Why we run the Viking Venture Leadership Program
Effective leadership is critical for success in today’s fast-paced and competitive business landscape. The management team and team leaders are responsible for guiding their teams toward success and playing a key role in shaping the culture and direction of their B2B Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company.
Develop leadership skills
Inspiring and motivating the people in the organization toward its strategic goals is challenging and requires ongoing development and training. B2B SaaS companies are operating in a fast-growing market, which means leaders need to drive innovation and growth while navigating complex challenges in an ever-changing competitive landscape. Such a program can make a significant difference in developing the leadership skills required to run a B2B SaaS company that will benefit the individual leader, the company, and our investors.
Objectives
The goal is to create value together with our companies, and the program is designed to provide the skills and knowledge to lead a B2B SaaS company to success.
Lift talented leaders in our portfolio and develop the candidates for potential executive roles and board member roles
Create an arena to broaden their network, strengthen their confidence, build skills, and gain experience across roles and responsibilities, markets, and companies
Provide the candidates with a set of practical tools to leverage in their day-to-day work
Three main pillars of the leadership program
1. How to create value in B2B SaaS companies
Build skills to create value in B2B SaaS companies through pricing, marketing, sales and customer success, tech and product development, M&A, financing and exit processes.
2. Team dynamics and leading others
Learn how to lead teams and enable others to perform, understand how to handle different personalities, and reflect on the differences between being a leader and an employee.
3. Self-leadership and reflection
Get to know yourself better as a leader through strength and personality mapping, reflect on how to handle stress and adversity, and what ambitions you have as a leader.
Who are the talented and ambitious leaders in the leadership program
– They are part of the management team in a Viking Venture company
– Ambitious, strong leadership talents, having shown good results
– They have extensive knowledge within their field
– Great relationship builders and team players, eager to develop others
– Open and willing to share experiences
Diversity is key for success
An important success factor for the program is diversity. We want to create an environment with different perspectives, backgrounds, areas of expertise, approaches, and ways of working. To create a diverse group, we:
– Cover all critical areas represented in a B2B SaaS company, meaning the commercial departments, technology and product, people and culture, finance, and M&A. We want to inspire great discussions and insights into specific challenges from different angles and perspectives.
– Have participants from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, and the UK, which covers many of the essential markets we operate in and gives a unique opportunity to share knowledge across markets.
– Have a 50/50 split between men and women to reflect the society as a whole and the customer group of our companies. We want to take part in lifting talented leaders and developing them for potential executive roles and board member roles.
The Viking Community
The Viking Venture leadership program is part of our community. Becoming a part of the Viking family gives you access to a network of skillful people through our community, a place where peers meet to share valuable knowledge. Today we have 14 B2B software companies in our portfolio, all sharing many of the same types of challenges.