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<v ->I'm sitting here today with Alexander Lacik,</v>

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the CEO at Pandora.

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Welcome.

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<v ->Thank you.</v>

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<v ->Can you briefly describe</v>

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Pandora's transformation program for us?

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<v ->Even when everything was running hot</v>

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and the company looked fantastically successful,

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there were lots of cracks.

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So I think the foundational piece was the analysis

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that essentially created a baseline for this program,

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which we call Program NOW.

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And this consists of three big themes.

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One which was around getting the heat back into the brand.

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The second piece was around creating better access

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to people to kind of connect with our brand.

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And then the third piece was a big cost reset exercise,

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which essentially was funding

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the activities in the previous two.

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<v ->So what has been the impact of Program NOW?</v>

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<v ->From a financial standpoint,</v>

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we now have a business that's healthy.

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When I joined,

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our like-for-like development was negative 10%.

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Now it's more positive than anything else.

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So there's been kind of a big shift

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in the momentum of the business.

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So we've gone from a very shaky, declining situation

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to now something which is stable and rock-solid

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and is far more predictable.

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Other than that, we've also built capability.

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So one thing is, you can take some strong medicine,

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but you also need to kind of get fit for the future.

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So we're now a much flatter organization, much leaner.

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We connect the countries with Copenhagen,

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there's no filter in between.

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So we try to "decomplexify" this whole thing.

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So we are closer to the customer,

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which I believe is going to be

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a very important foundational stone for the future.

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<v ->The cost side,</v>

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how important has that been to also gain credibility?

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<v ->We've taken out something equivalent to</v>

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6% of our revenue base in cost.

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We've taken that out,

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but we actually reinvested all of it and then some.

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So I think it's been a very healthy reallocation

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of existing resources.

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<v ->The human element of a transformation</v>

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is critical for success.

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And you made a number of changes to the people agenda.

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Can you share with us, what's your philosophy?

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<v ->I don't believe you can make a transformation</v>

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of this magnitude without having a team around you-

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a leadership team around you-that is completely in sync.

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That's probably the first.

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Then I think the second is you need to get enough disciples

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throughout the organization.

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Because again, ten people,

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or however many were in the executive team,

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cannot turn a ship like this around.

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It happens through the organization.

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Which then leads me to the third one:

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You get what you measure.

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And I normally also add incentivize.

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So very clear metrics, which have some nice leverage to them

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if people deliver on the task.

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You need to identify some big bets,

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which I think through Program NOW,

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we were very clear on what those were.

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And then put the energy behind them.

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<v ->When you drive change management, there is resistance.</v>

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How have you dealt with that as the CEO?

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<v ->The initial phase is very much,</v>

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at least it was in our case, a top decision.

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You pick your team.

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So we bought a lot of talent.

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Then after roughly, I don't know, 12, 18 months,

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we switched gears, and then we said,

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now we move away from a buy strategy into a build strategy.

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And that of course now is all about

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retaining the good talent that you pulled through the door.

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<v ->What can other leaders learn</v>

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from Pandora's transformation journey?

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<v ->I think really doing the honest analysis,</v>

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especially if you're in a turnaround situation.

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Get to the bottom of the problem.

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Then I think it's about focus.

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Pick a couple of bets.

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So I need my 30,000 people

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to kind of sing from the same songsheet,

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to be clear on the purpose of the company.

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That's actually where we started the whole exercise.

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Do we know why we're here?

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What's the reason for Pandora in people's lives?

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And if we have clarity on that, which we do,

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then a lot of things flow from that

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and you have something which you can easily convey

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to every single person that's employed by Pandora.

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And also when you speak to people outside of Pandora.

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So we're very clear on the reasons why we exist.

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<v ->What would you like to be remembered for in Pandora?</v>

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<v ->I suppose that there are two or three things maybe</v>

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that would be good for the company to do.

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One of them is we've tried

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to change the perspective of being a quite insular company

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and starting on the outside

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to be much more consumer-centric.

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I think that that's something

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which I've been pushing very hard.

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I think that we've established new values,

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and I think values are a key component

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of creating a company culture.

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And which has, of course, much longer,

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let's say sustainable impact on the company.

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And I think we're trying to drive a very different agenda

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within the industry when it comes to sustainability.

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<v ->Alexander, thank you so much for coming here today</v>

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and sharing your learnings with us.

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<v ->Thank you, and thanks to your entire team.</v>

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Without you, we couldn't have done it.

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So big thank you.