A career driven by interest
Lilian joined Konecranes in Shanghai in 2006. Since then, her role has evolved as she has expanded her expertise and taken on new challenges.
“I’ve worked in the IT field for more than 20 years, and I truly enjoy it,” she says. “If you love what you do and keep developing your skills over time, the work will give back to you. I feel fortunate to have built a career doing something I really like.”
In 2016, Lilian joined the SAP implementation team in China, working as a production planning specialist. By 2021, she had stepped into a project management role as China SAP Implementation Team Leader.
As someone who describes herself as somewhat introverted and technically focused, Lilian appreciates the autonomy and trust she has received.
“I really like the work culture. It’s pragmatic and based on equality and inclusion. It suits my personality very well,” she notes.
Bringing global teams together
At the heart of Lilian’s work is global teamwork. Each implementation brings together data teams, local business stakeholders, and various experts from different fields. As a project manager, she aligns plans, organizes activities, and guides system setup across these groups.
“It’s fun to communicate with teams around the world. You gain lots of knowledge, not only about the business, but also about different cultures and countries,” she explains.
However, global collaboration doesn’t come without its challenges. Time zone differences, language barriers, and varying working styles require flexibility and communication. To navigate this, Lilian emphasizes the importance of shared frameworks:
“We’re not building the implementation from scratch. We have common templates and guidelines that help us achieve shared understanding.”
Even so, differences in processes sometimes require adjustments and negotiation.
“Sometimes we need to negotiate with different parties, but we share the same objective: solving problems and meeting business needs,” she says. “If the work were always the same, it would be boring.”
Solving problems together
In addition to project work, Lilian and her team handle daily system support, such as helping with bug fixing, supporting business changes or improvements, and providing guidance for special cases. The goal is to create systems that are reliable, user-friendly, and aligned with business needs.
“We act as a bridge between the business users and our other IT teams, facilitating bug fixes and ensuring business requirements are delivered efficiently,” she explains.
Whether in project implementations or daily support, each challenge is an opportunity to learn. Lilian finds satisfaction in solving problems:
“The best part of the job is the sense of accomplishment,” she shares. “It’s very rewarding when you work through a problem and finally find the root cause. It’s exciting that there are always new things to learn!”
