In 2020, he took on the role as Maritech CEO. More than fifty new hires later, a pandemic, and a Nottingham Forest promotion, Odd Arne still hasn’t had a dull day – neither at work nor at home.

He had already been with Maritech for ten years. First as a Developer, then Technical Manager and COO (Chief Operating Officer). With a penchant for punk rock and practical jokes, he’s a far cry from the archetype of a top executive. Recently, he promised to rappel down from the roof of the eight-story office building where the Molde office is located – as a reward for the efforts of employees after the summer holidays. And yes, he has a fear of heights.

Fired from his band

Odd Arne is described as a rock-steady, highly skilled, and empathic guy with a lot of humor. His outlook on team management is grounded by his roles as a football coach and father of four – handy skills when leading an innovative Maritech team of free thinkers. Curiosity, flexibility, and willingness to try new things are qualities he cherishes.

“It’s a good thing I have that attitude,” he laughs. “I planned to become a rock star. I’m even quoted as saying that in the local newspaper. But then I got fired from the band because I couldn’t sing. I have also studied history, philosophy, psychology, and social anthropology – all to end up as a system developer.

In any case, daring to test new things we have not tried before is such an important reason why we have achieved what we have done in Maritech. It’s all about culture; innovative thinking is in our company’s DNA. I think that’s a crucial reason why we’re always hungry to evolve further, to take our moon shot. We are deeply passionate about helping our customers work even smarter and in new ways – to become more sustainable, to gain better control over operations, quality, and profitability.”

Felt like the end  of the world

“Something else I also value highly is that we are good at helping each other. When I was new at Maritech, I made an error that could have had very serious consequences. For me, it felt like the end of the world. Then I got to experience what is so great about the culture here – colleagues who say “No problem, we will solve this together”. And then sit up with you all night for a whole weekend on the fly, until everything is ok again.

–It’s probably difficult to pick one thing, but can you name a particular episode or milestone that has meant a lot to you since you took over as CEO?

“It must be that we have reached our goal of being a solid and natural partner for the largest companies. I remember well a few years back, when Bjørnar and I, who is now head of Product & Technology, started working closely with several of our biggest customers. What we encountered was the question “Are you big enough to handle the commitments we need?” We decided – we were certainly going to be!

Since then, we, and the entire team here, have worked hard to meet our customers’ needs while building our team and cloud platform. I’m proud that we made it. Now we are geared up to work with anyone and have proven that Maritech Cloud is the best choice for seafood companies in Europe and North America. And soon also for the logistics industry when we launch our new TMS in 2023.

“Now we are building our own data platform, and recently we have also really focused on traceability – and how this adds value to our customers. Together with the Directorate of Fisheries and a number of other organisations from Norway and abroad, we are the application party in an EU project (TRACE 4 EU) that will address tracking throughout the value chain using blockchain technology.

Reliable and safe end-to-end traceability is important for both control for actors as well as quality- and environmentally conscious purchasing links and consumers. It remains to be seen how the industry will achieve even better prices for it. In any case, we will do what we can to make quality more profitable than ever. “

Customer success

– What’s the best thing about your job?

“It has to be when customers tell us that we have helped them succeed with something. When we learn that a seafood customer in North America has an easier everyday life because of our packing files from all the Norwegian companies they import from, or when someone in the transport industry has improved capacity utilization and route selection after they received new analytics tools from us. That’s the ultimate goal for us every day; giving our customers new competitive advantages.”

– You mentioned quality – it’s a topic that engages you. Can you say a little more about that?

“So much has changed since we started more than 40 years ago. At the same time, the need to improve efficiency, traceability and resource utilisation is something that still concerns all our customers to the highest degree – whether you run a transport company, a small fish processing plant, or an international group.”

Change management

– These are challenging times. For many it is hardly digitalization that is at the top of the agenda these days?

“Clearly. It is dramatic how the situation in the world has now become. Everywhere, investments are put on hold, and there are major ripple effects that impact everyone. At the same time, it is digitalization that makes it possible to operate with higher profitability and be even better equipped to stand fast in precisely such times as we have now. Removing manual processes, automatic reporting, interacting more easily with suppliers, partners, certification bodies and customs – just think about how many such examples there are. Increase security and spend time on what you’re supposed to be doing, rather than administration.

The vast majority have more to do in order to fully exploit their potential. What is demanding for many is that digitalization brings with it changes in the way people work, and therefore it is just as much about change management, people and processes, as the technological tools themselves. On the other hand, modern cloud solutions have made it much easier, even for small players, to take advantage of the technological opportunities that exist.

We have also digitalized industry-specific processes for which systems have not previously existed, such as seafood logistics. Here it was the expertise across sectors that was crucial to the innovation project, where we collaborated with transporters, transport buyers and the logistics team in the former Timpex, which we simultaneously acquired.”

– At the very end, there’s one thing we’re wondering about. What was that error you mentioned at the start?

“Ugh, I don’t think we should bring that up. But one thing is certain – we will continue to help each other and take care of our people when something happens,” he smiles. That’s probably what I’m most proud of at Maritech. “