Joachim, you work in a successful company; Jula Holding, which is basically a family business. An important part of your success is the corporate culture, which is described in JulaBase, a guide for your internal work and corporate culture. How do you maintain this corporate culture in a company during growth, even internationally?

All companies are different and have different conditions. At Jula, values have always been important; to do things in the right way, want to grow, and have fun together.
The first years when Jula started it was easy – the owners were close and everyone knew everyone. When we grew strongly much later, we wrote down the core of the Jula spirit and all the parts that form it. But it must not just be words – the Jula spirit only has value when it is lived. So when we most recently clarified the formulations in the Jula spirit, we spent a total of 30,000 hours getting everyone in the group to take it to heart and then live the culture in everything they do. It is the employees who constantly act and live Jula's values and who should be experienced by customers, colleagues, and suppliers.
We therefore talk about and work continuously with the values, throughout the group and in all countries. All our leaders have an extra big responsibility, while we put a lot of focus on this in our recruitment work. We want to find people who thrive in our culture, are curious, say what they think and take responsibility for it, want to develop, and strive to make things better in a positive way. Expectation and trust are key words, as is that we are popular.

How do you see the development in the retail area and the impact Covid-19 has on our consumption patterns? You have both a department store business and e-commerce. How do you view the combination and development of these platforms?
It is essential for us to allow the customer to have good opportunities to shop and to be able to do it in the way each individual wants. It is a strength to be able to offer good choices. This has always been natural for us; Jula started selling via mail order and then combined mail order with stores. Now stores are combined with e-commerce. The customer chooses what suits them best!
Covid-19 has thrown the whole society into a crisis, but how we handle it is much about attitude. Jula was born in the wake of a crisis (the oil crisis in the 70s) and our strongest growth period was during and immediately after the financial crisis of 2008/2009. So a crisis also creates opportunities.

You have made a career within a family-owned company, which many testify is a real challenge. Can you give some tips to our network on how you succeeded?
I have been at Jula for 18 years. It is a long journey. For me, it's about attitude! It is Kalle's company (the owner, Based On People's comment) and he wants to create something. My job is to create the conditions for it and to lead the company in the direction that Kalle wants the company to go. The attitude is about this; not to lose sight of the direction and path that the owner wants to steer the company towards.
As an external CEO, you need to think about your own role; can I do what the owner wants/expects and do I want to do it, am I passionate about it? For me, there has never been any doubt!
But that does not mean that we always agree on everything. If we disagree, we solve it between us. Our collaboration is based on clear expectations, trust, and close dialogue. Then you should always remember that you have the brand on loan – the owner family lives with the company for generations.
I also see it as important to continuously work on yourself, be true to your values, and constantly live and act in accordance with these. The basic values in my leadership are; to be a role model, honesty, responsibility, and not to take anything for granted.