Kairos Future takes on Nexer as majority shareholder – strengthening end-to-end competence in digitalization
Kairos Future welcomes the global tech company Nexer as majority shareholder to accelerate the journey towards the core vision – a world where everyone puts future first. The news was released in multiple media last week. An unexpected choice for some, a clear decision for us. Here is the analysis underlying it.
Depicted: Left, the original owners of Kairos Future; Erik Herngren, Jörgen Jedbratt, Johanna Danielsson, Mats Lindgren. Right, Lars Kry, CEO and Martin Am Zoll, Director Business Innovation, Nexer Group. In June, Nexer enters Kairos Future as majority shareholder.
Kairos Future has for many years adhered to the vision of a world where everyone puts the future first. Our mission is to inspire world leaders to create long-term sustainaible business through future-driven innovation and strategy. We have successfully been working on this for almost 30 years, and are proud of what we have accomplished together with our collaborators and clients! But times are changing, and that means both the needs of our clients and the arena as a whole are evolving. As part of a strategy process involving the entire team we have conclude that if we are to seriously embrace our vision and reach further and wider than today, we need to join up with a bigger actor that can clearly and fully complete our portfolio. We have plenty to offer them, and vice versa.
In the turbulent times most businesses and organizations face today, more and more raise the fundamental existential questions: Where is the world headed, who are we, who do we want to be, how we can contribute to a better world, and what the roadmap to a better world looks like. This is our territory, our expertise, and what we have been working with for decades.
But reinventing oneself in theory is not sufficient. Practice and application is necessary. New business ideas need to be realized, transformation processes undergone, products created, services developed, and so on. This has historically not been our forte. The perfect match, then, would be an actor who not only covers this ground, but who also has an organizatorial strength that allows it to reach out further and wider in the areas where we truly excel.
A partner to grow with
Our choice was Nexer Group for a variety of reasons. Foremost is digitalization, which besides the climate change is the most important topic right now. We live in an era where almost everything is grounded in tech, which is the heart and soul of Nexer. In addition, it is a company we have known well for many years, and which offers us a fantastic opportunity to take the next step on Kairos Futures' journey and to support our clients in the many transformation processes that take place right now, both nationally and internationally. Nexer has for over 30 years delivered innovative tech solutions to some of the world's most famous and demanding companies. Together, Nexer and Kairos Future can offer end-to-end solutions within business development, concerning everything from business field analysis and digital strategy to implementation and application.
Another important reason is that we clearly complete each other's strengths. If we had joined forces with another management consultant, we would have been too similar – which may also have been the case with a communications agency. Our assessment was that an IT-consultant was the best imaginable partner, and that made Nexer the clear choice. There really were no alternatives.
Digitalization colors the future
As early as 1994, Kairos Future published Internet – a guide to tomorrow's business in which Jörgen Jedbratt et al descriped how the development of the Internet would affect our lives. As the years have gone by, we have supported a number of fields and industries in their adaptation to digitalization, and given them a platform for new possibilities that digitalization has created. In latter years, Kairos Future's project involving block chain technology have received global attention and attracted interested parties from across the world. In the majority of our research, strategy and innovation projects, technology and digitalization plays an important and often central role, driving trends within more or less every field and every industry. This is no less true for sustainabilty and climate challenges. We want to be even better at guiding our clients towards making the right decision today for success in the future – but also to help them see their decisions reach realization. In a collaboration with Nexer, our ability to do this improves considerably.
Similar enough for successful development
Even if the companies are different, not least in terms of size, we also share great similarities. We both value the importance of working long term and sustainably, we are both owner-managed and entrepreneurial, and we share similar values.
Within the Nexer family, Kairos Future will continue to act independently and remain a freely governed, independent organization founded in the same core concept and business as previously. The new ownership structure means that Nexer Group takes on 60% of the ownership, while Kairos Future's original owners – Mats Lindgren, Jörgen Jedbratt, Johanna Danielsson and Erik Herngren – remain as partners and stay active within the organization.
Are you curious about what the future holds for you? We're happy to tell you more!