Norrlandsnavet sharpens competence in the north

One of the companies that have got Andreas Volmberg's help is Optimation Advanced Measurments AB , a company that sells advanced measurement systems for the mining industry to customers all over the world. Together with two other companies, they have participated in workshops and coaching sessions in order to better review their business model.

Olle Nilsson is sales and marketing manager at Optimation, talks about the meetings with Andreas Volmberg.
- For us, it has been very valuable. We have gained a greater understanding of what we are good at and what we should be better at, how we can develop the company towards our customers, and how we can better charge for what we deliver and what we do. I feel that we have gained a greater understanding of our business model and thanks to these meetings we have become better and more confident in our self-image. Then we will see what it leads to.

Andreas Volmberg gives his view on how he has helped Optimation.
- I have been a doctoral student since mid-August 2021 and quite early on I was given this assignment to work with companies through workshops. But I also have many years of work experience with a focus on business development from before and it feels natural for me to design a program where the purpose was to develop a new value proposition and test it sharply. The value proposition is the heart of the business model. Optimization's challenge has been to find a way to sell both the meter and the control. It became their input value in this process.

The first eight weeks consisted of four workshops and four coaching sessions. The last assignment for the companies was to produce their own roadmap for the next eight weeks. In his research, Andreas Volmberg has wanted to understand how companies can design a value proposition and it has been developing for him to see how the team from Optimation has changed their way of thinking.
- When Optimation and I started working together, they had a customer that they, due to Covid-19, had not had contact with in two years. It is quite common for engineering companies to become introverted and it can be a great challenge to explore customer problems, to ask open-ended questions.

- Optimization has gained a better understanding of its customers' operations and has also developed its customer relationships during the work. They have received good business support and gone from being reactive to more proactive in their customer relationships. The different companies that have been involved in this process have received different results, depending on the initial value. But a basic principle has been that their output reflected their input in terms of time and commitment.

Footnote
NorrlandsNavet is a center for the development of business operations in northern Sweden in collaboration between the Kamprad Family Foundation and Luleå University of Technology. The foundation gives small and medium-sized companies in northern Sweden the opportunity to develop their company with the help of research and education.