DN

"In a rare interview in DN in 2006, Hans describes his leadership philosophy: “Define the problems, delegate the decision-making, CEOs should have a helicopter perspective and should not engage in routine work, power is necessary to have but a sign of weakness to need to use.” In the same interview, he mentions that he had a stamp made with the words: “Return to sender. Decide yourself.”"

"To return to Hans Rausing and his involvement in the packaging company Ecolean. In an interview with DN in 2006, he expressed why he thought the company was important: “Nothing new has happened in this industry for 50 years. Tetra Pak broke the conventions when the disposable paper package took over from glass bottles. Today, Ecolean is the spearhead in the next revolt against convention.” In the same interview, he mentioned that, despite being over 80 years old, he was out in stores at least every fortnight to keep up with trends of new packages."

"The second was that DN's revenue streams were faltering. The golden year 1969 had made the group one of the country's most profitable companies, but it had quickly gone downhill thereafter. The management's interpretation of the result development was based on an incorrect analysis of the newspaper's strength. Circulation and advertising influx stagnated. It was not a sustainable long-term strategy to meet rising costs and weakening profits with constant price increases for subscribers and advertisers. An underestimated factor was also that Stockholm's very rapid growth had taken a hit from the politically-driven relocation of authorities. DN was a national newspaper, but developments in Stockholm were absolutely crucial for the company's economy. In the early 1970s, household coverage in the city was over fifty percent, with an almost monopoly on the advertising market."

"Quite a way into my tenure as CEO at DN, during a trip in the USA, I received a thorough and well-deserved round from my colleagues when my expeditionary ability began to resemble a runaway lawn mower. To my own horror, I noticed myself increasingly often "disappearing" in the middle of a briefing. Suddenly, I was just gone, closed off, finished with the surroundings. Arms and legs crossed and glances wandered off in pursuit of the daily dispatching. To the deformation of judgment in the crowned one was added a growing inability to listen and function in community."

"From there, it's not far to pretentiousness. It's about a lifestyle that creates alienation, disengagement, and trust issues in professional practice. DN's editorial chief Karl Ahlenius touched on these thoughts when I had been CEO for a few years. Kalle pointed out the risk of gaps and poorer understanding of the employees' motivations and culture. Rather reflexively, I dismissed his thoughts. It wasn't a wise move. Nowadays, I am convinced that CEOs, as well as company owners—myself included—should be wary of what is perceived as pretentiousness. Arranging things for oneself, flying around in a flashy manner, using decorative titles, and generally floating above—this all corrodes trust in the CEO and the company."

"Early one morning, a friend called and asked if I had read DN. "No, not yet." "You absolutely shouldn't do it," was the reply. He wouldn't relent until I promised not to, at least not until later in the afternoon. It was good advice. You have to handle problems in the right order, and nothing could be done about Sven-Ivan's article. There were serious accusations against the way I acted in the construction of Herakles. The unusual approach in Sweden of disfiguring my face with paragraph signs gave me associations to Julius Streicher's Nazi publication Der Stürmer, and fortunately, I haven't seen this approach copied elsewhere other than in DN."