This football field is perhaps not the
greatest one mankind has seen.

Would you believe me if I said that the greatest
soccer team in the world used to practice here?

It’s true. In 1966, the Brazilian national soccer team
came here prior to the world championships in
England – to relax and to practice.

Why?

They had been
invited by Facit
and its CEO
Gunnar Ericsson.
Facit was a
Swedish
manufacturer of
mechanical
calculators,
typewriters and
office furniture.

Facit was headquartered in the small Swedish
town Åtvidaberg out in the forests.

Åtvidaberg kept
growing in the
60s due to the
continuous
demand for their
mechanical
calculators
throughout the
world.

The Brazilian team
was invited to
practice for free
during one week
in Åtvidaberg.

The legendary Pelé enters Åtvidaberg…

… and is greeted by Mr. Ericsson.

Needless to say, the media loved to
write about this…

”Brazilians
create soccer
fever in
Sweden”

”They’re here now!”

”The Facit
director
together
with Pelé
and
Garrincha”

The team had a nice bbq dinner...

And started to practice the next day…

One day
they had to
practice in
the rain…

It must have been the ideal preparation for the world
championships in England…

The stars signed autographs during the breaks…

A special greeting from Pelé to the readers of ’Nya
Norrland’, a local newspaper up north.

Some lucky
young boys
collected
plenty of
autographs.

Quite a few
things
happened
during this
historical
week.

Amarildo got a bad injury which
stopped him from playing in England.

”Amarildo cried like a child
The Brazilian team is shocked”

Hopefully, Swedish summer and
Swedish fans gave some consolation.

And bicycling with one of the girls
doesn’t seem too bad either…

The Brazilians also played a show game
against the local team of Åtvidaberg.

… And yes, the Brazilians won the game.

Dinners and fun in the evening.

”The award for the champion”

Pelé seemed to
appreciate the
company of Lill
Lindfors, a famous
Swedish singer
back in those days.

”Lill Lindfors sang for Pelé”

”Brazilian viking party – that’s some PR.”

Yes, that’s some good PR.

Think of it, each and every one of all those articles
about Pelé, Lill, Amarildo and the others…

… Turned the attention to Facit and its products.

It was a
fantastic
global
marketing
campaign
which
captured the
attention of
the world
press.

The mechanical
calculators were
technologically
mature in those
days, and
therefore, this
kind of marketing
was exactly the
right way to
obtain a
competitive
advantage.

Gunnar Ericsson received flowers and a big
thank you from the Brazilian stars. And of
course, the press wrote about it.

Mr. Ericsson
also received a
medal from the
Brazilian
President for
what he’d done
for the sport.

And it was
pretty
good PR
for the
Brazilian
team as
well.

Other teams received a slightly
different kind of attention.

”Soviet
sacks ’the
greatest
goalkeeper
in the world’
– he smokes
and eats
too much.”

This kind of photos were seen throughout the
Swedish business press and they all contributed to
a stronger market position for Facit.

But it was also the beginning of the end…

As a goodbye to Åtvidaberg, one
Brazilian PR manager said that ’heaven
ends here and hell starts now’.

He was right.

It ended up as a complete failure. The Brazilian team
did not make it to the quarter finals.

The same statement could also be
applied to the future of Facit.

From 1966 and on, Facit’s mechanical
calculators became increasingly obsolete with
the rise of electronic calculators.

Only six years later, the town of Åtvidaberg
and Facit would be turned upside down with
the dramatic shift to electronics.

In those years, Mr. Ericsson went from having
been an admired industrial leader into being
accused of, well, a lot of things.

That week in Åtvidaberg in June 1966, two great men
from different parts of the world, both at the top of
their careers, met and enjoyed the Swedish summer.

I am sure Pelé remembers.

I know Mr. Ericsson does.

Photos taken at:
Åtvidabergs Bruks och Facit Museum, Sweden
http://brukskultur.atvidaberg.se/index2.html
Åssa Industri och Bil Museum, Sweden
http://www.assamuseet.se/
Thank You!

Most of those images come from the fantastic Facit
archives in Åtidaberg. Many thanks to
’Brukskultur’ and to Åtvidabergs Kommun for
taking care of this great source.

Christian Sandström is a
PhD student at Chalmers
University of Technology in
Gothenburg, Sweden. He
writes and speaks about
disruptive innovation and
technological change.
www.christiansandstrom.org
christian.sandstrom at chalmers.se