As the winter holiday season approaches, we at KTH Executive School would like to thank all of you who joined us on learning journeys this year—for your trust, curiosity, and commitment.

In a year marked by uncertainty, leadership has mattered more than ever — and become distinctly multi-disciplinary: AI and compute, geopolitics and economic statecraft, execution capacity, financial resilience, and sustainability are now deeply interconnected.

In that spirit, we’re sharing a holiday reading list of standout 2025 titles, chosen to broaden perspectives and spark relevant conversations.

Thank you for being part of learning that is daring, sharing, and caring — ambitious in intent, collaborative in practice, and and human in how we lead. We look forward to an inspiring year ahead full of thoughtful dialogue, experimentation, and measurable results.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and an inspiring start to 2026!

Recommended readings

The Thinking Machine  
A vivid account of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, and why compute has become a strategic bottleneck.
Discussion: Where is “compute” becoming a constraint in your strategy—capability, data, talent, governance, or partners?
See here

Chokepoints 
How sanctions, export controls, and financial infrastructure shape power and risk.
Discussion: What’s your organization’s “chokepoint exposure” — currency, energy, chips, logistics lanes, or regulation?
See here

How Progress Ends
A long-run view on innovation, bureaucracy, and the conditions for sustained progress.
Discussion: Where has your organization become “process-perfect” but outcome-poor?
See here

A warm thank you to Sandvik Intelligent Manufacturing for generously hosting a learning module in collaboration with us at KTH Executive School.

We explored what it takes to support solution- and outcome-based business models — and how to do so while staying true to a decentralized philosophy.

What stood out:
🔹 The value of spending time to truly detangle challenges
🔹 Choosing an approach that enables early wins
🔹 The crucial roles of culture and ways of working
🔹 Coordination across internal units and external partners
🔹 Securing the capabilities needed to scale

We were particularly impressed by the seamless digital integration in the solutions. Truly living the brand promise: Advancing the world through engineering – and Winning Together.

We are grateful for how participants describe our Supply Chain Management Program as adding real strategic and practical value.

Warm thanks to Richard Meurke, Head of Supplier Delivery Management at Scania Group, for contributing to the 2024 cohort — and for generously sharing your reflections:

“Participating in the KTH Executive School Operations and Supply Chain Management Program deepened my strategic understanding of the end-to-end supply chain. I now approach decisions with a more complete view of the value chain and can collaborate more effectively with both internal and external partners.

The sessions on AI and digital tools gave me insights into, among other things, how to improve delivery accuracy, manage risks, and plan capacity. Circularity in the supply chain was another highlight, and I gained a better understanding of how to assess our suppliers’ work in this area.

The program combined theory with real-life practice, and we visited leading industrial company sites in Sweden to see what world-class production and logistics look like in action.

The leadership parts of the program helped me reflect on how I lead in a changing environment. The model we used — especially the concept of contribution management — has worked very well in my leadership. I have handed over several strategic tasks to team members who now drive them forward with strong results.

The program also gave me the opportunity to reflect on the challenge of driving change when many transformation projects are happening at once — it is easy to lose focus in those situations.

I learned not only from the program, but also from the open discussions among the participants. Listening to others who also work in industrial companies, and sharing our different experiences, added a lot of value. We came from different businesses, but many of the challenges were the same.

I would recommend this program to leaders who want to turn supply chain complexity into concrete priorities, smarter decisions, and lasting improvements.”

Seven years ago, we began exploring cybersecurity under the headline: “Cybersecurity – Understanding and Avoiding New Threats.”

Today, we regularly bring groups of executives to experience the vibrant environment at Cybercampus Sweden at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and the Royal Hacking Lab.

In a digital world where factory shutdowns, compromised devices, and AI-generated attacks are no longer hypothetical but real and recurring risks, the work being done at KTH is not just timely — it’s essential.

🔐 From IoT vulnerability research (50+ devices tested!) to cyber threat intelligence and ethical hacking, KTH is leading by example. Teams identifies vulnerabilities before hackers do — not to exploit them, but to fix them. This is cybersecurity as a public service.

During our visits, we learn about:
💡 The importance of building security in from the design phase
💡 Risks like AI prompt injection in applications powered by LLMs
💡 The benefits of shifting from a reactive “protect-and-defend” mindset (e.g., relying on traditional antivirus programs) to a more proactive model based on:
1️⃣ Intelligence services
2️⃣ Vulnerability analysis
3️⃣ Minimising attack surfaces

The Cybercampus is also open to collaboration — from third-party tool testing to joint research proposals. Already, 75+ research theses have contributed to improving the security and resilience of Swedish society.

A big thank you to Emre Süren and the entire team at Royal Hacking Lab and Cybercampus Sweden — joined by our Ulf Änggård — for the critical work you are doing. Cybersecurity may not always make headlines — until it does.

Thanks to your efforts, we can all be better prepared. 🙌

It is in times of transformation that leadership really matters – bringing us together and moving us forward.

In the words of Atlas Copco Industrial Technique: While technology continues to transform business, future-proofing people has never been more business-critical. A heartfelt thank you to the team for hosting us.

Gianpiero Petriglieri, Associate Professor at INSEAD, shared reflections from his research on how care is central to leadership. To be moved and to act differently, we first need to feel that a leader truly cares about us, our concerns, and our aspirations.

One key insight that resonated deeply:
It’s not uncertainty that challenges us in times of change, it’s the anxiety it creates.

A metaphor that stuck: the faster you go, the longer the trajectory required to make a turn. If you want to change direction at speed, you need to slow down and to make space.

And perhaps the most important takeaway:
In transformation, learning isn’t a side note – it’s the main act.

Once again, a warm thank you to the team at Atlas Copco for creating the space for such meaningful exchange.

A warm thank you to the entire team at Hiab in Hudiksvall for generously hosting a learning module with us on how to drive value and organic growth through innovation and product development.

🚛🔧 We got a deep dive into what it means to engineer resilience and performance into loader cranes — from an easy-to-grasp design process, through a robust design philosophy and control system, all the way to Hiab’s internally developed calculation tool.

What stood out:
▶️ How looking beyond the long term — across ecosystems, products, and technologies — can guide strategy, using the helpful metaphor of trees, plants, and seeds to describe maturity.
▶️ What it takes to foster innovative behavior and a forward-looking culture.
▶️ Design at HIAB goes beyond engineering — it’s an integrated process grounded in real-life usage data, standards, simulation, and continuous learning from the field.
▶️ Their Architecture Optimized Design and Capacity Based Modularity exemplify how scalability and performance can go hand in hand, enabling faster innovation and better cost-efficiency.
▶️ The beautiful metaphor of the crane as a living system: the steel structure is the skeleton, the hydraulics the muscles, the control system the brain, and the sensors the eyes.
▶️ And perhaps most striking: the genuine passion of the team — many described their work as an engineer’s dream.

In essence: a masterclass in how engineering, product development, and digital tools come together to build world-class intelligent, safe, and efficient machines — truly Built to Perform.

A sincere thank you to the entire team at Volvo Construction Equipment in Braås for generously sharing your insights and experiences.

With a focus on effective and efficient end-to-end flows, we learned from your work in producing the world’s leading articulated haulers — as well as your world-class approach to sustainability.

We were particularly impressed by:
🔹 The strong team spirit, and how innovation and entrepreneurship are actively nurtured
🔹 How learning and development are embedded at the core of the business – symbolized not least by a PhD in welding
🔹 The positive dynamic of keeping R&D and production co-located
🔹 A long-standing management tradition and a truly human-centered approach
🔹 All of it paired with bold strategy-making and determined execution

Thank you once again for the inspiration – and for leading by example!

How do you increase productivity, strengthen engagement and retention, foster customer satisfaction, drive innovation, growth and adaptability – all while aligning leaders with your company’s vision and values?

Five years ago, Sigma Industry East North teamed up with us with the aim to achieve exactly that.

We are proud to have been part of their remarkable journey:
☑️ Designing leadership development programs for current and future leaders
☑️ Arranging international learning journeys to world-renowned universities and companies in Boston and London
☑️ Even climbing mountains together – literally – in Alagna, at the foot of Monte Rosa in Italy

The results speak for themselves. Sigma Industry has been recognized multiple times as one of Sweden’s “Best Managed Companies” and “Best Employers.”

We warmly congratulate Sigma Industry on this fantastic achievement – and we are grateful to have walked (and climbed!) alongside them on the way.

Book pick: Material World, by Ed Conway – a standout from our recommended reading list for participants in our programs.

Material World is an eye-opening exploration of the raw materials that quietly power the global economy, and how deeply they shape our industries, lives, and future.

Conway focuses on six essential materials:

• Sand, used in everything from glass and concrete to silicon chips
• Salt, crucial to chemical industries, food systems, and preservation
• Iron, the foundation of modern infrastructure
• Copper, powering global electrification and connectivity
• Oil, still central to energy, mobility, and plastics
• Lithium, the lifeblood of the energy transition and battery technology

Together, these materials form the invisible scaffolding of the industrial world, and Conway’s reporting reveals just how interconnected, fragile, and geopolitically charged their supply chains have become.

For industrial leaders in sectors like mining, manufacturing, and global supply chains, Material World provides both context and challenge: how well do we truly understand the materials our businesses rely on? And how resilient are the systems behind them?

Highly readable, deeply researched, and often surprising – it’s the kind of book that reframes how we see the world.

Did you know the word “salary” comes from the high value of salt?

Karin Rådström, CEO of Daimler Truck and KTH alumna, has this week been named KTH’s Alumna of the Year. Her message to future leaders? “Believe in yourself. You can contribute.”

With over 100,000 employees and more than 40 production sites worldwide under her leadership, she now heads the world’s largest truck manufacturer at a time of rapid transition.

Karin Rådström is driving both performance and transformation – scaling innovation, tackling climate challenges, and modernizing industrial operations on a global scale. As she puts it: “We’re pressing the brakes and the accelerator at the same time.”

Her journey began at Scania – “the first company to offer me a job”- where she spent 16 years, rising to senior executive roles and becoming the first woman from Scania’s ranks to join the global executive team. In 2021, she moved on to lead Mercedes-Benz Trucks, and just three years later she took the top job at Daimler Truck.

Her leadership style is grounded in discipline, teamwork, and trust – values she developed both during her time at KTH and as a national team rower. She emphasizes clear direction, the importance of recovery, and surrounding yourself with great people.

Karin Rådström credits KTH with laying the foundation for her career – and for meeting her husband.