Bye bye Kungsholmen, hello Södermalm! After many years on Kungsholmen, we felt it was time to try out a new part of Stockholm. From now on you’ll find us at Söder Mälarstrand 29 (in Münchenbryggeriet) – drop by and visit us if you are in the neighborhood!

SamSari are delighted to continue working with Swedish pension company Alecta. For some time now, Alecta has focused on and worked actively to strengthen and develop its corporate culture. The purpose is to help employees prioritize more easily and make decisions that align with the business objectives and strategy. Customer understanding is a central part of Alecta’s corporate culture. All employees should be able to make an assessment of what leads to increased customer value, and fulfill the mission of making the collectively agreed occupational pensions as valuable as possible.

Part of the next step for Alecta is to work together with SamSari to create a change project with the purpose of strengthening and developing Alecta’s employees. SamSari will develop a workshop framework including film and dialogue maps. The aim is to increase employees’ understanding of their customers, communicate how everyone together as a team can work to create value for Alecta’s customers and to make employees feel as ambassadors for Alecta. The films used in the workshop will show a variety of customer situations that take place both internally and externally today. They will be used to generate discussions, arguments and insights.

Employees will also work with dialogue maps (see example above), a discussion tool which is easy to grasp. The aim is to stimulate discussions and reflections. As the dialogue map is more or less self-explanatory, it is an effective tool for organizations that want to facilitate their workshops on their own. Employees at Alecta will take part in the workshop in the beginning of 2011.

We took a moment to sit down with SamSari's new part-owner Pia Anderberg, talking about her background and connection to SamSari, her vision for the company and what Business Driven Action Learning really is.

At SamSari we are happy to have started working together with the Scandinavian leader in passenger services by bus, Nobina. During the fall we have initiated collaboration with Nobina to develop interactive trainings on Nobina’s intranet. Nobina is Scandinavia’s leading passenger transporter by bus, and transports approximately 280 million passengers every year.

- At SamSari we are very pleased to be working with Nobina, says Daniel Målberg, sales manager at SamSari. They operate in an exciting industry that is undergoing major changes, and we will jointly develop a new training program that will strengthen Nobina’s position as the leading player on the market.

The target group for the new training effort developed during the fall is all leaders at Nobina, about 550 people.

- Over the past couple of years, we have developed a process-oriented management system for the corporate group. We now need to communicate this to our leaders and help them act upon it, says Annika Kolmert, director of management systems at Nobina. The product we are developing with SamSari will have a major impact on every leader’s daily work, and it will help us introduce new employees in an effective way.

SamSari is currently working on an exciting project for a new customer. This week, parts of the SamSari team went around Stockholm to film employees and customers of our client for a series of films that will be used in a workshop setting and on the clients intranet. The interviewees got the chance to express their thoughts and feelings about the companys new strategy. What does it mean for them in their daily working life? What challenges might they face when implementing the strategy? The 2 days of filming were intense, but inspiring!

Investor AB, a Nordic-based industrial holding company and Pia Anderberg are new principal owners of SamSari. As a result of the acquisition, SamSari now belongs to Investor’s business area Operating Investments.

- In many ways, this is the best thing that could happen to SamSari, says Dan Öhlander, CEO of SamSari. We’ll be acquiring a combination of experience and knowledge which fully complements our current offering. We have sought a new owner who can add what we need to take on an even stronger position and become the kind of Change Agency one associates with successful implementation of strategies. In Pia Anderberg and Investor, I am convinced that we have found a long-term and committed group of owners who will enable us to take the next step in our development. I look forward to realizing our strategy and building on the strong, long-term customer relationships we have together.

Investor and Pia Andersberg’s acquisition of SamSari means a stronger ownership with clear long-term focus. SamSari now belongs to Investor’s business area Operating Investments, along with companies such as 3 Scandinavia, Mölnlycke Healthcare and Gambro. Investor’s Operating Investments are long term investments which Investor owns either fully or partly. Pia Anderberg, former CEO of Investor owned Novare Act, will be an active partner. Pia has a background as CEO of BTS AB, with responsibility for European operations and global e-learning, and has been instrumental in starting and running a number of companies specializing in mentoring, consulting and leadership development.

- SamSari has built an impressive client base and has a strong structure and high quality in their deliveries of film, internet, and workshop designs, says Pia Anderberg. Our ambition is to build a consulting company that creates maximum value in each customer relationship through a range of offerings broadly aimed within defined key competences and utilizing clear tools and methods. The company will focus on implementing strategy, vision and values and build teams and knowledge. SamSari is truly expert when it comes to reaching large audiences, and this will complement a newly started operation focusing on management and other key employees.