SHOP MANAGER, KARSTEN FRIIS

“After 22 years in the Army with tours to Iraq and teaching language officers one day I thought what am I good at if I want to try something else? I believed I had management skills that might be useful in civilian life. So that is what I brought with me.”
 
It proved to be enough. Today Karsten has managed the PCB shop that makes the printed circuit boards for controls and control boxes for 3 years. There were, however, a few challenges to overcome in the beginning.
 
From 98% men to 90% women
“I was faced with two major challenges when I started. I knew nothing about electronics, and I came from a completely different world consisting of 98% men to a department with 90% women. I believe I was a little more direct and controlling than they were used to. So we had to size each other up for a while.”

Good inspiration
“I did not really find the transition that difficult. Sometimes you have to make a stand and show you are the boss. LINAK has some very good managers and it was easy to find inspiration for how to mould my own style of management.”
 
Very competent employees
“All employees at the PCB shop are very competent. We have a very good rapport. Sometimes you simply have to stop and ask, how do you think we tackle this in the best way? You cannot act as if you have absolute authority if you want to run things smoothly and that does really also apply as an officer in the Army.”