WHEN BUSINESS IS LOVE

Ryde presents a business memoir promoting loving customer service.

In his nonfiction debut, the author, the fifth-generation CEO of the luxury bed manufacturer Hästens, immediately signals his intention to write an unconventional memoir about his experience running his company; he asks whether or not a business can really be founded on love, and then answers “yes.” Ryde views the purpose of his company as spreading “love, joy, peace, and abundance.” Writing about the company, which has its headquarters and warehouses in Köping, Sweden, Ryde takes readers on a tour of Hästens' 171-year history, in which the author’s ancestors first stuffed beds with horsetail hair (the company’s founders traveled to Egypt in search of the finest Arabian specimens). He traces the company’s fortunes all the way to the present, including his own initiatives since 1988 to boost its annual profits. “After I had been working at Hästens for a year or two,” he writes in the affectionate tone that characterizes the whole book, “my aunties came to me and told me how grateful they were that I was there, working to revive the company.” From these stories, he expands on a general philosophy of kindness and empathy that extends to both employees and customers. Ryde is a tremendously charismatic presence on the page, bursting with a cheerfulness that makes his anecdotes and precepts sound extremely winning. But readers (especially those working in retail or entrepreneurial spaces themselves) will immediately spot the Achilles heel of Ryde’s viewpoint: Hästens’ beds can cost many thousands of dollars apiece and are made with slow, elaborate, individual care—circumstances which tend to make it easier to lavish love on every customer. But his heart’s in the right place, and readers will appreciate his storytelling skills.

A CEO’s readable and heartwarming story of building beds with love.