Humans are navel-contemplating creatures. To Norwegians, Norway is the world’s navel. To Osloites, Oslo is Norway’s navel, to Trondheimites it is Trondheim, and so on with Bergenites, etc. In Kristiansand they don’t talk so much, about body parts or anything else – they act instead. Soon there will be an umbilical cord from Kristiansand to the Continent. Then everyone can contemplate where Norway’s naval actually is.
Regardless of how international Oslo has become over the past years, the reality is that the majority of our overseas trading is done from Southern and Western Norway. In the Agder region there are a startling number of companies with major international markets we rarely hear so much about. They have neither the time nor the inclination to boast much about it in Southern Norway. From the churches at Setesdalen to the narrow banks of the Otra River there reverberates an echo that never dies in the head of the average Southern Norwegian: You may well believe you are something, but first of all: Do something!
Because action speaks louder than words.
Anne Klepsland Simonsen, Finn R Johansen og Karina Gabrielsen i Agder Energi
A happy threesome from Southern Norway welcome Alarga’s reporter to Agder Energi’s premises by the mouth of the Otra River. The company’s CEO, Finn Rune Johansen, HR adviser Anne Klepsland Simonsen and investment analyst Karina Houge Gabrielsen are more than happy to tell about the many exciting projects Agder Energi is involved in. Agder Energi is a major player in more than distributing electrical power to homes and businesses in the region.
Green or dirty gray
Agder Energi and its Energy Management and Trade division (EMT) aim to be among the three top energy suppliers, both physically and financially, in the Nordic region. The company is a leading player when it comes to wind energy and trading source-guaranteed electricity. From its office in Zürich, the company is hard at work creating systems that let customers know how the electricity they buy is generated, so they themselves can choose whether they want green or dirty gray energy.
Four words sum up Agder Energi’s strategy: ‘Good energy. Good climate.’ Moreover, Agder Energi, along with the Lyse power company and the Swiss ELG, is a key player in the project to lay an ‘umbilical cord’ to Europe – a power cable that will cross 570 kilometres of ocean, from Flekkefjord to Wilhelmshaven, Germany. The cable will export electricity from Norway in the daytime and import surplus power from Europe at night.
“Yep,” says Finn Rune Johansen, blushing proudly. “We are proud of all this, of course. But we don’t talk so much about it.”
The project is driven forward through the Norger company and will cost billions of kroner. The website norger.no does not reflect any of this. In all modesty, and in international language, this site states only that “Dies ist eine mit SysCP angelegte Domain. Hier sind noch keine Inhalte hinterlegt worden.”
“What about diversity?” we ask them after the digression from the buzzword that brought Alarga from Oslo to Kristiansand in the first place.
The world as his playpen
One of the Alarga candidates that has worked at Agder Energi is Johnny Chang, a young Norwegian with the world as his playpen. Chang is currently working at Agder Energi’s Zürich office, where source-guaranteed electric power is his specialty. The three speak of this fellow with pride and admiration.
“He simply took off, first to Australia and now to Austria,” says Karina Houge Gabrielsen, previously Chang’s guidance counsellor. “Many people want to make a career for themselves in Southern Norway. He, on the other hand, set off to work abroad – not asking ‘where will I work’, but ‘what kind of work do I want to do?’”
“How exciting. So this illustrates some of your diversity strategy?”
“Yes, well diversity is an important part of our HR strategy,” says Johansen. “We are eager to exploit the potential in the entire labour market, and we can’t deny the fact that we are sometimes too narrow minded and think too traditionally. But diversity is not primarily about ethnicity. It is more about a mix of genders, age and expertise profiles. The best expertise may be well camouflaged among environments and people we don’t think about, be they other cultures, people with handicaps, or other things. We have had some tunnel vision here.”
Anne Klepsland Simonsen continues Johansen’s chain of thought: “When we visit the university and see who study there, we are a bit surprised when we return and look at our own company. What you see is great diversity among the students. You see a potential when you come back again. Out there it is more colourful – a more exciting culture. The university cantina and our cantina are two different things. Our goal should be to reflect this diversity to a greater extent, not because we are kind, not for charity, but because we want the best people to work for us.”
But, as in many other contexts, one quickly discovers that ‘Chinese’ or ‘Norwegian’ or ‘Southern Norwegian’ is too narrow a label for a person:
“To us, Johnny was still a young student,” says Karina Gabrielsen. “More than 20 percent of the company’s employees are under 35, and we don’t notice that he is Chinese; Johnny is Johnny. In the parts of our company where the average age is higher, Johnny would probably be noticed more. But in a positive and inclusive way, we focus on the fact that young people are the ones who will be included and drive the company forward.”
Naturals
In all, 2-3 percent of Agder Energi’s employees are of a ‘non-Norwegian ethnicity’.
“When vying for the best people, we must strive to be more conscious in our recruiting in order to provide a diversity that will enrich the organisation,” says Johansen. “It’s about promoting awareness, on the part of employment authorities and those who do the employing. We must build for the future and set tough goals. We can’t just do what we’ve always been doing.”
”So what do you do now?”
“A lot of this effort is about making diversity commonplace and doing something about attitudes, and bringing diverse people together in a different and unobtrusive way without forcing them into it. Accomplishing this throughout our group of companies and in each department is the responsibility of the management. It is important that they focus on attitude.
“Agder Energi is highly committed to attracting young employees, particularly those whom eco-conscious people smilingly refer to as ‘naturals’ – people who want a job with a meaning and the opportunity to make a difference – in this case, in matters concerning climate.
“We are a leading Norwegian player when it comes to climate-friendly energy solutions,” says Simonsen. “At our company we contend that you can help do something for future generations. We will generate revenues for our owners, but will also do things that mean something in a larger perspective.
“One of our initiatives is a trainee programme organised in collaboration with a number of major companies in the region, where the trainee is given the opportunity to try out different job positions.”
“What other things will you do to attract ‘naturals’ to settle down in Southern Norway?”
No two-bit operator
This is the point where we expect an answer that includes “happy Southern Norway,” sun, summer and smooth, rocky shores and fun nights in the shopping district – but no. Finn Rune Johansen takes a deep breath and bangs on his proverbial big drum hard enough to send a tidal wave crashing up Setesdalen:
“We have one of the best environments in the Nordic region for trading, with 40-50 employees. We have one of the best environments for risk/control. We are committed to wind power along with Statkraft, to the cable to Europe and source-guaranteed electric power. We ourselves are a major company soon with 1,700 employees, and we have big and exciting companies around us. We are in the driver’s seat when it comes to changes this industry will be going through, and are among the 2-3 largest in Norway. We set the conditions for how the industry will function. Agder Energi is no two-bit operator.
“Furthermore,” adds Anne Simonsen – “furthermore, we are setting our sights beyond Norway’s borders, to where the ferry takes us to Denmark in just three hours – a shorter time than to Norway’s capital.”
