Wallenberg

"At the turn between the 1960s and 1970s, Asea, L.M. Ericsson, Volvo, Skånska Cementgjuteriet, and Rederi AB Nordstjernan were the five largest companies in Sweden. In Hermansson’s book, the fifteen original families were named Wallenberg, Söderberg, Wehtje, Johnson, Bonnier, Kempe, Klingspor, Jeansson, Dunker, Broström, Schwartz, Hammarskiöld, Jacobsson, Åselius, and Throne-Holst."

"From the start, the company was already high-tech, even though it may be hard to believe considering its products - simple paper packaging. However, it is misleading to focus on the company’s end products to consumers. In reality, it is the technology to fill the packages which was and remains the great innovation - the continuous filling. The continuous filling, which also worked with aseptic technology and development of a paper material for these purposes, is what keeps the Tetra group still leading in the global packaging systems for liquid foods. That is where they make their largest profits. It was the road, the process, to a finished product that was important, and it was not easy to let machines fold and fill paper packages that had to be tightly sealed despite rough handling. At the same time, the contents of the packaging had to be completely sterile. It should also be remembered that when the management decided to continue working with Wallenberg’s little tetrahedron, there was no one who knew how it would be done. There was also no packaging material. Tetra Pak had to solve many problems and use previously untested cutting-edge technology, while many who stayed within Åkerlund & Rausing laughed behind their backs. At the same time, Tetra Pak’s people developed an industrial system that was so easy to handle and maintain that it was one of the few Western systems that could be directly applied in developing countries."

"However, a stock market listing was the last thing Ruben wanted to see. He saw the stock market only as a way for people to make money off other people’s initiatives and work. Moreover, a stock market listing would ruin his plans to build a new industrial dynasty. The company must be kept entirely within family control. He made this clear in no uncertain terms to Wallenberg, who was not satisfied with the answer. He argued that he still had not received an answer to the crucial point: how the operation would be financed without either loans or own capital. But Ruben had an answer to that too. With a significant increase in machine sales abroad, the demand for paper would increase. Furthermore, if they placed the paper production outside the country, the large revenues it generated could be kept out of reach for the Swedish tax authorities and currency regulations. This way, a large fortune could be built up in a short time, enough to finance further manufacturing and development. Additionally, there would be enough money to increase the own capital by a substantial amount. This strategy was what Ruben was working after – the explanation for many of his desperate ideas and plans."

"Most people have at some point experienced suddenly just seeing the solution to a problem in front of them, without really being able to explain why or how they came to the answer. Such a moment occurred that day when Erik Torudd came down to the laboratory and saw how Wallenberg and his assistants took a long paper tube and folded tetrahedrons in a long chain before they split them apart."

"The question was miraculously solved through a personal visit to the district chief judge Marcus Wallenberg senior, who approved the loans. The peculiar thing was that although Ruben had left Enskilda Banken in a manner that went against the bank’s traditions – one leaves “neatly” within Wallenberg companies – he maintained very good relations with the Wallenberg family itself. The explanation may have been that Ruben had been written up in the black book that the bank’s credit manager, Richard Julin, kept on promising young corporate leaders."

"He liked to work at night, and it was also now that he reasoned step by step towards a possible solution. Using pure logic, he pondered possible shapes that minimized material usage. In his mind, he envisioned a tube made of paper. “If one folds it at one end and then folds in the opposite direction at the other end, a small pyramid of paper is formed. It can thus be folded from a single piece of paper and only needs gluing at two seams. Thus, there is no material waste whatsoever,” he thought in the darkness of a February night. Although Wallenberg realized that he had found the optimal shape, he was not yet completely sure if he had really solved the problem. During the night, he had actually come up with two more possible solutions that he also wanted to try. Moreover, he had not yet actually folded any tetrahedron in reality."

"People often find it difficult to accept new inventions, simply because human capacity to think in new ways is limited. Therefore, Wallenberg also encountered skepticism when he showed what he had come up with. Even Ruben Rausing, who had “think differently” as one of his mottos, had a hard time embracing the little ingenious invention. A few days later, when he asked Erik Wallenberg to come up and show how things were going with the milk packages, Wallenberg placed a number of tetrahedrons on a tray and went up."

"He tasked Torudd to immediately apply for a patent for Wallenberg’s tetrahedron. And the drawings of the tetrahedron were handed over to the patent firm AW Andersson in Malmö, so they could write the patent application. Erik Torudd had a hard time getting the agency’s representatives to understand that the tetrahedron really was an invention and that it truly could be used as packaging. Eventually, Rausing became irritated and instructed Torudd to call a meeting with the patent firm."

"As the tetrahedron later succeeded globally, various myths about its origin developed: one of them is that it was merely by chance that Wallenberg came up with the solution, since he was actually just playing with some paper while he was home in a feverish delirium. Rausing himself told this story in various contexts. Another version of the story is that Ruben Rausing himself came up with the tetrahedron when he saw his wife stuffing sausages. He also started referring to the tetrahedron as “his patent,” which was correct but gave a misleading impression that he had invented it himself. And Torudd’s idea of continuous filling, he attributed to his wife."

"When Ruben received the invitation, he immediately understood what it was about. Wallenberg definitely did not make it a habit to invite people just for pleasant social gatherings – there was always a practical reason. Ruben also understood why Marcus Wallenberg was worried. Since the beginning in the early thirties, Ruben’s company had been underfunded because he had never had his own money to invest in them. But now he would explain to Wallenberg how to build up the company’s own capital. He was filled with confidence as he packed his bag on a beautiful September day to head to Vidbynäs."

"It was not a given that I would start at the School of Economics. My academic inclination rather suggested that I would become a history teacher or something in that direction. But it was entirely my own decision, met with some snorts from the family. One reason was my growing interest in companies and stocks. In addition to my voracious appetite for history, during the last years of high school, the world of companies and company founders emerged. Out at Parkudden on Djurgården, where my grandparents lived, there were plenty of anecdotes about the neighborhood, the Wallenberg’s Täcka Udden, Torsten Kreuger's villa with a large motorboat moored at the dock, the Bonnier villas, and the Thielska Gallery. It was a concentrated piece of Swedish business history that I absorbed."

"Those born into dynasties have completely different conditions and also other ties. Wise dynasties learn from their own history and make it their heritage and do not need to make the same mistakes repeatedly. I believe this is an explanation for the Wallenberg family's success, a family I admire and have learned much from"