Interview with Krister, a Kedger living in Stockholm

Introduce yourself in a few words

My name is Krister Bengtsson. I'm an entrepreneur from Sweden, and I founded a guide called StarWineList, which is the guide to great wine bars and wine restaurants. We started here in Stockholm. We are now in 16 countries and tomorrow 17: starting in Vienna (Austria).

Can you tell us about your years at Kedge, the degree you received and your best memory?

I did the program was then called the wine MBA, which is now part of the global MBA. It was an executive MBA part time. And it was very nice because we had a group of 20 students, from about 15 countries. It was a super nice mix of people. We got to travel to different destinations, so we had parts of the education involved all parts in Australia, the United States and things like that so I think the best memory were the times, together with the other students. It was a really, really nice mix of people.

Why are you now settled in Stockholm?

Well, first of all because I'm Swedish. But I think the most important part is actually, because I have family here, wife and children.

Stockholm (Sweden in general) is also an easy place to do business, so easy to start companies here. So, it's a practical place to be located.

You know, here, people usually trust each other, do the contracts when you agree and there's usually no problems in business. Therefore, I think that Sweden, Stockholm, have pretty good reputation in the business word, so it's an advantage when you work with other countries. People think that it's a good place and you can be trusted.

What is the must-sees in Stockholm and your favorite address?

The must see you have, of course, is the old town Gamla Stan. And I think also the Vasa Museum, which is a museum with an old ship that sank in the 17th century. It is quite impressive!

For the address, you should check StarWineList, either the app or the website, so you can see a lot of nice wine bars and restaurants.

A nice wine bar for instance is Tyge & Sessil, and also Agnus, just a nice local restaurant.

How are working life and everyday life different from the French?

I think it's very different in terms of ours. It's very forgiving for parents to be away with their kids, you can pick them up in the afternoon. And then you can do some extra work in the evening instead.

For instance, my wife is French, and she is a mid-level manager in a big energy company in Sweden. She was promoted when she was seven months pregnant. Her friends in Paris said to her « That sounds ridiculous! How can you be promoted when you're pregnant, and they know you will be away for a long time? » So, it's very good for that.

In Sweden, when you have maternity leave and paternity leave you can be away for, you know, 14 months from work, which you don't have in France. But of course, that's a bit more difficult if you have big project teams with lot of parents with small kids. They will be away for lots of stuff so it's hard to get them all together at the same time.

For the everyday life, in Sweden, people start the workday earlier, have lunch earlier, eat dinner a bit earlier than in Southern Europe.

And of course, in France you can find more different foods and cheeses and things like that. Otherwise, I think there are not too big differences.

What are your plans for the future?

My plan is to keep building this company that we created in 2017. It’s growing quite quickly, so now I need to hire some more people. And we're in 16 countries, tomorrow 17 cause we're launching in Austria. So now we're pushing hard to expand the coverage of StarWineList across the world.

What advice can you give to graduates and future graduates who want to go abroad?

I think they should just do it. Just like you are doing now. It's very important.

It's a bigger challenge when you live in France because if you want to work internationally or even do business, you need to speak English very well and write it and read it. So, the earlier you do it and go abroad, maybe to work or travel, the best it is!

I think it's very important because if you only speak French, and your English is not good, then it will limit your options in the future.

Interview conducted in Stockholm by Damien, KEDGE Alumni Travel Pro-Act student.

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