CIO Insights: Susanne Thorskov Hansen, Alfa Laval

Meet the transformational CIOs who are currently leading their businesses into the digital future. 

Explore their most important initiatives, leadership goals, and how they see their roles evolving in the near future. 

This time, in CIO Insights, we feature Susanne Thorskov Hansen, Group CIO and Group Vice President at Alfa Laval.

It’s my job to get us a seat at the table

Group CIO Susanne Thorskov Hansen at Alfa Laval is rapidly laying the digital foundation supporting the company’s ambitious plans for growth and unique position to play a central role in the global energy transition.

Just a year in as Group CIO for Alfa Laval – the 140-year-old global industrial engineering and manufacturing company – Susanne Thorskov Hansen is still asking a lot of questions. However, she knows what to ask for, so she can do what she was hired to do: supporting the company’s growth plans over the coming years, aiming to increase Alfa Laval’s revenue from 63 billion Swedish Kroners to 100 billion by 2030: 

“If you want to make real a difference with technology, it is fundamental to understand what drives value in a company: what do we produce, what is important to our customers and what the obstacles look like in every corner of the company? In my first months here, I spend a lot of time visiting the business units, seeing the factories and sales companies, and asking a lot of questions. I still do, and frankly, I still don’t understand all of it. I am no expert on explaining the details of what a heat exchanger does, but at least I know the basics now. More importantly, I know the key priorities in each of our business units and how digital solutions can create scalability. That is, without a doubt one of my main priorities.”

Finding the “business volume button” in Alfa Laval, which operates with a highly decentralized organizational model, is about finding digital synergies: 

“We already have the common starting point of understanding that comes with being a legacy company of over 140 years. But with factories, offices and customers all over the world, we also face immense complexity, and we’re not yet unlocking all the synergies we could. That’s what we at Group Digital can bridge the gap. For example, implementing the same ERP solution across business units, even if it sounds mundane, ensures a seamless flow – from getting the order in, manufacturing it, to delivering it. This enables us to do so without costs going through the roof.”

Susanne is careful not to disrupt the autonomy of the organization, trying to strike a balance that cannot be predetermined: 

“If we try to figure out where the balance is upfront, we could analyze forever. We’ve just started and will keep going until we feel, we’ve reached the limit. It’s like traffic: there is a reason for having traffic lights, lanes, and roundabouts – to ensure an efficient and safe flow. But if we let the rules get too restrictive, we hinder the flow. It’s the same with IT. Alfa Laval has an entrepreneurial mindset, almost like a start-up, which makes it a fantastic company to work for. There’s a constant appetite for innovation, and it gives me confidence that we will find the right balance along the way.”

I want us to say ‘we’ and mean IT and business as one

Turning up the volume and hopefully the growth of Alfa Laval, Susanne and her team play a key part in supporting Alfa Laval’s commitment to be leading in energy transition. Recent initiatives include Alfa Laval’s partnerships with companies such as Topsoe projects such as improving energy efficiency in data centers. Initiatives, that require Susanne and her team to embed themselves even deeper into the business: 

‘With key strategic and business decisions made at the business unit level, it makes sense to have leaders from my team sit in those management teams. It allows us to present ideas early about digital technology can help solve challenges. Of course, there can also be little trivial day-to-day issues we can also address, and those wins enhance our credibility. We are there to catch opportunities and challenges early.’

For Susanne, being where it matters the most is fundamental to how she sees her role as CIO and how her team is perceived:

‘Of course, some basic hygiene needs to be in place – it is our license to operate. If daily operations don’t work – nothing else matters. But once those are stable, my role is to set the direction and bridge the technical engine room with the business. I want us to say ‘we’ meaning IT and business as one. My job is to get us a seat at the table – or even create one – and empower my team to set priorities for that seat. It doesn’t matter what the seat is called. What matters is leveraging technology to add value to our bottom line. At Alfa Laval, we are fortunate to have an engaged and committed team, so my role is to ensure they have the right circumstances to succeed.”

Susanne takes pride in her team and its diversity, which reflects that Alfa Laval is a global company:

“You need to see yourself in the company you work for. In Group Digital, we have teams in India, Poland, and Sweden, so my management team must reflect that. We have seven nationalities in leadership – not because nationality itself matters – and we have diversity in gender, age and tenure in company as well, going from ‘tribal knowledge’ of Alfa Laval to those coming in with solid experience from other companies. If you combine those, magic can happen.”

One of the major potentials for enabling Alfa Laval’s scalability, Generative AI, is at the top of Susanne’s desk:

“Our products are very valuable and have long lifespans. They are often used in a production facility or in circumstances where it requires preventive maintenance to avoid. So, we are testing GenAI on some of our heat exchangers, where AI predicts when maintenance is needed. Right now, it is 85 % accurate, but we believe we can reach 93 %., which is probably sufficient. Humans are not perfect either. 

AI is also helping us with our extensive product manuals, some dating back decades, connected to products configured specifically for a given customer. By feeding all these manuals into an AI solution alongside past service, our technicians can now get suggestions in real-time. It’s valuable for speed and for onboarding of our new colleagues.”

Susanne relishes her role as CIO at Alfa Laval and is eager to share her experiences to develop the role both in the company, her personally and others outside the company:

“I love seeing that I can make a real difference for our company. Watching the team thrive and being proud of their work motivates me more than anything else. 

I also enjoy sharing experiences—both successes and scars—and learning from my peers through forums like the CIO Transformation Board, which is a very honest and open forum. 

It is enriching to give back, and as a mentor in IT-Branchen’s mentor programme, I can honestly say: mentoring works both ways. I have learned so much from the women in the programme. The women in the industry bring a bravery that I don’t think my generation had. They have the courage to say what they want, stand up for themselves, and demand things. That is pretty damn cool. At that age, I probably would have twisted myself into knots to accommodate something or other. So, if I can add to that confidence and play just a small role by offering advice based on my own experience and mistakes, I think those women will be more than alright moving forward. 

Susanne also recently started giving guest lectures at Lund University, and the students there have given her something to think about: 

“They are very curious about the shifts I’ve taken in my career—from shipping to financial services to manufacturing. It hadn’t even occurred to me that I had to stay put in one industry. It was interesting to hear that the next generation might see industry as a kind of barrier. They shouldn’t, of course. But it tells me I need to step up my explanation as to why industry doesn’t matter if you are building on your digital experience. 

The students also pointed out that some of my real-life examples deviated from the books. I said: “Yes, you are probably right, but I didn’t read that book. Here is how I’m doing it, and here is how I see my colleagues doing it—in somewhat similar ways.” I hope I can pass on my belief that it’s the results that are the north star you should be steering towards.”

he north star in Susanne’s leadership values is clear and she answers without hesitation: 

“To me it has to do with doing what is right. Without wearing a halo, my point is that sometimes as a CIO you face into dilemmas personal interest, like protecting your “empire”, collide with the greater good of the company. At the end of the day, it’s always about what is right for the company. I take time to reflect and consult others, but when a decision falls to me, I own it – whether it succeeds or fails. That’s the only way to move forward.”

Most of all, I want to learn about people

Moving forward in the same pace or even faster as the growth of Alfa Laval accelerates, requires a lot of battery and on a personal level Susanne charges them driving back and forth from Copenhagen to Lund listening to a lot of books, but not the ones with leadership advice or professional toolboxes. Instead, it is always fiction:

“I feel that I can learn from fiction, what I really need to know: Most of all, I want to learn about people. Because at the end of the day, my goal is to be successful with my team at Alfa Laval and with the things we’ve launched together. I can’t learn that from management books.”