citec attitude 1_2009

WITH THE WORLD UNDER

YOUR FEET

NEWS AND STORIES WITH AN ATTITUDE FROM CITEC

1 • 2009

PARTNERSHIP ADDS VALUECitec has helped Wärtsilä deliver more than 1,000 power plants.

RENEWED TRAINING CONCEPTBoth customers and staff benefit from the Citec Academy.

FEEL THE PULSEPolar’s training computers are demonstrated through training tools.

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Some hobbies require more nerves than others. Read more about skydiving on page 10.

Attitude is the key to success

You are holding the very first issue of the Citec customer and personnel magazine, Citec Attitude. One of the first things to decide when creating a new company, a new product or a new

magazine is the name. I’ve been involved in many naming processes, but rarely has it been as simple as in this case. The editorial staff came to the meeting well prepared. We had reminded ourselves of our brand promise. What did we want to communicate? A suggestion was on the table; we looked at each other and smiled: Attitude.

In psychology attitude means a person’s conscious or unconscious view on something, which can be openly shown or hidden, cognitive or emotional. Attitude has a multidimensional meaning for us here at Citec. We believe that it is your attitude towards colleagues, customers, projects and the world around you that, to a large extent, determines how well you succeed in your tasks. You can have excellent grades, a rich family and 20 years of qualified technical experience. But if you have the wrong attitude, the result of your work is often a failure. Ice hockey teams sometimes comment on losses by saying that ‘today we didn’t have the right attitude on the ice’. It is actually quite descriptive.

In this first issue you will meet quite a few people from Citec with the right – and in some cases even audacious – attitudes. You can familiarise yourself with the interesting customer projects we work with and hear what our customers think about us. Long-term investments are becoming increasingly important in customer relations – Rune Westergård at Citec together with Osmo Härkönen and Christian Rönnholm at Wärtsilä talk about the benefits of partnerships in the cover story.

So, enjoy your read! And please send feedback to us on the editorial staff – or send your tips on topics you think we should write about in coming issues.

Have a nice winter!

Michael SmirnoffEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

4 From Silicon ValleyMeet Citec Information’s new Managing Director in Sweden, Johan Samuelsson, and read about his exciting background.

6 A long-lasting relationshipCitec and Wärtsilä have renewed their partnering agreement. Long-term trust and open communication are needed for a successful partnership.

10 Free fallingSkydiving is a hobby requiring a great deal of courage. Citec’s Joakim Nybäck realised a long-held dream this autumn when he enrolled in a skydiving course.

14 Citec Academy opens doorsLately a great deal of work has gone into unifying, coordinating and systemising training within Citec.

18 Don’t worry – be happyThe latest research into happiness shows that we can influence our own level of happiness to a much greater extent than we think.

22 The average employeeHe’s 38 years of age, has a bachelor’s degree in engineering and has been at Citec for slightly more than four years.

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PUBLISHER Citec companies,

P.O. Box 109, FI-65100 Vaasa,

+358 (0)6 324 0700

EDITORIAL BOARD Rune Westergård,

Michael Smirnoff, Katriina Valli,

Tom Eriksson, Peter Appel,

Anna Jeanne Söderlund

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Smirnoff

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Anna Jeanne Söderlund

PRODUCTION

Botnia Information and Citec

LAYOUT Glenn Nylund,

Annika Lillkvist, Janne Nylund

COVER PHOTO Steve Fitchett

PRINT Fram 2009

COMPANY KEY FACTS

Citec Engineering offers complete

engineering solutions, Citec

information offers services related to

technical communication. The total

number of employees is 1,000 and

the estimated turnover for 2008 is 60

million euros. Citec is headquartered

in Vaasa, Finland and has offices in

Finland, Sweden, the UK, France,

Russia, India and China.

10CITEC CUSTOMER MAGAZINE1.09

IN THIS ISSUE

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CITEC ATTITUDE 1•2009

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1•2009 CITEC ATTITUDE

CONTENTSEDITORIAL

n What is your first impression of your new employer?“That there are very competent people here who really know about

documentation. I’ve dedicated the beginning of my employment to visiting all six Citec offices in Sweden.”

You have lived and worked in Silicon Valley. How did you end up there?“I studied in the US and fell in love with the San Francisco area. The last ten years I’ve worked in different companies in Silicon

Customer seminar n Citec Information will arrange its traditional customer seminar in Helsinki on June 11th. Because the topic should be as up-to-date as possible, it will be decided only three months before the actual event. Last year the theme was standards and legal issues in technical documentation, and the choice of topic received a great deal of positive feedback from the customers.

The main event of the Citec Academy has grown each year and last year there were 80 participants. The goal for this year is to have at least as many people participating. Besides the main event, Citec Information also arranges smaller local customer events in Sweden and India.

Technical fair n Citec Engineering will arrange an internal technical fair on June 12th in Vaasa. The topic will follow Citec Engineering’s focus theme in 2009; customer orientation and competence. The aim is to share technical and customer-specific knowledge. As the name implies, this will be a day with a different approach than traditional training, hopefully starting another tradition within Citec Academy.

Current fairsCitec will be present at Power-Gen Europe in Cologne, Germany on 26–28.5.2009.

Citec will also take part in the IPMA world congress in Helsinki 15–17.6.2009.

Citec Engineering will participate in the Hannover Messe in the Power Plant Technology section 20–24.4.2009.

Citec Information will attend the STD spring conference in Finland.

n Citec continues with the stunt theme in marketing. This summer, photo shoots were held for a series of new brand images. Together with existing images, the pictures will be used in advertisements on the internet and in other marketing material.

The climbing images were taken on the mountain La Panocha (which means an ear of corn) in the Spanish town Murcia. The model climbed up the mountain side for real, but the safety lines have been edited out from the final images. Images with a diving theme were taken at the same time. The planning and production was made by ad agency Daddy Finland in cooperation with Citec’s Communications Director Michael Smirnoff.

n Formatic Finland, manufacturer of snow and cross-country groomers, is one of Citec Information’s newest customers. During the autumn Citec has created spare part catalogues and user manuals for the company.

“Previously we’ve written this kind of technical documentation ourselves, but we never felt really satisfied with the end result”, says Managing Director Tore Carlson.

The cooperation with Citec began when the Finnish company Formatic was bought by their German competitor Kässbohrer Geländefarzeug in the beginning of 2008. As the business is now part of a larger company, the need for technical documentation grew. Nowadays, for instance, all spare parts are ordered through a centralized system.

“Now we can focus on building the best machines possible. Technical documentation can be handled by those who are experts in the field and have the top-class tools for doing the job”, says Carlson.

UPCOMING EVENTS RECENT ACQUISITIONS

New brand pictures Formatic outsources documentation

New life science business unitn Citec Information has strengthened its position within life sciences by the acquisition of Merk Consulting. Swedish Merk provides documentation and marketing services to companies within the areas of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotechnology, veterinary care and general healthcare.

Life sciences is a key area for Citec Information in its international growth strategy. Gary Manders, one of the owners of Merk Consulting, heads the new Life Science business unit set up within Citec Information.

“It is exciting to add our knowledge to the tremendous capabilities within Citec. I believe we can create strong synergy effects for the benefit of our customers”, says Manders.

Citec turns 25n On the 12th of June the entire Citec Europe will be celebrating the company’s 25th anniversary at Hietasaari in Vaasa. In India the celebrations will most likely be held in September. According to the plans, the birthday celebration will also include workshops and seminars.

NEW CUSTOMER. Formatic’s machines are used to prepare the snow on downhill slopes.

CLIMBING. Model Maria José climbed up a mountain in Spain for Citec’s new brand picture.

citec.com acquiredn Citec continues its global expansion and as new countries are added to the Citec family, it is increasingly important to communicate our international profile in the virtual world. Hence, Citec has recently acquired the ownership of the citec.com domain. We will start using the .com address globally during this winter.

HEAT. Temperature rose to 40 degrees at the photo session.

Valley, both small and large. I experienced the rise and fall of the dot-com era at the epicentre, so they were very interesting and educational years.”

Why did you decide to move back to Sweden?“I don’t actually have a good answer to that question. I liked living in the US, but didn’t have anything to keep me there. I was

in Sweden over the summer and started to think about finding work in my home country. If I’d come during the cold season, I might not have had the same willingness to stay…”

You’re very well educated, with a degree from the Stockholm School of Economics and an MBA from Harvard. How did you end up at Harvard?

“It has always been my dream to study there, so I put in quite a lot of time in applying. I studied there 1996-98 and they were the best years of my life. We didn’t have any books; instead the teaching was based on discussion and problem solving. Everyone had work experience from different areas; one person was a fighter pilot. So the discussions were very stimulating.”

What was the most important thing you learned there?“In a typically American way, the importance of networking was emphasized, so now I have contacts all over the world. After three weeks at Harvard I’d learned to know more people than in four years at a Swedish university.”

Johan Samuelsson has been working as the Managing Director for Citec Information in Sweden since October 2008.

From Silicon Valley to Citec5

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5CITEC STUNTSCITEC STUNTS

HIGH FIVE, WÄRTSILÄThe strategic partnership between Wärtsilä and Citec is built on trust, open communication and long-term cooperation – more or less the same characteristics found in a happy marriage. The partnership allows Wärtsilä to fully concentrate on their core activities.

RELATIONS BUSINESS. In autumn 2008 the partnership agreement between Citec and Wärtsilä was renewed and widened. Both companies benefit from the contract, says Rune Westergård and Osmo Härkönen.

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CITEC ATTITUDE 1•2009 1•2009 CITEC ATTITUDE

COVER STORY: PARTNERSHIP COVER STORY: PARTNERSHIP

It wasn’t love at first sight for Citec and Wärtsilä. The decision for a shared future came about slowly over a longer period of time. When Citec

and Wärtsilä signed their first partnering agreement in 2003, Wärtsilä had already been a Citec customer for about 15 years. And Citec wasn’t the only choice for a bride.

“When we decided to outsource our engineering department, we had several candidates. The fact that our final choice was Citec was because of know how, cost efficiency and trust. And of course it was a plus that both companies are based in Vaasa”, says Osmo Härkönen, Vice President, Wärtsilä Power Plants.

The background for the decision was that the department that designed power plants at Wärtsilä wasn’t functioning as well as it could. There were 53 people working in the department, but a large part of the design work was still being bought from several outside suppliers. The Wärtsilä employees spent too much of their time on purchasing, coordinating and managing tasks. “We had many top experts, but their capacity wasn’t used fully, as a large part of the working time was being spent with other things. We made the decision that engineering wasn’t part of our key competence and that the department should be outsourced and we would be buying the services instead”, says Härkönen. He sees a large number of benefits in outsourcing and partnerships. Wärtsilä can even reduce expenses by only buying as much design work as needed. In the long term, cooperation can help to develop efficient processes, which will become cost effective.

An increasing number of companies today are choosing to focus on their core activities and purchase other functions. In addition to traditional subcontractor relationships, different types of partnerships are gaining ground.

“You could say that a partnership is a business based on relationships while subcontracting is based on transactions”, says Rune Westergård, Chairman of the Board, Citec companies. “This doesn’t mean that the service cost has no meaning in a partnership, but there are also many other values created in the long term. When you know each other well, you can work together more effectively and develop smarter new solutions that are more cost effective.”

Huge improvement in delivery accuracyn At the beginning of 2006, Wärtsilä Services delivered only 10 % of their technical documentation to the customers on time. Slightly more than half a year later, the number had climbed to 90 %, after Citec began to take care of the job.

“Before, documentation was often forgotten and not seen as important. It was when we realized that a missing manual could delay final payment in a large project that we understood how important those folders are”, says Christian Rönnholm, Vice President, Wärtsilä Services.

When Citec took over the work, five persons were also outsourced from Wärtsilä to Citec. The reason for choosing Citec was partially that the power plant department at Wärtsilä already had a partner agreement with Citec, and that the company was based in Vaasa.

“With Citec’s experience we’ve been able to develop processes that allow documentation to be handled cost effectively and quickly. Before, the work was often unstructured and time consuming”, says Rönnholm.

A partnership is almost like a marriage

For Citec, the partnership with Wärtsilä means that it is possible to invest in recruitment, competence and tools. A large part of Citec’s rapid growth in India is due to the Wärtsilä partnership – about 40% of all work done for Wärtsilä today is made in India.

For a partnership to be successful, more is needed than a legal agreement; most importantly an understanding of what a partnership means and how it is implemented in practice. Common tools and integrated IT systems are a must. Also a large amount of faith and openness is needed from all parties.

Both Härkönen and Westergård point out that the cooperation, in a way, was actually at its best in the beginning. Since then both Citec and Wärtsilä have had a large amount of recruitment and it takes time for the new employees to learn the idea behind the partnership.

“When people sit at different locations, it easily happens that they don’t communicate as much and as openly as they should. But we’ll get better at including the Citec employees; the project managers have an important role to play in that aspect”, says Härkönen.

Rune Westergård adds: “For Citec employees this means that we shouldn’t be passive and wait for work instructions. We should be more proactive.”

Another requirement if a partnership is to succeed is that clear, measurable targets are set and that they are followed. A steering group consisting of Wärtsilä and Citec representatives meets 3–4 times a year to go through feedback from the organisations, to define new targets and to develop processes.

Citec is the first company that Wärtsilä has such a deep partnership agreement with. And although it is a marriage built on communication and openness, it’s ok to window shop.

“Of course you feel a little jealous when Citec offers other customers the same smart solutions we have developed together”, says Härkönen and adds: “But of course that works the other way too. We can benefit from the experience and competence Citec has obtained via services to other customers.”

LONG-TERM PARTNER. Over the years, Citec has helped Wärtsilä design more than 1,000 power plants.

TRUST. Citec is the first company that Wärtsilä has such a deep partnership with.

End of the 1980’sWärtsilä starts buying engineering services from Citec.

Beginning of the 1990’sThe cooperation grows to include technical documentation.

2003The planning department at Wärtsilä, with 53 employees, is outsourced to Citec. The first partnership agreement is signed.

2004Technical documentation is also included in the partnership agreement.

2005Five employees from the technical documentation department at Wärtsilä Services are outsourced to Citec.

2008The partnership agreement is renewed and widened to include all Wärtsilä business globally

A long history together


8 COVER STORY: PARTNERSHIP


9COVER STORY: PARTNERSHIP

Having the courage to bail out of an aircraft requires trust above all else. Trust in the equipment, trust in the jump master and perhaps most of all, trust in yourself. This autumn, Key Account Manager Joakim Nybäck’s long-time dream came true when he enrolled in a skydiving course.

FREE FALLING – SAFE LANDINGIt is a glowingly beautiful day in October without

a cloud in the sky and a mild wind. A perfect day to go skydiving. Joakim Nybäck – Key Account

Manager for Citec Information – is ready to take to the sky and bail out at 1,000 metres above ground for the fourth time. “Positively looking forward to it”, is how he describes his feelings.

“The first time I climbed out of the aircraft and let go, it felt like my stomach was left behind while I flew away. The second time was even more nerve-wracking, since I knew what to expect. It’s hard to describe the feeling when jumping; it’s unlike anything else I’ve ever done before. But I definitively like it.”

Joakim had been toying with the idea of skydiving for years, but it was only last autumn that he finally enrolled in a beginner’s course and, shortly after, jumped for the first time.

“It was just three evenings of theory and practical exercises and then up we went. That may not sound much by way of preparation, but the first times the parachute is triggered automatically and you get instructions through a radio, so there isn’t that much that can go wrong; although you do have to know how to steer or you’ll just drift with the wind.”

Since skydiving is a potentially life-threatening sport, the safety requirements are rigorous. To be allowed to pack a parachute in the first place requires plenty of experience. Reserve parachutes must be repacked at regular intervals regardless of whether they have been deployed or not. As it happens, this particular morning the jump master notices that the reserve parachute Joakim is about to use is due for repacking. He must step aside and let the other jumpers go first.

Meanwhile, another jump master checks that all the straps are fastened and tight enough. He also reminds Joakim of the proper attitude when bailing out; hips front and arms out to the side. They also go through the process of deploying the parachute manually, even though Joakim’s parachute will be triggered automatically until the seventh jump. Only then will he be expected to deploy his parachute himself.

“Once I get more experience, I can also jump from a greater height and eventually use a smaller and faster parachute. You can spend 20–30 seconds in

freefall then and I’m really looking forward to that. Everyone talks about how great freefall is.”

Finally after several hours worth of waiting and preparation things get going. The parachuting club’s aircraft – an old plane with at least 40 years worth of air under its wings, that is said to be more modern than it looks as the engine is new – stands at the southern end of Vaasa airfield.

Joakim and another beginner squeeze inside alongside a couple of experienced jumpers who will be instructing them from the plane. Besides not having a fear of heights, if you want to go skydiving you’d better not suffer from claustrophobia either; the jumpers are packed like sardines in the tiny aircraft.

The aircraft rolls down the airstrip, takes off and vanishes from sight for a while. Then it suddenly appears again and just as suddenly there’s a shape next to the plane; Joakim Nybäck at the beginning of his fourth jump.

Slowly he becomes larger as he floats down at a speed of about 30 kilometres per hour, i.e. about the speed of a fast march. The experienced jumpers following him drop down at a notably faster rate with their smaller parachutes. After a few minutes Joakim approaches the same bit of grass that the plane took off from – and lands by tumbling down with the parachute around him.

“I braked a bit too soon and hit the ground too fast. This was the first time I could decide for myself when to brake”, he explains.

And what did the jump feel like?“It was intense. I’m calmer now and can

concentrate better on doing what I was taught to do.”

In Finland the skydiving season ends in November as it gets too dark and cold during the winter for jumping. Even experienced jumpers say that the first jump in the spring always makes you extra nervous, no matter how many times you’ve jumped before.

“This is probably my last jump for the season, which is a shame since I’ve just got started. I’ll be nervous in the spring, but at the same time this is a hobby that I really am going to keep up. It’s just too difficult not to!”

INDESCRIBABLE. Joakim Nybäck says that he can’t really describe the feeling when jumping. “But I definitively like it.”


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11SPORTS: SKYDIVINGSPORTS: SKYDIVING

Citec has been involved in the design and engineering of trains since 2005, when the engineering department of the train manufacturer Talgo (presently Transtech) was taken over. About 25

employees were shifted to Citec as a result of the outsourcing.“The advantage in business process outsourcing like this

is that the company taking over the personnel takes care of resourcing; both competence and number wise. The need for personnel often varies depending on the order situation”, says Business Area Manager Ralf Wallin from Citec Engineering.

The arrangement was very convenient for Transtech as the demand for engineering resources began to lessen after the deal. For Citec this meant that the planned growth in work didn’t take place. The sales department was forced to compensate for the missing work from Transtech and only lately has the work finally begun to bear fruit. The hard work has been worthwhile however, as the turnover of the Vehicles business area grew by 30 per cent during 2008.

The toughest challenge has actually been to convince new customers that Citec has an in-depth know-how about rail vehicles.

“We are selling knowledge services rather than a product and it takes a long time to build up trust”, says Wallin.

The target is to continue to grow: turnover and personnel

are to be tripled within three years. At the end of 2007, a large-scale project was begun with Bombardier Transportation in Norway, with the aim of completely redesigning and rebuilding a large number of train carriages for Norweigan Railways. Citec has worked both with the mechanical and the electrical part of this project.

The Vehicles team has solid competence within the entire project chain, from pre-studies to after sales. They have been involved in working with most rail vehicles that can be found in Finland, from Pendolino trains to trams in Helsinki. The unit works both in designing completely new train models and in modifying existing models.

“Our personnel has a lot of work experience and a very wide competence. With their previous employer they were involved in the actual production and followed it with their own eyes. Our speciality is designing for arctic climates”, says Wallin.

Impressive turnaroundCitec Engineering’s Vehicles business area has raised its turnover by 30 per cent during 2008. Long-term work has finally begun to bear fruit.

POWER WITH JOINED FORCES

Cooperation between Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery (SIT) and Citec began in the beginning of 2008. A group of engineers from Citec

Engineering in Finland travelled over to SIT in Sweden to begin work on a power plant project for Russia.

“It was clear right away that we fit together very well. We use the same tools and also the personal relationships worked fine”, says Jerry Fornander, Manager, Layout and Civil Powerplants at SIT.

After a couple of months in Sweden the Citec personnel returned to Finland and continued working remotely. Using the work tool, PDMS global connection, the work could be done in real time even though participants were stationed in different countries. All in all 2-5 people from Citec have been busy with the project over the year.

According to Jerry Fornander there are several advantages in using an outside partner.

“We don’t have to turn down large orders since we know we can get extra people in when needed. It’s also a good way to adapt to economic trends. Working with new people also gives new points of view and develops the working environment.”

Previously SIT has mostly subcontracted the building part of projects; this was the first time when also the piping and the installation was planned by an outside partner. Citec helped for instance with cabling in PDMS, something that was completely new for Siemens. Citec’s office in Moscow helped with the translations of drawings.

“On the large scale I’m very pleased with the cooperation. Naturally it always takes some time to work things out, but over all everything has worked well and I hope that we can continue working together in some form”, says Fornander.

He emphasises that Citec also has competence in processing and electrics and that SIT will perhaps be making use of this in the future.

Nichlas Råtts, who was responsible for the project on Citec’s side, is also pleased with the cooperation.

“We fit well together with SIT. And even though the customer is new, the work itself isn’t new for us. Planning power plants is one of our key competences.”

Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery can accept larger orders thanks to their cooperation with Citec.

EXTRA PEOPLE WHEN NEEDED. According to Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery, there are several advantages in using outside partners.


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BUSINESS AREA: VEHICLE INDUSTRYCUSTOMER CASE: SIEMENS INDUSTRIAL TURBOMACHINERY

CITEC ACADEMY EXPANDS

A job through training

The times when new employees would learn the ropes simply by sitting and watching someone for half a day are over. During the past

year, a great deal of work has gone into unifying, coordinating and systemising training within the Citec Engineering Group. This concept is now known as the Citec Academy.

“The Citec Academy is an umbrella term for all our training activities, and the main goal for this training is to maintain the company’s competitive edge. Citec sells know how, so it is extremely important that the employees’ training is at a high standard”, says Päivi Haapalainen, who has been Project Manager at Citec Engineering for a year, and is responsible for implementing the training activities.

In India, where recruitment has been extensive, there is a great need for basic training. If new employees are immediately taught the Citec Engineering way of working, they can start producing faster. Since December 2008, Namrata Jagirdar has been appointed Training Manager at Citec Engineering, India. She has good experience in this area from her previous work with training in other companies.

“I would like to put into use the skills and knowledge gained in my career to refine the training procedure and make Citec a learning organisation – an organisation where learning adds value to business,” says Jagirdar.

In the Citec Engineering facilities in Mumbai, India, a space was recently renovated specifically for training purposes. Thanks to this, larger groups can now be trained at the same time.

“The employees in India are often eager for new information. At the beginning we mainly planned that we Finnish people would teach them, but the opposite has also been true: the Citec employees from India come to Finland to hold courses”, Päivi Haapalainen explains.

Training at Citec Engineering is held both by Citec employees and by outside trainers. It has also been planned to intensify cooperation with customers and suppliers regarding training, for example by organising shared courses.

“The prerequisite for learning new things is to turn our view outwards and not just inwards”, says Haapalainen.

For a long time Citec Information has already had a tradition of arranging customer seminars. Once a year, a larger event is organised in Finland, while smaller seminars are held in Sweden and India.

“Offering training to our customer via seminars is a way of showing our expert role. The idea came about when several of our customers expressed the wish to meet our other customers”, Director Katriina Valli from Citec Information explains.

As a company selling know how, it is vital that Citec has competent personnel and good training. The Citec Academy training concept helps to maintain the competitive edge.

First training, then perhaps a job. At Citec Information India, an unusual but successful way of recruiting has been created.

NEW AT THE JOB. Namrata Jagirdar has been working as Training Manager at Citec Engineering India since December 2008.

Citec Information arranges• internal training for junior

and trainee level employees, especially in India.

• internal training in competence areas such as project management and content creation.

• customer seminars under the Citec Academy brand.

Citec Engineering arranges internal training on three levels:1. Basic company-related

information for all new employees

2. Design specific and design tool training

3. Technical area and customer-specific training

External training, for example in project management and leadership skills

CITEC ACADEMY

In December 2008, a basic course in technical documentation started on the Citec premises in Bangalore, India. Eight candidates from various

backgrounds were given an intensive introduction to the subject over four weeks. The best from the group were then employed by Citec.

“We’ve used this concept for recruitment six times now since 2004, and I think it is a very innovative concept that works well. During the course we can map out who has the requirements for the job and hire them”, says HR Manager Vinaya Rao.

Usually 75–100% of the people taking part are hired by Citec. Those taking part have various educational backgrounds, from languages to engineering.

FAST START. In India, where recrutiment has been extensive, there is a great need for basic training.

“Citec Information is growing in India at the moment and there is a constant demand for competent professionals. But it is difficult to find enough people with the special know how we need, since technical documentation is a small niche area in India. This is why it is good that we can arrange the training ourselves. The system has been especially good when there is a need to recruit more than one person at a time.”

The training is free for those taking part and Citec pays a small stipend for them as well.


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15TRAINING: CITEC ACADEMYTRAINING: CITEC ACADEMY

Tangible training TOOLSThe Finnish company Polar Electro has been a pioneer in sports

instruments and heart rate monitoring for training. The first product was brought onto the market in 1982 and since then the

training computers have been developing non-stop. Polar wants its personnel, distributors and retailers to have a profound understanding of the technology and scientific background of the product features. Therefore, the company has put a great effort into developing training tools with Citec.

“Since 2004, Citec has produced 13 training tools for us. We had already acquired similar services earlier, but since Citec entered the picture, there have been a lot of improvements”, says Iiris Inkala-Rajaniemi, Specialist at the Polar Training Center.

In practice, a training tool is an interactive multimedia prod uct in Flash format. Earlier the tools were printed on CD’s – these days they can be downloaded from an online databank. The animations help illustrate the different functions of the products in an easy to understand way.

“The bigger the audience, the bigger is the role of the training tools. A PowerPoint presentation can’t illustrate the functions of the

Interactive multimedia training tools provided by Citec are a significant element in Polar’s toolkit. They support sales and marketing, as well as retailer education.

Have you ever visited Finland before starting to work for Citec?“I’d been in Europe several times, but never this far north. I think

Finland is a beautiful country and Vaasa is a very functional city. The population is small by Indian standards of course, but there are many services available. And it is very clean when compared with my home country.”

What did you do before coming to Citec?“I worked at the Eaton Corporation, a large diversified

US industrial group. Before that I worked at Invensys India and Intersil India. Citec is a smaller company than my previous employers, but I have greater responsibility. I’ve been surprised in a positive way by how well all the systems work within a company this small. And the enthusiasm among the staff is amazing.”

What are the largest cultural differences between Finland and India?“It may be a little early for me to be an expert in that area. But over all, Finnish people seem to be more time conscious and efficient while Indian people are more laid back. But in large Indian towns there is a strong drive for success today.”

There seem to be quite a lot of engineers in India. Is this image correct?“Yes, 1.5 million engineers of different levels are trained in India every year. A half million of them have six months basic training, but as many have been educated to the level of a Master’s degree. So there is a strong tradition for engineering in the country. You could say that India is the

engineering engine of the world today!”

What do you do when you aren’t working?“Like most Indians, I’m very family oriented and prefer to spend my free-time with my family. I’m a football fan and often take my sons to football practice. And we watch European football on the TV.”

training computers nearly as clearly and vividly as a multimedia tool”, says Inkala-Rajaniemi.

Originally the training tools created by Citec were intended mostly for training the distributors, but Polar keeps finding new ways to utilize them. For example in the new Team2 system the training tool-based Tutorial has been integrated into the product software. Thus also the end user will have an illustrative user manual. Team2 is designed for coaching, allowing users to gain an insight into the fitness capabilities of the whole sports team, so it is crucial to describe the system’s wide-ranging features for everyone involved.

“The functions of the training tools have been developed over the years. For instance, nowadays the text parts of the tool can be translated directly in the document, which is very convenient for sales personnel all over the world,” says Inkala-Rajaniemi.

Polar was a Citec customer in the area of technical writing even before the development of the training tools began. Iiris Inkala-Rajaniemi says that the cooperation with Citec has worked very well.

“The core project team at Citec has stayed the same, which guarantees a growing know-how of our products. The training tool projects usually begin with practical exercises, which help the Citec team to understand our products better. From what I’ve heard, they consider Polar projects challenging but at the same time fun!”

Training tools are seen as a part of brand building at Polar Electro and the feedback about them has been positive enough that their number is likely to grow. Citec has also developed a Polar Training Tool Platform, where new updated training modules, simulations and videos can be uploaded easily in the upcoming training tools.

“Recently one of our sales people said that we should never stop making training tools, because they are so extremely useful.”

MORE THAN A POWER POINT. Tangible and visual training tools illustrate the profound scientific background and cutting edge technology behind Polar products.TRAINING

COMPUTERS. Polar Electro has been a pioneer in sports instruments and heart rate monitoirng.

Mukul Bhatia has been the Managing Director for Citec Engineering India since May 2008 and looks after 270 employees.

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Many engineers available in India


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17CUSTOMER CASE: POLAR ELECTROCUSTOMER CASE: POLAR ELECTRO

HAPPINESSIS AN ATTITUDEBeing happy is an obvious goal for most people. But how to achieve it? The latest research into happiness shows that happy people are successful, rather than the other way around.

I’d be happy if I had more money / a new job / a pretty girlfriend. Most people have thought things like this at one time or another, but the truth is that happiness over a pay rise or from falling in love is often short lived. We humans have the ability to adapt to new situations – for better or for worse. This is one of the

results from the latest research into happiness. For a long time psychological sciences were mostly focused on things

that made people unhappy, such as depression and life crises. But in the last few years many researchers have begun to direct their attention to what makes people happy instead, and during the 21st century research into happiness has practically exploded.

What are the results of the research? To begin with: happiness is not a goal or an end result. It is more a process that needs to be maintained. And to try and achieve happiness by being successful often means doing things backwards, as it has been shown that things usually go the other way around: those who are happy become successful.

Does money really make you happy?Few people truly believe that rich people are happier than others. But despite this most of us behave as if greater material wealth would really make us happier in the long run. We want to get a pay rise, buy a new car, move to a larger house and get a new TV.

The Finnish banker, Kari Nars, is one of the people who are interested in this phenomenon. After having worked with money all

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EVERYDAY JOY. If you wan’t to be happy, there’s a lot you can do to make it happen.


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19LIFESTYLE: HAPPINESSLIFESTYLE: HAPPINESS

his professional life, he published the book “Pengar och lycka” (Money and Happiness) in 2006, where he discusses the connection between money and psychological well-being in the light of the latest research into happiness.

According to Nars, money and happiness correlate strongly for people who live in misery. If you are starving, you of course become happier if you receive money to buy food. But as soon as a certain level is reached and all the basic needs are fulfilled, money no longer leads to greater happiness. Research shows that people in the USA are less happy these days than during the 1950s, even though the standards of living have risen greatly since then. In Finland, money stops adding to a person’s happiness once the yearly income reaches 20,000–40,000 euro. According to Nars, this is because of our ability to adapt and get used to new situations. Even in the 1970s, scientists showed that people who had won large sums of money in lotteries returned to their previous level of happiness after a year.

Genes determine one halfBut what makes us happy then, if not money? Some bad news to begin with: a large part of happiness cannot be influenced by ourselves as it is determined by our genes. By studying identical twins, researchers have come to the conclusion that 50 per cent of happiness depends on our personality and our genes

– some people are simply born happy, regardless of their circumstances.

And then the good news: only 10 per cent of happiness depends on circumstances, such as work, health or marriage. The fact that external influences play no more of a role is because of our human ability to adapt and get used to things, as mentioned before. This is also the explanation as to why people who have been permanently injured in car accidents can be happy.

After genes and circumstances have been accounted for, there’s still 40 per cent of happiness left over, and this is the part that you can decide over yourself, according to happiness researcher, Sonja Lyubomirsky, from Stanford University. It should be noted that these figures are for people living in stable countries. In cases of starvation or war, it is obvious that circumstances will affect more than 10 per cent of a person’s happiness.

Happiness can be influencedProfessor Sonja Lyubomirsky is convinced that a person can influence their own level of happiness by changing their attitude and by actively learning grati-tude, optimism and friendliness. On her homepages she describes how to add to ones happiness by actively remembering and memorizing things that you are grateful for, for instance by writing them down regu-larly. Another way is to take part in unselfish activi-

ANNA FROLOVA ASSISTANT TO MANAGEMENT CITEC ENGINEERING, RUSSIA:

“I once saw a slogan in a café-bakery “We’ll bake you happy!”It would be

great if someone else could bake us happy, but in fact happiness is everybody’s own cake. Some like cakes with chocolate, some with poppies and some don’t like cakes at all. What is important is to know what kind of cake you want to bake; will it be according only to your own taste or will you take into account the taste of someone else who is important for you? And will you use a classical recipe or try the most recent type of cuisine?”

RÉMY JEANDEMANGE GENERAL MANAGER CITEC ENGINEERING, FRANCE:

“I’m convinced that that happiness really depends a lot on how much

we focus on it every day. The greatest happiness lies in the most engaging pursuit to reach it. Perceptions are always depending on our personal paradigms: ‘Is the glass half empty or half full?’. Being positive is one of the keys, but another important thing is our involvement in challenging situations. The greatest happiness doesn’t come from ease and security, but from being fully engaged both in family life and work.”

MERJA LEPISTÖ ASSISTANT, CITEC INFORMATION, FINLAND:

“I think happiness mostly depends on ourselves, just like the article explains.

But we don’t necessarily always know what makes us happy. For me, happiness is close relationships to people with whom I can be myself. It’s also an understanding of the fact that things will usually turn out fine in the end, even though life may seem dark at times. If you remember to smile, others will smile back at you, and this will in turn increase the warm feeling inside yourself.”

ties, such as voluntary and charity work, which pro-vide a sense of meaning and the feeling of belonging. This may sound simple and obvious, but Lyubomir-sky’s research shows that it works.

In other words, we can learn to be happy if we actively try. On the other hand, to passively sit and wait for happiness to come isn’t as good a strategy. After all, success tends to follow happiness and not the other way around. Happy people have higher incomes and are better at work. They have stronger social ties to family and friends and even better health.

Happiness has a number of positive results, not just for the individual but for the society. So why not start working on your happiness today?

SOURCESHomepage of Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky: www.faculty.ucr.edu/~sonjaKari Nars: Pengar och lycka (2006)New York Times: The New Science of happiness (1.1.2005)Los Angeles Times: The science of happiness (8.9.2008)

SIMPLE BUT TRUE. By learning gratitude, optimism and friendliness, you can increase your level of happiness.


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21LIFESTYLE: HAPPINESSLIFESTYLE: HAPPINESS

rules, then the language itself isn’t all that hard.”

How have you settled in Finland otherwise?“It took three months before I started to feel at home. It was a big change in many ways, since I moved away from home, started my first job and moved to a new country at the same time. But now I’m comfortable here. It hasn’t

been that difficult getting used to the cold and the dark during the winter, but during the summer it was difficult to sleep when it was light all the time.”

There still aren’t that many women who choose to study engineering. What made you choose this subject?“I’ve always been interested in mathematics and physics; I think

many are afraid of those subjects quite needlessly. An engineering degree is well respected and you have a good chance of finding work and a good future.”

What have you been working with until now?“I design power plants and do frame drawings. Steel is still a new area for me and I’m learning new things all the time. I ask my

colleagues for help and they’ve been very helpful. Citec is a good place to work because it is so international with people from different countries, and everyone speaks English. Since it’s also a growing company, there’s a good chance of getting new interesting work assignments.”

DID YOU KNOW THIS ABOUT CITEC’S STAFF?And what is the average Citec employee like?n At Citec Engineering, he is a 38-year-old male with a technical degree, who has been at Citec for slightly more than 4 years. At Citec Information, she is a 35-year-old woman with a degree in the Arts, who has been at Citec for 5.5 years.

n You are from Portugal. How did you end up at Citec in Finland?“I’ve always wanted to work abroad, so when I was done with my engineering degree, I started

looking for a job and found Citec through an employment site. I’m planning on staying for a few years and also on taking my Master’s degree here. But first I need to learn Finnish.”

What is it like learning to speak Finnish?“Everyone says that it’s difficult, but I think it’s really because there are so many rules. If you learn the

MORE OF US. The number of Citec employees continues to grow, especially in India.

21 different nationalities work at Citec. In addition to the largest groups, Finns and Indians, you will also find, for example, Greeks, Americans, Kenyans, Moroccans and Iraqis.

442 persons work for Citec Information. At the beginning of the millennium, the number of employees grew rapidly; although growth has now become more moderate.

26% of Citec staff work in India. The others can be found in Finland, Sweden, Russia, the UK, France and China.

34% of all Citec employees are women. At Citec Information the share is as big as 57%.

637is the number of employees at Citec Engineering. By the time this magazine is published, the number will have probably grown, since the company has been recruiting at a rapid pace.

1,079 was the total number of Citec employees in November 2008. Growth has been quite rapid considering that there were less than one hundred in 1999.

33%of the employees at Citec have a Master’s degree, usually in Engineering or the Arts. 49% have a Bachelor’s degree.

Tânia Costa has worked as an engineer for Citec Engineering since the spring of 2008.

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An international working environment


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23FACTS & FIGURES: CITECFACTS & FIGURES: CITEC

The Citec companies offer multi-discipline technical design and consulting, technical information and documentation as well as environmental consulting.

www.citec.fi

the one for the job

Every star needs a stunt double. And with Citec your performance will be flawless. Behind the scenes, Citec’s experts will take full responsibility for tasks that are not your main activities. This leaves you free to take the leading role in your own field of expertise.

You be the star – we’ll do the stunts.

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