Thank you to the 1,400 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 questions!
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Jonno White
7 Questions with Fredrik Asche Kaada
7 Questions with Fredrik Asche Kaada
Name: Fredrik Asche Kaada
Current title: Founder
Current organisation: Net Expert Hub
Fredrik is the founder of Net Expert Hub and currently are doing an MSc Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Society at NTNU, Trondheim (NOR). Throughout the years, he's gained a broad and in-depth agency and industry experience and a focus in advertising, marketing management and dedication for the outdoors. He has also spoken at stages at UN Geneva during UNCTAD Youth Forum 2018 and co-led a youth session at UNHQ in April 2019. Furthermore, his mantra builds around a dedication to bringing value to the table upfront, e.g. 7 years of voluntarily hiking guide experience for The Norwegian Trekking Association.
1. What have you found most challenging as a leader of a small or medium enterprise?
The most challenging part of leading a small enterprise has the backbone to deal with all the risks. That being both investments financially, time and energy, meaning having an active time and project management module are essential. The business has been bootstrapped throughout the last three years, which means that I also managed several part-time jobs and university while also building brick by brick.
2. How did you become a leader of an SME? Can you please briefly tell the story?
It all started back at Upper Secondary School with my interest in creative media and graphic design. I always wanted to create value and navigate my way to success, and I'm thankful for the diverse and beautiful bucket of people I've met throughout the years. In April 2018, I worked as a freelancer for a travel tourism company, FjordTours, where I had to start my own company to be billable. From there, it has been a lot of sacrifices and investments with a strong belief that I'll thrive, and not just exist, in this life of social entrepreneurship.
3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?
A good and healthy morning routine waking up at 7.30 am an excellent tip. I then take a cold shower to wake up after utilising Mel Robbins method of counting down from 5-4-3-2-1, ready to charge and grab the day! Then I do 10 min. of meditation to detox and steer my mind towards growth and balance, followed by a good black coffee and a cereal bowl for breakfast.
I have already planned the day but have some flex time to adapt to both my master degree at the NTNU and my part-time job. Taking a jog outside is usually included in 3-4 days of my week to stay fit and competitive. Otherwise, it is often 10-12 hours of working a day, but I find time to be social and hang out with friends. Then it is time to go to bed around midnight. According to scientists, the best portion of deep sleep does happen between 10 pm - 02:00 am, so I better follow this flow.
4. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?
That is always to be the last man speaking in a meeting room. Then you have proof of being a leader of active listening, compared to aggressive top-down management with no sense of caring about what their workers think. Using this significant leadership lesson for myself and my current remote interns will most likely turn out to take the meanings into account.
5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?
"Evolved Enterprise" by Yanik Silver from the bold and influential Maverick community had a profound impact because of the illustrative model of CSR. It builds around the network and utilising the resources you have in hand right now. Furthermore, the business model and principles explained have led me to integrate a 15% investment of net profits to seven handpicked and game-changing org. such as The Ocean Cleanup and Pencils of Promise.
6. How do you build leadership capacity in an SME?
Utilising a smart project management tool called Favro, plus having a design thinking process integrated, make us more adaptive in the long run. Clear tasks, a set of KPIs, and great dialogue with the interns help build direction and leadership capacity.
7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader of an SME so far?
I attended a major business event called Symposiet at NHH in Bergen (NOR) in March 2019, where I met Victor Ochen (AYINET), Joseph Ingram & Kerry Kennedy. Such great leaders in their fields, and having an active SME was the ticket itself to this conference by being a proactive and knowledge-seeking individual.