LGO at MIT Welcomes Back Tanja Vainio, LGO '04

By Jon Griffith, Director of Operations and Partner Relations, LGO-SDM

OK, I admit it: I'm a big fan of Tanja Vainio, LGO '04. Tanja, VP and general manager of ABB's Service Power Electronics in Switzerland, recently led a pro-seminar at LGO at MIT — a special treat for our students.

Tanja's pro-sem was a good example of best practices for this type of event. After starting with a career overview, she gave some background on ABB and Service Power Electronics, and then took students through a real-life case study. The case — implementing a major change in the company's sourcing portfolio to support more low-cost sourcing in its low-volume/high-mix environment — was interactive, with students asking questions and giving their perspectives on this complex issue.

It was a pleasure seeing Tanja again, and it reminded me of how much fun it was to see her and hear her huge laugh in the hallways from 2002-2004. She's an authentic, no-spin kind of person, and you could sense this in her presentation...

• In her emphasis on a leader's establishing personal relationships with customers, suppliers and staff


• In her belief that seeing with your own eyes is critical (e.g. go to the suppliers and customers, see the plants)


• In the importance of getting along with the people you work with, disagreeing with them, stating your point, but making certain you've kept the relationship intact


• And what it means to lead from your heart — e.g. the importance of committing to the project with your whole self and not just representing it to your team as something coming from above that you don't care about

Vintage Tanja. Great stuff!

But what struck me the most was how quickly her career has become global. After graduation, her goal was to return to ABB in her native Finland. However, a detour along the way led her to Service Power Electronics in Switzerland, where she moved from team leader to global supply chain manager to VP and general manager with P&L responsibility and oversight of business units worldwide.

Tanja's career is truly a global one in every sense of the word. I think her example shows that when we changed our program's name to Leaders for Global Operations in June, we got it right.