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 We first see Marie Ehrling on the sidewalk talking intently into her cell phone. But our gazes pass over her, searching for the familiar face among the steady stream of sun-glowing pedestrians. It is not until she puts the phone down, straightens up and resumes her characteristic brusque walk across the street that we register that it is in fact she. Her posture, her dress, her blonde bob— it is all calls to mind carefree Swedish summertime youth, not big business and corporate boardrooms. But it is the latter that this petite woman is known for, and it is also what brings her here today. The Lattice Group is meeting with Marie Ehrling in a popular Stockholm café to learn about what it really means to be a corporate leader.
Ehrling is a role model for many Swedish young people, in particular young women. She is one of only a handful of women to make it to the top in the Swedish business world. And she is the first to point out the absurdity of the situation, “Five years ago, I was given an award as the number one businesswoman in Sweden, and at my acceptance speech, I said I couldn’t believe that I would get this award, and that in five years we’d see a lot of women in CEO positions. Unfortunately, I was wrong.”
Ehrling began her working life in politics, at which time she also met her former husband, Bengt Westerberg, the famously charismatic leader of the Swedish Liberal Party, who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden between 1991-1994. Together they have one son, Jacob. In 1998, the couple divorced, and it was around this time that Ehrling entered business center-stage. Ehrling spent a full twenty years at Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), of which she became the Deputy Chief Executive Officer before leaving to head TeliaSonera Sweden, the Swedish subsidiary of the billion-dollar telecom company TeliaSonera. She left TeliaSonera in 2006, and is now serving on a myriad of boards. In 2006, Ehrling was listed on Forbes' List of 100 Most Powerful Women.
In Sweden, the mere mention of her name raises eyebrows. A favorite of the press and business alike, Ehrling is known as a strong and, above all, honest leader. Her integrity defines her. And, integrity is also what she values most in others. When she speaks it is with a natural authority, a genuine presence that exudes self-confidence....and calm. It is obvious that Ehrling has nothing to prove— she has proven herself already. Ehrling is used to being listened to, and we are more than willing to oblige.
Read on for an intimate glimpse into the life of a major corporate player, and learn from her expert guidance of what it takes to be a business leader in the future.
How is it, being a woman in business?
“I have thought a lot about that now, afterwards, but in the beginning of my career I was not very concerned because I didn’t have any negative personal experience. I think that I had the same chances as everyone else. I was either unconscious of it or I was lucky. I think it was a combination. When I was in university at The Stockholm School of Economics (SSE), there were 30 percent women. But at that time, I was not aware of the gender issue at all, actually. And my mother was a working mother, she made a career by herself. She inspired me a lot. So, for me it was very natural that women should work— even though it was not very natural at that time, I would say. During my three years at SSE, I was not very concerned about, ‘how will the working life be for me? How can I handle it? Will it be a problem to be a woman in business?’ That was not in my mind at all. Not at all. I had a lot of self-confidence at that time. That has helped me a lot, of course.”
"it’s really good to change both industries and companies."
Do you think the kind of career progression that you had at SAS, working your way up for many years within one company, is going to be common in the future?
“No doubt it will be less common. I don’t think that your generation really wants to stay in companies for such a long time, which has both advantages and disadvantages. Especially if you look at the female perspective. If you look at female executives in Swedish companies, one thing that we have in common is that we have had a long career in one company, and that brought us up to the top of those companies. It shouldn’t be necessary. You should be able to come to top positions without spending twenty years at a company. But if you do, then you really have experience, you have your network in the company, you know everybody…it’s more of a natural thing to promote a person who has all that knowledge. You can’t really sidestep a person like that."  How would you compare that kind of career progression with coming in at the top of a company as you did at TeliaSonera?
“It’s different, but it’s very inspiring for yourself. I came from the airline industry and went into the telecom industry. I had to spend almost three months at the beginning of my career at TeliaSonera learning the technical background of telecom. You really have to understand that in order to think about different kinds of strategies. My new colleagues helped me a lot. I thought it was fantastic. It was a real challenge and it was very inspiring. So, I think it’s really good to change both industries and companies. Not too often, but after four or five years in one place I think it is very good for you in your own development. It’s also good for companies to have external revues coming from the outside. I think that the mix of people who’ve had a career for a long period of time in a company and people coming in and out…that is a good combination. It’s very important in a management team to have different kinds of experiences, and that you compliment each other.”
"I look for an inner compass. People who have a firm opinion about their own values."
What do you look for in people who work for you? What does it take to be a good leader?
“During the years that I have worked as a leader, I have realized more and more that in the beginning it’s about competence—all the hard facts, so to speak. But then, what really makes a difference between a good leader and not a good leader are the more personal things, your personality and how you handle other people. Because the most difficult challenges you have as a top leader are always connected to how people relate to each other. You have to change leadership, change an organization…that has a lot to do with what kind of confidence you build up in your own position. So that people trust you and believe in you. So that you can convince others and spell out your vision. To get people with you. I think that is very, very important. That means how you actually behave, how you communicate, and that you also care about people.
“I have an expression for this: I look for an inner compass. People who have a firm opinion about their own values. Not necessarily the same values that I have, but that they have really been thinking through: What am I here for? What kind of values do I think are important? What do I think about human beings and how people should relate and behave to each other? It has to do with a lot of ethical and moral decisions that you have to take out there. You have to use your instincts many times, without making a lot of analyses or calculations or things like that.
“And then you need people with drive. If you’re not results-oriented or if you don’t have the drive, you’ll never be a good leader. Because you have to inspire other people; you have to get them very much involved. If you’re not able to show energy and get people with you, I don’t think that you will succeed as a leader.” "I think that balance in life is more on the agenda nowadays than it was twenty years ago."
 You are on the board of the Center for Advanced Leadership Studies at The Stockholm School of Economics. Do you see new qualities in leadership for the future?
“Yes, I do. Of course globalization in itself has influenced leadership a lot. You really have to understand different cultures and how to also work with different ethnic backgrounds, different religious beliefs and so on. It becomes more complex. I think that leaders that are coming now, and also the present generation of leaders, are taking a more active role in society. They see the company as a part of the society. And I think that is a good development.
“And then I also think that your generation has seen a lot of disadvantages about how we, in my generation, have worked. How we have spent a lot of time, too much time maybe, working on our careers— which has sometimes had a negative effect. I think that balance in life is more on the agenda nowadays than it was twenty years ago. It’s more natural for your generation to think through how you will actually work. And I think that you might also change the working patterns. It used to be that you had a position and then you would take better and better positions, and climb up, without any breaks. I think that, in the future, we will see a lot of good leaders, and very competent leaders, that maybe work five years in a top position, and then do something else for a couple of years. Maybe they work with politics, or with charity, or maybe they go abroad for a while, and then come back again, and take a new position. In my generation, that has not really been accepted. I’m a very special case because I decided myself, two times actually, to change my working life. I left SAS after twenty years because I decided that I wanted to do something else, though I did not have another job waiting. And then I did the same thing at TeliaSonera after four years because I felt that I wanted to do something different. That’s quite unusual, to behave like that. People don’t really think that is the way to do it.”
Do you think there is a clash between the so-called Generation Y and the older generations in the workplace today?
“In the different companies where I work now, I don’t see it as tensions. I see it as possibilities. I think that we can inspire each other. I get worried if you have companies where that are only 25-30 year olds. I think diversity in many respects, such as age, is very, very important. Somehow, you underestimate that to be a good leader, to have a lot of personal strength and handle conflicts, you need to have life experience. And you don’t have that at 25.
“Then again, most of my colleagues have children who are around 20-25, and we can all see that they have something else that they are looking for. My son Jacob has taught me a very important thing, which is to enjoy life. Sometimes I think he’s too good at that! In periods of my life, I have worked too hard. But I have learned that you also have to be able to really do something good everyday. I think that your generation will be better in that respect.”
"Afterwards you can really ask yourself, ‘how did we manage?’ But we managed."
Did having a child affect your career?
“I cannot say that it has affected it at all, actually. It sounds strange, maybe. But for me it was very natural to work hard. Somehow, we found very practical ways of handling all the practical things. We had good help from a good network, especially my parents and Jacob’s older sisters. And we had a lot of home service. We invested a lot of money in that. Jacob went to daycare. I worked a lot but my former husband worked even harder— if you look at working hours. During 1991-94 he was the Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden, and at that time he worked all hours that he was awake, I would say. Afterwards you can really ask yourself, ‘how did we manage?’ But we managed. Of course, we had one child. And if we had had many children, then maybe I wouldn’t have been able to work as hard as I did.
“I have talked to Jacob a lot about this, and he says, ‘well, of course you worked a lot, but you also had a very good life because you enjoyed working.’ And he is very glad that I did it. I don’t say now, afterwards, ‘I wish I’d done something differently.’ No, I don’t. I consider that we had quite a good life. But then we also divorced, my former husband and I, in 1998. At that time, Jacob was twelve years old and from then on he lived with me. Then I was alone with Jacob and that was of course a challenge, but he took a lot of responsibility. Which he is very happy about nowadays. He is very good at taking on responsibility and he also says that, somehow, he has been trained to make his own decisions by himself, even though we’ve been very close, Jacob and I.”
 Do you think that having a successful professional life and a successful personal life at the same time is possible?
“I think that you have to be realistic. You cannot have everything. You can have a part of everything in life at the same time. It depends on what kinds of goals you have. If you’re going to be the CEO of one of the biggest companies in the world, or if you want to be a political leader, you have to realize that it’s really very, very hard work. Of course you can’t be home at five o’clock in the afternoon and have four kids. It’s not realistic. Then you have to say, ‘well, maybe I will work for a small company and be flexible….’ You have to make compromises. You have to be able to make compromises.”
What advice would you offer young people who are hoping to enter leadership positions in the future?
“I think that you really have to go to yourself. You cannot only do things because others expect you to do it. You have to have the drive in yourself. And you have to think through, ‘what am I good at?’ You cannot force yourself to be someone else than the person you are. You have to think through how you build up your platform, how you build up experience.
“When I look for people I think it’s a really good sign if they have a broader perspective. I think it’s good to have hobbies, independent interests and so on. If you’re a person who has a broad perspective, you are a person who can handle different situations. If you’re only interested in one thing, then I get a bit worried.
“And you have to think through your values. I think that is getting increasingly important. Ethical and moral issues are getting more important…it can affect your brand. You can ruin your company for years if you make a wrong decision. "There are no shortcuts, actually."
“And then you need to work hard. There are no shortcuts, actually. A lot of people that are quite successful somehow think that, well, in a couple of years I will make a lot of money. They have a lot of expectation. That is new. That is okay, to earn a lot of money. But don’t let that way of thinking take over your life. Of course it’s nice to be able to do a lot of things which money enables you to do. But don’t make that too important.”
Do you think that people of our generation are expecting to take more shortcuts?
“Somehow yes, maybe it is so. A lot of young people think that there are shortcuts. But what I have learned from the most are situations when things don’t turn out the way that I wanted them to. Mistakes. You learn from those. Afterwards you can say, ‘that wasn’t a good situation, but I managed to handle it the best way that I could.’ So, often, when you think back about this specific difficult period in your life, you will be quite grateful that you had it.”
What’s your next move?
“Now I’m working on six different board positions in quite large companies. I’m only 53 years old. Where am I in four or five years? I don’t know for sure. Nowadays, I’ve decided to only do things that I really believe in. I want to be around people that I really want to be with. And I’m lucky that I am in a position that I can be selective.” So instead of heading another multi-billion dollar company, which she most certainly could do, Ehrling is choosing to practice what she preaches: that is, believe in herself and work on things that really matter to her. She’s enjoying new experiences, to add to the myriad she already has; which, in turn, will make her an even better leader.
Ehrling’s current outlook is indeed inspiring. But let’s not forget what allowed her to have such wonderful options—old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness hard work. Though we here at The Lattice Group have done our fair share of corporate-ladder bashing, Ehrling has convinced us that the part of the ladder imagery that symbolizes drive and perseverance is worth holding on to. |
