How the Nordics stay in front...

New business ideas and initiatives are helping keep the countries of Scandinavia ahead.  A dynamic picture of the Nordic success story was given by Dr. Raoul Hasselgren (Sardus), who described the area as “a vast market with a great purchasing power”.

He listed global companies such as Ericsson, Ikea, Volvo, Nokia and Tetra Pak, which contributed to some of the strongest economies in the world.  Finland enjoyed four per cent annual growth followed by Denmark (3.6), and Sweden (3.5).  Norway was the richest of all the Nordic nations while Iceland had enjoyed “tremendous growth”.

What contributes to this success?  Hasselgren listed:

• Product development and marketing
• Design, innovation and lifestyle
• Distribution over vast areas
• Strong societies, with high tax
• Small net income creating demand for low cost/prices.

Low-cost companies such as Ikea and low-price businesses like H&M had gone on to worldwide success.  He said creativity was the key to their prime position.  People were prepared to take risks, there was a high number of university students, and companies engaged in extensive research.  Sweden’s knowledge economy invested four per cent of its resources in R&D.

He concluded: “Every problem creates an opportunity.  But if the battle results in a one-sided, biased fight for better conditions or elimination of products and producers, then ECR has failed and the consumer has lost.  But if we go hand in hand and use best practice, the consumer will be satisfied.”

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