My story!

My name is Johan Ljungqvist and I am running the company Commitment AB. Commitment is a consultancy company focusing on helping companies and people improving their communication.

This site is my way of writing a book about communication. You will be a part of the writing in two ways. First you will be able to see the book as it progress and try out the things I am writing about. Second, you will be able to influence the direction this site will take.

I started in advertising when I was 20 years old, in the beginning of the 80’s. I was a project manager for many years working mostly with business to business advertising in several Stockholm based agencies. At 1996 I shifted track when I was offered the job as Manager Internal Relations at Ericsson. It was their way of saying Information manager with responsibility for Internal Communication globally. It later turned in to Director of Internal Communication.

My job was to start a new function at Ericsson. We where a part of Corporate Communication and grew from 1 person to 20 people in four years. My responsibility was to run the department and develop standards for communication as well as policies and directives. I realised fairly soon that one of the key issues would be to work with all the communication specialists in the company. Many of them where still in a “sending out information” mode. I wanted them to see a new purpose for communication. I developed a concept that we called Business Communication and was in today’s perspective not so new. But at the time it was a big different. We started training communicators in Business Communication. During three years we had about 2-300 people going through our one-week program.

I left Ericsson in late 2000 and became the Executive Director at Marketing and Communication Ltd (MCA) which where a London based consultancy company that where specializing on strategic internal communication. We where about 35 people and my job were to start up the Scandinavian branch. Now, this was a very good experience that I learn a lot from. Even though it was a very short chapter in my book. After 8 month the company was sold to WPP at the same time as the whole Advertising/PR industry collapsed. Well, WPP merged MCA with it’s largest competitor, that was also in the group, and then fired half of the staff, including the Scandinavian leg.

After that I developed a new concept that I called Balanced Communication. This was a way of truly getting external and internal communication to work in synergy. At the time I was working with a advertising agency in Stockholm. In the spring of 1994 I was in Spain with a colleague facilitating a company conference, when I got a call from the owner of Nordisk Kommunikation who wanted to hire me as the Managing Director.

I started at Nordisk Kommunikation (NK) in the fall. The company had 5 employees in Stockholm and was not doing so good, financially. During three years we turned the company around. We expanded and started a new branch office in southern Sweden. And at the end of 1997 when I left we where 15 people and showing profit. NK is really one of a kind when it comes to communication consultancies in Sweden. It has mastered a niche of strategic internal communication. My time with the company has been very rewarding. Not only have I had the opportunity to work with some of the best people in our industry, but I have also had the privilege of making a difference for so many people at our clients. I learned a lot.