Look beyond the finish line - then look again
I rode my bicycle from San Francisco to New York. Reaching the goal in Central Park was a moment, I will never forget. It was one goal and one process where each mile was added to the previous miles to finally getting there. Contrary to my bike trip, my job as Business Unit Director for Pediatrics is not one linear process with one clear finish line. I have an overall purpose but with that said, there are a lot of parallel processes with milestones and desired end states. Often you have to improvise and take one step back – and sometimes the goal might even get out of sight. But as long as there is a purpose, the journey becomes the goal. In my job, my higher purpose is discovering and delivering the components that contribute to babies becoming more healthy and more happy. There is no one-off victory, because we can always do more and better; as long as we keep reaching new milestones, we are going in the right direction.
Our ingredients can change your outlook
The ingredients we create improve the lives of real people. Our end users range all the way from infants to patients to athletes, who benefit differently from ingesting what we discover and deliver. And we make these wonders happen in close collaboration with our customers; the companies that use our ingredients for their products. We also have to jump through hoops to make things better for them. Like when a large key account placed an additional order of 3-400 tons of a particular ingredient at a time where we didn’t exactly have the capacity yet. But we took a deep breath, worked together as one across AFI, invested in a new plant and made it happen. Delivering on what anyone else would have claimed impossible felt really great. Actually, that was a real raise-the-trophy moment!
Bringing expertise together to stay in front
At Arla Foods Ingredients, you find lots of specialists. I’m not one of them. But I am really good at bringing specialists together. I see that as my calling as a leader; to identify people who are really good at what they do and helping them understand each other to create wonders. All you have to do is ask the right questions, and suddenly the sparks fly. We do the same when meeting customers; establishing a creative setting where we can bring together what we’re good at, ask questions and listen to their needs and their ideas for the future. What is the next step in pediatric nutrition? We’re here to discover. Maybe it’s personalized nutrition - products designed specifically for you, based on a genetic snapshot.
See wonders happen
Most workdays are like a meteor swarm of meetings. As an extrovert, I enjoy the social contact. I’m not really good at putting words to my thoughts before I’ve discussed them with others. If I don’t have any meetings, I seek out colleagues to talk to, for examples, asking them “What are the three most important things you’re working on right now?”. Then, I get to work, and sometimes it gets late. I’m probably not a great role model that way.
What I believe makes Arla Foods Ingredients special has to do with creation combined with resources. We want to create something new. If you have ideas, and if you can make a solid business case to management, you’ll see wonders happening.