Born 1955, MBA. Chairman since 2007. Board member since 2006. Chairman of the Compensation Committee.
"With strategy and the customer in focus"
The fact that as a ten-year-old he sold cigarettes and other tobacco products in his family's kiosk in Västerås was perhaps not the Nominating committee's primary criterion for proposing Conny Karlsson as Chairman of the Swedish Match Board. Nevertheless, it was an experience that gave him a professional orientation: fast-moving consumer goods, customer focus and profit.
"The trick was to be quick as a flash picking goods off the shelf, then make a pitch for the extra sale - How about a Pommac to go with the banana? - and watch the money go up.
25 Apr, 2007
The professional orientation soon acquired a strategic focus: "I made conscious choices to make something of myself. We were ordinary people, and no one in the family had finished high school. I was often ill with asthma and read voraciously - everything I could get hold of - when confined to bed. I decided early on to make a career in business and seek a place at the Stockholm School of Economics."
And so it turned out. In 1974 he walked in through the imposing portal on Sveavägen in Stockholm, and left three years later with a degree in business administration and economics, as well as an extensive network of contacts, thanks in part to his involvement in student union activities.
A new strategic element slotted into place when Conny Karlsson took a job with Procter&Gamble, the American multinational group in the fast-moving consumer goods sector.
"I deliberately applied to P&G to avoid the Swedish business environment, a common
feature of which is that you rely on contacts to advance your career. I am a diehard meritocrat." An attitude that has made him both a conservative and a republican. "No one should be able to inherit a position; it´s as simple as that!"
Keen skier
After three years in Sweden, Conny´s career took off when he was transferred to Geneva, where he came to love the natural grandeur of the Alps, becoming a keen skier - preferably off-piste - and mountain walker. At the age of 30, he was the youngest country manager in the Group, with responsibility for the Scandinavian countries. After four years, his career path took him to the UK, where he worked in the shampoo and consumer health care product areas, including a spell as category manager in Europe for Wash&Go. He also built up the Pampers diaper brand in the key British market.
This was when Bengt Braun, then Board Chairman of Bonnier-owned Duni, called to offer him the post of President. "A job that suited me down to the ground! England is a wonderful country, but neither my wife nor I wanted our children to become British. We believe that people need to have roots somewhere."
From 1990 to 2000, Conny Karlsson worked to develop Duni - a specialist in everything that graces an elegant table - from SEK 2.5 billion to SEK 6 billion in sales and operations in 25 countries. However, three years after private equity company EQT acquired Duni, he left the company "due to incompatible views on strategic development."
"I had perhaps envisaged working as an advisor and Board member at a later stage in my life, but that career phase arrived a bit early," he says. "So it did not come amiss when I had the opportunity to combine my Board work for the Lindex fashion chain with the position of interim President for six months."
House-cleaning job
It turned out to be a rapid and successful house-cleaning operation pending the appointment of a new President. Conny Karlsson is currently Chairman of the Board of SEB Investment Management AB, Zodiak Television AB and Lindex AB. He is also a Board member of Telia Sonera AB, Scribona AB and Carl Lamm AB.
I suppose I am a bit difficult as a Board member. I ask a lot of questions, and underlying everything is the schooling I received at Procter&Gamble, where the watchword is: `In the beginning was the customer, the customer´s wishes and the price. All business problems can be analyzed based on the customer.´ This also applies to Board work, and at Swedish Match our task is to create the best possible strategic plan to provide the President with support and guidance."
Support and guidance are all very well, but what is his view on the past few years´ focus on governance and controls and the new code of corporate governance?
"It is obvious that corporate-governance issues have a very high priority. Swedish Match and other high-quality companies have not become any better as a result of the code - because they were already good - but many less well-managed companies have become considerably better. The most important function for the Board to focus on is creating value for the shareholders, customers and employees, and this is the course followed by Swedish Match. In addition, the Board must keep a close eye on the long-term perspective and business creation, and constantly pose and answer the question: Where are we heading? Any company neglects this long-term focus at its peril."
Moral issues
As a non-consumer of tobacco, does he have any moral qualms about such a relatively controversial product?
It is not reasonable to require that a company that fully complies with a country´s laws and regulations should impose moral considerations on people´s choice of pleasurable luxuries. The debate about the risks of consumption is complex. There are many behaviors in people´s choices as consumers that carry risks - everything from the state alcohol monopoly´s products to motorcycles and medicines. Views are put forward in the debate that are not rational or logically defensible when you compare them with each other - and often seem totally inexplicable to me."
Does this mean there is no place for ethics in the business world?
"On the contrary," he says emphatically. "There are ethical perspectives that act as rigid precepts guiding the development of companies, which are compelled to respond to market forces. It goes without saying that we must observe the agreements, conventions and norms that Sweden and the Swedish and international business community have accepted - regarding the environment area and human-rights issues, for example. You need only ask today´s young people whether they would want to work for a company that pollutes or uses child labor."
Unisexual groups inferior
Conny Karlsson's views on opportunities for women in the business world belong in much the same category as his other convictions.
"My basic belief is that unisexual groups are always inferior. In certain companies whose products and services are aimed at women, it may be perfectly reasonable to have a majority of women in management groups. The key factor is to implement competence development in such a way as to eliminate the career traps into which women can fall. I also think it is reasonable to always have female candidates on the list when making appointments or nominations."
One of Conny Karlsson's characteristics that many of his friends refer to is his readiness to challenge perceptions and initiate a discussion. "I enjoy an argument, for good or ill; I am aware of that. But I believe in communication between people as a key tool for managers to achieve results. As far as I am concerned, a corporate culture is largely shaped by language - how people converse, conduct a discussion and ask questions."
In that case, what might be a suitably challenging question for Swedish Match?
The answer comes without hesitation: "Should Swedish Match really call itself a tobacco company?"