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Magnús Þorlákur Lúðvíksson
Oldest and most successful football club in Iceland
Magnús Þorlákur Lúðvíksson is the current Head of Strategy and Business Development at Icelandair, based in Reykjavik. With a particular interest in aviation, strategy, finance, and technology, Magnús is a well-rounded businessman with extensive experience in the industry.
Magnús started his career as a Business Journalist at Fréttablaðið and later became a Consultant at McKinsey & Company. His educational background includes an MSc in Finance and Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BSc in Economics with a First-class distinction from Háskóli Íslands.
Throughout his career, Magnús has held various board member positions across organizations such as Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur - knattspyrnudeild and Félag viðskipta- og hagfræðinga, which have helped him stay current with ever-changing business landscapes.
In his current position as Head of Strategy and Business Development at Icelandair, Magnús helps the company stay ahead of the competition by shaping the company's strategy, identifying new business opportunities, and translating the company's vision into action.
Highlights
Þegar gervigreind sótti um starf hjá mér
Við í strategíuteyminu hjá Icelandair höfum nokkrum sinnum á síðustu árum sett af stað ráðningarferli. Þá höfum við auglýst stöður í deildinni og verið svo lánsöm að fá í hvert skipti hundruð umsókna þar á meðal frá sterkum prófílum.
Þeir sem hafa ráðið í spennandi stöður þekkja að það getur verið krefjandi að velja einn til að ráða. Svolítið eins og fyrir stjörnufræðing að velja uppáhaldsstjörnu á endalausum næturhimninum. Við höfum meðal annars farið þá leið að biðja kandídata í lokaumferð um að vinna raunhæft verkefni og kynna síðan. Við höfum hannað verkefnin til að reyna á hæfni í verkefnalausn (e. problem solving) til hliðar kynninguna sjálfa sem reynir á samskipta- og leiðtogahæfni. Þannig höfum við deilt gögnum (gervigögnum reyndar) með kandídötunum og beðið þá um að nota þau til að rannsaka ákveðnar tilgátur. Þessi aðferð hefur reynst vel og hefur frammistaðan í verkefninu oft riðið baggamuninn varðandi ráðninguna.
Á dögunum ákvað ég að gera tilraun og leggja verkefni sem við höfum notað við ráðningar fyrir ChatGPT-gervigreindina. Verkefnið snýst um að greina gögn úr rekstri Icelandair í samhengi við þróun á fjölda farþega um Keflavíkurflugvöll og þróun innviða flugvallarins. Þetta er ekki flóknasta verkefni í heimi en það er ekki alveg gefins heldur. Hvernig skyldi gervigreindinni hafa tekist að klóra sig í gegnum það?
➡ Fyrsta tilraunin gekk ekki vel. Þá setti ég inn allan textann um verkefnið og gögnin hrá. Það reyndist gervigreindinni ofviða. Sennilega var ég að biðja um of mörg skref í einu.
➡ Í annarri tilraun reyndi ég að leiða gervigreindina í gegnum verkefnið í skrefum. Urðu niðurstöðurnar allt aðrar. Fyrst bað ég hana um að skoða gögnin og lýsa því sem hún sæi. Síðan bað ég um að greina þá hluta gagnanna sem helst skiptu máli og draga ályktanir. Loks bar ég undir hana spurningarnar tvær sem verkefnið hverfðist um. Og viti menn, hún eiginlega negldi þær báðar (sjá myndir hér: https://lnkd.in/ds-uFYdf ).
Það að fram séu komin tól sem eru fær um verkefnalausn að þessu marki er nýr veruleiki. Sem vekur upp spurningar um hvernig nálgast skuli ráðningarferli sem þetta héðan í frá (ja, rétt eins og margt annað reyndar...). Augljóst er að margir starfsumsækjendur munu framvegis nýta sér gervigreindartól í ráðningarferlum. Bæði til að undirbúa svör við líklegum viðtalsspurningum en líka við vinnu á raunhæfum verkefnum. Hvernig eiga þeir sem eru að ráða að bregðast við því?
Ég er sjálfur þannig hugsandi að ég tel það kandídötum frekar til tekna að geta tileinkað sér gagnleg tól og notað þau. En hugsanlega þýðir þetta að skynsamlegt sé að leggja fyrir þyngri verkefni en áður. Já og spyrja kandídata fleiri og dýpri spurninga til að rýna skilning á viðfangsefninu. Með öðrum orðum, mér sýnist við þurfa að hækka ránna á frammistöðu í ráðningarferlum og, að því marki sem ráðningarferlin endurspegla starfið, raunar frammistöðu í starfi almennt.
Upp á síðkastið hef ég verið að gera tilraun með að birta í auknum mæli skrif á netinu. Og þegar skrifin snúast um fyrirtækjatengd málefni er LinkedIn sennilega rétti vettvangurinn fyrir birtingu. Ég birti því hér stutta útgáfu af hugleiðingu sem ég skrifaði nýverið um virði hreinskiptni í menningu fyrirtækja.
Fyrir stuttu las ég bókina Creativity Inc. þar sem skyggnst er að tjaldabaki hjá teiknimyndastúdíóinu Pixar. Það sem ég tók helst út úr bókinni var áherslan sem höfundur lagði á hreinskiptni sem lykilhráefnið í framleiðsluferli kvikmynda fyrirtækisins. Ekki síst þótti mér það áhugavert þar sem ég hef séð innanbúðarmenn úr tveimur öðrum fyrirtækjum - gjörólíkum Pixar - leggja sömu áherslu á hreinskiptni sem algjöran lykil að frammistöðu. Þau fyrirtæki eru ráðgjafarfyrirtækið McKinsey & Co. (þar sem ég vann um tíma) og vogunarsjóðurinn Bridgewater Associates – sem eiga mögulega það eitt sameiginlegt með Pixar að hafa náð eftirtektarverðum árangri á eigin sviði.
Í hreinskiptni felst þrennt:
1️⃣ Í fyrsta lagi, að sú krafa er gerð til starfsfólks að það myndi sér sjálfstæða skoðun á viðfangsefnum starfsins. 2️⃣ Í öðru lagi, að afstaða skuli almennt tjáð af bæði heilum hug og nákvæmni en ekki undir rós. 3️⃣ Og í þriðja lagi, að starfsfólki sé skylt að tjá meiningar sínar. Það er ekki vel séð að sitja á sér eða taka alltaf undir með öðrum.
Þetta er aðeins vandmeðfarið. Það þarf að ríkja traust á vinnustaðnum og svo þarf að gæta þess að „hreinskiptni“ verði ekki að afsökun fyrir ruddalegri hegðun. En sé traustið til staðar þá mun fyrirtæki sem leggur áherslu á hreinskiptni ná lengra en ella.
➡ Mistökum er varnað oftar og hraðar þannig að gæði vara og verkefna verða meiri. ➡ Verðmætar hugmyndir eru líklegri til að fæðast á stöðum þar sem er í lagi að tjá „vitlausar“ hugmyndir. ➡ Starfsfólk blómstrar frekar í umhverfi þar sem það fær ríka endurgjöf og rými til að tjá sig. ➡ Starfsfólk styrkir böndin sín á milli því hreinskiptin skoðanaskipti búa til sameiginlega reynslu sem getur orðið að lími milli fólks.
Semsagt, fyrirtæki – og að ég held sérstaklega íslensk fyrirtæki – geta gert margt vitlausara en að ýta undir hreinskiptin skoðanaskipti á vinnustaðnum. Til þess bendir í það minnsta reynsla Pixar, McKinsey og Bridgewater.
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.