How Swedish Pop Production Predicted Offshore 2.0

This article was previously published for the Forbes Tech Council

When people think about offshoring and elite engineering talent pools overseas, they don’t normally make an association with bubblegum pop music — but bear with me. During the late ’90s and early 2000s, a small Swedish music studio was responsible for a phenomenally high percentage of the world’s biggest pop hits. Cheiron Studios innovated upon the formula laid out by Abba and helped put the likes of Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys on bedroom walls around the world.

Swedish song developers go global

I know what you’re thinking: What on earth does this have to do with offshoring? Well, prior to this, American and British record labels had preferred to keep things in the house, or at least within the tried-and-tested confines of the two countries. Outside help flew in occasionally, of course, but the idea of alignment between a bunch of Swedish music geeks and the tastes of teenagers in Milwaukee or Manchester wasn’t even on the radar.

But using a secret formula that combined elements of Swedish folk music, an obsession with melody coined “melodic math” and catchy lyrics written in second-language English, Swedish pop took over the planet. Eventually, the major pop label at the time, Jive Records, signed an exclusive deal with Cheiron — in effect bringing them within the organization. And it paid off. The primary songwriter Karl Sandberg, writing under the pseudonym ‘Max Martin’, continues to have success today and is currently behind only Lennon and McCartney in the all-time U.S. number ones list. But if I had to hazard a guess, you’ve probably never heard his name, which is precisely the intention. If you’re still wondering how this relates to offshore development, keep reading.

The most competent offshore partners combine the sourcing of top talent with managed operations and aim to provide long-term value rather than a short-term fix

– Emilien Coquard. CEO and Co-founder, The Scalers

Offshore 2.0: The Cheiron approach

Of course, the offshore development metaphor isn’t 100% apt, because Max Martin and his team sat outside of the record labels as an entity. In that regard, it could perhaps be seen as closer to high-end outsourcing. However, what is apt to compare is the culture of collaboration between the headquarters in the UK/U.S. and the “delivery teams” in Sweden, the alignment of the two entities in regards to meeting customer expectation (music buyers: the end-user), and the acknowledgment of American and British labels that superior talent lay outside of the Anglosphere. In software development terms, it’s the understanding that Western Europe and North America isn’t just a fierce seller’s market — but that often the skills you need to scale and build innovative offerings lie further afield.

Read the full article at:https://thescalers.com/how-swedish-pop-production-predicted-offshore-2-0/