– We should have had some balls – E24

– My philosophy is that I want to hire the best, preferably people who are better than me. Yes, it might not be that difficult, you think, but that’s okay …

Johan Henrik Andresen, the fifth by that name in the Andresen family, laughs well. He has no problem saying what he is not good at and believes that this has facilitated his personal development as an entrepreneur. It has helped a bit that he never had to fear for his job at the Ferd family business.

– It was impossible for me to hide things I was bad at, so it was as easy to admit it first as it was at the end. Once you get over that threshold, it’s much easier and people relax around you, he says on the E24 podcast, Voksenpoeng.

Hear the full interview on the player below, or where you usually listen to podcasts.

Billion-dollar technology sold for “pocket junk”

When Johan H. Andresen, the youngest of 32 years, stepped into what was then called the Tiedemanns group, there were some mistakes. He quickly discovered that investing was not his thing.

But it was only as CEO that he made a mistake that still irritates him. In 2004, he sold the TiTech company, which had developed technological solutions to recognize and distinguish materials from one another.

– A technology that today is worth many, many billions of crowns, for which we only pay pocket money for that time, says Andresen.

Norwegian recycling company Tomra bought the company for NOK 235 million and describes the acquisition as an important strategic decision that contributed to strong growth in the following years.

– We should have bought Tomra. We should have had fun and thought about the potential here, but no. We may have managed to see the opportunities that were there, but we did not have the opportunity to develop them ourselves. So we can’t see Tomra as part of the puzzle, says Andresen.

In hindsight, he thinks more carefully about whether Ferd can develop his own companies or technologies, if necessary, by buying others.

– So when we bought Marienlyst, we did it alone. Those who participated in the bidding round had partners, and that meant they stumbled over the finish line while we managed to keep pace and credibility, he says.

Free year as a model

Andresen does not recall having any other career plans besides joining the family business. From a young age, he met suppliers and customers at home, and they took him to the factory. I met employees and shop stewards.

– There was a part that I could have seen as a mandatory race to start with, because I didn’t know what my contribution would be there.

Browse the gallery or follow Voksenpoeng_med_Nora on Instagram to read Johan Andresen’s school journal.

He believes there was no onerous pressure from the family to dedicate their careers to the Tidemann group, which was best known for its tobacco use. But it was a clear expectation.

– It would probably take me a bit, which was quite responsible in every way, to oppose that expectation. I have never done it either, other than I had a model year.

– Hey, did you have it?

Andresen is pleased that the modeling career took place long before the Internet and that therefore E24 found no traces of it in their research work.

– It is so nice! It’s not exactly something I’m most proud of, and I don’t think anyone else was particularly proud of it at the time either. Now you probably call it a “gap year”, but back then it wasn’t a word to describe it. It was more like spoiling a year.

– It was fun?

– It becomes a bit like a strange ego trip where people suddenly focus on something other than who you are. Perhaps that was what was a bit attractive, that now it is not about Johan as heir but about Johan as something else, says Andresen, who was long referred to as the “prince of tobacco” in the press.

To avoid being known as heir everywhere, he also did so by studying abroad.

First a BA in Liberal Arts from Darthmouth College in the United States, then an MBA (Master of Business Administration) in the Netherlands. The latter “forced” himself without special interest.

– So I had decided that I wanted to join the company. I thought it was something I had to have in my back pocket like something like that. When you have set such clear goals, you achieve two years. They also have good beer in the Netherlands. It works very well.

Keeps Ferd’s birth count

With the MBA in the box, he took four months backpacking in Asia before Andresen returned home and took on the job of reinvesting some of the profits from the tobacco business into the company. Although he found he was not an investor talent, he felt prepared when, four years later, it was time to take over as CEO.

– I felt that I was burning inside with many things I wanted to do. Things like hiring people, being something else, and that the company should be something else. He didn’t really know what or how, but he was eager to start deciding, says Andresen.

The result was that the company eventually became Ferd, sold off tobacco, added new companies to the portfolio, and began attracting people more easily. Andresen also started some of his more socially oriented projects, such as funds for investment in social entrepreneurs and investments in microcredits.

Among the things he likes best is hiring. Andresen has full control over how many children and how many marriages there have been in Ferd while he was with the company. Ferd’s 100th child recently arrived. At the same time, there have only been five marital breakups at the company.

– Often when people come to Ferd, the production at home is fast. It’s great. The fact that people see Ferd as their future and the future of the family is a statement of confidence that we are a bit proud of.