From cockpit to boardroom

Anders Lindblad, President, Ericsson Region Middle East and North Africa, is a man of many dimensions but what defines him is his eternal curiosity, his unquenchable thirst for knowledge and his willingness to accept change.

While in college, he took a break year to become a worker at Volvo, back in his hometown in Sweden but got persuaded by a friend to try his hand at becoming a pilot. Lindblad was not interested but accompanied his friend to Stockholm anyways when he realized that applying for a pilots training could also get him a chance to train to be an engineer, a long-cherished dream.

That was the turning point of his life. His friend did not pass the test but Lindblad did with flying colors and was accepted as a piloting engineer which meant that he got to go to university and study engineering. Four years later he graduated with a masters in engineering and became a lieutenant in the air force.

From steering fighter planes to fighting boardroom battles and being at the helm of business in critical markets for Ericsson has been a long, eventful journey for the man who says nothing is difficult if the mind is open to change.

“If you embrace change, it will enrich your life, your experiences...everything. But don’t change too often that you don’t have time to learn or capitalize from that change,” he says.

Khaleej Times talked to the man who has a vision of building his company’s future around the fact that people and indeed, the world we live in, will be a networked society in future.

“At Ericsson we believe that more than 50 billion devices around the world will be connected to the web over the coming decade, which only serves to emphasise the need for more efficient connectivity.”

Where do you see the company heading in the next five to 10 years? What are going to be your core areas in future and why?

Over the next five to 10 years anything that can or will benefit from being connected to the broadband or Internet will be connected, reaching out to a “Networked Society”.

Our vision is to strengthen the three main enablers for the networked society and these include mobility that allows people to be connected anywhere, anytime on any device, faster Internet connections and cloud computing, the latter in terms of both unlimited computing capabilities in the cloud as well as unlimited storage capabilities. These three components alone will enable tremendous growth on the mobile broadband front.

At Ericsson, our main vision always is to build technologies based on the connection between individuals so that they become communities.

For many years we have been building mobile networks and now we are building the networked society for the future so that we have leadership in this space as well. We are committed to investing in building the Networked Society and leading the industry forward.

Also, as a company, different geographies present different opportunities for us. For instance, we believe that the Middle East is extremely exciting as the region has untapped potential from a coverage perspective, speed of Internet connection and innovation in the areas of mobile phones for example.

Of course, if you look at the UAE in particular, it’s probably one of the most advanced countries in the world; we have 4G and we’ve had mobile broadband for quite some time and it is aiming to be the first country in the world to connect every home with optical broadband.

Being a die-hard technologist, what is the next big trend you foresee in the sector?

For the consumer the big thing will be voice and SMS to social networking. That and online video, gaming and the related applications around that.

But from a technology perspective, I think the big thing will be the qualification of all the connected homes — so it’s going to be more gadgets, more tablet computers, smart phones, connected cameras and connected TV screens.

Everything will be connected and it’s going to be seamless and simple for everybody. 

You were a fighter pilot. What lessons did you learn from Royal Swedish Air Force that you might/do apply at your work place?

I was a pilot for six years but I was in the air force for about 10.

As a fighter pilot I learnt the value of individual performance as well as team performance. The air force is one of the few areas within military communities where the Sergeant can command the General. But, of course, when you land and go back to the command room and start to talk about tactics or strategies, you have to listen to the your seniors. But in the battlefield, the hierarchy disappears. It’s only about quick decisions, the trust of the people around you and teamwork.

These are the things that you want to bring into business life as well. Always be alert, listen to your team mindless of hierarchy and make sure that your decisions are based on certain objectives, capabilities and observations.

Whether you are flying or leading a business, decisions have to be taken quickly. You will never know everything, you will never be sure that your decision is the right decision at all times but you can always go back and correct a wrong decision. But take decisions real fast.

How easy was the switch from the cockpit to the boardroom? Are there similarities in the two professions?

Any change is not easy, especially when you throw away one career and jump into a new one. It’s a big decision. For me, it was the best decision I have taken because my goal in life has always been to do as many things as possible because the more knowledge you accumulate the more generalist you are, and therefore, the more applicable you can be in any sector.

For me, it’s all about curiosity... stay curious and stay hungry.

It’s also about continuing to explore and adopt change. You learn from change, regardless of whether it is changing the country, the environment or your business.

You are a computer engineer, so why did you opt for a RSAF career?

While taking a gap year in college I decided to take a blue collar job at Volvo. I was worker in a two-shift job with a minimum wage and it was hard labour. During that period, back in Sweden everyone had to spend at least one year in the army. So when a colleague of mine asked me if I was interested in going to Stockholm to register for the trials to become a pilot and I agreed.

The Hollywood movie Top Gun was showing in the cinemas just then and that was big. Also, the air force was paying for the air tickets and hotel stay. Plus, if I got in, not only would that count as my army service but I could get the chance to be selected to go to university to study engineering as well.

So instead of applying to become just a pilot, I applied to be a pilot and an engineer. I was selected as a piloting engineer and so I did my military service at the academy and graduated with a masters degree in engineering and became a lieutenant.

You are in charge of 22 countries. Where do you see the highest number of opportunities and the most growth?

Well, it’s a combination of available GDP, the number of people and where you are in the maturity of the society. Then it becomes kind of different because you have countries like the UAE where there is a lot of available span and is at the forefront of a mature market. But then again the population is very limited.

On the other hand a market like Pakistan has a population of 170 million but from a development perspective it is lagging — they don’t even have 3G. Therefore, it’s difficult to compare markets. But if you look at the GCC as one, then it’s a very big and extremely promising market.

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