Danir Group

Around the table, our moderator Dennis Axnér welcomes three experts on the topic, each with extensive experience as leaders and entrepreneurs within Danir.

Erik Freese is a father of three, lives with his partner Linda, has a pet gerbil, and serves as the Group CEO of Sigma Industry East North. Lars-Johan Ahlqvist, married to Anette with two children and three grandchildren, is the Group CEO of Sigma Industry South. And Jeanette Rumenius, who lives with her partner Daniel, is a mother of four and the Group CEO of A Society, which has 1,500 ‘techsperts’ on assignments in Sweden and the USA.

Lars-Johan began his career within the Danir Group at Epsilon in 2000, but before that, he worked for 17 years in the military as a technical officer. A background that grounded him well with a solid foundation in leadership.

“For seven of those seventeen years in the military, I was involved in various leadership and technical training programmes. I had a good experience in the military, with valuable training that I’ve carried over in one way or another into the business world and entrepreneurship,” Lars-Johan says of his military background.

Jeanette has been active in her current industry for over 15 years and joined the Danir Group in 2016 when she was recruited as the CEO of Sigma Society, which became A Society when Danir acquired Assistera. Before that, she worked in customer and employee surveys, and it was there that she got her first taste of entrepreneurship.

“I was the third employee in that company and did everything an entrepreneur does – everything! You are responsible for the revenue as well as the cost side. I held every role at once,” Jeanette says of her first contact with entrepreneurship.

Erik has had various jobs in different industries before moving into engineering, where he studied various specialisations and complemented them with economics.

“I started working as a calculation engineer in ’99, so it’s been 25 years since I started working. I took the long route and didn’t initially plan to become a leader. I just kept to what I enjoyed on the calculation side,” Erik says of his start in the tech industry.

Throughout the conversation, their diverse backgrounds and perspectives become clear. But how do they view entrepreneurship? Do they have different perspectives to share on that?

Jeanette begins by saying that she sees passion as the most important factor. An entrepreneur is someone with a great deal of passion and drive. Sure, action, a plan, and structure are needed, but that comes later and is necessary to create something sustainable. Lars-Johan agrees on the importance of commitment. He adds that an entrepreneur is more resilient to temporary setbacks, ignores them, pushes forward, and thinks long-term. Erik believes that an entrepreneur is someone who has been given a lot of autonomy and does not let themselves be stopped by rational thoughts that could curb their drive by focusing too much on the risks.

“And here’s where the balance lies between the brilliant entrepreneur and the one who takes excessive risks and ends up in the ditch,” Erik reflects on risk-taking and entrepreneurship.

Gradually, the three start to paint a shared image of the entrepreneur as an engaged, passionate, and hard-working person who gets things done. And this last aspect is crucial.

“There are a lot of people with ideas, but not many have the ability to execute them, and I think that’s quite characteristic of entrepreneurs – they actually follow through with their idea,” Lars-Johan says on what defines an entrepreneur.

How, then, does long-term vision relate to entrepreneurship? The three seem to agree that it plays a big role. Without endurance and a forward-looking focus, it’s challenging to create something sustainable. Working from long-term strategies is also a way to minimise risks. By spreading it over a longer period, the risks have less impact on the business and the common goal being pursued.

The aim of this conversation was partly to see how entrepreneurs view their role. What we notice throughout the discussion is that there are many similarities. Yet they each contribute to a variety of new perspectives, which enrich the image of the entrepreneur and challenge some of the stereotypes associated with it. The conversation gradually reveals new insights, provokes new thoughts, and offers very personal reflections on what it’s like to lead and build companies within the Danir Group, where entrepreneurship and long-term strategies are so central.

The conversation continues. Watch the interesting discussion in full here above.