Martin Thaysen is the Chief Commercial Officer of Controlant. Prior to Controlant, he held a number of C-level positions as a CEO, CCO and Board Member within Supply Chain, Logistics, Shipping, Manufacturing, Professional Services in publicly listed and privately held companies.
Martin is passionate about making a difference to businesses through Customer Experience, Digitalisation, Talent and Sustainability.
Listen to the full discussion here:
- Listen on Stitcher
Connect with the Guest:
Martin Thaysen: LinkedIn
Some of the highlights from the podcast:
- Cold Chain is the new trend – Controlant’s story
- Controlant’s story – founding and their focus
- Quality and skills for a commercial talent
- Team’s career perspective at Controlant
- Major supply chain challenges pharma companies are facing
- Most sought skills in supply chain tech sectors
Show notes:
- [1:03] Please share with us about you and some more career highlights. How did you follow the career path to be where you are today?
- [1:57] I think it’s really been about opportunities, taking the opportunities, creating the opportunities, and then being lucky to work for companies that were willing to give me opportunities.
- [3:27] Please share with us the Controlant Story.
- [5:04] We are focusing on how we grow with other pharma companies looking at how we can help with visibility and automation and digitization of their supply chains, and really focused on companies and customers where we can get close partnerships and really realize the value that comes out of the data that we create through our devices.
- [5:46] How does it feel to work at Controlant?
- [5:56] So at the core, I think it’s a really motivating environment to be and you will feel that when we do what we do, we really make a difference.
- [7:36] How do you build the commercial engine and the team?
- [7:43] What we do on the platform and the capabilities we have, we really decided to focus on two segments where we believe we can create the most value for customers and where we can have the biggest impact on getting medicines to patients.
- [9:31] What are the quality and skills you’re looking for in commercial talent?
- [10:42] What we’re looking for in our talent is we have people who are ready to go on that journey. And that means they have to come in with high levels of energy with lots of agility, lots of flexibility to learn, keen to work in a really fast-paced environment and I think the last big thing that I think is also unique in Controlant is we work as a team.
- [13:06] I just heard that there are many different locations. Where are Controlant base of operations and how do you work together among these locations?
- [13:21] So things at that point, we’re very concentrated about our head office in Iceland, we have to increasingly hire people across Europe and a few in the US. We are two months away in officially opening an office in Copenhagen and we expect sometime during the next three to six months to open an office in New Jersey. So we are slowly building a global team.
- [14:09] What is the career perspective at Controlant and in your team?
- [14:14] If I judge just based on, what I’ve seen, and the culture and how we’re thinking, then we’re on a journey to grow the company by 10x over the next years.
- [16:33] From your observation, what are the major supply chain challenges pharma companies are facing?
- [16:52] So I think step one of the biggest challenges, to begin with, is the relatively low level of digitization in pharma supply chains. So that creates a huge opportunity to really improve the supply chain, which also means that we can add value with this ability with the possibility of real-time intervention, which also doesn’t happen.
- [19:14] What are the most sought skills in supply chain tech sectors?
- [19:42] I think what is probably very sought after, in my perspective, is understanding how does that technology create real value in the supply chain and how can you make a difference in realizing the value on the back of the technology.
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About the Host:
The host, Fei Yu has over 15+ years of experience in Executive Search and Talent Acquisition & Management, gained from top-tier consultancy and premium executive search firms. She is an advocate of cross-cultural networking and has successfully organized and moderated public events.
Alcott Global connects and upgrades the supply chain ecosystem by finding the right talent through executive search, developing talent through learning solutions, and meeting supply chain technology needs through a comprehensive crunch base marketplace.
The supply chain executive search has been our focus since the very beginning, offering recruitment services for top-tier supply chain roles at every level of the end-to-end supply chain: plan, source / procure, make, and deliver. Our consultants have years of experience in placing top talent, in North America, LATAM, Europe, the Middle East & Africa, and APAC, and besides speed, one of our biggest strengths is our network within the supply chain industry, and we capitalize on it to find the best solutions.
Through the years, we have grown as an organization and our offerings with it. One of our initiatives, the learning solutions- training and supply chain academy, is focused on transforming leadership- self-leadership, executive presence, influence capital, and business acumen. Through Supplify, we aim to match corporations with the top technology companies to solve their supply chain and logistics challenges with a focus on innovation and digital transformation.
We are in constant touch with the leaders in supply chain, inviting them to inspire the supply chain professionals in thought-provoking podcast episodes and events, and showcasing what is possible at the yearly Leaders in Supply Chain Awards.
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