watch local high school football games, one of the biggest events in town! I feel more integrated to the community here when I start cheering for our football team and picking up some southern slang like saying “How y’all doin’ at work”.

Local High school football game, our team was winning!

Last month we had a Global Trainee training in Charlotte, USA. My favorite training sessions were about the Multi-generational workplace and Personality Analysis. The Multi-generational workplace workshop gave me an overview of different backgrounds and characteristics of each generation in America and how these affect their behavior at work. The Personality Analysis workshop on the other hand made us understand more about ourselves and how we can be aware to adjust our behavior in different environments. These trainings are crucial for working in a multinational company because it reminds us on always being open to differences and utilize the strength of different cultures and different individuals. While working in another country right now I get to practice that every day!

As a Global Trainee I really treasure this international assignment opportunity and feel blessed to live in such a diversity where I can embrace, enjoy and learn about the beauty of differences in culture, not only at work but also in my daily life.

Ain’t that awesome?

Lois Lau
Global Trainee
Manufacturing

Right now, I’m sitting at an airport in Charlotte, USA, waiting to catch my (delayed) plane back to Sweden after a very exciting training module at the Husqvarna U.S. headquarters. My trainee colleagues and I have spent a week learning more about our operations in the U.S. and we got the opportunity to visit factories and customers, as well as participate in some product testing and leadership training.

Lisa Barrehag

So, how to entertain yourself at an airport? During my year as a trainee I have had plenty of practice in this area and I don’t think shopping is the best option, especially not for a purchaser who happened to spot that exact same perfume a couple of days ago for a much lower price than what the airport offers. Instead, I was considering reading a book or checking out another article about the latest innovations in the battery industry (can’t believe I never realized how fascinating batteries are until I started working in electric sourcing) but then I decided the best option would be to finalize this post before the boarding starts.

The last time I wrote a post here, I was right in the middle of the preparations for Husqvarna’s EXCITE Day 2015, an event for our 150 biggest suppliers. As I wrote then, I was really looking forward to the event and now when it’s over I can say that it not only lived up to, but also managed to exceed my expectations. Organizing and participating in the EXCITE Day is definitely one of the biggest highlights during my trainee time so far, even though I had very busy days and constantly felt like I had to be at five places at the same time. In the end, people seemed to really enjoy the event, and it felt very rewarding receiving all the positive feedback afterwards (and of course also some ideas on how to improve!).

For me personally, the EXCITE Day was a very stimulating event where I got to talk to lots of interesting and nice people (internal as well as suppliers), listen to great presentations from top management and watch the award winning suppliers receiving their awards. The day also included round table exercises in small groups, where suppliers from different commodities sat down together with Husqvarna Group representatives and discussed a few topics, such as innovation and sustainability. One of my responsibilities was to gather all the notes from these discussions and to summarize all the input. It was very interesting to go through our most important suppliers’ thoughts and points of view and I could quite quickly spot some recurring comments.

One of the most noticeable things that pretty much every group brought up, was the importance of having a close cooperation and utilizing the suppliers’ expertise in our development processes. After all, it is important to acknowledge that our suppliers are the experts in their respective field and that we can learn a lot from them. I think that this view is something that mirrors a general trend with supplier and customer forming a closer collaboration based on trust and a win/win mindset instead of a more “transactional relationship” with sole price focus. Research highlights many advantages with a collaborative relationship: improved quality, more innovative thinking and time to market, to name a few of them. To me, it seems quite clear that this is more beneficial over the long term than the more traditional perception of the supplier/customer as opponents where only one can end up being the winning party. I think that the award ceremonies during the EXCITE Day was an important way for us to apply this mindset. By highlighting the suppliers’ efforts and successes we could hopefully encourage continuous improvements and assure that great performance doesn’t pass by unnoticed.

Enhancing the relationship with our suppliers is something I will continue to work with during my next assignment, which will start very soon. I will move on to Asia and my third assignment which will be divided between Shanghai and Kawagoe (a “small town” some 30 minutes train ride outside Tokyo). I will be involved in supplier development activities and value engineering tasks, such as organizing workshops including product tear down together with the suppliers. And guess what, there’s another supplier day coming up in December, this time exclusively for our Asian suppliers. Looks like November is going to be busy…

So to sum up, it seems like I will have a very exciting autumn and although I certainly will miss all of my amazing colleagues in Sweden (and England and Germany!), I really look forward to start my next assignment.

Lisa Barrehag
Global Trainee
Sourcing

Andriy Shyshka

My dearest reader, it’s been ages. How have you been? I hope that you have enjoyed the summer and are back on track making the world a better place.

What about me? Past half a year was absolutely fantastic! Being a global trainee for Husqvarna Group has plenty of perks. Among them is an opportunity to get an international rotation at one of the Group’s locations worldwide. That, and some insight from my previous assignment, brought me to Ulm, Germany. Here, I joined the product management team of the Gardena Division.

So, if you are already done googling ‘Ulm’, try to picture me wearing Lederhosen, holding a Biermaß, listening to Schlager music, while trying out some cheesy German one-liners to break the ice with the locals. That would give you a pretty good image of what a typical Frühlingsfest/Schützen/Vatertag/Samstag looks like around here. But there is much more to Swabia then just beer and difficult dialect. It’s a place of astonishing nature, many historical landmarks and very frank and accurate people that are a phenomenon on their own. But let me stop right here. As the title suggest, this post is about my assignment.

I joined Ulm’s product management in February. I was to participate in the development of a conceptually new product range for Gardena that will hit the shelves in 2016. Even though eventually you will know it by a different name, let me refer to it as ‘smart garden’ – a rather self-explanatory and incredibly enduring name that naturally caught on within the team.

If you are following the current trends in the Internet of Things (IoT), it will not catch you by surprise that the market of home automation is rapidly growing (20 to 25%, by different estimates). And it’s growing side-by-side with garden automation. This creates an exceptional opportunity for Gardena – to deliver a system with a unique combination of automatic watering, robotic lawn mowing and, most importantly, intelligence that would reflect company’s expertise in the area of plant care. It is also a challenge, as the above sums up the expectations placed upon the project, making it, by all means, one of the boldest and most innovative initiatives in the group.

Fortunately, I knew about smart garden much earlier. The colleagues, with whom I worked during my first assignment, have brought me into discussion about the IoT platform that should provide means of connectivity for smart devices and introduced me to a team of developers that were just starting outlining the architecture for the system. That gave me a valuable heads-up and allowed me to arrive to Ulm well prepared.

My role within the project has changed several times. I’ve started by taking responsibility for updating the business case, costs calculations and participating in supplier selection. Later, I assumed more technical role to support the integration of system components between the development cycles. And eventually, I went back to the roots as a software developer for a product identity registry and manufacturing support system.

Professionally, the time spent in Ulm has been extremely rewarding. I had an opportunity to participate in the product development process from several perspectives that either allowed me to utilize my skill to the fullest or were completely new to me, and demanded to catch up quickly. I was fortunate to receive a chance to work side by side with brilliant managers in product development and real visionaries in the area of IoT, to whom I’m sincerely grateful for all the guidance and support.

It felt great to be back to Baden-Württemberg, a part of Germany, to which I feel strong connection since my exchange semester in Mannheim. However, the next assignment already awaits. At the end of September, right after a week of training at our U.S. headquarters in Charlotte, I will start working for Online Excellence initiative at Brands and Marketing organization in Sweden – yet another exciting challenge in the journey of Global Trainee.

More updates are coming.

Peace!

Andriy Shyshka

Global Trainee

Digital Solutions and Services

Older blog post by Andriy

Connected is the new black

Jonathan Cabeza

It has been 47,304,000 seconds since I started working at Husqvarna Group, the world’s largest producer of outdoor power products like robotic lawn mowers, garden tractors, chainsaws and trimmers. I have had the pleasure of learning about engineering, product management and sales. In addition, I have learned to appreciate the value of workplace etiquette and being courteous to anyone I come across at work. By now, you probably grabbed your smartphone, opened the calculator or unit conversion app to convert the figure above into more familiar units like days, months or years. You might be asking yourself why would I go through all the trouble to provide a timeframe in such an unusual way as well. The reason is quite simple. Every second matters and once a second is gone you cannot get it back.

Let’s pretend it is Monday morning and you have a meeting at 9 AM in one of the meeting rooms at work. It is now 9:10 AM and you just finished setting up the meeting (PowerPoint presentation, conference call, etc.) and you are ready to start; the prior meeting ran over 8 extra minutes. But hold on, someone who is critical to this meeting just sent you an instant message to let you know that he will be there in 3 minutes because he was in another meeting than lasted longer than expected. Then, you remember that you only have the meeting room reserved until 9:30 AM and there is another meeting after that. Your presentation, without the Q&A session, was 20 minutes long last time you timed it. At this point you are probably freaking out and asking yourself “why me? I was on time.” This probably sounds unbelievable, but it happened to me and it certainly did not feel great.

If I only had a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12S, the car that was modified as a time machine in the Back to the Future film trilogy, to go back in time and plan ahead to prevent this “perfect storm.” Unfortunately, there wasn’t an easy way out of this situation. However, a few years after taking a management course heavily focused on emotional intelligence and recently suffering the aftermath of the previously mentioned chaotic chain of events, I was driven to further develop a series of guidelines I had been using in the past to avoid similar scenarios, which was obviously not good enough. This latest version has made sure, up to this day, that all my meetings start and end on time, and has decreased the impact that other people’s tardiness has on my team. I would like to pay it forward and share it with you.

1) Booking meeting rooms: This is my favorite. If you are booking a meeting room, make one reservation as you normally would with all participants and also make an additional booking just for yourself 10 to 15 minutes before the meeting starts. This will allow you to be prepared to start the meeting on time even if the previous meeting lasts longer than scheduled.

2) Provide a timed agenda: Provide a timed agenda at the beginning of your presentation and make sure to include the Q&A session on it. This will encourage your audience to leave the questions for the end.

3) Rehearse your presentation: The more you practice, the better your presentation will turn out. Practicing will also help you give the presentation quickly and effectively giving more time for the Q&A.

4) Q&A time warning: Once you are done presenting, keep track of time to make sure you stay within schedule. Let your audience know that time is running out and that you will be taking one or two more questions.

5) Follow-up meeting: Sometimes new topics and questions arise that you will not be able to answer during that meeting due to time constraints. Schedule a follow-up meeting if needed and encourage the audience to reach out to you in person, by phone or email with any additional questions.

6) Audience’s back-to-back meetings: If you are not the presenter and you have a meeting immediately after, let the presenter know in advance that you do.

7) Smart meeting scheduling: Avoid early morning meetings to make sure that everybody is in the office and have been able to catch up with time-sensitive matters. In addition, try scheduling your meetings when all attendants do not have to attend meetings before and after yours.

8) Suggesting a different meeting time: If you believe that there is a chance that you might not be able to make it to a meeting on time, be courteous and suggest a different meeting time; I tend to offer a brief explanation if I have to resort to this and do so, at least, one business day before the meeting.

However, you do not have to limit yourself to fighting tardiness merely at work. You can do the following at home to ensure you are always prompt:

1) Before the week starts: Adjust all your watches and clocks around your home with a different time between 10 to 15 minutes ahead of time; different times will prevent you from knowing how much of a safety cushion you have. Make sure you are getting at least seven hours of sleep (set an alarm to go to bed if needed). Try to prepare all your meals for the week.

2) The night before: Set one alarm and make sure your smartphone and/or alarm clock is several steps away to avoid snoozing (having one alarm and not being able to snooze means that you will wake up at the time you initially planned on waking up the night before). When you set the alarm, account for extra 15-30 minutes for unforeseen events like traffic, pumping gas, etc. Ensure that your smartphone has enough charge to last the whole night and that your alarm clock’s backup battery still works; this will protect you in the event of losing power during the night. Finally, choose your work outfit for the next day and prepare your gym bag if you work out or perform any activity immediately after work.

It definitely takes some effort adding every step mentioned above to your life. However, by doing so, you will be modeling the way, and you will be taking an important step towards improving yourself as a professional while you are positively impacting your company’s culture; all your peers will appreciate the effort you are putting in and will likely follow your example. I realize my list is not perfect and, thankfully, I still have decades to keep improving it. Surely, I am not alone in this fight. So, what do you do to make every second count?

Jonathan Cabeza
Global Trainee
Product Management & Development – Consumer Brands
Charlotte, USA

More posts by Jonathan

Resistance to change and emotional intelligence

Everything has gone global

My current assignment in Malaysia has been really exciting because I have had the opportunity to travel a lot in Asia to meet with end-customers and see for myself how they use our products, such as chainsaws, trimmers and lawn mowers. Working in product management as a trainee is similar to being an old-school apprentice, because many of the most important things about being a product manager can only be learnt by being out in the field visiting customers and getting to know them. There is no academic course that can teach you why certain countries prefer one type of product over another, which is why you need to create your own opinion by talking with customers and senior colleagues.

Customer in Guangzhou, China

Luckily for me, meeting the customers is one of my favorite tasks since they are the ones that will buy and use the product and I think it is an interesting challenge to think about how to create better products for them. Further, in order to stay ahead of competition one must also think about how our products compare to others and what can be done differently to ensure that our products create more value for the customer. Many times this means to not only think about how they are operating the machine but also to think about the context in which it is used. For example how much training does an operator get before using a machine, an operator with more training can be expected to know how to properly adjust a harness and can therefore have a more advanced one than a user with no training.

Furthermore, I have realized that we might design a product to be used in a certain way but in reality the needs of the customers are different and they will make adjustments to the product for it to better fit their workstyle. When you see examples like that you need to reflect and decide if the adjustments are something that needs to be made in our own factories or if you should focus more on customer training. I think that this is what makes the product management role so interesting, it is a broad role in which I get the opportunity to think both big and small. Big in the sense that you need to find a balance in the product range between the different products to create a profitable and futureproof range. Small in the sense that when you write a product specification it can be the small details that decides if a product will be a success or not and you have to be aware of what is important to include and what can be left out.

Alexander Fornell, travelling in Thailand

This is what makes the Husqvarna Group’s global trainee program so great, because when I was doing my final year at university I had no idea of what I wanted to do after graduation. Now I know that I enjoy working with products and customers since it allows me to contemplate how I can solve customer problems and bring new ideas to the market. But with the global trainee program I will also get to work in other functions and who knows, there might be another area that I enjoy even more!

Alexander Fornell
Global Trainee
Product Management & Development

Earlier blog post
Gaining valuable work experience while travelling the world

In June, four trainees from the Global Trainee Program attended Husqvarna Group’s Top Management Meeting, together with 120 of the Group’s managers.

The meeting provided deeper understanding of Group and division strategy, company culture and sustainability ambitions.

Alexander Fornell, Ulrike Nagel, Johan Sandström and Katja Ivanova

“It was interesting to hear how top management take part in the strategic discussion and help shape the outcome through workshops and discussions, rather than using external management consultants,” says Alexander Fornell, who has just finished his first year.

“Working in Construction, I am always very interested to get to know more about the Forest and Garden side of our business. This was also an excellent networking opportunity and I took several self-improvement lessons from the presentations,” says Katja Ivanova, who soon has finished her 2nd year in the Global Trainee Program.

“What a great experience,” says Ulrike Nagel, who is closing her 2nd year of the program. “All four divisions presented structured and straight forward business plans that gave insights and revealing information. With the culture and sustainability part that was undertaken, I certainly believe that the Group goes into the absolute right direction. If we all ask the right questions like “What can I do to improve behaviors and results”, we can metaphorically spoke move mountains.”

“During the culture workshop, it was clear that many culture issues are similar no matter if one is top management or a trainee. However, reflections regarding culture was shaped by the fact that they manage teams,” says Alexander.

“Under the headline ‘Respecting nature, caring for people’, nine specific sustainability areas have been identified that need additional focus. Knowing the facts, combined with a yes-we-can-attitude, will lead to being the responsible, sustainable company we desire to be. I’m sure – and it starts with me!” says Ulrike.

“Apart from getting a deeper understanding of the interesting and relevant focus areas, I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet and mingle with both new and familiar faces of our top management. I think everyone left the meeting feeling energized and motivated to start executing our ambitious plans,” comments Johan Sandström, who soon has finished his 2nd year of the trainee program.

World of Concrete construction fair in Las Vegas, February 2015

It is June 2015 now and it has been almost two years since I started working at Husqvarna Construction Products. Some people don’t know that Husqvarna Group also produces equipment for construction and demolition – but among the professionals in this area we are very often their first choice.

I’m from Belarus and moved to Sweden a couple of years ago. My first rotation was in Jonsered, Sweden, in product management and the second one in Olathe, USA, in sales. I then came back to Sweden and spent six months working with the Research and Development (R&D) team and now I am working in project management, which is also run from Jonsered. It’s only 15 minutes’ drive or train ride to Jonsered from Gothenburg, the second biggest city in Sweden, where I live.

In these two years I ’ve travelled the world (the program has brought me to Germany, France and many cities in USA and China) and worked with almost all of our construction products – floor saws, drill motors and stands, floor grinders, wall saws, power packs for high frequency machines etc.

The program has given me the opportunity to develop far beyond my original area of expertise. I didn’t go to business school – I have a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and MSc in Product Development. But during the program I have learned a lot about how global business operations are run, profitability, how and to whom we sell, and especially about the work of our customers – professional construction workers. They build and repair buildings, roads and bridges. Our products are also sold to rescue organizations as, for example, fire departments. The products make their hard job easier. I sincerely admire our customers and I am proud that I can contribute to making their – and ours, since all people use the same roads and bridges, and live in houses they build – lives better. This video pretty much sums this up.

Right now I work as a project manager on a development project of a new construction machine. I get to work with the project members from all the different functions – engineering, quality, purchasing, suppliers, production, testing, certification and product management. I get to see this complicated and very interesting process up close, participate in it and steer it. I am responsible for a lot of tasks, being a ‘spider in the web’ for all the different project members who are often situated on different sites in different cities or even countries.

After every big task I ask myself: what could I have done better and how can I improve? No day is like the other – one day I may be at a meeting discussing the pricing and the next in the testing facility running the machine on a concrete floor or wall. I’ve learned how to assemble and disassemble the machine, how the customer will use it, what the typical jobs are and how to do them efficiently; as well as what every function in the project does. I am responsible for the time plan and of how to move the project forward, while keeping track on quality and budget. This is very exciting and challenging.

I wouldn’t change this opportunity for anything else.

Katja Ivanova
Global Trainee Construction Equipment

Tyler Fuller

My time in the Global Trainee program with the Husqvarna Group has flown by so quickly; sometimes it does not feel like it has been almost two years. I have gotten to see and learn so much during my time with the company. I have had the chance to visit over ten unique facilities in five different countries. It has been amazing to have seven other trainees from all over the world going through the same program that I can share experiences and challenges with.

I’m from the U.S. and my first six month rotation was in Orangeburg, South Carolina, where I worked in the quality department. I spent the first few months working in the plant with various quality issues ranging from metal stamping and robotic welding of mower decks to weekly manager audits in final assembly. I spent the last half of my quality rotation in supplier quality. The experience I gained at suppliers auditing processes, finding root causes, and corrective actions will serve as beneficial assets that I can draw on throughout my career.

Chainsaw Training in Charlotte, USA

I was able to utilize my experience in supplier quality at the plastic suppliers in my second rotation in Nashville, Arkansas, at Husqvarna Plastics Nashville (HPN). My main project was to completely redesign the original assembly area by helping to install six new assembly lines, supermarkets, overhead power and overhead air. The productivity for assembly improved over 30%. It was rewarding to create such an impact and help facilitate a safer and more efficient work environment for the operators.

I spent my third rotation in Shanghai, China. While working in China, I also got to help setup Sales and Operation Planning (S&OP) at our facility in Kawagoe, Japan. I participated and prepared information/slides for the Shanghai S&OP monthly supply planning meeting as well. I was even able to work with people in Nashville to ensure on time delivery of production parts to Arkansas back in the States. Living and working in China was quite the experience and one I’ll never forget.

Factory in Kawagoe, Japan

My final rotation is back in Orangeburg. I’m currently working to understand Work-In-Process (WIP) inventory and its impact on daily productivity, absorption, and employee morale. I’m putting together a team to create a value stream map of one production line from distribution to planning, which will then be completed for other lines in the factory to reduce customer response time.

The Global Trainee Program has equipped me with a broad perspective and exposure to many sides of manufacturing. It has provided me with the opportunity to learn and travel in a supportive environment while advancing my career. I’m really looking forward to starting my leadership position at the end of the program in September and meeting with the other trainees for the conclusion of the program back in Stockholm, Sweden, where our two year journey began.

Tyler Fuller
Global Trainee Manufacturing & Logistics

Lisa Barrehag

So, I’m in the middle of my mile-long to-do list of preparations for the Husqvarna  EXCITE Day (an event for our 150 biggest suppliers which will be held on 2^nd of June in Munich, Germany) when I stop to check my calendar. There it is: the reminder “Blogpost finished”, clearly marked in orange, is shining at me in between the meetings. Ok, suddenly it seems like switching deadline with another trainee which I was offered in January wouldn’t have been such a bad idea. On the other hand, writing my post now means that I have more experiences to write about. Because if there is one thing I can definitely say about the Husqvarna Group’s Global Trainee Program, it is that it is never (well, very seldom) boring and that every week provides you with new challenges.

During my 9 months as a trainee within sourcing, I have participated in heated negotiations, organized a workshop for almost 40 people, learned how to use a chainsaw, arranged a lot of supplier meetings and traveled to countries such as Italy, Finland, England and Germany. But let’s go back to the beginning.

My trainee experience started in August 2014, in Sweden, where I am from, with a training module taking place in Stockholm and Husqvarna. During one and a half week, we were introduced to Husqvarna Group, and management representatives taught us about the different divisions and functions. We also got to do some product testing, such as operating a remote controlled demolition robot – something I can recommend everyone to try!

The 2014 Global Trainees

After the training module, it was time for my first assignment. I worked as a commodity manager for rubber parts and gaskets and I was responsible for the day-to-day contact with about 20 suppliers. This was a real challenge to me since the job often involved negotiations, which is a quite new thing to me. However, I like to think that I improved during the autumn and it felt really good to “win”, even if the negotiation was only about a smaller sum. Nevertheless, I still have a lot to learn and I realize that becoming a good negotiator is something that will take years.

Following my first assignment, my five trainee colleagues and I went to Ulm in Germany for another training module. We were introduced to the Gardena brand and we also got to participate in some intense but really valuable presentation training. After this great week in Ulm I immediately went to Aycliffe, England, to get some introduction to my second (and current) assignment, which is in project sourcing for our electric products. A very important product in the electric category is the  robotic mower, which is produced in Aycliffe, so it was very interesting to go there and have a look at the production and meet the team in the factory.

As a trainee in project sourcing I work with supporting the purchasing team and I’m also running some projects on my own. When I got back to Huskvarna after a week in Aycliffe, I started to work on one of these projects, a workshop focused on finding ideas for cost improvements for the robotic mowers. This was a really fun assignment, although there were a lot of details to keep track of. We wanted to do this exercise in cross-functional teams and just finding a date that suits everyone in sourcing, R&D, product management, etc. was a challenge. However, in the end we were 37 people working really hard in smaller cross-functional teams at six work stations. One thing that really struck me during this day was how passionate Husqvarna Group employees are about our products. Since this exercise would take 10 hours, I had scheduled shorter breaks in between each station. However, many teams just skipped these breaks and continued to work and discuss on their stations for as long as possible. To me, this truly shows commitment to the company and the products!

As I mentioned, at the moment I’m fully occupied with the preparations for the Husqvarna EXCITE Day 2015. If I thought there were a lot of details to think about for my workshop, this is on a completely new level. The day will include award ceremonies, round table exercises, speeches, a dinner and there will be a tour of the factory. With about 260 participants, it is quite a lot to prepare.  I am really looking forward to it and I am very glad that I will get the chance to be part of this event.

To conclude, you can probably guess by now that I don´t regret joining the trainee program. It has truly been a fantastic journey so far. Admittedly, quite stressful from time to time, but that’s fine when you are working with something you enjoy and get to see the results from all the efforts. It also helps that all the colleagues and management have been very supportive and I have always felt that I can get the help I need. Now I’m looking forward to the rest of my second assignment and then I’m off to Asia for my third assignment in the autumn.

Finally, to quote Pascal “I’m sorry that this was such a long post, but I didn’t have time to write you a shorter one.”

Now it’s time for me to go back to the to-do list. Brace yourselves, Husqvarna EXCITE Day is coming!

Lisa Barrehag
Global Trainee
Sourcing
Sweden

It has now been 22 months since me and my fellow trainee colleagues joined Husqvarna Group, which means there is only a couple of months left for us in this fantastic trainee program. When you stay busy doing challenging and fun things time truly flies!

Johan Sandström

My target position after the program is within Project Management so my two-year trainee plan has been tailored to introduce the tools and exposure that will make me a more capable Project Manager.

Even though each trainee has a tailored plan custom-made for his/her target position, the Husqvarna Group Global Trainee Program is designed to give the trainees a strong network within various departments and to get them exposed to the unique challenges and opportunities different parts of the company face. This, I believe, creates a more holistic view of the business and is essential for creating “Company A-Players” rather than “Department X-Employees”.

I have been changing departments, colleagues, assignments and locations every six months for two years. This means that I’ve constantly had to go outside my comfort zone and challenge myself by learning new tasks, adopting new perspectives and getting to know new people and, to be honest, it can be rather exhausting at times. What I have noticed however, is how extremely rewarding it is and that the learning curve you get is hard to beat.

To make a long story short; before my current assignment I was based in Sweden, where I come from, working with: Project Management, Product Management (Electric products), Global Branding & Marketing and R&D (Handheld products). At the moment I am based in Charlotte, North Carolina, to do my final assignment in our U.S. Project Management Office. I truly enjoy living in Charlotte and working with the team here. I am starting to get a sense of the similarities and differences between managing a team in Sweden and in the U.S and how you sometimes need to adjust your approach in order to get things done depending on what side of the Atlantic you are on.

Training week in Charlotte, USA, in September 2014

In a couple of months I will start a new journey at our Project Management Office in Sweden. There, I will join the Swedish team responsible for delivering large product development projects on time, on budget and according to specification. I am very much looking forward to this new challenge and I feel that my time as a trainee has given me a good balance of confidence and humbleness going into this demanding position.

Given that I am nearing the end of my time as a trainee I would like to take the opportunity to thank the people involved in my program (managers, mentor and colleagues). Your openness in sharing your experiences as well as your ability to encourage, coach and challenge me has been truly invaluable. Thank you.

Johan Sandström
Global Trainee
Product Management & Development
Sweden