Hi, and welcome to our first Tobii Dynavox podcast on this beautiful Thursday morning, June 8th, 2022. I'm Tricia Pepper, the company's Senior Content Writer, and today we're getting to know Mikael Bäckström, our Chief People and Sustainability Officer. He'll be talking to us today about Tobii Dynavox culture and sustainability. Hey, Mikael. Hey, Tricia. Not just the company's first podcast, but our first podcast. Our first, yes. Yeah. We're newbies. Of course we're colleagues, so we've met before, but I'd like to get to know you a little bit better. Can you start by telling me an interesting fact about yourself? I'm not sure I'm that interesting, but I come from a small town, almost a village, in the northern part of Sweden, very working class, and I come from a working class family as well. Well, personally, I love the north. Is there anything in particular about your northern roots that got you interested in HR? Not maybe my northern roots, but ending up, sort of like in the Swedish army training volunteers. Through that I can trace the passion for HR and Leadership, and it sparked something in me. I both got to support the local community as well as the country, and it introduced me to the field of adult education, which then got me more interested in Behavioral Sciences, which then led me to study HR at Stockholm University. Sounds like you were one of the lucky ones who found their calling early in life. Did you start working in HR right out of university? Yeah, I did. I wasn't that young. I was 32 after graduating, but I had the privilege to work with a lot of exciting companies that have all been quite different. My passion is to build and change things for the better and make the world a better place, piece by piece. At Tobii Dynavox I can really feel that I can share that passion with the rest of the employees working here. Before joining Tobii Dynavox, you were at Spotify, which of course is another global company based in Sweden. What would you say was the most important thing you learned while you were there? Yeah. I was at Spotify for seven years. All through that time and still, they're in hypergrowth, adding a lot of warm bodies to the company, and it's a complex business with employees in, I think more than 30 countries with very different working cultures. My key learning there was rather figuring out how to strengthen the company's culture by focusing on everyone's commonalities rather than the differences. Right. It sounds like it was quite a ride. Yeah, I can guarantee that. Tell me a bit about your new role here at Tobii Dynavox? Well, I have a fancy business title. I'm the Chief People & Sustainability Officer. Why are those two functions combined? To me, the areas of people and sustainability is very closely linked because it's crucial to have a diverse, inclusive culture where people are constantly learning to build a sustainable business in the long run. Of course, you shouldn't forget about the environmental aspects of sustainability. They are also very important, but our biggest strength is in the S portion of ESG. To people who might not be familiar with that acronym, what is ESG? It stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance, and our business is very much the S part, the social sustainability and creating significant change within that area. This is something we describe in more detail in our first ever sustainability report, isn't it? Yeah, we do, and it's my first sustainability report as well. It's part of our annual report. It's a great read. Don't miss it. You can find it on our website. Agreed. It is definitely not to be missed. Let's get back to you now. How would you describe Tobii Dynavox? I'm sort of always curious to hear how newcomers see the place. I would describe it through our mission, which is to empower people with disabilities to do what they once did or never thought possible. I love that you chose to describe the company by our mission. It's such a strong one that it's usually the first thing that newbies learn about Tobii Dynavox, wouldn't you think? Yeah. I would almost imagine that people know about our mission before they even apply for a job here as it has sort of a magnetic pull on those who care about it, and I'm sure many employers out there are quite envious about the strong mission we have. Yeah, I'm sure they are too. For people who've never heard about Tobii Dynavox before, our mission refers to the effect that our products have on the people who use them. Yeah, because we make life-changing solutions to enable people with disabilities such as cerebral palsy, ALS, and spinal cord injury to communicate and live their life to the fullest. Just to clarify, these are solutions that enable people who cannot use their hands or their voice or both to control a computer, turn on lights, and even generate a synthetic voice with just their eyes. Yeah. That would be one example. Another would be solutions for people who have a speech and language disability, like autism or aphasia. Touch devices, for example, that allow people to press on symbols which then speak their intended words out loud. Now, it's quite common at Tobii Dynavox for the employees to talk about the accomplishments of our customers in a familiar way, probably in the way you would have heard your Spotify colleagues talk about rock stars. The people who use our products are like our rock stars. We sometimes even refer to them on a first name basis. Can you tell me some of your favorites? Yeah. The first that comes to mind is Lucy. She's a French woman with cerebral palsy who is studying computer science. I think she was the keynote speaker at the Women in Tech Conference in Stockholm a few years ago, and she wrote and delivered her speech completely with her eyes. I think she's also the only one that got standing ovations in the conference history. Yes, that's true. She's totally amazing. I'm also a big fan of James. Which part of his story do you like best? Oh, he's a young man from the U.K. who used one of our devices to say, "I love you, Mom," for the very first time. It's heartwarming. Yes, James is unforgettable. He and his mom traveled to Stockholm some years back to talk to the whole company about their journey with assistive communication, and naturally, being the rock star that he is, he also got a standing ovation. These are just two examples of so many around the world, aren't they? Yeah. As the world leader in Assistive Technology for communication, our solutions have, over, the course of our history, served more than 100,000 people in, more than 65 countries. What need do you see for these kinds of solutions globally, and do you think that need is being met? No, it's an enormous unmet need for the kind of products we make. Globally, only about 2 million of the estimated 50 million who need communication aids get a diagnosis, and only about 40,000 of those diagnosed are served every year due to low awareness, poor implementation support, and lack of funding. Wait, are you saying that only 2% of people in the world who are diagnosed with a communication disability actually get a communication aid? That's right. As I said earlier, there's an enormous unmet need for this kind of Assistive Technology, and it should be a human right? Abs- To be able to communicate. Absolutely. What ultimately made you decide to join Tobii Dynavox? I joined for a lot of reason, but let's focus on the top three. Three we'll come back during our conversation, I'm sure. Right. The first, of course, is the company's very tangible mission, which we have talked about. It has a magnetic pull on me as well. The second, the role itself, and the fact that when I joined, we were about to split from our parent company with an opportunity to create our own identity, which is super exciting. The third are the people here. I had heard before joining that it was filled with warm-hearted, mission-driven people. What made you join, Tricia? I definitely joined for the mission, and I'm staying for the people. I've been with the company now for just over four years and can say that I have never worked anywhere before with such, warm-hearted, intelligent, and dedicated colleagues. For me, it's hands down the best corporate culture I've experienced. Yeah. Strong culture, sustainability, those two go hand in hand. On that note, can you tell me what sets Tobii Dynavox apart in terms of sustainability? Making a positive difference is the core of what we do. Like we talked about earlier, we're the social sustainability in the ESG. That's what our entire business is about. That's why all the strategies, working methods, our solution that we develop must be sustainable, and that responsibility rests with the entire company and all the employees, not with a special team or function. In short, we make the world better in three different ways. Okay, what's the first of those three? The first is that we make solutions with a substantial impact on the ability to communicate and the quality of life for people with disabilities, like we talked about Lucy, James, and thousands of others, and this also benefits their families, communities, healthcare system, and society at large. They can live their life to the fullest. There's been a lot of talk about the UN Sustainable Development Goals these last few years. Does this fit with any of them? Yeah. Many of the UN goals are, in fact, the main focus of our sustainability strategy. Can you tell me a little bit more about which ones? The first ones are number three, good health, well-being, number four, quality education, and number 10, which is reduced inequalities. Okay, I've got it. The first way to make the world a better place is through social sustainability. What's the second way? To provide a healthy and stimulating work environment with a diverse and inclusive workforce, which relates to objective number eight in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which is decent work and economic growth. Okay, how will you achieve that? By making sure our employees grow and stretch themselves, as well as the team they belong to and the whole company. We will create a strong learning environment where people can share knowledge, expertise, in addition to developing skills in their everyday work. We also plan to focus more long term by having our people take part in trainings, new projects, new roles, so that we can foster a culture where internal mobility is strong. Okay, check. The second way is through workplace sustainability. I think you mentioned a third way. Yeah, even though our company's main impact is within the S of ESG, like all responsible companies, everyone in the organization is also responsible for reducing our overall environmental footprint or impact by, for example, cutting down emissions from energy consumptions, product transport, business travel, and we're paying really, really close attention to designing our products to cope with rougher use since they will often be unintentionally dropped, for example. All the hardware we offer is very durable and designed to allow repair and replacements of components to maximize their lifetime. Wow. Thank you for mapping all of that out, for everybody. Is it okay with you if we switch gears a bit before we wrap up? Let's. You mentioned a couple of times that people are the key to long-term sustainability, and many employers in the med tech and tech sectors these days are struggling to attract and retain talented staff. How do you plan to address this challenge at Tobii Dynavox? There's no shortcut. It's constant work and improvement, and we're going to have to make sure that we are attractive to the people that we want to reach, the people that are truly passionate about our mission, and come to us with something that adds to our culture. What steps will you need to take to get there? We talked about making sure people are growing, stretching themselves, make sure that they will feel part of a high-performing team, where their unique experience is valued. It helps us reach even more people with disabilities and get even better at employing them. We will need to build a safe community where our people can be supported as individuals going through the different things in life, and of course, we want to compensate our people fairly, among other things. Right. Mikael, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us today. You're welcome. Thank you for listening. If our listeners are interested in learning more about us, we encourage you to head over to our website, tobiidynavox.com, where you will find even more about our mission as well as more success stories about people like Lucy and James. Thank you very much for listening.