Q&A with Björn

What is your educational background? 

Master of Science in Civil Engineering

Why did you choose to join Alfa Laval?

I wanted to work in an international environment and also work abroad. I had a friend who worked at Alfa Laval and convinced me that it was a great company to work for. 

Tell us about your role here at Alfa Laval? 

I am Head of Marketing & Product Management for Business Unit Gasketed Plate Heat Exchangers (GPHE) and responsible for an organization with around 40-45 people (including five managers). We make sure that we have a competitive product portfolio towards the markets we serve. In the team we have product managers, a portfolio manager, a team of project managers who drive NPD projects (new product development) & EPD projects (existing product development), a team who develops our configurators (our most important sales tool) and our product documentation (e.g. instruction & installation manuals, PIM-systems etc). We also have a compliance manager and a training manager in the team. 

Tell us about the culture and life at Alfa Laval?

I think the culture at Alfa Laval is great. People are friendly, positive, knowledgeable, hard working and supportive. I feel people are very willing to share their knowledge with each other and are always supportive. For example, when traveling or when you have colleagues visiting the custom is that you go out to eat dinner together so you also become good friends with your international colleagues. Even after 26 years,  each day when I arrive at the office in Lund I feel happy and proud to work for Alfa Laval and I believe most other feel the same.  

What role does innovation play in your function?

It plays a very important role. In order to maintain the competitiveness of our products we need always innovate to make our products we always need to innovate to make our products perform better or to deliver a better customer experience. In product management we work very closely with R&D and Operations Development to maximize the performance of our existing and future products and to make sure they are manufactured in an efficient and safe way. When we develop products for new markets we often run into challenges that require innovations. It is also very important for our Service business that we innovate and protect these innovations with patents so that we secure future service & spare parts business.

How important is collaboration to you and your work? 

Extremely important! I would say my work and my organization´s work is all about collaboration. We need to collaborate with Sales Units & Sales companies in order to understand the market requirements for our products, sales tools, documentation, systems etc. Then we need to collaborate closely with R&D, Operations, Sourcing & IT to develop and produce the products, tools and documentation that meet the market/customer demands. I would say that I collaborate with other departments/organizations on a daily (hourly?) basis.

How do you see Alfa Laval pioneering positive impact, and how are you contributing to this?

Alfa Laval innovates and develops products/technologies that are crucial to develop industries & solutions that society relies on. My contribution is to ensure that we develop GPHE products that are suitable for the future energy landscape and food production (that, in turn, are crucial for de-carbonization). Furthermore, myself and the GPHE organization are driving towards reaching the group sustainability targets for GPHEs. My team is developing digital solutions (tools, product information, etc) that contribute to a great customer experience.