The desire to make a difference requires passion, perseverance, and an ability to go forth and conquer. With these attributes, Martina Klingvall is transforming the Telecom Industry through her company Telness.
Martina started her career after graduation from university with a management trainee program at Telenor, one of the leading telecom operators in the Nordics. In the management program, she had the opportunity to work with and shadow a proficient leader at CxO le vel, learning rapidly by participating in everything from management meetings to personal one–on–ones. It was a rear experience for her to observe without her own agenda and reflect upon how she wanted to lead herself. Ever since, she has had a huge interest in leadership and is continuously trying to improve her capabilities and skills in different roles.
Simple, Digital and Affordable Solutions Being the Founder and CEO of Telness, Martina, along with her team has taken the company to the new heights.
The telecom industry in Sweden has an unusually low customer satisfaction and there has long been a lack of modern and customer-focused alternatives to the major operators. Telness, being driven by simplifying complexity, is delivering services that are specially developed for the new business community.
Telness was formed with a vision to bring simple, digital, and affordable mobile operating solutions for entrepreneurs. Sticking to its goal, the company has been able to create transparent and problem-free solutions for entrepreneurs.
Always a Customer-centric Approach
Telness’ customers always have full control and can handle the company’s mobile telephony themselves smoothly. In other words, with Telness, no paperwork, queuing in stores or telemarketers is needed. It is the obsession of the company for its customers that enables it to diversify its offerings in order to entice its target audience.
In order to stay ahead of the curve, the company continuously delivers enriching experiences to its customers and smartly responds to changing needs and demands. “No one knows what the future will look like, so we ensure a way of working to never lock ourselves in technical or “internal political” legacy. This enables us to always be curious and quickly adapt to changing market demands,” states Martina.
Overcoming Adversities
Telness was founded with a mission to change the standards and perception of mobile operators. Changing the standard means challenging the traditional telecom and mobile providers and setting new standards in terms of technology, innovation, and customer experience. Doing all this, was not the easy way out for Martina. She undertook this challenge and performed bravely with the right team, culture, ambition and backing.
Telness challenges how one looks at a mobile operator and shows that it does not have to be complicated at all. By continuously challenging itself and developing, it believes it can deliver world-class services to its customers. The company dares to try new things, to fail, and to question, all to build a better future. It takes active initiative and is proactive and on it toes constantly to develop and become even better. Martina is of the firm belief that all leaders in today’s business environment need to be curious and always renew and improve both themselves and their businesses.
Achieving Gender Equality
Since the inception of Telness, Martina has actively worked along with her team to achieve gender equality, and thereby lead a start-up by example, through building a company with 50/50% women/men both in the board of directors, management, and rest of organization. She is proud of this as it’s a challenge for companies in general, maybe even more so in the telecom industry and tech environment.
Martina asserts, “I love running a company where everyone really cares about each other, about our customers and about the company’s joint success. This means that we constantly challenge each other and constantly grow both as individuals, as a service and as a company – and have fun along the way. ”
Being a woman founder and CEO of a telecom company, the story of Martina and Telness has truly been an inspiration for other aspiring women entrepreneurs. She mentions that it was because of people who believed in her and gave her opportunities and learning experiences outside her comfort zone, she could emerge as a business forerunner.
Future Aspirations
Martina aims to build the world’s best company, making a statement of how to run business both in terms of customer focus, equality, and culture. Both in the near and long term future, she will be on the way to achieving that objective with Telness.