Till startsidan
Thursday 20 November, 2008
NEW POSTAL ADRESS
Business Region Göteborg AB
Box 111 19
SE-404 23 Göteborg
Sweden
Visiting address
Norra Hamngatan 14
Phone: +46 31 61 24 02
Fax: +46 31 61 24 01
EXPAT OF THE MONTH
Steve Armstrong - Chief Operating Officer, Volvo Car Corporation
A younger, more handsome version of Tony Blair — that was how Steve Armstrong was described to me before I met him for the first time. This was in 2001. It was a fitting description then and it still is. When one meets Steve it is hard to imagine him as a hard hitting, incredibly successful, businessman. I know he is all of this but I also know he is a charmer, seemingly able to talk about any subject to anyone and everyone. This is a gift and of course it is part of the reason for Steve´s success.

I have seen him in action, negotiating in a role play with the participants of a trainee course that I was running.  He charmed the socks off the trainees and they didn´t know what had hit them. They had just attended a negotiation techniques training course and thought they knew all the ploys but Steve did what he excels at — he charmed them in to believing he was agreeing with them. It is hard to imagine Steve angry. He did admit to sometimes losing his temper but that this does not happen often.

Steve has worked in the motor industry since he left school at the age of 16. He is totally at home in the automobile industry. He was fully conversant with the industry by the time he came to work in Sweden and the job he was employed to do was not new to him. Steve started off, after school, as a junior buyer and rapidly worked his way up to Purchasing Director at Jaguar, when it was still owned by Ford. He is actually currently still on a Jaguar contract but this will shortly be replaced by a Ford contract, now that Jaguar has been sold.

In 1999 Steve was asked to go to the US as Vice President of the Ford and Mazda joint venture. He felt this was a good opportunity to get close to Ford and also to experience the US from a business point of view. His wife, Kay, and two children (then aged 7 and 9) were quite happy about this move. They expected to be there for about 5 years. After just under two years Steve was “asked" if he would like to move to the Volvo Car Corporation in Göteborg ,Sweden. He was interviewed by Hans Olov Olsson, the then President of VCC, and they moved to Sweden and VCC.
 
He clearly remembers his first impression of Göteborg and Sweden. It was a very wet, grey, miserable day in February 2001 when he and Kay arrived here on their pre-visit. Their first impression was not a great one. They were not impressed by the houses they were shown and felt rather hesitant about the move. They were shown quite a few houses but they were all tiny. There was just not enough to choose from and the standard was not high. Steve was, however, very interested in the position he had been offered and felt it was a good career move. His wife and children liked living in the US and the lifestyle there. They were not keen on the idea of a move to Sweden, a country they knew very little about.  
 
In Steve´s opinion Sweden is the polar opposite of the US in terms of people and the environment. They were originally told that the contract would be for two years. They have now been living here for 7 years. Kay and Steve rent a house they are very happy with. They have lived in the same house the whole time they have been in Sweden. It is close to the sea and with easy access to the office. They tend to have a lot of visitors due to their proximity to the UK and love being close to the forest and the sea. He likes the idea of renting a house as then you don´t have to worry about repairs or problems if something goes wrong. You just make a phone call and someone solves the problem. As well as this all the utility bills are paid. Steve and Kay have kept their house in England and are very pleased that they decided to do this.  
 
Steve changed his position in March 2006. He felt it was time for him to either move on or to change jobs. He had been working as Purchasing Director for 5 years at this stage. He mentioned this to Hans Olov Olsson and a new position was actually created once Fredrik Arp took over as President. Steve is now second in charge and is responsible for the operative area of the VCC business.  By this time, the children were fine about staying in Sweden. After feeling very much out of place to start with they had fitted in very well. Kay and Steve thought it would be a good idea if the children could finish their schooling in Sweden. Both of the children (Mathew 17 and Charlotte 15) currently attend the Sigtuna boarding school, Sweden´s largest boarding school and the school chosen by the Swedish royal family for their childrens´ education. Kay was happy about new position as she likes being in Sweden, most of the time. A move may have meant a move to Asia but it wasn´t good timing for this. Steve feels very much at home here and so do his family.
 
Perhaps now is a good time to mention the “coconut" theory. This relates to culture and the “coconut" culture is one where it is very hard to get in and get to know people but once you get through the hard shell of the coconut it is relatively soft and you have made a good friend and the going is easy. I mentioned this to Steve, as applying to Swedes, and he agreed. He feels that Swedish people are generally insular until you get to know them. It is not easy to meet Swedes, in Steve´s opinion and they do not socialise with many Swedes. Steve felt that many of the people he met when he first arrived were what he thought was the typical stereotype of a Swede. They were rather difficult to get to know but genuinely nice people and very keen on the outdoors and the environment.

He did find it difficult that many Swedes tried to avoid eye contact. He still finds it hard to understand why people just can´t say “hello" to each other when they are out and about. He feels this tends to change in the summer when people come to life and are more open and sometimes willing to speak. The people tend to disappear in winter and emerge again in summer. Kay talks with the neighbours, but Steve hasn't really got to know them. Steve does not find people particularly polite and found this took a bit of getting used to. He still finds it annoying when anyone doesn´t use please and excuse me.
 
When Steve first started working in Sweden he couldn´t believe just how quiet everyone was. He actually took this personally. He was so used to being asked questions and wondered why no one did this. In meetings with his management team no one would comment so he took to asking everyone, in turn, what they thought. If they had something important to tell him they would come to him after the meeting. He did not like this way of working. He felt he had to do something to change this behaviour. It did change but rather slowly. Steve was also surprised at just how insular the people were. Other things that he found difficult were the consensus thing and Friday “fika" (coffee break). The coffee break is something he has learned that he cannot change. You have to choose your battles.

Steve has always been interested in mountain biking but he has extended this interest to include cycle racing and he has competed in Vätternrundan (Vätternrundan is the largest recreational bicycle ride in the world. The 300 km ride encircles the beautiful lake Vättern in Sweden. Each year about 17 000 participants from all over the world take part. The race will be held on June 13-14 this year). His best time is 9 hours and 50 minutes. As you can imagine a feat like this requires quite some training. He usually cycles around 100km every Sunday morning.  
  

I asked Steve just what he knew about Sweden before he came here. His response was IKEA, Volvo, and meatballs. He knew very little about Sweden the country or its history. When Steve was preparing himself for Sweden he was surprised to be told that it was not as cold as Detroit, where he was living. He finds it wet but not all that cold in Sweden. He was definitely not prepared for the beauty of the countryside and its accessibility. He was impressed the first time he flew over the countryside by the magnificent forests and lakes.

He knew very little about the culture but he and Kay did some research in advance. They were given the impression from the books they read that tended to depict people in national costume dancing around maypoles and living in red cottages that the country was quite rural and somewhat backward.  Even though this was not the case he did feel it was quite a struggle for the whole family for the first 12 months.  

In the US the sports facilities are incredible for children in and out of school. There are a myriad of clubs and societies and the people have a passion for volunteering. The soccer club his son played for was very well organised and extremely well funded. Here his son had no language skills and found it difficult to play soccer with the local kids. They had moved from a society where the consumer was catered for 100% and everything was open 24 hours to one where everything closed early. During their stay in Sweden things have changed significantly in this sphere. Unfortunately, some of these changes have been for the worst, in Steve´s opinion. It is no longer as clean and tidy as it used to be and there is quite a bit more graffiti.

Steve is very positive about his job. He feels he has the best job in the motor industry. 
He enjoys working at a large and famous company. It is a larger organisation than where he worked in the US. He likes the independence that Volvo has from a job point of view. His expectations have been met. He found the pace very slow when he first arrived. It was all too nice and the numerous coffee breaks (fika) and socialisation in the work place was a bit of a shock.

One thing that Steve remembers about his first weeks in Sweden is that everyone talks about stress and people who had “gone into the wall". He felt, on the contrary, that they only worked half a week. His manager in the US had very high expectations of Steve but he felt the expectations of his Swedish manager were not as high. In those days he felt that the demands placed on employees were lower but this is also another thing that has changed.  
 
Steve related an amusing story. He started work on June 1st. He was aware that the factory shut down in July but got a shock when everyone said they were going on holiday in July. Everyone just disappeared! “See you in August" they said. He couldn´t believe that some people would be away from work for 5 weeks! He was by himself and Kristina (his PA) worked for the first week with him and after that he had nothing to do. He called Kay and said he was coming back to the US as he was bored. Steve has adapted and now can take 3 weeks off during the summer.

He no longer has any moral qualms about doing this.  He has just bought a new boat. He loves to take the boat to the Göteborg archipelago and just read a book or do nothing. They have a lot of visitors, not being far from England. The visitors love getting out in the boat and just bumming around, assuming the weather is good of course.  Their first two summers in Sweden were spectacular. The combination of boating in summer and skiing in winter makes Sweden their version of paradise.  Steve would definitely recommend Sweden as a great place to live if you like outdoors life. There is easy access to nature and the environment is relatively clean. There are so few people here — so you can be alone if you want to.
 
One thing you need to learn to put up with is the poor customer service. In Steve´s opinion this has not improved considerably during his 7 years in Sweden. He thinks that this is probably one of the reasons why American find it difficult to settle in here. They don´t like things being so different to home. Their expectations of service are so different.   

Being an expat often means that your life revolves around your work and the kids´ school. If these things work then your life is fine. These things must be taken care of. A lot of time and effort is focused on school. It is an important point of focus for the spouse who is often not working. Steve felt it was important to add that moving to another country is often a bigger challenge for the accompanying spouse than the person who is working.

The spouses experience a variety of problems every day — finding their way around, coping with things, filling the car with petrol, dealing with the schools, and generally the practical side of things. They sometimes have too much time on their hands to think about things. The spouses tend to spend a lot of time together and they are very helpful to each other. If anyone has a problem it becomes everyone´s problem. Sweden tends to get the blame when things do go wrong. The person who is busy working does not have time for this type of discussion where minor issues become huge problems. Of course they are not seen as minor by the accompanying spouse.  

I asked Steve how he copes with life in Sweden. He said that exercise is important, referring to his cycling. Living an expat life you force yourself to do more stuff. You don´t have your extended family around you. You don´t have to visit parents. You tend to do more things such as having parties and going away for the weekends and travelling more in general. You tend to live a faster pace of life and don´t get into same mundane routines as you do in your home country.

Steve speaks some Swedish but does not feel that he needs to be fluent. It is not a barrier. He feels that most people´s English is very good. He feels it is a difficult language to learn but then again Brits find all languages difficult. He knows very few British expats who have learned Swedish. Kay is better at Swedish as she had a good teacher and this teacher provided not only language training but cultural training as well. The children are, of course, fluent in Swedish. Steve feels that everyone should take language lessons and take advantage of the teacher to learn about cultural issues. Steve did attend part of a cultural awareness course related to Sweden provided by the company. He felt this was useful. He feels you learn by doing what you do rather than by reading and theory.
 
In the beginning Steve would include anecdotes in his speech. This happens less now. He realised that people didn´t really get what he meant all the time. It is easy to overestimate the ability of Swedes to speak and understand English. English is such a complicated language that it is not easy to perfect as a second language.
 
Steve´s tips for expats: You need to be aware that an international placement is different and it should be different. Enjoy the adventure and don´t complain about the differences. Make the most of what Sweden has to offer. Here in Göteborg you have access to 3 capital cities. ( Copenhagen ,Osloand Stockholm) Make the most of this. Look for opportunities and the rest will come easy.   
Updated: 20080818