Two experienced women have been brought in this year to lead the HR and marketing efforts at Universal Robots. Besides both being Vice Presidents in a male dominated industry, Lotte Sodemann Sørensen and Susanne Ejsted Isaksson share the belief that the prerequisite for successful growth is employees thriving and growing within the team. They see this as the way to happy and satisfied customers, who can realize ideas, goals and dreams with robots, changing the way people work and live.
Here, you can meet Lotte and Susanne, and learn what they want to achieve and where they see possibilities.
With a long career in different tech- and media companies, Lotte is used to working with employees who develop, create and transform through work which affects millions of people each day. Few industries have undergone such a radical change as the world of media, where new technologies and business models have turned everything upside down. In turn, this challenges employees to work with changes in approach, processes and ways to think.
Lotte’s career has taught her how to navigate in complex global companies with great changeability, and has been involved in various departments, ranging from sales to marketing and customer service. Her career took off in a startup – Den Blå Avis – which was bought by American eBay.
Here, Lotte became part of a gigantic organization, which was where her interest in working with HR really started. She has worked with large global HR-projects at eBay and knows how important it is that employees feel included when a small company suddenly becomes a part of something bigger.
Throughout her career Lotte has periodically lived abroad but came back to Denmark when she was offered a position in the renowned film- and media-company Nordisk Film, as a director for HR, People & Culture. That was an opportunity she could not pass up. After almost five years in the service of the polar bear, Nordisk Film’s distinct mascot, the time has come for her to try a new adventure at Universal Robots.
“To start at Universal Robots is almost like coming home again. My father worked at a brewery, and I grew up with large production machines, where the employees had to perform hard manual labor which took a toll on their bodies. The risk of getting injured was high. Here, I experienced how robots and automatization created a more productive workplace with better conditions, more safety and more possibilities for growth,” says Lotte.
Lotte is busy at work getting to know Universal Robots, the organization as well as the culture. She is excited to find the small seeds, which need to be taken care of and nourished, so that they can grow into something great and strong. This includes everything from graduate- and leader programs, to creating a shared global mindset and a strong culture. The possibility of mobility across countries is also a theme in the global organization which fascinates Lotte.
“As someone responsible for HR, I think it is so important that I know the company’s products, commercial possibilities and customers, so that I understand the potential and can prepare the company for expansion and growth in new and existing markets. I hope the organization will experience me as a person who sees, listens and is present. I would like to be relevant for the whole organization on a global scale”, concludes Lotte, who looks forward to continuing to meet more new colleagues, customers and partners in Universal Robots.
With a background as a leader in the IT-world at companies such as HP and IBM, Susanne has been very drawn to attracting more female talents and creating a more balanced workforce in a business which has historically struggled with doing exactly that. To Susanne it is about creating an attractive and relevant workplace, where words are matched by actions.
It is also important that there is a focus on human values, and an understanding that wellbeing and a good “work happiness – life balance”, as Susanne calls it, is the foundation for results and growth.
“To me the job opportunity at Universal Robots is in many ways my dream job. I have held many important positions at large corporations in the past, but after I stopped at my latest job, my goal was to find a slightly smaller-scale company in a growth phase. This is where Universal Robots is a perfect match”, tells a happy and energetic Susanne.
Susanne will among other things be tasked with creating overview and structure in the marketing function, and through that take marketing to the next level.
“Universal Robots is a company in great growth, and things are moving fast. When I started there was quickly established a common understanding, that I would be contributing to that structure, which in a sense was lacking, because the company has grown as fast as it has. It needed a little more concrete in the foundation, so to say, and that will come when you create a tangible structure for how to cooperate and lay plans. It is a super exciting process,” explains Susanne.
Susanne feels very well received at Universal Robots. She senses a strong entrepreneurial spirit through the company, which in turn gives a drive and a fantastic energy. The pace is fast, which emphasizes the need for structure in the marketing department, so that employees know what is most important, and what is expected. Clearcut plans will help focusing, prioritizing and creating great results.
“I have great ambitions for marketing and in particular high expectations of the human aspects, and how we best can work together. I wish to be a role model who promotes this “work happiness – life balance”, which is so important. In my private life I do a lot of things to find that balance. I exercise, spend time in nature, meditate and I have a coach. We have to be humans first and foremost. This means, among other things, that it’s okay not to be happy every single day. Things happen in the world around us, which can affect us, and there must be room for that. I have always been very ambitious on my and the team’s behalf – but never at the cost of the human,” says Susanne, who is looking forward to working with all the talent there is at Universal Robots.
We believe that collaborative robotic technology can be used to benefit all aspects of task-based businesses – no matter what their size.
We believe that the latest collaborative robot technology should be available to all businesses. The nominal investment cost is quickly recovered as our robotic arms have an average payback period of just six months.