The Growth Pod – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Rolf Ladau is the CEO of Paulig, a 148-year-old family-owned food company. We discuss the fundamentals of consumer branding, growth playbooks, the business case for sustainability, how Santa Maria grew to become the European leader in Tex-Mex and more.

Learn more:

https://paulig.com/

https://generogrowth.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rolf-ladau-458b892

(0:00) Introduction

(1:10) Working at Unilever, P&G, Coca-Cola and more

(4:15) How to build and maintain world-class consumer brands

(11:40) Do brands spend too little on marketing?

(14:25) Becoming the CEO of Paulig

(20:30) Santa Maria’s growth journey, playbooks, and the future of snacking

(33:07) How Paulig has succeded for 148 years

(40:15) The art and science of brand positioning

(46:05) Feedback loops and learning from mistakes 

(49:33) The business case for sustainability

Marianne Vikkula joined Wolt as a small startup with fewer than 100 employees. Today she’s the COO, overseeing a global operation with 10,000+ people across 27 countries. We discuss operational excellence, how to hire well, lessons learned from DoorDash, and how leaders can increase speed, raise the bar for quality, and narrow the focus.

Learn more:

https://wolt.com/

https://generogrowth.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mvikkula

(0:00) Introduction

(1:08) Marianne’s background and why she joined Wolt

(4:42) Operational excellence and bringing energy into an organization

(10:34) Increasing speed

(17:07) Raising the bar of quality

(25:30) Narrowing the focus

(32:24) Doing hard things

(37:45) How to grow and develop as a leader

(41:25) Lessons learned from DoorDash after the acquisition

(47:57) How to hire

(57:56) The future of Wolt

Learn more:

⁠https://generogrowth.com

https://boxbollen.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacoberiksson/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-eriksson-019846a0/
(0:57) Working together as brothers
(6:35) How Boxbollen got started
(13:45) Partnering with A-list celebrities
(20:29) Placing big bets
(23:22) Boxbollen’s growth playbook
(25:59) Growing profitably
(30:20) Building a lean and efficient team
(34:40) Dealing with competitors and scammers
(37:20) New markets, product launches, selling the company?

Innovation is a term that is as often used as it is misunderstood. To tackle this huge topic, we sat down with professor, speaker, author, advisor, and innovation expert Alf Rehn.

We talked about the role of psychological safety in building an innovative culture, why small improvements may be more important than big ideas, lessons learned from companies like SAS and IKEA, and more.

Learn more:

https://generogrowth.com/

https://alfrehn.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfrehn/

(0:00  Introduction

(1:15) Taping down cables to the floor

(8:10) Small improvements over big ideas

(12:25) Company culture and psychological safety

(28:20) The processes and incentives that lead to innovation

(40:30) The role of leadership

HMD Global is the manufacturer behind Nokia phones. We talked with CMO Lars Silberbauer about the "dumbphone" trend, HMD's unique approach to sustainability, how they compete against the likes of Apple and Samsung, and more.

Learn more:

https://generogrowth.com/

https://www.hmdglobal.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/larssilberbauer

(0:00) Introduction

(0:45) Joining HMD

(5:24) Nokia’s brand power and cultural significance

(8:57) Feature phones vs smartphones

(10:33) Turning HMD into a house of brands

(13:15) Why leaders must get their hands dirty with AI

(20:47) Understanding trends and markets around the world

(25:32) Avoiding analysis paralysis

(27:55) HMD’s unique approach to sustainability

(35:12) Manufacturing in Europe

(40:57) Measuring marketing performance

We sat down with Fredrik Skantze, CEO and co-founder of Funnel, the Swedish SaaS company that’s raised over 120M€ to build the leading marketing data hub. Join us to hear Fredrik talk on building a global company, getting rid of sales commissions, lessons learned from Silicon Valley, and much more!

⁠https://funnel.io/⁠

⁠https://generogrowth.com/⁠ 

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredrikskantze⁠ 

⁠https://funnel.io/marketing-data-state-2024⁠

(0:00) Introduction

(0:46) The pivot that led to Funnel

(6:23) Finding product-market fit and the early days

(9:57) Figuring out go-to-market 

(13:39) How digital marketing has evolved over the last 15 years

(22:40) Getting rid of bonuses and sales commissions

(29:15) Company culture and lessons learned from Silicon Valley

(36:49) How the Nordic ecosystem is changing 

(41:39) Key takeaways from Funnel’s survey on AI and marketing

(46:12) What keeps Fredrik motivated and excited?

Sanna Suvanto-Harsaae has been on the boards of over 20 Nordic companies like Finnair, Clas Ohlson, Posti, and Paulig. We talked about why strategies fail, how to build a high-performance culture, making tough decisions, and much more!

https://generogrowth.com/⁠

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sannasuvantoharsaae/

(0:00) Introduction (0:47) Sanna's transition to board roles (4:08) Deciding which companies to join (5:35) Being an effective board member (12:02) How to run board meetings (15:44) The importance of focus (20:38) Creating a good strategy (23:27) Implementing the strategy (26:55) Communicating to the entire organization (31:43) Company purpose: what it really is and why it matters (38:29) Building a high-performance team and culture (48:05) How to make hard decisions (56:04) Sanna’s surprising book recommendations

In just eight years, BookBeat grew from zero to 100+ million euros. We spoke with CEO Niclas Sandin about strategy, branding, customer acquisition, competing with big names like Spotify and Amazon, and whether AI will change the industry.

https://generogrowth.com/

https://www.bookbeat.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/niclassandin/

(0:00) Introduction

(1:02) How BookBeat got started

(3:36) Having a 200-year-old family business as the owner

(5:10) BookBeat’s 4 strategic pillars

(13:48) Competing without a unique selling proposition (why differentiation doesn’t matter)

(16:46) Building top-of-mind awareness

(23:00) The tools, insights, and strategies behind BookBeat’s advertising

(26:30) Optimizing the media mix

(34:54) Innovating the business model

(40:10) Competing with Spotify and Amazon

(44:42) Will AI revolutionize audiobooks?

(48:27) The changing media landscape and why books still matter

(53:44) Biggest lessons learned

In just 3 years Lyvia went from an idea to a group of 40 companies with 2+ billion SEK in total revenue. We talked with CEO and co-founder Sebastian Karlsson about the insights, strategies, and decisions behind their rapid growth.

https://generogrowth.com/

https://lyviagroup.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastian-karlsson-8629193b

(0:00) Introduction

(0:47) 500 million SEK in 5 years and how it all started

(6:22) Lyvia’s business model

(9:09) How to learn both capital allocation and operations as a CEO

(12:00) Organic growth vs acquisitions

(14:28) How Lyvia helps companies with growth and profitability.

(20:54) What successful IT firms have in common

(23:13) Why do companies sell to Lyvia?

(25:22) Going international as a Swedish company

(28:10) Why most acquisitions fail and why Lyvia has succeeded

(34:05) Securing 1.6bn SEK in funding in this economic climate

(38:47) Lessons learned from sales, biggest challenges, decision making, and outcomes

Polestar is an electric car company known for its minimalistic design and technological innovations. We talked with CMO Åsa Borg about building a global brand, running a Super Bowl ad, the importance of design, her proudest moments & biggest challenges, and more.

Learn more:

https://generogrowth.com

https://www.polestar.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/åsa-borg-4898b038/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4QI0VzbkHk

(0:00) Introduction

(0:43) What is Polestar?

(5:03) Building a global brand

(9:09) How the EV market has changed over the years

(10:39) Polestar’s successful Super Bowl ad

(14:34) Agencies vs in-house

(16:52) Building a funnel and managing complexity

(20:50) Media and channel choices

(22:50) Competition and the future

(26:39) Word of mouth and community

(27:32) How Polestar thinks about design

(31:17) Testing and learning 

(34:08) Rapid fire: proudest moment, going public, biggest challenge, and how to hire the best talent