Thomas Nortoft and Johanna Lundstedt know each other very well by now. This can be seen in the warm relationship that is mirrored when we meet on a fresh, sunny September afternoon at Chalmers Innovation, where Syspiro Diagnostics has its office.

Thomas is the experienced industrialist and business developer with solid working-life experience in the international scenario. Johanna is the young female entrepreneur, the president of Syspiro Diagnostics, a biochemist with a Masters degree in business development — and now working in her first job. There is no doubt as to where they both want to steer Syspiro Diagnostics. Despite a thirty-year difference in age, they are in touching agreement — they are driven by the same things and their interplay is both dynamic and creative, spiced up by a warm and lively of humour. It all creates a wonderful feeling of contrast yet at the same time of harmony. The enormous dedication they both show for Syspiro Diagnostics´ product is easy to understand once one realises that it can actually spell the difference between life and death.

Offers a solution to a problem
Syspiro Diagnostics was founded in February 2007 as a joint project bringing together the Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship/GIBBS and three researchers from SahlgrenskaUniversity Hospital. The company is developing a new type of monitoring device that is intended to provide obstetricians with reliable and continuous information about the foetus´s health during birth. The aim is to reduce the risk of a lack of oxygen supply to the foetus and thus also reduce the number of unnecessary emergency Caesarean sections. In a wider perspective, the product also makes it possible to reduce both the human suffering and the unnecessary costs that emergency Caesarean sections inflict on patients and society respectively. “It feels immensely inspiring to develop a product that we know could work better than the alternatives already on the market today," says Johanna. “After all, we have a solution to a problem that we know exists, and it is particularly encouraging to feel that we are working every single day to solve that problem." The environment at Chalmers Innovation is also highly stimulating, according to Johanna. “There is a network here linking together a number of small companies. It´s an inspiring environment and ideal for the current phase of our operation".

Clinical testing on the agenda
Johanna explains enthusiastically that the company is currently preparing for its first major clinical trials on human beings. “We naturally feel both excited and somewhat nervous right now," says Johanna. “We have already carried out tests on sheep and they produced excellent results. Now, with the upcoming clinical trials on people, it is vital that everything works as planned. We need good research results in order to proceed with our business development process." Johanna also relates that a lot has happened in 2009. “For one thing, we made a new prototype, and for another, we´re facing our first proper clinical trials. Our vision is that the equipment will eventually give women in labour a degree of mobility throughout the delivery process, since the measuring instruments will be able to be attached via a belt and the analyser will be a hand-held unit. That feels like a major step in the product´s development for the future," emphasises Johanna.
 
The product is the driving force
With an engineering degree in biochemistry from Chalmers University of Technology allied to a Master´s degree from the Göteborg International Bioscience Business School (GIBBS), Johanna has an excellent academic qualification for powering the business side of the venture. Today she is the company´s president and she affirms that it is the product that accounts for much of the driving force. “I´d never have invested so much of myself if I did not feel convinced that the product truly feels important," she says. “Since we have a possible solution to a very real existing problem, it feels really rewarding to work with the product. The tasks involved in this process undergo constant evolution so I find I´m learning new things all the time."

Backed by a degree in economics, Thomas has held a number of different positions in a variety of sectors. He has a wealth of working experience both from Sweden and from many countries overseas, including the USA and Canada. His first job after getting his degree was at Mölnlycke AB as business area controller in the sphere of fast-moving consumer products. “That was a great way to start off in my working life, it really was “the" place to work at that time," recalls Thomas. After ten years, he moved on and took on the role of consultant, a thoroughly challenging period. “Working as a consultant was immensely educational and demanding," he says.

At that time there was something called “Företagsstartarskolan" (CompanyStart-UpSchool), a programme for people wanting to start up companies of their own. “Back then, it was more of a short course. If you wanted to start up your own company, you had to mortgage your home; there were no subsidies or research grants to apply for. When the students came to the course with all their bright ideas and realised just how bad their economic outlook was, they all went home and cried. Today the entrepreneur programme is immensely focused and compact so as to properly prepare the students for their business development projects, compared to what things were like when I started out. And all this has naturally changed the preconditions for entrepreneurship," emphasises Thomas.

Holistic understanding of business development
Johanna underscores that the Masters course at GIBBS is an unique combination of theory and practice and that she has learned to identify — and predict — problems and is rarely taken by surprise by events in the course of her work. “I´ve had advance knowledge about several of the likely difficulties thanks to my broad study programme. You get all the necessary know-how in the course of your studies, ready to be used whenever necessary, for instance as regards corporate profiling and marketing, and this naturally benefits the growth process. I have quite simply benefited from a well-rounded, holistic understanding of business development," explains Johanna. “The course has been something of a fast-track process for me, because in a way I´ve stolen a lead in entrepreneurship compared with others who have to follow the conventional path."

Long process from idea to commercialisation
In 1985 Thomas started working with dental implants at Nobelpharma, today Nobel Biocare, the company that turned out to have the biggest impact on his career, both personally and from the viewpoint of professional experience. It is interesting to hear that Sweden — and Göteborg — almost missed out on the invention of the implant. “At that time, the company management at Nobelpharma was not particularly impressed by the idea of the implant. If Erik Penser, who was a very important person in Swedish business life at that time, had not taken issue and firmly believed in this idea and pushed for it, then perhaps today Nobel Biocare would not exist and we would not have had the success that we have today in this area," declares Thomas.

Thomas points out that there is a huge number of interesting ideas in the fields of biomedicine and biotechnology in which Sweden appears to be in the lead. What is unfortunate is that this inventiveness has not developed into a major industry in these fields today. “We are apparently not as good at marketing as we are at inventing," ponders Thomas. He emphasises that there is a financing gap between newly started, relatively small companies, and companies that in terms of size are beginning to be of interest to venture capitalists. Thomas also discerns a tendency among entrepreneurs to commercialise their ideas too early. “It´s important to complete the academic stage before starting the commercialisation process. In biomedicine and biotechnology, it often takes a long time to move from idea to commercialisation since the process encompasses considerable research and comprehensive trials. Furthermore, there is a massive body of regulations to take into account. It most certainly isn´t like starting up a corner shop, where you can in principle start making money from day one," says Thomas.

An ear keenly attuned to customer needs
Thomas knows what he is talking about. With a solid marketing career in dental implants in the fast-growing Nobel Biocare behind him, he had to work hard to persuade the company to understand the changes needed when the market demands something new. “During my time as business area manager for dental implants at Nobel Biocare in Sweden, from 1995 and on, I worked a lot with product strategy. The industry was undergoing a major structural reorganisation as a result of changing customer needs — there was a drive towards more aesthetic products and simplification of the product system. It was quite simply essential to listen to what the customers wanted. It was all about new — different — customer demands," recalls Thomas.

Lead through others
Thomas relates that after two years in Canada, he became head of Nobelpharma´s largest subsidiary in the USA. “In the USA the focus was largely on leading through others," he points out. The most important managers and clinical trial supervisors were already in place, so a lot of my work was about always ensuring I put the USA on the map and always protecting the subsidiary´s rights," he says. For a number of years towards the end of the 1990s, Thomas was also director of European operations. By then it was a far larger Europe than when he started his career. “You have to remember that when I started working after my studies at the School of Business , Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg the Berlin Wall was still firmly in place. Back then, Europe was very different indeed to what it is today."
 
Listen and be attentive
It is interesting to find out how Thomas learned about all the various cultures in which he was privileged to work. “I was given the brief to start up new markets and initiate sales in many countries, and I have invested a lot of time in learning about the history and the culture of the country in question. What is most important, however, is to listen and to be attentive," says Thomas.

Teamwork and social interaction
Listening seems to be one of Thomas ´s many abilities in the joint venture with Johanna and Syspiro Diagnostics. Perhaps the reason they function so well together is because Johanna also has a similar personality. “We actually have two different sorts of cooperation, Thomas and I," she reveals. “Firstly, there are the purely formal aspects in the form of board meetings, which naturally are an important part. In addition, however, Thomas also serves as a sounding-board. When I come to a crossroads and need advice, we might be in constant contact with one another for a whole week or so. After that, we may not talk to each other more than once a week for a while, until there are new things that need to be checked and monitored. But throughout it all, I work without pause."

Joint search for challenges
There are also other things that unite Thomas and Johanna. Thomas points out that over the years, he has always been at his best in work situations that were a combination of practical difficulties and intellectual challenges. “If I´m to really enjoy my work, I prefer it if things aren´t too simple or obvious. And it´s immensely important that I have the right people around me. Independent-minded people add energy and enthusiasm and create dynamism." He seems to have found the perfect business partner in Johanna. She too is driven by the fact that everything she is working with is new, and Thomas has always sought new challenges. At Syspiro Diagnostics, the combination of Thomas´s personality and experience seems to be a source of inspiration and assistance to Johanna. Leading through others seems to be a form of social interaction that works for them both in Syspiro Diagnostics.

Create new life and save lives
Thomas ends our chat by saying he hopes to have time to go for a run that evening. Johanna is also in the habit of jogging now and again, and there is the spontaneous thought that this too is something they both have in common. As the clinical trials prepare to get under way, it feels as though Syspiro Diagnostics is in safe hands as Johanna and Thomas jointly work to create new life and, in the future, save lives.
 
Interview by Helene Jaktling, September 2009.