The Good Tribe – Swedish startup of the year in Austria

Posted on May 15, 2013 by The Good Tribe

Ever since we got the call from Johan L. Eliasson at the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Austria a few weeks ago, that we would be awarded Swedish startup of the year in Austria, we’ve been bursting with pride.

After reading the jury’s motivation and accepting the award yesterday evening, at the Swedish ambassador’s residence in Vienna, even more so. We’re proud and thankful that the jury, comprising of representatives from the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Austria, Business Sweden and the Swedish Embassy, trust in our business model, market approach and in us as people.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has been involved in the selection process and for actually creating an own award category for us (!!!).

During the past four years only two awards has been given each year: Business of the year and Manager of the year. This year a third award was instated because the jury felt they wanted to recognise our work. This year’s Business of the year is IKEA in Austria, manager of the year is Lars Hagström, STS Alpresor.

Here is the jury’s motivation for the Most promising Startup Concept of the year 2012:

Usually the Swedish Business Awards ( Wirtschaftsspreis der Schwedische Handelskammer in Österreich) are awarded to companies with a measurable track record, in terms od profitability, expansion, market share and so on, but in the case of The Good Tribe, the jury did not find these criteria applicable, since the company is so new.

The jury felt that the entire business concept of The Good Tribe captures the spirit of combining Swedish and Austrian business potential in a commendable concept from a new generation of environmentally aware entrepreneurs from Austria and Sweden. Its convincing display of thought-through business vision, and the bi-nationally well organized and credible market approach, helped the jury decide on awarding The Good Tribe the award of Most Promising Startup Concept of the Year.

Present yesterday evening were Gayathri Rathinavelu, Evelina Lundqvist, Alexandra Poetz and Michael Bauer-Leeb. Our dearest colleague Sandra Kinnaman Nordström was lecturing in Sweden and couldn’t attend. Also on the photo above: Carsten Grönblad of Business Sweden, Swedish ambassador Nils Daag and Johan L. Eliasson of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Austria – and Pinky Ele of course!

Thank you all for a wonderful evening yesterday. We bet you recognise our pride on our beaming smiles.

Photo credit: Michele Pauty, APA. More photos here.
Press release from The Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Austria.

Gayathri participates in a future panel for the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth

Posted on April 19, 2013 by The Good Tribe

Gayathri participating in the closing panel of Stora Tillväxtdagen.

On April 16th in Stockholm at Stockholm City Conference Center, Gayathri participated in the closing panel discussion of the day at Stora Tillväxtdagen – a full day conference about sustainable business and sustainable growth, arranged by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket). The topic of the closing panel discussion was to look ahead – what do we do now? How can both businesses and the community benefit from investing in sustainability?

The target group for the day was municipalities, regions and businesses. The day started with a speech from the Swedish Minister of Trade, Ewa Björling and there after Meera Sanyal, Head of the Royal Bank of Scotland in India and Mikael Román, Head of Tillväxtanalys in Brazil. They both gave insightful international perspectives on sustainability.

Watch the panel discussion on the web
To see the panel discussion or other speeches that took place during the day, click here.

The panel consisted of Gayathri representing The Good Tribe and the following four participants;

Andreas Cervenka,
Economics Reporter at the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. Last year, he published the book What is Money? Everything you wanted to know about the world economy but were afraid to ask (2012).

Estelle Joubert Westling,
Partner and strategist at the firm The Good Guys, a communications agency that works exclusively with sustainability.

Niclas Ihrén,
Niclas is a senior adviser in communication and sustainable development at Respect. He has extensive experience in dealing with globalization issues and has been CEO of Globe Forum.

Fredrik Högberg,
Environmental Strategist in Kungsbacka. Overall responsible for driving the work of the municipality’s 67 environmental objectives. With the help of circular economy, they want to reconcile conservation of resources with community development.