In just two years Olli Syrjälä has grown as a professional from a Procurement Specialist to a Team Lead. Recently, he opened a new market with his team – when Fiksuruoka expanded to the Netherlands with a new brand, Foodello.
“If they had told me in the first job interview that I would be leading a team in a new market in two years, I wouldn't have believed it”, says Olli cheerfully.
Olli’s love for food and the food industry started already as a kid – he grew up on a berry farm in central Finland. Later in life, this passion grew into an actual career. Today, Olli works to reduce food waste with us as a Team Lead of our Dutch Procurement team!
When Olli was studying to become an Industrial Engineer, he was looking for an entry-level position to put his knowledge to action. He had already some experience from logistics and primary industry through summer jobs.
“I wanted to find a job that revolved around the food industry and where I could utilize my analytical thinking and social skills. I was also looking for a company with a growth mindset and ‘let’s do this’ -attitude that would fit me well”, he thinks back.
“I wanted to find a job that revolved around the food industry and where I could utilize my analytical thinking and social skills.”
Olli already knew Fiksuruoka from a customer’s perspective. It’s an online-store, where you can buy changing selections of food products with great discounts.
“I really liked the idea and values that Fiksuruoka as a concept represents”, he says.
He started the conversation about joining us and finally became part of our Procurement Team as a Procurement Specialist in 2020 March – three days before the pandemic lockdowns started in Finland.
You can probably guess what happened next, or not.
Just a few days after Olli started at Fiksuruoka, the demand for our service went up through the roof straight away due to the pandemic. Ordering food online became the hottest trend almost overnight.
“This meant that everyone in our team had their hands full of work. Therefore, my onboarding was very intense and hectic – but I liked it. Luckily I’m a quick learner and love to learn by doing”, Olli says cheerfully.
The Procurement Specialist’s job is to purchase the goods that are under the threat of going to waste. Procurement is an essential part of our business: the procurement team makes sure that our suppliers have an easy way out with surplus batches, and our customers have access to a wide range of products they can buy and save money.
Olli was responsible for handling the purchases and communicating with the suppliers. The more he learned, the more responsibility he got.
“After I learned the basics, I got my own category responsibilities in sweets and snacks, pets and sports categories to handle and develop. This meant, for example, finding new products to offer and looking for new suppliers to buy goods from. During my first 1,5 years I also got a responsibility to do marketing collaborations as well”, he says.
As the Procurement Team grew in the next 1,5 years, Olli started to onboard and mentor newcomers joining the team. That’s when the seed of becoming a Team Lead was planted.
“I feel that there is a little teacher living inside of me. I truly enjoy helping, mentoring, and supporting people around me”, Olli says.
In addition to the dream of becoming a leader, Olli was also dreaming of international career opportunities. He had communicated his thoughts regularly in his monthly “Personal Growth”-meetings to his supervisor. Olli’s enthusiasm towards the company mission was noted, and in 2021 his career wishes became true.
“I was given the opportunity to open the procurement side of a new market in the Netherlands”, he says, still smiling.
“Our job was to start everything in a new market from ground zero”, Olli says.
This meant that they had to find local suppliers, and suppliers who ship to the Netherlands, be in charge of the operative actions in logistics, as well as develop processes and tools. It was a huge task but Olli wasn’t afraid of challenges – quite the opposite.
“Our job was to start everything from ground zero.”
“I still remember the first phone calls to local suppliers. But things started to get together piece by piece and now everything is much clearer and put together”, he laughs.
After the first few months of building the new market, they also started to build the local team. Olli of course got to participate in the recruitment and decision-making processes.
When the first team members joined Foodello in Amsterdam, Olli took the natural role of a leader and supported and mentored the team to learn how procurement around surplus batches work in the food industry.
“In procurement, there are some general big procedures that you need to follow and respect. And they apply in all our markets. But everyone gives their own personal touch to the process and supplier relationships. In the end, procurement has many similarities with selling. You are selling the easy cooperation with us to the suppliers”, he explains.
As the team was learning more, Olli was about to take yet another career step in a short time.
Olli’s natural people skills were noted. After the team in Amsterdam had grown a bit, Olli was officially offered an opportunity to become a Team Lead in September 2022.
“I was very excited about this growth opportunity. It felt great that I could use my strengths as a leader. But I also realized how much knowledge I had gained on procurement and the whole food industry. I could confidently teach my team the things I know and also learn a lot from them”, he says.
“I realized how much knowledge I had gained on procurement and the whole food industry. I could confidently teach my team the things I know and also learn a lot from them.”
He now has a team of five people located in Amsterdam while Olli is working remotely from Helsinki.
“I honestly love being a Team Lead, it comes naturally to me. We have a small but very close team even though we work mostly remotely”, he says.
Becoming a Team Lead has gone quite smoothly but of course, there has been a lot of things to learn – as well as unlearn.
“The change of mindset was crucial for me: I don’t have to perform the best in procurement. I have to be the best support to my team so that they perform in the best way. My responsibility is to support my team members and create structures around our acts and practices”, he explains.
#1 Encouraging: “I put emphasis on ownership – as it is also one of Foodello’s core values. My team members have a chance to try, test, and learn by themselves. I’ll give them room to learn and not micromanage them. They don’t have to be perfect, sometimes the best learnings come from mistakes.”
#2 Supportive: “To provide the kind of support they feel helps best and be available to them all the time. I don’t have to tell them all the steps they need to take but support them on the way.”
#3 Open: “By being open to feedback and learning myself, I try to create an environment where others feel like they could do that too. Leading by example is a big thing for me.”