In which direction is Zetadisplay heading with the new CEO? invidis met Anders Olin who took over from Per Mandorf in October 2023. With a new management team – partly recruited from outside the industry – Olin steers the Swedish integrator into a new phase by adopting best practices from diverse industries beyond digital signage.
We met Anders Olin for the first time on the sidelines of our invidis Executive Dinner shortly before Christmas. Olin is a newcomer in the digital signage industry and has only been CEO at Zetadisplay for two months. Our first impression: a man with experience who listens before forming his own opinion.
Anders Olin succeeds Per Mandorf who successfully led the company through the turbulent pandemic and expanded the geographic footprint to the DACH region with acquisitions in Germany (Nordland) and Austria (Peakmedia).
In addition to CEO Anders Olin, new members of the management team include the two country managers for DACH, Stefan Hoffmann from Google, Jonas Wilhelm from Peakmedia and Diederick Sjardijn for BeNeLux as well as a new CFO who will soon join the Zetadisplay management team. Country managers will now take over the duties of Laila Hede Jensen as Chief Commercial Officer, who also left the company. “We need to be extremely close to customers – therefore half the management is responsible for customers now”, says Anders Olin.
New Country Director for Netherlands
Just as we spoke to Anders Olin, Zetadisplay announced its newest member of the management: Diederik Sjardijn is taking over the role of Country Director for the Netherlands. He previously held executive leadership positions spanning creative and digital agencies, tech startup and scaleups, pharmaceutical, real estate and healthcare in the US, Canada, UK and Netherlands.
According to Zeta, Sjardijn played a key role in driving demand growth, leading to strategic M&A acquisitions of tech scaleups Onefit.com and Blendle.com. Subsequently, he became the managing director of Kessels Kramer Holding and co-founded the new Kessels Kramer Digital joint venture.
Zetadisplay to reach new level in the next five years
Zetadisplay is now full of new minds and fresh ideas. “We are one of the leaders in Europe directly present in seven markets, with a strong global customer base and a strong team. And we have an owner strongly committed to this investment who wants to see the company grow – organically and with M&A”, Olin continues. He sees Zetadisplay in a “growth transformation.” This challenge excites him, as he will be drawing on his experience of leading five similar growth transformations in different industries. “I see a great opportunity in the next five years to take Zetadisplay to the next level.”
Learning from outside the industry
Zetadisplay has rapidly grown in recent years through 11 acquisitions. For further growth, the new CEO is keen on identifying best practices beyond its immediate sector – from lead generation to software development and commercial services. “I don’t see the digital signage industry as a silo. This industry is just starting to mature, and it hasn’t been benchmarked.”
“It starts with people, processes, and tools”, says Anders Olin. The focus at Zeta is on three topics: “Continue to grow & follow the customer, focus on Global Accounts and M&A.” In the end, size and scaling are what count in order to compete successfully in the market.
It looks like Zetadisplay will soon become more agile and disruptive through this approach of adopting best practices from other industries. This is a fresh and more corporate perspective in an industry still dominated by small and medium businesses.