Hvad laver en Functional Consultant hos Pandora?

Philip Meeske
28 years
Employed since may 2017
HD1 Business Administration at CBS

How would you describe your field and main tasks?

At Pandora I work within Consumer Facing Applications which is residing within a Global IT track. Global IT is about delivering IT solutions to support Pandora’s best practices within its business processes utilizing the latest IT technologies.

I am currently working on implementing a brand new point-of-sale solution which aims to enable Pandora to utilize consumer insights and cross-channel selling to improve the consumer experience both online and in-store. My main tasks is, together with my team, to facilitate business process analysis and breaking the analysis into smaller workable business requirements, which eventually will be supported by the point-of-sale application through clever designs, development and thorough testing. Thus my role as a functional consultant and solution architect is to bridge between business and complex IT solutions and to advise on ways to proceed.

What are the most exciting and challenging parts of your job?

What I find most exciting about being in a role that bridges both IT and business is that not a single day is alike. Every day new challenges and requirements emerge and thus decisions must be taken between the business and IT on ways to proceed. The most challenging part is, in cooperation with the stakeholders, to take the right decision as this will differ depending on the receiver and the requirement. Usually, multiple stakeholders are involved and managing stakeholders with different interests can be a challenge.

How do you use your education in your position?

As an electrical engineer from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) I have acquired the ability to grasp very technical and often quite abstract problems. I utilize this ability to conceptualize complex business processes, generating one common view that can be a good platform for further analysis and discussion with the business. In extension to this I have learned several code languages which enables me to communicate – on a more technical level – with our developers which eases the transition from initial requirement through development.

On top of my technical education I have also acquired a business diploma (HD 1. Del) from Copenhagen Business School (CBS), which has taught me about the fundamentals of finance, business administration and economics (micro and macro) that supports me in communicating to stakeholders on many different levels of the organization.

What are the three most important things for you in your job at Pandora?

First and foremost I think a lot of people, myself included, take pride in their work and want a sense of achievement. When looking at both my teams and my own achievements throughout the last couple of years I really get this sense that we made a difference for our store employees, our customers and thus Pandora.

Secondly the freedom and possibility to grow professionally as well as personally. As Pandora has been growing a lot over the years there are a lot of opportunities to improve in quite a significant amount of areas and as such, opportunities to utilize your professional and personal capabilities in other areas of the business, thus giving you insights into other departments, eventually granting you a better understanding of the business overall.

Thirdly leaving a positive impact on the business. I have the capabilities to do so, but more importantly, Pandora gives me the possibility to actually do so.

Why is Pandora an attractive company for you?

Pandora has a significant growth-story. Over the last 10 years, the revenue of the company has soared to approximately 22 billion DKK, experienced rapid growth in the workforce and expanded its global presence which makes for a very interesting case from an IT perspective. There are a lot of opportunities to consolidate and improve the current IT landscape and that, for me as an IT professional, is a very interesting place to be.

Besides the professional attraction, Pandora also seeks to make it a very pleasant place to be employed. From Friday party, to bigger events such as summer party and even family days are held as an offering to the employees and all in all that makes Pandora, for me, a very attractive company.