facit - 50 years of success
TRANSCRIPT
Christian Sandström holds a PhD from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. He writes and speaks about disruptive innovation and technological change.
Facit was a manufacturer of…
… mechanical calculators…
Typewriters…
… And office furniture…
In the period 1920-1970, the
demand for these products was huge.
Many countries had been destroyed during the
second world war.
But not the
Swedish economy.
Re-building Europe
implied a high
demand for, well,
everything.
At the same time, there were few firms around
who could supply
what was needed.
Thus, a company like Facit
had a fantastic position.
Facit kept growing and
growing.
More jobs were created in the small
town Åtvidaberg.
Facit was fantastic at marketing.
As Facit grew, Åtvidaberg grew.
The soccer team became better and better and most of the players worked
at Facit…
Facit invested in
new technologies
But the great profits were still
made on the mechanical calculators.
Facit expanded and entered new
markets throughout the
world.
The Facit wizard kept smiling all over the world.
In 1971-72, the electronic
calculator put an end to 50 years of
success.
Today, Facit is history.
Photos taken at:
Åtvidabergs Bruks och Facit Museum, Sweden http://brukskultur.atvidaberg.se/index2.html Åssa Industri och Bil Museum, Sweden http://www.assamuseet.se/
Thank You!
The archives at ’Brukskultur Åtvidaberg’ are fantastic.