‘We all share the air we breathe’
After seven long years, Marcus Wallenberg has returned to Manila to renew ties with the Philippine government and to reassure the current administration of the Wallenberg sphere’s long-term commitment to the country.
His visit is also aimed at impressing the need for mutual cooperation, not only between the Philippines and Sweden, but also for the global community to address common concerns on future-proofing and the need to innovate and adopt new technologies, achieve sustainability in dealing with resources and the environment as we all aim for economic development, and cope with the dizzying growth of artificial intelligence (AI).
For Mr. Wallenberg, globalization remains important... ”People say globalization is dead. I don’t really believe that... we are all sharing the air that we breathe, so I think we are all interconnected with many, many subjects. So yes, discussions like these are becoming more important for the global point of view where many of us are. We are very dependent on the outcome of these questions.”
For the Wallenberg sphere, Mr. Wallenberg pointed out, “Many of the companies that we work with, well all of them are trying to address the question of what we call future-proofing. When we talk about futureproofing... to make sure we innovate enough. We are talking about a country (Sweden) that is one-tenth the size of the Philippines in terms of population. We are completely, I hope you understand, export driven, which means we have to compete in the international (arena).”
Furthermore, he said, “We do not have much political power, but we are innovating and we are much more interested in the export market. Innovation is very much a big part of that future proofing.”
At the same time, Mr. Wallenberg stressed, “The question of how to address sustainability is something that is really important for us, not only because it is the right thing to do for future generations, but also because we are convinced, in my family, that those businesses which are able to transition to a more sustainable type of operation will also have a competitive advantage going forward.”
As such, he continued, “we spend a lot of time thinking about ‘how can you rethink your business model and your investments in such a way we are sustainable in the future?’ And I know there is a discussion in politics and so on, that sustainability is sometimes more popular than other times. We believe it is something that we really should be doing to address this competitiveness.”
Another subject that the Wallenberg sphere also spends time thinking about, according to Mr. Wallenberg,.. is the whole question around data and AI. I was in Silicon Valley a couple of weeks ago, and I can only conclude the pace of AI is absolutely mind boggling in my view. We thought of an internet route quite quickly, but this is moving with very high speed forward. But as a company, you have to find out ‘how do we address this, should we implement this, or how should we restructure our data, and how do we clean our data in such a way that it can be of use in the operation going forward.’ So, both of these issues – sustainability and AI data are important... the only thing is that it takes time to implement... and therefore, we push those factors.”
Cooperation
His visit to the Philippines and Vietnam, and to other countries as well, Mr. Wallenberg explains,... “is to understand what is going on in different places.”
He cited the Philippine economy’s improvement compared to his last visit to the country in 2017. However, he was also quick to point out that, “I am not really in the game of telling people what to do. Because you guys are growing – what, six to seven percent? We are growing at most one percent. Who are we to tell you guys how to run your economy or your place?”
“Your economy is so different from ours, we are heavily dependent on industry and companies that develop services or software... whatever... for industry... you have so much agriculture, and this economy is moving on. And you are very much dependent on consumption... we are a little bit different from that point of view. So, for our competitiveness, for our companies that operate in Sweden, our companies are very dependent on using these modern technologies to stay productive to really address customer needs... so, therefore, this becomes a very important thing. This is one of the reasons to be here, just to see what is going on here.”
What is interesting for Mr. Wallenberg is “even though we are very different in terms of the economies we are dealing with, the challenges we are dealing with. We are dealing with questions that are like minded... It is around sustainability. It will take a long time. We have to put a lot of thought, resources, and financing behind it. We are all dealing with the question of AI and data, and making it more productive, and our businesses more productive and customer friendly... We are all dealing with the big life sized questions of the world. We are all dealing with the problem of cancer, or respiratory (disease), or whatever it takes. So, to take note, our questions are the same, no matter where.”
Thus, for Mr. Wallenberg, the challenge now is “if we can do these things together, establish further cooperation and make further investments... more possibilities for joint action with either businesses here or government here?”
Transfer of technology
One key concept raised by Mr. Wallenberg’s director and senior advisor Magnus Schöldtz during our interview, which he stressed is generic to all the companies the Wallenberg sphere is associated with, is the transfer of technology.
“It is also a function of the fact that Sweden is such a small country, so we need to deploy resources in the markets in order to make it work. We only have 10 million people back home, so some aspects of that will be too expensive to do back home. So, we make sure to transfer technology,” Schöldtz said.
Mr. Wallenberg added that Sweden had to expand its industrial and international presence after the Second World War, which was a “very big step actually, and it has continued.”
More importantly, Mr. Wallenberg said, “It has also mounted because we are so small also, that we really have to establish a lot of cooperation and presence in various markets around the world to really be able to develop our businesses, and that requires that we work together with others to do that work... and you have to be ready to transfer some of your technology to work with that..” – with Mr. Schöldtz adding, “yes, including in the field of security.”