A Nordic Perspective on Humanizing Business

Sustainable Vikings! While Vikings of the past are associated with seafaring and pillaging, the modern-day Vikings of the Nordic business community are global sustainability leaders who have constructed companies and business practices that put humanization of business at the core. In this chapter, we explore the Nordic context and offer lessons regarding how the Nordics have humanized business. We provide historical overview to describe the deep seated democratic traditions of the Nordic region that include an embracement of the concept of “industrial democracy” and a more cooperative approach to business than experienced in other business contexts, such as the U.S. We then highlight specific examples of humanizing business with examples from such leading Nordic companies as IKEA, H&M, Novo Nordisk, Carlsberg, Ericsson, Norsk Hydro, and Equinor (formerly Statoil). And we consider current and likely future trends in humanizing business drawing in considerations to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the comparatively strong performance of Nordic countries in the SDGSs that has given rise to the moniker of “Sustainable Vikings.”