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/
I’m all for this, so long as humans are allowed to utilize the “facility” as well!! Why do we have to seek out a bathroom if there can be urinals right in the streets? /s
p.s. Nicole Ritchie likes this because she is hoping to see photos of drunken Paris Hilton and Britney Spears making good use.......