Tomas, you have worked as a leader in different industries and cultures, where companies under your leadership achieved growth with improved profitability. Is there a one-size-fits-all solution?
One should be a bit cautious in preparing a mission statement before understanding the purpose and goals of the organization. Every company has a unique story, with its strengths and challenges. Furthermore, we live in a fast changing world, where every company has to find its own identity and purpose.
Is there no "lowest common denominator"?
Yes, in my opinion, many companies get stuck in the internal agenda - forgetting the customer. Profitable and sustainable growth can only happen by helping the customer's challenges to reach their goals. Regardless of the industry, you should focus on:
-Find and develop your "sweet spot", where you have great customer value and are better than your competitors.
-Improve the customer experience and make it easy to partner with you to win the customer's heart.
-Build a strategy that is about choosing where to play and how to win. The hard part is often choosing where not to play in order to be really good at a few things - instead of being mediocre at many things.
-The right leaders and culture are crucial to motivate the rest of the organization.
Simply put: success is about 1% in strategy and 99% in execution.

With your international background, how does the organizational culture differ between Sweden and internationally?
We have more in common than differences between cultures. We have the same need to be seen, to develop, to feel safe and to be part of something bigger than ourselves. Our Swedish leadership style has an advantage through greater transparency and inclusion between management and the rest of the organization, where we are you with each other. However, we should become less afraid of conflict and "test and learn" to achieve success faster rather than discussing to reach consensus (English "fail & learn fast"). Many international companies have great challenges in keeping up with the rapid fluctuations of the market linked to the fact that they are still in old pyramid organizations where many decisions are controlled too slowly centrally.

If you were to choose the three most important areas all leaders should focus on, what are they?
-Create a self-aware and learning organization, move from a static to a dynamic thinking through "you become what you train yourself to". Focus on each employee developing their strengths rather than their weaknesses. Everyone naturally develops their strengths faster than areas in which they lack talent. Through diversity, organizations develop faster where different people complement each other.

-Make the customer central. Creating this culture is central for all managers in the organization, e.g. to get their team to think customer value.

-Through a high-performing team, build a we-feeling. Create a decentralized culture and ensure that communication from the top is open and continuous. Celebrate more victories than just those linked to classic financial KPIs. Understand what inspires employees and celebrate common victories linked to common challenges.