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 to your internal work and corporate culture. How do you maintain this corporate culture in a growing company, even internationally?

All companies are different and have different conditions. At Jula, values have always been important; doing things the right way, wanting to grow and having fun together.
In the early years when Jula started, it was easy - the owners were close and everyone knew everyone. Much later, as we grew significantly, we wrote down the essence of the Jula spirit and all the elements that shape it. But it can't just be words - the Jula spirit only has value when it's lived. So when we last clarified the wording of 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 which must 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 managers have an extra responsibility, and we place a lot of focus on this in our recruitment work. We want to find people who thrive in our culture, are curious, speak their mind 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 being popular.

How do you see developments in the retail sector and the impact of Covid-19 on our consumption patterns? You have both a department store business and e-commerce. How do you see the combination and development of these platforms?
It is essential for us to allow the customer to have good opportunities to shop and to do it in the way each one 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 of society into a crisis, but how we deal with it is very much about approach. Jula was born in the wake of a crisis (the oil crisis in the 70s) and our strongest period of growth was during and immediately after the 2008/2009 financial crisis. So a crisis also creates opportunities.

You have made a career in a family-owned company, which many people say is a real challenge. Can you give some tips to our network on how you succeeded?
I have been 18 years at Jula. It's a long journey. For me it's about an approach! It's Kalle's company (the owner, Based On People's comment) and he wants to create something. My job is to create the conditions for that and to lead the company in the direction Kalle wants it to go. The approach is about this; not losing 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 resolve it between us. Our collaboration is based on clear expectations, trust and close dialog. And you should always remember that the brand is on loan - the owner family lives with the company for generations.
I also see it as important to continuously work on oneself, to be true to one's values and to constantly live and act in accordance with them. The basic values of my leadership are: being a role model, honesty, responsibility and not taking anything for granted.