05/22/2008 14:34
Communicating in Vilnius
Few weeks back our third training module took place just outside of Vilnius. This time our focus was put on communication – how to improve our presentation and negotiation skills. And again I noticed that there’s always need for extra training. Holding a presentation is just not that simple or at least I was told so. You may easily think of any situation holding an hour long presentation. How often you consider engaging your audience? And how you ensure the audience leaves with the key message you wanted to deliver? After few hours of theory we did it in practice. And learning by doing approved to work just perfect for me. From now on I use a “hook” to attract my audience and I bring out the key message throughout my presentation and include it in a precise conclusion. Sounds quite easy, but once you’re up on the stage you tend to forget it all. But hours long practise seemed to help and as our training went on, the presentations really got better and more engaging by end of the day. Well, future really shows what have I learnt and how I am able to use my new skills in daily work. That’s the next topic in this blog or probably it gets way too boring, we’ll see…
In between some quite intensive training on communication techniques, we were invited to Omnitel, a Lithuanian mobile operator and a group company of TeliaSonera. The Baltic telecommunication market and behaviour really differs from the Nordic one. We were told that mobile phone penetration in Lithuania is around 145 percent. Some years back I remember the equivalent Finnish penetration being somewhere close to 100 percent. But to prove this statement correct, the Omnitel spokesperson took in total five mobiles out from his pockets. First we thought he was just kidding with us, but no. With keeping the serious face he explained: “This one is purely for business, this one is for family, this one for friends, this one for basketball club… and this one I use while driving in my car”. A lesson learnt - the cultural differences really exist even in world of mobile communication. And the next question I had in my mind - how this affects our business and how this should be taken into consideration. Well, that’s why I’m onboard on this Trainee Programme to figure it out.
04/09/2008 14:31
Ready - Set - Go
So the initial steps have been taken in TeliaSonera's International Trainee Programme - now it is two months down and some 16 months to come. So far has happened quite a lot. The Trainee Programme started with a kick-off module on the outskirts of Stockholm where we were given a possibility to meet TeliaSonera's top management team and approach them with some questions. Frankly, that was quite an awkward situation since for most of us it was our second day at work. But then again, it was just great to see how CEO Lars Nyberg and his team communicated their vision and priorities for TeliaSonera and how they saw TeliaSonera's market position in future. The topmost thing I experienced was their commitment to vision and the executable milestones to achieve it. Besides that, we trainees found out that there were some 11 nationalities within the programme and 19 languages were spoken fluently. That can really be regarded as an international work environment – a mix of different nationalities always boosts up the group!
First Days at Office
After the exciting first week at TeliaSonera, it was time to settle down in Helsinki office and get familiar with surroundings. Funny enough, it took almost a week to find the shortcut to my desk. The office building is so labyrinthine that every time I had to find the closest exit out from garage and walk outdoors to the other end of the building and then use the only entrance I knew to get to my desk. But now I know the shortcut, at least I think so. Other than that, the beginning was great. I was given a warm welcome to my home unit (Digital Home) and I could start right away with market analyses of future potential businesses for TeliaSonera. It is really fascinating to explore new opportunities and puzzle over whether they could be lucrative business.
Building toilets
The second training module for the Programme took place on Norwegian mountains some 200 kilometres north from Oslo. On the agenda it stated “Team building”. Other than that, all other details were kept in secret. Once we arrived to “secret location”, it all became crystal clear. We were equipped with survival kits, containing raisins and frozen chocolate, and a task was to build a snow cave for sleepover. We thought this is going to be the end - not just for us, but also for the Trainee Programme. Before the snow digging took off, the guides asked for volunteers. What a classical mistake made again - I decided to volunteer and ended up in a sanitary team with a task to prepare toilets both for ladies and gents. Well, it took some six hours to shovel a proper toilet; the snow depth was little less than two metres and it was -10 degrees Celsius. As the rest of my team finished up with our igloo, we found out it was not roomy enough. They had totally forgotten me as I was away preparing toilets. So we ended up sleeping on our sides as there were no extra room to flip on the other side during night. This is what I call team building in real life, great success from Programme manager :)
But new stories are to follow as we head next to Vilnius in few weeks...
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Reima Soikkeli
Age: 28
Place of residence: Kerava, Finland
Interests: Soccer, tennis, skiing
Working with today: Business Renewal and Development within Digital Home domain
Working with in the future: Product Management, Digital Home domain
Best with TeliaSonera: Cheerful working atmosphere & colleagues
Secret talent: Not yet discovered...
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