That irresistible Metro story
The Boston Globe has a pretty exhaustive article about the Metro, um, scandal?, yes scandal, I suppose. Anyway, Christopher Rowland and Charles M. Sennott do a good job of describing the company culture that led up to Metro executive Steve Nylund’s n-joke. As I suggested in my previous post about l’affaire Metro, it was a more a matter of rough edges rather than racism.
The late Jan Stenbeck, the man behind Metro, is rightly described as “an aggressive entrepreneur,” but Rowland and Sennott don’t mention that he also started TV3, a satellite TV-channel that challenged the state television monopoly so successfully that it compelled the government to set up an independent, privately owned and operated broadcast network.
Stenbeck was your basic in your face, hard charging, rebel entrepreneur. He built a company that mirrored his personality. Of course, what works well in a small homogenous culture that mixes crudeness with sophistication seemingly seamlessly doesn’t necessarily work as well in other parts of the world.
Metro’s failure to adapt quickly enough to its changing external world could end up costing the company a pretty penny.
Tips to Swedes who want to do some crazy entertainment: Ditch the vulgar jokes and go with Små grodorna instead. Always a winner.
