Last week, the Meltwater management team met in San Francisco for our annual Executive Leadership Training through Oxford University.

Meltwater’s objective is to become one of the top 100 software companies in the world within the next five years. This is a pretty incredible goal, so Meltwater is investing in external training from some of the world’s most respected educational institutions to make sure that we are prepared for the challenges ahead of us.

A major focus of this particular session was the concept of how personality affects behavior, and how to make the most of each individual’s strengths and weaknesses.

We started by learning more about our personality types, using theories developed by Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung to explain the inborn tendencies we have that explain our personalities and behaviors. According to Jung, and the MBTI assessment that we used, people are usually one of the each of the following:

• Introverted (I) or extroverted (E)
• Detail-oriented (S) or focused on the big picture (N)
• Thinking (T) or feeling (F)
• Structured (J), or more likely to just “wing it” and see what happens (P)

Learning about ourselves was enlightening and entertaining, but I thought it might be interesting to further explore how the management team rated Meltwater Group as a company on each of these characteristics. Assessing a company’s personality can produce valuable insights into how it operates, and it can help to expose potential weaknesses.

An informal poll of about 90 managing and area directors found that Meltwater is:

Extraverted (E) – This was more or less unanimous. There is little doubt that we are a very talkative, sociable bunch. According to Jung, people who prefer extroversion tend to work out ideas by talking them through, learn best through doing or discussing, have broad interests, and readily take initiative in work and relationships.

Intuitive and focused on the big picture (N) – This was also very clear. We all agreed that Meltwater Group is much more concerned with larger concepts than minute details. In life, people who prefer Intuition are imaginative and verbally creative, move quickly to conclusions, are oriented to future possibilities, and trust inspiration.

Feeling (F) – Most of us voted that Meltwater is an “F” organization. Meltwater culture is very much oriented towards making sure that people feel nurtured, motivated and inspired. Especially in management, we spend a lot of time making sure that people feel that they are in the right place and here for a reason. People who prefer Feeling are empathetic and guided by personal values. They strive for harmony, positive interactions, and fairness. This is what we aim to achieve on a daily basis.

“Winging it” (in MBTI this is called “Perceiving”) (P) – We are absolutely a company that wings it. No company could sustain the incredible growth we have seen at Meltwater—without a good amount of flexibility. When people prefer Perceiving, they tend to be spontaneous, casual, adapt, and feel energized by last-minute pressures.

These four factors combined yield a personality type that is eerily reminiscent of our company culture and business model. Google “ENFP” and you will read about bon vivants who see life as a creative adventure full of possibilities. This personality type faces a unique challenge, however: If we have too much inspiration and not enough structure, it can be difficult to see how we are going to pull off the incredible goals we have set for ourselves. This can lead to frustration and potential derailment.

Although the managers in the training session felt that Meltwater is an ENFP organization, interestingly, the average Meltwater manager is actually not an ENFP type. The majority of us are Ts as opposed to Fs. We range from ISTPs (like my manager John, area director of the East Coast region, who is detail-oriented and rational) to ENTJs like myself, who tend to be structured and logical.

Ultimately, the strongest companies are those where the management is varied where we complement each other, question our decisions in an active debate, and learn from the strengths of those around us.

This combination will be the key to our future success; if we can continue to challenge each other and grow from our experiences, we should be able to bring a rebellious group of young innovators together and turn this company into one of the most successful software companies in the world. Fingers crossed that Carl Jung was onto something.

Samantha is the Managing Director of the Meltwater News Boston office.

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After never having advanced to a football world cup semi-final before, the Spanish team or “La Roja” (The Reds) as the team is called in Spain, went all the way and secured the title of World Champion last Sunday.

“Podemos!” (“we can!”) was the anthem that accompanied them during this year’s world cup.

Millions of people around the world watched the Spanish people celebrate this historical victory in the streets all over Spain and the Spanish people never seemed more united.

With regards to unity this is not so easy in Spain. History has divided the different regions (especially Catalonia (the capital being Barcelona) and the Basque region) and many people take much more pride in their region than in their country as a whole. Even in the Spanish national team you could see players celebrating with their regional flags instead of the Spanish national flag.

What strikes me though, is that despite these cultural differences among the players, they were united on the pitch and came out stronger than any other team.

In the Barcelona office, we consist of people with origins from Portugal, Columbia, England, Germany (myself) and Spain. Having worked together towards common goals we have really learned to appreciate each other’s differences and regularly exchange stories about our experiences from the different countries. We love to have laughs at typical clichés from each country (of course I got to hear more than usual about us Germans when we watched the Spain-Germany semi-final game together), but in the end we have great respect for each other and know how cool it is to work with other young people from different parts of the world.

I believe that bringing different cultures together is one of the greatest challenges as the Managing Director of an office with employees from multiple nations; however, once a common ground or a certain unity is achieved, these teams are most likely to become the best.

When the finals were over and Spain had won for the first time in history, we all texted each other messages with “Viva España,” we went to celebrate on the streets and now continue on our own mission: Podemos!

If you like to read more about how the world cup influenced or did not influence the unity in Spain, I recommend this article.

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Oliver is a Managing Director in the Meltwater News Barcelona office.

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Meltwater News Berlin, 2005

How it all started:

Five years ago today was my first day at Meltwater. I had never heard about the company before I joined. I only knew that I was going to start in a sales role within a small Norwegian start-up that had ambitions to expand globally. The company had only 60 employees in Northern Europe back then and together with two Norwegian managers (Ingolf and Fredrik), our team of four new hires ( Christiane, Sonna, Inga and myself) entered the German speaking market. We opened our first office in Germany’s capital, Berlin.

Back then our office set-up was very simple; we had nothing more than basic office equipment accented by some bright pink furniture. Everything felt very start-up and it was a little overwhelming when we started to present our media monitoring service to the first German customers. We had limited knowledge about the market, but our spirits were high and we were inspired by the ambitious goals of becoming the European market leader in our segment.

We soon faced challenges and setbacks. We learned that in order to persuade others to purchase our service, it would take a lot more than just pitching what we thought was interesting. It was a long and hard journey, but over time we were able to develop our negotiation skills and also created structured guidelines adapted to the nuances of each industry that we approached.

Where we are now:

Since 2005 the Berlin office has grown to a hub in Meltwater’s European operations, housing different product divisions like Meltwater News and Meltwater Buzz as well as key functions like Client Relations, Controlling, Recruitment, Human Resources and Communications. Perhaps most importantly, many people that started in the Berlin office became managers and launched other meltwater offices in Germany (Munich, Hamburg), Switzerland (Zurich) as well as in France (Bordeaux) and Spain (Barcelona).

Looking back on the last five years, I feel that I’ve learned a lot. After I started in sales, I helped to set up the client relations department in the German speaking area and gained valuable management experience. I then moved on to work as a Recruitment Manager. Based on that experience I then took over a more strategic role – and became the manager for our university relations activities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Since last year I’ve been the project lead of our global University Relations initiatives, which operates within the Communications team.

What I learned:

1. Negotiation skills are important. Upon reflecting back on my experiences, I feel that my job has a lot to do with negotiation. Additionally, giving presentations requires the right skills and executive presence- all things that I learned during my time in sales. Many times students that I meet are very interested in applying for positions in university relations or communications rather than sales. However, I would encourage anyone who is starting their career to develop core skills in negotiation and public speaking. There is no better place to dive into that than in sales.
2. Take ownership of your success. When we started in the German speaking market, we knew that it was our full responsibility – it was up to us — to ultimately be successful or not. We knew that our ideas, efforts and spirit would ultimately make an impact. I’ve realized that at the end of the day, you are the only person who can make a difference. Therefore, it’s important to take ownership in everything you do.
3. Have fun. Especially when we started from scratch – things sometimes got tough and tiring.

I am really glad that we never forgot to have fun and enjoy our work. I think that if you enjoy what you are doing, you will excel in what you do. Also, the celebration of your victory is that much more enjoyable because you had fun working hard along the way.

Reflecting back on our initial team in Berlin, I feel that we all accomplished a lot and grew personally as well as professionally. We moved into interesting positions within Meltwater and many times had the chance to start divisions from scratch.

Fredrik is now heading up our non-profit organization in Ghana, Africa.
Inga is now working as a Human Resource Manager for Europe.
Sonna is managing the Client Relations efforts for the product division, Meltwater Buzz in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Christiane is overseeing all controlling activities in Central Europe.
And Ingolf is now Director of Controlling for Meltwater Group.

Besides everything we learned and accomplished over the years, we also developed incredibly strong friendships. So for our 5th year anniversary, our team will be celebrating our success by spending a weekend in a spa hotel near the Baltic Sea!

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I joined Meltwater in September 2006 and left in May 2010. In the nearly four years that I was with the company, I’ve seen the company grow from approximately 100 employees to over 700 employees based on every continent except Antarctica.

I recently sold all my earthly belongings (except for my iPhone, computer and essential clothing) and moved to Israel. Now based in Tel Aviv, I am looking to join a start-up team and plan to apply the key skills and lessons learned that I’ve acquired while at Meltwater.

I wanted to take the chance to reflect on and share those key skills and lessons learned. No better way to share this than through a blog post.

1. Culture is key. A clearly defined culture that all members of your company/team can relate to and have ownership of will make sure that everyone is aligned in terms of values and even work ethic. At Meltwater, these are summed up by the Norwegian words MER: Moro (have fun when you work, even if it’s hard. If you enjoy what you do, everyone wins), Enere (#1’s – whatever you want to be, have high standards and shoot to be #1), and Respect (respect for your work, colleagues and clients).
2. Believe in people. I have personally witnessed my colleagues accomplish some extraordinary things once they were given some training, necessary tools (financial backing, office space, phone and Internet), and a bit of encouragement. Some colleagues moved to foreign countries and managed offices on their own, others have launched new product divisions, while others, including myself, had the opportunity to start entirely new departments within the company. The right team with the right mindset and resources can achieve some impressive goals.
3. I learned to sell. Sales is the key to any economic success. Without the purchase and exchange of goods and services, we wouldn’t have an economy. I learned how to relate to customers, provide true value propositions and had the chance to practice the art of negotiations and closing deals. I don’t care who you are. If you want to experience success in business, you have to learn the value of sales skills.

These three lessons may seem simple, perhaps even intuitive, but it is in the application and execution where I really believe Meltwater gave me tools to create real value. Its been hard to not use the word “we” when referring to Meltwater during my networking here in Tel Aviv in the last few weeks, but I guess that’s natural when you live and breath something for so long. It may sound grandiose, but if there is one more thing I learned from Meltwater it’s that ANYTHING is possible!

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As we enter mid-June, university students around the world are completing exams and tossing their graduation caps as they prepare to enter the next phase of their lives. However, with the world on the rebound from one of the worst economic crises in history, this can be a very uncertain time for many. As a Recruitment Manager at Meltwater Group, I wanted to share a few simple tips for standing out from the crowd.

1. Attitude is everything. A candidate’s attitude is something every company will be evaluating in interviews. Your attitude gives a window into your work habits, and if you come across as warm, enthusiastic and teachable, employers will feel confident bringing you on to the team. Be conscious of your body language, and remember a simple smile can go a long way. Interviews are your chance to sell yourself, and enthusiasm sells.
2. Know yourself. This can be tougher than it sounds, but it’s important to answer questions about yourself clearly and confidently in pressure-filled interview situations. One way that you can prepare for this is to take the time to write down the areas in your life where you have succeeded, and the areas where you have experienced less success, or even failure. Then you can be proactive about anticipating questions and hopefully talk clearly about your strengths, your weaknesses and how you are overcoming your weaknesses.
3. Be professional. We all know that first impressions are vital in making a lasting impression, but most of us do not realize that first impressions come in many forms. It’s not just about how you dress, it’s everything from how you structure your emails, to your cover letter, to your resume, to your LinkedIn profile, to your twitter account or photos on your facebook page. If you want a professional career, you need to portray yourself as a professional in every aspect of your life. This will lead to increased job opportunities, faster promotions, and overall more success in the business place.

All of these tips are things that you can control yourself. At this stage, there is no time for more internships, more leadership experience, more extra-curricular activities, or better exams scores. With university life behind you, take advantage of these tips while job hunting and you will turn some heads in the interview room.

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Joe Latteri is a Recruitment Manager based in Tokyo. Check Meltwater Careers for more.

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