IMPRESSION OF A BRIT The Swedish Model There’s been a lot of media talk recently about ‘The Swedish Model’ – the organisational, not the physical, one. It’s the popular conception that managing by consensus is more effective than management by hierarchy. Richard Hill I t is certainly different when you see it in action, as I did on a visit to a Swedish high-tech company in the southern county of Blekinge. I was there in my capacity as a communications consultant to the Dupont corporation – and immediately the difference in the way these two companies were run was, to say the least, very striking. I arrived in this provincial business park of functional single-storey buildings. Having located the right one, I walked into the reception and asked to speak to the managing director. “Down the corridor there,” said a rather reluctant receptionist, pointing the way, “and you’ll find him in the last office on the right”. This response confirmed that I was in Sweden. In France the managing director would have been in an office in the middle of the building and not at the end, while in Germany the door to his or her office would almost certainly have been closed – and, in both cases, the receptionist would have reacted differently. In this case, the door of the end office was wide open. After a tentative knock out of courtesy, I walked in to find a young man in shirtsleeves sitting at a small office desk with a large and handsome dog stretched out at his feet. I was indeed in Sweden… To most other Europeans the Swedes come across as professional and sophisticated business people, yet they have a reluctance to be overtly entrepreneurial. It may seem surprising that it should be a German businesswoman, i.e. someone from a relatively conservative culture, who comments that Swedish managers prefer to stick to proven methods rather than take chances. But management academics make the same point. The explanation is that, while the Swedes have a very high tolerance of ambiguity, they do believe in risk avoidance – which is not the same thing. In other respects the Swedes are as human and personable as anyone else. They even have weaknesses like the rest of us, but manage to keep them within bounds. Perhaps the most baffling thing about them is that they seem to do nothing to excess and are at times almost irritatingly well-balanced. Their attitude is summed up in the word lagom, which implies "not too much, not too little, but just right!" It is often said that creating empathy with a Swede is like trying to empty a ketchup bottle. At first nothing happens, then, all of a sudden, the contents splurt out all over the place (in the case of the Finns you first have to work out how to remove the cap). Having created a very remarkable society for themselves, something that was regarded as the ‘Third Way’ in the days of Capitalism v. Communism (the 'Middle Way' in Norwegian parlance), they now seem to find it either too boring or too expensive. High taxation has engendered a work-to-rule mentality which, encouraged by long holidays and a wealth of leisure pursuits, is now too deep-rooted to eradicate. Among the pursuits are the beautiful girls, which may explain the number of Italian and Greek car mechanics, restaurant owners and waiters in the country. The country is no exception to the rule that the Nordic countries have the youngest managers in Europe and run their businesses democratically, as young managers should. As an example, the CEO of Electrolux took office when he was in his late30s and the company's chief comptroller when he was only 32. Nordic business aptitudes in fact vary dramatically. If one is to believe the old Norwegian saw (it somehow seems right that 'old saws' should be Norwegian), it should be the Finns who design the products, the Swedes who make them, the Danes who sell them and the Norwegians – because, for once, they think anything foreign is better than the home-grown equivalent – who buy them. ● BECI - Bruxelles métropole - novembre 2015 67
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