Sweden already sold you this model
An H&M executive once asked me: is H&M your go-to store? That question explains a whole Swedish model of business, and why AI tools feel so familiar.
A few years ago I spoke at an event inside H&M's headquarters in Stockholm.
A few years ago I spoke at an event inside H&M's headquarters in Stockholm. Over coffee, a senior executive asked me a simple question. Is H&M your go-to store?
The aim was not to sell me a jacket. The aim was to be the first place I think of, before any other. To win the default spot in my wardrobe, and so in my monthly spending.
That question explains a whole model of business that Sweden has sold to the world. It also explains why today's AI tools feel so familiar.
The model is clean. Take something that used to be for a small elite: designed furniture, curated fashion, a full music library, a nice place to sit and work. Make it good enough, cheap enough, and easy enough for almost everyone.
The default position — to be the first place you think of, before any.
A few years ago I spoke at an event inside H&M's headquarters in Stockholm.
Over coffee, a senior executive asked me a simple question.
The aim was to be the first place I think of, before any other.
IKEA is the template. It made modern design affordable, and it made you the one who assembles it. You build the shelf yourself, so you feel a small attachment to it. The wood is thinner than you would like. It lasts five years, not fifty. But the deal is honest: good design, built with you, for now.
H&M did this with fashion. Spotify did it with music. Espresso House did it with the café: soft light, plants, good coffee, the same pleasant feeling in every branch.
And each one slips a loyalty card or a subscription into the background. Your spending with them grows, slowly, month by month.
Over coffee, a senior executive asked me a simple question.
The default position — to be the first place you think of, before any other.
An H&M executive once asked me: is H&M your go-to store? That question explains a whole Swedish model of business, and why AI tools feel so familiar.
This is the short version. Read the full-length essay, “The Swedification of Everything”.
This issue is part of Everybody's Smart, a newsletter on taste, judgment, AI, culture, cognition, and the future of professional work. New issues every 2 to 3 weeks, free on LinkedIn.
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