Consultant presentation
Ulf Gustafsson
Experienced leader from international IT and technology companies in industries with strict service requirements and change as the normal state.
Contributes with broad knowledge from many different competence areas and with a major experience in Reverse Logistics, aftermarket and customer service solutions in an international environment. In previous assignments, Ulf has focused on driving improvements and change management, which has included strategy, process, organization and implementation of global IT solutions.
An appreciated leader with a lot of positive energy, responsibility, respect for people and with a straightforward, honest and clear communication.
Ulf's main strengths are that he has holistic approach combined with a pragmatic attitude that delivers concrete results.
A driven and self-sustaining resource that can support you and your team through all steps in strategy development, implementation and operational operation!
Main competencies
Project management
Change management
Business development
Strategy management
Support & service solutions
International teams & partners
Reverse Logistics
IT solutions & implementation
Selected experiences and assignments
Agile Product Management
The overall goal of the assignment was to establish agile product management processes and methods, and build up a smaller team for product management. The product, "Effortless Device Care", was a self-help solution for Smartphone users with a focus on diagnostics, customer support and marketing of services.
Much of the previous software development had taken place according to the traditional "waterfall model", but new products were now developed with more agile methods. The shift had created a great need to make overall business strategies, product plans and customer discussions better connected to the team's agile software development process.
A more homogeneous and interconnected approach was implemented throughout the organization, which resulted in an overall product plan (road maps) that was anchored with both management and the company board.
Product Strategy & Customer Success
The focus of the assignment was to evaluate the company's Reverse Logistics solution (SaaS) and form a new product strategy. This was also to include a major reduction of the solution's operational and product development costs.
Product strategy was anchored in company management and several process improvements were implemented and resulted in significantly more agile working methods. Extensive rightsizing of the team was carried out and the entire product area was moved from Stockholm to Colombo.
In addition to the rationalization work that was carried out, a comprehensive review of customer implementation, flows and use-cases was also carried out. This, together with the establishment of a more proactive approach and Customer Success focus, created significantly better conditions for delivering more benefits with less resources.
Development and establishment of new service
The purpose of the assignment was to establish a new service in the Nordic market together with an international customer. Which was part of the customer's strategic goal to expand services in the circular economy. At the same time as it was a completely new service, there were synergies with the customer's current offer. It was thus of great importance that the solution took advantage of these synergies in order for the whole to be cost-effective.
The assignment was continuously adapted to the customer's needs in the areas required to develop this new service. The role thus became flexible and included project management, business analysis, business planning, mapping of both customer flows and operational process, detailed descriptions of critical process steps, description of system support needs and system integrations and materials to support the customer's internal decision-making processes.
Global service responsibility and rationalization
Based on a global and overall responsibility for Customer Services, large savings were made in both internal and external service costs. Changes that reduced operating costs by 30 - 50% were implemented with the help of a sharper focus on core business, increased partnerships and streamlining of both central and local functions.
The role also included responsibility for several projects in order to reduce warranty costs. For example, a global initiative that ensured that more customers updated software in their Smartphones, which resulted in fewer returns and less support cases.
Strategy and service development
Responsible for the development and global implementation of Xperia Care that became Sony Mobile's overall brand for service.
The result was a more efficient and interconnected service experience when the customer was in contact with various support and service channels.
Xperia Care was an offer that was aimed directly at users of Xperia Smartphones, which became a way to establish closer customer contact. This created greater opportunities to offer various services directly to end users.
Streamlining Reverse Logistics
Daily, operational and global operation of the existing service network was managed in parallel with extensive business development. New strategies and clear goals were established and a number of projects and initiatives were started. These delivered major short-term savings and more long-term strategies that were developed and anchored in the company's overall strategic plan.
This was awarded the Sony Ericsson Presidents Award - Best Business Improvement 2009.
Total review of global spare parts management
Conducted analyzes of overall supply chain and working methods to improve the efficiency and level of service of the spare parts business. In addition to improvements in forecasting and planning, a review of 3PL partners was also conducted (RFI / RFQ process).New supplier agreements were negotiated and new partners were implemented in both Europe and Asia.
Order management was improved with a web-shop solution that included all order management for contracted repair shops globally.
Continuous improvements and IT support
Ulf's all assignments and roles have consistently had a strong focus on continuous improvements, with digitization and IT support as cornerstones for delivering efficient and modern solutions.
IT solutions have included information portals for partner networks, digitized warranty management, knowledge databases, global return management systems, forecasting and planning systems and BI solutions.