The site visits have begun! We were especially interested in understanding how Scandinavian companies conduct business and market their products or services in Nordic regions.
Our first site visit in Skellefteå was to the Northvolt giga-factory, founded in 2016. Communication manager Sanna Bäckström showed us how they are creating the world’s greenest battery. They do everything from sourcing materials to recycling old batteries. This vertical integration model differentiates them from other battery factories. Often, a battery factory only does electrode manufacturing, cell assembly, and making battery modules and packs. Northvolt does everything except for the mining of rare earth minerals which are sourced from across the globe. The factory relies on Skellefteå’s hydroelectric, wind, and nuclear power sources, which have low emission rates compared to the energy from burning fossil fuels. At the same time, lithium-ion batteries are inherently unsustainable, because they use these rare metals. Northvolt has an enormous impact on the city of Skellefteå and northern Sweden. Many articles have been written about the new factory, which functions as earned marketing media.
The following site on our list was North Kingdom! They are a global experience design studio that helps companies create digital experiences encouraging brand loyalty and customer engagement. The business was founded in 2003, and over the years, they’ve partnered with several large companies, such as Disney, Netflix, and LEGO, to name a few. Despite their success, creative director Jakob Nylund described several pitfalls, including the cultural differences between North Kingdom and their partners worldwide. What they seem to struggle with the most is brand awareness. Around a decade ago, being a digital design studio spread across multiple forms of media helped market the breadth of its experience and variety of offerings. Now, being a “Swiss army knife” has hurt North Kingdom, so they are focusing more on gaming experiences. Recent challenges have led them to lay off 15 employees earlier this year as they reevaluate the company. Despite the uncertainty, it was great to see how this design studio used creative software and design applications such as Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, and Unreal Engine to provide excellent value to larger companies.
On our final visit of the day, we went to the Skellefteå Science Center to learn a little bit about the historic shift in Northern Sweden, the Arctic Business Incubator, and the Elis Program for electric aviation, among other things.
On the second day, we made it up to Piteå, where we visited the Markbygden wind farm. The enormous wind turbines sprawling over the green forests of Piteå were a fantastic sight to see. It was fascinating to see how Sweden has built their wind farm without strict zoning laws, compared to the ones we have back in California.
The next site visit was to Lundqvist Tråvaru, a modular building designer with a long history in making wooden buildings. Jens Lundqvist spoke about using digitalization to make building design simple and affordable. They do this with a 3D configurator, which allows people to design a building of their choice, similar to how one would design a building in a videogame. It is intended to be user-friendly. Currently, the configurator is equipped for small buildings, such as garages or simple cottages, so they are developing a new configurator for more significant, complex residential structures. While they have historically been focused on woodworking and construction, they are now becoming a technology and logistics company. After the site visit, Professor Mario Leone suggested that they should adopt a SaaS model for their 3D configurator and make that their core business.
At the welcome dinner, Henry sat with Ulf, a friend of Professor Myhr, who connected Henry with Johan Berglund, the inventor of the NuEVI and the NuRAD, which are electronic wind instruments. The next evening, Johan met in The Wood Hotel to talk about developing this new instrument, attending instrument tradeshows like Superbooth in Berlin, and what he plans to do next. It was a great pleasure to talk with someone who started their own instrument company and was actively developing the product. It takes a lot of passion and commitment, which shows in his playing.
We had an excellent time exploring the north of Sweden. Skellefteå, I hate to say we are leaving you!
