2021 Member Survey

The results are in! The ABCS is always striving to find new and engaging ways to add value to our Members. Our recent Member Survey provided some fantastic ideas for new content, activities and initiatives to make the ABCS even better.

Respondents

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our annual Member Survey. We had a very high engagement rate this year, and of course we’re taking all the fantastic feedback on board.

This year we prioritised 3 core areas: motivations for membership, content/topics and events. Based on the results, we’re launching some great new initiatives and will focus our upcoming events on the most demanded themes.

Social activities

First and foremost, it was a common thread throughout the results that people really appreciate our social activities. Our friendly network enjoy making new friends and the ABCS offers a great platform for just that! We’re pleased to announce that we’re now in the process of organising our 2021 summer event. We’ll prioritise more mingle events going forward too.

Member networking

With the latest social restrictions caused by Covid, meeting and networking with other ABCS members has been somewhat more challenging. Despite this, Members are still keen to reach out and meet new like-minded mates. We’ve now launched a brand new digital database where Members can locate others based on demographics and professional interest. Please give us your permission to add you to the list - then you can find and be found by other members in your areas. We hope that this will help Members in more remote parts of Sweden to connect to each other as well.

Member Highlights

To help facilitate Member networking, we are also adding ‘Member highlights’ to our communications so you can learn more about our individual Members. Checkout our latest interviews with Jake Lowther who recently helped us organise a great ABCS event, or Ryan Faulkner-Hogg, a new Member who shared his story about starting a business in Sweden.

Registrations

We have now simplified our online registration process to reduce the confusion some prospects were facing while trying to register as an ABCS Member. The join process now uses a standardised online form and email confirmation. You can now also directly opt-in to receive our eNewsletter and be included in our public Member database. Perfect for renewing your yearly Membership too!

Events

We are really proud to see that Members rank our events as high quality. The topics that are appreciated the most, in order of popularity were as follows:

1. Social activities

2. Leadership

3. Technology & Emerging Trends

4. Finance & Investments

5. Travel & Tourism

6. Business opportunities & marketing

As a result, we recently held an event on Leadership together with Australian Business in Europe (ABIE), which gave practical tips on developing skills as an effective leader & mentor. We’ll keep our focus on the topics that are most in demand going forward.

We also received some fantastic suggestions for future events, covering topics like crypto currency, sporting days and speed dating. Watch this space while we work on creating some great new events based on these additional suggestions.

Thank you

We’d like to say thanks once again to all those that participated in the survey. We’re still working through all of the ideas and inspiration from the survey and can’t wait to launch even more initiatives soon. In the meantime, you are always welcome to contact us with your ideas and feedback - we love to include our Members in making the ABCS even better!

A special thanks also goes out to Adam Horne who graciously volunteered some of his time to help formulate the 2021 survey. We always appreciate the help and expertise from our Members. We encourage everyone to please reach out, get involved, and lend a hand! Inclusion is always welcome at the ABCS.

Starting a business in Sweden

Finding employment in Sweden is no easy task for the newcomer. We recently spoke to Ryan Faulkner-Hogg, an ABCS Member, who shared his story about how his entrepreneurial curiosity and expert skills from Australia helped him find success.

A lot of us share the same story. We meet a Swede. We fall in love. We move to Sweden. We fall in love with said country. We miss readily available and reasonably priced vegemite, but we’re excited about our new Scandinavian adventure. That is, until reality hits and it’s time to (re)build a career.

Ryan Faulkner-Hogg, ABCS Member

This story is not untrue for Ryan Faulkner-Hogg who followed his heart and moved to Stockholm in September 2020 with his Swedish girlfriend, Emma. He landed in a new country, surrounded by a new language, all in the middle of a pandemic! Ryan has a solid resume in sales and SaaS, but it was his curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit which had him successfully running in his own business within just two months.

So how exactly did he do it?

It starts with passion

When meeting Ryan it doesn’t take long to become enthralled by his curiosity and passion to understand the world. Conversations can be anything from Geography, Geopolitics, Energy, Carl Jung or really any of the different topics he has covered on his website. As a passionate writer, Ryan invests a lot of his time in his blog, Atlas Geographica, which also doubles as a hosting platform for several podcasts.

Ryan says, “This is really what I am most passionate about! Naturally, it is SEO optimised to the gills (making it easy to find in Google). But this is that one thing I would do forever, even if it never made a dime”

Fail fast

While blogging ignites Ryan’s creative side, one cannot survive in Stockholm without a dime. I mean, the guy likes to eat and fika costs money. While spending his savings on kanelbulle and extra strong brewed coffee, it didn’t take long before Ryan realised that Swedes really love their coffee. After some research he discovered that the Nordics by far consume the most kilograms of coffee per capita globally and as such he quickly identified an opportunity to get into the coffee wholesale business.

Ryan playfully says, “ I wanted to import the worlds best Arabica beans from my mate in Veracruz, Mexico. I had it all figured out. I thought of branding everything Koala Kaffe to leverage the unearned love Swedes have for Australia, and then battabing-battoboong, roast it, package it, sell it, and have a successful coffee wholesale line”.

Ryan later admits that he had quite naive and lofty ideas of the coffee business in Sweden. After speaking with some of the big coffee providers in Stockholm, he realised that the margins on coffee (no matter how good) were too thin to justify the capital and risk, so he put this idea to bed.

Merging passion with possibility

After another ‘påtår’ of coffee Ryan’s entrepreneurial spirit was re-energised by a sludgy dose of Swedish caffeine. While deep diving into the process (pardon the pun) for kopi luwak, Ryan realised that content wasn’t so easy to find on Google. With his passion for content creation and expertise in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), he realised that this line of business was in its infancy in Sweden.

Ryan explains that Australia is at the forefront of the industry. A good SEO strategy has a higher ROI per dollar than any other means of marketing available. He states, “It really is amazing the things that can happen when an algorithm starts paying attention to you”.

Could this be a possible business idea?

Leveraging the ABCS network

In Sweden, it’s often not what you know but who you know (especially when you can’t find the answers you’re looking for in Google). And that’s where the ABCS can play a big part.

Ryan explains that he heard out about the ABCS via word of mouth from two Aussies living in Sweden (Dan and Anna) whom he had met previously in Amsterdam.

“I immediately reached out to them and coincidentally met with them on the same day the ABCS held its last in person gathering. I joined the drinks, thought the crowd was brilliant and then signed up!”

Ryan leveraged the fantastic professional networking opportunity that the ABCS offers, which helped to springboard his business. He met with one of our Members with experience in the industry who shared insights on the Swedish marketing landscape. He says that this “serendipitously, ended up being a brilliant point of conversation and research”

“From there I spoke with Alana and also tried to figure out the idea’s viability, and then took out the hfhdigital.com domain”.

“I also was lucky enough to borrow one hour of Warren Campbells time earlier this year as well. Speaking to him really inspired me to think about all the business potential Sweden has to offer. This country seems to ironically, given its state centric reputation, to somehow foster extraordinarily innovative business”

The challenges of starting a business in Sweden

Ryan explains that while peer support was strong, starting a business in Sweden is not without challenges. His Visa (Family Of An EU Citizen) was approved within weeks of application, but the processing of his personnummer is still, to this day, pending.

“It is because of this reason that my business is still registered in Australia, and not Sweden. The Australian government are the ones who are reaping the upside of my tax revenue without the cost of consumption - whereas Sweden currently are doing the opposite”

SEO services in Sweden just got better

While Ryan is juggling the red tape, he is still well on his way to running a successful business.

“HFH Digital is an SEO Agency whose specialty is exclusively that - SEO. That might sound a tad trite, but the case is that most ‘SEO Packages’ are simply an extension of an entire ‘Digital Strategy’ and therefore the most important part - SEO - is barely given a once over from the top, rather than given the fundamental attention it deserves”

So if you’re looking for better visibility in search engine result pages, or want to hear more about starting a business in Sweden, you know who to contact for a coffee and a chat!

Want to meet more Members like Ryan or be available for networking with other ABCS Members? Join our new Member database!

Report Launch: Leadership Perspectives 2021

On Resilience | In Conversation with Leaders on How to Survive and Thrive in a Crisis

The Australia-United Kingdom Chamber of Commerce is delighted to be share the launch of their first Leadership Perspectives Report in partnership with Informed Solutions, ‘On Resilience: In Conversation with Leaders on How to Survive and Thrive in Crisis.’

Bringing together voices from leaders across industries, the report provides a personal and unique insight into how leadership requires personal resilience and the ability to adapt.

Download it here.

In Conversation with Leaders on How to Survive and Thrive in Crisis.

Author Louise Crawley, Australia-United Kingdom Chamber of Commerce

A letter from the Chairman

Firstly, to introductions. I am Sean Williams, an Australian who arrived in Sweden in 2009 with my Swedish family. I met my wife Jessica in the UK, while working for BP. We travelled to Singapore together. After our son, Tor was born, we decided that Sweden offered our family the best opportunities. Given the traditional issues with finding a house and home, we eventually settled near Mörby Centrum (at the end of the red line) in 2010. Our daughter, Idun was born in 2014, and we now have an Australian Shepherd, Jake, who rounds-out the family.

It’s your ABCS

After being in Sweden for a couple of years I felt the need for more connection with like-minded Australians. It turned out that I was not the only one - it is, after all, normal to seek a bit of familiarity when roaming the world. A friend, Jonathon Hannam started up a group of Australian professionals working here, and after a couple of iterations that evolved into the ABCS. In the time that I have been associated with the ABCS I have believed that our primary purpose is to be a forum for Aussies working in business in the ”Top End”. Professionally there are times where we can all benefit from tips from others who are building their careers in Sweden, and have learnt what adjustments need to be made, or can provide compatriots with an introduction to their local network, providing a step-up for newbies who need help establishing, or those who have been here a while looking to take the next steps. Beyond the professional there are times when it is nice to socialize and talk English (or even Strayan). My mantra is therefore, "Its your ABCS” (with apologies to the ABC for stealing its jingle).

Continuity and Change

The outgoing Board presented an Annual Report at the AGM, from which I would like to highlight a few themes. Also, I would like to thank our now ex-Chair, Warren Campbell, for his excellent work over 3 years in strengthening the ABCS Board and our processes. In his final report Warren acknowledged the disappointment of the pandemic, which has limited our ability to get together. For an organisation like ours, whose purpose is to network, it felt downbeat. Nonetheless, I believe that 2020 had a number of behind-the-scenes events that have sowed the seeds for great success. We have continued to build on the relationship with the Swedish Australian Chamber of Commerce (SACC), and the Embassy and Austrade, as already mentioned. We also discovered the Australian Business in Europe (ABIE) network, a network of our sister organisations across Europe. This network is extremely active, and in some cases, very well resourced. With the trend to Zoom meetings, it has made a large amount of excellent and relevant content available to us. Last year, I was excited to listen to Eddie Jones, the rugby coach, talk about leadership. The leadership series continues next week with Julia Gillard.

Naturally, not all of the content is famous Australians opining on success. Going forward, I am keen to ensure that we make the most of this content, getting it out to you, whether you live in Östermalm or Luleå. I believe that there is significant value in this for you, and for the ABCS. Another change is that we hope to be communicating more frequently, as we deepen our engagement with the Australian community.

But, the most profound change is that we are beginning to plan for physical meetings again. At this stage, it’s most likely that they will begin after summer, but if the pandemic improves quickly in the weeks ahead, we may try for a small get together.

Author: Sean Williams, ABCS Chairman.

Member involvement drives the ABCS’s success

Did you know that Members of the ABCS have access to some great professional opportunities and a high calibre network to boot? We provide a fantastic platform to host events and promote your professional services.

The ABCS is not only about meeting like minded people and having some fun. We are a community which promotes professional networking and business development for professionals in Sweden with affiliations to Australia. We aim to establish cooperation between professionals, businesses and government bodies and as such, we offer a unique opportunity for our Members to host events in order to share, promote or expose professional services, topics and ideas.

Jake Lowther, a Lawyer and member of the ABCS, recently initiated a fantastic event to raise the profile of Magnusson International Law Firm in Australia and also among Australians in Sweden. He engaged both the ABCS and SACC and put together a great agenda which promoted Magnusson’s expertise in the M&A/capital markets field within the Nordic region.

We asked Jake how the ABCS helped to facilitate this event and what the core benefits were.

Jake said “We received positive feedback and new contacts and connections were made. The promotional material was also viewed by a large number of users, which is crucial in terms of visibility for Magnusson”

The audience also got a lot of benefit from the event. Jake mentioned that there is plenty of reason for optimism in the Nordic M&A market, in spite of the challenges of the pandemic. He states “we wanted to provide some practical tips and insights for businesses considering an M&A transaction in the Swedish or Australian market.”

Regarding the collaborative effort, Jake mentions that “Magnusson (SACC member) has an Australian-qualified lawyer (ABCS member) on its M&A team and collaborating with the various groups brings in a range of voices with unique insights, experience and expertise. We specifically wanted to target businesses with an interest in the Swedish and Australian markets”.

If you missed the event, we’ve made it available on demand too.

The ABCS welcomes our Members to take advantage of this unique opportunity. Please contact us so together we can create events for all our Members to enjoy and benefit.

If you are a business that would like to tap into our fantastic network of international professionals and leverage the great opportunities offered by the ABCS, please become a Corporate or Small Business Member and let us support you.

The ABCS welcomes our new Chairman, Sean Williams

In March 2021 Sean Williams, a founding Member of the Australian Business Council of Sweden (ABCS) was elected Chairman.

Sean Williams is an Australian who arrived in Sweden in 2009. On arriving in Stockholm Sean worked for NASDAQ OMX, the operator of the Stockholm Stock Exchange, where he was responsible for business issues on the management team of the Commodities Business. Sean worked on power and carbon trading opportunities in Europe and the USA. In 2015, Sean began developing a business called Mundus International and also explored start-up opportunities in clean energy. Mundus, a business Sean runs together with his wife, operates in a niche, providing high-quality news and analysis about the Nordics. Customers are frequently embassies, but also businesses and MBAs.

Sean was a founding Board member of the ABCS for the first year, and continued working closely with the Board while running the Venturing interest group that was part of the ABCS. Two years ago he rejoined the Board, and in March 2021 he became Chair.

Sean says, “My primary goal is therefore for the ABCS to be there as a resource and network for all Australians working in business, for whenever they need it. As the strength of the network comes from its members, I’d encourage those of you who know about us, but haven’t been to an event yet to give it a go, and help us to build the community”

We are very much looking forward to the continued success of the community working together with Sean and the rest of the Board Members going forward.

Impact Series Special | Australia - United Kingdom Chamber of Commerce

The Australia - United Kingdom Chamber of Commerce recently released a three-part Impact Report series, which covers important topics including Environment Social and Corporate Governance (ESG), purpose-led strategy, and positive corporate citizenship.

With contributions from 20 organisations including Audi, BHP, Coutts, National Australia Bank, Laing O’Rourke, NSW Government, Unilever, and more, read the Impact series to get up to speed on ESG and why it’s the defining trend for 2020 and the decade ahead.

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Impact #1 | Purpose driven profit

This report covers how corporate purpose, responsible investment and government leadership are driving greater outcomes for the economy, environment and society. Included are key leadership insights on why purpose matters from contributors including; NAB, PwC, BHP, PRI, Aberdeen Standard Investments, Orient Capital, and New South Wales Government.

• Download the report - Purpose driven profit.

• Watch the webinar on demand.

Impact #2 | Seven Lesson on Social Values

The second Impact report focused on the ‘S’ in ESG- social value, an issue that came into sharp relief for many organisations due to the impacts of COVID. Contributors included; NAB, Laing O'Rourke, Telstra, Anglo American, Gayle, Aspen Medical, Unilever.

• Download the report - Seven lessons on Social Values.

• Watch the webinar.

Impact #3 | Greening the Economy.

The third and final instalment of Impact focused on environmental sustainability and the Road to COP26 in November 20201. Contributors included: PwC, NAB, Coutts, Intrepid Travel, WSTA, Accolade Wines, Mott Macdonald, and AUDI.

• Download the report - Greening the economy.

• Watch the webinar and use access code Impact!21

Behind the scenes - ABCS Christmas preparations

A pandemic may cause restrictions, but not impossibilities. This year the ABCS will host a Christmas event that will be safe and just as enjoyable as ever.

It’s not often we share behind-the-scenes content from the ABCS, but we are always working hard to provide the best events, experiences, and network for our Members. Not even a pandemic can stop that.

Today we packed and distributed 60 bottles of wine for our upcoming Christmas event. As professionals, we didn’t indulge in a test taste - but obviously John Farnham was playing loudly in the background as we worked.

For the 2020 ABCS Christmas event we will host an online wine tasting, where a professional Sommelier will educate and compare Australian wines to European equivalents. The wine boxes have now been sent to our guests, along with a score card which will guide us through the blind tastings.

We really look forward to welcoming our registered members to a great experience and online mingle on 17 December.

Not a Member? Join now to be a part of future events.

ABCS Mingle

After months of quarantining, social distancing and zooming throughout 2020, many of us were feeling ready for some meaningful in-person interaction.

On the 10 September the ABCS hosted a small outdoor mingle for our Members at Sue Ellen in Stockholm.

We had around 25 guests in attendance and it was a great mix of new and current Members. The event provided some excellent networking opportunities for both the Australians and Swedes at the event, as well as a great social outlet for like-minded people.

Our Chairman, Warren Campbell, gave a short welcome speech and provided insight on the recent developments within the ABCS. He announced our recent partnership with the Swedish Australian Chamber of Commerce (SACC) and Australian Business in Europe (ABIE). He also revealed that the SACC and ABCS will soon host our first joint online event with the Australian Ambassador to Sweden and the Swedish Ambassador to Australia: Business and investment trends between Australia and Sweden in a post-COVID world

As part of the ABCS Membership, drinks and nibbles were provided. If you would like to be a part of our upcoming events, become a Member today and join our community.

Welcome Nordic Morning

The Australian Business Council of Sweden is proud to welcome Nordic Morning as our newest Corporate Member.

In May 2020, Nordic Morning joined the Australian Business Council of Sweden as the first professional provider of marketing and digital services.

Nordic Morning transforms businesses with data-driven marketing and digital services, specialising multilingual content creation, design, data management and technology.

Nordic Morning’s advisory specialists have proven expertise in introducing new brands to the Scandinavian market and can assist with Australian businesses wanting to make an impact in the local market, or similarly help Swedish brands expand into Australia. Nordic Morning is an international company with employees covering 15 nationalities, including Australians who work both on the Leadership Team and as specialists in marketing strategy and content creation.

The company was particularly attracted to the ABCS Business Referral Program which is offered to Corporate Members. Through this program, Corporate Members are invited to support all incoming requests to the ABCS for commonly requested professional services, such as business support/consulting, banking, legal and in this case; marketing and communication. The Business Referral Program allows our Corporate Members to take an active part in supporting our professional network and enables the ABCS to expand our offering beyond economic and social opportunities.

Märit Sareyko, CEO of Nordic Morning, says “As an international company, we are always looking for opportunities to use our expertise to support global businesses in the Nordics. We are looking forward to co-hosting an event with the ABCS in the near future to see how our collaboration can support the network going forward”

If your company is interested in strengthening the ABCS network, become a Corporate or Small Business Member today.