When you’re in early phase of your career you might not have a strict path of where you’re going in the future, especially in a big company that operates in different countries. At least I don’t. There surely are plenty of options which I’m not even completely familiar with at the moment. But I’m sure that the next year will give me a lot of insights into my company, NCC, and will help me find and clarify my next stepping stones.
Together with five young colleagues in Norway, Denmark and Finland I have been asked to form NCC Nordics’ Young Advisory Board 2020. What an exciting opportunity! We met for the first time at the end of January for a kickoff event at NCC’s brand new headquarter in Solna, Sweden.
Off to a good start
It was a great start for the program, we had a meeting with our new Head of Building Nordics, Catarina Molén-Runnäs, as well as the HR and Communication specialists who put great effort into arranging and scheduling the program. Also, the talents from YAB 2019 took part in the kickoff to “pass on the torch” and give us guidance for the YAB year.
In Solna, I think we YAB 2020 members got quite a good heads-up about the YAB concept and what this year will hold for us. We will have two assignments to work with, one on corporate Building Nordics level about Strategic Risk Assessment and Management, and one soon-to-be disclosed Division-level assignment for each country. Alongside the assignments, we will meet the Country Managers in their respective countries, take part on the Building Nordic’s Extended Management Team meetings, and visit building projects in Norway, Denmark and Finland.
We will do our best
I’d lie if I said I wasn’t nervous at all while heading for the kickoff in Solna, since I didn’t know all that much about the program itself and what to expect. Now that the “ice is broken” and we’ve got started, I’m (and I believe WE are) eager to get into our assignments, meet with our management and have project visits as well.
It’s encouraging and motivating to think that our Management Team sees such potential and value in their much younger colleagues that they’ve wanted to implement a separate program for us to develop ourselves. Very much appreciated. Now it’s on us YAB’s to make the most of it, bring our own input and effort into our Management Teams’ use in the assignments and meetings, and of course network ourselves within Building NCC Nordics and get a deeper understanding how our company and businesses are run at an upper level.
Plenty of things to do alongside daily works, and of course a healthy amount of pressure to deliver to our Managers and Executives. But as they say; when you do your very best, no more can be expected.
Looking very much forward to this year!
The blogger, Emil Ranta, is a Project Manager at NCC in Finland.
Young Advisory Board (YAB) is a one-year talent program in NCC Building Nordics with participants from Finland, Norway and Denmark. The purpose with YAB is to develop our future managers and specialists. The members are selected by the BA management based on performance and potential.
The young talents get access to top management, a deeper insight into the business and a network across borders. They are given a task by the management, to work on together over the year through conversations with NCC’s management and visits to projects in each country. At the end of the year they will present their conclusions to the Building Nordics management.
