The winner of the race
She learned how to work hard at an early age and her devotion has certainly paid off. Whether it is field running or running a company, the key to success is focus according to Yvonne Mårtensson.
Yvonne Mårtensson describes herself as impatient and energetic. She also knows how to deal with proverbial punches in life and still be standing, or at least to rise again. But above all she is devoted to her job and she would gladly continue being the CEO of Cellavision for some years if the owners are willing to run the company as they do today. But there were times when things were tougher. When Yvonne Mårtensson came on board at Cellavision, the company was still in its start up-phase. Running a young company means a lot of challenges and often harsh economic times alongside a lot of hard work.
“The real challenge is to make long-term plans since you can not see where your company is going at that very early stage and it is very stresful trying to manage, on the capital you have,” says Yvonne Mårtensson.
“To succeed in this industry, I think it is important to focus as early as possible. Digressions are just costly. There are three areas that you have to focus on, in turn. Number one is to find capital to be able to start the process. Number two is your product which you need to develop together with yor potentil customers. Third, you need to focus geographically. And all the way through you have to hold on really tight to your budget. Having a tight budget is good in a way though because it forces you to focus,” says Yvonne Mårtensson.
Yvonne Mårtensson was raised in Gothenburg. Her father was an inventor and boat constructor. Yvonne Mårtensson describes him as passionate and full of ideas and often ahead of his time with his inventions and as a child she spent a lot of time in his workshop.
“I was basically raised on the drawing table” says Yvonne Mårtensson.
Yvonne Mårtens-son’s mother also worked long hours. She was an insurance employee and was the family provider. With both parents absorbed by their work for different reasons, Yvonne Mårtensson, being the oldest of three siblings, naturally took on the role as an extra mother at
home.
“I learned to work hard at a very young age, and I still do. In many ways I guess you can say that I suffer from what they call ‘The Good Girl Syndrome’,” says Yvonne Mårtensson.
But at the same time Yvonne Mårtensson was also sort of a tomboy growing up. She loved sailing and was a member of the sea scouts where few girls were to be found so she mostly hung out with boys. When they grew up, many of her male friends started studying at Chalmers Technical University. Being a student with good grades, the obvious choice for Yvonne Mårtensson was to continue studying after compulsory school. She wanted to go to a technical university like her friends, but she didn’t just drift with the current to Chalmers.
“I wanted to move out of my parents’ place so the main focus was to find an education that I couldn’t get in Gothenburg,” Yvonne Mårtensson explains.
And she found one. A program in electronics at Linköping University where the students took courses with the medical students for one year, an element that appealed to Yvonne Mårtensson. However, the electronics part became too dominating for her taste and she swithched to a program combining technology with business administration. It’s a decision she hardly regrets today, having attained a perfect combination of skills for the field she works in.
Her knowledge about the industry and how to run a company, Yvonne Mårtensson, however, acquired from hands-on experience. She has worked as a Product Manager at the catheter- producing company Viggo (now BD) and at Perstorp Analytical and Hemocue. At Hemocue she also held the position as Marketing Director and Sales manager and thus had the perfect resume when she was head- hunted to become CEO of Cellavision. Still she had things to learn in her new position.
“I came in and asked a lot of stupid questions to our development team, taking on the customers perspective which I was used to from my earlier work. That’s part of how we came to create simple, user-friendly products,” says Yvonne Mårtensson.
Her role was not only to direct the company and make sure all the right competences were there; she was also practically involved in product development.
“It was a very exciting time. Learning how to raise capital was completely new to me. Besides, certainly I had introduced a product on the market before, but not from such an early stage,” says Yvonne Mårtensson.
Cellavision made it through the start-up phase and today the company is up-and-running, expanding on the international market. Cellavision has most of its’ customers in Europe and North America and is present through own subsidiaries in Canada and the U.S., where the company is expected to grow. Last year the company also founded a subsidiary in Japan and she hopes they will be able to expand in the Japanese market as well, even though it may take a little longer, she explains.
During 2008, the sales for Cellavision increased by 35 percent compared to the previous year. That meant that the company exceeded SEK 100 million in turnover for the first time. As an acknowledgement of the success, the company was awarded with the Sweden Bio Award 2009. The challenge trophy goes to a company that has achieved extraordinary goals during the last year, serving as a role model for other Swedish companies.
“Winning that prize was absolutely fantastic. It is not just a great honour but also a recognition of something for which we have worked intensely for a long time,” says Yvonne Mårtensson.