During three months we will be bringing you stories of Sports Tracker employees. They are the ones building the products you love from scratch, putting countless hours into them and overcoming challenges just to deliver great user experience and make your life easier.
Last time we brought you an interview with Katarina von Konow who is our Customer Support Manager.
Today, we are bringing you a glimpse of what we talk about with Marko Orenius, Business Unit Director of Digital Services at Amer Sports.
Please tell us your story. Who is Marko and what does he enjoy doing aside from his daily job?
Here at Amer Sports I’m driving forward the development of our digital products and services, to deliver a competitive edge for our brands. In my mind, I’m a digital business developer, on a mission to create inspiring and exciting experiences for the sporting consumer.
Outside of work, I’m keen to improve in various outdoor activities. I would love to have more time for golf and sailing but in practice I’m in the gym or running. My interest is not so much in the performance of sports but rather in the ability to discover and test my own limits as well as to explore different techniques, sports and locations.
What do you do at Amer Sports, since when do you work for the company and how does your day usually look like?
I joined the company less than 2 years ago as a Business Unit Director of Digital Services and in effect this is still a new role at Amer Sports. I believe I came here at the right time as regards the momentum of all things digital in the company. My job encompasses different activities that all lead towards building better products and services with our fantastic team, as well as the digital systems platform to leverage data as the fuel for growth in the future.
Diversity in this job comes from being able to look at multiple sports, brands and geographies all the while studying emerging consumer behavior. There’s so much happening today and we have to learn rapidly from market trends and apply our insights to product development.
What is something that really motivates you to get up every morning and come to work?
The job is a perfect fit for me but it’s not only a job, it’s a calling. This industry is embracing digitalization now, so it’s very interesting times for us. The challenge to build new products and services for consumers who want more out of their sporting lives is very gratifying. Also, amongst all this, I get to be a digital disruptor and challenge the status quo every day.
What is your favorite thing about your job and working here?
One of the things in this job is that I always look at the world as a global marketplace. For me, there are no physical boundaries or geographical limits. I’m very motivated by the fact that I’m competing against colleagues worldwide in this industry while all the companies involved are working to make the world focus on quality of life through physical actiivity. This is a historical moment and it’s a great race to be in.
If you were to recommend working here to your friend, what would you say?
Being here today is being in the right place, at the right time, with people who have the right attitude and commitment. I’m aware that all companies nowadays are moving towards digital change but we have a great team with real commitment to change, all the way from top management. It’s all you can ask for.
What kind of people you enjoy working with?
On a daily basis I work with different kinds of people, coming from marketing, business development, management, R&D or finance backgrounds.
People have different perspectives depending on what they’re doing and I need to be able to converse with everyone. Working with creative and development colleagues is often a love-hate relationship with a business guy like myself, but of course it always comes down to a joint effort to deliver something great in the end.
We would like to encourage people to fail and try better next time and also to prove we’re all humans who make mistakes and learn from them. Therefore, what do you think was your biggest mistake/challenge in your work?
Lots of things we’re doing are still in progress so it’s a bit difficult to say. However, there is one thing that must happen and still all of us fail at it too often. That’s communication.
It’s really hard to deliver on that. It’s a pain point. No matter how much you communicate, there can never be enough communication and it can never be perfect.
If you want to change the world, you have to tell it 100 times and maybe after that only 50% of people will believe you but you need to keep working and keep communicating.
And whatever you do – don’t get overly satisfied, stay hungry.
Would you like to add something for the readers?
We like to hear from consumers and our services users. I would welcome everyone to try Sports Tracker and all of our other products and tell us what works and what doesn’t.
I believe in dialogue because we don’t have a crystal ball. We need dialogue and open relationships with our consumers, in order to achieve our goal which is to help people move through great products and services to live better and healthier lives.