– Hi Oscar, Nice of you to take time for the interview.
Oscar, you have been Vice President and Business Area Manager in Sweden at ZetaDisplay for almost three years. Tell me about your view of the past year.
– A lot has happened in the past year. We won a big customer: ATG. We won the tender, and from mid-May 2018 until the end of the year: 7,000 screens would be installed in ATG’s 2,000 stores. In addition, our CMS – the Content Management System, our software, had to be able to talk to five other systems. A big challenge. Incredibly exciting, I think.
How did it work?
– We managed it, absolutely not pain-free, but we succeeded. It gave us an organic growth of 300% in our segment – Sweden. I’m really proud of it! Sometimes we might not have had the belief. Maybe not even the customer, but it progressed as I said. I was actually at ATG’s office this morning, Oscar continues. They are satisfied with what we have delivered. When we wanted to present the case at Dagens Industri’s retail gala, we got the retail manager from ATG on board. Together we presented the largest Digital Signage project ever implemented in the Nordic region. Moreover, in a mind-bending short time. Better customer support is hard to find.
Oscar, tell me a little about the slightly longer journey the last three years since you came to ZetaDisplay.
– I’m fundamentally a sales person. So, of course, I began at Zeta by joining as many sales meetings as possible. One of my first customer meetings was with the company Stadium. You should know that we essentially have a long sales process, but with Stadium it went fast, really fast. And we still have them as customers. It feels good, of course. We have almost kept all customers we have won through the ages.
Why is that, do you think?
– Customer satisfaction, says Oscar frankly. Our delivery is good and customized. We deliver both hardware and software where our CMS is at the heart of our business. Then we are quick to respond, we mobilize good working groups and we have good installation partners. I would also say that we are more innovative than our colleagues in the industry – coming up with solutions and ideas early on. In that area we are one step ahead. Anyone can deliver a standard solution. That’s not ZetaDisplay.
If we look a little ahead, where are you directed? And where are the major advances being made?
– We have long experience, in an immature industry. But what I already see is that there will be more automation of the content. Some usage of AI. For example: people counting, geodata, and time factors. There is also still plenty to do outside Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Netherlands. We are planning an expansion outside of these markets. Partly with IKEA, and partly with Ekornes with its 4,000 resellers around the world. We roll out shop-in-shop solutions. Flagship store in a different way, you could say. A kind of omni-channel thinking, says Oscar.
ZetaDisplay has used us at Anchor. Give advice to us Management Consultants.
– We needed help. We had pains from growing. Growing 300% in a year requires that all processes are in place. To get an overview of that, you need professionals. It started with a Quick Assessment. From this we got a thorough review and analysis of the needs an external party sees in a growth company like ours. An eye opener, in short. And you see what needs to be done. Then we asked ourselves the questions: Do we want to do everything? Do we want to do it ourselves, or do we want help? We chose to take help from you in some areas. It worked well, says Oscar.
One last question Oscar. What do you have on the bedside table right now?
– Well, I’ll admit I’m not a bookworm. Besides reading the Svenska Dagbladet every morning, there is probably “Svensk Jakt” (magazine for hunters) on the bedside table. I hunt a lot. Everything from duck to moose. I swapped hunting with my wife who got golf from me. Nice exchange, I think.
Thank you Oscar!
