From business to robotics – a workplace to explore

With a background in law, marketing and sales, Sofie Gellin could never have dreamt that she would one day lead a robotics team. Until she started working at Telenor, where she got the opportunity to be the head of Telenor’s new robotic division, despite her lack of technical expertise.  

Sofie Gellin sees her advancement as proof that Telenor is a company where those who have the will, and work hard, can take on new challenges. Regardless of background.

Sofie started at Telenor three years ago. First as a Proposition Manager, developing the company’s offers towards small and medium businesses, and in parallel she was working on Telenor’s digital strategy.

As she had performed well in her previous roles, Sofie was asked to lead the new robotics team, a mission that was put together in order to scale up the automation at Telenor.

– I said yes, but secretly I wondered what I had gotten myself into. I have no background in robotics, I studied law and social science and have mostly worked with sales development and marketing, Sofie Gellin says.

But Sofie was given time to understand the subject. During a month and a half, she read as much as she could, learned how to program simple robots through online courses and talked to existing robotics teams at Telenor, both in Sweden and abroad.

Sofie put together a team of experienced computer engineers with various expertise and backgrounds as well as a consultant to help the team get started. The team’s task is to develop and scale up robotics software that will enable different processes to move faster and smoother.

– We’re in a technology era that is rapidly evolving, and there’s great interest in our work from the rest of the organisation. It feels great and rewarding to be working with robotics, Sofie Gellin says.