Transcription
We want the next generation to choose their own path because we know that everything that we do, we need to have perspectives from all over the place so we're not giving them jobs. We're trying to guide them, but we want them to take their own decisions. So what they want to do and how they want to develop themselves. So how would you describe success? Giving them a sense of belonging or a sense of values? I think both of those is important and to be seen from from us, because of course, they look a lot at us and say, Am I doing right or wrong like we tried to do with our fathers? But no, I think we're were just try to be there and we bring in people around us that they can talk to because one has to understand, I mean, in everything that we do or the companies that we run and everything that we do through the foundations, there is a lot of people around us that we trust and work with. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to be where we are. So we use that for the next generation also.
What's your biggest challenge when it comes to succession planning? I think the main challenge is that they probably want us to retire now. No, I'm just kidding. But the good thing, isn't it, that they want to get it is it is it puts a lot of pressure on. Not on me. I'm so young, but my older brother and cousin. It will stick to giving you a hard time. Or them a hard time. No. I think the big challenge is, is to make them understand that it is not a family business. In that sense. It is all about the ecosystem that we do work with and they understand that today. But that was a challenge in the beginning. Of course, they question that, you know, my father was never at home. He was out travelling all the time. I don't want to do that. What does that mean? And make them understand why we do and how we do and get respect for that. And then also an understanding which means that today they I don't think they mind being part of it.
When do you think you. I don't know whether it's actually you and your brother stepping down and my cousin and your cousin or is it I mean, my brother and cousin are turning 70 this year, so they're getting very old. I'm much, much younger, but now I'm giving them a very hard time and I do it. And, you know, this is what it really is. No, no, no. But that's the way that we can work with each other, to be honest. We complement each other. Now, we will be around and we will help to see to it that we can support them on the side. They are taking more and more responsibility. Some of them were put on on boards of public companies last year and that process continues. Um, but we're not the family that retire in that sense, so we will probably be around, but we will probably take a step to the side because they are proving themselves. I mean, do you think that five years is a good time? I mean, do you think about it like that? You know, we don't know because it's all up to it's all up to their own development where they are. Yeah. You know, we don't give them jobs. We don't tell them that you're a family member. You will then be here or there. No, it's all about being responsible for your own development and showing that you really want to do something and that you can contribute in that position, that the world feels so much more uncertain. And so is it more difficult because of everything that's going on in foreign policy and oil and AI and technology, too, to have a clear generational shift?
I don't know if it makes it more difficult. And the reason I'm saying that is that out of these 30, the majority of them have studied abroad, worked abroad. So they are bringing a lot of other knowledge and a broader perspective into all the processes that we had. Yes, we are in ourselves extremely broad and very international. But they have lived in and been brought up in that. So they will be extremely important for us because they have knowledge and know that we are to all to have. I mean, my 13 year old daughter takes my new phone and helps me to make it work, to be honest and tell me how I should use a I and try to keep it. I need to understand that they are a resource and we should use that. But for the world, this is quite unsettling. It is. That is, of course, a challenge. And maybe that is one of the reasons where we will not step down. In that sense, we will be around because I think that we need to do this together because the world is changing and the challenges are growing every day. We wake up every morning not really knowing what will happen from now on. And those are questions that we need to work with together.
How do you think the world is changing? I think that all the questions that are coming out of North America right now is, of course, changing the war in Ukraine and the Middle East and all of this that we in our generation haven't had in the same sense. We've been spoiled. There has not been that many conflicts of this magnitude at the same time. And so I think that everything is very new for all of us, and we need to understand and help ourselves and the companies around us to to work in the new reality. And and, you know, as I say, I think we need to be more of a group working. It's not on an individual basis is something that we do with the people around us, with the companies. And as a family, you clearly love research and universities and kind of big thinkers. Yeah. I mean, is this a big advantage for Europe that that Europe should, should and could commercialize better to maybe counter some of the big companies in the US?
I think that I think, yes, we have to we have been too reliant on others. And to be honest, I think that it is proven that we do have a lot of know how both in countries like Sweden, but in Europe at large. And we need to find ways of of working much closer closer with each other. We have to get away of get away from mine is mine and yours is yours. We need to find ways of working together because we have different competencies of different know how. And we need to put that together to show that Europe can be part of the world in that sense. We shown here in Sweden that getting academia and business to work together to see to to it that we as a small country with limited resources, can develop and find ways of developing ourselves and the competence within our country. And I think that we could do the same on the European level. Is is there a setback in Europe because there's not enough capital? What you don't understand what the missing link is actually compared to some of the big American companies. Of course, it is difficult to compete with the big American companies. But if you take, you know, Silicon Valley compared to Europe, yes, they are ahead of Europe. But does that mean that Europe doesn't know anything? Of course not. I mean, there is European companies that are doing very well and a lot of small startups that are extremely exciting. But all the funding is still going to Silicon Valley. So, you know, we have to help to find ways of seeing to it that we actually lift what we do have and use it in the right way.
U.S. Educated. How has that shaped your mind? And again, you know, are you trying to attract more American talent to European Swedish universities? That we do, of course. For years in Denver has has formed me in many ways. You have always been, you know, kind of a guiding light in anything that you do, you listen to and you try to understand a little bit different today. And from my jobs perspective, trying to see to it that we develop Swedish universities and the know how in Sweden, you know, the foundation started ten years ago, a project where we realized we were losing one generation of young researchers. And so we told the universities that you should nominate your youngest researchers, but 40% should be Swedes that are abroad or young foreigners that you would like to have at your university to help you grow your competence. We have 300 of these young year young researchers at universities today that we fund on a yearly basis. And today, it's another situation. Now we try to help to see to it that we can get some of the researchers who are not allowed to stay or don't have any funding in the US any longer and make them come back to Sweden or for researchers that would like to come to Sweden.
Talking a little bit about how you see a lot of the technology space changing, I know you're a investor, Abi's a big investor in Ericsson. Do you do worry about job displacements? I think the technology that we are seeing, the change in technology will of course make changes in how different industries work and what it means for employment. So I think it is it is a challenge. We as as owners started many, many years ago talking to our companies about their responsibility in the time of change, knowing that AI and other technologies would be part. Of their development. We talked a lot about future proofing. Where are you going to be in five, ten years? What does that mean? Not only for your companies and the products that you produce, but also for your employees? It is up to you to already now start to try to find ways of re-educating, because it's not the jobs. All jobs are going to disappear. It's just that we're going to need other types of jobs. So and we all need to be part of that change and take the responsibility in that change.