Chapman Business in Scandinavia – Team Ystad – Pre-Departure

Scandinavia, are you ready for us? Because here we come! We are Jessica and Gerald representing Ystad. Chapman University’s MBA Program has given us the unique opportunity to see Scandinavian’s business culture first hand and converse with a number of executives in multinational companies based in Scandinavia. Prior to departing, we learned about some of the differences between Scandinavia and the United States in regards culture and the business environment. We are interested in human resources and sustainability within companies. Sweden has a high happiness and a work-life balance that is very different than the US. It will be interesting to examine this and see companies are able to promote a work-life balance and still maintain high productivity.

Sweden and Denmark have been in the news recently due to their green technology, standard of living, productivity, culture, and sustainability efforts. They lead the world by many measures and are studied as a model country. Of interest to our group are:

  • Personal happiness and how it is affected by local societal, legal, government, business, and cultural standards
  • Compensation models and how it affects corporate productivity
  • Social responsibility and the role of business and government
  • Long vs. short term management practices and how it affects natural resources and business growth

We are extremely excited to learn about these subjects and much more! We hope to apply what we learn from this experience not only in our professional lives but our personal lives as well.

Thank you Chapman and we hope you enjoy our future posts!