Smart Society Sweden

There is a great big global game changer happening in health care, and this time it's personal. We are talking about data-driven personalized medicine, which is taking the life science industry around the world by storm. And while Sweden has been at the forefront, there are both challenges and opportunities on the road ahead.  Today you'll meet Britta Stenson, head of the Global Industry Network for Life Science at Business Sweden and based in Stockholm, Eric Blomquist, senior project manager at Business Sweden and based in Madrid, and Emma Hemmingson, senior project manager at Business Sweden and based in Paris. They will give us a global outlook on what comes next for data-driven personalized medicine and what it means for Sweden and the world. The Smart Society Sweden Podcast is hosted by Elizabeth Walentin and is a project of the Karl-Adam Bonnier Foundation and Business Sweden.

We can promise you a mouthwatering and delicious episode of the Smart Society Sweden Podcast because we are talking about Swedish food. It's a story of heritage and innovation, and of safety and sustainability along the whole value chain. And at a time when worldwide food demand is growing, Sweden is one step ahead with innovative niche products being exported to customers around the globe. Today you'll meet Ram Nair, founder and CEO of Mycorena, and Annika Sund, marketing manager and part of the owning family at Leksands Knäckebröd. Find out how a new fungi-based alternative protein and a Swedish classic like crispbread are both playing a role in the Swedish food tech revolution. The Smart Society Sweden Podcast is hosted by Elizabeth Walentin and is a project of the Karl-Adam Bonnier Foundation and Business Sweden.

There is a battery boom charging up the world, and a little northern country called Sweden is at the heart of it. Sweden now ranks #4 in the world in the battery supply chain after China, the US, and Germany. And Sweden's closest neighbors Norway and Finland are also in the top 10. Today we are back by popular demand with a special episode. We will take a deep dive into what this new industry is all about, why it plays such a pivotal role in your life, and why exactly the first homegrown battery production in Europe is happening in Sweden.  Our guests today are Adam Dahlquist, Senior Advisor at Altris, and Robin Pettersson, Program Manager at Business Sweden. The Smart Society Sweden Podcast is hosted by Elizabeth Walentin and is a project of the Karl-Adam Bonnier Foundation and Business Sweden.

Digital transformation and global technology shifts are rapidly transforming working life, affecting how and where we do business. The traditional factory job of the past is being "killed" and it is time to "reskill" and "upskill" the workforce and prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow. But what can be done to ensure that today's workforce is prepared for the transition? And what lessons and best practices can we learn from a smart society like Sweden? Our guests today are Jan Larsson, CEO of Business Sweden, and Susanne Ackum, Director of the Future Work Forum. The Smart Society Sweden Podcast is hosted by Elizabeth Walentin and is a project of the Karl-Adam Bonnier Foundation and Business Sweden. See the Smart Society Summit live on stage from Expo2020 in Dubai on December 15th. Sign up here.

  Every year in Stockholm, the Karl-Adam Bonnier Foundation invites a select group of trade officers to a dinner to give them a forum to discuss the issues that matter to them. In this episode, you are invited to the dinner. So imagine you are joining us around the table. We'll l hear from two trade officers working with business and innovation issues in two very different corners of the world.  Our guests today are Roberth Friedman, Country Manager for Sweden at the Israeli Ministry for Economy and Industry and Steve Angus, Country Director for International Trade and Investment at the British Embassy. The Smart Society Sweden Podcast is hosted by Elizabeth Walentin and is a project of the Karl-Adam Bonnier Foundation and Business Sweden. See the Smart Society Summit live on stage from Expo2020 in Dubai on December 15th. Sign up here.  

What do you think of when you think of Sweden? When you ask people who have never been here, they might be picturing our fields and forests and not our industrial facilities and manufacturing plants. But in reality, Sweden has a booming manufacturing and industrial engineering sector that accounts for 20 percent of the country's GDP and creates over 1 million jobs. Whether it's steel, automotive, chemical, forestry food processing, or other sectors, find out how Sweden is pioneering the possible when it comes to advanced manufacturing and innovation. Our guests today are Cecilia Warrol, Program Director at Produktion2030 and Head of Industrial R&D at the Association of Swedish Engineering Industries and Björn Block, Global Business Area Manager at IKEA Home Smart. The Smart Society Sweden Podcast is hosted by Elizabeth Walentin and is a project of the Karl-Adam Bonnier Foundation and Business Sweden. See the Smart Society Summit live on stage from Expo2020 in Dubai on December 15th. Sign up here.  

  We hear a lot about Sweden being the land of start-ups, the unicorn factory. Stockholm is actually the second most prolific tech hub in the world on a per capita basis, right behind Silicon Valley. So while we know that Sweden is a good breeding ground for entrepreneurs at start-ups, today we are going to talk about something that is not as well known, that Sweden is also a model of intrapreneurship, when the innovation and invention is happening inside an established company.  Our guests today are Katarina Blomkvist, intrapreneurship researcher and CEO of Daily Innovation, and Mats Barvesten, tech pioneer and previously at Spotify. The Smart Society Sweden Podcast is hosted by Elizabeth Walentin and is a project of the Karl-Adam Bonnier Foundation and Business Sweden. See the Smart Society Summit live on stage from Expo2020 in Dubai on December 15th. Sign up here. Learn more about the Intrapreneurship Compass  project here.        

    What's the secret of Sweden's success in creating a smart society? It might very well be a spirit of collaboration. Co-creation between the public and private sector, between universities and start-ups, and between large and small companies are all things Sweden is known for. In this episode, we dive into how Sweden became a co-creation nation and what lies ahead.   Our guests today are Jennie Cato, Head of Public Affairs and Partnerships at Scania Group and Magnus Mähring, Erling Persson Professor at Stockholm School of Economics and the Chair of the SSE House of Innovation. The Smart Society Sweden Podcast is hosted by Elizabeth Walentin and is a project of the Karl-Adam Bonnier Foundation and Business Sweden. See the Smart Society Summit live on stage from Expo2020 in Dubai on December 15th. Sign up here.      

High wages, strong unions, generous welfare and regulated markets. Sweden has been compared to a bumblebee. It should be too heavy and weighed down to fly. But that doesn't stop it from soaring. Our guests today are David Crouch, British journalist based in Sweden and author of  Bumblebee Nation: The Hidden story of the new Swedish model and Almost Perfekt: How Sweden Works and what we can learn from it, and Lena Sellgren, chief economist at Business Sweden.  The Smart Society Sweden Podcast is hosted by Elizabeth Walentin and is a project of the Karl-Adam Bonnier Foundation and Business Sweden. See the Smart Society Summit live on stage from Expo2020 in Dubai on December 15th. Sign up here.  Be sure to get your copy of David Crouch's book Bumblebee Nation: The hidden story of the new Swedish model.