Niklas Adalberth, founder of the Norrsken Foundation and co-founder, in 2005, of Klarna, received the 2024 Esade Award at the 28th Annual Esade Alumni Day, with the theme line "From Creators to Innovators: Empowering Change". This event held at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya was attended by former students belonging to the Esade community.

Niklas Adalberth, the winner of this year’s Esade Award in recognition of his innovative business leadership and his commitment to social causes, highlighted his experience as an entrepreneur and reviewed his career from when he founded Klarna – a start-up he left in 2016 – up to the creation of the Norrsken Foundation, a non-profit entity dedicated to supporting and promoting social and tech entrepreneurship with a view to addressing global challenges. In Barcelona, Norrsken recently inaugurated Europe’s largest tech and impact hub, where more than 800 members are currently working towards business solutions for major global challenges.

“The Norrsken Foundation was not created for the same reason as Klarna – to create a unicorn – but to enable impact unicorns, companies that make money whilst having a positive impact on millions of people. Here at Norrsken, we’d like to create new models that can be imitated, like those of Peter Carlsson, the founder of Northvolt, and Pol Valls, the founder of Submer, for example,” he explained.

The winner, who received the award from Xavier Mendoza, director general of Esade; Daniel Sanchez, president of Esade Alumni, and Jaume Guardiola, president of the Esade Board of Trustees, voiced criticism of today’s society, “focused on maximizing growth and consumption, in which companies try to increase their market share partly to enable their investors to receive bigger bonuses.” “Economic growth is hugely important in the developed world, but it comes at a price. Although Western society is richer than ever, stress, loneliness, climate change and environmental degradation are rife. We’re moving in the wrong direction,” he declared. Nonetheless, he also conveyed hope in his speech when underlining that “one of the world’s most prestigious business schools acknowledges the need to make a positive impact.”

The key factors of enterpreneurship

During this event focused on entrepreneurship, George Chondrakis, professor in the Esade Department of Strategy and General Management and director of the Esade Entrepreneurship Institute, admitted the complexity of determining whether entrepreneurs are born or created. He also highlighted the key elements of entrepreneurship – networking and mentoring – which define the importance of networking with like-minded people and seeking guidance from experienced mentors; raising capital and attracting investments, and the ability to understand business models; the importance of organizations such as Esade BAN (the Esade Alumni business angel network) and the Esade programs that foster collaboration and innovation; and the need for experimentation making it possible to take calculated risks and redefine ideas.

The conference also provided an opportunity to reflect upon the DNA of Esade and entrepreneurship during a panel discussion chaired by Daniel Sánchez, president of Esade Alumni, founder of Nauta Capital and president of Ship2B Ventures, with the participation of the Esade alumni José Manuel Villanueva, co-founder of Privalia and co-founder and CEO of 011h; María Alegre, co-founder of ChartBoost and Flori Ventures; and Maite Barrera, founder of Bluecap and Globant board member.

About the Esade Award

The Esade Awards are organized by the Esade alumni community to acknowledge and honor people and organizations whose careers, activities or services are characterized by the values that define the founding spirit of Esade and who are a benchmark and example for others.

Previous years’ winners include Joaquín Duato, CEO of Johnson & Johnson; Ana Botín, president of Banco Santander; James Quincey, chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company; Enrique Lores, president of Imaging & Printing Solutions at HP; Pablo Isla, CEO of Inditex; Mikael Ohlsson, CEO of Ikea; Carlos Slim, CEO of Inbursa; Indra K. Nooyi, president and CEO of PepsiCo; Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever; Hiroshi Mikitani, founder, president and CEO of Rakuten, Inc.; and Gonzalo Gortázar, CEO of CaixaBank.