Headhunted by young and promising new company

When Inge Flaten was 13 years old, he decided he wanted to be a social economist. His interest in technology and people later resulted in various management positions in the sector. Today he has been hired as the interim CEO of Aptomar, an exciting entrepreneurial company that provides the technology to detect oil spills at sea.

Inge Flaten has spent most of his career working in the sector, the last seven years as CEO of Kongsberg Norcontrol IT. It was here he first found out about InterimLeder AS:

“We planned to make changes to the management structure of the company and wanted to strengthen the management team. When one of the candidates in the marketing department withdrew, we needed to get this expertise quickly into place, and were provided with an interim manager in a couple of weeks. When I later left Kongsberg, InterimLeder once again emerged as an exciting opportunity,” said Flaten.

He loves challenges

Among the hallmarks of a typical interim manager is the attraction to situations involving a challenge to be solved. Flaten is no exception:

“I like to get into settings where there’s a strong desire for something to happen. Those are the kinds of situations I like. When an opportunity like that turned up, I jumped at it,” said Flaten.

From established company to exciting young enterprise

That opportunity was Aptomar, a company in Trondheim that started up when three students had the exciting idea of developing a sensor that can detect and verify oil spills on water. Investors wanted to bring in someone with more experience and depth to lead the company to the next level.

The right management philosophy

When Inge Flaten was 13, he had to write the essay “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The teenager was fascinated by technology and liked working with numbers, but did not just want to work with pure economics. Social economics was the answer.

“As a leader, you can see that some employees have got into a rut. So I like to challenge people to move forward and take opportunities. Opportunities they might not see themselves. Opportunities that will make their everyday work more interesting. My job as a leader is to help my colleagues see the opportunities that exist and take on the challenges involved in them,” Flaten concluded.

And there is no doubt that he has taken his own medicine.