”THE ABILITY TO TURN UNCERTAINTY FACTORS AND POSSIBILITIES INTO MARKET ADVANTAGES WILL ONLY BECOME EVEN MORE IMPORTANT IN THE FUTURE.”
A clear global perspective, customer focus and insight into value creation and ecosystems — these are just a few of the factors that Sofie Fjellgren, Marketing Manager at the technical consulting company Erfator, under the Bravida umbrella, considers essential in order for her organization to stay competitive and resilient. To gain the necessary knowledge and skills, she decided to pursue the Leading Transformative Organizations program.
Was there any challenge in particular that your company wanted help solving?
- The urban planning industry is currently situated in a very exciting development phase with major transitional challenges connected to sustainability, climate, life cycle perspective and digitalization. Parallel to those challenges, our customers and the industry’s actors are dealing with a wide range of global factors that are impacting this transformation, such as energy access, materials, changing consumer habits and new work methods. As both a knowledge-intensive team and project partners, all of us at Erfator need to get even better at building relationships as well as identifying challenges and testing out solutions together with our customers and other actors.
What was your experience like in the Leading Transformative Organizations program?
- The program’s lecturers are incredibly engaging and inspiring, and the quality they bring is exceptional. There are so many opportunities for dynamic discussions with other participants working in a wide range of sectors from all across the country, and those discussions provide even more input and perspectives into what we do. The program’s setup is also very effective, with a seamless blend of webinars, discussions and exercises. Just the ability to set aside a few hours every week to really think through what we want to achieve and where we are going is incredibly valuable in and of itself.
Was there any part of the program that really stuck out to you?
- I would say the holistic approach that the program takes regarding the development of strategies, organizations, work methods, culture and leadership in order to accelerate transformation is really exciting. I found the modules on new strategy development and culture particularly interesting given the fact that a lot of people say, ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’ and that 70-80% of all transformation-related initiatives fail. Some of the issues we discussed included what characterizes culture in transformative organizations and how you can use culture to make the organization better at navigating a constantly changing world.
What takeaways do you have from the program and how will you use them moving forward?
- There is a lot of talk about ambidextrous organizations that are able to both grow and capitalize off their existing business while also exploring new business opportunities. Given the rapid pace of change and growing complexity that so many industries are dealing with, I believe that these abilities, along with the paradox of being both stable and flexible, will only become even more important for success in the future. At Erfator, we have just adopted a new comprehensive business plan that sets the ambition for the next couple of years. I am really looking forward to utilizing the insights I've gained from the program and applying them to this new roadmap, Sofie Fjellgren says.
