Night 7 - Michelin Starred Chefs

Skagen Toast with Salmon and Egg
(most were prettier, this one was made
"special" for me)

After last night, I think Gothenburg is about to get its first Michelin stars, with the chefs being none other than us students.  For one of the most delicious meals I have had in a while (and by far the best on the trip), we went to a high end "restaurant,"  called Barbros Matskola, by the docks where two chefs instructed us how to cook in their kitchen, and also provide a menu and ingredients. This establishment has earned a stunning reputation in Gothenburg's culinary circles, and has been visited by royalty and the Swedish Prime Minister. Only top-end,  fresh and carefully selected ingredients are used to prepare contemporary Swedish dishes. We were broken into groups of three or four, and assigned a task; Alex Braatz, Connnor McComas, and I were assigned to the first appetizer, Toast Skagen with Salmon and Egg.  Using sushi-quality salmon, we created a delicious delicacy, and even artfully garnished the dish with fresh dill and a lemon slice.  Move over Rachel Ray, we're about to start a culinary revolution.

Herring Ball on Crisp Bread

Fried Plaice Fillet with Risotto

White Chocolate Mousse with Raspberries

Day 7 - Institute of Shipping Analysis 2011 Executive Meeting and Ascom

The day started off with our return to the Institute of Shipping Analysis 2011 Executive Meeting, which opened with a seminar on the European Maritime Transport Strategy for 2018. This strategy can be summed into a focus on quality and of increased competitiveness of shipping in Europe and worldwide. The focus on quality is mostly comprised of increased safety, environmentalism, technology, and efficiency for new ships. Also, the increase in European competition may lead to a rapid growth of the Short Sea Shipping industry, which is freight being shipped over very short distances, usually only a couple hours away.  This would revolutionize European transportation not only on the sea, but also on the roads as less trucks would be used, which would be very advantageous for Europe's congested and over-crowded roads and trains. Short Sea Shipping has much potential, however must first overcome complex European laws and shipping procedures, and also implement new technology for a faster fleet. Finally, both new and existing ports would need to be developed for heavier traffic.

Following this presentation and a presentation on Arctic shipping, we visited Ascom Holding AG, a telecommunications company focusing on mission-critical communications. Ascom employs 2,500 worldwide, and also owns subsidiaries in 20 countries. While their corporate headquarters are in Zurich, Switzerland, we visited their Wireless Solutions  division's headquarters here in Gothenburg.  The vision of Ascom Wireless Solutions is "To establish wireless solutions as a world leader in enterprise mobility for mission critical communication".  In short, they make state-of-the-art phones that work on independent networks in hospitals, industrial settings, elderly care facilities, the retail sector, hospitals, and secure establishments. They have over 75,000 installations worldwide, and use industry-leading technology and security.  Ascom Wireless Solutions credits its competitive advantages of having the most premium products, the highest audio quality, the highest positioning precision, and high durability for its success.

Day 6 - ABB Robotics and Institute of Shipping Analysis 2011 Executive Meeting

The day started out with a trip to Professor Shield's former employer- ABB Robotics, which is the robotics division of the Swiss-Swedish multinational corporation, ABB. ABB is not only one of the largest engineering companies in the world, but also one of the largest conglomerates in the world with 117,000 employees in around 100 countries. Divisions include power products, power systems, discrete automation and motion, low voltage products, and process automation, leading to roughly $31.5 billion in revenue for 2009.

ABB Robotics has installed over 175,000 state of the art robots worldwide.  A few of these companies include: IKEA, Ford, Honda, Audi, BMW, Sony, Dell, Apple, Motorola, Hewlett Packard, Astro Zeneca, Cadbury, Nestle, and Foxconn. These robots assist in manufacturing, and can be broken into two divisions: Hard Automation (programmed to operate independently) and Flexible Automation (operated by humans).  These incredible pieces of machinery range from lifting 3kg to 650 kg, and can perform operations such as arc welding, spot welding, painting/coating, cutting, press tending, finishing, material handling, machine tending.

We were also very lucky to be able to attend the 2011 Executive Meeting of the Institute of Shipping Analysis through the University of Gothenburg.  It is a conference for big players in international shipping; there we're CEOs, owners of commercial shipping fleets, economists,  and government officials and policymakers.

The first lecture was on global hot spots and geopolitical meltdowns; while the world is a much safer place as a whole today compared to a few decades ago, there is still violence.  This violence is mostly contained to the Middle East and Africa, and can greatly affect global trading and transport.  In the Persian Gulf, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan are considered the major conflict zones.  The session discussed possible end scenarios for the conflict in Iraq, the differing perspectives in regards to Iran, and a brief summary of current operations and strategies in Afghanistan.

The second seminary, Piracy; Orchestrating the Response, followed up on the previous topic by discussing violence and threats to shipping around Africa. Here are some staggering figures on piracy in 2010:

•  90% of all pirate attacks were off the Horn of Africa
• 728 hostages were taken throughout the year
• 445 attacks occurred, leading to 53 hijacks
• 1186 people were endangered
• 8 people were murdered

This issue can devastate individuals and their families and friends, corporations, and international trade; an organized global response is crucial to resolve a matter that can afflict any and all nations. This seminar also examined how corporations should react if they are a victim of a pirate attack.

Day 6 - Digital Marketing Lesson

One major concept discussed at ABB Robotics was the difference in technical/ computer literacy between generations. He described my parent's generation as "digital immigrants," and stated we are "digital natives".  We learned how marketing to these two demographics differ, due to the two groups processing information differently.  He also took this into consideration when creating his project, RobotStudio.  RobotStudio is ABB Robotic's one-of-a-kind, in-house software for setting up and programming their robots.  It is an "optimized solution" for reducing end-user investments, reducing production down time, increasing productivity, and improving quality, and is a huge competitive advantage; it helps ABB Robotics lead the industry in not only precision and productivity, but also user friendliness.  Along with this, ABB Robotics has also created RobotStudio Community, which is an online community for ABB Robotics users and integrators. While originally  created for the "digital natives," it contains tutorials, forums, success stories, a blog, and content sharing. For having such a narrow niche, this community is huge; I saw posts on the forums with thousands of replies and comments, which is a massive number for any forum.

RobotStudio and RobotStudiohave led to a huge change in ABB Robotic's business model; everything is online today.  Today, their are less training costs, less need for customer service, customers can buy RobotStudio online (instead of having a physical inventory of CDs, which is incredibly efficient), and no travelling to conferences or industrial trade shows, all while significantly increasing market share and customer satisfaction.

Day 5 - AutoAdapt and AB Volvo

Today was one of the most educational days of my college career; I sincerely believe that I learned more in this one day than in an entire semester of Intro to Business.


We started the day at AutoAdapt, which is owned by Bruno (a company we analyzed and visited prior to coming overseas). AutoAdapt develops and manufactures car adaptation equipment to meet the needs of the physically handicapped, and has a highly international presence. It was started 20 years ago with 5 employees in a home garage, and today has evolve to a multi-million dollar international company. One common theme of the entire visit was the amount of respect and hospitality we received; AutoAdapt arranged and paid for a private bus to transport us there and back, provided us with and excellent lunch, gave us a tour, and most significantly gave us a private meeting with both the CEO of the company and the vice president of marketing and sales. We were never treated like college students; everyone spoke to us as if we were professionals and colleagues.

We also ate lunch with the VP of Marketing and Sales, Peter Wahlsten. Wahlsten's heavily involvement in the international aspect of AutoAdapt gave him great insight into international business and foreign cultures.  He gave us examples from his past about some of the challenges he has overcome, and taught us a lot about the obstacles for trading internationally. I learned about inter-Scandinavian business, what its like to trade with Russia, proper customs in Japan, the cons of traveling to Germany, the economy of China, the and the subcultures within Sweden.  He was both extremely friendly and extremely proficient and capable, and I feel very privileged to have eaten lunch with him.


After that, we moved to a much larger company, AB Volvo. It is important to note that this is a separate company from Volvo Cars, which is not owned by AB Volvo, but rather the Chinese holding group Geely. AB Volvo makes commercial trucks (and owns Mack Trucks, Renault Trucks, Nissan Trucks, and Volvo Trucks), buses, construction equipment, leisure boat engines and industrial engines through Volvo Penta, and aerospace components.  It is a huge company (much larger than Volvo Cars), and had roughly $32.5 billion in revenue for 2009, and employs over 90,000 people worldwide. At AB Volvo, we were given a brief history of the company, and overview of the current world economy (with emphasis on its impact on AB Volvo and with anticipated future conditions.  They described current challenges facing Volvo, and Volvo's competitive advantages, and I asked how they share and maintain their brand image with Volvo cars. While the presenter admitted someone from marketing would know better, she explained how the Volvo Holding Group owns the brand and helps market and maintain it.  Although we played with the semi-trucks and heavy construction equipment in the display room, we were still treated strictly like professionals.  I could get used to that.

Day 5 - Products, Internationalization, and Leadership Lesson

To due AutoAdapt growing so rapidly and consistently, the presentation we received from the CEO, Håkan Sandberg, was on how to foster and sustain growth. Sandberg's experience and knowledge was highly evident, and if we had another presentation on this trip half as good as his, we'd all be destined to be billionaires. He covered twenty topics and ideas he feels are essential for success in today's business environment. Some of the most prominent topics covered were creative financing, creating a market niche (rather than fighting for market share), finding a "product flower," or unique product that has a competitive advantage, product control (constantly developing and evolving products at a high tempo), and having efficient distribution control with a high capacity. Also, internationalization was discussed heavily; with a changing global economy, this is imperative for any business with ambitions.  Finally, effective leadership encompassed several topics, as we were shown how management's quick decisions, commitment, values, ability to recruit well, set goals, and use experience to be absolutely crucial in any business or organization.

My favorite quote from today was during the presentation by Sandberg, describing the necessary vision for a business he called the "lead star".

      "The lead star is almost a religious conviction, an expression of will, seldom emerging from democratic discussions, but rather from an individual's heart, often the owner of the company".

Day 4 - Gothenburg University

Gothenburg University's School of
Business, Economics, and Law

I learned the hard way that rough Monday's are an international phenomenon; this morning my roommate and I either slept through all four of the alarms we set, or all four alarms didn't go off. We were woken five minutes after our set meeting time by our door being banged on like with a Norse battering ram; actually, an angry Viking would have been a more pleasant way to wake up. I was out the door in thirty seconds, and embarked with the group to Gothenburg University's School of Business, Economics, and Law  (our group got lost on the way, of course).

View of the school's courtyard

We received outstanding hospitality from the University, as we received a special tour of the school and were also privileged enough to have a private audience with two excellent professors. Both professors gave lectures to us, and we learned very much about Swedish history and culture,  Scandinavian and Swedish economics, as well as Gothenburg's economics, Swedish corporations, and sports marketing. This was all followed up by a highly engaging presentation from Professor Shields on sports marketing, brand image, and the impact of effective design.

The business school's library

On the way back, we stopped at a British bar called The Bishop's Arms, which was great choice. The pub was what I envision as the quintessential British pub.  It was filled with wood tones, warm lighting, bookshelves, a fireplace, and comfortable armchairs and bar stools. Behind the bar, there were shelves of scotch and whiskey, and every known beer either on tap or in bottles (they even had beer from 5 of the 7 Trappist monasteries). I actually tried one such beer, a abbey-style Belgium Trippel known as Rochefort 10. It weighed in at 11.3% ABV, and if I bring one souvenir back, it will be a few bottles of this.

The Bishop's Arms