Forging a Legacy: Interview with President Lars Strannegård
Maral Batbaatar, journalist and Vice Editor in Chief conducts an up-close interview with SSE’s President, Lars Strannegård on the past, present, and future of SSE. Has there been, or will there ever be, a “Camelot”? What does education look like in the presence of Artificial Intelligence? Students as Knights?
(The interview is edited for the sake of clarity and brevity, no essential content is lost.)
During your tenure, what would you say has been your greatest achievement with regards to your position as President?
While it is difficult to pin-point one thing, during these soon to be 9 years, the school strengthened its reputation, became more international, recruited talented professors, young ones in particular. In fact, all of our KPIs are pointing in the right direction: more selective, students are generally happy with the courses, they get the jobs they want and get them quickly, our funding has strengthened with externally funded chairs, and professorships, and we have risen in the Financial Times ranking. By far we have become a competitive institution in not just Northern Europe, but Europe, that has gotten the most externally funded professors.
Also, executive education: while it used to be considered external, it has actually moved into the building, and is now considered to be one of the key operations. [Our] open executive education programs have been ranked Top 10 in the world.
Finally, I am really happy with the acquisition of the new house (Studentpalatset). With Observatorielunden, the school is now almost a park campus right in the middle of Stockholm.
What are some challenges the university currently faces? What are those you see it facing in the future? I read an article for Dagens Nyheter in which you shared your thoughts on chatbots. Regarding this, do you see that being an advantage or potentially a disadvantage for educational institutions in general and at SSE in particular?
On that note in particular, it is positive. You can’t even speak of it as an advantage or disadvantage. It is something that is entering our world and it changes our approach to knowledge and learning. The best we can do is teach our students how to make the best use of it. It makes us ask the fundamental questions of, what is knowledge, what is important, what do we want our students to know, and how to operate in life? I think we are on track towards that. The overarching educational mission at SSE is acronymized as FREE. We formulated and articulated that as a reaction to Artificial Intelligence. Our answer to AI and the growth of technology is to be fact-based, research-based, empathetic, and entrepreneurial. If you are those things, you can make use of AI as a tool and not as an enemy, as a friend instead of a foe, speaking in terms of Camelot fights.
This reminds me of an interview for Minimax from 2017 in which you said, “We are not educating pieces of a machine, we are dealing with world improvement.” Is this still relevant today?
Yes, even more so. [Something] we have been preparing for and thinking about for quite a bit.
What would your ideal SSE look like?
A world-renowned institution. That everyone knows. And it’s known as open and a place for excellent research and learning. Considered to be a vibrant place, that is almost like a magnet that you want to almost desperately come to. Opens up doors; A place with many, many doors. Metaphorically, of course. If you have passed through one of our programs, there are going to be hundreds and even thousands of doors, and your choices in life will be immense. That is what I want to create.
A place where you make life-long friends, perhaps partners even, and truly grow as an individual.
I think we are not all that far from that state. We [ought to] just continue what we are doing.
When I was researching some of the past interviews you have given, you were somewhat against students doing endeavors outside of SSE while studying full-time; for students to be at SSE, when they are at SSE. To further refine young talent from Sweden and abroad, to be more like righteous and chivalrous knights. In a 2015 opinion piece for Financial Times, you wrote, “The world has problems and universities have departments.” Can you talk more about the school’s efforts in highlighting the importance of culture, internationalization, and empathy to students, as highlighted by the F1RST initiative, the Global Challenges Program, and the Art Initiative, which were all started during your tenure at SSE, which may not have always been the focus at Handels.
As knights: values. I don’t want them to go out there and kill people, as knights also do. It’s sort of a mixed metaphor. I want the students to be open to the world and to be humble. If you have a degree from a place like this, you are part of a community, and enter a sort of privileged crowd. You therefore have to be careful in how you handle this status, because you have the privilege of knowing so many things, knowing so many people, and having so many doors open. So, you have to be kind, humble, and have a focus that goes beyond yourself. When [they] have all these privileges, I would like the students to gear their strengths toward making the world a better place. If you don’t, who is going to do it? It is an education that is given to extremely talented and ambitious young people. If they do not, it would be a waste of this talent and a waste of this education.
For those alumni who graduated some time ago, who did not see SSE as it is now, the perception of the university may be different. If those alumni were to read this article today, how would you like them to view the school?
Remaining a Swedish school is not a viable way forward. We would lose not only international talent but also Swedish talent. In our decline studies conducted among students who were accepted but declined the offer to attend SSE, over 95% of them report they will attend international alternatives. We don’t see ourselves having national competition, therefore we see no other option but to be internationally competitive and for this to be non-negotiable. We are doing quite a bit of work in marketing the internationalization of the BSc [programs].
Who would you say has been the most successful or the most notable President the university has had since its founding?
Well of course the early ones were really good because they were able to establish the school as a new institution, and then there were many notable [ones] throughout. One is, of course, Stephan B. Linder who was President between 1986-1995. He was inspiring, I think, because he was the first to say, “Let’s turn this into an international school.” He was good at fundraising and he had ambition. That is always something any organization needs, people with a lot of ambition, so I think that made him notable.
What kind of person do you wish to take over the position once you leave it?
We have a strategy that the board has accepted and supports. Therefore, somebody that continues and follows that strategy, that vision, is, I believe, the right way forward. Also someone interested in fundraising, because we have to do that; interested in developing the faculty members and retaining the best professors, as well as continuing the internationalization process. The next [President] should truly understand how the competitive landscape looks and, in relation to this, understand the distinguishing features of the school, which is not a cookie-cutter business school. The President should understand the school’s position among the 14,000 business schools in the world.
Prospective students are currently waiting for their application replies. Do you have any words of encouragement for prospective and current students? Anything for those graduating this year?
For incoming students, I think they should reflect on how to make the best of SSE, because the opportunities are endless. You have to carefully think about how to make the best use of the time when you [have] here. Reflect upon what is important to you and, in relation to this, the distinction between what others think is important to you. My advice would be quite similar to those who are graduating as well. Reflect on what you want to do both in life and professionally. If you are interested in investment banking, consulting, and other high-profile, well-paid jobs, of course apply to those. However, it is not certain [that you will]. Reflect upon that now and think about what sort of trajectory you want to take. A worn-out expression, but try to find your passion. If you do that, the propensity that things will go well will increase.
When we look back at kingdoms, empires and nations such as Camelot, the ones we now consider “good” are the ones that also focused on art, culture, literature, etc. As a business school, SSE has a focus on art. Some students seem to be a bit puzzled while some are entirely for the school’s efforts. I often hear contrasting opinions of: “Why would we want to be in a room, let alone learn, when it has all white walls, almost like a hospital?” and, “We could use this funding for something else.” What are your thoughts on this?
Well, without the Art Initiative or the cultural initiatives, there would be no donations. It is a simple matter of, “[using] that money for something else,” [being] a false assumption. Cultural expression serves as intellectual “itching powder:” It makes you wonder what is going on. If you don’t understand it, we think that is kind of good, because it makes you more humble. [When] you can go out into the world and understand the fact that you don’t know everything and that’s fine, it is a way of approaching something you don’t understand. I think that it's something that is absolutely crucial, something that distinguishes us, all pedagogics.
[What] we think of [the art] is: white walls — not attractive; lively, vibrant, fun things going on which stimulate you intellectually and emotionally — a good idea. It’s all about making the students into better decision-makers. Opening up more doors to them, and making them come out into the world.
Particularly for international students, donors, and other stakeholders, what would you say makes Swedish culture unique?
It is [truly] a non-hierarchical society. It is possible for someone to go to any manager, knock on the door and say, “I have an idea”; it is a very accessible culture.
I am here!
You are here.
It is also a consensus-oriented culture. If a decision is made, people are behind it.
These are all the questions I have brought with me here today. Is there anything else we did not cover that you would like to talk more about?
No, but is there anything you have been thinking about? Do you like it here? And why?
Bouncing the question back to me! I do like it here, yes, I feel more confident in my abilities both practically and in terms of academic content. My engagements in the Student Association in particular have been very helpful in the transition for me as an international student.
I see. The way we actually talk about what it is that you get at SSE, is abbreviated to the Five Cs: First is Content. Course literature, lectures. You get that from very, very good professors. But you also get Context, where you contextualize the knowledge, put it into different perspectives and that’s why it is so important to have people from different backgrounds, and that’s why we strive for that. It’s a quality thing. That’s why we need to have seminars, discussions, and things like that. The third is Contacts, sometimes you connect, [take] the corporate partners (as an example). The fourth is Community, where you are a part of something. Where you find friends for life, and sometimes even partners for life. If you are an alum from here, you will always feel [something passing] by SSE. Fifth is Confidence. Where you actually build confidence. Here the student association comes in, you are put into different projects, meet one another, talk to the companies, etc. You grow as an individual.
If the student association were to close down, we would lose a lot of the “Cs”. Every single decision makes me think, is this good for the community, the contacts that are being made? Thinking in terms of this, some other universities only focus on content and don’t really care about the rest. [However,] we want that part to be the SSE experience.