Hi,

Two weeks has now gone by since I started at Panos.This week I have worked a lot with pinterest and other social media platforms. The company had only created a pinterest account, but they havn’t posted anything yet. It was my job to create a good image so that Pinterest could be a part of the company’s social media platforms. Since I wasn’t very familiar with it, it took a while to learn how to navigate and create albums. I had discussed a lot with the marketing manager about how Panos wanted to communicate to their customers, and did therefor know which type of picture they wanted me to use.  I found Pinterest to be a very good platform to communicate with customers but also with other companies as well. I have to say that I think that social media are becoming more and more interesting the longer I am working with it. Hopefully I get the opportunity to work much more with it and perhaps launch the platform during next week. 

Have a nice day everyone!

/ Linnéa 

My first days at Kappahl

Hi everyone,
My name is Malin and currently I'm doing my internship at Kappahls' headquarter in Mölndal. I had my first day at Kappahl last Monday so I have been there for almost 2 weeks, and I'm so happy about it. I work at the purchasing development department together with 3 quality engineers (actually the only quality engineers working at Kappahl) and help them with different kind of projects.

Last week included a lot of meetings at the company. The week started with two meetings, one with the quality engineers (they have this kind of meeting every Monday) and one with the purchasing development department. It was really good to start the internship period with these kind of meetings because it was a good introduction for me and helped me to get a better understanding of what they are working with etc.

This week I have spend a lot of time in the testing laboratory at Kappahl. I have done tests such as washing tests and abrasion tests. The abrasion test is a very big project that will take a lot of time and probably I will spend most of the time of my internship with this project. Since they have handed over this project to me I have to take a lot of responsiblity which feels really good :)

It feels that I already have learned so much during these two weeks and I really looking forward to learn more from the upcoming weeks, I will keep you updated :)

Have a nice and sunny weekend!

First week of the internship

Hi everyone,

The first week of my internship at Panos Emporio has gone by super-fast. First of all, everyone is really friendly towards me and it was no problem to get acquainted to everyone. I am currently sitting together with the PR and marketing manager and learning how an “ordinary” day could look like. Their head quarter is in Mölndal, which basically means that my day starts at 05:20 when I wake up, and then I go by bus to the station of Borås, to Göterborg and then to Mölndal. At the end of the day I am home at 18:30, so the days are quite long comparing to school, but it’s no problem when the workday is fun and goes by really fast. At this stage everything is still quite new to me, and I can imagine that during the following weeks I will learn a lot. The first few days involved tons of information so that I could get a clearer picture of how they work. It was very impressive and I slowly starting to love this company more and more!

The marketing manager is constantly discussing with me and wants to know my point of view of things, which I really appreciate because it makes me feel valuable. To get to know their products much better I got the chance to choose some of the products that I though should be published on social media platforms. It is important to choose the right picture at the right time and with the right text.

It’s crazy how fast you get used to a new life. I have only been here for a week and I already feel like I know these people. I am so anxious to see what I will do next week.

Have a nice day and a Happy Easter!

/ Linnéa 

A small piece of the marketing world

During my stay in the company my department was mainly focused on marketing of the new collection. Furthermore shortly before, there was launched new company logo bringing about numerous necessary implementations. The website, catalogues, press kits, invitations and other marketing materials had to be updated because of the logo change but also due to the recent offer of textiles and carpets. Therefore I have learnt how to effectively word and edit the text for marketing materials and make them consistent with each other.

There were made also several changes regarding the company website. Because of that I got familiar with organization of archives containing all marketing texts but also images. Moreover I mastered the ability of managing and administrating the company database and intercompany program which provides direct information taken by the website and company subsidiaries. Its correctness is fundamental as data is directly displayed on the website, used for printing marketing materials and during everyday company activities.

Sourcing New Brands

Hello,

like I have told you last time I was supposed to join my workmates to Copenhagen Fashion Week to look out for new brands to collaborate with. We went there for one night only and tried to talk to as many interesting brands as possible but it takes just so much time going round the fashion fairs and investigate each stall, so in the end we unfortunately missed out on some areas.

All in all it was a successful trip though. My bosses wanted to focus on Scandinavian brands only for their next pop-up showroom, so they mostly talked to those brands and tried to establish relationships with quite small labels that are not represented in Sweden/ Gothenburg yet.

I, on the other hand, was more interested in the German based brands, which were surprisingly interesting and I also spotted some designers from the UK, that I have been a fan of for some time. I even walked past the Danish princess, as she was visiting the fairs as well... ;)

But back to business: As young entrepreneurs it is quite hard to convince brands to work with you but it is not impossible. Many labels were delighted to hear about the unique concept we were representing (a showroom with sample pieces that can be ordered for home delivery via the online boutique). Others were of course sceptical but I am sure the girls from the company I worked for will do a great job getting new, exciting brands on board for their next project.

My internship is over now and I have already gotten back to "normal" student life in Borås. It feels a bit weird and I cannot wait to finish my studies and start a job or traineeship, thanks to the insights this field study has given me.

xoxo

From Paris to Stockholm

Last weeks have been very busy. The whole company was focused on ongoing textiles and interior design fairs taking place in Paris, Stockholm and Cologne.

Beginning of fairs arrangements comprised of preparation and management of customer lists necessary for sending invitations for the fairs. All data was accessed from the commonly used program between the company and its subsidiaries. I got familiar with its following section which deals with a database of customers and suppliers.

As all of the fairs required preparation of the company exhibition, I was trained how to prepare the stand which will present the company’s offer in the most distinctive, attractive and eye catching way. After the visual merchandising lesson with designers I was responsible for preparation of a display of carpets and textiles presented in all three cities. I have learnt a lot about colours, space, lightning and sensory factors which play a crucial role in creating displays and installations.

Bis dann!

Visiting the company

Holidays came and went. I heard nothing from the company so I just started the project  by learning everything I could about the Higg index and the company.

After holidays we scheduled a meeting so I visited them this week (in the beginning of January) for just one day. We were discussing more details about the project, goals and the framework of this project. I also asked if it would be ok to use the company’s name here in the field study related discussions and so it was. 

The company is called Norrøna and is based in Hvalstad Norway, 20km from Oslo. They produce technical outdoor garments mainly for skiing and climbing and also for hunting and hiking as well as lifestyle clothing. Company being located in Norway was the reason we agreed that I would be working mainly in Borås. 

It was a long trip first to Göteborg, then to Oslo and finally to Hvalstad. Arriving to Havalstad reminded me that you can’t expect much from a 2000 resident town. As I was walking on the side of the dirt road to this industrial area I was expecting to see a modern office/HQ building similar to Gina Tricot here in Borås. But when I finally arrived there I wasn’t sure I was in a right place because there was only an old warehouse with no big signs or company logos. Only a small sign in the corner of the house indicating I was in a right place. My first impression was: “What a dumpster!” Of course inside was nice but still much smaller than I had expected. Made me realize that even the brand is quite big and well know, at least here in Scandinavia, as an outdoor clothing company, it still is small as a clothing brand in general.

During discussions it became obvious that the tool in Higg index related to clothing sustainability is a “fun toy” for the designers making material decisions but for the company wanting to map their various production processes it is not profound enough. Especially in a manufacturer that has complex technical clothing that has a lot of chemicals put in their production. So the company really wants me to go deep in this matter and map all the possible self-assessment tools and means. Many times I heard the words “dig deeper” mentioned.

It is now obvious that the project will be large but even the more interesting and hopefully will contribute future projects and processes as well. 

Going deeper.

 

“When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.”

-Friedrich Nietzsche

 

The difficulties of starting the field study

I had a hard time logging in into this blog so I haven’t posted anything yet. Now I post my earlier texts consecutively.

The beginning of searching for a place to work for was so slow for me. I had decided a long time ago that I would rather do my field study as an internship for a company rather than for school. That is because I don’t have much working experience in the industry and the whole reason for me studying here the second year was to get contacts to companies and to make job search easier after school.

But as I had sent several applications to companies I had not received one reply.  If I learned something from this was that not even the most (seemingly) organized companies are very efficient or responsible for answering emails. Not even when their web page says they are hiring interns all the time and are excited to receive applications. Simple and quick “no” would have been ok to stop my suspense, but nothing. So reluctantly I started planning to do one of the projects the school offered.

However in middle of November I got a response from one of the companies in top of my favorite list. They offered some project related to Higg index. Then it took almost a month still for them to reply my emails but finally a week ago (in the beginning of December) I got a call from them confirming and explaining the project for me. 

This new was so good for me for two reasons. First of all the company is producing garments for skiing and climbing. Not being a big textile company but it is well known among the sport. And being part of that scene myself, this company has been one of my favorites to work for. Second is that the sustainability has become one of my favorite subject in textile industry during my studies. The project to do a research on how the company could start to implement the use of Higg index from scratch. This was interesting as being a field of sustainability but also that I would be a part of that from the beginning, not only stepping in to do some ongoing project. 

We agreed that at least in the beginning I will perform my study from home and have visits to their office once in a while. I will start my project now and hope to visit them after holidays to get more information.

To unknown and beyond!

-Janne

Field study ...completed!

It’s been a fun couple of weeks doing the INDISKA research and we can say it with confident that we have learnt valuable lessons during the past weeks. This has been a great experience and a good practice before the coming thesis where we have had to take the responsibility of researchers given the mission but had to “pave the way” meaning we had to find out ourselves how best to solve this task.

One example of how important it is to be constantly open to new information and not necessary knowing what you are looking for at the same time. Because the point is, something can be right in front of you which don’t even seems important can eventually have a huge impact on the results. So even though you have planned what you want to find out and how you are going to find it, be open to new ways and information. Lesson of the dayJ

Best regard, Matthildur and Filip

Standard Operational Procedures

Hello everyone!


Here comes my very last report from the fields.
Within these two weeks I have been focusing on the evaluation of the current status and further description of the SOP for multisourcing in our organisation, writing SOP for the factories' evaluation with the consideration of CRS and initial, inline and final Quality Control Inspections reports. On this purpose, for the deepper insight, we gathered for the meetings with some of my new colleagues to discuss the current procedures, the Buying&Design department is working with now, as well as advantages/disadvantages and opportunities to improve them in order to make these processes even more transparent, efficient and easier to implement. The last factor is very important in the conditions of a rapidly growing Company, in both - the Revenue and the number of employees.
I have learned a lot about the current procedures in the Company and still have a feeling that there is a room for further invistigation. On this purpose, we have planned the trip to Istambul for evaluation of current suppliers' production.
Another task was to get accuainted with the accessories of our assortment and the procedures of buying and supply as the part of the whole procurement system of this particular Company. I got to know the accounting system this Company is working with, peculiarities of stock system and logistic from the main countries of production & supply. It will be exciting to work with the separate Group of Products from A to Z.


Hope you all out there enjoyed your time during the internship and would take some useful findings and experiences with you into your future profession. Good luck and hope to see you soon!


Kind regards,
Victoria