At the same time, Swedes have also remained healthily skeptical of the latest management fashions. Swedes are generally very suspicious of ready-made ideas or solutions. The most striking element in Swedish management, however, is its international perspective. When it comes to producing global companies, Scandinavia is remarkably successful the only worthwhile European comparisons are with Switzerland and, perhaps, the Netherlands. Sweden's companies transcend boundaries in ways few others can manage.
Internationalization is in the Swedish genes.
And management transfers to foreign subsidiaries have long been regarded as important learning opportunities for people on the way up rather than demotions. The international success of Swedish business is exemplified by the unlikely example of a company which exercised a monopoly for most of the 20th century and remains state-owned. We're very conscious of results, but not who did it. We don't need as many heroes. You would expect that company to have been consigned to the dustbin of history.