Hello CEO: Karin Schreil, TietoEvry
Our 1,350 members range from small start-ups with few employees to large multinational companies with thousands of employees around the world. Under the banner "Hello CEO", we gather their views on the past year, their thoughts on the future, but also lessons and experiences from a time unlike any other. First up was Åse Holmberg, CEO of Sentor, and she is followed by TietoEvry CEO Karin Schreil.
How would you sum up the past year, largely marked by the coronavirus pandemic?
- The year 2020 was extra special for us as we merged the two companies Tieto and EVRY to form TietoEVRY. We were two large Nordic IT companies that had previously been competitors and could now finally integrate our operations to offer the best of both companies to our customers. However, it wasn't long after we had our first big joint meetings before the pandemic hit and we - and large parts of society - were forced to switch from office jobs to home jobs. The pandemic therefore meant an extra big adjustment for us. Not only did we have to ensure our important deliveries and support our customers' operations, many of which fulfill a socially critical function, but we also had to get the new company together without being able to meet physically.
- It may sound like an almost impossible task, but when I look back at how we tackled the past year of the pandemic, I am immensely proud of the efforts of all our staff and that we really succeeded! We have not only built our own organization, but also helped our customers by supporting them with their needs and overcoming all kinds of challenges they faced. For example, we have helped both large and small private and public actors to make the transition from physical to digital commerce and from office work to remote work, which has been made possible by scaling up capacity and developing various innovative solutions - all while we ourselves have mainly worked from our home offices in a variety of locations.
What lessons have you learned and what will you take away?
- The pandemic has not stopped us, but we have had to rethink, do things in new ways and prioritize differently to succeed. We have worked hard - and often creatively - to bring the team together, from Kalix in the north to Malmö in the south. Working remotely has isolated us physically, so it has been very important for us to build strong employee engagement through regular updates and digital meeting places where all employees have access to up-to-date information. Constantly evaluating, collecting feedback and following up is important to understand how employees perceive the situation and how we can best support them.
- Effective processes and tools are important prerequisites for both integration and enabling remote working, but nothing is more important than our people. Our leaders have played a huge role in ensuring that everyone has the support they need to succeed in their work. It has also highlighted how important it is to work actively on leadership development and management support.
- As for many others, the pandemic has led to a need to review how and where we work in the future. We will continue to offer flexible ways of working with a mix of offices and the possibility of working from home, while we see that digitization will mean less travel even after the pandemic. Our plan is to develop sustainable work and meeting places for engagement, innovation and co-creation, and offices remain an important part of this.
Looking ahead, how do you see the immediate future?
- In society, we can see that the rapid structural transformation brought about by the pandemic has accelerated digitization at a rate equivalent to three years. At the same time, we see that some groups are being left out as more and more is digitized and therefore it is important that the continued digitization includes and enables everyone to take part in the same service.
- To succeed in our ambitions, those of us in the industry need to create an inclusive working environment and enable more women to enter and stay in the profession. Diversity and inclusion are key elements of innovation and are crucial in our type of business. We therefore set high goals, including reaching a 50/50 balance between women and men by 2030. We aim high and believe we can make a difference as one of the largest employers in the Nordic region in IT and technology.
What benefits have you seen from membership of IT&Telecom during the crisis?
- Through our membership of IT&Telekomföretagen, we have on the one hand had access to valuable support and advice on various types of employer issues, and on the other hand we have also had the opportunity to contribute and influence various issues relating to everything from our own business to the digitization of Sweden. For example, we participated in the IT&Telecom companies' initiative #vitecherupp, where we and other industry colleagues highlighted our various solutions to challenges linked to the pandemic, and we were also active in several of the member councils that the association runs in important areas linked to digitization and society. I see collaboration and exchange with our industry colleagues as a major added value of our membership. With the rapid development that is now taking place in the wake of the pandemic, collaboration in various forms will become even more important to achieve our common vision of a sustainable society with an innovative and responsible tech sector as an enabler.