Kurt Rosenberg joined the Axelent family in May 2023 as Key Account Manager for our Agents. Kurt has his roots in South Africa but nowadays lives near Karlskrona in Sweden. Read about his interesting life and work journey.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
“I was born and raised in South Africa and emigrated to Sweden, during the Covid pandemic, in June 2020. I currently live on a small island, near Karlskrona in the South of Sweden, with my wife Olga, two sons, Kingston and Jude as well as my rescue dog, Bella.
I love the outdoor and ocean life and enjoy mountain biking, scuba diving, alpine skiing and boating. I have an interest in music and collect vintage and interesting guitars (and play a little bit too).
I am passionate about people and human development, in both personal and professional life and spend much time improving my skills and knowledge in this area.”
Can you share a little bit about what you did before you joined Axelent?
“After completing my architecture studies, I worked in the design field for some years. I then furthered my studies in Project and Construction Management. After qualifying as a Scuba Diving Instructor in the late 90’s, I spent 3 years as the General Manager of a dive resort in Southern Mozambique.
On my return to South Africa, I joined Yaskawa Robotics in the concept design and sales department and furthered my studies with a business and management diploma. I later took over as Managing Director.
I worked for YASKAWA Robotics in South Africa from 2006 to 2020 and more recently for Yaskawa Nordic in Sweden, as Customer Service Manager for the European subsidiaries, until 2021.
In 2022 I took a sabbatical year to study Professional Coaching, travel a little and settle in my new home country of Sweden.”
For how long have you been working with Axelent and in what is your role?
“I joined the Axelent family in Hillerstorp in May 2023, as Key Account Manager for our Agents and partners in Central and Eastern Europe. My role is to improve the relationships we have with our partners and support them in growing their markets and improve sales activities in their respective territories. My role is also to analyze our current partner network to determine its strength and value to Axelent, and to support changes where required".
Have you had a prior contact with Axelent? Can you share a little bit about that?
“I have known Axelent from my many years with Yaskawa, as Yaskawa Southern Africa was both a customer and sales partner for Axelent in South Africa. We have worked closely with the business in the form of Axelent's sales and customer support."
What do you like the most about your role, and what is the most challenging part of it?
“As I feel strongly about people development, my role at Axelent allows me to focus on the development and strengthening of our relationships with our agents, to build long lasting, mutually beneficial partnerships.
I get great satisfaction being able to work with such talented and motivated people at Axelent, who take care in work but also in their work environment.
My challenges currently, are adapting to a Swedish (and European) culture, language and way of life, but time, effort and energy will solve this.
When you were given the opportunity for this role, how did it make you feel? Is it as you thought it was going to be?
When you were given the opportunity for this role, how did it make you feel? Is it as you thought it was going to be?
I felt that this was an exciting opportunity to work with a company that I have admired for many years, where I could use my many years of experience to support the future development of Axelent in a positive way and be part of a great company culture.
Although there were some areas we intentionally left “unclear”, my expectations of working with Axelent are exactly as I thought.”
What do you enjoy the most with your job at Axelent?
- Great people
- Great culture
- Great work atmosphere.
- Being part of a growing organization that takes care of its staff, customers, and the environment in general.”
How does your workdays look?
“As I work mostly from my Home Office, I have the ability for complete focus on my agent tasks.
My daily routines involve regular discussions with our agents regarding orders, offers, markets, competitors, and general business development topics. I engage regularly with the Axelent sales and product teams on customer projects and issues as well as the Marketing team to support agent development and market exposure.
I usually spend 1 day per week at the Hillerstorp office for face-to-face discussions or general updates.
As I am responsible for around 19-20 agents around Europe, my travel schedule is quite full and so I spend around one week of every month travelling to visit them.”
If someone were to ask you how it is to work at Axelent, what would you say?
“If you are looking for a company that is true to its founding values, has a great work ethic, admits to its mistakes, and has a strong and clear vision of where it wants to be in the future, then this is the company to work for.”
