Knowledge is the Attraction at MindTree
ComputerSweden, May 16, 2008
"Swedish companies are cowards"
Among the international companies, it is customary to add development in low-wages countries such as India. But this goes slow in Sweden. Experts blame the Swedish business leaders to be both cowards and racists.
Interest is growing among companies in the Nordic countries for global offshoring, according to Jan
Hallgren who is senior consultant at the offshore specialist Equaterra.
He believes that the general Swedish attitude is different from that of, for example, Belgium and
England, something that puts a spanner in the works for Swedish companies.
– In Sweden, the focus is often on price and risk. In countries where companies dare to assign more
sophisticated tasks offshore, you are more satisfied with the experience. They simply set the players
more than we do in Sweden. We are cowards, says Jan Hallgren.
An increased confidence in offshoring, would, according to him, benefit the company in many ways.
– The barrier is in the Swedish complacency and ignorance. Nearshore is considered less threatening
and more moderate
He gets support from Rickard Lindvall, who is a technical manager at FLIR Systems.
The company is one of the world's leading manufacturers of infrared cameras and has since the end of
the year 2006/2007 chosen to locate some of its operations in India, a decision which so far has been
positive. But he also sees negative trends in the general Swedish attitude regarding outsourcing.
– There is some racism and ignorance in the Swedish business community. Companies miss to take
advantage of opportunities in an efficient manner. We are not as open as we think, says Rickard Lindvall.
FLIR Systems has grown strongly in the global market in recent years. One of the company’s
divisions is based in Danderyd, where the workload for the employees increased.
– The decision to outsource came after internal discussions on development. We preferred to sit in the
front seat in the case of offshoring, rather than being forced later on.
The fact that the decision did not come from the management, which can be regarded as the more
traditional way, made that the new cooperation seemed less as a threat to the employees.
– To increase the staff at the necessary pace by regular recruitment would have given too much
workload for the organization. We had no time or capacity to do that.
The company's initial idea was to make profit on offshoring, but according to Rickard Lindvall, they
quickly came to realize many other benefits. In order to keep the pace with the market, they saw the
outsourcing as an opportunity to save time to embrace the skills and intellectual property which were
already offshore.
– In addition to the desire for increased competitiveness, we considered it necessary to get influences
from other markets than the Nordic, as 99.7 percent of products are exported, says Rickard Lindvall.
After thorough research, including through-depth interviews with references and visits to potential
businesses, we decided to cooperate with the consultancy firm MindTree. It is working, among other
things with software development, testing and verification. The decision has, according to Rickard Lindvall, been very successful. |
