”I have never had time to feel restless”

Jørgen Lund saw 2017 off with a new title as Executive Vice President Sales & Expansion at JYSK. With the title, he has become part of the top management in the company where he began working as an apprentice 23 years ago.

Jørgen Lund’s plan was actually to become an accountant when he finished business school, and it was a bit of a coincidence that instead he started as a JYSK apprentice in Norway in 1995.

Now, 23 years later, he has worked his way up in JYSK and is taking a seat in the top management as Executive Vice President Sales & Expansion.

“I am very proud and honoured, and it must be a sign that someone thinks I have done a good job. I look forward to being part of shaping the direction and strategy and helping contribute with my angle on how to do things,” says Jørgen Lund.

He becomes Sales & Expansion’s representative on the meetings in the Executive Management Team following Niels Veien, who instead has new focus areas as Executive Vice President Customer Experience, Digital & Marketing.

”In Jørgen, we are getting a true price–and-product man joining the group, who basically knows all products by heart. Besides responsibility for Marketing, E-Business and Business Controlling, I look forward to the new task of developing our B2B leg and making it a strategic focus area in JYSK. Besides that I will have a digital role in the management team and be part of driving digitalisation in JYSK,” says Niels Veien.

Special thanks to mum

The fact that Jørgen Lund would work more than 20 years at JYSK and end up being part of the top management has never really been a goal or part of a career plan.

He has never had one of those, and actually he never considered the retail business until one day his mother came home from a shopping trip to JYSK with an application form for an apprentice position.

”I had not considered retail or JYSK as a possibility at all. I have always thought that I would be doing something with numbers, maybe as an accountant. But I never got to apply for anything else besides JYSK. So I can thank my mother and our strong apprentice campaign in the stores that I have ended up here today,” says Jørgen Lund.

From store to head office

But climbing up the career ladder in JYSK is much more than just a coincidence for Jørgen Lund. He has always worked very hard and never turned down any of the challenges given to him.

That is also visible from his CV, where he has ten years of experience with store life as Store Manager in both Copenhagen and on the island of Funen, before he decided to apply for a position at the head office in Brabrand in 2005.

”I had no experience working at an office, so I did not really have any expectations. I wanted to try my strengths in the purchasing department. At that time I had been selling for many years, so I had a strong opinion about the products in the store. So I applied for a position as Purchasing Assistant and was hired by Peter Andsager (current Executive Vice President Purchasing). After a short while I had no doubts that this was what I wanted to do,” says Jørgen Lund.

A place of opportunities

During the years, Jørgen Lund has held various positions at the head office – including Purchaser of Duvets & Pillows, Sales Manager for Denmark and Global Head of Sales before he was offered the position as Sales Director in 2015.

”I have not had a plan for what I wanted to do since I went from being Store Manager on Funen and applied for the position at the head office. Something has always happened, so things have changed for me in my work life. For that I am both proud and honoured, so I have never had time to feel restless,” says Jørgen Lund and continues:

“I think it characterises JYSK that this is a place of opportunities if only you seize them and are willing to move or take some chances and take the plunge into the unknown.”

Loves new tasks

The variation in the business and the possibilities at JYSK are also the main reasons why Jørgen has never had an urge to seek new pastures. Not even after 23 years in the company.

”They say the grass is always greener somewhere else, but that is not always the impression I get from job interviews and so on, where I have meet a lot of people from other companies during the years. And I simply do not have the need to see if it is true, because my grass here is already perfectly green,” says Jørgen.

Today the latest member of the Executive Management Team is very happy that coincidence made him find JYSK and not a career as an accountant.

“I am extremely focused on the tasks I am given, and I love the challenge in solving new tasks. So I am very happy that I entered the retail business where there is a lot of unpredictability compared to being an accountant. Looking back, I think it was a good thing I did not go down that path. I think I would have been bored to death,” says Jørgen.