Alumni AQ journal - Celebrating 25 years of building the future by Alumni AB

THE VALUE OF A SUSTAINABLE HERITAGE BUSINESS VALUE: NORDIC LEADERS SHARE THEIR VIEWS

25 TH ANNIVERSARY

THE JOURNAL OF ALUMNI

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY IN ACTION

25 the future years of building

PART OF THE HARVEY NASH GROUP

E D I TO R I A L

Celebrating 25!

‘Business success through people’ is an enduring recipe, says Jan Hemmingson

Fundamental to our success is our culture, which I believe is highly distinctive, if not unique

quarter of a century ago, our founders set out on an ambitious journey: to change an industry and drive the development of the Swedish recruitment market. This pioneering spirit, combined with the desire to constantly challenge ourselves and a commitment to empower all our employees, have been the cornerstones of a business that is today one of the most successful leadership services advisers in the Nordics. Our firm is, in every sense, ‘a people business’. Fundamental to our success is our culture, which I believe is highly distinctive, if not unique. Values-based, collegiate, egalitarian and long-term, it is manifested in great professionals who are passionate about helping to improve leadership and cultures in the organisations we work with, and even, through that, helping to change society as a whole. I joined the firm 11 years ago at what was for me personally a very difficult time, and from the start I was overwhelmed by the warmth and empathy my new colleagues extended to me. I remain grateful for that and for the continuing support that we all provide to each other. It has been a true privilege to have had the opportunity to be part of Alumni’s journey. With privilege comes responsibility of course. As a leader of the firm I feel a responsibility to nurture our distinctive cultural strengths, and ensure that we evolve so that we can continue to make a difference to our clients and to society for the next quarter of a century. What ‘game changers’ will the next 25 years bring? Our interviewees in this issue of AQ highlight a number, from ‘sustainable development’ to ‘the sharing economy’ to ‘the overwhelmed employee’. We don’t have a crystal ball, but from the trends of recent years we can extrapolate some of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. You won’t be surprised that at Alumni we believe that whatever challenges and opportunities organisations face, the recipe for sustainable profitable growth will, more than ever, be centred around our own mission – ‘Business success through people’. Finally, on behalf of our wonderful team, I want to thank all of you who have contributed to Alumni’s story so far, and sincerely hope that you will help us write the next chapter!

About Alumni Alumni is a leading firm within executive search and leadership consulting in the Nordics and Eastern Europe. For more than 25 years we have been developing tools and services designed to strengthen the organisations and teams of our clients throughout the public and private sectors. Through a service offering ranging from executive search and leadership consulting to high-level board advisory services, we support our clients’ business success. We have offices in Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Malmö, Oslo, Stockholm and Warsaw. Internationally we operate through our owner Harvey Nash Group, with more than 40 offices in Europe, the US and Asia.

Contact information for Alumni: HQ Stockholm: +46 8 79 61 700 Gothenburg: +46 31 60 42 90 Malmö: +46 40 35 48 70 Copenhagen: +45 77 99 32 60 Helsinki: +358 40 727 9727 Oslo: + 47 22 40 40 80 Warsaw: +48 22 428 47 28 alumni@alumniglobal.com www.alumniglobal.com For queries regarding AQ: Catharina Melin-Jones catharina.melin.jones@alumniglobal.com Editor: Jane Simms Designer: Anna Hammar © 2015 Alumni AB. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publisher.

Jan Hemmingson Managing director of Alumni Nordic

T H E PA S T 2 5 Y E A R S

Where it all began

The world looked very different in 1990 when Alumni CEO Magnus Tegborg and his colleagues founded the firm. But, despite their high ambitions, they have achieved more than they could ever have imagined, he tells AQ

n the early 1990s the world was rather different. There was no internet or social media, scarcely any mobile phones and IT knowledge in general was limited. The search industry was different too. It centred around ‘the old boys’ network’ and in Sweden private staffing and recruitment agencies were illegal. It seems incredible that when we young entrepreneurs set up Alumni our activities were not actually legal. This didn’t stop us, of course. The industry was ripe for reform, and we wanted to help drive that change. Focusing on the leaders of tomorrow We started Alumni based on the insight that there was no company in this industry that focused on young high performers and ‘leaders of tomorrow’. What’s more, most recruitment was done through press advertising. We saw an opportunity to help companies attract and recruit this crucial group of high-potential people through new channels. It was a group we identified with, as we were just out of university ourselves. But we needed to augment our own network with a more ‘modern’ tool and we built a database where new graduates and people with a few years’ experience could register. This was a pioneering approach and, not surprisingly, the traditional headhunting community didn’t like it and thought that this aggressive little new kid on the block would soon pipe down and disappear. How wrong they were. Among the early adopters of our new way of working was the recently established, but fast growing, IT company Microsoft. It was soon joined on our client list by some of the large international Swedish-based companies, for which we helped to attract the ‘high potentials’ who were looking for their second or third job. We identified what was going to be one of our key success factors: we were going to follow ‘our generation’ to the top. Many of the individuals

The industry was ripe for reform, and we wanted to help drive that change

whom we placed in the early days, and whom we still know, now sit in the top echelons of business and politics in the Nordics. But we have also been careful to recruit new generations of consultants to Alumni over the years, and they know and follow current and future leaders. Consultancy role models In our bid to change our industry we didn’t look at our competitors for inspiration, but instead at the top-end management consultancies such as McKinsey and The Boston Consulting Group. Like them, we have a client-centric view, a strong set of values and a performance-based culture. We wanted to build a company that we enjoyed working in, that could attract the very best people, that we could all be proud of and that existed to do good as well as make money. I believe the values that we formulated early on, and that have been ingrained, preached, measured and lived by all our staff since then, are the real key to our success. The alignment between strategy, structure, staff, systems, skills, style and shared values has always been central to the way we’ve developed, and has helped us to grow for 23 out of the 25 years of our history. Living our mission Everyone at Alumni has been part of and instrumental in our journey to the top. We have lived our mission ‘Business success through people’. We serve our clients with the people who will make them successful, while our own people at Alumni have made our business successful. It has been a privilege to steer the Alumni ship for the past quarter of a century. Working with talented people, interesting challenges and intelligent clients, and meeting some of the most successful leaders around, has enriched my own life and inspired Alumni’s evolution. And the journey has only just begun. •

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To boldly go Catharina Mannerfelt is one of Alumni’s longest-serving partners – she joined as employee number 12 in 1997. Now Partner and Head of Board Services, she explains just how far Alumni has come since it was founded 25 years ago – and where it wants to go next hen Alumni was founded 25 years ago, private firms weren’t allowed to provide recruitment services; this right was reserved for the Swedish Public Employment Service (or Arbetsförmedlingen). However, by the late 1980s this public institution couldn’t meet companies’ growing demands for talent (although the word ‘talent’ wasn’t used in this context back then), so Alumni ventured bravely into the grey zone between what was legal and illegal. Fortunately for all parties, the monopoly was abolished in early 1993. Building for the long term Alumni’s founders, then in their mid-twenties and with degrees from renowned universities, decided to focus on the ‘leaders of tomorrow’. They became experts on the high-performers of their own generation and focused on being career-long partners to these people; thus Alumni carved out its niche. By contrast, most recruitment firms at the time were zeroing in on specific functional groups, such as accounting, systems engineering and sales. This fundamental principle, combined with investment in the long term, has stood Alumni in good stead ever since. Many of the people we place, and many former candidates who have returned to us as clients, have known Alumni since they were what we now term ‘young professionals’. Those who were selected for the high-calibre ‘Alumni Graduate’ network will have known the firm for even longer. In the last years of the 1990s, during the dotcom boom in the Nordics, Alumni was providing

Being pioneering and daring to venture into new areas to the benefit of our clients and our network of highperforming individuals, is at the core of Alumni’s value system services to clients beyond recruiting. Our firm was among the first to provide boards of directors with professional and objective board reviews and to provide talent advisory services to boards and executives. For example, we helped a fast-growing and thought-leading professional services firm to develop its consultant career path. We supported a leading fashion retailer in understanding how location decisions affect the ability to attract talent. And we supported the merger of two large pharmaceutical companies through a comprehensive management audit. Given our expertise in leadership and succession management, we decided to drop the word ‘recruiting’ from our corporate name and formulated a clear mission, which remains highly resonant today: ‘Business success through people’. Becoming a leadership services firm Staying alert and maintaining a pioneering mindset, we have, over the past ten years, developed our service portfolio in close collaboration with our clients, and have thus become a comprehensive leadership services firm. We have launched a highly successful interim management business (Impact Executives), a market-leading leadership assessment and development offering, and

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we have one of the Nordics’ premier board-services teams. Our holistic understanding of leadership allows us to act as trusted advisers not only to owners, boards and CEOs but also to the leaders with whom we have forged long-standing relationships. Our innovative approach, combined with a robust foundation of experience and expertise, are cornerstones of how we gain the trust of the clients and individuals we advise. We challenge ourselves and we challenge our clients. An informed ‘Why not...?’ is a remarkably powerful attitude. What’s next? Being pioneering and daring to venture into new areas to the benefit of our clients and our network of highperforming individuals, is at the core of Alumni’s value system. As the world around us continues to change and become more complex (globalisation, digitalisation, growing diversity and so on), leadership and talent will remain critical for organisations’ success, and we will continue to launch new services and adapt our portfolio accordingly. However, our core values will remain unchanged: we will continue to sustain long-term relationships with topperformers, believe in business success through people, and apply our long experience and in-depth understanding of leadership to the benefit of our clients and our network. And what do our clients and our colleagues think? Throughout this year of celebrating our 25th anniversary we have spoken to people in our network, asked for feedback and taken the time to calibrate and benchmark our own perception of the services we deliver against the perception of our clients and our peers. On the following pages of this issue of AQ, people with whom we share a long history share their ‘Alumni stories’ and explain what ‘Business success through people’ means to them. • For extended versions of these interviews, please go to our website: www.alumniglobal.com

ALBERT ELLIS, CEO Harvey Nash plc

Alumni has the potential to expand its brand

ow did you get to know Alumni? Alumni merged with the Harvey Nash Group following a year of getting to know each other starting in 2006. What were you doing in 1990 when Alumni was founded? I was in South Africa studying and working in the accounting profession. What does ‘Business success through people’ mean to you? Particularly in the executive search and board advisory business, success critically depends on consultants’ knowledge and expertise, and the personal relationships they have with their clients and network of candidates. It is this unique value that has driven Alumni’s spectacular year-on-year revenue growth. What does the term ‘game changer’ mean to you? Alumni built up its leadership consulting business a good five years before the other large international executive search firms, who started acquiring leadership consulting capacity during the financial crisis when their core executive search service hit record low demand. So in that sense Alumni is a game changer. Back in 2006/7 it generated about 15% of its revenues from leadership consulting, and that number has grown significantly since then. Alumni’s approach, which has effectively turned traditional recruitment on its head, has affected the strategy and thinking of the whole Harvey Nash group. What game changers do you see on the horizon? I anticipate that within five years companies that can harness the power of software to eliminate expensive processing and shorten the time to market will be able to access deep pools of talent around the world that are not immediately obvious. The game-changing recruitment companies

Success critically depends on consultants’ knowledge and expertise of the future will be those that can combine such technological knowhow with excellent people skills to seek globally for candidates who have a combination of strengths that surpass the expectations of even the most demanding clients. Clearly, Alumni is well positioned to do this. The firm has grown rapidly in the Nordics over the past ten years, and it has the potential to expand its brand and methodology outside this region. I think the most obvious countries where it could successfully establish a presence would be Germany, Belgium and Holland, given their geographic proximity to the Nordic region where Alumni is already a market leader. What do you value most about Alumni? The sheer quality of the partners and consultants impresses me and the rest of the Group. They are well educated, dynamic, very technologically savvy and, therefore, just as able to work with new challenger brands as they are with larger Fortune 500 organisations. •

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JOHAN BÖRJESSON, HR Director of IF and Head of HR for parent company Sampo plc

Leaders aren’t expected to make all the decisions

ow did you get to know Alumni? I worked there between 1996 and 1998. It was my third job. I joined from McKinsey. What were you doing in 1990 when Alumni was founded? I was a pilot for SAS and studying at the Stockholm School of Economics. What does ‘Business success through people’ mean to you? It’s about the shift in where value is created – from the old ‘production’ paradigm to the new ‘knowledge’ paradigm. Intangible assets create value these days, and they reside in individuals. You extract that value not through rewards and punishment, but through engagement, passion and commitment. The value in Apple, for example, is based on investors’ belief that Apple’s talented people, supported by a world-class innovation culture, will co-operate and collaborate to create the next great inventions. What have been the biggest peoplerelated changes of the past 25 years?

The emergence of ‘self-leadership’ – each individual has much greater responsibility for their own performance, development and progression than has traditionally been the case. Leaders are no longer expected to make all the decisions. To take Alumni as an example: it is much more effective for companies to recruit 100 talented people and let their

creativity fly than it is to try to direct their every action. What about the next 25 years? Technology will take over more jobs, and changing societal values (towards greater self-realisation and more rational values) will alter what people accept and expect from a job, which is already very different from what the classic leadership literature tells us. Companies will have to think very hard about how to incentivise people in this world in order to get the best out of them. What does the term ‘game changer’ mean to you? Radical product innovation. The iPhone was a classic game changer: it redefined the whole industry by revolutionary features and functionality. In my industry, insurance, the Internet of Things will have a major impact: self-driving cars will mean far fewer crashes, and sensors in homes will prevent fire and flooding. Huge social forces, from immigration to a growing concern with social justice and ethics, will be game changers too. What do you value most about Alumni? Cultural competence. The consultants have grown up with their candidate and client networks, which gives valuable depth to the relationships between them. •

MAIJA-LIISA FRIMAN, board professional in companies including Finnair, Neste, LKAB and Helsinki Deaconess Institute

Small will be beautiful

ow did you get to know Alumni? Through Jaana LaineRichter, who established the Finland office in 2010. What were you doing in 1990 when Alumni was founded? I was moving back to Finland from the US, working for the Titanium Dioxide division of [chemicals company] Kemira. What does ‘Business success through people’ mean to you? Is there any other way? But if we really believe that people are important,

we have to treat them very carefully, which means setting clear targets and giving proper guidance, while at the same time allowing them lots of freedom and empowering them to take responsibility rather than seeking to control them. What have been the biggest peoplerelated changes of the past 25 years? Increasing globalisation, complexity, diversity, competition and the accelerating pace of change means you have to have, and be able to manage, a diverse workforce, and this requires a

high degree of emotional intelligence. In essence, we have to treat people as full human beings at work, and this represents a really big change. These days a boss is only a boss when

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ARNE KARLSSON, Board worker in companies including Ratos, Bonnier and AP Møller-Maersk

We require more of individuals today

ow did you get to know Alumni? It was shortly after they started. They’ve done executive and board member searches, as well as board evaluations, for the companies I’ve worked with over the years since then. What were you doing in 1990 when Alumni was founded? I was CEO of a private company called Hartwig Invest. What does ‘Business success through people’ mean to you? We need both first-class people and first-class business models and strategies for success. However, firstclass people will always lift you from whatever circumstances you are in. All organisations should strive for group effort and individual stars. But those stars should be ‘humble stars’ – people who are more interested in group results rather than they are in their own career or pay. There are fewer ‘unique’ or ‘easy’ situations today, because of increasing

competition, globalisation and overcapacity in most industries, so we therefore require more of individuals than we did before. This applies to the CEO too, but their role has become more that of team leader and coach than it used to be. This is necessary, of course: in the past a CEO could hold much of the knowledge about their business in their own brain and span of control. That’s totally impossible today.

they deserve to be. Young people are very demanding, they know more, they take fewer things for granted, and they choose where they want to work. Companies therefore have to be transparent and truthful and earn the respect of their people if they want to attract and keep the best talent. There is a new acceptance that uncertainty and continuous turmoil are a fact of life. Fortunately, younger generations are quick to adapt and understand how to turn all the positive things in our environment to companies’ advantage – if we let them. What about the next 25 years? ‘Small will be beautiful’. Talented people are increasingly attracted to entrepreneurial businesses, which are innovative, agile and lack the bureaucracy and hierarchies that seem

to be turning so many people off, particularly young people. ‘Simplicity’ will be an increasingly important word. ‘Social responsibility’ will also be important. What does the term ‘game changer’ mean to you? The influence of the internet, one of the biggest game changers of the past 25 years, will continue to grow, as will Big Data, the Internet of Things, robots and so on. Such developments will require people to be better educated, because less skilled jobs will be automated. Also, people will need to be more flexible and adaptable because they are likely to have to change job frequently, and cope with changes in the nature of their jobs. Another big change that society will have to make (and organisations are

What have been the biggest peoplerelated changes of the past 25 years? Globalisation has had a powerful effect. Some of the companies I work with have customers in all parts of the world, which demands, for instance, language skills and cultural understanding that weren’t necessary in the past. What does the term ‘game changer’ mean to you? Alumni was a bit of a game changer when it started out. They elevated executive search to a more strategic level and deepened the knowledge. Before that recruitment tended to be done for roles further down in the organisation, and if companies needed board members or CEOs or CFOs they would find them through their own networks. More generally, ‘disruptive technologies’ are the biggest game changers – and there is much more to come. Future game changers are likely to include things like 3D printing, which has the potential to transform supply chains: you would no longer need to ship goods, for example. What do you value most about Alumni? The individuals. I picked the people I wanted to work with on executive search and have worked with them now for many years. Again, it’s the ‘humble stars’ I like – people who are more interested in their clients than they are in themselves. •

Simplicity will be an increasingly important word global citizens) is to take care of the growing numbers of people who are less fortunate than themselves. I chair the Helsinki Deaconess Institute, a public utility foundation and social enterprise that specialises in helping people who are, in some way, excluded from society. Society will also have to adapt to the influx of refugees from countries like Syria. What do you value most about Alumni? They really want to understand what the client needs in order to succeed. •

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MARTIN SVALSTEDT, CEO of Stena Adactum and Stena Sessan

Leaders have to listen

ow did you get to know Alumni? I met Lars Naveus [partner in the Malmö office] several times over ten years ago when I started up Stena Adactum, and he finally persuaded me that Alumni could do a better job than my existing headhunters. What were you doing in 1990 when Alumni was founded? I was a financial trainee with ABB. What does ‘Business success through people’ mean to you? People are the differentiator between good and bad performance and between a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ company. You clearly have to play to people’s strengths, but the top-performing people have a wide range of knowledge, skills and ability, including the ability to recruit other top-performing people. What have been the biggest peoplerelated changes of the past 25 years?

The role of leaders has changed. They have to listen much more carefully these days to what other people say, think and feel; they can’t just impose their own views. Because the market is now global, diverse workforces – in terms of gender, ethnicity, attitudes and skills – are essential if organisations are to remain competitive. What about the next 25 years? Greater levels of transparency and information, combined with an accelerating pace of change, mean that people will have to be increasingly curious and adaptable. The rise of China as a global superpower will also continue. When I left university around 25 years ago, we used to talk in terms of the US, Europe and ‘the developing world’. We will increasingly have to adapt to the new reality. What does the term ‘game changer’ mean to you? Over the 25 years of my working life

NICLAS KJELLSTRÖM-MATSEKE, former CEO of Novamedia Swedish Postcode Lottery

Values are more important

ow did you get to know Alumni? I was a consultant there for three years, from 1998 to 2000. They called me to see if they could help me find a new role – and that turned into a job with them. I realised what a fabulous organisation they were, full of very smart people. What were you doing in 1990 when Alumni was founded? I was doing my mandatory military service in Sweden. What does ‘Business success through people’ mean to you? I learnt a lot at Alumni that has stood me in good stead ever since. For example, I realised that the reasons people leave and join companies typically have little to do with money, and a great deal to do with their role and their impact.

What have been the biggest peoplerelated changes of the past 25 years? In Sweden collectivism had to give way to individualism; loyalty to the company had to give way to loyalty to oneself. That was a huge change for many big traditional organisations. At the same time ‘values’ have become increasingly important.

the main game changer has been the internet and, in particular, the transparency it affords. You can challenge everything, and use facts to underpin everything, which has helped to create the knowledge industry: we have infinite amounts of information at our fingertips. What do you value most about Alumni? They are very good at sustaining relationships and they treat clients and candidates with respect. They are also very up to date on market developments. •

What about the next 25 years? No business can become global in the developed world without taking sustainability seriously. What does the term ‘game changer’ mean to you? Disruptive technologies, like Skype or Netflix. Another game changer will be the ‘sharing economy’, which will transform consumers’ relationships with producers and suppliers of goods. For example, rather than buying a car, a customer may, in future, buy a service from a car pool company, and it is the service provider that will ‘own’ the relationship with the consumer, not the car manufacturer. Such developments are challenging ‘business as usual’, and business leaders will increasingly need to feel ‘comfortable with being uncomfortable’. What do you value most about Alumni? They taught me one of the most valuable lessons of my career – that is, the most important thing a leader does is attract, recruit and develop the right people. •

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25 years of Alumni milestones 1990 Alumni was founded in Stockholm 1994 Bjerke & Luther (today Alumni and Harvey Nash in Norway) was founded 1995 Introduced HR Consulting and the ‘Talent Offering’ concept

MAGNUS TEGBORG, Founder and CEO, Alumni AB

Good leadership behaviour is constant

hy did you and your co-founders decide to set up Alumni in 1990? We saw a gap in the market, an opportunity to create a new company in the recruitment business that focused on the younger generation of leaders. But we also wanted to take a different approach from the ‘old boys’ network’ and promote greater meritocracy.

We were the target group for our business We formed the business straight out of university, and we were the target group for our business. Yes, we were young, but we all had an entrepreneurial spirit and we were interested in leadership and doing things differently. We weren’t without experience: I had studied leadership and management at university, for example, and had gained practical experience in Officer School [he graduated as a Major]. What does the term ‘Business success through people’ mean to you? This was our purpose from the start,

and it reflected both what we wanted to do for our clients and how we saw our own firm. What have been the biggest peoplerelated changes of the past 25 years? Many things have changed around us, but people are essentially the same: they have the same dreams and ambitions, and successful organisations still depend on having good leaders and good employees. Leaders are more values based, make decisions more quickly, are more open, transparent, flexible and adaptable, and involve and empower people more these days. However, what constitutes ‘good’ leadership behaviour (in terms of the way they treat other people) is constant. Leaders maybe could get away with not having high emotional intelligence 25 years ago, but that was never good leadership, and the companies they led have largely disappeared. What do you mean by the term ‘game changer’? We always viewed ourselves as being different, changing our industry and moving the boundaries – but that is, of course, easier to do when you are two or three people going after ‘the big boys’ than when you’re on top and trying to stay there. However, the spirit of innovation and challenge is part of

2000 Alumni opened its first office outside Stockholm, in Malmö 2002 Launched leadership services 2004 Performed our first board evaluation 2005 Alumni became the largest executive search firm in Sweden 2006 Launch of Alumni Gothenburg 2007 Alumni became part of Harvey Nash plc Launch of Alumni Copenhagen 2009 Launch of Alumni Warsaw and Alumni Helsinki

our culture, and we constantly keep an eye on what’s next, and challenge ourselves, our clients and the industry. I don’t know what the next 25 years will bring, but I do know that it is our people who will help us evolve. What do you value most about Alumni? First, the fantastic group of people whom we’ve attracted and retained – their intellect, their outlook on life and their contribution to the firm and our clients. Second, our values – collegiality, excellence, long term, pioneering and passion – which are ingrained and key to our success. And third, we always deliver on our fiveyear plans, which I think is amazing. •

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CATHARINA MANNERFELT, Partner and Head of Board Services at Alumni

Talent and culture are critical differentiators

ow did you get to know Alumni? I joined the firm in 1997, as employee number 12. Like many of us here, I was first approached as a candidate. What were you doing in 1990 when Alumni was founded? I was at secondary school. What does ‘Business success through people’ mean to you? Two things: culture and talent. Get those right and everything else falls into place. If you have the right people doing the right things for the right reasons, that builds the engagement that is critical to success. Talent and culture are critical differentiators, because they are unique to every organisation. What have been the biggest peoplerelated changes of the past 20 years? One is the ‘war for talent’ – McKinsey coined the phrase but it focused everybody’s minds. Another was the dotcom boom, which broke the traditional organisational mould and marked the beginning of a big power shift from employer to employee. The need to embrace diversity in all its forms has become a societal and business imperative, and globalisation provides companies with an opportunity to source global talent, both at home and overseas.

Leadership consulting and board services account for a growing share of our business And finally, digitalisation and the rise of the ‘digital native’ generation of Millennials have shifted the power balance further towards individuals: these people aren’t ‘grateful’ for jobs – they make growing demands on employers. What does the term ‘game changer’ mean to you?

The internet has changed everything, mainly in positive ways. The value of search firms used to lie in their networks, and the advent of LinkedIn and other online services has transformed what used to be a very conservative industry. It has helped to drive our development into a broader service portfolio over the past ten years. How have Alumni’s services developed over the past 25 years? Alumni started out in the 1990s as a ‘one-service’ firm focusing on the recruitment of the ‘leaders of tomorrow’, but has evolved over the years in response to the needs of clients. For more than ten years now, we have described our portfolio in terms of three clear service lines – executive search, leadership consulting and board services – and the latter two account for a growing share of our business. What will Alumni do to ensure another 25 successful years? We will continue to develop our services to meet our clients’ changing needs. Leading in fast-paced, dynamic and often difficult-to-predict market conditions is growing ever more complex, and Alumni will play a critical role in helping corporations and organisations to stay abreast. What’s your fondest memory of Alumni? In 2011 I came back to the firm after three years working elsewhere. It had grown significantly and there were lots of new faces that I didn’t recognise. But within two hours of walking through the door again I realised the culture and values were the same as they ever were: Alumni had the same personality, it had just grown up a bit. •

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NICK MARSH, Managing Director, Asia Pacific for Harvey Nash

Alumni empowers colleagues

ow did you get to know Alumni? I led the acquisition of the firm by Harvey Nash. I met Magnus Tegborg [co-founder and now CEO of Alumni] and Anders Cedermark [co-founder] in 2006 and immediately introduced them to Albert Ellis, CEO of Harvey Nash Group. We were hugely impressed with the quality of the people at the firm. In what sense is Alumni a ‘game changer’? They’ve always taken a long-term ‘consulting’ rather than transactional approach to their clients, and they are very collegiate. This has allowed them to build very strong relationships with both clients and candidates that have stood them in good stead for 25 years. What were you doing in 1990 when Alumni was founded? I had just set up my own executive search business.

What does ‘Business success through people’ mean to you? Alumni empower their colleagues and teams so that individuals can be successful in lots of different guises – whether country manager, or client manager, or practice head. They deploy people in different roles to fit the needs of clients and to keep the business itself agile and responsive. How do people practices in Asia Pacific differ from those in Europe? In Asia, companies don’t treat people with quite the same respect that they do in the West, and they are more likely to see them as dispensable. Asia also needs to develop further when it comes to things like gender and cultural diversity, and Harvey Nash is helping to move such things along more quickly. There has been a far greater focus on ‘self promotion’ in countries like China and India for the past ten years than there has been in the West, with a

ALF GÖRANSSON, President and CEO of Securitas AB

Performance and trust

ow did you get to know Alumni? I’m not sure, but it was a long time ago. Recently, again, we had a recruitment need, and I knew Lars Naveus quite well and asked him if he wanted to support us on a recruitment. They did a good job, which has led to more assignments. So my relationship with Alumni is based on trust and a trusted relationship with one person. What were you doing in 1990 when Alumni was founded? I was managing director of a very small company in Ystad in the south of Sweden that built rail tracks and sold rail track equipment. It was making €7m – €8m sales a year. What does ‘Business success through people’ mean to you? In simple terms, most products and services are easily copied these

days and digitalisation has made all knowledge available to everyone. So it is people who make the difference: to be the best you need the best people. People have always been important, of course, but ‘Business success through people’ is probably an even more relevant tagline in the current age than it was 25 years ago. You do business

high level of job moves, even at higher levels, because of the vast opportunities in the region. So the impact of Millennials, whom we think of as ‘the me generation’, will have less impact here than it will in the West; it will just reinforce what’s already happening. What game changers can we expect to see over the coming years? Technology will continue to eat away at lower-level jobs, making the need to attract, motivate and retain gamechanging people a growing challenge. •

with people you like and trust. What have been the biggest peoplerelated changes of the past 25 years? The business environment has changed dramatically, but people have always been very good at adapting. We are having to adapt more quickly these days. Speed is essential to creating and sustaining the competitive advantage that will keep you ahead. What does the term ‘game changer’ mean to you? It is a buzzword. At Securitas we prefer to talk in terms of ‘paradigm shifts’, by which we mean that conditions have totally changed and we have to adapt. Change is the context in which we do business, and here it’s about balancing the equation between technology and people and and how to get better security for less money. What do you value most about Alumni? As in any business, we are looking for good people to do a good job for us. Value comes from a combination of performance and trust. Alumni have not let us down yet. So far, so good. •

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HENRIK HENRIKSSON, President and CEO of Scania AB

You have to open yourself up

ow did you get to know Alumni? They contacted me to see if I would be interested in a potential job about four years ago. I went along to the interview and got to know the consultant quite well through that process. What were you doing in 1990 when Alumni was founded? I was just starting my military training, but I was also running a small company that laundered caravan awnings, sails and boat covers, which I had set up with my brother when I was 16. What does ‘Business success through people’ mean to you? You realise how important people are when you struggle to find them. Scania is 125 years old, and a daily agenda item for us is how to attract young professionals. A big global trend like digitalisation creates opportunities for major transformation in any industry or company, whether it’s new, old, global or local, but you need to find people with the competencies to take advantage of those opportunities.

You can’t just look in the old ‘hunting grounds’. You have to open yourself up in order to both protect yourself and take advantage of these new technologies, which means you need people from different backgrounds, with different perspectives, broader experiences and so on. It takes courage to build a team with more diverse competencies, and this is where Alumni, with their deep knowledge of

different sectors and industries, can really help. What does the term ‘game changer’ mean to you? My biggest challenge as an executive is to keep up not just with what my direct competitors are doing, but also with what companies in adjacent industries are doing, because that’s where the real threat comes from. Alumni’s deep knowledge in manufacturing and the auto industry, where we are, and in the adjacent areas of telcos, new technology and services, which have the potential to change our industry, means they have played a part in helping us to execute a game-changing strategy at Scania through our people. What future game changers are we likely to see? A major game changer, and one that is close to my heart and our company’s heart, is sustainability. Businesses are on that journey for real now; it’s no longer something they just talk about in their annual report. The commitment to sustainability is a very positive development, but it will change decision-making processes, because it brings in a factor other than cost, and will fundamentally change the way we do business in the future. It will lead to lots of new companies and ideas

VERONICA RÖRSGÅRD, Executive Vice-President HR and IT at Skanska

People are not superhuman

ow did you get to know Alumni? I worked for them between 1999 and 2009, ending up as Country Manager, Sweden. I joined Alumni from a sales role at IBM. They had big ambitions to build the company in a way that was new and different in the industry. For example, they were introducing HR consulting services, and they had strong values. What were you doing in 1990 when Alumni was founded? I was at school: I was 16 years old. What does ‘Business success through people’ mean to you? There is a link between leadership,

culture and organisational clarity, which together spell the difference between success and failure. What have been the biggest peoplerelated changes over recent years? Globalisation, digitalisation and corporate responsibility mean that companies have to be very transparent which, in turn, should drive more ethical leadership. If you don’t live up to the values that the company purports to espouse, your credibility and reputation will suffer. What will be the biggest changes over the next 25 years? The overwhelmed employee. We are putting growing demands on people in terms of accessibility, expertise,

sustainability, inclusion, compliance and so on. We will reach a point where we need to rethink what it is possible for one person to do, and that implies organisation redesign, taking more of a team perspective, and so on. People are not superhuman, and we’re setting them up to fail because we are expecting too much of them – and the organisations they work for will fail too.

V I E W S F RO M T H E TO P

and ways of doing things, and it will also close down a lot of companies that aren’t willing to change. You can’t be a good global corporate citizen without sustainability on your agenda, but your customers and your customers’ customers need to take it seriously too. Once this starts to happen it will create a global wave of sustainable growth, and we all need to focus on how to make that transition. What do you value most about Alumni? The relationship I have with Alumni is like the relationship we at Scania have with our customers: it is ‘horizontal’, it feels like a partnership of equals, with both sides being honest, open and direct, and being unafraid to challenge and be challenged. This business is about personal relationships, and I like to think that if the few people at Alumni with whom I have worked closely over the past two years should leave, then the values and principles that they have are so ingrained in the firm that I could work equally well with other people. However, I think Alumni work very hard to retain their own people, which is why they are so successful in sustaining long-term relationships with their clients. It’s a good formula. •

What does the term ‘game changer’ mean to you? It’s either a revolutionary product or service, or a revolutionary way of delivering a product or service. Airbnb and Uber are good examples of game changers, because they have transformed industries. Retail will start to look different as e-commerce grows, and in my industry, construction, digitalisation and automation will lead to more ‘smart’ buildings. What do you value most about Alumni? They really try to understand the client perspective; they ask good questions and you feel they genuinely want the best long-term solution for you rather than just ‘get the job’. They have integrity too: they will challenge you, disagree with you, and they don’t over-promise – they are honest about difficulties. It’s a feature of a proper partnership, rather than saying ‘Yes, no problem’. •

DAG J OPEDAL, Board Professional and Executive Adviser at FSN Capital.

Leadership, culture and competence are crucial

ow did you get to know Alumni? My first point of contact was Richard Mollatt, who, in a previous incarnation, used to be an important business partner within the packaging industry while I was CEO at Orkla [the Norwegian conglomerate]. What were you doing in 1990 when Alumni was founded? I became CFO of Nora Foods, a division of the listed food and beverage company Nora Industrier AS, which merged with Orkla the following year. What does ‘Business success through people’ mean to you? It is a key lens into understanding the essence of success. In most business contexts we bet more on people than on strategies, so our people better be good. People make a huge difference. We tend to discuss ‘actions’: that’s fine, but actions are really about people and their intrinsic personal qualities. Business success is about building strong organisations; this is the primary source of competitive advantage. The golden triangle on which a great organisation is founded is leadership, culture and competence. These things are mutually dependent and mutually reinforcing. I think that these crucial linkages have become better recognised over the past couple of decades. What people-related changes do you anticipate over the coming 25 years?

In most business contexts we bet more on people than on strategies, so our people better be good

Gazing into my crystal ball, it is disruptive technologies that first come to mind – advances that will transform business, economy and life in general. Just imagine the effect that nanotechnologies and other advanced materials, the Internet of Things, robotics, renewable energies and energy storage, to name but a few, will have. These and other changes will provide an opening for new players and upset the established order. Is the term ‘game changer’ any more than a buzzword? There are definitely game changers. They come in different shapes and versions – from category killers to opening up entirely new needsbased segments. The most important transformational change I’ve seen in my time is the mobile internet and the impact it has on information, communication and transactions. The amount of innovation and new business models enabled by this particular game changer is amazing. What do you value most about Alumni? Their high quality approach to the various assignments. But first and foremost the human factor: it really is a people business. •

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SANNA SUVANTO-HARSAAE, Board professional in companies including Altia AB, Babysam AS and Best VPG AS

Interpersonal skills are key

ow did you get to know Alumni? I was approached as a candidate for a role over

ten years ago. What were you doing in 1990 when Alumni was founded? I had finished at business school and was about to join Procter & Gamble. What does ‘Business success through people’ mean to you? You can have the best strategy in the world, but without the right people to execute it, it counts for nothing. The most important role of the board is to ensure a company has the right CEO and management in the right place at the right time. What have been the biggest peoplerelated changes of the past 25 years? Fewer and fewer people seem willing to ‘go the extra mile’ in big companies, and I suspect that is because good

people are increasingly attracted to entrepreneurial businesses, which are less complex and bureaucratic and often allow people more balance in their lives. What about the next 25 years? Digitalisation is giving growing power to customers, so companies will have to become increasingly customer focused and hire people whose emotional intelligence matches their intellectual intelligence. Interpersonal skills will be a key differentior. What does the term ‘game changer’ mean to you? When Alumni recruit for the companies where I am a board member, the way they treat candidates reflects on me and enhances the reputation of my companies. In terms of broader ‘game changers’, digitalisation, the speed of change and the growth of ‘clutter’ have reshaped the business landscape over

TOBIAS EKLUND, Partner and Head of Leadership Consulting at Alumni

We’ve been good at innovating

ow did you get to know Alumni? I first met Alumni 11 years ago, when I was working for another consultancy and training Alumni consultants in assessment techniques and psychometric assessment. In 2007 they invited me to help them build a service line in leadership consulting. What were you doing in 1990 when Alumni was founded? I was a teenager, still at high school. What does ‘Business success through people’ mean to you? There is a very strong connection between personality and organisational success, and at Alumni we are not just helping organisations to be efficient; we are striving to help build a more sustainable society too. When you ask people how they are, they often

mention their job, because work is such a big part of what they do. Alumni, Impact Executives and Harvey Nash advise hundreds of executives (both clients and candidates) in the Nordics every year, so we have a big influence, and with that comes a big responsibility. If people see themselves as defined by their job, then that had

the past 25 years. People have to take in much more these days and process information more quickly, throwing out what they don’t need and focusing only on what’s most important. Otherwise they will be overwhelmed. What do you value most about Alumni? They are very good at finding candidates who are ‘outside the box’: one of their key strengths is that they challenge the obvious solution, which forces you, the client, to think about what you really need. •

better be the right job, in the right place, with the right values. What have been the biggest peoplerelated changes of the past 25 years? Digitalisation and migration are the two big ones to affect our industry. What about the next 25 years? We will see a widening gap between high unemployment on the one hand and skills shortages on the other. What does the term ‘game changer’ mean to you? At Alumni we’ve been good at innovating ourselves through the years. We have moved purposefully, step by step, and ahead of our competitors in the region, from being a pure executive search company to a full content provider within the leadership advice and services arena. What do you value most about Alumni? Working with very driven, intelligent, interesting people, many of whom are friends as well as colleagues, and making an impact on business life and society every day through the work we do with our clients. •

I N T E R I M M A N AG E M E N T

Five years of impact Interim management has become established in the Nordics over the past few years, and is seen as both a robust resourcing strategy and a valid career choice, says Blenda Lagerkvist, Managing Director of Impact Executives Nordic

nterim management is an evolving industry. Back in the 1990s it was viewed primarily as a temporary solution to a sudden vacancy – a manager had just stepped down, for instance – or as something managers would do as a stop-gap between two full-time jobs. Interim executives were often treated with considerable scepticism within the firms they joined. This has changed: interim management is now well established in the Nordics, as elsewhere, and is seen as an attractive and recognised career choice. Interim management is maturing Interim solutions have been commonplace in Northern Europe for many years, particularly in Great Britain, where Impact Executives has been part of Harvey Nash since 2000, and in the Netherlands. Alumni and Harvey Nash set up Impact Executives in the Nordics in 2011, since when it has become one of the market leaders. Over the intervening four or five years the interim management market in our region has undergone a transformation: interim management now represents an important, valuable and agile way for companies to reinforce their competence in particular areas, especially as they contend with change. Helping clients manage change Our clients are often having to make quite rapid changes and adjustments

The interim market is growing and competition is mounting

in order to adapt to a tougher and faster-moving business environment. We support them by whatever means we can. For example, we can provide a client with a solid interim change leader who has great experience, is highly results-oriented and who has proven leadership ability. Alternatively, we could supply an Impact Advisor who can provide ad hoc support in, for example, a digital transformation, or where the board or management team needs help in setting a strategic agenda. In addition, through Impact Placement, we can help clients make a permanent appointment after a quick qualitative assessment of readily-available talent. Meeting challenges head on The interim market is growing and competition is mounting. We clearly welcome a more established market and the associated rise in demand for our services. To sustain our m arketleading position we need to stay true to our vision and goal, which is to be highly professional and forge personal relationships in order to deliver consistently high-quality interim solutions. A tailored approach All our interim executives are motivated by the challenge of managing complex situations, often with a focus on transformation, and at the same time producing quick results. However, we tailor our approach to each individual client. During our five years in the market we have established ourselves as a leading provider of interim management, but have evolved our services to meet changing client needs. This, along with our passion and genuine desire to make an impact, help us stand out in the marketplace. •

WHAT INSPIRED ME TO MOVE TO IMPACT EXECUTIVES After seven years working as a Manager with Alumni I was given the opportunity to establish Impact Executives, the interim executive management arm of Alumni, in the Nordic region. I was attracted not just by the challenge of setting up the business in a new market, but also by the chance to work in what for me was a new segment of the market. I knew it would take a lot of courage, hard work, business acumen and ability to quickly grasp clients’ immediate need if I was going to succeed – and these four attributes remain key cornerstones for our business today. I was also very interested to understand the true impact that interim executives have on organisations, and witnessing how very senior and experienced executives generate great value for clients from day one has been illuminating and highly satisfying.

V I S I O N A N D VA LU E S

A one-firm approach We provide a full range of leadership services for clients across the Nordic and Eastern European region. Our services range from external recruitment of executives and directors to the development of existing leaders and teams. Alumni consultants come from a wide range of professional backgrounds, primarily in line management and/or management consulting. What they all have in common is an in-depth understanding of our clientsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; business and a genuine interest in people and the value that people add. Our consultants, as well as Alumni as a whole, have always been steeped in the values set out below. It is these values, instilled in our organisation and our people, that help us to move towards our vision â&#x20AC;&#x201C; namely:

We are here to make a difference by providing and developing the leadership and talent that make our clients more successful and our society better to work, thrive and live in

Pioneering Excellence Passion Long-term Collegiality

V I S I O N A N D VA LU E S

Where we go from here

The principles of good leadership remain constant, however much the world changes, says Alumni CEO Magnus Tegborg

ood leadership, attracting, developing and retaining top talent and leaders, and good corporate governance will never go out of fashion. This is the core of Alumni’s business and if we continue to be at the forefront in these areas we will continue to be successful. Social media and digitalisation are not threats but opportunities for us and for our clients: rather they are valuable tools that we turn to our own advantage. On the face of it, much appears to have changed over the past 25 years – and you’ve only to read the interviews over the previous pages to see the extent of this change. However, in more fundamental ways I believe little has changed. The need for good leadership, good corporate cultures and good governance is as strong as it has ever been, and the basics of good leadership remain constant. Plus ça change Good leaders inspire and develop others, look around the corner and make brave long-term decisions, are both humble enough to delegate and let others succeed and bold enough to take tough decisions, and they engage their people behind common goals. Such individuals will always be in demand. We have been meeting, recruiting and supporting leaders for 25 years. We have seen bad leadership and good leadership. We have seen organisations almost destroyed by bad leadership and organisations that thrive due to good leadership. This will also be the case 25 years from now. Different skills will be required, but the same basic leadership principles will apply. Likewise, we will face the same demand

We are confident that the vision and values that have helped us this far will serve us well in the future from clients to find these leaders as we do today. A large proportion of our clients are company boards and owners. They stand or fall according to whom they appoint as chair, CEO and top management: getting it right is more complex than ever, while getting it wrong has never been more costly. So, as a top leadership services firm, we face the same sorts of challenges and opportunities as the clients with whom we have grown up. We are confident that the vision and values that have helped us this far will serve us well in the future. Over the final pages of this anniversary edition of AQ, some of our country managers explain what inspired them to join this business and how they are using Alumni’s ‘one-firm approach’ to meet, and help their clients to meet, the challenges ahead. And we provide an insight in to how we are furthering our ambition to make a difference to society as a whole through becoming a more responsible corporate citizen. •

N O R WAY

Building services together with clients The growing importance of retention and succession issues means talent management is now a board concern, explains Richard Mollatt, Country Manager Alumni Norway

ompanies focus much more closely these days on their ‘human capital’, and this goes hand in hand with a greater professionalism among HR professionals, who deservedly command much more respect than they did 25 years ago. The result is a much more rigorous approach to things like assessment and development at executive and management level. The growing importance of retention and succession means talent management is a regular item on board

I was always interested in the way companies develop and, in particular, in the way people contribute to that agendas too. However, HR departments need to become more commercially oriented in order to be aligned with the rest of the business, which means we will start to see more strategically oriented HR people. Alumni can be part of that development, because most of our consultants have line management experience and are commercially oriented. Indeed, we are already doing it to some extent. For example, we are helping some large companies with their talent management, and because of the shortage of strategically oriented HR people we sometimes fill that role on a temporary basis while we help them to find people with the right competencies or to develop and coach existing people into the role. The nature of competition is changing Low barriers to entry means there is lots of competition in the leadership services market, and the nature of that competition is changing. Even over the past two years our competitors have become more diverse: at one end there are those who compete on price, and at the other are the big well-known global headhunting brands that have bought in leadership services capability. So, in a sense, we are ‘fighting on two different fronts’.

The search market in Norway in particular is currently changing as a result of the decline in the oil and gas sector that has been such a mainstay of our economy for so long. We will follow this development closely and strive to keep adding value to the clients we work with, in all the engagements we take on. Our strength lies in our desire and ability to truly understand our market and our clients’ businesses in order to add value through being trusted advisers. The more successful assignments we complete, the greater our brand awareness in Norway (which is a relatively new market for us) becomes. Alumni’s unique selling proposition We have been offering strategic consultancy in leadership, rather than being a pure search firm, for many years, and being part of a very strong group, Harvey Nash, gives us a high level of competency. We take a ‘one firm’ approach across the Nordics. But probably our best ‘unique selling proposition’ is that we have grown up with companies that think the same way we do, and we continuously strive to help to make a difference to their business. Another USP is our rigorous assessment of candidates, where we draw on the help of chartered psychologists and use comprehensive processes underpinned by the latest research within leadership psychology. •

WHAT INSPIRED ME TO WORK WITHIN THE LEADERSHIP SERVICES INDUSTRY I worked for many years in various roles within my family business, the Peterson Group, which is in the pulp, paper and packaging sector. I then moved to the Sandvik Group as sales and marketing manager for Norway. I was always interested in the way companies develop and, in particular, in the way people contribute to that. People interest me a great deal generally. Attracted by the idea of having an impact on different companies by analysing their value chains and helping them to find and develop people to improve that value, I embarked on my ‘second career’ in executive search. In 2013 Alumni brought me in as a senior consultant, to build the executive search division in Norway. I became Country Manager a year later.

FINLAND

Turning challenges into opportunities

Companies are much more receptive to professional advice and services than they were 25 years ago, says Jaana Laine-Richter, Country Manager Alumni Harvey Nash Finland

n the 1990s the leadership development industry in Finland was dominated by big training companies, who more or less ‘decided’ for their clients what they needed – which was typically long-term training and development programmes for large groups of people. The way these companies delivered their services was not always professional either: there were lots of experiments. The role of HR in client organisations at the time was still developing. By the 2000s there was more discussion about the more pivotal role HR should play, but leadership was generally slow to catch on. Once companies did start to play a more active role in identifying their own development needs and outlining the kind of services they required to meet these, employees weren’t always receptive. For example, a fairly typical response to being offered coaching was: “What’s wrong with me? Why do I need help?” Things have changed markedly since then. Demands on leaders are growing, goals are tougher, and, therefore, leadership development is now seen as an integral part of corporate strategy. What’s more, transparency and a longrange view in all development activities have become standard. Room for improvement However, good practice in leadership development has to get better still. For example, leadership development services must become more highly customised and more closely linked to a business’s needs and goals. We at Alumni work very closely with our clients. We focus on the goals they want to achieve and discuss their challenges openly to help them find the right solutions, from recruiting a new person to creating a new development step for an existing employee, to conducting a management or board review. Both the quality of the work we do, and being able to instil and maintain a sense of trust with our clients, are of paramount importance. Challenges and opportunities The economic situation in Finland is currently very challenging, making leadership and recruitment decisions more important than ever.

One of the main barriers to growth is the inability of leaders to work in the new world order Understanding and defining the competencies companies require is crucial, as is fully realising – or augmenting – existing leadership potential. The best businesses understand that one of the main barriers to growth is the inability of leaders to work in the new world order. I feel very strongly that tough times create new opportunities. However, it can be tough to work successfully through change and difficult times, and to take advantage of these opportunities you need a positive mindset, courage and determination to find new ways of doing things. You also need positive leadership and a partnership approach, whether between client and consultant, or among colleagues. Working at it Alumni’s clear leadership approach, based on our experience, competence and proven ability to communicate and to add value to our clients, helps to set us apart from the competition. But, like any good organisation, we have to work at it. We sustain our competitive edge through continuously developing our competencies, working hard and building diversity in our team. We work closely together, supporting each other and sharing experiences and ideas with our colleagues throughout the Nordic region and, more widely, in the global Harvey Nash Group. Being able to call on expertise when required from around the Group is a major strength. •

WHAT ATTRACTED ME TO THE LEADERSHIP SERVICES SECTOR When I began my career, I had the good fortune to land my first job with American Express. The focus was on good leadership, a supportive environment, lots of responsibility, lots of challenges and lots of training. That gave me a solid set of skills and the right mindset from the start, along with a passion for influencing and developing others. Such attributes are consistent with Alumni’s distinct ethos, which is to use our combined skills and experience to support our clients as well as we possibly can, however fast the pace of change and however challenging the economic climate.

DENMARK

Helping to raise the bar In an industry where barriers to entry are low, Alumni’s relentless focus on people sustains its competitive advantage, says Hans Henrik Lüttichau-Holm, Country Manager, Alumni Denmark

hings have changed dramatically in the recruitment market generally, and I believe the main driver is that our clients operate in increasingly volatile environments. Continuous disruption, rapid change and growing complexity means that candidates with proven ability to carry through transformation are in growing demand in the assignments we conduct for clients. When a company is moving into new areas we need to ask and answer the important question: “What will take the longest time to learn?” This ensures that we bring in the appropriate experience and competencies – and, today these are often found outside the more traditional search fields of an organisation’s own industry and local geography. People due diligence is growing We also see an increasingly professional approach to assessments, both internally and in connection with acquisitions. The ‘due diligence’ that companies conduct on potential acquisitions today often extends to ‘human assets’. Whether this is done before agreeing

WHAT ATTRACTED ME TO ALUMNI I joined Alumni nearly three years ago from the role of CEO of CBN/Katalyze, a leading strategic Scandinavian network for top managers, which focused on knowledge sharing across industries. The Denmark office of Alumni had been set up three years earlier, and my job was to help establish the firm in ‘C-suites’ to match our positioning in other Nordic countries. I have always been interested in strategy and how companies respond to change. I have had the privilege of following a great number of radical transformations across a number of different industries, and one thing that has become very clear is that strategy is all about implementation, and implementation is all about people. Joining Alumni gave me the opportunity to use this understanding to help make our clients’ journeys as successful as possible by ensuring that the people in the driving seat have the appropriate professional and personal qualities and competencies. I find that very worthwhile and rewarding.

Strategy is all about implementation, and implementation is all about people the deal, or shortly afterwards, there is much greater awareness now that understanding how well-equipped key people are for the journey ahead can spell the difference between the success or failure of an acquisition. What’s more, even when companies make internal appointments they seem to increasingly value an in-depth second opinion from external professionals. Boards work differently now The market for board development services is also evolving. The way boards work has changed: they are increasingly involved in supporting the executives to develop strategy and drive transformation, so their role has become more one of ‘hands-on advice’ rather than pure ‘check and balance’. As such, chairs want to ensure that the board comprises the right mix of professional and personal competencies and perspectives and works together in the most efficient way. Systematic board development is now much more widespread, though Danish companies can still look to their neighbours for inspiration. Avoiding recruitment pitfalls Our market is highly competitive and barriers to entry are low. Professional social media networks have made it easier to search for and identify people with specific professional competencies. Generating business success through people, however, encompasses so much more, and it is Alumni’s ability to understand the pitfalls, and to act as long-term strategic partners to our clients, that differentiates us and allows us to add value and remain competitive. •

SWEDEN

Determined to make a difference A more professional approach by clients to hiring, assessing and developing their executives is benefiting society as well as business, says Christoffer Lindblad, Partner and Country Manager Alumni Sweden

he way companies hire, assess and develop executives – and let them go – is much more professional these days. They are also far more willing to invest in hiring and developing the best people because they can see it makes a difference. Their approach is far more meritocratic than it was 25 years ago, and there is a greater realisation that values-driven CEOs really do make a difference to corporate performance. Thus there is more interest in ‘how’ people do things, rather than just ‘what’ they do. People may exceed all their targets, but if they don’t treat others well the board will discuss it, whereas ten to 15 years ago they might not have been bothered. Another positive development is that CEOs increasingly want to ‘make a difference’ and leave a legacy that goes beyond personal and business success. There is a growing requirement for these sorts of people, given the complexities and challenges that the world now faces, and I am having more and more conversations with CEOs and HR directors about where to find leaders who want to operate more holistically and help to ‘join the dots’ between different parts of society – private companies, NGOs, politics and so on. Ironically, 30 to 40 years ago, we probably had more of these sorts of people, but that changed when business became siloed, and a CEO could survive just by being really good in his specialist area. Clients are more professional Alumni focuses on the C-suite and boards, and one of the most significant trends there is that

clients are less likely to see a headhunt as the solution to leadership gaps and challenges. They are increasingly interested in other approaches, including coaching internal candidates into roles and developing existing teams, experimenting with ‘job shares’ and using interim executives to help the business though a transition. One large Nordic bank, for example, is experimenting with having two ‘co-heads’ of several of its larger divisions. This is all part of the new maturity and professionalism of clients about how they develop their leaders. There is a growing realisation that leadership success is situational: CEO candidates aren’t necessarily ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but have a variety of different competencies that may flourish in one environment or culture but not another. An executive who knows the company, its culture and its market is often a better bet than someone from outside. Challenges and opportunities Because a traditional headhunt or search is no longer the default option, that side of our business probably won’t grow, so we have had to adapt and augment what we offer. Clients might not be as interested as they used to be in an expensive headhunt – particularly if they think they can identify people themselves – but they are interested in the kind of honest, objective advice that we offer, which helps us to build our relationships with them. The challenges businesses face mean they will continue to need excellent people, and we can help them assess and develop internal candidates, make the board more efficient, plan for succession and create more effective teams.

WHY I JOINED ALUMNI I have a psychology degree, and although I practised as a lawyer for a time I was drawn to HR and became VP HR for Fortum Corporation [one of the largest publicly listed corporations in the Nordics]. I was always curious about the interactions between executives and management teams and had a personal conviction that there was a huge difference between the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ leaders. I joined Alumni in 2007, keen to do something I felt passionate about and maybe even ‘make a difference’.

Taking a collegiate approach It is our people, culture, values and attitude that differentiate us – and all the consultants here are convinced that we have a real impact on making the world a better place by appointing the right leaders and promoting and developing companies that can make a difference. We all prioritise the firm over our individual careers, which makes our offering to clients very strong: they get the whole of Alumni when they come to us. •

There is far more interest now in ‘how’ people do things, rather than just ‘what’ they do

THE NEXT 25 YEARS

Alumni: being a good corporate citizen

At Alumni we truly believe that good leaders make a real difference to any organisation’s success – whatever the sector

eaders set the tone and focus of organisations, and help their teams meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities that any organisation encounters in pursuit of its strategic goals. As we head into an increasingly volatile, chaotic and unpredictable future, we need leaders who can help us steer the right course. At Alumni, we are convinced that the best way to navigate our own future is by staying true to our core values and vision. In essence, we are here to make a difference by delivering and developing the leadership talent that makes our clients more successful and our society a better place in which to work, live and thrive. We don’t believe that the advice and expertise we offer

should be the sole preserve of large commercial organisations, and we are extremely proud of the support we have given over the years to a range of not-for-profit organisations, including Civil Rights Defenders, Oxfam, The Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation and Médecins Sans Frontières. It is through these pro bono or reduced-fee assignments that our vision becomes more tangible and our purpose more valuable. It is these assignments, which are often inspired by individuals within our company, that have encouraged us to make corporate responsibility a more concrete aspect of our strategy as we move into the next 25 years of our development. As the articles on the next two pages demonstrate, the benefits of being a good corporate citizen are wide-ranging. •

Engaging in a value exchange

Being a good corporate citizen goes more than skin deep, as Linus Almqvist, Head of Communications and Marketing at The Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation, explains

t’s true that in the past many companies have adopted ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) initiatives as a marketing tactic (‘Look at how well we behave to the community!’) rather than as part of a genuine desire to be a good corporate citizen. However, the line between the two can be quite fine, as I shall explain later. Where commercial organisations do adopt CSR as ‘a marketing gimmick’, the not-for-profit sector is at least partly to blame. If charities can’t be more specific in outlining the nature of the help they would value from companies, then they can’t complain too much when that help is not forthcoming. I’ve seen what I term ‘the compatibility problem’ from both sides. Before joining The Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation (Barncancerfonden) I was marketing director at

Vattenfall Group, the energy company. We used to donate a lot of money to charities, but we always struggled to engage our employees in the good work that the charities did. Similarly, there are some commercial organisations who don’t want any more involvement than just to make a donation and be recognised for it. But I believe this is a bad model because it creates only limited value for both sides. A charity has to be more ‘commercial’ and understand exactly what value it needs to create and how companies can help it create more of that value. Likewise, a company needs to understand how best to work with a charity to create value both for the charity and for itself. One part of the equation that too few companies understand is just how motivated employees are by ‘doing good’.

THE NEXT 25 YEARS

At Barncancerfonden we have developed a recipe and process for working with commercial organisations to create this value, and at the heart of it lies a very emotional appeal, a very strong brand and a very efficient and hard-nosed commercial proposition. We have tested it out with two big companies, including BMW. We have 192 ongoing projects in childhood cancer research, and this is our starting point when we talk to companies that want to work with us, because they can see exactly where their money will go. But we are very selective. We don’t go out with a begging bowl. The general public in Sweden really care about this cause: 90% of the population want to do something about it. So we want to partner with companies who are serious about helping to make a difference – and if they are, they can gain from their association with us. But key for us is for partner companies to get their employees involved too, and the presentations we make to them are designed to engage employees. Once employees are engaged, everybody wins. We first worked with BMW three years ago and they had three critical business challenges: to get their staff to work together more effectively, to launch a new car test-driving system and to create more test drives. Our business challenge, meanwhile, was to raise more money and awareness for our cause. BMW committed to donate €12 out of their marketing budget for every test drive they created, and my team worked with their marketing agency to create a communications campaign – ‘Test drives that create change’ – which ran internally and externally, and which they funded. For the two months of the campaign everyone within the Swedish business of BMW worked hard to create test drives, while the external advertising campaign didn’t feature a car at all, but instead a child on a blue swing, with a strapline reflecting the ‘hope’ message.

WHAT IS BARNCANCERFONDEN? The charity works to fight childhood cancer and ensures that affected children, young people and their families receive the care and support they need. It is funded entirely by individual and corporate donations, which are used for research into the causes, diagnosis, investigation and treatment of childhood cancer; supporting children, young people and their families; and raising public awareness and engagement with the cause. In 1982 two out of five children diagnosed with cancer survived; by 2015 that had risen to four out of five. The charity’s goal is to eradicate childhood cancer, and its core values are hope, courage and responsibility. It is the strongest brand (in terms of giving intentions) within the charity sector in Sweden, and in 2012 it set itself the aim of doubling fundraising (to 350MSEK a year) by the end of 2017. The charity positions itself as ‘a caring fighter that spreads hope’ and one of the first things Almqvist did when he joined in 2013 was to change the role of the traditional symbol of the charity, ‘the blue chair’. It used to be associated with the child that dies; it is now associated with those who survive.

Too few companies understand just how motivated employees are by ‘doing good’ Up until that campaign, the record number of test drives BMW had ever achieved in a two-month period in Sweden was 6,000. The CEO set what he thought was an ambitious target of 12,000. They actually achieved 16,660 during year one. As soon as the campaign was over the CEO wanted to find out how his staff could be engaged in more activities during the year until the start of the next campaign, because they had a new sense of ‘purpose’. We’ve just done the third campaign with BMW, which has contributed almost €1m to our fund during our three-year collaboration. So yes, this is a marketing-driven and funded initiative, but it is much bigger than marketing. It has given BMW a marketing advantage (test drives translate into sales), it has united employees behind a cause they feel passionately about, and the CEO and his team can stand tall and explain to all their stakeholders exactly how all the money they have raised benefits this cause. It is a much more sophisticated approach than just writing a cheque, because it creates so much value for all parties. •

THE NEXT 25 YEARS

Tools for Good

AQ asks Juha Mononen, Alumni’s senior researcher, about Alumni’s CSR and pro bono work, and what else we could do to increase our impact hat is the current status of Alumni’s pro bono work? Alumni has done extensive pro bono work over the years and has solved leadership challenges for leading mission-driven organisations (MDOs) in the Nordics including Amnesty International, Save the Children, Médecins Sans Frontières and The International Union of the Guides and Scouts of Europe. Most of our pro bono or reduced-fee assignments utilise Alumni’s core competencies in executive search and leadership consulting. And most of them stem from the desire of consultants to help particular causes – which, in turn, helps to build the motivation, engagement and pride of the whole firm.

There is also a growing body of literature proposing that companies could do more to solve global problems. Lynda Gratton argues in her new book The Key: How corporations succeed by solving the world’s toughest problems that companies “aligning their organisational interests with those of the world” will be the future winners. We at Alumni would enjoy helping to accelerate such developments and, to this end, want to work more closely with MDOs in the future. Can players learn from each other? Many companies are highly professional and innovative and excel in areas such as change management and exploiting growth opportunities. However, such companies might gain a deeper understanding of their markets, clients and employees if they engaged more fully in the communities in which they operate. MDOs, on the other hand, work naturally with multiple ‘bottom lines’ and have enlightened and ambitious visions. These organisations, however, would benefit from business skills such as strategy, fundraising, marketing and event management. Individuals too would benefit from a cross-fertilisation of skills. We know from our day-to-day contact with members of our network that they have a keen desire to ‘do good’. Gaining work experience in different sectors could help to foster shared insights and understanding. What’s more, secondments in MDOs, for example, are known to be good for retaining and motivating staff.

The MDO and philanthropy sector in the Nordics is less well developed than it is elsewhere

Could Alumni do more? Good leadership should not be restricted to large public or private organisations with plentiful resources. We are currently investigating the extent to which MDOs more generally, and foundations, nongovernmental organisations and social enterprises in particular, would welcome the kind of advisory and consulting services that Alumni has to offer. Certainly, given the increasingly competitive and demanding environment in which MDOs now have to operate, and the associated need for a high degree of management expertise and professionalism, the appetite for these kinds of services is growing. What’s more, the MDO and philanthropy sector in the Nordics is less well developed than it is in, for example, the US, because, in our region, the public sector has traditionally taken responsibility for many of the issues that are increasingly falling to ‘the third sector’ to resolve. Innovative not-for-profit consulting organisations such as The Bridgespan Group are inspirational – but, to date, unusual. What concrete steps are we planning? We have developed a new initiative, ‘Tools for Good’, which is the umbrella brand for our activities targeted towards MDOs. We are currently trying to gauge MDOs’ needs, and are thinking about the kind of solutions we could offer. What larger trends affect our thinking? There is a growing sense that ‘the haves’ in society are letting down the rising numbers of ‘have-nots’. Overall global economic wellbeing may well be on the rise, but there is ample evidence that the world is failing those who, through no fault of their own, are disadvantaged.

How do you see leadership evolving? Developments such as greater gender and ethnic diversity originated in passionate individuals or empowered communities. In a similar way, we would like to help strengthen the ability of various organisations to achieve the impact they aim for – and, in particular, to help social enterprises find innovative new ways to combine business and social impact. The accelerating pace of change will disrupt many traditional ways of doing things, but it also enables us to find new, more effective and more responsible ways of working. I believe that good leaders, increasingly, will be those who set the path for balanced and intelligent ways of collaborating. • For more information please contact juha.mononen@alumniglobal.com