Nordic Gamechangers: Challenging the status quo at Nordic scale
Before Anders Rostad Sæthre ever set foot in the world of telecom, he spent more than 20 years chasing hundredths of a second on alpine skis.
Growing up in a small valley outside of Oslo, skiing was simply a way of life for Anders.
“It shaped who I am,” he says. “To compete at a high level, you need structure, discipline, and the ability to push yourself every day.”
During his peak years, Anders balanced school with more than 200 travel days a year, racing across Europe and returning home to exams and assignments. The margins were small, and the standards were high. It taught him something that defines him to this day: if you want to improve, standing still is not an option.
That mindset has followed him from the slopes into the offices of Telenor, where his focus today is helping turn local ideas into Nordic impact.
A bridge between technology and business
When Anders eventually traded skis for studies, he chose industrial economics at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), specializing in investment and financial engineering.
“It gave me both the engineering mindset and the financial understanding. That combination opens a lot of doors.”
He started his career in management consulting, working mainly on telecom projects, before joining Telenor in 2018. Since then, he has moved from finance and transformation work into more customer-facing roles, including strategic product launches in Telenor Norway’s consumer division.
“This experience gave me a much clearer understanding of how collaboration across teams creates something real for the customer.”
Taking local experience into the Nordics
After several years in Telenor Norway, Anders moved into the Nordic organization in 2025, taking on the role of Director Customer & Commercial. For him, this shift was all about scale.
“In Norway, you can create impact locally. But in the Nordics, you can create it across four markets.”
His work today focuses on commercial projects and customer-focused initiatives across Telenor’s Nordic business units, always with one question top of mind: how can we solve something once and create value everywhere?
That mindset is central to Telenor’s Nordic AI program, where Anders works with the “customer” pillar to help all of Telenor Nordic markets share knowledge, building stronger foundations, and scale solutions across markets.
“The goal is simple,” he says. “Build once and deploy four times.”
For Anders, AI is not the story in itself. The real story is what AI enables.
“Better customer experiences, smarter processes, and faster decisions. We have a lot of untapped potential in doing things differently and smarter with AI.”
But moving fast across four markets is not always straightforward. Different systems, local priorities, and the speed of technological change all create complexity. But that’s where the Nordic model works its magic.
“If every business unit tries to build the same thing on their own, we lose time and efficiency. Working together helps us move faster and learn from each other.”
Anders sees this kind of collaboration as a competitive advantage. In a technology landscape undergoing constant change, the ability to learn once and scale fast is a gamechanger.
What being a gamechanger means
One piece of advice from an earlier leader has stayed with Anders.
Challenge the status quo.
In a company with long traditions and strong systems, it is easy to accept that things work the way they always have. Anders tries not to.
“Why are we doing it this way? Can it be done better?” These questions drive much of his work today.
For Anders, being a gamechanger is all about staying curious, pushing for better solutions, and helping turn ideas into real value for customers.
And maybe some of that thinking stems from his many years in alpine skiing. The discipline to improve. The courage to take risks. And the understanding that while performance may look individual in the moment, it is always built by a strong team behind it.