Grönlund, who has previously held leadership roles at PwC and Circle K, has extensive experience in bridging the gap between business and technology, product development and digital innovation.

The Swede, who has lived in Norway for the past 20 years, encourages more Norwegian top executives to look to Sweden if the business community is to speed up digital innovation.

"It's the first time I've participated in Arendalsuka, and it is particularly interesting that Sweden is constantly highlighted as a pioneering country in innovation and digital product and service development in almost all the debates I attended, says Grönlund.

Johan Grönlund believes there has been a global wave of value creation in the technology sector over the past 20 years that Norway have not been part of.& lt;/code>

Must dare to set higher ambitions

– Our neighbouring countries are investing and have been far more successful in creating a new and sustainable business sector. Unfortunately, the Restructuring Barometer 2024 gives many reasons to be concerned about Norway's future competitiveness and welfare society, said Øystein E. Søreide, CEO of Abelia, from the stage at Forte Digital's event in Arendal.

Grönlund believes that Norway's need to compare itself with Sweden, among others, appears to be symptomatic of the (digital) state of the country.

– In Norway, people tend to look to Sweden, while in Sweden they often look to the major economies in Europe. We should compare ourselves in a global arena; That's where the competition will come from. That is where the level of ambition should lie.

From left: Hege Toft Karlsen (Fremtind), Øyvind Husby (ICT-Norway), Øystein E. Søreide (Abelia) and Nikolai Astrup (Conservative) participated in the panel at Forte Digital's event "Can Norway become a digital developing country?".

My experience is that digitalization is often delegated to a product or technology function, and that the need for change in the way you do business and lead the organization is underestimated.

He refers to Abelia's Restructuring Barometer 2024, which states that Norway lack crucial expertise to develop a future-oriented business sector, and that Norwegian companies are the worst in the Nordic region at using new technological solutions such as artificial intelligence.

– We must become better at using new technology such as artificial intelligence. We should also have the ambition to help develop it further, as well as create new technology ourselves. Over the past 20 years, the world's most valuable companies have gone from creating value based on raw materials to creating value based on smart use of data and new digital solutions. We have a job to do there if we are to take part in the value creation going forward.

Grönlund took over as CEO of Forte Digital Norway in August 2024. Pictured here with John Kårikstad, who is now taking on the role of CEO of Forte Group.

Forte Pulse 2024

Forte Digital's survey Forte Pulse 2024, which has surveyed Scandinavian top managers' attitudes and opinions related to digital maturity, also paints a similar picture, particularly related to competence. It shows that as many as 76.4% believe that management does not have the necessary expertise and tools to handle digital transformation processes.

– My experience is that digitalization is often delegated to a product or technology function, and that the need for change in the way you do business and lead the organization is underestimated. There is no doubt that digitalisation can potentially provide major gains. However, it requires that you understand what business needs digital initiatives should help solve, that you do not try to solve everything at once, but start with a concrete opportunity, have clear measurement criteria to track the effect of the efforts and use this to get people on board and create momentum in the organization.

Can Norway become a digital developing country?

– I believe that anyone who does not invest risks falling behind. Nevertheless, I am an optimist and always look forward to the future. In Norway, we have a highly educated population, a high level of trust and a digital infrastructure that allows us to assert ourselves in the global arena. We must create good framework conditions and incentives for those who are ambitious and who want to put Norway on the global technology map.