The Nordics might as well be one country — not!
Early on a Sunday 20 years ago I entered an almost empty restaurant in the Helsinki Central Railway Station. It was 9 in the morning. In the corner stood a gambling table with an elderly Finnish croupier in uniform behind it, ready for action. This was my first visit to Finland, and then and there I realized I was not in Norway anymore and that the Nordic nations were indeed different from each other. Being in Finland felt like living in a time capsule, with a work ethic and social codes that were from a long-gone era in my own country.
The years have passed, and Finnish culture has changed. So much so that I now find Finland to be more similar to Norway, Sweden and Denmark than I did 20 years ago.
But there are indeed significant differences between the Nordic countries. As the CEO of a Nordic text agency that deals with all four countries, I am particularly interested in how this plays out in the business world.
“The Finns invent it, the Swedes manufacture it, the Danes sell it and the Norwegians buy it.”
You may have heard of the stereotype that the Finns invent it, the Swedes manufacture it, the Danes sell it, and the Norwegians buy it. Irrespective of whether this is true, there are certainly differences in how each country conducts business.
Finns: You do not negotiate back and forth, Turkish bazaar-style. You make an offer to the Finn, the Finn says yes. Or no. End of discussion. Very simple and effective, and small talk is not part of their repertoire.
Danes: The most professional merchants in the Nordic region, they will subject you to negotiations whether you want them or not, down to the last decimal. In addition, they really care about the small print, and you can expect them to use any clause that they can to their advantage, irrespective of the “fairness” of doing so. Business is business, and they can be quite forthright about it. But also strictly honest.
Swedes: In many ways it is a pleasure to do business with a Swede. Small talk is expected, and you are met with genuine personal interest. An example of this is that after you’ve delivered a job to a Swedish client by e-mail, they will actually reply and say thank you. This may be an obvious thing to do in your country, but not in Finland, Norway and Denmark. We suffer from varying degrees of radio silence, and more often than not you will not even get an acknowledgement. Not because we are upset with you, we just seem to have missed the memo that this is something that people are supposed to do. But the Swedes didn’t miss it. They will write “Tack, snälla!” (“Thank you, dearest!”) to you even if you have never met them. Furthermore, while the Swedes are no stranger to negotiations, they prefer to reach a consensus through polite and open conversation. As is the Swedish way.
Norwegians: As a Norwegian myself, I am obviously biased in how I view the way we do business. But what is reported about us is that we do not have a lot of patience for small talk or a lot of negotiations, and are particularly unconcerned with fighting over small amounts. Goddammit, let’s just finish this and get the contract signed!
Ah, those damned cultural differences!
In the context of business, is there more that unites the Nordic peoples than divides us? Of course. Most international corporations view the Nordic countries as one market, and rightfully so: together we make up a rule-abiding business community, with little corruption, solid institutions and a high degree of trust. No wonder we are considered an excellent place to conduct business operations.
But do not try to translate an American advert “correctly” (read: directly) into Finnish, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian and expect to get identical results in each country. Furthermore, there is no well-known English word that means “inhabitant of a Nordic country”. Swedes, Danes and Norwegians are collectively called Scandinavians, but this doesn’t include the Finns — or Icelanders for that matter. So let’s get the ball rolling and use a word you can find in a couple of old dictionaries. Let me introduce you to the Northerners!
