<p><b>Swedish businesses need to continue embedding and expanding their data-driven intelligence efforts in their quest to be future-ready.</b></p>

<p>For a country with less than 1% of the global population, Sweden’s unique approach to innovation has made its brands (and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_best-selling\_Swedish\_music\_artists" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">bands</a>) household names the world over. It’s second only to Silicon Valley in terms of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/how-sweden-became-silicon-valley-europe-2021-08-11/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">unicorn startups</a>, and its approach to waste management has been so successful it <a href="https://rioonwatch.org/?p=54109#:\~:text=According%20to%20the%20Swedish%20Environmental,been%20treated%20through%20energy%20recovery." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">imports trash from neighbors</a> to create energy. It even has the world’s first green steel plant.</p> <p>But this ability to sense and pursue opportunities where others demur faces a stern test today. Escalating geopolitical risks in Europe, repeated global supply chain disruptions and a <a href="https://www.daxx.com/blog/development-trends/nordics-tech-talent-shortage" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">severe digital talent crunch</a> are some of the factors impeding Swedish businesses’ efforts to become future-ready modern enterprises.</p> <p>Most Swedish businesses derive significant strategic value from their tech investments, but growing uncertainty over the short and long term dominates executive mindshare. With several factors emerging as critical to a modern enterprise, many are encountering challenges when it comes to implementing new processes, products and technologies.</p> <p>Surprisingly, barriers to progress are often related to their use—or lack thereof—of in-house data. Strained talent pipelines and sustainability efforts, critical for immunity against disruptions, are in dire need of an injection of data-driven intelligence.</p> <p>In our work to define what it takes to be future-ready—and how close businesses are to reaching a future-ready state—Cognizant commissioned Economist Impact to conduct a survey of 2,000 senior executives, including 135 Swedish executives, from across industries and geographies, as well as create a future-ready benchmarking tool (see our full report, “<a href="https://www.cognizant.com/us/en/insights/perspectives/how-to-be-fit-for-the-future-wf1140900" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business</a>”).</p> <p>Our own analysis of this data underscores what executives in Sweden and globally need to do now to prepare.</p>

<p><i><br> For more, visit the </i><a href="/content/cognizant-dot-com/us/en/insights/modern-business.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><i>Modern Business</i></a>&nbsp;<i>section of our website, or </i><a href="/content/cognizant-dot-com/us/en/about-cognizant/contact-us.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><i>contact us</i></a><i>.</i></p>