HiQ Magazine | Gunnel Duveblad: wood-choping board member by HiQ-Media

GUNNEL Wood-chopping board member

She has been named as one of the Swedish IT industry’s most powerful women. She has many years’ experience of leading positions in global IT businesses and her know-how is much in demand among a host of successful companies. Yet few know who she is, this wood-chopping professional director with roots in Luleå in northern Sweden. HiQ Magazine met Gunnel Duveblad to talk about performance, the future and owning your own time.

nergetic is probably the best word to describe Gunnel Duveblad. It’s difficult not to be swept off your feet by her pace and sense of commitment. She walks swiftly in high heels, has a ready laugh and punctuates her words with expressive gestures of her hands. There is a twinkle in her eye and a commanding presence in her keen, ice-blue gaze. Everything about her suggests positive energy and get-up-and-go, despite the fact that the interview has been timed for an early morning start at the HiQ office, one of the companies for which she is a director. “I’m a morning person. There’s no denying that! Perhaps I shouldn’t mention it, but the day before yesterday I was up and working by five o’clock,” she says. Gunnel Duveblad loves her work. No one who meets her is ever left in any doubt about that – nor about the fact that she is a person who commands respect and is not afraid to air her opinions. But what about all that energy? Where does it come from? What is it that drives her? “It’s difficult to put my finger on any one particular thing. But I’m a very results-oriented person in every respect. I’m motivated to achieve things and I’m fortunate enough to have a job where I’m constantly meeting people who also want to achieve something, people with ideas and passion. I get a lot out of that.” It is not often that we see her in this kind of situation. The name Gunnel Duveblad is well known in the IT industry and the Swedish business world, but the woman herself gives few interviews and makes few public appearances. “Trying to stay in the background has always been my way. I suppose it’s because I prefer to work as a member of a team, where the team gets the credit rather than the individual.”

»Everyone should be able to work with what they want to work with. But they need to be given the opportunity to do so.« GUNNEL DUVEBLAD

hat drive – to improve the team as a whole – is a common thread that runs through Gunnel Duveblad’s life. As a youngster growing up she was determined to become a maths teacher, an ambition that stayed with her to the very end of her school career. “That sort of sums it up. A teacher isn’t there to bask in her own glory. Her job is to raise the performance of the group as a whole. That’s probably particularly true of maths, which can be a difficult and complex subject to grasp. You need to help each and every pupil to think in their own way, to understand the concepts in order to ‘make the penny drop’, as you might say. I get a real kick out of helping other people to grow and raise their game. And I can see a link between that and working with other board members,” she says. Gunnel never became a teacher, however. She studied science in upper secondary school and a special project brought her into contact with programming. “That’s what sparked my interest in IT and technology,” she says. “I loved programming and at home I’d always been encouraged to focus on doing the things I enjoyed. I suppose it was there and then that I embarked on the journey that has led me here.” Home back then was in Luleå in the far north of Sweden. Gunnel grew up as one of three siblings. Her father was a contractor, often working with excavating machines; mother stayed at home while the children were still young. Gunnel’s younger sister, Gunilla Nordström, is also a well-known figure in IT, industry and commerce and has held leading positions with the Electrolux Group and Sony Ericsson. How come you two sisters were so attracted to IT? “As I said, we’ve always had a lot of positive support from two loving parents, who like nothing better than to see us pursuing our interests. We were constantly told that we could do whatever we set our heart on doing. It was that which led to my becoming the first in our family to study at university and my sister to

become the second. These were quite simply the subjects we found most appealing. We never gave a thought to what might be typically male and typically female areas of interest.” Gunnel thinks it was also an advantage to grow up in a relatively small city. She believes it gave her greater freedom: the way forward in life was less clear-cut. “If you grow up in Stockholm or Gothenburg you can become very blinkered in your choices. Is it to be KTH, Chalmers or the Stockholm School of Economics? I think growing up in the provinces may have played a part in giving me the courage to choose a different path.” "TRYING TO STAY IN THE BACKGROUND HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY WAY. I SUPPOSE IT’S BECAUSE I PREFER TO WORK AS A MEMBER OF A TEAM, WHERE THE TEAM GETS THE CREDIT RATHER THAN THE INDIVIDUAL." At the time Luleå offered little choice in terms of IT studies, or EDP as it was known back then. So when Gunnel left school she moved to Umeå where she was one of just two women in the university’s first cohort of Computer Economics students (systems analysts in today’s parlance). On graduating she joined the gigantic IBM Group as a consultant. “In those days there was a lot more emphasis on hardware and huge investments were being made in IT systems. The focus was on helping companies to automate their processes. It was hugely exciting. For me, IT has always been about creating value. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a question of major applications or simple administrative aids, the quest to find commercial benefits has always fascinated me: how can companies become more efficient, save money and be better at delivering what they do?” Gunnel spent 25 years with IBM, most of them in leading positions at both Nordic and European level. However, a career in management was not anything she had set her sights on. It came almost as something of a shock

when she was offered her first managerial post. At the time she was working part-time, a decision she had made in conjunction with her two spells of parental leave. “I remember getting an email saying that my manager’s manager wanted a word with me. He offered me the chance to become a line manager – but I turned it down. My focus was to work part-time so I could spend time with my daughters. I wasn’t prepared to compromise on that. But then IBM got back to me. ‘Okay,’ they said. ‘What about working parttime as a manager?’ After much deliberation back and forth, I finally said yes.” In practice, of course, it could hardly be considered a part-time job. But that didn’t matter. The way things were set up, it worked well. The important thing as far as Gunnel was concerned was that she was in control of her time. “I’m sure I worked more than full-time. But I wanted the flexibility to be able to leave work early and to work from home. That’s good advice for anyone – Take ownership of your own schedule! Women especially need to have the courage to be kind to themselves.”

uddenly that famous energy is positively crackling in the room. It’s clear that this is an issue very close to Gunnel Duveblad’s heart. With force and passion she explains how a senior position demands a great deal of time and hard work, but that the key is to find ways to balance the workload – both for the individual and in society as a whole. “No one is going to tell you to create a more flexible working situation for yourself. That’s an initiative that only you can take. Everyone – men and women alike – should be able to work with what they want to work with. But they need to be given the opportunity to do so. That’s never clearer than when you start a family. Because, despite the enormous changes this brings in your life, the week still only has seven days and the day only has 24 hours. That’s when you need to cut out certain things from your life. And for that to work, we need a fully developed service sector. That would produce

all sorts of positive effects, not least in terms of the integration into the labour market of young people and those without any formal qualifications in higher education.” Gunnel’s message is plain. She has been filling a glass with water while speaking and now, at last, she finds time to take a drink. When I ask what has been the greatest challenge in her career, there is a pause in the conversation – a marked contrast to her otherwise rapid replies and quick-fire comments. When the answer finally comes it touches on an issue we have just explored. “If I take a step back, I think I’d have to say that it’s the work-life balance, actually making it work. Combining the ambition to be a mother who is there for her children with delivering good results at work. I think there are a lot of people who would agree with me about that.”

GUNNEL DUVEBLAD

Board worker and new Chair of the Board of Directors of HiQ. HOME: Outside Stockholm, but comes originally from Luleå. FAVOURITE GADGET: There’s no denying that the mobile phone is a really practical piece of kit. READS: A mix of novels and crime stories WHAT TO DO ON THE METRO: Solve sudoku puzzles. FAVOURITE SEASON: Spring. Spring symbolises faith in the future so well. Nature is so full of signs that things are starting to happen. THE BEST THING ABOUT HIQ: Everything. The people, the passion and the attitude. What HiQ has already achieved and, not least, what we want to achieve in the future. JOB:

unnel Duveblad is chair of the Ruter Dam Foundation, an initiative that works to promote female leadership at a senior level in major companies. The answer to the question of how this can be achieved is delivered instantaneously: “a performance- and results-based corporate culture”. “That’s my simple analysis,” she adds. “More women are given leading positions in companies that embrace a performance-based culture. People are given clear responsibilities and clear goals, so they understand, ‘Okay, this is what I need to do to deliver what is expected.’ I think women are more results-oriented. There are statistics that show that girls have better results at school and in further education. It’s only in trade and industry that the balance shifts.” Gunnel explains this contradiction in terms of a relational culture, based on factors such as who is last to leave the office in the evening; factors where performance is not based on quantifiable metrics. “Traditionally people have said that, in order to attract women you need a ‘softer’ working environment based on relations. I think the opposite is true; you need something that is

»And I think it’s great fun to chop wood. The results are so clear to see. You work at it and suddenly there’s a pile of wood at your feet«

clearly linked to personal performance. That kind of environment stimulates people to deliver. However, it’s less important where you deliver from in purely physical terms – for example, if you need to work from home while you’re looking after small children, or if you prefer to get up at five in the morning to get your work done so you can leave early in the day. It’s the results that should count.” What about female quotas? What do you think about them? “I don’t believe in quotas as a way of shoehorning more women into corporate boardrooms. I think the focus needs to be on putting more women in senior positions in management teams. Women with responsibility for results. That’s where I want to see more women.” In common with many others, Gunnel Duveblad would like to see more female role

models to show others the way forward. The problem is that different people have different ideas about what constitutes a female role model. "SURE, THERE’S AN ATTRACTION TO BELONGING TO A TEAM THAT WORKS TOGETHER EVERY DAY, PEOPLE WHO BATTLE SIDE BY SIDE TO SOLVE THE CHALLENGES THEY FACE" “My own role models when I was growing up – my mother and grandmother, for example – were not women who were in the public eye. Both went to work outside the home and both learned to drive, something that neither of my grandfathers ever bothered to do. At the time I didn’t see these initiatives as anything special. It was only later that I understood what pioneers these women were in the family.”

ole models, a focus on results and flexibility are seen by Gunnel Duveblad as three key factors behind success. She herself took flexibility to a new level when she first embarked on her boardroom career just over ten years ago. After 25 years with IBM followed by four intensive years as a manager with another American IT company, EDS, she stepped back from these operational roles. “Even as a 40-year-old I said that by the time I was 50, I would take operational retirement. It had a lot to do with making sure I could have a greater say in how I used my time.” She had already taken a peek at what boardroom work involved and gained an insight into what it meant to take an active role as a director. Today she chairs and has directorships in organisations that include Dustin, HiQ , PostNord, Sweco and Team Olivia. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s great fun. The companies I have chosen to become involved in are companies that have embarked on a journey of change. They know what they want and they are eager to develop. For me, that’s really stimulating.” orking days as a board professional – or ”board worker” as she prefers to call herself – consist of numerous meetings and large amounts of material to be read. There are conclusions to be drawn and conversations with the CEOs of the companies for which she is a director. No one can deny that she has her plate full. Does she not perhaps sometimes wish she were back dealing with operational issues? “Sure, there’s an attraction to belonging to a team that works together every day, people who battle side by side to solve the challenges they face. I do miss that at times. It gives you a real rush to make those positive transitions, moving out of the red into the black, entering new markets, winning new shares. In the boardroom there’s less focus on day-to-day operations. That’s the whole point – taking a

look at things from the outside. But that’s fun, too. Especially being able to work in so many different fields.” It is no coincidence that the companies for which Gunnel Duveblad is a director span such a broad spectrum of industries, from IT to care and rehabilitation “It gives me an opportunity to share the knowledge and lessons learned in one industry with another. That’s exactly the kind of thinking that HiQ stands for. Basically, the challenges are very much the same. My roots are in the IT industry, where people work to solve a wide range of day-to-day issues, to find solutions to commercial challenges – just as they do in all businesses in every sector.” Cross-industry collaboration is also a theme that recurs when the discussion turns to the wider implications of the digital revolution and its impact on the future. “I see Volvo’s In-car Delivery as a firstrate example of what is happening now,” "THE GREATEST THING IS WHAT’S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW. NOW AND IN THE FUTURE!" Gunnel says. “Radically different industries and companies are focusing on the problems and needs of the end-user and working together to solve them: in this particular instance, to deliver goods that a customer has ordered directly to that person’s car. Today the opportunities to do this exist and it has become cost-effective to develop innovations to meet these needs.” Many years of experience have enabled Gunnel Duveblad to detect a clear trend: the IT industry has reverted to a “trial and error” approach where the starting point is human behaviour. “After a period when the mantra was to test and test and test again before daring to release ideas, the return to a ‘test and run’ approach has revolutionised the industry. The key is simply to dare – and to bring together players from different sectors. We will continue to find brand new ways of using technology.”

he time allocated for the interview is rapidly running out. Soon Gunnel must be on her way to one of her many meetings. Before she disappears, however, I ask how she likes to spend her time on days when she isn’t working. “I get a lot of pleasure out of gardening,” she says. “Pruning my fruit trees and weeding. Working with your hands gives you plenty of opportunity to think about other things. Work, for example. So I like working with my hands at home and at our summer place.” Her next comment is both unexpected and obvious. “And I think it’s great fun to chop wood. The results are so clear to see. You work at it and suddenly there’s a pile of wood at your feet. I’m so grateful for things like log splitters. I’m no good with an axe, so I’m glad that smart inventions like log splitters help me to do what I enjoy doing.” Clear results, smart solutions, having fun. Chopping wood somehow sums up the entire interview with Gunnel Duveblad. It also makes it easy to decide where to photograph her. We agree to meet “out in the country”, where she patiently poses a couple of weeks later among sawdust and piles of logs. When the photographer is satisfied, we stroll around the large garden scattered with early spring flowers and talk about the latest news and what has been the most revolutionary change during Gunnel Duveblad’s 40 years in the industry. She has seen numerous technical advances and innovations that have changed the world, our own lifestyles and our relationship to technology. What has left the most indelible impression? The growth of the internet, maybe? Smartphones? “The greatest thing is what’s happening right now. Now and in the future!” Of course. The greatest things are ahead of us, not behind us. “It’s now and in the future that the most exciting developments will take place. We’ve only seen the beginning of what it is possible to do.”