CEO's column December 2025
- Dec 20, 2025
- 3 min read
Swedish industry likes to talk about skills shortages and retirements. But the real problem is quieter and far more business-critical
What is disappearing is not people, but relationships, business logic and judgment. When experienced employees leave, structures are missing that capture what was never written down but always made the deal. The result is a generational shift where organizations risk losing their competitive advantage long before anyone retires.
Everyone knew what was required – 2025 showed who dared
It is tempting to explain 2025 in retrospect with the market. Many do. And of course, the uncertainty was real, the decision-making processes longer and the willingness to take risks lower. But that explanation is not enough. Because if the market were the whole answer, the outcome would have been more equal than it actually was. Instead, the differences between companies increased, noticeably. Everyone knew what was required, but the question was who dared to do it. In this month's column, Mikael Nylund shares insights that define the difference between organizations that brake and those that accelerate uphill.
It's hardly a secret that you should accelerate uphill. It's one of the most quoted pieces of advice in business. The problem is that it's almost always said from a safe distance from the actual uphill. 2025 was the year when theory could no longer be hidden behind presentations and forecasts, but needed to be translated into actual decisions and consequences. That's where the friction began.
This was not a year where ignorance was the limiting factor, quite the opposite. Most management teams knew exactly what should be done: continue to invest in skills, develop offerings, get closer to the customer, have more business dialogues, not fewer. Yet many chose to slow down, postpone and reformulate growth ambitions into cautious reasoning about “wait and see” and “cost control”.
Waiting can always be dressed up in rational words. But 2025 showed something important, that even passivity is a decision. And often a decision that costs more than it tastes.
At the same time, we saw companies that chose a different path. Not because they had better information, but because they drew different conclusions. They accepted that the calculations would not be perfect. That the timing would never feel quite right. And they acted anyway.
Focusing on the right things
Something interesting happened at these companies. Activity increased, but above all, clarity increased. Fewer initiatives, but sharper. Fewer customers in focus, but the right customers. And above all: a clearer willingness to actually charge for the value delivered.
It was rarely about big, spectacular investments. Instead, it was a series of consistent decisions, such as continuing to develop people when it would have been easier to pause. Daring to fully engage in business dialogue, even when the relationship felt “sensitive.” Investing in structure and working methods that did not provide immediate effect but long-term strength.
At the same time, the contrast became clear with those organizations that talked about growth, but governed as if stability were the goal. Where expansion was described as an ambition, but was treated as a risk. Where the market was used as an explanation rather than as a starting point for action.
The result was predictable. Some gained market share while others lost it. In both cases, it was rarely dramatic but gradual, deal by deal and decision by decision.
The market was tough, there's no doubt about that, but it was tough for everyone. What separated winners from losers wasn't the outside world, but the courage to make decisions before it felt comfortable.
Organizations that dare to invest
As we enter 2026, there is little reason to believe that uncertainty will suddenly disappear. But there is good reason to believe that the differences between companies will continue to increase. For those organizations that dared to invest in 2025, something valuable is in place: momentum. Not in the form of pace or hype, but in the form of direction, confidence and action.
Growth is rarely fundamentally a question of knowing what is required. It is almost always a question of daring to do it when it is still possible not to. 2025 was the year when it became painfully clear who chose to act. And who was content to talk.
Mikael Nylund
CEO, MinditThe House of Sales & Leadership