After two years as the President of Swedish American Chamber Commerce (SACC) in San Diego, Jimmie Berggren is now leaving his position to focus on other projects. We sat down to talk about his time as President and what he is going to focus on in the future. Jimmie is originally from Helsingborg, Sweden, but came to San Diego early 2013 to establish himself there. During the first year he worked with strategic planning for a small boutique consulting firm that focuses on solving challenges arising from cultural differences within business processes, such as outsourcing, M&A’s or entering a new market. There he met Andreas Fried, the former President at SACC San Diego. Andreas got Jimmie involved as a board member for about six months before he handed over the position as President. Jimmie felt that this was a great opportunity and challenge and saw the need for change within the chamber. ”If I see something that needs to be fixed or improved, especially in the case of an organization, I can not help trying to do just that. So when I got the chance, there was no question about it.” Even before he was elected as President, Jimmie together with the management associates at that time, started working on a new strategy for SACC San Diego. In the beginning the strategy was developed from a business perspective. However, Jimmie soon realized that he had to address it differently because of the non-profit nature of the chamber. Instead he changed the strategy to focus on building networks in San Diego as well as in Sweden. “A Chamber of Commerce's greatest strength is their network. So the strategy was to prove the network's strength to members and partners in Sweden and in San Diego.” Jimmie really feels that a lot has been accomplished during his time as President. He is particularly happy about the cleantech approach that he has helped evolve for the chamber and the network he has built within this field. Now SACC San Diego can provide Swedish cleantech companies with the help they need to establish themselves in southern California. He also built the foundation for the SACC USA Cleantech Cluster, a network including all the regional SACC’s across the U.S. with a cleantech focus. This will bring the chambers closer together and also give everybody a most valuable network within this field. Furthermore, he also feels that this has made SACC San Diego’s involvement increase in SACC USA. ”We are now one of the more prominent chambers in certain areas. We have also increased the cooperation with other chambers like SACC in LA, San Francisco, Georgia, Washington and Seattle.” Jimmie believes he has learnt a lot during his time at SACC San Diego and he feels good about leaving. He is especially happy about getting so many competent people on the board. It’s all about the people that are involved and what they can do. Furthermore, he really believes that Hans Janzon will be a great new President for SACC San Diego. He has a lot of experiences and together with the very diversified board they will make a great team. However, he emphasizes the importance of utilizing and continuously expanding the already established network to stay attractive to organizations in Sweden as well as in San Diego. "I feel like I’ve done what I came here to do. I look back and I am proud of what I have accomplished." Now Jimmie is going to put all his time and energy into his own company Strategy Superb, a company specialized within the areas of brand positioning, brand ambassadors, online sales and communications. The company specializes in marketing Scandinavian products and brands on Amazon, an unknown strategy to many Scandinavian companies. Because of the giant reach and the enormous amount of products sold everyday on Amazon, it’s a perfect tool to promote and sell products on the American market. Strategy Superb has extensive knowledge about Amazons search algorithm, product rankings, review building and much more. This makes them the perfect guide for Scandinavian companies trying to get in to the American market. Furthermore, they have also started working with NFL players, UFC fighters, high-level cross-fit athletes and many more to create a big network of brand ambassadors within different fields and markets. In the future Jimmie is going to focus on getting more clients to Strategy Superb and maybe even branch out the online sales activities on Amazon. Right now he is working on a case study to show clients how Strategy Superb’s services can help them launch their products in the USA in an efficient and affordable way. Because the work as President for SACC San Diego has taken a lot of his time and attention, he now feels good to be able to put that time into his own company. ”This is my passion, this is my life. I do not live for a goal and I do not live for the pathway to the finish line. I just live. I think the key to a happy life is to be completely honest with yourself, at all times and in all situations. Dare to be honest with yourself forever and the reward is total personal freedom.” We thank Jimmie for the time and passion he spent at SACC San Diego, and for building it into the organization it is today. We wish him all the best with his future projects and hope to see him succeed.
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