Energetic, vibrant and communicative, with a nice sense of humour, Jon Tougaard, originally from Denmark, hardly abides by the stereotype that people coming from the North are cold and introverted. Neither is he the type of person who likes to stay in the same place for too long. He has spent most of his life travelling, studying and working around Europe and the US. Bulgaria is his latest stop.

Gaining experience
He set out on his first journey at the tender age of 16 when he left to study at a US high-school on a one-year exchange programme. Later, he went once again to the States, this time to pursue higher education, and then returned to Denmark to get a master’s degree in international marketing. Tougaard started his career in Velux in 2002, soon after graduating (with a short interval working on a project in Hamburg, Germany), and it quickly turned into a lifestyle of constant dynamics and challenge.

Having started as a management trainee, it was not long before he was sent to head the company’s operations in the Baltic states, first in Latvia and then in Lithuania, where he spent four years. “Velux give you many responsibilities very quickly,” he explains. “You get your credit card and your suitcase and then you do what you think is right. During this period they find out a lot about you, about how you’re acting, whether you go to five-star hotels and drink champagne every day and so on. I think this is very healthy – giving you a long leash to run around and then seeing if you’re responsible or not.”

Settling in
Tougaard’s decision to come to Bulgaria was prompted by his desire, as he puts it, “to try something different”. With Velux growing more and more by the year in the Baltic states, he decided that four years spent there were more than enough and it was time for a change. It was then that his manager moved to the Balkan region, so Tougaard offered him help with developing the business in this part of Europe. “I remember coming here for the first time in April 2006, six months before I signed my contract (in October), and twice falling in the street because of potholes. I thought this is a crazy place, very disorganised,” he says, laughing. “Today I don’t fall anymore, I have adapted quite well. Besides, when I met people here I discovered they were by no means far removed from how I like to run my daily life,” he adds. 

According to Tougaard, the experience he has gained travelling, as well as the four years he spent in the Baltic states, has made it easier for him to get used to the Bulgarian environment than if he had come directly from Denmark. And then he has had great support from the people he works with. “Everybody helped me like crazy when I came here. My colleagues were ready to let me sleep in their apartments when I needed a place, which is very different from Denmark. In Denmark, you say ‘Call the authorities, they’ll take care of it’. In Bulgaria, the authorities won’t take care of it, but the people will. So getting a car, getting an apartment and all these practical things were very easy for me, thanks to my colleagues here in the company,” he says.

Postive perceptions
 Tougaard explains that his role in Bulgaria is that of an intermediary who comes to develop the business in accordance with the Danish model and then transfer his duties to a local manager. “I am sent from Denmark to promote Velux in people’s mind. We want to really develop their understanding of the Danish business mindset.

And that’s what I hope I can bring here. Then we’ll find the person who believes in the same values and ways of doing business and appoint them. We started our operations in Bulgaria 10 years ago and we want to continue the good things that are happening with local people,” he says. 

Re-organisation
Since Tougaard started running Velux – Bulgaria, he has introduced a number of changes that have helped improve the company’s organisation and its overall efficiency.

“The major change is that now everybody is an expert in his or her area,” he says. Another change is the formalisation of procedures and the introduction of formal guidelines in the company, which has made things more consistent. Tougaard says this has been a popular measure because it has made people feel safe that they have something to turn to when they’re not sure how to act in a particular situation. “Now that the company is organised in a different way, we can talk about introducing a strategy, running operational plans, etc,” he says, adding that one of the things he has specifically been trying to stress since his arrival at the company is the fact that everything revolves around the customer.

“Theoretically, even I could answer the phone when it rings and say a few words, help people on. Customers are the sole reason we’re here even if this sometimes takes time to understand,” he says. “I also try to teach my team that we’re all responsible for everything in the company. Because if something goes wrong anywhere in our company, it hurts all of us.” Tougaard also encourages staff not to fear taking chances and making mistakes, which, he says, can provide invaluable experience later on. “I love it when people make mistakes. I love it when they come and say to me ‘We made a mistake and we didn’t win this project’. Then we go in and analyse and find out why we failed,” he says, adding the important thing is not to make the same mistake twice.

Culture clash
Comparing the conduct of business in Bulgaria and in Denmark, Tougaard says the main difference is the lower level of trust among Bulgarians. “In Denmark, you find that people trust each other. They trust business, they trust the authorities and they trust the police. Probably 99 per cent of Danes would call a police officer if they had a problem. So there’s a high level of trust built into Danish society and that is also built into how you do business,” he says. He concedes that bad experience accounts for the lack of trust in Bulgarian society. That, and the big difference in society itself. “In Denmark everybody more or less has the same and there is less theft and less corruption,” he says.

As far as people are concerned, Tougaard explains he is very happy with his team and that he has managed to find excellent employees in spite of the challenges of the Bulgarian labour market. “It’s very difficult to find the right people. We get many applications but, to be honest, you can dismiss 90 per cent of them, not because they are bad people, but because they’re unrealistic about our demands. If we’re looking for a sales person with experience within our area, for example, it’s common that a 19-year-old bartender would apply.”

A stop for coffee
Velux – Bulgaria’s short term goals are to continue to grow and build up strategic partnerships across the market, allowing the company to get as much of this market as possible. “We need to get out and fill all of the small corners of the market. The end goal is that we have our products in each and every house,” he says. He elucidates this with his “coffee at McDonald’s” theory. “It’s not enough to sell the window itself. We need to be much, much better at selling our complete solutions to people, so that they get the window along with the interior and exterior blinds, with the electrical operations. I call this coffee at McDonald’s – when you go to McDonald’s you get your hamburger and your French fries, and you always get that. If you get your coffee and you get your ice cream and anything else they can sell you, however, than that’s what success is about. We can sell you the burger and the French fries; everybody’s asking for that. What they are not necessarily asking for is the add-ons. And we need to be able to sell these to them too.”

Snapshot
The manager: Jon Tougaard
The company: Velux – Bulgaria
The job: General Manager
In brief: Tougaard took over the management of Velux in Bulgaria in 2006 to bring the Danish style of doing business into its operations, following four years spent developing the company in the Baltic states.