Published by Kasper, March 2018
Group photo from Arla’s head office in Stockholm
Throughout the programme we are in the fortunate position that we will take part in three different training modules focussing on project management, change management and leadership respectively. To me, it sends a strong signal that Arla truly cares about, and invest in, your personal development. I greatly appreciate that we get the opportunity to take some time out to improve our toolbox and reflect on the learning journey we have had so far, as well as how we make it even better going forward.
Project management workshop
Getting Tools and Insights
The focus of our first training module was on getting tools and insights with a particular focus on project management, stakeholder management and an in-depth look at our individual personalities. As the training was taking place in our Swedish head office in Stockholm, we also learned a great deal about the Swedish dairy market from the Head of Arla Sweden, senior representatives from Sales, Finance, and Member Relations as well as F15 alumni. We also had an interesting field trip to our dairy in Stockholm, Kallhäll, to get a better understanding of how our sites operate.
Site tour at the Kallhäll diary
Leveraging Synergies Across Arla’s Graduate Programmes
Obviously, the formal training sessions play the leading part of the training modules, but I would like to highlight another important aspect as well: learning from each other across Arla’s graduate programmes.
First, it was great to meet all my fellow F15s again. Although we are all part of the same programme, we rarely see each other in person as we are working in different locations and have different functional roles. For the very same reason, everybody is eager to exchange anecdotes and experiences from their daily work, which is always interesting to hear about.
Second, I learned so much from talking to the people from Arla’s Production Management Graduate Programme. Their daily work takes place at Arla’s production sites and consequently they are very knowledgeable about the technical aspects of the business. For example, we had some very interesting discussions about packaging and how you find the tricky balance between providing the best packaging solution possible to the consumers, whilst not creating unnecessary (and costly) complexity in the supply chain. I felt we had so much to learn from from each other and it made me realise how important it is that you understand Arla’s entire value chain.
We had a great time in Stockholm
Last but definitely not least, the social aspect of the training was also one of the highlights for me. Although we are a very diverse group of people both in terms of nationality, educational background and personalities, we really hit it off as a group! More than 10 of us ended up staying the weekend just to spend some more time together and to explore the city of Stockholm. Evidently, we ended up having a great time as you can tell from the pictures.
That’s all for me, I hope you now have a better idea of what the training modules are all about.
Cheerio!
