Ending the week strong. Did not feel as long as the other days but it was a long day. Starting with Valea and ending with Xylem, we had a good day. It was also my day to navigate the group to a company.
I got to start the day off by navigating everyone to Valea. It was about a 25 minute trip from the hostel. I was able to get us there without using any navigation on my phone besides looking to see where the company was before we left. So in order to get to Valea, we had to get over a nice highway, which luckily had a nice bridge that went right over it. When we arrived at our destination we went up to the top floor of the building for our presentation. We were also greeted by Andrew, CEO and Founding Partner of Valea.
Valea had a nice view just like Qualisys. The view included the river and other buildings around. Due to legal reasons, we all signed non-disclosure agreements(NDA) that holds back what I can and cannot say from the presentation and what I saw from the company. However the presentation was so good and the information he gave I have enough to talk about. What was in the presentation covered patents because they are patent attorneys. It was really interesting to learn more about patents and how they work with the legal limits and how they can improve throughout years. There are some interesting loop holes that companies can find to destroy a patent and it is crazy to think people would do that just to help their company better. Andrew did a great job informing us on patents and it was a really interesting presentation.
After the presentation, everyone went down for some lunch with Andrew. We went into a building that looks like lipstick. I had a nice hamburger with a couple different kinds of potatoes also with a salad. All of the food was great and has been great. The only think keeping me from gaining weight is about the 16,000 steps I have been taking a day.
Moving on we had about an hour before we had to catch a bus to Xylem so we looked around Nordstan for that time period. We arrived at Xylem just in time for some Fika then the presentation started. Christian was the presenter at Xylem. He talked about their pumps, water supply, and more business parts than technical parts. So some of the information given in the presentation was shocking to find out and understand. The demand for water will increase five times by 2050. That is an astonishing fact that could be worry some. Another one is the amount of fresh drinkable water on earth stays the same meaning it just gets reused and the only way we would get more is if the glaciers melted.
Xylem makes nearly $4 billion in revenue. Their manufacturing plant is located in Emmaboda, Sweden and their factory is spotless. Quality is hard to find sometimes and Xylem understands that and they allow customers to come in to try pumps on site. Sweden also has a very high export rate which looking at Xylem it really holds true. Xylem has a 97% export rate out of Sweden. That is barely any products staying in Sweden.
After Xylem, everyone went back to the hostel and decided to rest a little. The week has gone by so fast but we have been so busy we barely got a break. Tonight was a good night to relax a little before we all go out and adventure around Gothenburg some more. We also had a nice view on the way back to the hostel as we drove over the big bridge in Gothenburg and got a nice picture.
Daily Reflection
- Patents only last 20 years.
- When you are busy time just flies by.
- All the food is really good in Sweden and also healthier than in the United States.
Alex's Sweden Expedition 