On June 16, Per Wold-Olsen was elected to GN Store Nord’s Supervisory Board as its new chairman and was joined by fellow new members Dr. Wolfgang Reim and Carsten Krogsgaard Thomsen. Already on the board were Bill E. Hoover, Jr., who had recently accepted the deputy chairmanship, Jørgen Bardenfleth, and René Svendsen-Tune, as well as three members elected by the employees.
“With these changes to the Supervisory Board, GN Store Nord now has a broad-based board with a truly global perspective as well as deep competencies in business critical areas,” said Per Wold-Olsen, chairman of the Supervisory Board, in an interview with GN News.
Wold-Olsen reflects on the wide range of competencies in GN Store Nord’s new Supervisory Board:
“Bill Hoover, former director of McKinsey’s Scandinavian office, has a profound knowledge of supply chain, optimization and restructuring of technology businesses. Jørgen Bardenfleth, who is also country general manager of Microsoft Denmark, adds in-depth insight into technology innovation, sales and marketing execution. CEO of Teleca René Svendsen-Tune knows about mobile technology and key account sales to telecoms operators. Now GN has added Wolfgang Reim, who brings to GN extensive international executive and board experience from medtech companies such as Siemens, Dräger Medical and Carl Zeiss Meditec, and Carsten Krogsgaard Thomsen, CFO of DONG Energy, who will contribute a great deal with his insight into financial and accounting issues, risk management, investor relations and Danish management customs. On top of this, they are all highly experienced global – and independent – leaders.”
What do you yourself bring to the table in the ongoing efforts to turn GN Store Nord around?
“I view myself as a global business leader. I’ve held central positions in a large global company [Merck], and one of my key competencies is to work in a truly global marketplace. I am fascinated by building global strategies that can be executed well on local markets in a way that extracts all the synergies and benefits of having a global operation. It is important that it permeates throughout GN’s organization that we have to be and operate as a truly global company that competes with other global players – one that just happens to be headquartered in Denmark.”
Why did you agree to join GN?
“All my professional life, I’ve worked with innovation and the commercialization of innovation. This is what excites me, and GN is fascinating in its combination of exactly that: the commercialization of technology and innovation. Regardless of past difficulties – and I’m fairly resilient in my approach to the inevitable ups and downs in any business – GN’s basic business model of commercializing innovation is exciting and should offer significant opportunities. Now we just need to get back to staying focused on running the business, and I fundamentally believe that we have great opportunities to make this company truly prosperous.”
What are the main tasks at hand for the new board?
“First, I have to compliment Mogens Hugo [GN’s former chairman] for bringing this truly global and competent board together. I believe that he has managed to build the prototype of a modern board that is able to face and help guide the executive team to meet the challenges of an increasingly complex global marketplace. The mix of competencies and global outlook is extremely attractive.”
“I see our board having four main tasks to focus on right now: corporate governance, helping the executive management with strategy development, succession planning, and executive compensation. We have just appointed an audit committee and a remuneration committee, both of which will help structure and guide the way we operate as a board.”
What will it take to turn GN around?
“I don’t want to make any program declaration at this time, but in broader terms our focus right now has to be on executing on the turnaround plans that are already in place in both GN ReSound and GN Netcom. Our current business model does not keep us from producing improved results, and we need to focus on creating stability, get our basics straight, and providing success stories upon which we can build more successes.”
What, in your book, is “running the business” in relation to GN?
“Innovation and the commercialization of innovation and technology is what created GN 139 years ago, and this is still the basis for GN. We have cutting-edge Bluetooth technology and highly advanced sound technology – just to mention a couple things – and we must continue to develop new and innovative solutions for products that we can commercialize in order to generate a higher profitability than we have recently managed to do. Obviously, this is also about fast and pertinent performance.”
What is your timeline for GN’s turn-around – is this a one-year or a five-year project?
“I have both a short-term and long-term perspective on GN. First things first: by next year we must begin to see plain positive signs that we are clearly on the right track.”