Expertise in Solving the Customers’ Technical Problems
When I left school, I started as a sheet metal worker staying the whole day inside by a turning machine. My father was working at Linjebyggnad AB as manager for the network designers and as they needed linesmen and I really wanted to work outside, I left my first job quite early to start as a linesman in 1983. My first projects included big lattice towers with 2x220kV and 2x70kV – they were quite high, but it was fun, and I learned a lot. As soon as I started to work with overhead line projects 0,4–24kV I got in touch with Ensto because almost all accessories came from the company.
Work History in Electrification Industry
The three years at Linjebyggnad AB were mostly about 130kV overhead line and substation projects. In 1986 my father started a small company together with some colleagues and I worked there in different roles until 2005 – mostly with 0,4–24kV projects for both overhead lines and underground cables. In 2005, I left my father’s company to start at Vattenfall Services AB to take care of various duties from network design to management with personnel responsibility. Seven years later I moved to a wholesaler Elektroskandia to work as a product manager and in 2015 jumped to Amokabel for a similar role. My career at Ensto Sweden began in 2017 as Product Manager and Technical Support for overhead line accessories.
The Nagging Swede?
During my years in the electrification industry, I have never heard anything negative about Ensto’s overhead line accessories and overhead lines are the part of the network I like the most. Hence, choosing Ensto was obvious: I knew the accessories quite well and also some people at Ensto and thought that it would be a great team to join. And I was right! My focus area here is the 0,4–52kV overhead lines. The cooperation with all the overhead line product managers in Finland is very good, and I think that I have a fun position which offers me plenty of possibilities for learning. Sometimes I feel I am the nagging Swede, but my Finnish colleagues say that they like that I am interested in my work.
Collaboration With Great Colleagues
To be honest, I must admit that I had some doubts about starting at a Finnish company as I thought it could be a tougher climate, but it is truly great to work at Ensto. I feel that we have a well-functioning cooperation in the product management team and wonderful colleagues in Sweden all the way from order handling to management. In my opinion the way Ensto is taking care of its personnel is superb: we are free to try new ways of doing things and there is no such thing as wrong questions. We have a lot of knowledge and expertise in-house in all countries. For me personally, perhaps the collaboration with Finland and France has been most educational.
Proud to Be Onboard
I feel proud to be working in a family business as it is nice that the owners find it important to run the company further as I guess our founder Ensio Miettinen wished. I am also sure that we are doing all we can for the environment. It is valuable to be able to educate and train one’s area of expertise according to wishes and needs. You just need to be active. What comes to my own role I think I have put more focus on Ensto’s overhead lines solution and the Full Covered Conductor System in Sweden. We have a brochure regarding the most common accessories called Beredarhandboken that has been well received in the field.
Helping the Customers to Succeed
Currently, I am working on increasing the sales of bigger surge arresters (52–245kV) but it is not always easy to get the customers to try something new instead of the products they have always bought. One of my main tasks is to solve the customers’ problems and help the linesmen, the grid designers, the project managers, the wholesalers, and the network owners with their work. It is not always about big issues, but it helps them to go further and succeed in their job. My next big quest to tackle is that we need stronger constructions and insulators to handle the massive ice and snow loads that we have in the North of Sweden.
Peter Melander
The writer of the blog works as Product Manager and Technical Support at Ensto in Sweden.