I thought I had a pretty good idea of what my plan was when I arrived in Helsingborg. A couple of whiteboarding sessions, some alignment meetings, strategy discussion, team time and the fika.

However, I did not expect walking myself marathons inside Sockerbruket (walking within office felt like the Tour de Helsingborg), getting more clarity during casual fika chats than I might get from some strategy decks, and realising that every corner echoes with purpose, not just PowerPoints.

Somewhere between the brainstorming, strategic debates, and sneak peeks into our future ideas I realised this place is not just another office but it is a factory of momentum.

There was always someone checking in on how your travel was or if you have tried the local food, or the health is fine in the cold climate or if you got a time to visit a place and so on….

If someone had asked me to define the IKEA values before this visit, I would have listed them. After travel, I would describe the people I met – and that says it all in nutshell.

This visit also reminded me why I trust my team so deeply. And why I have immense respect for the SM&O leadership team that I am proud to be part of. This is what good service leadership actually looks like.

PS: Sweden gave me clarity, strategy, energy, and average ~18,000 steps each day! 😉