Pierre Guyot is the Parisian who moved to Gothenburg, and likes it. Now the CEO of Mölnlycke Health Care, Pierre has lived in Gothenburg together with his family since 2006.
It all started when Pierre was offered a job with Mölnlycke Health Care in Sweden. He wanted the position, but he did not want to live somewhere without his family. Leaving Paris - "probably the best city in the world" - was not an easy decision at first. But there are no regrets.
Pierre and his wife have lived in both the UK and the US and they wanted to give their children the experience of living abroad as well, to become "young global citizens". Gothenburg and Sweden felt like a good choice.
"Sweden is not so difficult to integrate in when it comes to language and culture. The children also go to an international school, which helps
a lot. It's been a way for
them to gain confidence, by living somewhere else, learning new languages and making new friends," says Pierre.
"It's also much safer here. You can let your children go out and take the tram home around midnight without feeling the same anxiety as you would in Paris, Milan and other bigger cities."
One of the things that Pierre likes the most about living in Gothenburg is the balance between spare time and work. The frustrations of bigger cities such as Barcelona or Paris, where you can spend hours in traffic each day, are not as prominent in Gothenburg. It's a city of the right size.
"It's easy to do things. It doesn't take two hours to drive somewhere, to find parking. Here, you can improvise. It's very easy in this city, you walk down the street and go to a restaurant or a movie, or to the Opera. There's always something to do and it doesn't take long getting there. You can maximize your quality of life."
Pierre has a global job and travels 50-60 percent of the time. For this kind of lifestyle, he thinks Gothenburg is an ideal city. The airport is not far away, and when he is back in Gothenburg there is time to have a life outside of work.
"When I'm back here I can play floorball on Monday night, I can go to the ice rink at Heden with my children in the evening, and I can go play golf during the weekend, or go by the seaside, or get out in the nature. I can do all these things easily. Within two hours of free time here in Gothenburg, you can do so much."
"This sense of maximising your social time. People need that because we are all so busy. People need to do things for themselves away from work. If you find a place where you can maximise that, I think it gives you the balance that you need. You feel you have the power to exist."
But Pierre believes Gothenburg has to get better known to people outside of Sweden. The city has to improve in marketing itself.
"It's not necessarily a country you know well if you have not been here before. People associate Sweden with the Arctic Circle in the North, Ikea, H&M, a sporty nation, people who love the environment... and that's about it. You don't have so many clichés."
This also goes for the medtech industry in the Gothenburg region. Pierre believes it is a great place for the industry, but it is not as known as for example Zurich and Munich.
"We have the large companies like Astra Zeneca, Mölnlycke Health Care and Getinge. On top of this, a lot of small, very innovative start-up companies. And the triangle of these companies together with Chalmers University of Technology and the City of Gothenburg, which are very supportive, it creates a very dynamic life science environment. It's a very fertile environment for start-up medtech companies."
Another of Gothenburg's strengths is the quality of clinical research.
"The doctors here are very objective and well organised. So clinical research done in Sweden usually has very strong credibility."
And what is the future of Mölnlycke Health Care in Gothenburg?
"The past and the present are very good. So I believe the future will continue to be good as well. There is always a challenge; can we have the global headquarters in Gothenburg, does it make sense? Is it visible enough, can we attract talent?"
Salaries in Sweden are relatively low compared to some European countries, and the taxes are generally higher. It's quite an unkown region, with unpredictable weather.
"But at the same time, this is very much a research and development headquarter. We have very good access to Chalmers to build the future of the company. It's been quite easy to find the talent we need for R&D."
It's been a bit more difficult in some very specialised positions. Even though Gothenburg is a relatively big city, it does not have the same concentration of talented people available as in a city with millions. The fact unemployment is quite low also makes it more difficult to find talent. And finding global talent - that is a challenge everywhere.
"I mean, in France you won't find global talent easily either. To attract people who have worked abroad and who have a global perspective on the world - it's very difficult. It's a challenge here and it will be a challenge somewhere else as well."
But it's an important challenge. Today there are five different nationalities in Mölnlycke Health Care's executive group. Going back five to six years, it was a more Swedish-English company. Pierre's aspiration is to create an even more global organisation.
"To be a global company, you need to bring the world here."
Mölnlycke Health Care has plants and sales offices all over the world; from Europe to the Middle East and North America to Africa and the Asia Pacific region. Pierre's philosophy is to "embrace diversity".
"Trust other people around the world to be Mölnlycke citizens. Don't just send people like you around the world. You need to embrace the local. We are for diversity, and we mean it."
Embracing diversity and the local has also been important in Pierre's personal life. When you come to a new country and culture you need an open mind and curiosity.
"You want to learn and acquire knowledge. For example, you want to understand how you shop in this country - why you need to take a ticket, what the benefit is. Even though in the first place you say what is this? This is terrible why should I take a ticket? But then you understand that it's a better way; it goes faster if you take a ticket."
The limited opening hours of the Systembolaget is something that many expats, including Pierre, find surprising in the beginning of their Sweden experience.
"I come from a place where you can buy wine at many different places at any time of the day. So it was a bit surprising. But then I realised that it's like going to a global shop for wine. They have wines from all over the world and they are very specialised. If you look at the pleasant side of it, you go there to buy wine and get a tour of the world. You can investigate and be curious, and then it becomes an interesting process. You don't see the limitation, but the specialisation, the opportunity to discover wine."
Pierre believes the key is how you approach things that are different or seem complicated. Approach them as something that may be enriching.
"In another culture you have to be careful not to prejudge too quickly and make comparisons between cultures. You got to try to explore and understand why things are like that and respect them. It's not a question of good or bad. It's about differences."
Mölnlycke Health Care:
Mölnlycke Health Care is a world leading manufacturer of single-use surgical and wound care products and a service provider to the health care sector. The Mölnlycke brand name comes from the town of Mölnlycke outside Gothenburg, where the company was founded in 1849 as a textile manufacturer. Mölnlycke Health Care began acting like an independent company in late 1997. Today Investor AB owns 96 percent of the company.
Mölnlycke Health Care is headquartered in Gothenburg, but has around 7000 employees around the world.
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