08.05.2013

Management restructure at Rami

Finnish international rental company Ramirent has made changes to its internal management structure.

The company will now have two management teams – the more senior Executive Management Team comprising six senior managers (now executive vice presidents) reporting directly to chief executive Magnus Rosén.

They are: chief financial officer Jonas Söderkvist - now executive vice president, corporate functions which includes HR, marketing and safety.

Anna Hyvönen, executive vice president Finland and Baltics, Bjørn Larsen, executive vice president Norway, Erik Alteryd, executive vice president Sweden and Denmark

Mikael Kämpe who was previously director group fleet has been appointed executive vice president, Europe Central, while Dino Leistenschneider currently director group sourcing becomes executive vice president sourcing and fleet management.

The second team – the Group Management Team includes all of the above plus:
Tomasz Walawender - currently senior vice president, Europe Central is now responsible for Poland only and reports to Mikael Kämpe.

Erik Høi, continues as senior vice president, Denmark and will report to Anna Hyvönen.
Heiki Onton’s job title changes from country manager Baltics to senior vice president Baltics also reporting to Hyvönen.

Franciska Janzon currently director corporate communications becomes senior vice president, marketing, communications and investor relations reporting to Jonas Söderkvist as does Peggy Hansson, currently head of HR- now senior vice president, human resources, health & safety.

Finally Mats Munkhammar currently chief information officer – yes you guessed it – becomes senior vice president and chief information officer reporting to Söderkvist.

Vertikal Comment

Oh dear…… it’s always a bad sign when titles start becoming overly cumbersome and vice presidents multiply.

However one assumes that this is all about reducing the number of direct reports to Rosén according to classic management principles. It is slightly unusual for a change such as this to come more than four years after a chief executive moves in. It suggests some external pressure to show change – almost always the wrong reason for doing something.

Hopefully none of this is the case and after all – apart from all those titles - the people and reporting changes make sense and seem logical.

What happens in practice is far more important than what happens on paper.