Available Jobs at Orkla

What is your background?
I am have Master`s Degree from ESCP-EAP Business School in Paris. I have worked for over 18 years within International Marketing and Sales within the Consumer Goods sector. I have also been involved in building and managing 3 different Start-up companies.

I began my career as a Marketeer in Sony, working for one year in Paris, followed by 4 years in Amsterdam and another 4 years in London. After moving around, I moved to Oslo with my Norwegian wife, and worked for 5 years in Arcus within the International Sales department before joining Orkla in 2014.

What is your role at Orkla?
I started in Orkla as a Business Development Manager and quickly progressed to became Director for International Sales in the Home and Personal Care division. Our team`s main objective is to develop distribution networks for Orkla Home and Personal Care products outside of the Nordics. Our focus has been on the Jordan brand, which mainly sells outside the Nordics, and has a relatively differentiated and competitive portfolio. We establish solid market share positions in selected markets to generate profitable operations and create brand equity.

What is the best part of working here?
The best part of my job is the fast pace and thrill that we get when we achieve our targets and plans. The International Sales division has been used to delivering double digits growth year on year which quite an achievement in Orkla. Each market is unique, and we have focused on building bottom up strategies to achieve our ambitious targets. We then focus on implementing these strategies with our partners in each market. We also drive contingency plans where required and work in a very hand on manner. Our approach tends to be quite entrepreneurial in nature which makes each day quite exciting!

What is different about Orkla compared to other companies - especially FMCG?
Even though it can feel quite big, Orkla is a smaller company when compared to other global competitors and has a very regional focus. Working with Orkla in the Nordics, you are closer to the decision centre than with other global FMCG companies. Any new joiner can make a difference within a relatively short amount of time and be able to influence the central decision makers. The size is also an advantage as Orkla has a relatively flat organisation, so if you have bright ideas you can quickly gain support from sponsors internally. In our team, we did not get a single negative decision back from our stakeholders when introducing new projects over a period of four years - this feels good to be backed so consistently!

What is your favourite product and why?
The Jordan toothbrush Step 1 for Kids is my favourite. This is the perfect FMCG door opener product: highly differentiated, quite niche, in a "push" rather than "pull" category where impulse is more important than being a planned purchase. It is one of the most successful tools that we systematically use to open new markets... I personally sold all sorts of consumer goods products from Electronics to Beverages and nothing has been as fun as selling toothbrush thanks to Jordan and products like Step 1.