Is it true? The producing industry in Sweden has decreasing orders according to new statistics from SCB, and even the production is less. At the same time the service sector is growing, so the question is: Why is this happening at the same time? A fundamental misconception is that the context is not being considered, the service sector is growing thanks to that Sweden at the end has a healthy, stable, and strong industry.

The fact is that Swedish industry is improving, and as a consequence it lifts up the sector of exported services. Many of the services that previously were within the frame for industrial companies, today belong to external service providers. An even more important part of the industrial business system is that the industry’s products are increasingly consisting of service providing contents, and in addition new business models are having great significance for the industry’s competitive advantage. But also, the service sector is experiencing increased competition, which means that’s time for us to keep working on a strong business community, and realise that the symbiosis between the industry and the growing service is for our future welfare.

Does this mean that the headline for this article is incorrect? Yes, this mindset is actually quite confusing since the collaboration is the clear progress in this case, going from material provider to function provider is a readjustment. Is this only a Swedish phenomenon? No, it’s not, this can be observed in the rest of Europe, but there are differences. Our industry is strong in most of the cases from an international perspective, since we are successful by specializing us and improving what we’re already good at. We must maintain our position in the forefront of technology, be in the top of the world’s best innovators, and this concerns the symbiosis between the industrial production and the service development. Without our industry and smart specialization, the service sector wouldn’t be able to grow as much as it has.

Are there any more parameters that has influenced this development? Yes, of course, the digitalization and the fact that we as individuals want better service has and will keep on influencing the service development. Without our stable foundation and raw material based industry, we wouldn’t have the same positive development that we now can for see. Both the industry and us agents in this industrial system cannot let go of the local and regional development of our value chains, in order to accelerate the added value.

Among the bigger companies there is no natural motivation to promote the regional development, instead they are steered by where the market and competence is located. We have many innovative driven small and medium sized companies that we must attend to, so that in the future big investments stay within the borders of Sweden, this is more important than we think. This is the reason Triple Steelix has such as strong focus on the symbiosis between the bigger industrial companies, and take care of all our good ideas for a future industrial and innovative Sweden.

Does a small organization such as Triple Steelix play such an important role? Yes, it does, it’s all the small innovations that will create the big companies of the future, with a bigger share of smart services and a well-functioning industrial symbiosis. So, is there enough knowledge in the political system about how important this work is? Yes and no, not in general but there is more awareness about the current needs. Therefore, Triple Steelix, along with similar organizations, is now starting the co-ordinated association iHubs, where we will continue this discussion…