Life @ Tele2 Meet Kristian Engh Lundgren (Head of Network Engineering & Planning) at his home office

Meet our Danish ray of sunshine Kristian who will tell you about his job as Head of Network Engineering & Planning, and how it has been working from home.

What is your history at Tele2 and what are you working with now?
Last summer I decided to move from Denmark to Stockholm to work for Tele2, taking the opportunity to be a part of an international company. I’ve been a part of the telecom stage in Denmark for quite a while, lately as Head of Development for Stofa A/S — which is the 2nd largest operator on cable in Denmark. Coax and fiber technologies have been a part of my life since the early 00’s, and the combination of great people and technologies still keeps me ahead of the curve.

At Tele2 I’m a part of the OSS division which takes care of the support systems and optimization in the network. My role as Head of Network Engineering & Planning is to build and maintain our network inventory — which is all the systems that contain where our fibers, coax-cables, sites and base stations are placed and connected. Being asked, I usually define what my team is doing as The Heart of a Telco!

What is the most challenging (and fun) part of your job?
The most challenging part of my job right now is to change twenty years of legacy systems and processes into a new agile and automated way of running a telco — with the aim of Tele2 as being The Smartest Telco in the World. From a personal perspective, I’m struggling with learning the Swedish language as I’ve decided from the beginning that this would be a personal goal for me.

How have your working days changed since Tele2 decided to close down out Kista office at the end of March?
Of course, they have changed, since we do not have the opportunity to meet physically, but I have a very great team that finds great solutions when they meet complex problem so it hasn’t really affected our deliveries and ability to support the organization. We are quite used to communicate by video as we have colleagues in both Trollhättan, Vännersborg, Gotland and even in Riga, Latvia.

…. Have you experienced any improvements or positive surprises after starting working at home?
We have actually seen improvements in how we cooperate when everybody is on distance, compared to the situation before COVID-19 where a physical meeting was extended with video bridge solutions. I feel more equal when everybody in the team suffers from the same restrictions, and have the same possibilities.

What has been the best experience during your time at Tele2?
The Tele2 spirit as being the challenger, but at the same time caring for each and every person that is a part of the journey. At Tele2 Technology we have a clear ambition of “Empowering the People”, which gives the subject matter experts the mandate to make own decisions moving us closer to our goal.

Finally, give us your best how-to-manage-the-home-office-situation recommendation?
Keep it fun! It’s really important that you — especially as a manager — allow the team to spend some time together on other things than long boring video conferences. In my team, for example, I’ve arranged for virtual after works every Friday during the work-from-home-period. I did kick-off the series of events by arranging for a “Danish Banko”-event, giving my team the opportunity to learn the Danish numbers like sjuwochtyveeee and with great winnings :-) It was really fun — and have been adopted by other teams afterwards.