In this mini series of blog articles, you’ll get to know some of our leaders who have graduated from the Visma Management Academy (VMA). Every year, 100 of our top leadership talents take part in the programme.
Who, what, where:
Azzeddine Abchir is Development Manager at Tripletex, a Visma company. Here, he interacts, learns from, and coaches multiple development teams. Joining in May 2022, he’s already a true example of our promise to new employees: make progress happen from day one.
Hi, Azzeddine! What do you do in your job?
“I work with people, products, processes, and tech, in that particular order. In my role, I work with three awesome product development teams. Our goal is to create great and sustainable products with friction-free processes for our customers. It’s really a fine line between encouraging creativity and structure, while being open for constant change.
It’s not really a secret that Visma is a software powerhouse, the largest group in the Nordics. The continuous development and growth is reflected in Tripletex, as well, where the company enjoys a great autonomy and delivers strong results. The combination of being an agile, lean, and autonomous company within a large group is very unique and attractive for people who thrive with developing great products.”
Which roles have you had so far?
“Quickly after joining, I was able to take on more responsibility and widen my impact area within the Product Development department and the entire Tripletex company. I am part of our security council, our QA forum, and act as performance ambassador.”
Who nominated you for the Visma Management Academy?
“My leader, Jan Strandbakke, who is the Head of Development! Jan gives us great freedom and responsibility, and leads the way so that we can develop our leadership skills. Together with the leader group, we live by the motto “lead to inspire, inspire to lead”. If we want to build great products, we have to aim at being excellent leaders and encourage our colleagues to take on responsibility. I think leaders at Visma are good at encouraging networking across the group, creating relations between companies, and leveraging our respective strengths.”
What did you learn from the academy?
“First of all: The importance of our people, and to be aware of how I impact the colleagues around me. I really enjoyed the discussions about how we implemented initiatives in our respective organisations that leverage the learning from the Social Styles training we receive as part of leader development.
It was also a good reminder to take advantage of the size of our organisation. Visma has a unique way of growing, an excellent approach to M&A, and we integrate the companies and offer a range of expertises, services, and skills. We can always get support from peers in other companies and from our competence centres and hubs. This strengthens our expertise within areas like cyber security, privacy, cloud practices, employer branding, and more.”
And what surprised you the most?
“We often think that our challenges are unique or ‘different’, but after getting to know more leaders across Visma, I’ve realised that we have the same goal – deliver the best products to our customers and shape society through software. We also face the same challenges: an ever-changing global landscape – pandemic, inflation, political uncertainties – and we all experience growing pains, shortage of talent… Our challenges aren’t unique, so we can all learn from each other and coach one another on our journeys.”
How do you see your career going forward?
“SaaS is the way to go! And Visma is the right place to be. We’re in the driver’s seat of the software industry in the Nordics, and we’re going for the rest of Europe, fast! At my company, we have ambitious goals, and I’m looking forward to putting in some hard work to contribute to our success.
I’d like to continue my leadership journey, take on more responsibility, and widen my impact area. Ideally taking roles within product and tech that combine both strategic and operational activities. I like to craft a strategy and take an active role in implementing it and delivering the results.”
“Visma has a unique way of growing, an excellent approach to M&A, and we integrate companies and offer a range of expertises, services, and skills.”
Azzeddine Abchir
