I Immersed Myself in Scandinavian Business for 15 Years, Here’s How I Apply Those Business Culture Lessons to a Startup
Applying the Scandinavian way of working to a startup.
Business culture varies enormously around the world, and if you have only ever worked in your home country, you may not appreciate the differences that a new culture can bring to your management style.
I am originally from the UK, and so it was a big surprise to my family when at 19 I put my degree on hold and moved to Norway to work for a gaming company.
Some of the questions I was asked included:
- Are you crazy? Why Norway?
- Don’t you know how expensive it is?
- Isn’t it freezing and dark?
I was taking a big leap into the dark, I didn’t know how expensive it was, and yes it was freezing (and dark). Little did I know that it would shape my entire business career.
It wasn’t exactly a work culture shock, but an exceptional learning experience.
To experience culture shock, you have to have experienced a culture. I had never held a professional job before in the UK, and I was experiencing something entirely new. I was being thrown in very much at the deep end, joining a Customer Service team for a company that had recently launched a new product. It had significant technical issues, and in the three months after launch, they had not got control of the ticket queues.
What I found though was a team that worked together, communicated openly and had fun. We worked at a gaming company, how could it get any better? We worked together and gained control of the ticket queues in my first week.
Little did I know that at the age of 19, Scandinavian business culture would set the course of my career!
Openness, equality, trust, fun and honesty — The core tenets of Scandinavian business
I was fortunate that shortly after I joined, a new manager also joined the team. Scandinavian companies have a very flat structure, even though we had a team lead between us in the organisation, I had direct interactions and discussions with him regularly. He sat in the office with the team, we had regular meetings, and he took on suggestions to improve the culture and deliver more for the customer.
That level of openness doesn’t exist in many other business cultures for a single reason, corporate hierarchy. You report to your boss, they report to their boss who reports to their boss. It is a very linear structure, and if you jump a step in the hierarchy, then people can be outraged.
That doesn’t exist in Scandinavian companies; they have a flat structure. Even as a new employee in the customer service team, I was only three steps below the CEO.
“I don’t care how you are better than your competitor; I care about how you are going to deliver for me.”
If you look at British/US business cultures, it is common to talk down your competitor in front of a customer. Today, I will give you a warning about doing this in front of a Scandinavian company. They do not like it at all.
My boss ended a two-day workshop with a company early because they spent 30 minutes talking down their competitor. They were a large hosting provider and were insistent that their competitors’ products were poor quality (they even showed a video of their competitor’s servers exploding).
They had committed a cultural faux-pas; we didn’t feel they were honest. We didn’t feel we could trust the company after this.
We ended up buying from their competitor and amazingly not a single server ever exploded.
A customer will inevitably ask how you compare to a competitor; I think the best answer I have heard is “they do what they do, this is what we do (followed by an explanation)”. Generally, when a customer asks this type of question, they are still building an understanding of your offering, so keeping it focused on that is an excellent way to approach that question.
How to apply this culture to a startup team?
Let’s start with openness and honesty. These are vital characteristics in business because they build trust. Trust is a requirement both with customers and the team in a startup, we work in cybersecurity, and I often joke that we need trust times a thousand to succeed.
With our team, I make sure to keep them up to date on everything we are doing. Communication flows right across the organisation about sales, development and marketing. This level of openness engenders trust and helps to make sure everyone buys into the mission of the company.
This trust needs to extend to the way you manage people, trust them to get on with their work, believe that if they need to take some hours off that they’re doing it for the right reasons. There is no need to treat the team in a tech company like they are at school; don’t punish your people for arriving a bit late. Trust your team, and they will repay it every time.
Now, you will have occasional times when people take advantage of this openness, trust and honesty. It would be best if you dealt with those people on an individual basis rather than punishing the entire team through draconian rules.
Maintaining a flat corporate culture can help make sure that you have a direct line to the team and avoid some of the cases where team members don’t feel ownership or take advantage of the trust you give them.
Also, make sure that you give people a chance to have fun; no one can have fun in an environment that feels like a prison. Our office varies between laughter and silent, focused work. We enjoy working together and will often have a few beers as a team.
Treat your board and your investors with the same openness and honesty
I occasionally hear from investors about other companies that haven’t kept them up to date, or told them too late about bad situations, making them feel helpless.
I have built an open and honest relationship with my board in the same way as with the team. I communicate my challenges, tell them what is going well and also what is not going well. They want to work towards the success of the company, and the best way for them to do that is from a knowledgable position. You hold the key to that!
Equality is a core principle of business in Scandinavia.
Anyone who has worked in Norway, Sweden, Finland or Denmark will know that equality is a core principle in business. They have laws to ensure women have strong representation on corporate boards, and they don’t discriminate on any characteristic.
The difference is that they have been doing this for many years, and it is part of their culture. Make it part of yours.
Extend your culture to your customers
With customers, we also apply similar principles. We talk openly about what we are working on, we do regular meetings to ensure they have visibility of what we’re working on and how it will deliver them value. We gather feedback from customers on new features and make sure to deliver on their feedback.
Don’t be afraid to tell a customer that “no I can’t do that”, or “it doesn’t quite work like that”. They will trust and respect you more for being open and honest with them than if you keep saying “yes”.
This consistency and communication will allow your customers to build trust with you.
Finally, be humble, it will serve you well.
One last element of Scandinavian culture that is that you should be humble and not show off to impress people. Even in cases where people are rich, they tend not to own large houses or drive expensive cars. You are more likely to see the CEO driving a Volvo than a Mercedes.
Likewise, even at very senior levels, managers don’t tend to have assistants. They like to maintain ownership and don’t forget the small details, this is one area that I feel they could learn from UK culture, but it is a crucial part of their identity!
I don’t feel that I have scratched the surface of the lessons I learned in 15 years in this article, but it is now part of my culture, and I take every opportunity to share it.
The key takeaways to build into your Startup culture are:
- Create a flat structure. As the CEO, you should be approachable and a part of the team.
- Build trust with your team and customers through openness and honesty.
- Trust your team to do the right thing, and give them the flexibility to live their lives.
- Equality should be front and centre in your mind, your company policies and your hiring strategy.
- Have fun and be humble. Startups are a very intense environment, so if you build a culture where people can enjoy themselves, it will stop them from burning out and keep them with you for a long time.
I will never forget the first time my manager told me “I trust you to do the right thing.” When was the last time you heard that in the US / UK?
