SSG Day 2013 - "What we do is unique"

Fifty or so committee members and representatives from SSG’s offices and Board of Directors met up in order to discuss committee work on SSG Day, which was held on 24 September 2013. This year’s theme was “What are the benefits of collaboration, and how can we increase this in the best interests of industry?”.

Representatives of the ten SSG committees were present at SSG Day, which took place at Best Western Hotel in Bromma on 24 September. SSG Day, which was last held in 2011, provides a meeting place for committee members, SSG and the SSG Board, and its aim is to continue to develop the unique committee-based work done by SSG. This year’s theme was “What are the benefits of collaboration, and how can we increase this in the best interests of industry?”. As master of ceremonies, it was the job of Bengt Wahlström – trendspotter and intelligence analyst at Företag & Framtid – to get discussions going between committee members and to guide speakers through the day.

Jonas Berggren, CEO of SSG, got SSG Day 2013 off to a flying start by welcoming all attendees and explaining what the agenda for the day would involve. Jonas began by explaining that he is very pleased with the enormous amount of dedication being displayed by the committees and by the companies and people participating.

“When you sit down and look at all these groups, you can’t help but feel incredibly committed and incredibly enthusiastic,” said Jonas Berggren. “That’s maybe the key to it all. We can make quite a lot of this, in combination with the wisdom which the committee members possess.”

Why does SSG’s work function so well?

His introduction complete, Jonas Berggren went on to explain to the people present what SSG is and where the company stands at present. Work began about a year ago on devising a new vision, promise and business concept. The heart of SSG’s work can be traced back to the 1960s, and even then there was discussion on collaboration in order to make work more efficient. But global competition in the industry is tough, and also makes very stringent demands of everyone involved. This opportunity for collaboration is Swedish industry’s trump card.

“What we do in Sweden is unique. You won’t find it anywhere else in the world,” said Jonas Berggren, asking at the same time just why this should be. 
“The answer is that we can rely on one another, and this, in essence, is why this works. This is the answer to why we can have major industries that put their heads together to come up with smart solutions.”

Jonas talked about SSG’s mission, which involves considering benefits and considering customers, and he explained what SSG does; namely standards. Shared solutions to shared problems. The company’s vision is “Business Excellence through industrial collaboration”, which means that SSG must persuade industry to improve through collaboration. Kåre Nordström, Deputy CEO and Head of Marketing at SSG, also spoke later about SSG’s working methods and explained precisely how SSG works to “The SSG Way”.

Although SSG is owned by the six biggest forestry industries in Sweden, it makes sales to a wider market. The forestry industry accounts for 24 per cent of sales at present, compared with 72 per cent in 2006. SSG has made a transition from acting as the forestry industry’s standardisation company and is now Swedish industry’s standardisation company.

Open collaboration, industrial collaboration and open innovation

After Jonas Berggren had spoken, it was time for the master of ceremonies himself to take the stand. Bengt Wahlström has extensive experience of trendspotting, and explained about the earlier industrial environment which involved independent industries with their own markets, suppliers and customers. Industries remained within their own established boundaries and took a standard route to profitability. Nowadays, however, things are different. Events beyond our control in our world are all part of everyday life. The companies that are our competitors today may be our partners tomorrow, which creates new ecosystems in business. As a result, companies today have to find new ways of working in order to meet these new demands.

Collaboration between companies has received a boost over the last few years. Above all, we have been seeing collaboration between industry and academia, allowing companies to benefit from the expertise available within colleges and universities. Another common form of collaboration involves companies and the public sector, which may involve the implementation of major projects such as the Arlandabanan rail line. Less common is collaboration between companies, and this is something to which SSG devotes itself. Bengt explained that it is convenient for companies to have like-minded strategic objectives but different competitive targets, particularly when both feel they have something to learn from one another.

One important factor in successful collaboration is a foundation of trust to make the whole thing work, so leading back to Jonas Berggren’s initial statement on how Swedish and Nordic cultures rely on one another.

Major benefits from networking

Two years ago, on the last SSG Day, a project was launched with a view to developing SSG’s committees. One item which this project has delivered up front is the fact that there is now a “committee development officer” at SSG. Per Myhrén will be taking on this role as of 2013 in parallel with his role as an industrial doctoral student at the Service Research Center in Karlstad. His work includes looking at committee work across the business areas and seeing how it can be developed still further. A survey took place recently, and Per Myhrén presented the results to everyone who attended. The survey seems to suggest that a very large number of people feel that the networking they carry out within SSG’s committees is very beneficial.

Per Myhrén also identified a number of focus areas for further development of the work of the committees:

•  Commercial success through industrial collaboration at committee level.
• Clarification of the role of committee member.
• Further development of the role of project manager (SSG)
• Benefits created in application.

Work on committee development is continuing so that the committees of tomorrow can be created on the basis of what the industry demands and needs.

Innovation in services

Lars Witell, Professor of Marketing at the Service Research Center in Karlstad, was the next speaker to take the stage. Lars’ presentation was titled “Service innovation – something for manufacturing companies?” Lars explained that many of the services launched over the past few years which have become popular have no product or technology behind them. The underlying factor for success is the fact that they add value for customers or consumers. By way of example, he mentioned Linas Matkasse, the business concept of which involves devising dishes and supplying the ingredients to customers’ homes. Here, there is a difference between product innovation and service innovation, the first of which requires a new technical approach to the product. Many major companies nowadays are trying to link their products with services and to provide consumers with “one-stop” services so as to add value and provide them with a value-added solution.

Workshop and panel debate to end the day

When the last lecture was over, it was time for the committee members themselves to work. A workshop began which asked the committee members present:

• How can the SSG network operate in future, and how should it operate, in order to create commercial success in industry?
• What questions need to be answered by SSG’s Board and management?

After an hour of discussion, all the committees came back with their responses and these were then collated for SSG to work with for future development of the committees. It was clear from the panel debate with SSG’s Board, which began after the workshop, that things remain to be done. Many people are dedicated and can see the benefits of being part of the SSG network, but they also experience problems with finding time for the work as more work has to be distributed across fewer people, so posing a challenge. One request which the committee members put forward to the Board involved persuading owner companies to negotiate the option of allowing members to work with SSG issues at regular intervals during working hours. Master of ceremonies Bengt Wahlström asked how people can persuade their own companies to accept the fact that being part of SSG costs time and resources.

“The onus is on SSG and SSG’s Board to explain this,” replied Anders Nilsson, Chairman at SSG. We have to discuss what we should do.

The Board made it quite clear that SSG is a vital business. The issue of expansion into other industries was also brought up, to which the Board responded unanimously. However, this should be beneficial for the paper and pulp industry.

“We want the people with the best skills on our committees,” said Ingela Ekebro of SCA, “and to achieve that, we might have to extend into other industries.”

Olov Winbladh, Board member from Metsä Board, added:

“This issue has arisen because the SSG portfolio is so diverse. SSG Entre has been made a national standard, and if we want to succeed in bringing this to more people then we need to expand.”

SSG Day 2013 resulted in a lot of information and material for future development of the committees and companies, and work is continuing on developing the committees. SSG vision and promise, to hone Swedish industry and make it more competitive within the scope of industrial collaboration and success, is also continuing.