{"id":16933,"date":"2025-10-09T07:20:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T07:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=16933"},"modified":"2025-10-09T07:20:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T07:20:48","slug":"the-nordic-approach-to-business-builds-empowerment-team-spirit-and-engagement-but-can-you-copy-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=16933","title":{"rendered":"The Nordic approach to business builds empowerment, team spirit and engagement. But can you copy it?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nordic countries are known for being happy, with high incomes, robust welfare support and easy access to nature. Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden are in fact the world\u2019s four happiest countries according to the latest UN-sponsored World Happiness Report<\/a>, with Norway coming in 7th.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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It turns out, many people are happy at work there too. Nordic-headquartered businesses occupy ten spaces on Fortune<\/em>\u2019s 100 Best Companies to Work For \u2013 Europe list<\/a>, despite their countries constituting under 4% of the continent\u2019s population.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Denmark and Norway each have three of the top 100\u2014Novo Nordisk<\/a>, Beierholm and JYSK for the former; Sector Alarm, Norgehus and Reitan Retail for the latter\u2014while Sweden has four: Svea, Tre, Bengt Dahlgren and Sparbanken.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is there something in the region\u2019s glacial waters that firms in other parts of the world can learn from?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Erkko Autio, professor and chair in technology venturing and entrepreneurship at Imperial College Business School, points to four distinguishing features. \u201cNordic businesses are much less hierarchical. That\u2019s one thing. The second is that these are high-trust cultures that give employees a high level of autonomy. Work life balance is the third factor. Finally, there\u2019s an emphasis on collaboration and consensus rather than dictation,\u201d he explains.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anna Nivala, CEO of the Gothenburg branch of Swedish civil engineering consultancy Bengt Dahlgren, says that Swedes joke that \u201c[we\u2019re] the only country where the coworkers make decisions and then the CEO has to adjust. Democracy in that sense is very important, but it makes for a solid ground for psychological safety when you can say to anyone what\u2019s on your mind.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Nordic model in practice<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n

The four pillars of happy, Nordic companies that Autio highlights\u2014autonomy, low power distance, work-life balance and collaboration\u2014come as a package.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cNordic businesses are much less hierarchical.\u201dErkko Autio, professor and chair in technology venturing and entrepreneurship at Imperial College Business School<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

A commitment to work-life balance, for example, is critical for empowerment, says Nivala. \u201cWhen Bengt Dahlgren founded the company 74 years ago, he had a slogan that a hungry engineer was not a good engineer, and he used to treat his employees to blueberry pies and invite them to his house,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, there are <\/strong>\u201ca lot of small things all of the time that happen to make you feel that your personal life also matters,\u201d including regular fika<\/em>\u2014coffee and cake breaks where teams get to know each other without talking about work\u2014subsidized company ski trips, and lectures about mindfulness or preventing calendar creep.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This level of caring and personal openness\u2014owning mistakes is part of being present as a whole person\u2014filters into the business culture. \u201cSharing with each other that you\u2019re going through a divorce or having difficulties with this or that makes you trust each other more,\u201d Nivala explains.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a familiar story in the Nordics. Danish pharma firm Novo Nordisk, which also makes the top 100, is similarly known for a culture<\/a> where employees call the CEO by their first name, and don\u2019t feel pressure to stay at work late.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not for everyone\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n

These principles\u2014however virtuous\u2014do come with risks. Autio points to Nokia<\/a>, Finland\u2019s one-time giant mobile maker, as an example of the pros and cons of the Nordic approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nokia started out in forestry and heavy industries before pivoting to electronics in the 1960s and 1970s, later rising to dominate the global mobile phone market in the 1990s and early 2000s. At the time, it credited<\/a> this position to its flat hierarchy, pushing decision-making closer to customers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cSharing with each other that you\u2019re going through a divorce or having difficulties with this or that makes you trust each other more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anna Nivala, CEO of the Gothenburg branch of Bengt Dahlgren<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

But when the iPhone ushered in the smartphone era, the company couldn\u2019t make the transition a second time and eventually exited the market; it now specializes in telecommunications equipment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The much-dissected failure partly came from strategic errors, but Autio also blames the company\u2019s system of middle management committees: \u201cThe committees were empowered to decide which approaches to move ahead with. They ended up in a situation where the middle managers kept voting down each other\u2019s initiatives, and that reduced Nokia\u2019s capability to respond to industry change.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t to say that consensus culture prevents innovation or agility\u2014Autio offers Sweden\u2019s vibrant start-up sector as evidence to the contrary. Nivala also says that once consensus is secured, things tend to move faster because everyone is aligned.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Getting the balance right does take skilful execution. Perhaps the most important\u2014and apt\u2014lesson from the Nordic companies on this year\u2019s Best Companies to Work For \u2013 Europe list<\/a> is that leaders cannot impose a collaborative culture from the top down.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOften you can think it\u2019s the leader\u2019s responsibility, but you need to talk to every coworker about creating this kind of environment,\u201d says Nivala. \u201cIt\u2019s not just what is the boss going to do, it\u2019s how are you going to contribute? And what do you need to contribute?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Fortune Global Forum<\/strong> returns Oct. 26\u201327, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.<\/a><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nordic countries are known for being happy, with high incomes, robust welfare support and easy access to nature. Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden are in fact the world\u2019s four happiest countries according to the latest UN-sponsored World Happiness Report, with Norway coming in 7th.\u00a0\u00a0 It turns out, many people are happy at work there too. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":503,"featured_media":16934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Nordic approach to business builds empowerment, team spirit and engagement. 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Gale","author_link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?author=503"},"uagb_comment_info":2,"uagb_excerpt":"Nordic countries are known for being happy, with high incomes, robust welfare support and easy access to nature. Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden are in fact the world\u2019s four happiest countries according to the latest UN-sponsored World Happiness Report, with Norway coming in 7th.\u00a0\u00a0 It turns out, many people are happy at work there too.…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/503"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}