First-hand information about Ericsson Company: Lars Magnusson has given a lecture at SPbPU

Founded in 1876 by Lars Magnusson as a workshop to repair telegraph equipment, today the Swedish company Ericsson is one of the largest producers of telecommunications equipment. The company is mainly involved in the production of equipment for wireless connection networks, and such networks have been built on its basis in 180 countries. Ericsson used to produce mobile phones, however, later it focused on the equipment for telecommunication networks having delegated the mobile phones production to Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, a company established in partnership with Sony in 2001.

The students of SPbPU planning to build a career in business consider first-hand information to be the most accurate and trustworthy, therefore, they greatly enjoyed the lecture delivered by Lars Magnusson, a representative of Ericsson AB company and member of the Board of Directors of APICS Supply Chain Council.

The event was organized by Polytech Strascheg Russian-German Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and with the support of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Commerce of the Institute of Industrial Economics and Management (SPbPU). The organizers explained that the lecture was part of a series of lectures by renowned representatives of business community and it was aimed at students of international master’s programs run by the Polytechnic University. (Let us remind you that in November D.V. Morozov, CEO of Biocad company, and Alexander von Bismarck, a Professor of the German Graduate School of Management and Law, delivered lectures on innovation management).

The main goal of such meetings is to share authentic experience in management with students of the Polytechnic University and to involve them in innovative and entrepreneurial activities, to help them develop as young professionals and to let them communicate with recognized specialists. “Our nearest plans include developing multinational startups and inter-disciplinary project teams on the basis of international educational programs. Socializing with entrepreneurs and directors of innovative companies is an opportunity for our students to inform them about their research and development. It is not less important that owing to such contacts our graduates find jobs in the leading Russian and foreign companies”, said V.V. Shchyogolev, the Director of Polytech Strascheg Russian-German Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Lars Magnusson, the representative of Ericsson company (who has the same name as the brand founder), focused on innovative approaches to managing supply chains of high technology products. The speaker told the students about the European experience in this sphere and compared it to the analogous system in Russia. Examples derived from the speaker’s personal experience were especially interesting. The listeners learnt that modern logistics management means a lot of requirements concerning managing supply chains of high technology products. It is a business strategy that helps to predict sales and optimize current and security stocks planning, taking into account the chosen managing model for each category, etc.

The contemporary SCOR-model (Supply Chain Operations Reference Model) was presented at the lecture, which serves as a basis for designing, improving and measuring the quality of business processes in the supply chains of an organization. Lars Magnusson told the audience how this model can be used as the basic one for running a business. Currently, SCOR-model is recognized as an international inter-industry standard when planning, controlling and managing supply chains.

“I am grateful to the organizers for an opportunity to obtain experience that is bound to help me in the future”, said Nelly Saakyan, a second year student of the English-based master’s program “Development of International Business”. She added, “We were told about the latest trends concerning managing supply chains and we were taught to resolve abnormal situations”.

It turned out that the experience of Scandinavian countries differs greatly from that of companies located in other regions. This fact was confirmed by Uuso Kakela, a student from Finland who is also studying a master’s degree “Development of International Business” at IIEM. “I work in retail. Managing supply chains in a telecommunications company illustrated by the experience of Ericsson is new and useful knowledge for me. I think you will agree that this brand is associated primarily with mobile phones – practically everyone used to have one. However, today the company is producing equipment for telecommunication networks. Restructuring a business always means altering all internal and external systems and developing new schemes of interaction. I see that Ericsson is perfect in terms of managing supply chains”.

After the lecture was over students had an opportunity to talk to Lars Magnusson face-to-face, and a lot of them did it with pleasure. A new meeting with Lars Magnusson is planned to take place next year. The topic of his next lecture is still being discussed, but the organizers are certain that it will be not less interesting and informative.

International Relations Office and Media Center of SPbPU