Ever wondered what it’s like to transition from finance to IT, and from Sweden to Australia? On this episode of the NewyTechPeople podcast, Linda Apostolidis sits down with Margareta Bogatir Studdert, who brings her unique global experience to Newcastle. You’ll hear about her fascinating career evolution and the surprising differences (and similarities!) of working cultures across continents.
Margareta explains her exciting work at NGM Group, where she merged two distinct IT support teams and is now leading a major strategic project. Margareta also sheds light on Sweden’s progressive policies for working families and women returning to the workforce, which truly set them apart. She’ll offer invaluable leadership lessons on cultural adaptability, delegation, and empowering teams to learn from mistakes. Plus, don’t miss her thoughts on cutting-edge trends like AI for predictive health and automation, and how NGM is championing women in tech by collaborating with initiatives like Hunter WiSE. Tune in for an inspiring story of career growth, leadership, and the power of embracing challenges!
Please note: this transcript has been auto-generated and may contain some errors.
Welcome everybody to the NewyTechPeople podcast. It’s been a while since I’ve been behind the camera, but I’m really pleased to spend some time with someone I’ve met recently. who has recently also moved to Newcastle from Sweden, which is exciting for our region. Margareta Bogatir Studdert, welcome to the NewyTechPeople podcast.
Thank you so much, Linda.
So I thought we’d start just by giving people a bit of background information on your career, both in Sweden and now in Australia, and what the sort of transition has been like.
Yeah, so I started my career, I was gonna say a long time ago, unfortunately, as a management trainee at one of the largest companies in Sweden, and I was very fortunate. I got to do a lot of things. And I started in finance, actually.
Yep. Okay.
And what I didn’t know then was that there was so much technology in what I did. So I’ve been implementing SAP, the ERP system. I have implemented quality systems for finance. And before moving over to IT, I did a BPO sourcing. as well. And it was one of the people in my Steer Co in the steering committee from IT that actually said, you know, I think you should come over to IT. And I said, you know, I know nothing of IT. You know, I’m, I work in finance and that’s what I know. And then we.
So you were working on those projects from a, I guess, a business perspective.
Yeah.
So I was, I was head of quality and communication and had different roles and worked a lot on projects. We, we had a lot of transformation and then I ended that period in finance with a major program, a BPO program. So we were outsourcing around 200 people. And that’s when he said, you should actually come to IT. And after that conversation with him around what is IT and et cetera, that’s when I realized I’ve actually been working with technology. And that’s what’s so amazing with technology, because it’s actually touching every department in the company.
Yeah.
And what type of company was that? Was that in banking and finance?
So that was actually this at the time, it was the Swedish post, equivalent to Australia post.
Okay.
Interesting. Yeah, it was very interesting. And it was 55, 000 people when I started.
Wow, that’s huge.
A lot of people.
And.
And then during my time there, I actually spent 19 years in 11 different roles. And during that time, we merged, so we merged with the Danish post. and became a Nordic post. So that was a very exciting journey. And I think that’s, you know, at the end of it, it worked really well working with NGM.
Yeah, it helps given that they’ve been going through a merger as well. In terms of working sort of, you know, across Europe and Australia, what’s the most striking differences and similarities do you find in the two different cultures working in different countries?
So there’s a lot of things that are the same, but one of the things that is very known in Sweden. It’s very consensus driven. So there’s a lot of involvement with people when you make decisions, which is really good, but also very hard to get decisions through the door with a lot of people involved. Yes. And what I’ve noticed also, once we’ve merged, I had teams in both Denmark and Sweden and Norway and India is that It’s very different, all these countries, even though we’re close, not India, but Denmark and Norway, it’s very different cultures, different styles. Different cultures. And that makes you have to be adaptable. And I think then in Australia coming here, there’s a lot of similarities, but I’ve noticed it’s much more, I would say, result driven, which I like.
That comes driven, yeah.
Yeah, a lot of focus on the delivery and a lot of here and now where I think maybe in Sweden, we talk a lot about, you know, long-term strategy. Not saying Australia doesn’t, of course not. But, you know, if you just strongly generalize.
Yeah.
Okay, great. And so you’re currently with NGM Group, which is exciting. Tell us about your role, because I know you’ve had a couple of different roles. How did you start with NGM Group? What were you responsible for and how has that role evolved over time? And can you obviously know that you know, there’s been a merger between Greater Bank and Newcastle Permanent to form NGN Group. What can you tell us about the plans?
Yeah, so as I said, you know, I did work in a large merger and that was one of the things that attracted me to NGM. And also the reason I started working there was they have gone through the same journey. However, coming into the technology department in especially then the IT support department, which I was heading, the teams there hadn’t merged. there were still two different teams, there were two different processes, two different systems for everything, ways of working, but also two different cultures. And that’s why I came in, and this is what I love, to fix problems and lovely people, and they were doing everything, really good work ethics, and they were doing the best they can, but it was time to merge those and not do two different things. that’s super exciting. And what I did with them was, you know, sit down and look at, okay, so what is it that we’re doing, which is the best of both worlds, and creating something new, the NGM way. And it started with just listening in. And it’s funny ’cause I said to my team, I’ll give you a month to, you know, dwell on the past and talk about what’s not working and why we haven’t come further. and then after a month, it’s only looking forward. Let’s not talk about the past. And their team was really great. As soon as they were empowered to make those changes, it went really fast.
That’s fantastic. So understand how your role, your first role at NGM Group and what you achieved there. I know that you really love being a leader and that’s really evident in the discussions that we’ve had. How has your role evolved?
Yeah, so one of the things that I noticed is I love making changes and transformations. And then once I’ve done that, I’m looking for the next next, you know, challenge. And we got a new CIO recently, and he was looking for someone. He was calling it a GSC person, get stuff done. And he’s saying, okay, so I’ve heard, you know, you’ve transformed this, and I’m looking for a person to join one of our large strategic projects. So I’m very excited. I’m just started in that program, and we’re looking for a new head office for NGM.
Exciting. That’ll be great to bring everyone together finally.
Yeah.
Working on that.
We’ve talked about your time in Sweden previously. I know that they have really good policies around working families and particularly getting women back into the workforce after having children. Can you talk to us about the policies across Sweden and how that’s different?
Yeah.
So when you have a child in Sweden as a woman, you get paid by the government 80% of your pay. And I was very fortunate to work at a company that actually topped that with another additional 10%. So I could stay at home and you get to stay at home for, I can’t remember the exact numbers, but more than 400 days.
Wow.
And you get to share it with your partner.
Okay.
So that’s what we did. So I stayed home with both our children 10 months and my husband stayed home for 10 months, which means that you were, you know, you’re financially.
Yeah.
And you can financially do it. And you also have some of that time, which if you don’t share it with someone, with your partner, you use it. So they have encouraged also men to stay at home, which a lot of people do. A lot of men do.
Yeah, that’s fantastic. They’re definitely leading, leading the world in those types of, you know, parental leave policies.
And also there’s a lot of laws that covers a woman when you’re at home. So you can’t be cut out of say pay rise, et cetera. So they give you a pay rise even if you’re not there. And you have to then think what’s equivalent if you were still working. So it’s a bit tricky.
So he doesn’t set you back in terms of, because I know a lot of women struggle with that, that they, you know, it does, it does set them back in terms of super and like earning super annuity as well.
Yeah, no, you get your super as well during this time. And then once you start working, the system is set up so you can have your children in daycare and it’s all from the government. So you have your child, you can have them from six o’clock in the morning till six o’clock in the evening. and for two children, everything included, food, nappies and all excursions. They’re not allowed to charge anything extra for anything they do.
Oh wow.
And that is around maybe $200 for two kids.
Yeah, wow.
And so, which means that the women can go back to work.
Yeah, that’s great. It makes it easy for them. That’s great.
So, yeah, so I think that it’s anything wrong to be a stay-at-home mum, but it’s very rare in Sweden because you have that opportunity to return to.
Work and continue your career. That’s great. So can you describe for us a leadership lesson that you’ve learned while working in Europe that you’ve successfully transitioned into your teams in Australia?
Well, actually not just from Sweden, but working with those teams in Denmark and Sweden and Norway and India, you kind of like, you go in with the leadership style you have and started working with Denmark. They’re very pragmatic. They are very direct.
Really?
And it’s very different in Sweden. We’re afraid of conflicts. I’m generalizing. Whereas in Denmark, they’re not. So, you know, you go in with that and it clashes in the beginning. And the same with India. Sweden has a very flat organizational structure. Not that we don’t have managers, but the manager, you’re part of decisions, et cetera. Whereas in India, the manager tells you like it is. It’s very instruction driven. So before you figure that out, it’s a bit tough. So that’s what I’ve learned from that is kind of like listening and also learning about the cultures. We had a lot of cultures days where we talked about the culture at work and also going to, if you work with other countries, go there and visit them and understand why they’re doing the things they do.
So as a leader, you’re constantly trying to adapt your leadership style and your approach to those different cultures to make, make sure everyone can work together effectively.
Yeah.
So be close to the team, I would say. And listening is important and adapt. So not changing your leadership style, but, you know, listening what works and not.
Yeah.
Fantastic. In terms of, I guess, who’s influenced you the most? Is there anyone that you’ve had as a leader during your career that, that has really influenced you and, and helped you grow?
I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve had so many leaders, but I have one especially that comes to mind. He’s currently the CEO for Bank of Malta Beyond Extent, and he’s been a real role model in teaching me some valuable leadership skills. He’s the one that taught me about, you know, to delegate, but not to let go. It’s a fine line about, you know, not to micromanage your teams. You want them to feel like you’re close to them without, you know, interfering with their work and also building, empowering them and also building that trust that they feel you trust them to do their job. but you also let them fail. You know, it’s okay. We don’t blame anyone for failing, just try and learn from them.
So.
Yeah, definitely. It’s a hard one, isn’t it? It is hard.
Yeah.
Let people learn some lessons and hopefully they do and then, you know, sort of continue down a different path next time. But it’s, yeah, it’s definitely a balance.
Yeah.
So, yeah, so he’s, he’s thought a lot more as, as well, but, you know, to be more confident and, and he is also taught me about, you so we all have, you know, our downsides and, and the things that we’re not great at. And it’s like, don’t focus on them. Focus on what you’re really good at instead.
That’s really good advice.
Actually, it is very good advice because it’s so easy to get, you know, oh, I failed at that, and I’m not good at that. But once you start focusing on your strengths, sky’s the limit.
Yeah.
And I think being able to identify in others where they may have strengths that complement you and your style and your team. I think that’s a really key skill as a leader to have to be able to draw out those things that you can’t be good at everything and nor should you. And perhaps you need to hire people that have the skills that you lack.
And that’s why it’s so important with the diversity, not just men and women, but different cultures and research show that you’re more profitable if you do.
Yeah, definitely, definitely. So in terms of, I guess, technology and innovation, which is an exciting topic, is there anything that you’ve seen sort of globally in terms of trends that you’re really excited about?
Yeah, so we met at the New Castle Business Club where I was talking about the very exciting new AI initiative in Sweden. And it’s where they use AI to predict diseases.
Yes.
And it’s only new, but it’s so exciting. So it’s the founder of Spotify, he’s Swedish, so he’s founded this company.
I recall you talking about that. That’s really exciting.
Yeah.
And, you know, within 10 minutes, they scan your body and you get 50 million data points where you take to then a doctor and talk about, you know, these are the things you, there’s a risk that you get these things and then you put a plan up and imagine.
So is it still in a startup phase?
Ah, so they’ve got, no, they’ve actually, they’ve got three offices, one, I think two in Sweden and one in the UK. But then I think they’re planning like opening 300 more soon and a lot in the Middle East.
And globally.
And globally. And yeah, I know they’re starting one in New York.
Yeah.
Wow. What’s the company called?
Nico Health.
Nico Health. Yeah, that’s exciting.
Very exciting. So, I mean, imagine you can do that and, you know, the cost of the healthcare system, if you could start being preventative instead, you know, the money spending there instead. So, yeah, I think once you get that up and running, what else can you do with AI?
Yeah, definitely. I notice some, some of our local companies have started looking into preventative health for quite a while now. So that’s, it’s really exciting from a local perspective as well. in Newcastle.
And then of course, automation, it’s close to my heart because one of my things that I really love is looking how can we simplify things for end users, for our employees, for our customers.
So, yeah, I’m doing something similar for our business as well.
Oh yeah.
We can automate those repetitive tasks and free up more time for the team to actually be actually recruiting and meeting people.
Yeah, and that’s the thing, finding those value adding tasks instead of doing the repetitive. And I know I listened to the CEO for Google in Sweden, and he was saying they had a big clock in the room. And he said, every time someone had a task, a repetitive task, they’ve done it before, he said they rang the bell, everyone stopped, and he’s like, this is getting automated. And I thought, that was so cool.
I think it’s really cool. Maybe bell. Yeah, that would be really cool. Yeah, makes sense to jump on it straight away. In terms of, I guess, innovation principles or practices or methodologies you’ve encountered across Europe or Australia, is there any that you want to mention?
Well, I think that there’s a lot of similarities in Australia compared to the Scandinavian countries. One of the things, though, that we work a lot within Sweden is design thinking and co-creation and working agile. So you work with the business, so your technology team sits with fusion teams with the business and see how you can develop together and also invite and have that instant feedback from customers. Not saying you don’t do that in Australia, but it’s something that’s very strong that I think is the way to culture. Yeah, and leading waterfall projects, which are, you know, waterfall projects are really good. They have their place for some projects, but to work more agile, I think.
So it’s definitely part, very much part of the culture in Sweden that across the board.
I think it’s getting that.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Fantastic. So how do you tackle and approach decision making and rapidly changing technology landscape?
Yeah, that’s a hard one because I’m a gut feeling person. and it usually works, but I think it’s super important as a company to be data driven, to collect data. And that’s, I can see a lot of companies, including NGM, become really, really good at it. And then once you have all that data, how do you analyze it to make the right decisions? But it’s, that’s very exciting.
Yeah, definitely. I think definitely across enterprises, there needs to be some formal process around, you can’t just go, you know, go off and start creating, creating things yourself.
You’ve got to understand what is the business case.
What’s the business case? How is it going to impact our business and customers and. Yeah, definitely. Okay. So as I understand it, in Sweden, there’s a lot of women in the workforce, particularly in Tech. How do you sort of go about applying and making sure that you have diversity within your teams in, in Australia?
So, yeah, so we have a lot of women in Tech in Sweden. That’s right.
And.
What I’m really happy about when I came to NGM is that I can see that we’re really working towards that as well. So I always try and look at my team. Sometimes you’ll be giving teams and someone you have the pleasure of bringing on people to actually look at diversity, which is so much more than just women and men. But to look at that, what is it that I have? What are the skills and capabilities when I hire? So always try and challenge myself. on bringing in someone that’s different to what I have already. And then also I have this wonderful colleague, Eloise, and we are currently setting up a women in tech initiative within NGM.
Yeah, great. So tell me a little bit about that.
So it’s just starting off at the moment, but we’re looking at first starting with the women that actually in the tech department. And we’re going to start off by talking to them and seeing how can we support each other because that’s that’s the main thing is what is it that we want out of it? We have an idea already, but we want to listen in and then start meeting these people. And we have great support from our CEO, Andrew Cress, in this initiative. And then once we have that platform built, we want to grow it to look at people that are interested in tech, women in tech in the company, and then hopefully also encourage other people outside. And I know you and we spoke earlier about how do we get, you know, young girls into tech? And you were telling me, you know, you got to start early.
Yeah.
So Hunter Wise, which you were, when you were on the, the panel discussion at the International Women’s Day, Catherine Lambkin, she was from Hunter Wise. So she and some other STEM professors at the university have formed a group called Hunter Wise, and they start, they’ve, they did, through research, understood that girls during year eight start losing interest in STEM subjects. So they’re actually going into the schools to try and help promote the careers and they do projects with the girls and help them understand what careers are like and what sort of some of the challenges and projects that they may work on. So that’s really effective, but it starts at that age, you know. Most of my clients would love to have more women in tech in their teams. It’s just the challenge is that it starts at high school.
Yeah, you’ve got to get that base in. And of course, it’s great that companies go and visit universities, but we’ve got to get them into the universities.
Yeah, so I think Hunter Wise is a really great initiative in terms of getting them at that school level and getting them interested in careers in STEM. And, you know, there’s opportunities for women in the Newcastle market to go and mentor some of those students. I’ve done it myself and I really enjoy going to the schools and speaking to the students and helping them with their projects. It’s really rewarding. Yeah. Oh, that’s a good idea.
Yeah.
So it’s, yeah, it’s something, you know.
Maybe NDM can do like a little bit of a, I don’t know, a challenge or a hackathon or something. I’ll take that back to the school. Kids. Yeah.
Yeah.
It’d be really good. You can, yeah, speak to Hunter Wise. I’m sure they’ll have some great ideas.
For you as well.
Excellent. So looking back in the way that, in the steps that you’ve taken, how you’ve approached your career and I think getting into tech through finance, that was really interesting. interesting. Is there anything that you would have changed or have done differently?
Actually, no. You know, in the beginning of my career, I was very afraid of conflicts. I was very afraid of making mistakes. And I thought a lot about what people thought of me. But I was lucky enough to be surrounded by, you know, strong leaders, both female and male leaders that taught me to not take myself too serious. you know, you make mistake, it’s not a big deal. And to also always say yes to a challenge. Not saying that you should say yes to everything. You got to learn to say no when it’s not a problem.
Exactly.
Yeah.
But say no for the right reasons. So I think I’m generalizing now. I think women more tend to say no to a challenge because they think, oh, I’m not, I haven’t got the skills. I already need to know it. And I’ve some amazing leaders that said, you learn. If you just have the right mindset, you’ll learn. And doing that a couple of times now, there’s no challenge you can throw on me. If someone says, oh, can you go and do this? Of course I can. Meaning, I will learn to do it.
Yeah.
So if you stretch yourself and you’re growing from that experience, and not just saying yes to everything for the sake of doing it, because then you end up tying yourself in knots to please everyone. I think that’s a really good way to approach it.
Yeah.
It’s going to stretch you and challenge you and help you grow or help someone else grow.
And then that’s taken me where I am now. And sometimes you get a challenge and you go like, is this really the right for me right now? You know, was it a career step? And then I’ve learned to, you know, just do it and see where it takes you. And it’s always taken me to a better place.
So.
Well, obviously leaving Europe and moving to Newcastle, all the other side of the world.
That was a big move.
A big move, moving the family and the kids.
It was very hard leaving my job. I loved my job. I was head of development. I had 130 developers. I had an amazing team in Sweden. Loved my job. And then my husband said, It’s time. well, actually he had said that for 17 years, but he was serious.
One more year, one more year.
I kept saying, oh, yep. And then it was just like, okay, it’s time. And I was a bit concerned, like, you know, what’s it like working in Australia? And then I was very fortunate to meet a woman in Sweden who worked at NGM.
Oh, yeah. That’s a connection.
That’s great. She was from Newcastle. was a big coincidence. And that’s Eloise that I’m starting the women in tech with.
That’s great.
And yeah, she said, you know, NGM is a great company. You should try and get a job here. I met with the CEO and here I am.
There you go. That’s how it happens.
Well, good.
Well, welcome to Newcastle. Thank you. In terms of, you know, sort of what takes up your spare time, I know you’ve got a young family. What do you like to do in your spare time?
Yes. So at the moment there’s a lot of work, family, and we just recently bought a house. So that takes up most of my time and trying to get some exercise in. I do volleyball, not good, but I’m doing it.
Oh great.
And also Muay Thai, which I love. Muay Thai. And, but when I do have time, I love photography, photo editing, video editing.
I’ve just bought, I’ve just bought a camera as well because I want to learn how to take better photos and yeah, been doing a couple of YouTube courses.
Bought a few books. Oh yeah, I really enjoyed that. And then to do photo art of it afterwards. It’s really exciting.
So what tool do you recommend to use in terms of photo editing? Photoshop.
Yeah.
I’m sure there’s heaps of, it’s just because that’s what I’ve learnt.
Yeah.
Yeah. And then the step two, so I’ve from photo editing to video editing. And the step is then to go into Premiere Pro. It works a little about the same.
So is it videos of your family or you just you’re out taking videos?
So it’s my husband who’s an actor, so I help him with editing his videos.
That’s really interesting.
Yeah. Yeah. Very good.
You mentioned, you know, one of the former leaders that you had that really still inspires you today. And he’s now the CIO of Multra Bank. Is there any other leaders that you’ve come across during your career that or mentors that you still stay in touch with?
Yes. I try to stay in touch with most of them. They’re all Swedish names.
I might be watching this.
Yes. Yeah, they’re all. Then I should have written them down. So don’t forget anyone. No, I’ve been very fortunate of having leaders that actually both challenge me, but also, like, say, you can do this, you can do anything. And then, yeah, it started with one of my first leaders, Aini Ahtaa, a woman. I met her for a very brief time and she came back to me and said, I want you to be the project leader for a project implementing SAP with me and doing communications and education on that. And I had to go home and Google, what’s SAP? You know, it was just new. And I said, well, you know, are you sure? And she’s like, yeah, I’m sure. And she just believed in me. And that was the first exposure I’ve had of this, which I’m trying to give back now to trust people and go like, you can do it.
Yeah.
And people can.
Yeah.
Because if you’re just curious and ask questions and you’re fine with failing, you know, you can do anything.
That’s the one thing I think being curious is very underrated, you know, being able to ask questions and not just make assumptions. you know, and sometimes that makes you putting yourself out there makes you a little bit vulnerable asking the questions if you don’t know, but it’s so critical in terms of being able to learn. So I understand that you’ve had a really great experience with an executive coach and got a lot of sort of great experience out of that. Can you talk us through your experience and how you, I guess, applied that to your working life?
Yeah.
So his name is Stefan Falk, so he came in to help the leadership team I was in at the time. And it was really valuable because he did everything very different. So he talks about how your brain works and how you can do small changes every day to reach your goals. And he’s also got a new book coming out called Intrinsic Motivation.
Okay.
And it’s about those little changes and how you can, you know, start listening to what’s inside you to succeed.
Which is really important because it’s you can have, you know, you actually need the will to actually do parts of your job that you might not like. And it’s everyone struggles with small parts of their job. But he’s talking about that, if you’re.
Motivated to do the things, then you succeed. And there’s a podcast, if you Google his name, Stephen Falk. Stephen Falk.
Okay.
Motivation, he talks about it.
Okay, we’ll have to have a look at that and maybe include the credits at the end of the podcast if people want to look it up and give it a listen.
Yeah.
So if you could give your younger self some career advice, what would it be?
I would say, don’t take yourself too serious. You know, have fun. And my younger self, I worked till two o’clock in the morning every day. You know, I wanted everything to be perfect.
Yes.
Every little Excel file, every line must be perfect, which is important if you’re in finance, of course, with numbers.
Yes. yeah.
But just to, you know, have fun at work, do everything right, but it’s okay to fail.
Yeah, it’s okay to make a little mistake every now and then.
As long as you learn from them, don’t.
Yeah.
Of course. So where can people find you? So you’re on LinkedIn, obviously.
Yeah.
I’m on LinkedIn working at NGM, and I had a big Network in Sweden, not so big in Australia, Newcastle, so we’ll be happy to connect with.
Yeah.
We’ll have to get you to come to some meetups. I know that NGM is going to be involved in slash new, I think, the conference.
Yeah.
Andrew Preston and Andrew is coming to speak on panel that James is running. So that’s really exciting. So yeah, I’m sure you’ll get to meet a lot of people.
Yeah.
At slash new conference coming up in May. Sounds great. Well, thank you so much for coming on the New eTech People podcast. It’s a really interesting story and it’s been interesting learning about work working and living in Sweden. So exciting. I, you know, I would love to do that one day live abroad. So it’s good to give people an insight of who you are and who you are as a leader and what it’s like to work at MGM Group.
Thank you so much for having me.
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