Scandinavian companies are successful on the American market. Brands like Volvo, Ikea, Bang & Olufsen, Nokia, Danfoss, Vestas, Novo and Lego are well-known in the US. Why do these and more Scandinavian companies have a chance on the American market, where the financial resources for research, the talent mass and access to world-class universities outnumber Scandinavian countries by far?

User Driven Innovation – not a new thing in Scandinavia
While most of the world are trying to follow the principles of User Driven Innovation, we have a long history of doing it in Scandinavia. Some users value cutting edge feature packed products. But most of us would rather have an easy-to-use product focused around its core functionality. Usability has typically had greater importance (or priority) for Scandinavians than having the most advanced feature packed product. Scandinavians are typically good at creating advanced products with a very simple user interface.

Maybe we haven’t used the term user driven innovation earlier. But it’s exactly what we have been doing. The funny story is now, that Scandinavian companies are paying consultants handsomely to learn them to implement user driven innovation.

Designs that lasts
Another way we differentiate in, is in design. Typical Scandinavian design is elegant, sophisticated, simple and long lasting. Take Bang & Olufsen as an example. Many of their products still looks modern 10 years after they were introduced. Scandinavian design typically sends the signal, that the product is a long lasting product. The solid and quality-marked design says to you, that this product can last long, and the extra money spent will pay off in the long run.

Remember the movie Crazy People from 1990? Dudley Moore brings his new Volvo advertising pitch to his boss, saying: “Buy Volvo. They’re boxy, but they’re good. Be safe instead of sexy”. I think this movie quote says a lot about Scandinavian design. We might not produce the most fancy, sexy or flashing products. But we are very good at producing solid, well-designed long lasting quality products. We can’t beat the Chinese prices and we can’t beat the research pace of the United States. But we can produce a product you like, and want to keep for many years.

What’s innovative about that?
My favorite definition of innovation is this quote by Peter Drucker: “Change that creates a new dimension of performance”. The increased performance lies in the fact, that you want to keep using the product for years, and that the product isn’t going out of fashion for years. Bang & Olufsen achieves this in three ways. They put a lot of effort in the appearance of the product (design). They make the products so user friendly, that you want to use the product, and actually can get benefit of the features without having a higher technical college degree. Finally the BeoLink system makes it possible connect multiple products from Bang & Olufsen and benefit from linking the products together – new products as well as older products. The products can this way grow with your needs (and economy). I believe Bang & Olufsen’s approach is a good example of Danish innovation.