62 | theceomagazine.com“Keep the
entrepreneurial
ALIVE.”
When you become CEO of a firm in the late stages of a rapid,
local-to-global growth phase, where do you go from there?
Normet’s Robin Lindahl searched for answers.WORDS ADRIAN FLORES • IMAGES NORMET OYW
ith myriad ideas to
bring to the table upon
taking the Normet
CEO role in April
2016, Robin Lindahl
knew from the
outset the amount of time required to
have the company (and its people) on board
with his vision for the Finnish machine
tunnelling giant.
This may sound standard for any CEO
worth their salt, but consider how Normet
has developed over the past decade.
Robin’s predecessor Tom Melbye had
left an indelible legacy. In just eight years,
2006–14, the company established a presenceSPIRIT
in 28 countries. When a company grows
from local to global in record time, naturally
there must be a little more structure to
the organisation.
Robin found some of the tools and
processes necessary for an expanding
multinational weren’t properly in place.
That is why he spent most of his first year
as CEO travelling around, listening to the
people in the organisation before he began
implementing any of the ideas he put
forward. “You first have to observe and
listen to get a true assessment of where
you’re at,” he says.
“Get an idea of how things are working,
then see how you can apply some of your »INSPIRE | Interview