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8 THE RUNWAY DIGEST - ISSUE #12

BI-MONTHLY INTERNAL NEWSLETTER OF RUNWAY BALTICS

THE RUNWAY DIGEST - ISSUE #12 9

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ne can say that the Runway ad-venture started on a cold No-vember day in Tallinn back in

2003, but let’s turn back the clock even further. Our CEO, Nils Sundling, started his career in the bank sector, working for Sparbanken Nord assisting customers at an offi ce in Moss, Nor-way. What you might not know either is that Nils used to play football at a high level, playing on the right wing for Moss Fotballklubb in the highest division.

However, as they weren’t paid sala-ries in those days, Nils was also working for the bank.

He spent 20 years in the bank sector ending up as the Manager

for the fi rst 24/7 tele-phone bank in Nor-

way. The board of Sparbanken Nord had been to the United States and noticed the banks were open longer than the stan-dard bank hours

and wanted this extended service to be

established in Norway as well. Nils was asked to be in charge in coop-eration with an English company called C3, as this kind of compe-tence didn’t exist at that point in Norway. He held this position for three years and received an offer from C3 to build up their Scandinavian branch. Nils had to make a decision at that point to ei-ther continue in the

bank sector, most likely until retire-

ment, or take a leap of faith and accept this new challenge.

Nils spent the next fi ve years develop-ing contact centres in Europe for C3; around 70 projects dealing with all customer service that wasn’t face to face, mostly within the Bank and Tele-communication sectors. He acquired the Nordic branch of the company and clients started enquiring if additional services could be provided as there was a need to focus more on their core business activities. The idea of Runway was born when Nils visited Tallinn at the end of 2003. Nils recalls: “I was invited to Tallinn to develop a contact centre for Hilton Hotels. It was a cold November day and I just wanted to get back home. It was my fi rst visit in this part of Europe. However, I started to realize that this was an exciting place and didn’t match my picture of a city stuck in old Eastern European mental-ity. It was a city with excellent infra-structure, hard-working people and a much better cost level than in West-ern Europe. Simply put: a place with huge potential.”

Nils saw that this was the place to start offering the clients what they were ask-ing for. Runway was established to-gether with a Norwegian partner and a few British partners. Some initial market research was carried out before business commenced in 2004 with eight employees selling lottery tickets for humanitarian organizations. This was very challenging business over the phone, but at least the ball had started to roll. The fi rst major client was Net-Com, a mobile phone company in Nor-way. This was equally tough as they had plenty of customers calling with complaints and this project was slowly disabled as Norwegian came onboard. Nils about Norwegian: “Building up a business like Runway takes time and

the fact that the Norwegian Air CEO Bjorn Kjos came to us in 2006 with their customer service business is as-tounding, considering our small size at that point. Honestly, I still haven’t found the answer to that question.”

According to Nils, Bjorn Kjos has been the best spokesperson for Runway. “He is a much respected business pro-fi le in Norway thanks to the growth of Norwegian and his positive words are more worth than any advertising could achieve.” The fi rst couple of years were a challenge as would be expected when starting a new business. In 2005 the Riga offi ce was opened and for example knowing where to recruit was a diffi cult task in the beginning. When Norwegian came into the picture, things started looking brighter and two years ago a paradigm shift occurred. Runway expe-rienced profi ts for the fi rst time and Nils could fi nally see an opportunity to start investing more seriously in the most val-ued asset at Runway: its people.

Nils continues: “These last two years we have been able to focus more on creating a working environment that provides something extra, something more than just paying a salary. We have two visions: 1) to be the biggest outsourcing provider in the Baltics and a major player in Europe, and 2) create the best work place in the Bal-tics. For me it’s really important that people enjoy working here and that we take care of each other. From the bank industry I realized how it shouldn’t be, more vertical and more cold environ-ment. After leaving Runway I want people to think fondly of the time they spent here. I can do my best acting as a role model through actions, but it’s everyone’s duty to make this place the best place. I’m for example happy to see that bowling evenings are ar-ranged and that bands with Runway

people are performing at our Christ-mas parties. At work it’s important to develop yourself, but even more im-portant to help others become better. To use a football analogy: it’s better to be eleven professional players on the pitch than being a one-star team.”

Since the start in 2004 the company has developed in the bigger picture as follows: The Norwegian Air project made Riga the biggest offi ce in 2006 as Tallinn had a number of smaller proj-ects. That year both DKV/Storebrand and Genpact also started in Tallinn. In 2007 the ERGO project started in Riga and the Kaunas offi ce was opened. At that point the numbers of Scandinavian-speakers were more in Kaunas com-pared to Vilnius, hence the reason for starting fi rst in Kaunas. The year after the Vilnius offi ce was opened when the company acquired an existing call-centre and the Color Line project was launched in 2009. In 2008, the currently biggest project opened its doors in Tallinn, mak-ing it the biggest Runway offi ce: Hur-tigruten. Nils says: “Except for Dell we haven’t lost any projects and that was because of a central decision to move their customer service to another loca-tion, not because we did a bad job. I think that’s proof enough that we are providing a great service.”

Runway also has an offi ce in Kiev, Ukraine, that still awaits its offi cial opening. It has been on the agenda

for a couple of years and in 2011 the goal is to realize that ambition. When acquired it was important to show strength through several countries/of-fi ces, but recently the focus has been on fi lling up existing offi ces. The focus for the Kiev offi ce will be on attract-ing British and German (maybe even Russian) projects. In Ukraine the cost situation is that it could be competitive also to outsourcing providers in India. Costs are escalating there and other is-sues such as time difference, different culture and long trips make Ukraine an attractive alternative. “We are look-ing at the British, German and Rus-sian markets, but also on the idea of multi-lingual projects. The whole idea is to have all languages under one roof instead of having them spread out in various countries, to create central and multi-lingual environments.”

The most important thing for Runway in 2011 is to offer more services to become a true BPO provider. Nils sees the accounting area as one of the most exciting and profi table areas. It’s im-portant to have more legs to stand on and by offering more services Runway can tie existing and future clients closer to the company. For example one cur-

rent exciting project is the recruitment of cabin crew for Norwegian Air in Tal-linn to be based in Helsinki.

Accounting and other back-offi ce ser-vices in general can be the most ex-citing prospects for the next couple of years. It’s a utopian situation come to reality as Runway not only can provide the services to a lower rate, but also at a higher quality level. The company has a lot of hard-working people that make the clients look even better to their markets/customers.

Nils says: “The power within this or-ganization is exciting to see. For ex-ample, seeing all the employees at the Summer Games in August was amazing. It’s also a thrill to see what kind of clients we are dealing with, for example going to London and present Runway to Samsung. It shows that we have achieved something and that we are going places. 2010 has been an amazing year and 2011 should be even more amazing.”

Nils would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Interview Interview

OUR CEO ABOUT THE PAST, PRESENT AND THE FUTUREBY JAN ERICSSON

“For me it’s really important that people enjoy working here and that we take care of each other.”

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