When Business Is Love

When Business Is Love tells the story of Jan Ryde’s mission to create the world’s finest beds and to operate his fifth-generation business, Hästens, on the basis of love.

In today’s hypercompetitive business world, can you really run a business on love?

The Swedish firm Hästens enjoys an outstanding international reputation for creating the finest beds in the world, as evidenced by a client list that includes everyone from Hollywood royalty to actual crowned heads of state. Its luxurious, handcrafted, top-of-the-line Grand Vividus sells for as much as $750,000. Several decades ago, when the five generation family-owned business was struggling, CEO Jan Ryde promised himself that when annual sales reached 1 billion Swedish Krona or roughly $100 million, he would write a book explaining how a business can run on love.

Under Ryde’s direction, the company reached its goal, now selling its beautiful beds, many with the firm’s iconic blue check pattern, in fifty countries around the world. In When Business Is Love: The Spirit of Hästens—At Work, At Play, and Everywhere in Your Life, Ryde shares his leadership philosophy and explains how any business, in any field, can operate on the basis of love. The book examines twenty-two facets of Ryde’s methodology, from establishing a culture that values people, imagination, craftsmanship, and mastery to living such vital traits as honesty, openness, forgiveness, integrity, humility, and encouragement.

You’ll go an unforgettable journey from the company’s founding in 1852 as a one-man saddlery to one of the world’s most beloved and amazing brands with stores from Los Angeles to London, from Istanbul to India. You’ll find yourself asking the question that motivates the entire Hästens team: how good do you want to have it?