Some American companies I can send an email and get a response in 10 minutes. Others I have to send 3-4-10 and never get a response unless the account manager is called on his personal cell phone.
Sweden consistently ranks as an easy place to do business in surveys among executives [1]. It's also much faster and simpler to start a new business in Sweden than it is in France. I'm picking two examples which speak to my broader experiences. That said, they're anecdotes responding to a pattern pointed out in the article.
I'm not saying doing business in non-Swedish Europe is not worthwhile. It's just a lot easier in Sweden. When timelines matter or complexity is high, the Swedish team–in my experience–has come through more frequently. (I put Switzerland into a similar "easy to deal with" category, though I'm biased in being Swiss American.)
> if American English is a dealbreaker
I grew up speaking French and British English, so no, it probably is not. But when co-ordinating communications between an American legal team and overseas ones, I've seen (and perhaps I only notice this because I speak and write in both dialects) one team say one thing and the other read it as something else (or get confused) where all one needs do to alleviate the problem is "translate". This happens less when co-ordinating with Sweden. It's a small factor and certainly attributes no fault to anyone, but it's a factor that adds up to transactional costs.
[1] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/11/these-are-the-easiest...
one team say one thing and the other read it as something else
The article is pretty clear though, Sweden seems to be hitting above its weight.
Sweden is a weird country. It is so controlled and everything is so straight, that it almost feels like there are no real humans. I couldn't imagine living there, if I was one of those people, who don't conform to the worldview as defined and constructed by the establishment.
The hyper-individualism, I think, is just the flip side of hyper-authoritarianism. Swedish people are almost happy to pay taxes, Swedish people are some of the most active voters in the OECD (82% turnout last election, let's hope tomorrow's election is no worse!), and Swedish road safety policy is now a Swedish export.
It is indeed a very unusual combination, but I think it's what happens when you mix prosperity, democracy, and secularism for a long time. I hope that the recent waves of misinformation and polarizing media won't ruin it. But it isn't looking good.
I find strange this assumption I sometimes read here that having a sense of collective means losing your individuality.
That said, I enjoyed many of the same things that you mention about Sweden. The people I worked with were highly educated, pragmatic, and often not willing to make bad engineering decisions if there was no reason to. It was easy to have very in-depth conversations with Swedes about many topics without resulting to emotional attacks or divisiveness.
In general I think what has helped Swedes the most (and what grandparent has hinted at) is that Swedish citizens, at least everyone I met, are very internationally minded in that they are absolutely voracious travelers and embrace people of other cultures rather easily (there are the Swedish Democrats, of course, but this mentality is still a relative minority in Sweden). This willingness to interact internationally and deal with other cultures is what I think has helped propel Sweden to the kind of startup success we are seeing here.
The American Dream is alive in Sweden. The prime minister is a foster child and welder by trade. Daniel Ek and Markus Persson both grew up under less than ideal conditions and are now billionaires. And if one thinks Sweden is too small most people have the tools to move, like Fredrik Eklund.
That said, it isn't like 10-15 years ago when it seemed like Sweden was spared from many of the worlds problems. Housing inequality, dysfunctional politics, call for easy jobs, lesser standards, less access to social safety net etc. All large but common problems that make "the deal" a lot less appealing. Tons of people moving to UK, Berlin or Norway for work or just trying to have a decent life.
I do think it is a bit of a bubble. To many cocktail parties, consulting companies and incubators, not enough substance. It isn't really clear whether there will actually be a lot of new extraordinaire companies. I think most people are more concerned about their mortgage.
Because if there is anything I would attribute to recent Sweden's success in technology it just that in end of '90s, early '00s Sweden was a really good deal. A decent apartment, good employment and good infrastructure was all available. A lot of people in technology didn't even bother with university. But nothing was "glamorous". So if you wanted to do something you had to do it yourself.
Today everyone is looking for the guarantee. Going to school for 5-6 years, huge mortgage for the rest of their life and chasing money in consulting. I get it, just unlikely to produce anything different.
Seriously though, most swedes are very forgiving about others world views. As long as you sort your trash properly.
In my space, the best managed company (and one of the most successful exits) was Swedish [0]. Down-to-earth, honest, transparent management with none of the typical American earnings call tip-toeing. Thinking and strategy were always crystal clear and simply articulated. Metrics were clearly stated and tracked. No BS.
Not sure if the member states of the US have as wide cultural differences as the member states of the EU.
The lawyer definitely messed up by emailing it to the wrong person, but business rarely happen over weekends.
That the Swedish are proactive about accommodating it is good, but too much of it and you're diminishing yourself.
If I had to pick out one thing Swedish culture does well, commercially, that many European cultures do not, it's allowing for dissent to be discussed [1]. Saying "I disagree with you" isn't an affront nor an insult, but the voicing of an opinion. That is not always true e.g. in France, Spain, Korea or the Middle East. (It's untrue in many American corporate cultures, too.)
This isn't a rule. But the number of Swedish teams where I've seen a junior productively question a senior in front of me is far higher than elsewhere in Europe.
[1] Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark are also good at this.
One, very recently, from Paris. Terms of a deal agreed on. But the investor wanted to wet sign over a 2-hour lunch. At the end, he couriered the signed document to his lawyer, to scan and e-mail. The lawyer, unfortunately, didn't notice it come in before leaving early for the week-end. (He promised he would have it out first thing on Monday, at which point he e-mailed it to the wrong person.) Everybody's English is good, but broken, and miscommunications over e-mail and voice occasionally occur. When complaints came up, the reactions were in the form of "calm down" or "be realistic" or a counter-complaint.
Second, a few months ago, from Stockholm. Perfect American English. Documents moved over the weekend. Fast, no-frills dealmaking with a common sense of commercial values. When complaints arose, a discussion emerged around how we could work better together.
As a New Yorker, I love doing business in Sweden over almost anywhere else in Europe. From recent discussions–and statistics–it appears I'm not alone. Culture matters hugely.