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The Q&A: Trond Lutdal, CEO Eastavab Group


UPON THE MERGER of rental specialist Eastavab Group Oy and United Audio Starlight AB, announced in April, the aggregate result amounted to nothing less than a Nordic powerhouse. Swedish service provider Starlight already represented the union in 2006 of United Audio AB and Starlight AB, while Eastavab had become the holding company of Finnish rental company Eastway and Norwegian mainstay AVAB- CAC when they themselves merged a year ago. Trond Lutdal is the CEO of this Nordic scheme, a business- trained newcomer to the industry who is confidently projecting a turnover of around €75 million for the group as a whole this year.


That’s a huge footprint. Where are you based? Good question! We have offices and warehouses in all three countries, so I travel around. Eastway is located in Espoo, just outside Helsinki; Starlight is two hours outside Stockholm; and AVAB has operations in both Oslo and Bergen. It’s essential during this early phase that I spend time in each place.


Are you historically associated with any of these companies in particular? Not at all. I have a background in various international businesses, such as management consultancy, insurance and banking, debt purchases and more – most recently with an organisation across 11 countries in Europe. My link here is the ambition of the owners to establish a pan-Nordic entity. One of the partners in CapMan, the private equity fund manager and co-owner of Eastavab, asked me if I would be interested in taking on the role. It’s exactly my kind of business development, in the broad sense of the word: how to build businesses across borders.


Why now? The pro-audio industry has evolved dramatically in the past few decades, and the people in it have grown up alongside their enterprises. The founders of these companies are typically in their forties or fifties and they’re still driven by entrepreneurship. This is mostly positive, but also entails some challenges. There is a sea-change happening now: there is great professionalism in the industry, but not necessarily up to a level that you might call business ‘best practice’. That’s natural. Once you get over 50 employees in the company you need greater formality, and more red tape in


42 l PSNLIVE 2012 Group therapy


Following the formation of the United Audio/Starlight/Eastway/AVAB-CAC Nordic production giant earlier this year, the Norwegian CEO talks exclusively to Phil Ward about building business across borders


direction, and that’s very much part of the logic behind the creation of Eastavab Group.


Without taking us all into the woods for some bonding exercises, how would you describe these ‘state-of-the-art’ management principles? There are certain leadership perspectives that might be more emphasised. For example, take performance measurement. How well do you measure asset utilisation? Equipment usage is key, so you need to monitor it to ensure you’re really getting the returns on your investment that you should. Some of these guys can be a little conservative, building brick by brick and making investments only when they’re certain of a quick return. Maybe you can be too


conservative: you want to monitor key performance indicators that will give you a long-term view. Your gut instinct might suggest one thing,


“There is great untapped


potential in this industry, but it’s difficult for the entrepreneurs and founders to act upon it”


terms of decision-making and reporting lines. There is great untapped potential in this industry, but it’s difficult for the entrepreneurs and founders to act upon it. Typically, existing managers don’t have the tools or the experience for the structural changes involved in scaling up


The timing is right; the long- term macro conditions are favourable. The industry is ready for a new era so the right management needs to be in place.


Instead of the founders…? No, absolutely not. We need to keep that initial drive and


€75 million Projected group turnover in 2012


into larger entities: the assessment of the value of the respective businesses; the leadership roles and so on. CapMan is therefore now playing a facilitating role, not just in funding but also in making possible the ideas that have been talked about for years.


personality, that devotion and warmth, and merge it with more state-of-the-art management principles. It’s not a case of either-or. The current management teams are extremely good at what they do, and we need their competence, commitment, strong industry


relationships and spirit. But in some cases, bringing in new blood too would help in achieving the growth of the next phase.


Where is that growth going to come from? In corporate affairs the trend is to use more marketing spend on sponsored and funded events, from promotions and showcases to trade fairs, launches and celebrations. Not only that, but these events are getting way more sophisticated. At the same time, artists


today can’t survive on selling recorded material. They have to play live. And these shows are getting more spectacular too. There may be some bumps in these trends; things go in little cycles and the eurozone is developing at different paces. That will always happen. But over the next few decades the macro trend is in this


but if really start to analyse the data you’ll begin to see more. Probably, there are pockets of equipment that are being under- utilised. So it’s essential that you define and monitor the right business value indicators in the right way. There’s a set of things you can do to lead your business, from simple stuff like clarity of reporting lines as you grow to proper investment calculations. As I said, once you have over around 50 employees you need more formality than you’d probably like! But these ‘modern’ management principles must be married with the softer, traditional ways that this industry works, where relationships, competence and quality of service remain essential.


So, after one year, what strikes you most about pro audio? The passion and enthusiasm: it’s unlike any other industry. Also, the customer orientation and the attention to quality. Quality is delivered every time, and I’ve been hugely impressed by that. PSNLIVE 2012 www.avab-cac.no www.eastway.fi www.starlight.se


www.prosoundnewseurope.com


Portrait: Dagens Næringsliv


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