Something to talk about

Look for enjoyment within your job and the results will show, Jan Elfström believes. As R&D manager at Timelox, part of ASSA ABLOY Hospitality, he develops new products and technology applications.

Jan Elfström, R&D manager at TimeLox, part of ASSA ABLOY hospitality business unit, is willing to talk about anything except the stuff that he can’t really talk about. And that’s just about everything to do with the projects he’s currently working on. He and his team are on the front line, developing products that will keep the ASSA ABLOY Group ahead of the competition. In fact, he says, warming to the subject, they’re about to release… but then he remembers that whatever it was he was about to announce is secret, so he’d better not talk about it.

He comes across as a younger version of Q, the gadget chief in the James Bond movies. After military service he became a project manager for a company in Landskrona, Sweden, developing naval underwater sensor systems (“secret stuff, mostly – can’t really say too much”).

Having switched jobs, he worked with a team developing the Zigbee RF Network for ASSA ABLOY’s Hospitality. They pushed the use of HID technology and modernized many existing products. This helped establish Hospitality as a success within the Group and its products as major leaders within their markets. It’s important to keep the competition guessing.

“I believe that what we develop is really at the forefront of the segment that we are active in,” Jan says. “What we bring to the market now and in the future will take us even farther ahead.”

He enjoys working with his colleagues, and the team is free to explore new technologies. These are major factors contributing to his job satisfaction. He likes to watch the development of an entire product life cycle, from first concept to finished product.

One of his proudest moments was seeing his security systems come online for the first time at the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas. (And no, he wasn’t wearing a tuxedo and drinking dry martinis at the time.)

But his key to life lies with his family. “You need to put your family first,” he says. “It’s important that they are there to support you and that you are able to give some time back. It’s the best thing you have. There’s no secret about that.”