Meet Oscar Axelsson
Oscar Axelsson from Eksjö in the south of Sweden is one of the participants in this year’s Global Industrial Internship Program. During the internship he is based in the sourcing department in the General Industry Tools and Assembly Systems division in Sickla, Sweden. Although Covid-19 means that most of his work so far has been from the home office, he is curious to explore more about what Atlas Copco has to offer.
May 2021
Education: Studying Industrial Engineering and Management with a master in Logistics & Supply Chain Management, Institute of Technology, Linkoping University, Sweden
Country of placement: Sweden
Division: General Industry Tools and Assembly Systems
Field of work: Sourcing
Interests: Passionate golf player. “Nothing really beats a nice golf round during Swedish spring or summer!”
Over the course of the internship Oscar will work on three different projects. “Two of the projects are within sourcing at the General Industry Tools and Assembly Systems division. The third project is the project where I work with a global team consisting of five other interns. The focus of the global project is how to measure market size, share and potential more effectively,” he says.
A global player with a high profitability
“I applied for this internship since Atlas Copco is a global company founded in Sweden and since I wanted to learn more about the way Atlas Copco operates such a large organization with such effectivity and profitability,” Oscar explains when asked about the reasons for participating in the Industrial Internship. He also emphasizes that the global nature of the program was something he valued highly.
When it comes to expectations of the internship, except for having fun with other interns, he hopes to explore more about the way Atlas Copco operates and to develop his ability to solve complex problems in global teams. “I think the program will lead to great connections with other interns and with more senior colleagues globally. Working in challenging projects will definitely require me to step out of my comfort zone, which I´m really looking forward to,” Oscar says.
Early learnings
“I didn´t really know how global Atlas Copco were before I started this internship. Another interesting thing that I´ve learned so far is that the smartphone that you are using is probably assembled with tools from Atlas Copco, as well as the cars you see driving around in your city,” he concludes.
Checking-in during summer
July 2021
Tell us about tasks and experiences in the internship so far. What are the biggest challenges?
My internship experience is so far beyond my expectations. It’s great fun to work with projects that will be used for the company’s business and future success. The workshops have been great, during these I have had the opportunity to get insight in many areas within the organization.
The biggest challenge so far has been to really understand the complexity and differences within the segments that we are working with in our market analysis model/framework in the global project. To solve this, we have conducted several interviews with colleagues in different countries and with different experiences and expertise within this area.
Can you explain more about the dedicated project that has been assigned to you?
The project that I’m working with is all about establishing a model/framework for market sizing, market share and market potential for the General Industry division in Atlas Copco. The General Industry division consists of several different sub-segments which makes it challenging to create a model which can take all the segments in consideration in a proper way. Our task is therefore to create a model/framework that Business Line Managers can use when they annually estimate the market. In the project my role is to support my team with ideas and proposals for how to approach the different steps in our model and calculations. It is an Excel-heavy model, so I’ve spent much time in Excel.
Who are you interacting with in Atlas Copco?
I’m interacting with several employees within Atlas Copco. Locally, I have the sourcing department that I belong to besides this global project. In the global project, I am interacting with my team members daily, and they are from Czech Republic, Russia and the US. We have also conducted several interviews with people within the organization who are in Mexico, Germany, Italy and many more. Atlas Copco is a global company, so you interact and learn from people within different cultures and nationalities.
What have you learned about our culture and values so far?
That people here thrive for improvement and interactions, Atlas Copco really works with the sentence “There is always a better way”, and colleagues that I have had the opportunity to interact with are very friendly and are continuously working for improvements within the organization and how things are done. I think this mindset is a key to Atlas Copco’s success.