During the 20th century, what is often described as the "Swedish economic miracle" occurred. In the space of a few decades, a poor agrarian country was transformed into one of the world's most prosperous and sophisticated industrial nations.
The foundation for this amazing growth was northern Sweden's enormous wealth of forests, ore and hydroelectric power. The value of these natural resources was enhanced by a long series of ingenious Swedish inventions and refinements of inventions — the steam turbine, the roller bearing, the gas-powered beacon, the telephone, the cream separator, the safety match, the adjustable wrench, the Tetra Pak beverage packaging system, the AXE System (computer-controlled digital telephone switching system), the Brånemark® System (osseointegration), and the Leksell® Gamma knife, to name only a few. Even today, this kind of engineering brilliance remains at the core of the Swedish business sector.
Cell phone from Sony Ericsson. Photo: Sony Ericsson
With an insufficient domestic market, major Swedish companies were "forced" right from the start to invest in exporting to customers worldwide. In many cases, this early globalization is regarded as having given Swedish companies a leg up in international competition — one reason why Sweden today has an extremely large number of multinational corporations and brands for its modest population. Volvo, Saab, Ericsson, ABB, AstraZeneca, Electrolux, IKEA, H&M, Hasselblad and Absolut are only a few of these Swedish-rooted companies and brands.
Although raw materials and processed raw materials still account for a sizable proportion of Swedish exports, the future of Swedish business is said to lie primarily in knowledge-intensive industries, where Sweden can take advantage of its advanced technological development, sophisticated infrastructure and high general educational level. Information technology (IT) and biomedicine are two such knowledge-intensive sectors in which Sweden has been among the global leaders for years.
Aside from these, nowadays a third Swedish industry of the future is mentioned increasingly often — the "experience industry." This concept is a new, comprehensive label for such inter- related creative sectors as design, music, fashion, the art industry, gastronomy, media, advertising and tourism, in which Sweden has experienced a creative revolution over the past decade that has attracted worldwide attention and given the country substantial new export income.