Business organizations in the Nordic region have developed a distinctive operational model featuring a flat hierarchy, CEOs who eschew the spotlight, generous parental leave and vacation time, and a focus on employees’ work-life satisfaction. Can the Nordic model find success in the United States?
Maybe, according to female business leaders from Sweden who took part in a September symposium organized by the GW Center for International Business Education & Research (GW-CIBER) at the George Washington University School of Business (GWSB) and co-sponsored by DC Chapter of the Swedish Women’s Educational Association (SWEA), a global network for Swedish and Swedish-speaking women.
“For the last several years, we have built high-impact programming as part of our Nordic Initiative, which includes students in study abroad and consulting programs and faculty on professional development trips to study the intersection of innovation and sustainability in Scandinavia,” said GW-CIBER Director Anna Helm. “Due to GWSB’s strong commitment to supporting women’s education and business careers, we brought together female executives to share their perspectives on what is unique about the Nordic approach.”
Nordic management values and principles are gaining traction worldwide, and GWSB has found growing student interest in the model underpinned by personal responsibility, transparency and a widespread focus on sustainability. Camilla Bergman, founder and CEO of Swedish media company Loop and former CEO of Breakit, Sweden’s largest tech news website, moderated the symposium’s panel discussions on the pros and cons of the Nordic model.
People-Driven Culture
“The Nordic leadership style is on a newer consciousness level than that of America. What it means is that its people driven,” said Linda Björk, CEO of Inner Business Institute and author of a new book titled Mind Skills: Unleash Your Potential to Lead in the Big Leagues. In 2004, Björk, who is Swedish and works internationally, moved from New York and returned to Sweden to take over as CEO of a design agency based in Stockholm.
After being away for a decade, she arrived back in her home country with an American style of doing business, which included pushing people for results. “But it didn’t work that well,” she noted. “I kept bumping into problems. People in Sweden, when the clock is … five o’clock, they look at their watch like ‘OK. It’s time to go home.’ So, I butted heads a bit in the beginning.”
Björk wanted to advance a global vision for the firm and post fast growth. However, she found her staff was slow to bring in clients—until she cultivated a mindfulness-based program within the company in 2006. Its goal was to help her team members find their strengths.
“By 2007, we had won seven out of seven pitches. By 2009, we were the design agency of the year. By the time I left the company in 2013, we had five global clients and were among the five most profitable design agencies in Sweden,” she said.
Other participants on the panel discussions, including Kristen Berg, CEO and CCO of Mestro, an energy consumption platform, and Caroline Bergström, head of ancillary products, connectivity and retail at the Scandinavian airlines SAS, said the Nordic model encouraged people to bring forward their best ideas.
Katarina Bonde is the board chair at gaming company Stillfront Group, CEO of electronics parts distributor Mycronic AB, and an executive with Mentimeter, an innovation company focused on making meetings and presentations more productive. She said the Scandinavian business approach grew out of a strong culture of gender equality. She noted that she didn’t realize how unequal it was in the United States until she moved here, recalling an interview with executives at a U.S. tech company who questioned why she needed to work since her husband had a good job at Microsoft.
The women also talked about Nordic firms’ support for worker rights, building off the Scandinavian region’s long history with labor unions, and their championing of parental leave that can extend a year or more. They noted that colleagues also get to know one another personally, building strong relationships within their teams and fostering trust within the organization.
Inclusivity and Representation
“When it comes to people, we want to know about our colleagues,” said Michaela Wallin, the Global E2e Track & Trace delivery lead at H&M Group in New York. “We love our coffee with a sweet treat in the afternoon, but it’s also about meeting around that coffee station and talking about things that are not about work.
“We see value in bringing people together, the collective... It’s not always the fastest way to get [results], but it is sustainable,” she added.
Helen Ljungdahl Round, president and CEO of medical device company Acarix, said she learned that employees in different cultures may be more dependent on their executives making the decisions. “But what’s unique [about the Nordic model] is that once you create that trust the ideas come,” she explained. “The most important thing as a leader is to get your team to talk, to share the idea. That’s when you can really build businesses.”
Along with their praise for the culture at Swedish companies, the symposium panelists acknowledged that the Nordic model needs strengthening in several areas. Women are less frequently found working in private equity or in incubators, firms can take longer to make decisions since Nordic leadership is consensus driven, and women’s representation on corporate boards is not on par with that of men.
Still, the business executives and corporate board members who took part in the event maintained that their workplace culture nurtured emerging leaders and brought innovative ideas to the forefront.
Nonetheless, they acknowledged that the Nordic model did not always find a smooth reception in the United States. Helene Honeybone, the Swedish owner and president of Practical Advertising in Dallas, said the Scandinavian companies that succeed in Texas are the ones that prepare well and do not underestimate the competitiveness and speed with which U.S. businesses operate.
And where did they find that U.S. companies excelled? In workforce diversity.
“I think this is where the U.S. is extraordinary compared to Sweden,” said Wallin. “It’s definitely an area where we need to do better and put in much stronger targets.”
The business leaders called for more mentorship by senior women. They also encouraged young professionals to build work networks that include successful women.
“The Nordic model enables everyone to have a better life, including men. But habits are hard to change,” said Bonde. “The French, they eat cheese, they drink wine and they’re so slim. That’s the French paradox.
“The Swedish, they’re on parental leave, they’re on vacation, and they build fantastically productive companies. That’s the Swedish paradox.”
Videos of Part 1 and Part II of the 2023 Nordic Female Leaders Panel: Lessons for the U.S. are available online.