Hello 2011

When working in finance one annual event is inevitable – balancing the financial statements and handing in the annual report. I can honestly say that I did not look particularly forward to this period, however, it proved to be very interesting and, although I never thought I would say this – financial accounting actually turned out to be very interesting and using the theory obtained at business school in practice was a lot of fun.

Before starting the analysis of the data of the fiscal year there were some accounting jobs that needed to be taken care of and handed over to our external accountant. These were numerous and my responsibility lied mainly on the balancing of the interim accounts, analyzing the inventory and determining which goods where obsolete and needed to be depreciated, and assessing the risk of the default and overall credit risk of the accounts receivables. This involved many meetings with our external and internal accounting teams as well as other controllers and finance managers; the unique structure of Orkla opens up for knowledge sharing across the companies of Orkla Brands Nordic which was greatly utilized. At the end of the day finance is finance and although we operate in different business areas and environments we experience the similar challenges in regards to balancing the books and daily operations of the companies.

Although a turbulent start on the new year which involved working during the weekend it was very interesting and the amount of responsibility I was giving increased my learning curve immensely. One of the things I experience and appreciate most about my job is the trust my superior officers and colleagues put in me. The constant challenges and increased amount of responsibility can sometimes seem overwhelming but great support from all involved parties and the organization as a whole eases these.

When all the technicalities in regards to the balance sheet the really interesting job started which was analyzing the entire fiscal year and writing some clever words the actual state of the company and the performance hereof. 

2010 was a good year for Lilleborg Profesjonell and Orkla Brands Nordic, but 2011 will be challenging due to increased commodity prices and fluctuating FX rates and it will be exciting facing and hopefully overcoming these!

Merry Christmas from Orkla

Working in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods business definitely has its perks and working for a conglomerate with a portfolio as wide as that of Orkla enhances these perks considerably. Today I received the annual Christmas gift which was an amazing package consisting of diverse goods such as: glögg, cookies, crackers, caramels, chocolates, wine gums, fish oil, jam, shampoo, shower crème, oven cleaner, chips, sauerkraut, mustard, ski socks, conditioner etc. providing me with enough shower products, snacks and sweets for the time to come! In Denmark the traditional Christmas gift is not quite as interesting and usually consists of a few bottles of wine. With that said I wouldn’t, however, particularly mind having received wine as this is a costly good in Norway, and was therefore pleasantly surprised when my boss, in addition to the Orkla ASA contribution, presented me with a great bottle of Italian wine as his Christmas present to each of us in the finance department.

NovaForum Copenhagen

A few weeks ago I travelled to Copenhagen to represent Orkla at the annual NovaForum, which is a major biannual conference hosted by the network “Nova100” in each of the Nova100 countries (Denmark, Norway & Sweden) attracting talented students and partners companies from the entire country and across borders. I travelled with Anthon, a Swede working as a Brand Manager at Sätre and Martine who is Head of Recruitment & Organization in Orkla.

During the day selected students participated in one of two Orkla workshops where they were presented with a real-life case and asked to come with suggestions for solving the issue at hand. The students presented competent and highly qualified case solutions, providing Anthon with inspiration for solving similar business cases in the future. Some of the groups even came close to the actual strategy that was implemented.

Anthon is enlightening the students on the many interesting tasks of a Brand Manager at Orkla Brands Nordic.

It was a great experience to represent Orkla, especially in Denmark where the Orkla brand is relatively unknown in spite of the fact that several Danish major fast moving consumer goods companies (Beauvais, Den Gamle Fabrik, Odense Marcipan, Kims and more) are a part of the Orkla portfolio. I hope that we gave the students a great experience and enlightened them on the opportunities at Orkla; it would be nice to see some more Young Professionals from Denmark!

Case solving

Why Norway?

At internal and external meetings, when being introduced to new colleagues, at lunch, in the elevator and when meeting Norwegians around Oslo I always get the same question: ”Why Norway?”. The Norwegians are very proud of their nation and believe that it is the most beautiful country in the world, in spite of this they are also fascinated with Denmark and in particular Copenhagen. The answer to the question is, however, easy: “I got to pursue my ambition of working abroad and at the same time the opportunity of working for Orkla”.

Like many other Young Professionals my relationship with Orkla started at presentations and Nova100 workshops, so I definitely benefited from being a member of the network. This relationship resulted in a much unexpected phone call in March from a HR Manager at Orkla Brands Nordic which subsequently led to an interview in April, eight months prior to my planned graduation. I had two interviews in Oslo and the process was short and straight forward and exactly one month after the first interview I had signed a contract with Lilleborg Profesjonell which is a part of Lilleborg AS and Orkla Brands Nordic. My initial plan for 2010 was to finish my final classes during the spring and write my thesis during the fall. The sudden change of plans involved writing my thesis for nine weeks straight during the summer which was very stressful, but the effort has proved to be worth it, and Orkla has without doubt lived up to my expectations!

The move to Norway was easy but did involve some paper work, and the level of bureaucracy in Norway was somewhat unanticipated. I was lucky to be able to rent an apartment through Lilleborg in Sagene, a 5 minute walk from the office which greatly eased the move. Having this hurdle surpassed I could focus on the practicalities of the move. If you are moving/or considering moving here from Denmark/Sweden please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Beforehand I was not able to find any guide on what I had to do, but now feel like an expert on the area.

I started on September 1st as a controller at Lilleborg Profesjonell. From day one I felt at home and my colleagues are very laid-back and outgoing. The official language in Orkla is Scandinavian and the employees are mainly from Norway and Sweden with a few Danes, making the work environment very interesting and dynamic. In the following posts I will further elaborate upon my new job and life in Norway!

Having lived in what might be one of the flattest countries in the world, the view of the
mountains surrounding city and the Oslo Fjord amazes me every day.