Ten Swedish companies that continue to change the world

Sweden has a long tradition of innovation and enterprise, as evidenced by everything from traditional industries to start-up businesses.

Ericsson

The Swedish telecoms giant laid the groundwork for the infrastructure and rapid advances in IT and telecoms that we are seeing today. Close collaboration with universities and research institutes around the world is creating the conditions for new innovations and a leading role well into the future.

H&M

In a time when questions of environmental and social responsibility are becoming increasingly important to consumers, the Swedish clothing giant has adopted a position of global leadership. By changing its working practices and making demands of its suppliers, the company has shown that good business and sustainable development go hand in hand.

Scania

Scania’s modular system combining customization with rational production has been called the transport industry’s equivalent of Toyota’s Lean concept. Under the ownership of Volkswagen AG, the Swedish manufacturer is set to take a leading role in the sustainable transport solutions of the future.

SKF

Innovation continues to drive the cogs of the 110-year-old industrial giant from Gothenburg. In recent years, there has been great interest in the company’s app-driven solutions, for example to calculate the shelf life of stock, and independent, intelligent sensors for the wind power and rail industries.

Sandvik

Partnership is the key to the Swedish industrial group’s global success. Few other companies have been as good at generating positive results along with their customers and the world’s leading researchers. Today’s leadership model can be summed up as being open and based on the inner drive of employees rather than imposing demands.

Ikea

The Swedish furniture company retains its outstanding position through its new and imaginative ways of inspiring our creativity in the home. Its unwavering talent for innovation began with the flat pack and now encompasses screwless assembly plus steps towards the smart home and AR technology.

Tetra Pak

When Ruben Rausing launched his paperboard milk packaging in 1951, he truly changed the world. Now one of a trio of companies in the Tetra Laval Group, in 2016 Tetra Pak had 24,000 employees around the world plus net sales of EUR 24 billion.

Skype

Free video calls over the internet have revolutionized the way people on different continents keep in touch with each other. In 2011 Skype was purchased by Microsoft for SEK 50 billion, which then incorporated the software into its own internet communications business.

Klarna

Guaranteed payment was a much sought-after innovation when payment services company Klarna emerged in 2005 at the Stockholm School of Economics, and it is considered one of the first businesses of the Swedish FinTech era. The company was granted bank status in summer 2017 and intends to change its name to Klarna Bank.

Spotify

Swedish entrepreneurs Martin Lorentzon and Daniel Ek changed the whole way we consume music. The streaming service largely killed off both the physical CD and illegal downloads, and is the largest service of its kind in the world with over 100 million users.

Electrolux

The white goods giant that began life as a vacuum cleaner manufacturer in Lilla Essingen, Stockholm in 1919, continues to surprise with smarter and more energy-efficient machines in today’s connected world. In 2016, the company had a turnover of SEK 121 billion and a workforce of around 55,000 people.

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