“Bringing newness and innovation to either products or processes should be easy and fun”

Anna Lindquist, Director Strategic Program Office, will support DeLaval in the important innovation work ahead. She was part of initiating the Master thesis to map our CO2 footprint that is used as a base for our future sustainability work.

Before joining DeLaval, Anna worked 10 years for the truck manufacturer Scania. Her interest in DeLaval increased as she learned that we had just begun a journey to strengthen the strategic sourcing in the company – and she wanted to take part in that. “When I joined DeLaval I did not know so much about the dairy industry. Having a background in the truck industry, I thought I had seen tough environments when it comes to endurance of the products. However, I learned quickly that the environment DeLaval’s products are facing is even tougher. We really need to develop products that can withstand almost anything,” Anna says.

Anna started at DeLaval in January 2012, in the Sourcing department as a Category Manager for polymers and then moving on to Director Sourcing Development before transitioning into her current role in the PMD organisation in 2020. When thinking back, Anna points out two projects that she is extra proud of have been part of. “When I started, we had some challenging times ahead of us in the department. We wanted to implement a category management-driven organisation and become that strategic sourcing organisation we had as a long-term vision. We worked for many years building a foundation with both good management tools and a strong organisation. For me, this was an experience of great collaboration and teamwork that led to a really good result, and I am very proud of the work we did. Today, we can say that DeLaval has a great sourcing organisation with a strategic mindset,” Anna says.

She continues, “A few year ago, I got to join a colleague in cluster EMEA for a week on the road in Europe. I met with dealers and customers and had the opportunity to join one of the launch activities for VMS™ V300 in the UK. This hands-on experience made me realise how we all work for the same thing regardless if we work in Supply Chain, PMD, Cluster or any other part of DeLaval. I learned a lot about the perception our customers have on our products and I could share knowledge about the hard work the DeLaval organisation does with developing, producing, quality assuring and distributing our products around the world. We are all part of a global family in that way,” says Anna.

What does she think is the best things about working for DeLaval? Anna says, “For me, DeLaval is the company of opportunities – both for us as a company with our product portfolio, but also internally for us as employees. If you have an idea, you can in most cases pitch, drive and implement it with good support from your colleagues. For example, when we came back after the summer 2019, we wanted to initiate a Master thesis to map our CO2 footprint in our Supply Chain to have a base for our future sustainability work. After only a few weeks we were interviewing candidates. The support we received from the whole organisation was really something that gave a lot of energy back.”

“For me, it has been great to be able to share my knowledge about the supply chain into my new role. When we have a better understanding about the different parts of the organisation, we can view challenges and opportunities with different eyes,” Anna adds.

Going forward, Anna is looking forward to developing the new Strategic Program Office in the PMD organisation. “By lifting some of the most important initiatives and driving those with dedicated resources, I believe we can support DeLaval in the important innovation work ahead. Bringing newness and innovation to either products or processes should be easy and fun, and I look forward to being part of supporting that,” Anna concludes.

Thank you, Anna, for your great work and your commitment of sharing your knowledge to the organisation. Look forward to seeing what PMD does in the future!