CRM is an industry not exactly known for its placid ways, long living companies, nor, strictly speaking, for always playing above board when it comes to customer and user data (we won’t name any specific examples, but our dear readers will most likely be able to recall a number of privacy and usage abuse scandals surfacing in recent years). SuperOffice is both an early entrant and a longstanding player in this sector, and a European one at that.

SuperOffice has been around since the end of history (also known as 1989, a particularly crucial year in recent European times); over the following 20 years, it went through an IPO, followed by a voluntary delisting from the Oslo stock exchange in the aftermath of the Great Depression. In subsequent years, it has consolidated its presence both in Europe (offices in 8 countries and counting) and overseas.

At the dawn of the age of AI, in a moment where some have already proclaimed that no one ever need paying for a CRM again, SuperOffice’s newly appointed Group CEO, Bjørn Røsten, shared some of the company’s secret sauce and engaging internal tales with House of European Tech.

2008/2009 is the year Superland was founded as a monarchy - and later changed to a republic, when SuperOffice's founder Une Amundsen passed away and Gisle Jentoft took over as CEO and President of Superland. And what is the role of a country within a private company? Superland is similar to what other tech companies might have called the Handbook, the Charter, or even, Our Values: Superland is both a document which all employees are expected to sign and a set of rules and values that bind them together. And as Bjørn proudly refers to it, Superland could also be one of the reasons for long employee tenure at SuperOffice.

Out of four company values, one of them might, at first sight, appear to run fowl of social Scandinavian conventions: dare to be different.  Scandinavia is, after all, the realm of the Law of Jante, as well as a part of the world where any expression of outspoken individualism are perceived with immense distrust. But daring to own one’s difference, at SuperOffice, is a quality, not something to be suppressed. Bjørn explains why:

As the CEO of a company that came of age long before the possibility of the 28^th regime had ever been discussed, Bjørn is careful to draw a distinction between a potential easing of administrative and bureaucratic processes throughout the EEA and the business of acquiring, nurturing and keeping one’s customers. He believes in an inherent need to understand the culture and the setting where a company intends to conduct business, down to the need for local representatives.

SuperOffice hasn’t been silent on its decisions on AI usage, with specific examples of a careful approach being shared publicly on its blog. Still, the question had to be asked: does the company espouse any particular philosophy when it comes to artificial intelligence?  Not a light answer at a time when tech companies are being quite vocally proud about their efforts to reduce headcount by leveraging the technology. But the SuperOffice answer is delivered in a matter-of-fact, decisive tone:

The topic of relationships was the pervasive note throughout our entire conversation: relationships inside SuperOffice, the kind where, hierarchies aside, employees are allowed to question leadership for the greater good. Relationships between customers, which must first be established on the basis of trust and then skillfully maintained, through every subsequent change of technological paradigm.

The secondary conclusion from this brief interview was that analyzing a company with decades of existence is a totally different proposition from highlighting a venture, however worthy it may be, still in its infancy. SuperOffice comes across as European precisely because it prides itself on successfully navigating the tides of time and change. And also because it’s not afraid to sign customers across borders, languages and cultures.