Niklas Weckström started working at Spinverse almost three years ago.
”When I first heard about the company, a career at Spinverse sounded interesting and inspirational as I could widely utilise my background and experience and at the same time be at the core of changing the world by means of strategic innovation”, Niklas tells about his career step.
That time Niklas moved back to Finland from Dubai after working there for several years in management consulting. Altogether he has an over 20-year international background in industrial and start-up businesses as well as management consulting and business development across industries and markets.
Today Niklas has no less than five different hats as a Spinversian: Being in charge of ‘New Business’, his responsibilities include sales and business consulting for large multinationals, sales and business consulting for small and medium-sized enterprises as well as overall development of the SME business unit he is in charge of. These different hats make Niklas’ days interesting and exciting, but they also bring challenges as he’s always juggling many balls – large and small - at once.
However, as our work at Spinverse is teamwork in it’s purest, Niklas says that his colleagues make the job equally inspirational. Niklas describes his workmates as extremely smart and nice people from diverse backgrounds, that are fun to work with. As a team they build up a solid ground for getting things done and delivering successful projects, time and time again.
WHAT ARE THE 5+1 UNIFYING CHARACTERISTICS OF US SPINVERSIANS?
At Spinverse we have in fact discovered 5+1 key characteristics that recur as one tries to describe more profoundly the unifying features of our people and their skills. Niklas helped to unfold these keywords:
BONUS: Sense of humor
Regardless of our diverse set of skills and different backgrounds, these are some valuable characteristics that can be found in a certain proportion in all of us Spinversians. Here’s what Niklas says about these characteristics in action.
Curiosity
As we have focused on several segments and industries, we have a really versatile clientele and a flow of different kinds of projects on a global level. And it seems like it’s the most curious people that tend to seek these kind of challenges in their working life.
”When starting out with a new project we often talk about things that no one in the world has heard of before. To be able to help our customers with these, it requires a quick orientation to the underlying view and concept, by exploring the background material, related cases and talking to people. And that requires curiosity and the ability to get inspired by quickly learning new things”, Niklas says.
According to Niklas curiosity is a significant unifying characteristic of Spinverse people. Niklas describes himself as a 90 % curious person and says that many of his colleagues are even more curious than him. He says that in some cases his workmates are in fact the source of information when he needs to find out something new, and that’s something!
Presentation & communication skills
These skills are needed every day. As mentioned, due to our versatile projects, it varies day-to-day who you communicate with.
”Be it a tech-savvy specialist or a CxO focusing on the bigger strategic picture, as a consultant you have to be able to communicate with the right level both visually and verbally”, Niklas says.
”Even if you are often thrown out of your comfort zone, you need to adapt and be clear and convincing when presenting a solution or attending a conversation. In English of course, because it’s our company language.”
Analytical approach
An analytical approach is an important trait of a management consultant. You have to be able to analyse the existing information and make the right conclusions at the strategic level.
”In a situation, be it a sales call or a project, you have to be able to identify possibilities, solutions and risks from different perspectives”, Niklas says. ”And to advance in your approach, you need to understand what all information you need to know, and how all elements impact the big picture”.
”It doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone in the project team must focus on details. Data collection and analysing can be shared among the team members as long as everyone is clear about the big picture and the methodologies that are used in the project.”
Adaptability
Every project is different and must be approached as such. That requires a great amount of adaptability. The methodologies and the analytical approaches largely stay the same, and applying them credibly in different cases is where the magic happens.
”From my point of view adaptability also means to be able to take all the know-how and experience you have and logically apply it to the information about the current situation and the client’s needs”, Niklas says. ”Discussing with the wide-ranging field of different clients requires adaptability, too.”
Self & project management skills
”We have a lot of excellent project management skills in the house”, Niklas says. ”All of our work is really project work. Some of them may last a few weeks, some of them months or even years, but they are all projects. At Spinverse as a junior you get to learn a lot about project management and take on more responsibility as you develop.”
Niklas says that self-management skills come first but they usually require a lifetime of learning: ”Often as a consultant you bump into a situation where you want be able to say ’yes’ to everyone and do everything immediately”, Niklas points.
”But it’s important to now that it’s also okay to say ’no’ or ’not now’ as we only have what we have and want to live up to our promise, every time. On the other hand, you also want to make sure you don’t slow down someone else’s workflow when proritizing your tasks. I think that’s an important part of self and project management.”
+ Sense of humor
The bonus trait is the last but not the least! Management consulting is often considered a serious business with suits and ties, but it really isn’t always that black and white. It’s important to bring forward the soft side of everything every now and then.
”I think it’s definitely okay to blend in a hint of humor and laughter even with customers. It makes everything easier and more fun and is a great glue between team members, co-workers and partners”, Niklas says.
A sense of humor is a major part of the Spinverse culture and we will surely keep it that way.