Hi all,

Time for me (Hugo) to share my latest experience with you! Since last time I’ve left Finland and Agro Oy, had a nice summer vacation and then moved to Copenhagen to join UBI (Unibake International). A few weeks into this project and it feels as if I’m beginning to get my speed up with the project and getting to know the city. Actually, have already bought a bike and weared it out, had it repaired and collected it, so it feels as if I’m a true Copenhagian already!

My project at Agro Oy was to look into the seed business and where to produce and pack it. Now at UBI, my project is also focusing at seeds but this time seeds that go on top of the Danish rye bread, and not seeds that are sown in the Finnish fields. More specific, my project is part of Unibakes overall procurement strategy and in order to align the Nuts & Seeds category with that strategy some analysis needs to be made – that’s where I come into the equation! So far that has led to some deep dive in spend data and to reach out to colleagues and suppliers. Also, especially in the role as a trainee rotating within the group, it is really interesting looking from a “helicopter view” identifying other parts in the Lantmännen Group were we procure similar products and where we could find potential synergies.

But, even if the office is great there’s also a lot going on in the rest of the city. For example, this week a big running event took place where pretty much all companies from CPH participate. A great event where you team up with 4 other colleagues and run a relay (5×5 km), and then hang out by the tent with the rest of your colleagues, grill some burgers and drink some Tuborg while cheering at the passing runners. Fun thing!

Finally, even if it’s still the beginning of this fourth period, it is quickly approaching the end of this trainee program. Thinking back to a year ago when starting this program I really thought I would have figured out what I wanted to do by now, but after three great projects and one going in the same directions, i must say it will be difficult to decide!

Well, next time we meet we’ll know, exciting!

Until then,

Hugo

Hi again!

Last time I wrote, I was in Kiev (where Sebastian is at the moment, as you can read in his last blog post). After returning to Sweden, I had some vacation before it was time to move again. This time to Gothenburg!

I have been to Gothenburg several times, but only for a few days each time, so it is going to be great to experience this city for a longer period. Even though it is the second largest city in Sweden, my first impression is that it is not as hectic as Stockholm can be sometimes. Don’t get me wrong here, I love Stockholm, but Gothenburg has a slightly different vibe and I believe I will really enjoy these three months here.

The reason for me going to Gothenburg is to work at Aspen, located in Hindås (about 30 min outside of Gothenburg). Aspen’s most well-known product is an alkylate fuel, which means it is basically free from sulfur, benzene and solvents. Hence, it is better for human, machine and the environment.

My exact assignment at Aspen will be determined along the way, depending on my initial findings. But broadly, I will look at potential new segments for Aspen or existing segments that are worth pursuing even further. So far, I believe it is a very exciting project that will hopefully be valuable for Aspen in the future. Also, I really like the atmosphere at Aspen. Even though it has grown to a large company, it still has a kind of entrepreneurial spirit, which suits me very well. I will let you know more about my time here in my next blog post in a few months.

Allt gött!

Johan

Hi everyone!

Vanessa is here and I will be taking over the blog for this week. As Sebastian indicated before, the trainees are now moving on to the fourth and last rotation of this program. Woopwoop. For me, I am heading to Swecon in Düsseldorf, Germany. I will be working on making improvements for customer satisfaction assessment on Swecon’s service work. Since I studied in Germany and already speak the language, it is easier for me to adapt to the new environment.

It has been almost two weeks since I moved in here and I can surely say that Düsseldorf is a lovely place. The city is bigger than I thought, very multicultural and lively as well. Most of people here are still in vacation/summer vibes since summer is still around the corner. Swecon office itself lies a bit outside the city and has nice colleagues. There is no common breakfast session like in Stockholm office, but lunch always works, which is my chance to get to know people (and remember their names as well).

Beside our main projects, we are also assigned to another side project called Strategic Group Assignment (read Anton’s story about his SGA here). For me, Lovisa, and Moa, we are looking at production of biochar at Lantmännen and its potential markets. Since mid-March, we have been reading a lot of information about what biochar is, how to produce them, interviewing people within and outside of Lantmännen, following up information to our stakeholders, attending a workshop on biochar, meeting experts, making different analysis of our findings, and the list goes on. At our surprise, many people put actual interests in this 🙂

Also, we got a chance to visit biochar production site located in Stockholm, which was our first time to see how biochar production plant looks like.

Now that we are approaching the end of SGA, we are really excited to see end results. Working on SGA has been a nice experience and I think my trainee colleagues would agree with me as well. Not only the networking part, but also working on a real business case that Lantmännen truly wants to develop, which is great!

I am now signing off for the weekend, hope you all have a great one!

/Vanessa

Greetings from Kiev!

This week on the Lantmännen trainee blog: Sebastian makes his third appearance – this time from Ukraine.

After a great summer filled with various vacation activates, it was time to get back to work this week. For me that meant packing my bags, downloading Duolingo, and getting on a plane to Boryspil Airport in Kiev. My dear trainee colleague Johan was here during his third trainee assignment, and after hearing his wonderful tales about this magical place, I simply had to follow in his footsteps.

As I am writing this, I have only been in Kiev for five days so I don’t have a firm grasp of this city quite yet. My first impression, however, is that Johan was right about this place – it has great people, beautiful scenery, and amazing food. I cannot wait to explore this country further over the next three months.

The main reason Lantmännen sent me to Kiev, though, was not to develop a deep appreciation for borscht, but rather to develop a business continuity plan. Lantmännen is the Ukrainian market leader in breakfast cereals and all products here are locally produced. That means that Lantmännen has a factory as well as a sales/marketing office in Kiev.  

Creating a business continuity plans means working with the local operations director to ensure that the local business can get back on its feet as quickly as possible after major interruptions. In order to do this, I will first need to identify potential risks that could lead to major interruptions, such as natural disasters, loss of utilities, or major machinery breakdowns. Then, I will determine what the most critical business functions are and how said risks could impact each critical function. Finally, I will develop strategies for each critical business function to get back to normal after potential interruptions. Doesn’t it sound fun?!

Since I only have three months to accomplish all of that, I should probably get back to work now.

Until next time!

З повагою,

Себастьян

Hello, I’m Melissa from SKF’s Global Graduate Program – Wave 3, representing the USA! As you already know from past posts, the Global Graduate Program is a rotational program, which includes 1 month of training in Gothenburg and 3 rotations (5 months each) in different locations and business units.

In May 2018, I graduated from Temple University, in Philadelphia, with a Bachelor of Business Administration.

How and why SKF?
I always knew about SKF, but for some reason never thought to apply. Through word-of-mouth I found out about an internship opportunity at SKF, so the summer prior to graduation, I got some experience in SKF’s MarComm department. I went back to school, but kept in close contact with HR. This is how I heard about the Global Graduate Program and a short time later, I was hired by SKF USA Inc. in Business Consulting.

And so it begins…
Training: September 2018
Of course before the rotations began, all the trainees from Wave 3 gathered at SKF HQ in Gothenburg. These 4 weeks were filled with trainings, inspring words from top-management and fun bonding activities! I’d have to say, Wave 3 is a pretty good group of people – 10 graduates from 6 different countries!

Rotation 1: October 2018 – February 2019
After training in Sweden, I headed back home (USA) for my first rotation in Business Consulting. My main project was Supply Chain 4.0. With little knowledge about supply chain and logistics, it was quite challenging and I needed to step outside of my comfort zone. The goal of this project was to shorten the supply chain and create end-to-end visibility (from an SKF planner all the way to the customer). In this project, I was able to visit Motion Industries, SKF USA’s largest distributor, in order to see and actually experience the distribution process.

Gathering: March 2019
During the first two weeks of March, all Wave 3 graduates headed back to Gothenburg to debrief about our first rotations and to watch Wave 2’s graduation presentations, as they just finshed their third and final rotation.

Rotation 2: April 2019 – August 2019
And this brings us to my second and current rotation… In Gothenburg, Sweden in Communications Studio. I am the Project Manager for Meet the World. This project is like no other in SKF. It’s SKF’s largest CSR project. Gothia Cup is the world’s largest youth football tournament and SKF is the main sponsor (since 2007). Held every summer, Gothia Cup is a meeting place for kids (ages 11-18) from all over the world to come together, not only to play football, but to experience a new culture, meet new friends and create memories of a lifetime – irrespective of skin color, religion, etc. As SKF shares the same values as Gothia Cup, it is the perfect partnership.

Now what’s Meet the World? It’s a “pre-tournament.” With SKF being present all over the world, it allows our local units to host pre-tournaments of underpriviledged teams. The winner of this locally organized tournament wins a fully paid trip to Gothenburg to compete in Gothia Cup!

This year, 22 teams represented SKF in Gothia Cup, totaling in over 400 people from 21 nations. As project manager, I was responsible for the launch of a digital campaign (Instagram dance competition) and for the communication between all stakeholders, including Gothia Org, AMEX (travel agency), Sandberg Trygg (Ad agency) and all local SKF project managers. SKF Since Gothia Cup have recently passed (July 15-20), I am now working on a Project Management Guide so the project can be easily replicated.

This was truly and experience of a lifetime. Incredibily eye-opening and heartwarming. It is so hard to put the experience into words because Gothia Cup is something you have to experience for youself!

What’s next?
After the next gathering for Wave 3 this coming September, I will head off to my third and final rotation… in SKF Canada. I will be located in the Calgary office in the Digital Solutions department!

Overall SKF is a fantastic company to work for. And yes, this is truly just the beginning!

I hope you enjoyed learning about my journey through SKF so far! That’s all for now!

Sommaren är här och traineeåret börjar gå mot sitt slut. Jag heter William Lundqvist och är sist ut här på TraineeBloggen under årets upplaga av Swedavias traineer. Mitt hemmakontor ligger på Arlanda, där jag till vardags arbetar på strategiavdelningen. Tycker du det verkar spännade att jobba på en flygplats? Då har du hittat rätt! Förhoppningsvis kommer det här inlägget ge dig inblick i vad du kan förvänta dig som trainee här hos oss!

Under ditt år som trainee kommer du få en bred kunskap om vad det innebär att driva och utveckla en flygplats – tro mig, det är mer än vad många tror! Inom Swedavia ryms allt från långsiktig strategisk planering till minutoperativ drift, samtidigt som vi ständigt jobbar med exempelvis hållbarhetsfrågor och att erbjuda attraktiva resenärsupplevelser, med allt vad det innebär. Listan över de områden vi rör oss inom kan göras lång, vilket medför att du själv har möjlighet att påverka din inriktning under årets gång.

Just strategiavdelningen där jag sitter spelar en central roll i organisationen, då vi genomför och driver strategiska processer, projekt och analyser. Avdelningen är ett stöd för både ledning och verksamhet i den strategiska planeringen, vilket innefattar att driva processen för exempelvis affärsplanering och den strategiska hållbarhetsplanen. Vi genomför även trendanalyser för att förstå omvärldsförändringar. Hur kommer dagens trender påverka marknaden imorgon, och hur skapar vi förutsättningar för att agera ur både kort och långt perspektiv? Spännande och viktiga frågeställningar.

Som trainee har jag även arbetsuppgifter kopplat till andra avdelningar, där jag gjort projekt inom bland annat Innovation, Ekonomi och Marknad & Kommersiell utveckling. Jag har även varit med i ledningsgruppen för Strategi & hållbarhet samt medverkat under forum där frågor av hög strategiskt vikt diskuteras. Jag har lärt känna personer på alla nivåer i organisationen, från operativ drift till koncernledning. Att ha förståelse för hur olika avdelningar arbetar är idag en stor tillgång i arbetet, och med ett brett kontaktnät finns det alltid någon att kontakta vid frågor. Arbetsklimatet är varmt och välkomnande, så du kommer garanterat få det stöd du behöver för att känna dig trygg i din roll och dina arbetsuppgifter.

Utöver detta tillkommer givetvis roliga resor och utbildningar kopplat till traineeåret, förra veckan var vi exempelvis i Visby under Almedalsveckan för att hjälpa till på flygplatsen och rapportera från seminarium där Swedavia medverkade. En härlig inledning på sommaren!

Efter sommaren väntar nya utmaningar för oss alla. Efter semestern kommer jag börja som projektledare på Swedavias IT-avdelning, och de andra inom andra spännande delar av organisationen. Swedavia har varit mycket lyhörda för våra önskemål och aktivt deltagit i att lägga grunden för vår fortsatta utveckling även efter traineeårets slut, vilket känns fantastiskt bra! Avslutningsvis vill jag tacka mina härliga kollegor för det här året, och tack till dig för att du tog dig tid att läsa detta blogginlägg. Ha en underbar sommar!

Hallo, Bonjour, Hola, Ciao, привет, привіт, Halløj!

So you might wonder why I am using so many languages. Well, since last time I posted here at the blog, these are the languages I have encountered and I thought that I would tell you a bit more about my travels and how international Lantmännen is.

Hallo and Bonjour are both coming from the languages I hear every day here at the office in Belgium. Since last time I have had the opportunity to see the Brussels office where Unibake BeNeFrItEs had an employee gathering for all the employees. It was a great opportunity to meet employees from all the different countries within this cluster (Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain). During the evening we listened to interesting lectures, played games and attended our own street food festival with Unibake products! I thought it was particularly interesting to see examples of how to bring brands “alive” and give them a story, as compared to just telling the consumer that the product is good.

But how on earth does привет and привіт come into the picture?! Well, as Anton posted earlier, all trainees have a SGA (Strategic Group Assignment) in parallel and me, Anton and Sebastian are looking at Cerealia’s International Growth model. This project took us to Moscow, Russia and Kiev, Ukraine where Cerealia is active, in order to see how the markets are developing. In Russia, Cerealia is selling both Axa museli but also Finn Crisp. Unibake is also on the Russian market and we had the opportunity to visit their office and learn more about Russian trends. One thing that was clear was that Russian people love Georgian food and we just had to try it. I totally understand the hype, as it was one of the most delicious foods I have ever tasted! Me, Anton and Sebastian started planning on opening our own Georgian restaurant in Stockholm when we retire! Exciting times!

Off course we took the opportunity to do some sightseeing in Moscow and in Kiev we met up with Johan who is doing his third project there. He showed us around the beautiful city and you can see some of it in the pictures below.

Above you can see some of the very beautiful buildings in Kiev!

After this trip, it was time to meet up all the other trainees in Copenhagen for a recharge = Halløj Denmark! At the end of each project we always have a recharge where we tell each other about our projects, we visit one of the businesses and see some of the production and listen to employees telling us about the business itself and about their own careers. This time we visited Unibake and we got to hear about their strategy, see bread production, as well as hear more about one employee’s interesting career. During the evening Mikkel had arranged a boat tour in Copenhagen and dinner at a great Italian restaurant! Thank you Mikkel!

Also, the evening before the recharge, eight out of nine trainees met up in Copenhagen and we went to an outdoor concert, we swam and had dinner together. And rode a lot of electric scooters.

Above: Touring around Copenhagen 🙂

Above: Concert and trainees enjoying dinner together!

Meeting up with all the trainees and hearing what they are up to is always so much fun! But for now, we will all have some well deserved vacation! See you in August! /Johanna

Hello again!

We are just approaching the end of our third projects and soon it’s time for vacation. It is crazy how fast this time has run by! This last project, I have been working at Swecon with mySwecon, the new web-app where customers for example can order services of their machines. I have really enjoyed my time at Swecon where I have felt as a part of a greater team, which really has motivated me. I’ve got to see a lot during my three months, I have visited 15 branches, met customers, worked together with the IT team in Stockholm as well as worked closely with personnel from the office in Dusseldorf and Eskilstuna.

One really cool part during this project was when we visited the mine Aitik in Gällivare, which is Sweden’s largest open-pit copper mine. The machines working in this mine were huge, one of them you can see in the picture below. 

I thought of taking some time and reflect on what I have learned during these ten months at Lantmännen, and give some tip to future trainees, I’ve listed three out of many learnings below 🙂 

• Feel ownership of my project. When you’re starting a new project and you know you will only be there for three months, the feeling can be that its hard to own the project. However, I have learned that I develop myself and perform the best when I feel ownership of my project from the very first start.
• Involve others in my project. It is when you get different perspectives and discuss that the best ideas arise. Talk to a lot of people around you, many of them have a lot of great experience that can help you get ahead of your project. Involve others in your thoughts, reflect and discuss. But also, create your own little project groups within your project.  
• Get inspired by good leaders around me. Reflect on what leadership style you like and what you don’t like and let the good leadership skills inspire and influence you to become a great leader and team member.

After the summer you will find me in Malmö, working with an operating capital project within agriculture!  

All the best!

/Lovisa

Hi peeps,

Last time I wrote a blogpost I was sitting in Copenhagen Airport waiting to board my flight to Chicago. This time I’m sitting in Chicago Airport waiting to go home. My time in the US has offered me a lot of great experiences, adventures and insights on the famous American life. I’m leaving with mixed opinions of this vast, weird and impressive country. I have learned that you cannot generalise and put Americans in a box, it would be like saying that Italians, Brits and Danes are all the same. Instead I appreciate the diversity and different personalities I have encountered, and acknowledge that in such a country you will meet all kinds of persons from all over the world.

My daily life was in a small suburb outside Chicago called Lisle, not much happening, but I lived and worked in a small office in a nice area with kind and helpful colleagues. I got to be a part of the digital revolution that we are hoping to reach, and I have worked with exciting projects like SEO (search engine optimisation), social media marketing and launching a new website. As marketing is not my biggest strength in life, I got to challenge myself and my creative self in many ways. I had to create posts for our social media accounts, write blog posts and develop content for our new website. Despite the challenges of finding my inner artist, I have learned a whole lot during this period, and I believe that these learning will prove valuable in the future.

On a more personal level, I was a part of the American working culture, I have met Americans from many different states, and I have been lucky enough to get to travel around various states. I got to see New Orleans and listen to all kinds of interesting music genres, I did a road trip to Niagara Falls with my family who came to visit. And finally, I was in Florida twice to see our production facility and attend workshops and meetings at our office in St. Pete outside of Tampa.

Now I’ll be in Copenhagen and Stockholm during the two last weeks before the summer holidays. The next two days all of us are gonna meet in Copenhagen to sum up the third period, see our Unibake production facility and have some fun together in the sunny capitol of Scandinavia 😉

So long,

Mikkel

Ciao, hej and Nǐ hǎo TraineeBloggen!

My name is Nicola Brioschi and I’m part of the SKF’s Global Graduate Programme. I’m from Italy, with a background in mechanical engineering, ICE and turbomachinery specialization.
It’s been already 9 months that I joined SKF, having the fabulous opportunity to be part of this journey with other 10 colleagues from all over the world. Let’s go deeper into the details together…

The programme starts with a brief period in your home country (Italy for me) to get in touch with the local SKF and its environment. Suddenly, the real programme starts with an introduction month at the SKF headquarter in Gothenburg. I can’t imagine a better way to start your career in a global company: in this weeks you have the chance to meet the senior management, get the vision (A world of reliable rotation “) and mission (“The undisputed leader in the bearing business”) of the company and its way to achieve it.
The first impression that I had of the company made me feel that I made the right choice: SKF is a family, where there aren’t any barriers between employees, it doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or an expert, it doesn’t matter what is your job role; whoever you are in the corporation, you can get in contact with anyone to share knowledge, experience, ask questions about a particular stuff or just for a coffee during a break.
The time in Gothenburg was awesome and we participated in several trainings about Business Acumen, Finance, REP, products reviews and also a visit in the factory where bearings are manufactured: from raw material to a high-quality product. Furthermore, it gave me the possibility to meet the other 10 graduates as well as the previous SKF graduates. Funny activities and moments of reflection are mixed together and suddenly a great chemistry and synergy is created.

After the introduction month, I came back in Turin to start my first rotation, working on my own project. I was in the Product Development team for Super Precision Bearings, a product which requires a high level of running accuracy at high to extremely high speed (mainly spindles for machine tools, but you can find them also in racing, medical equipment…). I worked on a really technical project and I don’t want to annoy you with too much technical details: what I can say is that it gave me the chance to learn so many things about bearings, measuring systems, machine capabilities and 6 sigma principles. I am really grateful to all the people involved for giving me that opportunity, even if I was a fresh graduate.

Beside the bigger project, I was involved in the daily work of the office such as drawing preparation for customers or software simulations. During these 5 months I had also the opportunity to take several trainings on PLM, design courses and to take part at BIMU, the biggest fair in Italy on machine tools, robot, automation and digital manufacturing. The time flew and soon it was time to get back in Gothenburg for 2 weeks to share our experiences with our colleagues and have other powerful trainings as the GPM2 and the Agile way of working.

As a trainee you are expected to be very flexible, that’s why I made luggage again for the second rotation: 5 months in Taiwan, at the machine tools solution factory. Here I am involved in different projects and activities with a close relationship with customers. If they experience problems in their application, mainly grinding, milling and turning, the solution factory can help them to find the root cause. In addition, we also design and mount spindles and components at the factory, selling to customers the assets and providing them monitoring services: only SKF can provide such a 360° offer!

But the journey in Asia is not yet finished for me… In June/July I am going to Shanghai for several customer visits where we will follow tests regarding SKF new products and solutions to reduce Noise & Vibration. Beside that, we want also to develop a more structured dialogue with customers to go deeper in their real needs and understand how SKF can help them when it comes to rotating parts. All the acquired information will be then passed to Product Development and Process to align. I am excited about seeing a new country and their way of doing business.

And after?

Another great point of the Programme is that you can actually choose your rotation and explore the most suited role for you. My next step will be in Steyr, Austria, working in manufacturing environment. Another part will be related to ReMan; this is quite a new business for SKF where basically we offer to customer remanufactured bearings, as well as service and condition monitoring to get more knowledge about the condition of their assets. If customer knows the condition of its asset in real time, he can also foresee maintenance period and change bearings without losing time; the used bearing can later be send to SKF Reman Centers to be inspected and remanufactured, giving them a new life. Can’t wait to set up another challenging project with my future manager!

Hope you have enjoyed the reading and gain some insights about the Programme and SKF in general!

Cheers,

Nicola