I wish Järlebo good luck.
His idea might seem a bit weird at a first glance, but to me it makes sense after a bit of reading.
Sweden needs more inventors.
In fact, all countries do.
Once upon a time, Swedish inventions like the self-aligning ball bearing, the brainchild of a certain Mr. Wingqvist, created thousands of jobs in record time.
In 1907, Sven Wingquist’s invention was granted patent in 11 countries at the same time and the foundation of the company SKF was laid.
By 1910, the company had 325 employees and a subsidiary in the UK.
By 1930, SKF boasted a staff of over 21,000 people, employed in 12 manufacturing facilities worldwide.
Today, SKF is the world’s largest bearing manufacturer and employs over 40,000 people in around 100 manufacturing sites that span 70 countries.
Furthermore, the even bigger company of Volvo (AB Volvo today employs over 80 000 people and Volvo Cars, now a subsidary of Ford, employs around 30 000) actually developed out of SKF and the brand ‘Volvo’ was once an SKF trademark!
Volvo and SKF are not alone. Sweden actually has half as many companies on the Forbes Global 2000 as Germany, despite having a mere tenth of Germany’s population.
Sometimes, I wonder why at least 30% of us Swedes haven’t understood where our money come from.
But, I’m still optimistic. People over here are beginning to understand that national wealth is NOT created by politicians (although true political leaders often can exert a benign influence over the business climate of a nation) and there still are Swedish inventors.
One good thing about being an entrepreneur in Sweden is that people are extremely interested in new technology and rather interested in new business concepts. The attitude towards entrepreneurship and Capitalism is much better today than in the old ‘Socialist’ era of 1970-1990.
And with the support of Nicole Richie, what could possibly go wrong?
Finally, I recommend this article, written by an angry but insightful Stockholm entrepreneur in the IT business to anyone interested in business topics, innovation, Sweden, IT and economics as well as politics in general. Today, Stockholm is already one of the leading ICT hubs of the world and there is a lot of promising activity going on there:
http://www.thelocal.se/8876/20071023/
Yeah, it sounds like a good idea...right up until the dogs start drinking from them.
Where do the bitches go?
Doesn’t Sweden already have those Muslim foot washes?
Why in the world would anyone with more then two functioning brain cells bother to listen to what a sub moronic trust fund ditz has to say about dog urinals?
“This invention is just so clever. It’s a cute rubber cup attached to the post and a hose that pipes urine into the gutter,”
Right into your brain, Nicole.
Better be a big funnel, my dog can’t hit the side of a barn.
Are the kids in Africa no longer starving?
Seriously, though...how do they propose to urinal-train dogs? I mean, you can try, but ultimately, if they want to go, they’re going to go, when and where they want to go.
... and what about my chihuhuas?
Sure. The rubber doggie lamppost cup is pretty neat... Not as nice as the self-aligning ball bearing, but still useful.
So how much time do you have to spend face down on the side walk to make it an issue how the base of lamp posts smell?