Jan Ryde ― The rest is business

While many people's childhood memories of their family business are fond ones, for Jan Ryde, growing up, his parents' company was a source of tension. "I grew up in the '60s and my parents had just taken over the company from the third generation," he recalls. "My grandfather had passed away and the ownership was across two families, so it was turbulent. I grew up hearing about all the struggles."

The company was Hästens, the Swedish bed and mattress company, which was established in 1852 as a saddle business by Jan's great-great-grandfather, and which today makes some of the world's finest (and most expensive) beds. Whilst nowadays the brand is globally renowned, back in the 1960s, it was a small firm selling almost exclusively in Sweden, and it was struggling. As such, rather than pushing him towards joining the company, Jan's father instead encouraged him to move away and gain experience elsewhere. "I understand now," says Jan, "that he probably couldn't feed any more mouths."

Taking his father's advice, the young Jan set out to build an academic career at the Linköping University, where he taught industrial economics for several years. But in 1988, at the age of 25, love intervened, and he decided to move back to Köping to start a family, taking over the management of Hästens from his parents at the same time. His ambition for the company was sky high. "I wanted to do things differently, aiming much higher and having a bigger and broader vision to benefit a lot more people," Jan says. “It was a learning based on what I had missed growing up.”

Jan wasted no time in turning the company around. A huge factor in this was a shift in the brand's positioning.

“I discovered that people all around the world have a fundamental need – the need for sleeping really well – and that need hasn't been satisfied. Not at the time, and not today either." Hästens today sells one model that retails for an astonishing USD 500,000, but it also sells beds for USD 5,000.

Another reason for Hästens' long-term success has been its expansion beyond the Swedish market over the past three decades. In 2024, Hästens is in 50 markets; the US is the brand's biggest, followed by Asia. But this is truly a case study in the importance of patience. "We told ourselves, we have to be better before we start exporting," says Jan. "So, by design, initially we were purely serving the Swedish market." When they eventually made the call to export, his team approached the task with care and meticulous planning. "Each salesperson had to spend six months coming to the factory to learn everything before they went to visit customers outside Sweden," he says. "The product has such a high knowledge content that without being able to communicate that knowledge, it wouldn't work."

This is something Jan has felt passionate about throughout his career: investing in his workforce. "People are our biggest resource," he says. For instance, Hästens hires coaches for all staff, regardless of seniority or department. "I don't think a coach is just for the CEO or upper management. It's a benefit that everyone in the company can have and use," he says. Similarly, Jan clearly thinks deeply about his own leadership style and how he can improve it. "When the company grew, I recognized that I had to change," he explains, "because the leadership style that works for a company of 20 people is different when it's a 50-person or 100-person company. For every phase, we have to get better."

That said, Hästens has still had its fair share of rocky periods, including during Jan's reign. Jan has in the past stepped away from the day-to-day management of the company and brought in a CEO from outside the family. "They have struggled in different ways," he admits.

This nearly happened in 2012, a period which Jan describes as one of the “dark times” in the brand’s history. Hästens was under the management of an external CEO and Jan was at the time going through a divorce, he explains.

"It wasn't really fun for me to work, and the company started to suffer after a while." In the end, the business nearly reached the point of bankruptcy. "It was a wake-up call," he says. "I had to come back as CEO." The financials at that point were bad, and he was in desperate need of fresh capital. "Access to capital is much more limited for a family-owned, family-run business," he notes. "On the other hand, we are highly committed, so we managed to get back on track."

Thankfully, the business is on a much more secure footing today – and the future is bright. Although the Covid-19 pandemic created logistical challenges, it also saw people spending far more time at home and therefore investing in their furniture. "That positive effect is still strong and getting stronger," says Jan. Meanwhile, consumers are increasingly prioritising their long-term health and "slowly" (at least as far as Jan is concerned) recognising how vital sleep is to their general health and wellbeing.

When it comes to Hästens' family ownership structure, the future looks positive here, too. Two of Jan's four sons currently work at the company. "I worked side by side with my father for more than 25 years, and we had an amazing complementary relationship," says Jan. "Successful succession doesn't happen overnight. Ideally, for my sons, it will be that kind of apprenticeship as well." However, Jan stresses that he's not making any concrete plans for them, and it has to be "a completely free choice." He has extended to each of his sons "a very special invitation" to join the company, but there is no pressure on them to accept it. At the same time, he says, he's not stepping down any time soon because "I still have so much I want to do."

Ultimately, Jan is an exceptionally and infectiously optimistic character. As he puts it simply, "I see this as the most exciting time to live." All of this optimism, and all of his experiences – the good and the bad – have been distilled by Jan into a book called When Business Is Love: The Spirit of Hästens – At Work, at Play, and Everywhere in Your Life.

As the title suggests, the book covers a lot of ground and stretches far beyond the bounds of business, but his fundamental belief is that a family-run company like Hästens has the power to improve the lives of many people. "Taking people from a difficult hamster wheel, where there are a lot of struggles, like my parents had when they were running the company," he says, "to something with ease, with love, peace and more abundance – and that goes, of course, with happier people, happier employees, and happier customers."