The Law of Jante in Business

One of my most jarring experiences doing business in Norway was when I first encountered the Law of Jante or Janteloven. While discussing why a Norwegian business was not excelling, a colleague of mine simply shrugged their shoulders and proclaimed, "Well, you know, Law of Jante".

Jante? What was Jante?

He sat me down for an hour and laid out a cultural anomaly that colored how almost every Norwegian (and more broadly Scandinavians) operate, both in business and in life.

What Is Janteloven?

The Law of Jante is a social concept created by Danish/Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose in his 1933 book A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks. You may be familiar with a similar concept used in other parts of the world called "Tall Poppy Syndrome". In Janteloven, individual success is discouraged and, in many cases, considered inappropriate. Instead, society encourages the good of the collective over any one individual.

A Stark Contrast to American Culture

As an American born in glamorous Los Angeles, these laws were hard to grasp. My business experience was based on individuals doing nothing but telling me why they're the best! Where I come from, selling, and perhaps sometimes overselling, yourself is pretty much an art form.

Los Angeles is, of course, the "Look at me!" capital of the world. Look at my fancy car! Look at my fancy house! Look at my fancy surgically-enhanced chest! More often than not, it's the boldest and the most self-congratulatory that wins.

However, that's not how it works in Norway. Failing to respect the Law of Jante can dramatically decrease your likelihood of success.

The Foreigner's Advantage

Simultaneously, as a foreigner who is not bridled by these laws, you have a significant advantage in Norway. For one, you'll be allowed to get away with much more exotic behavior. Further, since Norwegians are incredibly polite, they aren't eager to interrupt someone or correct a foreigner.

For example, in Norwegian organizations' flat hierarchy, few are eager to lead projects or new initiatives. As an outsider, here's your chance to leverage your boldness. In almost every other business culture in the world there's no shortage of ambitious future leaders ready to step up. That's not always the case in Norway.

You even have an opportunity to be slightly boastful about it as long as you follow through on what you say you'll do. This is key. Norwegians will allow for some grandstanding but completing the work and doing what you say you'll do is highly valued in this society.

Using Humor to Break the Ice

As an American I can even make a cultural joke about how all we do is brag about ourselves. Here are some of my favorite openers:

"Hello, my name is Sean and as an American I'm required to try to sell you something."

"Hey, Sean the American here, I'm going to talk about myself for twenty minutes and if there's time get to your questions."

That usually gets a laugh and makes my avoidance of the Law of Jante less awkward for us all. Using cultural stereotypes, even broadly, seems also to help Norwegians establish a precise and efficient point of reference between two distinct parties.

Norwegian Monopolies

The Law of Jante also adds a unique angle for being competitive in business in Norway. You're likely to find there's not much competition in just about every industry. Consumers usually have some choice, but not an overwhelming degree as is often found in other markets.

In fact, Norwegians really don't mind monopolies at all. Even their state-run wine store is called the Vinmonopolet, or the Wine Monopoly. They literally have so little shame about it being a monopoly they put it right in the name!

It's just more efficient to have a single provider who does a good enough job to the Norwegians. They prefer this to many competing producers who have to one-up each other continually. The Law of Jante strikes again.

Advertising Challenges

Many of the tried-and-true advertising techniques found in Western markets simply don't work in Norway. Those play on the emotions of envy, greed, and even fear. In Norway, you'll need to focus on other attributes in your advertising instead.

You have to talk about the quality of your product and point out that those who use it are content but not exuberantly happy. You cannot say that your product is better than others nor that buying your product will make your consumers better people.

If a Norwegian describes your business or product as "nice" it means it's probably going to be a massive success.

The Power of Word-of-Mouth

To truly respect the Law of Jante in your business advertising you need to do one very specific thing: have other people say why you're the best or your product is superior. CEOs shouldn't stand up and claim superiority but instead they should focus on getting all of Norway to say that the product is acceptably good.

Word-of-mouth marketing is everything in Norway. The typical Norwegian will be highly skeptical of you and working with you until their friends or family have first validated your offering. Once that happens, Norwegians begin to build trust and are open to engage with something new.

Personal Advancement at Work

The Law of Jante can also impact one's ability to advance personally and be recognized within a typical Norwegian organization. To work harder or longer hours than your colleagues can easily be construed as clashing with these cultural values, which is why you don't see many overnight lights at Norwegian offices.

Meritocracy vs. The Law of Jante

When you have gone the extra mile or created unique value for the company, it's usually better to recognize the team as a whole and not single out any one individual. This was a bit of a culture shock for me having worked in America and the highly competitive Silicon Valley.

There's a much bigger focus on raising others in the organization to the same level than allowing any one individual to be raised to a disproportionate level of status. Rise up too high and society-at-large will want to push you down. If you're slipping in life, Norway is compelled to help you rise to be shoulder-to-shoulder with everyone else.

Wealthy Norwegians

There are of course many incredibly wealthy and successful businessmen and women in Norway. Many fortunes have been made in oil, real estate, shipping and so on, although you typically won't hear about most of them. You certainly won't see many bragging about their wealth, at least not publicly.

Instead, they go to reasonably great lengths to hide that wealth, although this is a somewhat futile exercise because in a country of trust and transparency, everyone's taxes are a matter of public record. Of the 130,000+ millionaires in Norway I can think of two who could be considered 'flashy' by international business standards: Christian Ringnes, a beer baron, and Petter Stordalen, a hotel king and the Norwegian version of Richard Branson.

Practical Advice

As an American I often need to bite my tongue here in Norway to avoid too much personal bragging. This is especially important in the context of public or even internal staff meetings. Here it is much better to give kudos to a team effort over singling out any one individual, especially yourself.

That means you may not receive much personal praise for your specific efforts; in some cases, that can make you feel that no one appreciates your work. This is probably not true. Norwegians just sometimes have a tough time expressing praise.

When it comes to Norwegian business culture and the Law of Jante, I have found one thing to be universally true: Norwegians will always set expectations fairly low. They will almost always exceed those expectations.

Remember: you are good at what you do, but you are not to be exceedingly better than others. In Norwegian business it's actually significantly more important that you follow through on what you say you'll do versus boldly promising amazing results. In other words: don't be too American and you'll be just fine.