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Kloka ord

Då är det ny vecka och jag lämnar direkt över till dagens gäst, vår egen Shaun!
/ Fredrik Kling

Hand upp om du sett Shaun sur! Tror ingen lyfte handen nu.

Än en gång blir det dags för mig att lägga ödmjukheten åt sidan och skriva om mig själv. Vad kan det då handla om? I dag vill jag dela några tankar om att få ”det” att gå ihop – trots fingrarna i många kakburkar. Har ni följt vår resa så är det ingen nyhet att jag började längst ner i kedjan ute på lager med inte många förväntningar eller mål. Att jag snabbt fick mer att göra och en större kravbild och att det fortsatt oavbrutet sen dess.

För mig som har en tumme mitt i hand är det ibland lite jobbigt att Shaun är så där småbra på allt fix. Här som nytitulerad IT-tekniker.


Fram tills idag har jag hunnit vara lagerpersonal och lager/logistikchef, gymchef, bilansvarig, teknikansvarig, kundtjänst, inköp, interna IT frågor mm. Listan är med andra ord lång. Och hur lång kan den bli och hur många bollar kan man ha i luften? Väldigt många. Senaste tiden har jag jobbat med våra nya varumärken Cozie, Kling, Safly och Abrand. Med frågor kring förpackningar, design, lager och logistik, hemsida mm. Så då är det kul att vi nu har samarbeten på gång på planetens alla kontinenter.

Tre av nyckelpersonerna i nya satsningen Abrand – som ni kommer se mer om! Shaun med sina år på stureplan är alltid redo för en tumme upp på bild.

Förutom det här så är jag helt förälskad i mina gubbsporter, långdistansträning i form av löpning, cykling och rullskidor. Jag har min fantastiska fru och vi har våra två barn och hund. Och tiden så klart. Den har jag.. egentligen inte men jag har ett knep och oändligt med klyschor. Men några av dom kommer här!

Shaun va ute på säsongspremiären på rullskidor här för någon dag sen. 0,2 minuter senare skröt han om det.

Planera – analysera och ha alltid en FUP.
Se till att planera din dag, vecka månad och år för att bli så effektiv som möjligt. Planera in stunder då du behöver vara ostörd, glöm inte det. Analysera sedan under resans gång – den där planen du haft, det kanske är så att den går att effektivisera eller att något oväntat händer. Då har du din FUP redo. FUP är vad jag säger en plan B. F**cked Up Plan. När det skiter sig. Se till att alltid ha förberett något annat att göra så du inte står still på din to-do list.

Inga hinder är för stora för Shaun samtidigt som han alltid kan be om hjälp. Ibland vill han bara flytta på en låda. Då ställer vi upp!

Ta vara på tiden – följ med mig på en ”vanlig dag”. 06.30 hoppar jag på tåget, mailar, excellar, skapar artwork mm. Sådant som inte kräver så mycket uppkoppling. Hoppar av tåget. Springer 7 av dom 15 km det är till kontoret och buss det jag inte springer. Jobbar på. Åker hem på lika sätt som jag kom ifrån. Hemma till strax innan 17. Familjebestyr och få barn i säng och sen tränar jag eller min fru när barnen lagt sig. Som ni förstår blir det fullt schema. Så se till att få in så mycket som möjligt i det vardagliga. T.ex. transportlöpning och knappande på tåget.

Kontor, centralstationen eller tåget. Shaun är alltid där. Svarar i växel och får det vi förväntar oss gjort.

Ta tiden – att vara ledig. Ta tiden att vara ensam. Ta tiden att göra saker du mår bra av. Även om detta är en punkt jag haft svårt med senaste perioden av anledning x, y och z så är den otroligt viktigt. Vi alla vet att det man lägger fokus på kommer att påverkas. Så när du känner att du gängat ur – jobba med att ta dig tiden. I mitt fall kan det vara två timmars löpning innan barnen vaknat. Eller bara sitta på en vårsolig altan med min fru och dricka en kopp kaffe. Med det sagt är det dags att hoppa ut ur bloggbubblan och tillbaka till knackande på datorn innan en härlig transportlöptur i duggregn och snålblåst. Ha de!

Det blir lättare att förstå varför Shaun springer på morgonkvisten när man får se det här.

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The story of the frog

We were then forced to rewind the tape a little bit and bring him back in time to when we started building the brand. Early on, at the concept stage, we set up a few points that have become more important than anything else. We wanted to build a company that will always put people first, both our customers and our employees. We have since day one decided to be an open and transparent company where we strongly believe that our most important resource is our employees. We want (of course) that our employees shall be 100% involved in the company’s development!

We live by a very simple truth, that it is our employees who in all contacts with customers, friends, family, neighbors or other people raise and develop our common brand. We believe in the idea that a strong brand filled with values and sense makes the difference between success or not.

We went through a long and glorious process when we tried to find a good, clear symbol that could stand for itself. That was happy and easy to relate to, with a high recognition factor. We finally landed in our beloved frog. At this moment, there were no products, vendors, or anything else of the important things needed when to start a successful business. In the rearview, we are incredibly excited about this symbolic decision;)

The Frog-symbol has since then proven to be a stroke of genius. We have a high recognition of our products, our materials, customer support, our cars, our phones, pens, umbrellas and all other possible ways in which we think it is important to promote ourselves. The frog is basicly everywhere!

For our proud employees, the frog stands for change, development, compassion and consideration for other people. It stands for a strong cohesion and great team spirit. The Kling Group is a team, who are strongest together. The high goals regarding the company’s development can only be achieved through our joint efforts. The fact that we also have the best products is also a plus 😉

So, what is then the frog? The Frog’s creator, our Creative Director and design-guru Henrik Åkerlund, who has been extremely helpful with finding the names of our subsidiaries, and also named all of our products, have apparently been idle in this case and has so far not come up with a name for this. For us it is easy, the frog does not need a name, it is and always will be the Kling-frog!

/Fredrik Kling 

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Onward we go!

After a wonderful summer we have switched into top gear to achieve our goals and dreams of 2016. The results from August is just completed and we see an almost unbelievable increase in sales compared to the same month in 2015 at + 95%.

To see how far we have come from the start at our kitchen table 1.5 years ago to present day with 3 strong brands, in the industry’s fastest growing company, gives me an incredible feeling!

We have built a company filled with fantastic employees that all greatly contributes to our joint success. As the faithful blog readers know, we follow our plan to become the largest Company in the industry by the end of in 2020.

Since day one our ambition with Kling Group has been to put people at the center. Customers, employees, suppliers and partners are all equaly important parts of this. We have always strived to be open, inclusive and have always had the greatiest intentions as the foundation of everything we stand for. We have already managed numerous charity projects and has included the entire staff in these efforts since day one.

We can now reveal that we soon will launch Kling Foundation, our very own charity foundation! We want to create an opportunity to help people in the long term and therefore will annually allocate 1% of our annual turnover to this foundation. This year, the sum will be resulting in 25,000 € to invest in important charity projects, provided we follow the budget. With our expansion plan in fresh memory, this amount naturally grow in line with our own development.

Our aim is to create an environment where our employees are seen and can find their own way of personal growth and development through life. At the same time, we want our employees to be 100% involved in development of the Kling Group. In line with this, we have developed and introduced a profit-sharing program that all employees can take part in. Our idea is that when the Kling group going well and create a surplus – all employees get a share of the frog cake. This is obvious and natural if you really think that the most important resource is our employees. My own and Sekina’s role is to humbly create the absolute best possible conditions for the people on the Kling Group to develop their full potential. An honest and motivating leadership is according to me about putting yourself in the background so that others may step forward, grow and develop.

Our growth continues unabated ahead and this week, four highly appreciated and skilled employees, Jenny-Anjelica-Linda and Josefine, all got permanent employment when their probationary period expired. I’m very proud of your incredible performance during these last six months and I am really pleased that you have chosen to grow together with us. I am extra proud that our latest rising star Jasmine Knape Bofeldt became the Kling Group’s best seller her first month with us at the new brand Kling Promera. Before 2016 is over, the plan is that we’ll be thirty sellers divided amongst our three (current) companies. Onward to our goal!

Fredrik Kling

CEO

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Kling Promera, subsiduary no. 3

Our very first official event as the Kling Group took place in early March 2015, on our first conference. There we launched our first subsidiary Kling Cordena and the first collection, which was received with open arms by everyone involved. We also showed our new frog cars, our former warehouse in the Kling garage and we demonstrated our new website for the first ranks of valiant employees. Fredrik Kling already had the courage or perhaps the insanity to announce our expansion plan for the upcoming years and proudly showed off our coming brands, even though we by that time had not yet received a penny of revenue.

The plan was still crystal clear and thoughtfully mapped out already. The expansion plan was supposed to take place over a 3 year period, with a new subsidiary per year. We have little too much energy and ambition to sit and wait for something to happen though, so why wait? We are very pleased to announce the launch of Kling Promera, which primarily focuses on products for first aid and lifesaving courses in CPR / CPR-D & Lifesaving First Aid for Children.

It has been a fun, busy and challenging time since we began to sketch out the basics of this newest company in the spring. Fredrik and Sekina flew around the world and visited suppliers and producers in a number of countries to create the best collection on the market. Meanwhile, the design department was put to work to find a new approach for the graphic profile with a color scheme that was different from what was available on the market. Everything was obviously not on track and we had a little bad luck when we tried to register the company name Kling Curina, which apparently was a little too similar to another company’s name, which botched a couple of weeks of production.

Holiday times and such nonsense as vacation had to be shortened considerably and the last few months have been packed. The results have not been long in coming, and the collection is both stylish, distinctive and unique in its design.

Graphically we have worked a lot with illustrations and clear graphic symbols for the end users to quickly find the right first aid product for emergencies. Even in terms of color, we have tried to encode some of the products to make it easier to distinguish each article. It is of course clear similarities with our other design collections, although the frog this time had a less prominent role than in previous Kling companies.

Promera’s Sales Manager Jasmine Knape Bofeldt is the one responsible for starting up this new brand. Jasmine has 9 years of experience in the industry and has already done a fantastic job in her short time with us. Lifesaving training can mean the difference between life and death (!) And we are very proud to provide this important service to our customers.

We wish Jasmine good luck to the grateful task to keep on buildning the industry’s best and largest company!

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We inaugurate the new Head Office

The creative department at the Kling Group has been fairly occoupied for the last couple of months. A lot of time has been put down in the creation of our latest sales company Kling Promera, together with the magnificient start Collection for this third installment in the Kling Group. We have also been busy preparing for the inauguration of our new headquarters during our summer. As if that were not enough, we also had time to implement a new charity project at the amusement park Grona Lund along with the organization Giving People. As icing on the cake, we also released 12 new revolutionary products to existing companies that received a great reception by our lovely customers.

At our conference last week, we had fantastic energy in the companies. We conferred largely independently in the sales companies, but of course, had a number of common points on the agenda. As usual we had a gastronomic almost perfect barbecue dinner at our favorite restaurant “Hemma hos Kaj”. Most memorable though, was our bloody serious table tennis tournament where we crowned the Table tennis Grand Champion at the Kling Group. Our newest seller Albin Pålsson (which really had not even started yet) won the coveted title of Grand Champion and revealed that he, thanks to the blog, had read that table tennis is our primary form of hanging out. Therefore, it seemed perfectly reasonable that he would work out 2-3 times a week throughout the summer. Such great spirit!

Except Albin, we have received a number of new additions to the staff that are all fantastically important for the continued construction of the Kling Group. Besides a number of new sellers, a new Sales Manager to Kling Promera, a new recruitment manager and a newly appointed finance-ability to the office, we have six new sellers starting in August / September at our companies.

In terms of earnings, we are already ahead of this year’s budget and we are aiming to double our turnover this year compared to 2015, which seems to be going great with our current sales force.

We are content with this info for this time. There are of cource a lot more to tell you about but it will have to wait for later posts.

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The past week in pictures (and some text)

We have so much exciting stuff going on right now that the blog ends up somewhat overshadowed. We will move the entire office and warehouse in less than two weeks, and soon we will enter a glorious sweat session with much moaning and groaning when everything we have will be moved 30 meters to the north.

Our construction workers are almost done with the actual construction and the painters have made excellent work on the walls. The tile guys have tiled the toilets and kitchen, and today the carpet dudes will cover the floors. Next week, the cable guys will finish all the cables and extensions and after that we will get into new furniture, technology, lighting, storage, tables, table tennis tables, storage shelves, trucks, plants, photo stuff and everything else needed a headquarters. We can at least tell you that it will be an amazing looking new head office! (We have already started to sneak in some products in the warehouse, that still however both lack storage shelves and interior.

Recruitment is going extremely well and we have a number of new employees who start shortly. This is particularly gratifying because we have not even had ads out in the relevant districts. All of these new employees come through tips, contacts, sharing content on facebook or colleagues’ contacts. A big thanks to all the kind souls who help and share our posts, that means a lot to the growth and the continued construction of the brand!

Both Fredrik and Sekina has spent much time traveling with our sales staff around Sweden this week and funny things happens every day. The day before yesterday, Fredrik was beater in bowling by Norrlands great champion Claes and on the same trip, Alexander spilled clean detergent in his entire collection bag. On the way home from that trip, Fredrik was caught in flight problems and got home 6 hours late! Sekina and Jenny had to assume the role of builders and wear both helmets and vests. No day is ever the same in this profession!

We keep speeding on in the same warp speed as usual and we are having the time of our lives on the way. There is great energy in the company and all of our colleagues are incredible nice to each other. The future looks bright for the Kling group!

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Fredrik Kling´s Spring Report

Last week we got done with our first official financial statements and the first year’s results show good profit, which we use to build new subsidiaries in the Kling Group. We have also recently arrived home from a fantastic leadership conference in sunny Marbella where many good ideas have already led to decisions that will help to develop the company even further.

The cohesion of the leadership team has been further strengthened and we have gained a newfound fervor for the noble sport of table tennis! In Spain we also held the Kling group’s first official table tennis championship with myself as the given victor. This has led to great plans to buy a really good Ping Pong-table to the office, so that attempts at revenge can be executed!

As I am writing this, I am on my way home from two different exhibitions in Europe to further the quest to build the industry’s best collection. It is very pleasing to note that several suppliers know of us, has seen the frog and in some cases even read the blog before we even met them. I must take this opportunity to thank my colleagues in the industry for all the free marketing to so many interesting vendors!

During our recent conference one of my employees asked me why it is so important for me that the Kling Group will become the industry’s largest company. I actually had to think hard on the answer, even if it has been the obvious target since we started planning the construction of what would become the Kling Group.

We want to be the company that leads and develops the market!

We also want to be a company that develops the picture of a salesperson that exist in society. A sales persons role is much needed today in a market where many things gets digitilized. We offer personal human contacts and therefore our sales staff always offer better products and better service than what our customers expect.

We want to be a company that stands for quality!

In addition to supplying the best products, a very important part is to educate all employees to become product specialists. Knowledge is essensial and our entire sales team should be the best at everything related to our products, applications and functionality. All customers should always feel confident that they are getting a first-class consultation with their own needs in mind.

We want to be a company that always puts people first!

This means that both employees and our customers should feel seen, heard and acknowledged. We want to work even more with charity work in the future. We strongly believe that it is important to help others. Compassion and charity is a core value of the Kling Group and to really be able to help enough, we need real resources!

We are fortunate to have such dedicated people in the company, who work together to build on our common success story. We are a company that goes from idea to decision quickly which leads us to consistently develop and take steps forward.

/ Fredrik Kling

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Leader Conference in Marbella

To constantly evolve and strive to learn new skills is something we really endorse. We want to create an environment in our company where nothing is impossible, and our employees should feel that they are always able to grow as a person and within the organization.

The sales leaders in the Kling Group have all shown that they are very skilled at the art of selling, have big ambitions and want to evolve. In addition to this, there are also a number of qualifications that must be met to become a good leader.

Last week we gathered our leaders for a conference trip to Marbella, where we had a lot of fun but mainly we put a great deal of time on personal development, group discussions and to plan the course of the Kling Group’s future. To take part of everyone’s experience and visions, we asked a number of open questions to the group.

What makes a good leader according to you?

Fredrik Kling: -A good leader is a person who does not put himself first, but actually focus on the employees. That does not mean to forget your own sales targets. We have a turnover requirement on all established sales people and of course this also applies to the leaders. Our leaders obviously have fewer own sales days but must be skilled enough to get together both their own sales and motivate their sales team and ensure that they can be their absolute best.

What is the difference in labor input on sales staff contra leaders?

Sekina Kling: -To become a leader you have to really have the heart for it. You must have a genuine interest in others and have the gift to rejoice as much when they succeed as for your own achievements. Concretely, you are required to go from working between 8-17 and make it more of a lifestyle. Our leaders are often available for their sellers all waking hours of the day! It requires a big commitment but it gives an incredible amount of joy and energy back when things go well for our apprentices.

What is your primary work tool for influencing your salesperson’s performance?

Andreas Richt: – I spend enormous amounts of time on analyzing the sellers ratios, to thus see what can be improved through the statistics. I’m a bit of a statistical buff and I spend many hours a week in our CRM-system to look at all the different measurable parameters. The numbers never lie and it is always possible to see what needs to be adjusted to bring about change and how people feel behind the numbers. A seller who is happy will often succeed in their goals. They will for some reason always show great results. However, if someone is struggling in their private life, this also reflects negatively on the results. Therefore, we focus on trying to create a fun and motivating environment in the company and we also put a lot of time on pep-talks and such!

How do you draw attention and highlight your salesperson’s personality?

Anna Fransson: -Personal sales is just what it sounds like, personal. All sellers are unique and have very different circumstances and personalities. I always try to affect my sellers to reinforce what is unique in them and encourage them to always be themselves. From Sekina I have learned to focus on what they do best instead of pointing out their faults. In this way, you build on the positive sides and pushes thereby the person to develop the positive instead of the negative. Purely in terms of work, I have close contact with my sellers via text, phone, email and when we go on sales trips together where we work together to improve performance and the techniques behind it.

How can you as a leader influence the future of the Kling Group? 

Julia: We have a very good communication within the company. It is short decision paths and very present managers, allowing all ideas really come to the decision makers and quickly be evaluated and enforced, if they are good.

Fredrik: We really appreciate all ideas, initiative, the willingness to influence and the common ambition to drive the company forward. We are very proud and satisfied with the level of involvement in the Kling Group in general and specifically in the leader group. We have a number of brilliant people that really shows how to take a step up in your career and become a part of the growing group of leaders!

We have summarized the past year from a number of parameters and will soon enter with our first financial statements. We have a good economy, great energy and an incredible drive to continue to serve our many customers with the best products, presented by Sweden’s best and happiest sales force. 

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Best conference ever

When the invitation was sent out for this year’s spring conference, the goal was set pretty high. This would be the best conference in the Kling Group’s history! However, this is not uncommon, since it has been the standing ambition from the start. We always want to arrange the best conference ever, which we have actually managed to do excellent so far.

This was the first time that we conferred together as two companies, because we had the whole staff of Sortina in place as well as most of Cordena’s employees. Of course, we have a number of touch points that everyone attended but otherwise Fredrik was the main man on Sortina’s part of the conference and Sekina was in charge of the Cordena part. Consequently, it was slightly different approach in which Sekina had a more emotive approach while Fredrik was a bit more straightforward. We also saw a number of glimmering lectures from our specialists and would like to extend a special thanks to all the talented lecturers for their great commitment.

We confer on a quarterly basis, which is very important for the cohesion and team spirit in the company. Normally, our sales staff works independently in their own districts all over Sweden. This makes it a bit difficult to drink afternoon coffee together so this is really the only chances we have time to meat everyone in person.
What was perhaps most striking was how incredibly different all our employees are when they are next to each other. That so fundamentally different personality types and people can be so incredibly skilled at the same thing is a miracle. There are of course a number of common denominators, where the drive, commitment, desire to evolve and strong personality stands out. Which coincidentally is exactly what we usually look for when we are looking for new talented employees. The recruitment Division has certainly done a good job!

It is as you might imagine an amazing commitment in this group. We are still a relatively young company, and we still have a long way to go before we are the largest company in the business. With this super gang as our foundation we feel very secure and happy to continue our journey to become the biggest in 2020.

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Kling Academy Sales 1

Last week we had a bunch of ambitious sellers full of expectations at our headquarters. These sellers have all worked anywhere from two to six months with us. All new sellers have their own leaders with whom they work very closely during their first time. Once you have learned the basics of this profession there are of course many issues bound to come up. There are techniques that need to be perfected, procedures to be set, demonstration base that must be tested, and more.

This and much more is the basis for why we have started Kling Academy, where we can train our employees in sales, leadership and personal development. When all these amazing people are gathered true magic is created. As a group, together we can share our respective strengths and weaknesses and can then jointly look at which areas can be developed. We live by the motto to never stagnate and to always set new goals. This means that we can always find room for change, improvement and renewal.

Due to train delays, we started an hour after the appointed time. Flexibility, however, is one of our great strengths so after a few rapid changes in the program, we were able to take the opportunity to show the progress of our new premises for those sellers who actually came to the office at the appointed time.

In the program, we focused on mixed parts of practice and theory. We videotape all sellers to then look at the work together to give praise and feedback and help each other to point out where there is room for improvement. What is striking is how incredibly sharp these new employees have already become. We are so proud of the job that our talented leaders have put down on these new sales people but of course, the most cred should go to all the motivated and committed new sales professionals!

Everyone has already developed really nice techniques and the big reason for this is that everyone are really trying to be themselves. Sales is really for the bigger part more about the person than about the product. We look at sales as an area where people meet people, create long-term relationships and build common trust. To see that our sellers with every sales visit makes their own unique imprint, is incredibly inspiring for the corporate culture and for the future.

We have created a very strong relationship between the sellers of the various districts. We help each other and we urge constantly to more contact within the company so that we can benefit from each other’s experiences in the best way. There is so much expertise gathered in this group of people and if we can exploit these differences and experiences, there is no limit to how far we can go together.

We are incredibly pleased with how we stand regarding our long-term goals. However, we always plan further ahead and see very much potential in this talented new group of sellers. Many of these people have the right attitude and our hope and desire is that as many people as possible would want to be great new leaders at the Kling Group in the future.

It is a beautiful and great energy in the company and we are very proud and happy about our wonderful employees! Thank you for being so talented and exceptional frog ambassadors and thank you for choosing to evolve and grow with us!