Forget national borders – see the Nordics as a region!

More and more people are regarding the Nordic countries as a single region, and want to recruit managers and board members with knowledge of all the Nordic nations. Many international companies have long viewed the region as a single market, while those of us who work in headhunting and interim management have often limited ourselves to the individual countries.

The Nordic region is an exciting, growing region! As well as positive GNP growth in Sweden, Denmark and Finland, there is a high level of expertise within a variety of different fields. For a region with just 26 million inhabitants, we boast a remarkably resilient tech scene that has emerged in the wake of Ericsson and Nokia. Denmark’s trading culture, with strong international organisations such as the shipping giant Maersk and the world-famous Carlsberg, has contributed towards an entrepreneurial spirit that serves as a breeding ground for small and medium-sized companies, particularly within commerce. Life science is another successful field in Denmark, with names such as Ferring, Lundbeck and Novo Nordisk ploughing new ground, together with Elekta and Orexo in Sweden.

The high degree of specialist expertise found in the Nordic region, combined with positive growth, stable conditions and short geographical distances, are of interest not only to us headhunters but also to those international customers who want to recruit for their Northern European businesses. The IT industry has already demonstrated that it doesn’t matter whether you’re in Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo or Copenhagen – the distances are short, and remote management is no longer the challenge it once was.

Personally, I’m incredibly inspired by having the Nordic region as my working area, and I look forward to continuing to strengthen pan-Nordic leadership through headhunting and interim management.