 SKF
–
a global story 1907 - 2007
SKF celebrated its centenary by, among other activities, publishing a
book written by Martin Fritz and Birgit Karlsson, economic historians at
the School of Business, Economics and Law at Göteborg University. The
book is also published in Swedish, SKF – Världsföretaget 1907 - 2007.
SKF has had a fascinating history to date. It has progressed from being
the small enterprise in Gamlestaden, Göteborg, Sweden where the
spherical ball bearing was invented to one of the most international
companies of all, and world leader of rolling bearings. It has been an
adventurous journey marked by upswings and downturns, individual
destinies and significant decisions. As SKF celebrated its centenary the
history of the company was written from different angles. The writers
were commissioned to describe it, and have worked as follows: the
chapters covering 1907 – 1970 are by Martin Fritz and the chapters on
1970 through the present are by Birgit Karlsson. The writers have had
full freedom of discretion regarding their approaches and choices of
what aspects to investigate. They decided to be analytical in their
reasoning regarding SKF and its role in societal development. By putting
SKF’s development into an international context, they have demonstrated
the external factors that have probably influenced decision-makers at
SKF at different times and more or less consciously.
As historians, the writers work mainly with written source materials.
They have had free access to the company material (prior to 1990) but,
paradoxically, the closer they came to the present, the less informative
they found it. This is mainly because minutes of meetings of the board
of directors changed over time, from initially narrative and descriptive
to later not much more than a list of decisions. So they have also
worked extensively with oral sources and many SKF employees have helped
them enthusiastically.
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