Sweden

"There is already a regular shuttle of boats working for him between Saint-Malo, Sweden, Finland and even the Soviet Union. In less than four years, he has radically eliminated intermediaries from his import chain and modernized it to the extent of the revolution in communications that we are now beginning to see the first signs of. It is a global qualitative leap where François Pinault is no longer just attacking routine."

"Copyrights and patents aren't the only legal limitations impacting the digital knowledge loop. Privacy and confidentiality laws also loom large. I believe that someday all information should be public, including everyone's financial and health records. That may strike many readers as completely crazy, but countries like Sweden and Finland are already publishing everyone's tax return [113]. And some individuals have also published their entire medical history on the Internet, including the CIO and Dean for Technology at Harvard Medical School [114]. I come to my radical perspective here by comparing the costs and benefits to individuals and to humanity from keeping information private or confidential with the costs and benefits of making it public."

"Our parent company would be based in Holland because of that country’s attractive tax environment. An Irish company would hold boo’s intellectual property rights, while a string of companies in France, Germany, Sweden, the US and Britain would hold our assets in each of those countries. Patrik loved this sort of work, but Kajsa"

"I suspected more than knew that Jan Stenbeck had been at the center of the upheaval we went through from the late seventies to the late nineties, my adult life. The painful migration from woods and steel to mobile telephony and call centers, from the factory society to the staffing company. A transformation also in self-perception: in its own eyes, Sweden has gone from being a different and better country where the steel bites, the value of cars lasts, and the television serves the public utility and the truth, to a country like most others with advertising TV that shows porn after midnight and other fancy stuff that makes people watch."

"The investigation and Hermansson exposed the networks and described how different actors collaborated. They also showed that the major owners had managed to gain power and influence in the leading industrial companies of the time through relatively limited capital investments and often thanks to voting-strong A-shares."

"During an era of low interest rates, when aggressive acquirers crowded the private market in Sweden, Lifco shifted its focus to less competitive markets such as the UK, Germany, Italy, and the Benelux region. This international expansion has been a significant success, and Lifco has been able to acquire companies of at least the same quality in terms of operating margins at the same prices."

"cash-based incentive structure and significant managerial responsibility, has fostered strong employee loyalty. It’s rare for leaders to leave Lifco; to date, only one high-ranking leader, an external hire, has done so. Lifco is deeply committed to preserving its performance-driven culture. Like the prime years of Electrolux in the 1970s and 1980s, Lifco rewards its managers generously when they deliver results. In fact, many Lifco managers earn salaries comparable to public company CEOs in Sweden, reducing any incentive to…"

"In the spring of 1998, Fredrik Karlsson, then only 36 years old, carrying an unpretentious portfolio, walked into Carl Bennet’s office in Gothenburg, Sweden. What transpired over a single hour would alter the trajectory of Lifco forever. Fredrik Karlsson pulled out one piece of paper—the numbers of his previous successful restructuring of a business. By the time Karlsson left Bennet’s office, he had become the new CEO of Lifco."

"Indutrade into the UK and the DACH (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), where competition for deals was less fierce compared to Sweden. A"

"Incorruptible, blending in, tough on the job, and not talkative, they gradually invest in the factories and offices under the authority of Pierre Michelin and Pierre Boulanger. “The two Pierres,” said André Citroën, “on whom I will rebuild my temple.” The salaries of the main collaborators are authoritatively cut by thirty to thirty-five percent. Expense reports are scrutinized. Company cars are removed. Michelin, who before getting involved in the business had the Traction tested in Montlhéry, in Auvergne, and even in Sweden, knows the weaknesses of the model perfectly and knows they can be corrected quickly."

"The year was 1953 and it had been seven years since Erik Wallenberg invented the tetrahedron. Only now was there a cream machine that worked. Ruben had waited long enough for the money to start flowing into the company. He was of the firm opinion that Tetra Pak could quickly sell 500 cream machines in Sweden alone. He based this view on the fact that there were about 600 dairies in the country and that at least 500 of them would easily agree to rent a machine from Tetra Pak. But in his great optimism, he forgot that most of Sweden’s dairies only produced cheese and butter. Their need for cream packaging was, to say the least, non-existent. And among those who produced cream, only a few were large enough to afford to rent a separate packaging machine. Ruben also ignored the fact that the paper was still unreliable and that little Tetra Pak did not have the capacity to produce 500 machines. A realistic assessment of the sales opportunities indicated that the likely market encompassed about 60 machines. But Ruben refused to listen to what the marketing people said. In the end, they agreed to manufacture 100 machines. But even that was too much, the salespeople said."

"A central measure to stimulate exports and thus also growth was to follow the example of the United Kingdom and devalue the krona by 30.5 percent in 1949. The export industry rejoiced, and its competitiveness in the international market was significantly strengthened overnight. Shortly after the devaluation, the krona exchange rate was locked at a very low level by Sweden joining the Bretton Woods system, the international exchange rate mechanism with fixed exchange rates created by the other Western countries to establish a stable foundation for free trade and international growth."

"His dynastic building led to him becoming the patriarch Ruben Rausing, the man whose words no one within the family dared to question. He was simply one of Sweden’s last true capitalists. Capitalist in the sense that the capital created was reinvested in the business to in turn generate even more innovations and capital."

"In 1977, he gave up – it was only in India that something resembling the Rausing plan had succeeded, but on a local level. Ruben decided to leave Rome and instead settle in Switzerland. However, the decision was easier to make than to implement in practice. The Swiss authorities considered him too old and would be a burden to the country if he were granted a residence permit. Ruben felt wronged by the Swiss opposition, as he believed they should understand how much money he had. After a tough fight, he managed to obtain his residence permit and moved to Lausanne where Tetra Pak’s and the family’s financial managers worked under the economist Lennart Ohlsson. Although Ruben still longed to return to Sweden, he found it easier to live in Lausanne than in Italy. In Lausanne, he could socialize with the Swedes stationed there and take an active part in managing the family fortune which had grown significantly after they started seriously selling the aseptic Briken. Money, both commissions from Cordotex and profits from the various Tetra companies, literally poured into the foundations."

"Since Tetra Pak in recent years was making as much money as it did, they could afford quite wild experimenting before concluding a project. The costs were often allowed to rise to between 50 and 100 million kronor before the brakes were applied. In this way, Tetra Pak continued to be an innovation and entrepreneurship company long after the packaging system was fully functional. When Gad and Hans moved from Lund, in connection with the company’s relocation from Sweden, it was a hard blow for the technicians, who had gotten used to having a direct channel to the owners."

"On Tuesday, March 24, 1953, an article manuscript landed on the desk at Dagens Nyheter. The author was Ruben and the essence of the article was that the infected debate about an Öresund Bridge was actually outdated. Instead, why not take an Alexandrian solution to unravel the Gordian knot, he wondered. The day after, the DN’s front page was completely dominated by the sensational headline ÖRESUND DRY FOR A BILLION. “Not a bridge, not a tunnel, no, land shall connect Sweden with Denmark, a rolling plain with flourishing gardens and fertile farmland. And that land is the seabed under the waters of Öresund! For 800 million, maybe a billion, the two countries get this perfect connection with each other: it is not more expensive than a bridge or tunnel and unlike those solutions, it pays back the investment and more,” read the front-page lead."

"Ruben was born at a time when Sweden was still relatively undeveloped as an industrial nation. He belonged to the first generation that could benefit from the development by climbing the social ladder."

"The later investment in Tetra Pak, however, became by far the biggest success. Not just economically but also mentally. Today, Tetra packs are so commonly seen that we take them for granted in our everyday life. It would also be difficult to imagine a modern society without Tetra Pak’s packaging. In Sweden, they are also intimately associated with the concept of the welfare state and the modern construction of society."

"In the USA, Ruben had seen that more and more goods were being pre-packaged and that both commerce and industry could save a lot of money in this way. Both realized that this also meant there was a lot of money to be made for those who quickly introduced similar packaging systems back in Sweden. The country was still virgin territory for the packaging industry."

"In 2013, after just over twenty years of operations, Swedish venture capital companies, according to SCB, controlled 14 percent of the large and medium-sized companies in Sweden. They had revenues equivalent to 8 percent of GDP. Together, through their funds, they controlled a capital totaling almost 800 billion SEK, of which 470 were in Sweden. The money was invested in 850 companies with 850,000 employees, 180,000 of whom worked in Sweden. In other words, they were a significant power factor."

"In 1950, my father became Sweden's first envoy to the independent Indonesia, and together with a couple of colleagues, he established diplomatic relations under rather primitive conditions. For two years, my mother lived half the year in Sweden and half in Indonesia. I was informed that I would start the third grade at the Sigtuna Foundation’s Humanistic Gymnasium (SHL), which today corresponds to seventh grade, and live in the dormitory Kvarnbranten. It was terrible news."

"When I begin my life in Sweden, I am eight years old and naturally a child. But it can be said that for those who had responsibility, I am a child more as an object for upbringing. In my childhood and youth world, my father will be absent for long periods due to travels and long-term foreign postings. My mother will occasionally be with him in a foreign land. Therefore, other people and their values came to play a significant role in my life."

"When I begin my life in Sweden, I am eight years old and naturally a child. But it can be said that for those who had responsibility, I am a child more as an object for upbringing. In my childhood and youth world, my father will be absent for long periods due to travels and long-term foreign postings. My mother will occasionally be with him in a foreign land. Therefore, other people and their values came to play a significant role in my life."

"Peer upbringing occurred, also in its form of bullying. I have never been able to understand how adults can believe that children in puberty, filled with their own problems, could develop any talents for raising other children. Many of the teachers at SHL were among Sweden's best in their subjects, but they lived in a bright world of classical educational ideals and idealistic humanism. They rarely saw what happened beyond the classrooms, on the schoolyard, in the corridors, at night, out in the woods, or at the quick moments when unnoticed pinches, hits, or insults could be delivered. For many of us, this was part of everyday life and left its marks."

"When I begin my life in Sweden, I am eight years old and naturally a child. But it can be said that for those who had responsibility, I am a child more as an object for upbringing. In my childhood and youth world, my father will be absent for long periods due to travels and long-term foreign postings. My mother will occasionally be with him in a foreign land. Therefore, other people and their values came to play a significant role in my life."

"In recent years, I have had a feeling that Sweden has entered a more entrepreneurial phase, not least thanks to the development of digital technology, and it pleases me greatly. Many of our digital entrepreneurs are celebrated as business heroes in the media, and it's important for young people to have role models that compete with idols in sports and entertainment. Sweden's digital successes are encouraging, but they require a lot of risky capital, and that's not Latour's street. However, we are part of driving the demand and use of what is vital to increase productivity and renew our companies' products and services."

"Facit's fundamental problem was that the development people and technicians worked in a closed world, stuck in their own proud history. Meanwhile, out there in the "world," an electronic revolution was underway, of which I now have an example in my office: the Japanese Sharp electronic calculator, no bigger than a large matchbox and the first to be sold in Sweden. It was Facit that imported it in a desperate attempt to latch onto the new trend. It was a shocking realization in my young life that a Swedish, world-leading corporation could be so quickly swept off the board by new technology. It left deep marks."