Meet Dick Thellmark

Dick Thellmark is an engineer who switched lanes.

"I stopped studying when I got an entry-level position at Sydsvenskan's advertising department during the 1980s," says Thellmark. "That was when I fell for the advertising business."

Since then, after working at several ad agencies, Thellmark is back at Sydsvenskan, where he is currently the creative director for the newspaper's own advertising agency with responsibility for both internal and external marketing projects.

"Sydsvenskan is an interesting place to work with lots of good sides," says Thellmark. "One example is the possibility to broaden your competence within the company. For example, I've had the privilege to take part in several invaluable training programs and tried a new job position as a business developer for some years."

Right now Thellmark is taking on a new challenge - three months with the GROW program as a marketing project manager at Bonnier Corporation's marketing division in Florida. There, he's getting the big picture of how the company functions and trying to see what works well and what works less well, which demands a lot of time, he says.

"The most fun with GROW is that it's like starting again from scratch," Thellmark says. "You learn a lot of new things, both culturally and professionally. I'm creating templates for presentations, internal information and newsletters. I'm also looking over how work is done with the various brands in the different media channels. Since Bonnier Corporation has over 40 brands, it's a lot to keep track of!"

The most striking discovery Thellmark has made is the difference between how the two companies work with projects. "In Sweden we're often too careful at an early stage in projects," he says. "It slows things down. At Bonnier Corporation, we move forward faster. But the down side is that sometimes it's necessary to go back and fix something that wasn't right from the beginning"

Thellmark's tip to other GROW participants is to take advantage of the time to learn something new during free time. "You have the opportunity to meet other people outside the job and get a better understanding of the culture of the country where you're staying," he says. "For me, it was golf, but it could have been anything really."