Stockholm
SAAB
On Wednesday May 31st, we left our beloved city of Skelleftea to venture to Stockholm via airplane. We were sad to leave but ready to keep exploring the country of Sweden. As we arrived in Stockholm, we quickly got on a bus to get into the city to go to our next business visit at Saab Technologies. Not to get confused with Saab Automobiles, Saab Technologies focuses on aerospace and defense. When we arrived at Saab, we were greeted by Niklas’s good friend Lars Tossman, Head of Business Area Aeronautics and Member of Saab Group Management.
Mr. Tossman stressed that the mission for Saab technologies is to keep people and society safe. While Saab has offices around the globe, the country of Sweden focuses on two areas: aircraft and submarines. The reason why this is the case for the country now is because Europe never thought they would be involved in another war after WWII. Ever since the Russian/Ukrainian War broke out the country has been buying and producing more. Saab would like to expand their relationships with the U.S., UK, Germany, and Australia but it has been difficult because Sweden is not a part of NATO. Sweden is anticipating becoming a NATO member but until then Saab must still strengthen relationships with these countries organically.
With more than 80 years of experience and having built over 5,500 aircraft Saab has been at the forefront of the aerospace and defense industry. The company has created many different types of aircrafts, submarines, and defense items, but what they are most excited about is the Global Eye aircraft. This aircraft is a sensor or surveillance system that companies and countries can use to monitor war-torn areas, or for other various reasons. Saab is running into the issue again of not being a NATO member as many countries will not buy products from non-member countries. With being an aerospace and defense company, Saab knows sustainability is important, but they also know that in this industry there are limitations when it comes to creating and producing a sustainable aircraft. Now more than ever citizens in Europe are nervous about their safety and the well-being of those around them. Saab is committed to keep the people of Sweden and partnering countries who use their products safe and secure.
Spotify
On Thursday, June 1st we began on our next day in Stockholm. We woke up early and were ready to begin our day with some wonderful breakfast and walked over to the Spotify headquarters where we met Ana Lundstrom the Vice President of Human Resources.
Ana has been working at Spotify for the past seven years and has had a brief history working at NASDAQ prior to that. During our time with Anna we were able to learn much about the culture at Spotify and how the company has adapted to multiple changes over the past few years. Ana has had an extensive history working at Spotify and discussed the shift in company culture in terms of remote work. She discussed how important the culture of the company is to Spotify and the trust that they put in their employees. For the location we saw in Stockholm, she stated that individuals are given the flexibility to work remotely but choose to come into the office. Ana herself stated that she as a VP of Human Resources will choose the days that she goes into office and will come in to work in person four days of the week and will work remotely on Fridays. Spotify has a strong culture as its foundation and does not like to categorize its employees but rather place trust in them and their decisions that they are making. The support that they place in their employees contributes much to the producvitiy and creativeness of those that work there. Ana stated that during very tense political circumstances the company must choose when to make a statement or when to decline to make a statement. For example, in the midst of the Russian and Ukraine crisis Spotify had not commented publicly on the situation. Instead, they internally sent emails to their employees that were both part of Russia and Ukraine and let them know that the company supports them. They provided rehousing for employees in Russia and also provided paid time off and mental health support for individuals from both nations. When dealing with such tense issues she believes their internal process is much better and must be resolved and provide support to all of their employees before they announce anything publicly.
In addition to the work culture, she also discussed the band manifesto. The band manifesto is known as the company’s motto which is the key tenant that they hold true. There are five core values that are important to the company which includes being innovative, sincere, passionate, collaborative, and playful. Because the company is constantly adapting and changing, individuals must be open to change and open to working with others. Approximately 40% of Spotify’s employees are engineers and sales creatives. They have restructured their company oranization and flattened their organization model so there are less middle managers. From the demographics that were presented approximately 44% of the employees that work within Spotify are female. The company receives over 114,000 applicants every month.
Conclusion
In Conclusion, we enjoyed our time at SAAB and Spotify. SAAB was a huge surprise to us and was extremely interesting. It was a unique organization and was very intriguing in the way it must handle its business through political tensions. Lars was a phenomenal presenter and we are thankful he took the time to speak to us. We were both equally excited to visit Spotify and go to the Spotify headquarters in Stockholm Ana did not disappoint. Visiting Spotify was such an amazing experience and walking around the office and going to the rooftop made it even better. That’s it for today’s blog, catch us in the next one on our next adventure in Sweden!
