Waste is a ‘no-no’ at Statkraft. Inadequate utilisation of resources is not only bad economics, but goes against the company’s basic values. Through Alarga, the company discovered a poorly utilised and very eco-friendly resource.
Jørgen Kildahl
“Statkraft is working on managing and developing resources in an eco-friendly way,” says Statkraft’s CEO Jørgen Kildahl. “Waste or inadequate utilisation of resources is not only an economic or environmental loss, but a violation of our values. Alarga pointed out a human resource we failed to nurture adequately: Norwegian youth with a different cultural background.”
Statkraft’s ambition is to be a world leader in renewable energy. Recently, the company’s new osmosis power plant made the headlines worldwide. The company has developed a technology making it possible to exploit the energy arising when freshwater meets saltwater.
The prototype produces only enough energy to brew a couple of cups of coffee. But the company has big ambitions. By 2015 they aim to build an osmosis plant that can produce 25 megawatts, enough to supply a small city with energy.
“We make our living producing knowledge and turning it into value,” says Kildahl. “This is one of many projects we could not have realised without getting expertise and know-how from beyond Norway’s borders.”
Friction energy
The osmosis power plant is a fascinating example of how energy is created when different nuances of the same substance meet. When saltwater meets freshwater, energy is created; when one culture meets another, the same thing happens. But energy can take on different forms, and when cultures collide, friction may arise creating energy with a tragic outcome at times. The secret is to control it – use it to make a couple of cups of coffee rather than fighting each other.
“Friction is important, it is energy,” says HR director Beate Hamre Deck. “It’s about cultivating the differences and promoting the similarities. We want to nurture our basic values and at the same time foster heterogeneity in order to get the best from other cultures.”
HR direktør Beate Hamre Deck og stipenidiat Aslanbek Sjamsutdinov
In 2008 Statkraft Norge had 38 employees with immigrant backgrounds (first-generation Norwegians or Norwegians with parents from other nations). But that figure grew in 2009. The entire Statkraft enterprise now has 49 different nationalities, 20 different nationalities at the Dusseldorf office alone. So we are a company that once had a very uniform Norwegian profile, but is now about to become international also regarding our employees’ origins.”
Distinctively Norwegian
In people’s minds, Statkraft is still a very Norwegian company with several uniquely Norwegian characteristics that are important to its success, though not so easy to export.
“One of those Norwegian characteristics is our egalitarianism,” says Deck. “The Scandinavian model has little hierarchy and is very transparent. It stands in contrast to the way companies are run in many of the countries in which we operate. Sometimes we have to proceed with tiny steps. In this process, Alarga can help demystify.”
These values, along with the company’s enduring ‘green’ profile, have made Statkraft an attractive place of employment for newly qualified people the world over.
“At a recruitment fair in Budapest recently, our little stand was overshadowed by major international giants like Nestlé and Siemens, yet many students still came to us because we offer work that gives meaning in a world threatened by environmental issues,” says Deck.
Remarkably competent
“Where our green profile and culture for respect and equality gives meaning for them, the heterogeneity and diversity gives meaning for us,” says Kildahl, adding: “But our strategy is not simply a matter of value. It also yields a commercial dividend. Good decisions must be sound in many dimensions, and the same applies to hiring. So when we seek less homogeneity in the organisation, it is also a commercial matter. Through Alarga and in our international commitments, we have gotten candidates that I can only describe as remarkably competent. Alarga has provided us with well-qualified, motivated and multiculturally diverse scholarship holders,” he says in closing.
