Inside TARGIT Careers: Sandra’s Journey to Head of Design

Originally published July 19, 2023. Updated September 16, 2024
Audra Balsley
Audra Balsley
3 min read
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At TARGIT, we strive to be an employer that not only values its employees but also encourages their personal and professional growth.  

Our leadership team recognizes the importance of allowing individuals to customize their career paths by pursuing their unique interests, furthering their educations, and sometimes taking non-traditional approaches to professional advancement.

This company culture has led several TARGIT employees to create their own career paths, including Alex Petersen, CFO. Some team members have even spent several decades growing their skills at the organization, such as Back-End Architect Jan Krogsgård

Sandra M. Højbjerg discovered the benefits of TARGIT's culture and focus on employee development when she embarked on her journey with the team several years ago. After starting as a Senior Graphic Designer within TARGIT's Marketing team, Sandra soon realized the value of TARGIT’s dedication to empowering its employees to shape their own destinies.  

In this blog post, we follow Sandra's journey with Team TARGIT, exploring how the organization's emphasis on individual and career growth opened doors for her to evolve from a graphic designer to the Head of Design, all while pursuing a Master's degree and taking a deep dive into TARGIT's branding strategy.


Discovering Team TARGIT and the World of Business Intelligence

After working as a freelance designer for some time, Sandra decided to seek out a full-time position, ideally at an established company working in technology, engineering, or a similar industry. She came across a job posting for a Graphic Designer role at TARGIT and began researching both the company and the concept of Business Intelligence in general.  

Through her research, Sandra became increasingly interested in and impressed with the work TARGIT was doing and decided to apply for the position. She was hired as a Senior Graphic Designer on TARGIT’s Marketing team in 2018, where she quickly ramped up in both the company’s offerings and the dynamic of her new team.  

Sandra's work as a Sr. Graphic Designer allowed her to continue honing her design skills while learning more about project management, collaboration, and art direction. Sandra realized she was interested in evolving her role to one that focused on leadership, strategy, and execution, so she started a discussion with her manager, TARGIT's Chief Marketing Officer, Lise Lucklow, about her next steps.   


Pursuing Personal and Professional Goals  

In line with her passion for advancing her professional skills, Sandra recently completed the first module of four in a Master’s degree in Design from The Royal Danish Academy – Design. These courses focused primarily on Brand Management and Strategy, which created the perfect opportunity for Sandra to combine her educational and professional pursuits.  

Sandra greatly enjoyed exploring the possibilities and theory behind brand strategy and execution, which allowed her to apply the knowledge she gained through her coursework directly to her work at TARGIT.  

“I have had mixed experiences going through branding projects with agencies. Their recommendations are often fluffy and generic. Usually, they don’t know their clients’ companies well enough to sell them a complete branding project. On the flip side, this course allowed me to approach branding in a new way. It gave me a framework to apply to TARGIT and taught me the language and theory behind successful branding strategies.” 


Becoming TARGIT’s New Head of Design

She expressed interest in another job title: Head of Design. Her transition was gradual due to the size of the team and Sandra's dedication to furthering her skills while moving into her new role.  

Even before TARGIT, Sandra always aimed to lead a team while advancing her design and branding skills. She explains that TARGIT was the perfect place for her to pursue this goal, as the company's approach to leadership mirrors her own beliefs about what it means to be a good leader in the workplace.   

“TARGIT’s strategic focus and emphasis on people sets it apart from other companies I have worked for in the past. Managers here focus on human relationships rather than just ‘the work.’ I am especially inspired by Lise's leadership style, which is much more empathetic and people-focused than what I have seen at other organizations.” 

The effectiveness of Lise's approach to leadership is evident not only in the dynamic of her team at TARGIT but also through her achievements in Denmark's network of Marketing professionals. Lise was recently awarded a spot on The M List 2023, a lineup created by the Danish Marketing Association to celebrate the country's most skilled marketing and communication professionals. 

In her new role, Sandra is taking inspiration from Lise's leadership by exploring a holistic approach to her work and mentorship of other team members. She’s realized that effective leadership means focusing on human interactions and supporting her team without losing sight of the business. All in all, relationships are vital in the workplace, and Sandra has learned a lot from Lise's leadership style.   

Sandra prefers to be an art director and shape the vision and plan for each project. She delegates certain tasks to her team but still likes to have a hand in the design work too. She is excited about the opportunity to work more strategically and have more management responsibilities as she continues to grow in her role as Head of Design.  

 

Developing a Strong Framework for TARGIT’s Brand Identity

As a part of the Master’s course project, Sandra created a brand matrix for TARGIT; a framework for messaging and identity that the company can continuously refine. She plans to present the brand matrix project to management. Sandra explains, “After we get buy-in from management, the idea is to apply the new brand matrix across the organization and integrate it with our existing business strategy.”  

Sandra hopes to engage everyone in the process of reviewing, refining, and developing TARGIT’s brand as the organization evolves. And she is excited to see what the future holds for both the Design team and the brand identity of TARGIT as she continues in her role as Head of Design. 

 

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Originally published February 2, 2023. Updated September 16, 2024