You have a long list of qualifications and several parallel occupations. How did this come about, and how do you find the time?
Good question. Perhaps because I am enthusiastic and fearless. If I am really interested in something, which I can sometimes become quite quickly, I throw myself into it. And my main focus is always – and probably always will be – on the meeting point between what creates competitiveness (marketing, strategies and business intelligence) and how consumers react. Since I believe that short set times help me to manage my work, I can settle down and write in a book if I have 30 minutes of free time on a train, at an airport or somewhere else.
Which of your many roles do you like the best?
I like lecturing best of all – having the opportunity to put together and communicate a message with constantly new influences and intersection points. I do not really know why. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I discover new things and then have a platform from which to convey these discoveries. It feels meaningful and it is a fun and effective way to spread knowledge. I actually enjoy lecturing more the more people are listening.
You have done research on the views of people born in the 1980s regarding the employment market. Tell us something about that.
At my former institute I was Director of Studies for the Master of Science in Business and Economics degree course, and had a lot of daily contact with people born in the early 1980s. Something happened rather suddenly when the first students from this period started studying: The number of points of view and questions increased, while the course evaluations produced increasingly better results. People born in the ‘80s were more straight to the point and demanding, but also fearless, constructive and pleasant. I started by interviewing 35 people born in the 1980s from different countries and different backgrounds, and found a partly general pattern which was later tested in questionnaires. People from the new generation have quite a different outlook on work, and their career choices are more emotionally based. They are very career-minded and plan to change jobs often, because what stresses them is not finding the time for everything that they want to do in life – and they want to do a lot! I have also begun to do research about the generation born in the 1990s- read more here.
Among other things, you lecture on Employer Branding. Tell us a bit about why the subject is so important and receives so much attention.
For many decades, market players have focused on promoting consumer products and communicating brands that attract consumers. In the employment market, besides seeing substantially higher demand from younger employees (for example Generation Y), there is also greater spreading out between better and worse employers, increased spreading out of salaries, a greater variety of terms and conditions to recruit employees and clear requirements from employees to get to know what is involved in working in a particular organisation. Through Employer Branding, the competitive advantages of the organisation – why you will work there – can be reinforced and communicated. This can reduce the costs of recruiting since a clear profile means that we attract the right employee, but above all manage to get the right individual to work in the organisation. When individuals are comfortable and in the right place, this benefits the individual, the department, the organisation and society as a whole. Through Employer Branding you can get the right person in the right place.
