A NEW DAY WITH Magnus Lindberg

– To me it’s very rewarding when the reason a customer wants to buy from us is that we’ve earned their trust. The same goes for when a supplier expressly shows their gratitude after we’ve solved a problem for them. That’s when I know that we have done our job well.

Developing businesses, new or existing ones, is a source of inspiration. I’m always interested in new things. I’m interested in change, basically. Changes often lead to new opportunities. And with the whole world as my playing field I’m always on the lookout for these opportunities.

A while back a UK based company came to us with a request. They run a coal power plant and were looking to switch from coal to wood pellets. The reason they came to us was that they needed a complete supply chain from the Baltic States. Since there wasn’t one in place we connected eight pellet producers and set up two storage facilities, one in Riga and one in Ventspils. The objectives for the UK company is to pick up shipments from these storage facilities once a month. That’s the kind of challenge that gets me going, and it was really inspiring making all these pieces fit together.

I grew up in Australia so I’ve always been used to having international working relationships. For example I spent four years working at the Swedish trade council in Canada. Maybe moving around has made me more open to change. When moving to a new city or a new country, the trickiest part has always been finding a new dojo! I’ve been practicing full contact karate since I was 16, and still do. I guess it’s not the most common sport for people over 50 but I love it. It gives me great self-reliance and a sense of harmony.

If I were to give advice to another company – partner or competitor – it would be to contemplate the expression ”good things come to good people.” We fulfill every contract, and strive to be an honest company. Even if a supplier fails to deliver, we buy from someone else just to deliver on the promise with the customer. I think we have attracted a lot of business just by showing that CellMark is a company that you can trust.