Keynote on Scandinavian Management

The Swedish model of leadership, typically characterized as non-hierarchical, team work, involvement, decentralized responsibilities, communicative and built on mutual trust, has emerged over the last three decades. It was primarily rooted in the strong internatio­nally growing mechanical industry and had a large firm context, paired with what is often labelled the Swedish tradition of consensus. The model has been described as successful and is associated with the success of many Swedish firms’ global success.

Today however, we see a new generation of creative digital firms emerging, firms with value offerings and business models enabled by digital technology. There are reasons to believe that an alternative leadership model is evolving: a model that to some parts holds characteristics that are slightly different from the ‘classical’. In an interview study with CEOs we have raised the question: is there a new form of Swedish management, and if so, what characterizes it?

Sofia Börjesson, PhD, Professor

Sofia Börjesson is professor of technology management at the Department of Technology Management and Economics at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. The academic research field evolves around questions of how large, mature organizations change and develop with focus on the management of innovation work.

Fredrik Lagergren, PhD.

Fredrik is managing director of SAM consulting, a Swedish 40 year old management consulting firm working in the fields of creating efficient flow organisations, profitability learning and modularization. Fredrik has a background as Director of KTH Executive school at the Royal Institute of Technology i Stockholm.

Eric Ringertz, CEO NETLIGHT