Name: Helle Huss

Education: Cand. Merc. Int (Master of Int. Business)

Joined NNIT: 2001

Position: Vice president, NNIT Client Management (Sales)

Career at NNIT: Senior management consultant, manager, vice president of Business Consulting

We have an obligation!

Helle is not a woman given to keeping a low profile. Standing 181 cm tall, she can look most men in the IT sector straight in the eye – both physically and professionally. And these men have to get up very early if they are to keep up with her, for Helle is not keen on wasting time.

At NNIT, she was a senior consultant for only three months before she was promoted to manager, and three years later, she was promoted again to vice president of Business Consulting. As of 1 January this year, Helle has taken over responsibility for sales to NNIT’s pharma-ceutical customers in the Nordic region.

Since then, things have really moved forwards –despite the fact that she does not actually have a background in IT, but ’grew up’ as a management consultant.

Helle is dedicated to her staff. “It is all about attracting the right employees. When it comes to taking on new staff, we are always looking for enthusiasm and chemistry. And we have an obligation as a company to train our people, set specific goals and invest both time and resources in the personal and professional development of each and every employee. We are looking for a win–win situation; otherwise we are wasting our time”.

Helle’s opinion is that the key is to involve the employees and exchange information back and forth – in connection with business development, for example. “We achieve the best results when we as a company have the capacity to utilise the knowledge, insight and experience that the individual employee possesses about our business”.

Helle’s preferred tool is the NNIT Balanced Scorecard, which she used during her three years at NNIT’s Business Consulting division and continues to use as head of NNIT’s sales to the giant pharmaceutical market. “The Balanced Scorecard is an excellent tool for creating a shared direction,” she explains.

There are many examples of how Helle’s people have made a difference for NNIT. One of the better ones is the story of one of NNIT’s customers that was having problems implementing an IT strategy. The problem had to do with how the customer could, in future, prioritise investments in mission-critical IT, and the project had ground to a halt.

The customer asked to borrow NNIT’s student assistant to finalise the strategy, rather than leave it to the external consultant – with five years’ experience – who was working on the project. And the problem was soon solved. “We have the best employees bar none!” stresses Helle.