Today was an exciting day as it was our first professional learning day here in Sweden. We started off the day with another great breakfast here at the hostel, and then boarded the tram to get to our first company, Skapa.
They were all the way up on the 6th floor and had an incredible view. We met with CEO, Erik Ekholm, who founded Skapa in 1996. Skapa only has 9 employees total and focuses on communication and marketing through web, technology, and development. They highly focus on online business to business marketing, especially on customers and communication. According to Erik, you need to do the correct kind of marketing from the start in order to be successful. We also learned about how popular Facebook is in Europe, compared to the U.S., and how lots of small companies use this application for a way of reaching out professionally. The other popular professional application is LinkedIn, which is also the most popular in America as well. One of the biggest points Erik made during his presentation was how you have to define your goal for online communication, as anything that does not support your goal(s) has no place in your strategy. Another good quote from Erik is that “successful content is authentic, customer focused, and engaging”. For Skapa, their competitive advantage is their craftsmanship & knowledge, and their ability to create content for any company, no matter how difficult/complex/boring/obscure it may be. Erik’s advice for young business professionals like us was “When you first start your career, find a large enough company that has the skills, needs, and will to develop you, because you will learn just as much your first 5 years as you did in college, the first years are some of the most important”.
Below are some pictures of us during the presentation and the inside of their office:
From there, we went to Gothenburg University, or in Swedish it’s called Göteborgs Universitet. We had lunch in the cafeteria there, which was very good (WAY better than our caf), and got to see what some of the students there were like.
After lunch, we had the chance to sit on a lecture-type presentation from two professors of the school of business, economics, and law. Their names were Martin Öberg and Claes G. Alvstam. The business school has 3900 students, while the university has 35-45000. It is a triple crown university and there are many foreign exchange students that study there from all over the world. We learned a little bit about Sweden’s economy and how right now the SEK is at an all time low while the USD is at an all time high, so the exchange rate here is great! Sweden is also very export and trade dependent and has lots of outward foreign direct investments. For example, there are about 3200 Swedish companies with at least 1 subsidiary abroad. After this presentation, we had another one where we learned more about Gothenburg and it’s history. It has been an outward-looking city since the 17th century, and it is also the largest port in Scandinavia. The university plays a big role in the city, as it became a national, public university in 1954 after being founded in 1891, and there are so many students who go there because higher education in Sweden is completely free of charge for Swedish and European Union citizens. After learning several more interesting facts, we also got a few fun ones about hockey, as it is such a popular sport in Scandinavia and we are going to a game this Thursday! The hockey game is played on a bigger ice arena, and has 3, 18 minute periods. There is no fighting allowed, and several other rules are different from American hockey. It made me so excited to go to the game on Thursday!
For dinner that night, it was an open dinner, so my friends and I headed over to the Nordstan area (which is the big mall and middle of the city), and we just walked around some shops and then found kind of a hidden gem to eat at! It was a very small restaurant that had an Italian/pizza buffet and we were so hungry that that seemed just about perfect for us then! Here is a picture of our food below:
Things I learned today:
- The Italian food in Sweden is a lot different than American Italian food and it is so much better!
- I am literally obsessed with European streets and all the architecture, it’s so cool!
- I was completely fine the first two days we were here and now the jet lag is really starting to hit and I have no problems at all sleeping at night, but I am just tired all of the time!
- FIKA (Swedish coffee break) is the perfect thing right in the middle of the day, and I’m definitely going to make it an American thing.
- Students at the university here dress really nice and wear business professional clothes every day to class – and let me tell you, the college boys here are on a whole other level! As much as I love to wear sweats to class sometimes, what happened to America?!
Well, that is all for today as I am very tired and ready to go to bed! See you tomorrow!
Nicole's Adventures in Sweden 