When Camilla Bitsch took on the role of Nordic HR Director at Lavazza in 2017, she faced a rare oppor-tunity: to build the HR function in the Nordics entirely from scratch. When Lavazza acquired Merrild Coffee in 2015, only approximately 25 employees came along — and no HR function joined the organi-sation in the first place.
“I was motivated by the international scope — working across geographies — and by our brands and products I’m genuinely proud to represent,” she says. “The chance to shape a new HR function and in-fluence both the local culture and the collaboration with our global team was a unique opportunity.”
Since then, she has operated in the intersection between global frameworks and local needs — a bal-ance she finds both challenging and rewarding.
“It’s a good mix between global systems and local autonomy. We must always find solutions that make sense both for the headquarters in Turin and for our employees in the Nordics.”
A Flat and Open Workplace
Lavazza is now a truly global company, yet its Italian roots remain tangible. In the Nordic region, how-ever, Camilla Bitsch experiences a workplace defined by openness and flat hierarchies:
“The best argument wins. Everyone should have a voice, and we have a culture where employees can approach the management directly,” she explains — This differs from Italy, where hierarchical struc-tures play an more important part in shaping workplace interactions.
She describes the Nordic organisation as inclusive, flexible, and built on a high level of trust. At the same time, Lavazza as a group has undergone a major transformation: from being a distinctly Italian company to becoming a global corporation.
“It’s been a huge shift that has required constant adaptation in how we collaborate. It’s created a new kind of global awareness — without losing our local character,” she says.
Values as the Common Ground
To hold together a company operating in over 100 countries, a shared foundation is essential. At Lavaz-za, four core values — authenticity, passion for excellence, responsibility, and openness — guide both strategic and everyday decisions.
“Our values are the compass for everything we do. They ensure we can speak a common language across borders, even though our ways of working and cultures may differ,” says Camilla Bitsch.
Diversity and inclusion are a natural extension of these values. The journey began as a global initiative, where employees in all regions were interviewed about their experiences with D&I.
“It gave us an honest and nuanced view of where we stood. From there, we set clear goals and KPIs — for example, ensuring bias-free recruitment and promotion processes, equal pay, female leadership training and setting a concrete target for women’s representation in leadership by 2030.”
A key tool in this work is Develop Diverse, which assesses job postings and communication for inclu-siveness.
“I thought I was already writing inclusively — but the tool showed there was room for improvement. Now we can see that our communication reaches a broader audience, and our applicant pool has be-come more diverse,” she explains.
HR Across Borders
Ensuring consistent HR processes across the Nordics requires both structure and flexibility. Recruit-ment is centralized under Camilla Bitsch, who ensures that all markets use the same testing systems and culture-fit assessments.
“We look not only at competencies but also at whether candidates can identify with our values and D&I manifesto,” she notes.
Onboarding is handled locally but always with a focus on relationships. New employees meet both close colleagues and cross-functional stakeholders — and often also counterparts at the Turin head-quarters.
“Relationships are key. In the Nordics, we tend to go straight to the task, without building the relation-ship first, while Italians are more relationship oriented. Once you’ve built that personal connection, collaboration becomes much smoother —even if we encounter differences in our perspective..”
The cultural differences show clearly in practice
“In the Nordics, it’s normal for an employee to approach the managing director directly with an idea, whereas in Italy you’d typically follow the formal decision chain. Neither approach is wrong — but if we don’t understand these differences, we can easily step on each other’s toes. That’s why it’s so im-portant that we keep practicing D&I — and continue to actively reflect on our different perspectives,” she says.
Skills for a Global Organisation
Working in a global company requires particular skills from both leaders and employees. For Camilla Bitsch, the most important are cultural awareness, relationship-building, and communication.
