At Sigma Technology, success is ensured through a flat organization and a wealth of ideas. Amer Hadsvik, president, and Daniel Thysell, vice president, Sigma Technology Consulting, tell us about a company that loves development.
Sigma Technology’s subsidiary Sigma Technology Consulting works with software development and embedded systems. Like the rest of the Sigma Group, they focus on an open organization and on catching the ideas of the employees.
Tell us about your leadership philosophy!
Amer: – We have a flat organization where we encourage the employees to share their views. This means that we promote development of ideas, which in turn, means that we are ready to meet the continuous development of the business.
Daniel: – We don’t think that one performance review a year is enough – that’s too seldom for relevant and meaningful feedback. Instead we have a continuous dialog with our employees. With our high demands and open work climate, we also attract people who want to keep on developing themselves.
How do you work on developing employees?
Amer: – It’s the assignments that bring about development. New employees are involved in assignments immediately and get the opportunity to work with different aspects, such as development of customers or ideas. Also, there’s no reason to let anyone get stuck in an assignment. It’s by constantly trying new things and learning from them that we develop.
Daniel: – This autumn we start the training program Next Academy, primarily for those who don’t have extensive experience from the industry. We’ll have courses in subjects that you won’t find at universities, such as the soft factors in the business world. Among other things, we’ll cover business models, presentation skills, and how to be professional.
How do you communicate with your employees?
Amer: – In our company, we produce a newsletter that reaches all of Sigma Technology. That way, we make our competent employees more visible, and at the same time it has a positive effect internally.
Daniel: – In addition to that, we have a chat tool in the cloud, where we have both serious and light discussions. Anything from stimulating programming discussions to your Friday playlist on Spotify.
What’s the greatest challenge for a leader?
Daniel: – We listen to all ideas, but not all of them will be applicable here and now. It’s important to always keep the goal in sight, so we can focus on the right activities.
Amer: – With the wealth of ideas that comes with an open work climate, we need to channel the creativity. We must always be able to answer the question “why” we do something.
ABOUT AMER AND DANIEL
ABOUT AMER
title: President.
education: Electrical engineer, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), 2003. Master’s in intelligent systems, Halmstad University, 2005.
Where do you get your energy? My wife gives me a lot of energy, also continuously being part of development.
ABOUT DANIEL
title: Vice President.
education: Graduate engineer in vehicle engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), 2007.
Where do you get your energy? In meetings with people and adrenaline sports in nature.
Want to know more about life at Sigma Technology? Read interviews with our employees from other locations.