“Lagom” – not the best for something but just right for anything

In general, my role as a Director Product Technology is to set the requirements, communicate what is needed, and validate what is already good enough and what not. The development of the MX suction cup was special in many ways.

It is the fruit of many years of different developments where we utilized technology and know-how from the most experienced designers and material-specialist to make something that was solving a challenge identified by our sales teams and strategic accounts team within the booming e-commerce segment. So, it was a joint effort of the R&D team together with the Sales organization. Hence, it condensed the extensive tribal know-how of a diverse group at Piab supporting this development. Furthermore, we had detailed practical technical sessions with the marketing team, to help them carve out and understand the benefits of this particular suction cup. So, all in all, my role in the MX suction cup launch was to glue all these different parts together and be the advocate of the product. And I was impressed with everybody’s efforts from design to procurement to its marketing presentation – everybody captured the essence of the value this product was developed to bring to the market and did their best to bring that forward.

I believe, the MX suction cup is the most interesting product Piab has launched since I started working here in 2008. The MX suction cup will do exactly what it is intended to do. It is not the best cup for any specific product to be picked but the best cup for all applications. In Swedish we have the expression “lagom”, which is difficult to translate – the best to describe it is that this cup is just right. It is not a top-level performer for any specific application as this would disqualify it for other items. The objective with the MX suction cup was really to develop a suction cup with perfectly balanced trade-offs to fit all applications and that was exactly what we achieved.

In working at Piab the most important thing for me is the ability to explore new and different things. At Piab we never shy away from anything that is difficult or where the outcome is not clear. On the contrary, we have a rather bold approach enabling us to try out new ways for the better or for the worse – that is a strong motivation. To me, Piab is an unprestigious company, in which it is easy to reach out for support. Despite its massive growth it remains a relationship focused company even with customers.