“Research must be understandable, readable, and useful”

The following text was also published under the vignette Portrait in Entré No 2, 2002:

Leif Lundblad, super entrepreneur and founder of Esbri:

He calls himself a relapse entrepreneur and has never had a regular job. He started his first business at the age of 17. Since then, it’s been business as usual.
– I can’t help but constantly see new opportunities, says Leif Lundblad.

Leif Lundblad has always liked technical gadgets. He took apart his first radio when he was five. Putting it back together was more difficult. The experiment resulted in a spanking and a decision to become a radio repairman. His first business was indeed a radio and television service company.

Since then, Leif Lundblad has set up dozens of companies and obtained over 300 patents. He has been active in the most varied fields, such as landscaping, excavation and blasting, and facade cleaning. He believes that the climate for entrepreneurship has changed significantly since he was a beginner in the field.

– It has become acceptable to be an entrepreneur, even a nice one. And it has become acceptable to succeed. Soon it may even be okay to fail. It’s important, you learn a lot from making mistakes, says Leif Lundblad, who currently runs the company Nybohov Invest.

But there are still areas where he believes there is more to be done. This is not only true in the entrepreneurial world.

– Entrepreneurship is needed in all areas, not just technology. I would like to see a more entrepreneurial policy, the way of running a country could be streamlined a lot. The same goes for the way education is conducted. In general, I believe that developing entrepreneurship can improve the situation and growth in society.

He believes that there is an entrepreneur in all of us. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to get an education, have a career, get married and buy a car and a summer house. Then we have different conditions, depending on our will, knowledge and the contacts we make throughout our lives.

– There are many ways to develop entrepreneurship. It is about developing your ability to improve. There is a kick in it that creates new ambitions. Just like for people who jog a lot.

Esbri as a catalyst

Five years ago, Leif Lundblad founded Esbri. At the same time, a new professorship was established at Stockholm University via a separate donation: the Leif Lundblad Professorship in Entrepreneurship and Small Business.

– The idea of ESBRI is to both produce and disseminate knowledge that can be used to improve entrepreneurship. To increase the understanding of entrepreneurship and to get people in general to use it in their daily activities. Here I think we have fulfilled an important function.

Leif Lundblad believes that Esbri has acted as a catalyst for entrepreneurship in Sweden. Not least in terms of knowledge dissemination.

– In the last five years, interest in entrepreneurship has grown. There has been a tremendous momentum. All universities and colleges should have research and, above all, education in entrepreneurship.

Leif Lundblad thinks that the research world would also benefit from becoming a little more entrepreneurial.

– Research must be understandable, readable and useful. You have to be able to pick out the good bits from the research. You have to capture people’s interest, just like in a novel. As it stands today, the research world is a bit complicated.

When it comes to interesting research areas, Leif Lundblad mentions the connection between society, people and technology. Functional design is another area he would like to see more research in.

– I personally spend a lot of time making sure that a product is cuddly, functional and can be used by everyone. That’s why it’s great that an area like design is starting to come into fashion.

Money is not the driving force

It’s no secret that Leif Lundblad is a successful entrepreneur. He has received all the awards possible in business and entrepreneurship, and his office is littered with awards and diplomas. Among other things, he was ranked eleventh on Entrepreneur magazine’s top list of 20th century Swedish super entrepreneurs. First place is held by Ingvar Kamprad. Leif Lundblad’s company was also the Swedish export champion in 1985. So what driving force is left?

– Well, it’s not just about money. Sure, it’s fun to make money, but that’s not what drives the entrepreneur. It’s wonderful to walk around the factory and see how my machines are spat out in boxes labeled, for example, Spain, Singapore or the United States.

The facts

Name: Leif Lundblad

Background: The hard school of life. Lifelong entrepreneurship in areas such as radio/TV, excavators and gardening. Invented, among other things, the banknote dispenser for ATMs and bank vaults.

Current: Founder of Esbri, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year.