China, baby

I'm back in Oslo after spending 8 exciting days in China. The purpose of the trip was a so-called EBS audit and to coach our colleagues in a production simulation at our joint venture in Qipanjing, Inner Mongolia. This was my first visit, but luckily my mentor and travelling companion, Hilde, is experienced when it comes to travelling in China. That helps!















"Strike a pose"


Our time schedule was quite tight, so we had to work long days to complete what we had set out to do. That is not a problem when you are surrounded by nice, motivated and knowledgeable people. Some of the smiles and faces I will carry with me forever. Only a handful of the people working at the plant speak English, so the local EBS coach, Vicky, had plenty of translating to do. My Chinese is restricted to "ni hao" and "xiè xiè" - i.e. "hello" and "thank you". Of course, those phrases can only get you so far...






"After 4 challenging runs of production simulation, this was the winning team. Congratulations!"




It wasn't all work of course. Both on our way to and from Inner Mongolia, we had a pit stop in Beijing. There we visited The Forbidden City - impressive and beautiful! We also had time to wander around at a couple of markets. There we got to practice our bargaining skills. "You are a very tough business woman!" I'm happy to hear that, but I'm also 100% sure that the sales lady made a nice profit out of our business transaction. And as our professor at NHH taught us; both parties should be pleased after closing a deal.

Before departing to China I was a bit concerned with how the Chinese cuisine and I would "interact". I had heard horror stories about snake wine and dog meat, and for a picky eater that is not a good combination. My taste-buds and chopstick skills were definitely challenged from time to time, but for the most part I was pleasantly surprised. For breakfast I stuck to Norwegian food like crisp bread with cream-cheese. But for lunch and dinner we had deliciuos lamb, hot pot (Chinese tapas on a spinning table), fresh vegetables, and various dishes with noodles. Sneak advertisement: If you find yourself looking for a nice place to dine in Beijing - go to Berenas Bistro located on Lucky Street. Yum-yum!

"Hot pot in an Mongolian tent. A night to remember!"

"My mentor Hilde and EBS coach Vicky"


I will most definitely visit Asia and China again. Next time with a backpack and 4 weeks of vacation to enjoy the beautiful and exotic continent.

Take care!

And remember;
"Embracing opportunities create new ones!"

The social aspects of being a trainee in Elkem

Part of being a trainee in Elkem is of course the social happenings, and I'll now share with you a few examples of recent activity. Relatively recent anyway... Time flies!

Roughly every 6 months, we have so-called trainee gatherings. We meet nearby one of Elkem's plants and spend 2-3 days together. The program is a mix of social and more "formal" activities. In late June we went to Bremanger - a beautiful place located in Sogn og Fjordane on the Norwegian west coast. The weather and location was perfect for outdoor activities like boating, hiking and community singing on the docks. Life was good!

A good mix of "fresh" and "senior" trainees on the highest mountain top of Frøya

Idyllic Kalvåg, Frøya A beautiful boating trip back to Bremanger

Our lead singer and guitarist, Torbjørn

When our beloved trainee coordinator, Svein, retired this summer, former and existing trainees threw him a surprise party in Kristiansand (the sunny coast of Norway). And the man was surprised alright! The Clerk of the Weather was definitely with us - bright sun and clear skies all through the night.


An evening to remember

We also have informal gatherings for purely social reasons from time to time. In Oslo for instance, some of us meet regularly to catch up, go out to dinner, drink wine and so on. Others have spent an entire weekend hiking in the mountains.

Picnic in the park

I'm going to China in a few weeks, and I'll make sure to post some pictures and share with you my experiences when I'm back. Until then - take care!

Today's word of wisdom:
"Fighting spirit spreads like fire from one person to another. A leader's daring spirit will kindle flames of enthusiasm and inspire an entire organization."

EBS University in Rotterdam

2-4 times a year the EBS Competence Center arranges EBS
University for employees from all functions and organizational levels in Elkem. New this time was the focus on logistics, sales and market. It was only natural then that the event took place in Rotterdam, or actually in Ridderkerk – a small town adjacent to Rotterdam, since this is the location of our distribution, maritime and logistics center. We couldn’t have asked for a better host! Everyone at the Rotterdam office was service minded and competent, and the facilities corresponded perfectly with our needs. I’ll be back!


All the participants, including the manager of Elkem Rotterdam (Ellen Groeneveld), and three of the EBS coaches outside Van der Valk, Hotel Ridderkerk.

For 5 days 34 participants, 4 EBS coaches and several lecturers worked together from early morning to late afternoon with improvement work. This is of course key in handling the challenges we are facing in the market now. The activities in bullet points: - EBS basics -
Strategic problem solving; Root cause analysis and other EBS tools - EBS tools
- Field training with relevant / real life cases - Lego simulation - Lots of team work with presentations - Presentations from guest lecturers - Coaching session

A focused Claudia Andersen preparing for the next run of the Lego simulation.

We were fortunate to have our CEO Helge Aasen come and speak to us about Elkem’s business case and strategy, including his own experience with EBS. He also took the time to answer questions from the participants, before taking off to Iceland for a board meeting.

CEO Helge Aasen

We were able to squeeze in some social activities as well into
our busy schedule. The Norwegian football team were namely playing against the Netherlands (trying to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa 2010) at the Feyenoord stadium in Rotterdam, and thanks to extraordinary effort by the Rotterdam office we got tickets for the whole group. I will not elaborate on the weather conditions or the result…

On our way back to Schiphol we visited both the gigantic port of Rotterdam (4th largest in the world after three ports in China) and an information centre which focused the port’s future development – “Experience FutureLand”.

Torbjørn Engebretsen and Trond Valberg, Elkem
Bremanger. "Vi gir alt, alt for Norge..."

The closing dinner had sort of a ceremonious touch;
every participant was given a diploma, and the Best Performing Team was awarded
as well. This was a really fun night, and I was relieved as well. This was my
first EBS University as a coach. It was hectic, challenging, fun and inspiring.
I really look forward to round two! The next post will give you a glimpse
of some of the social trainee activities I have experienced recently.

Hilde, Ellen, Øyvind and me at the
closing dinner.

In the meantime, take care! Today’s word of wisdom:”Habits start by being too weak to
be felt and end up becoming too strong to get out of. Before you realize that
you have got the habit, the habit has got you. We form habits and habits form
character. If a person has positive habits, then he is considered a positive
character. If a person has negative habits, then he is considered a negative
character.”

Snapshot of a “typical” week

As mentioned in my first post, this time I’ll try to give you a brief insight in my day to day work. That’s easier said than done, since no days are identical. Luckily! Anyway, here is a snapshot of one of the preceding weeks (a week mainly dedicated to the planning and preparation for the upcoming EBS University in Rotterdam):

Monday

Competence management meeting
One group attending the program “Leadership in Elkem” got the task to, among other things, identify the critical and core competence in the foundry division. This task is quite challenging and complex, especially when considering how widely spread the team members are – living and working from at least three different continents. Due to my educational background, I was invited to sit in at the meeting, mostly for my own learning experience, and for that I’m very grateful. Thank you, Allan!

Tuesday

Staff meeting
Twice a month the HR department has a staff meeting. I participate when I'm in Oslo, even though I’m now involved with the EBS Competence Center. This is because my first trainee period was in this department, and in addition EBS falls under the responsibility of our HR director. In addition, this arena is golden when it comes to keeping updated on what is going on in the organization and of course in terms of keeping in touch with my colleagues in the HR team.

Elkem’s trainee program
Since 1995 89 trainees have been through the Elkem trainee program. Even though the program is very well put together, there is always room for improvement. Continuous improvement is key in the EBS methodology! In addition, Elkem has now become a more focused company (after selling our share of Elkem Aluminium), and market conditions are rapidly changing. Therefore the program needs to be updated to better meet the future demands. My contribution was to map all the former trainees and help the project leader with updating the figures and statistics.

Wednesday

EBS University planning meeting
EBS University is soon coming up, so Hilde (EBS coach) and I spent the whole day preparing and going through all the details to make sure everything will run as smoothly as possible. EBS University is an Elkem internal training program, with focus on the EBS methodology (closely related to the Toyota Production System), and practical training. For the first time we now focus on logistics, sales and market, and I’m excited to see the outcome!

Thursday and Friday

EBS University follow-up
Am I on top of things?? With all the nitty gritty details, it’s easy to overlook something and I’m certainly feeling the pressure since I’m a rookie in this game compared to my fellow EBS coaches. Thankfully I have their support and experience to rely on!

I can honestly say I’ve never written as many e-mails as I did this week. I swear I could see smoke coming out of my computer. No wonder really, when communicating with 34 participants all over the world, 3 EBS coaches, the printing works in Trondheim, the hotel in Rotterdam, the guest lecturers, and the secretary-executive at Elkem Rotterdam. But thankfully, at the end of the week things are definitely coming together, and I’m really looking forward to meeting everyone. Multitasking was definitely key this week. And lists, well arranged lists!

I’m just back at the office now after spending 6 exciting days in Rotterdam and I’ll tell (and show) you all about that next time. Take care!

Today’s word of wisdom:”Sometimes you have to do things you do not dare, for otherwise you are not a man, just a little turd.”

(Loosely translated from Astrid Lindgren - Brødrene Løvehjerte)

Introduction of myself and the steps towards being an Elkem trainee

Hi everybody! I’m the latest addition to the bloggers here on orklajobs.com, and blogging is definitely a new experience for me. Taking over after Karin feels like jumping after Wirkola (as we say in Norway), but I’ll try my best!

My educational background is somewhat diverse. After 4 stimulating years of teacher training in Bodø and Tromsø, I decided to change direction. I therefore took my bachelor and master’s degree at The Norwegian School of Business and Economics (NHH) in Bergen. I graduated in June 2008 with a specialization in strategic leadership. On the master level I attended courses like change management, strategic analysis, project management, strategic crisis management, and negotiations to name a few. All very interesting! I did my master thesis on the downsizing and restructuring of one of the largest newspapers in Norway.

In October 2007 I found the dream job, and applied eagerly online. My mother still refers to the excited phone call she got after I found the advertisement. I really wanted this job! Thankfully, after a few weeks I got a phone call with the invitation to come to Oslo for an interview. There I met with our trainee coordinator, Svein, and HR-manager, Frank-Levi. The first session was quite traditional. I got the chance to show them who Cecilie was and why I would be a god candidate for the job. They got a chance to tell me a lot more about Elkem and their expectations. The next day I had to complete a personality test, and the following day I was back in Oslo for a second interview. This time it was much more challenging. I had to present the results of the test and use real life examples to support my statements, give a presentation in English on a given topic (without preparation), take a stand to various statements etc. Friday the same week I got the job, and 8 months after I started as a trainee in Elkem.

Me and my fellow Elkem trainees Borgny, Yun, Samuel, Maria, Johan, Johannes, Malin, me, Aslak and Mikael the first time we met.

Since then I have experienced so much! I’ve had the privilege to meet many talented and experienced people who are willing to share their knowledge. Since I graduated in economics and strategy, I had never been to a plant in my life. Needless to say, my first visit to a silicon plant was extremely useful in terms of understanding more of the highly complex production processes. Knowing the core of the business is crucial no matter what position you have in the company.

My first trainee period was in the HR department, and now I am involved with improvement work through an internal competence center in Elkem. Immediately after the Easter holiday break I went to Elkem’s plant on Iceland for course and training in root cause analysis, then to Rotterdam and the distribution center for value stream mapping, and back to Norway and Kristiansand for an audit. Time flies when having lots of interesting and challenging tasks and projects!

Elkem HQ is located at Smestad in Oslo.

My organized (!) workspace.

When attending various career fares and company presentations as a student at NHH, we always wanted the company representatives to share with us what they actually did on a day to day basis. Therefore I’ll try to give you a snapshot of my “typical” week in the next post here on orklajobs.com.

So long, everyone! Hope to see you in here again soon!

Today’s word of wisdom: “Knowledge without practice makes but half an artist.”