Our Sonera US team gave our Nordic partners our best efforts and great results.  We gave them gains exceeding $1.5 billion dollars.  Our Nordic partners seized our 3% share of those gains.  Finland and Sweden approved those seizures.

 TeliaSonera, Sweden and Finland have a duty and obligation to protect our team’s interests, earnings, and assets.  We point to the following agreements, treaties, guidelines and policy statements to support our point of view. 

• The Swedish Instrument of Government, Chapter 2, Article 18– “The property of every citizen shall be so guaranteed that none may be compelled by expropriation or other such disposition to surrender property to the public institutions or to a private subject …”
• The Finland-US Friendship, Commerce and Consular Rights Treaty of 1934–“In no case shall [nationals of Finland and the United States] be accorded less favorable treatment in respect of [commercial] matters than nationals of the most favored nation.”  “  Their property shall not be taken without due process of law and without payment of just compensation.” 
• The General Agreement on Trade in Services (Uruguay Round), Article II-Most Favored Nation Treatment—“With respect to any measure covered by this Agreement, each Member shall accord immediately and unconditionally to services and service suppliers of any other Member treatment no less favourable than that it accords to like services and service suppliers of any other country.”
• OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.–Companies should “Observe standards of employment and industrial relations [including compensation and working time arrangements] not less favorable than those observed by employers in the host country [in this case, the United States].”
• TeliaSonera’s Code of Ethics requires that all employees and Directors:    
  • “Do the right thing.  “Treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves.”
  • “None of us should ever lie, cheat, trick, misuse, mislead, or do anything that can be perceived as any of these.”
  • “Don’t take unfair advantage of anyone through manipulation, concealment, misuse of information, misrepresentation of facts, or any other unfair or dishonest way of acting.”
  • “Being truthful, trustworthy, honest, open, candid, and considerate are the right things to do.”
  • “And when things still go wrong – because sometimes they do, for all of us – stand up and admit it.  In this way, you will earn respect and we can all help fix the problem.”

We carved out great value for all stakeholders.  TeliaSonera, Sweden and Finland all seek to hold on to our small 3% share of that value.  TeliaSonera, Sweden and Finland refuse to meet their international obligations.  TeliaSonera is not walking its talk. 

Who is Greedy?  The Sonera US team that created great value or Nordic leaders who want 100% of that value?

 If you think Nordic leaders are not trustworthy, fire them.  Stop buying goods from Sweden and Finland.

Our Sonera US team gave our Nordic partners our best efforts and great results.  We gave them gains exceeding $1.5 billion dollars.  Our Nordic partners seized our 3% share of those gains.  Finland and Sweden approved those seizures.

 We found honest and fair ways to “do the right thing,” to “create value”, and to “make good things happen” in the United States for all stakeholders.  We risked a lot for and delivered a lot to all stakeholders.  We honestly and fairly earned a full measure of financial security and future opportunities for our families. 

 Sonera seized our team’s incentive earnings.  Sonera then protected three other team’s incentive earnings.  Sonera seized our earnings by giving our Sonera US team shares in a worthless Nordic-style incentive scheme.  Then Sonera sheltered three favored business units from the adverse affects of its policies and delays.  Sonera’s Board sought expert guidance and tried hard to do the “right thing” for three of its start-up business units.  Sonera gave each of these units their own individually tailored US-style incentive scheme.  Each of these new schemes contained favorable pricing and vesting terms.

 Recently, Sweden put an end to incentive schemes for TeliaSonera Group Management.  TeliaSonera’s Board promptly agreed to a 30% increase in Group Management’s base pay.  TeliaSonera Group Management and our Sonera US team both produced great results.  Group Management got prompt favorable treatment.  Our team got nothing.  TeliaSonera refuses to discuss any honest and fair outcome for our team.

The problem seems to be that Nordic political leaders do not want to pay US style incentive compensation for exceptional results in the US.  Nordic leaders accept special treatment for favored Nordic executives.  Nordic leaders impose the limits of their policies and standards as well as the adverse effects of their delays and decisions on US citizens working in the United States.  Nordic leaders rationalize and justify seizing our earnings and assets.  They chose to sacrifice our families’ honestly and fairly earned financial security and future opportunities to the false God of Nordic political correctness.

 Trustworthy trading partners do not conjure up ways to seize their partner’s stake in a great success.  Rather they work smart and hard to protect their partners’ interests.

 Who is Greedy?  The Sonera US team that created great value or Nordic leaders who want 100% of that value?

 If you think Nordic leaders are not trustworthy, fire them.  Stop buying goods from Sweden and Finland.

 STAY TUNED—MORE NEXTWEEK

 Nordic Ethics, www.nordicethics.com  www.nordicethics.com   June 2, 2010

Our Sonera US team gave our Nordic partners our best efforts and great results. We gave them gains exceeding $1.5 billion dollars. Our Nordic partners seized our 3% share of those gains. Finland and Sweden approved those seizures.

Our team worked with and earned the same US style incentive compensation as our counterparts in each of the four US companies that worked to put together the T-Mobile USA consolidation. We earned the same US-style 4% incentive compensation opportunity Sonera retroactively granted to the leaders of Sonera Zed, Sonera Plaza and Sonera SmartTrust. We earned the same 4% incentive or commission Sonera paid Underwriters on shares sold in Sonera’s Rights Offering. We earned the protections provided by treaties and agreements. We earned most favored nation treatment. We got deception and evasion.

We earned incentive compensation by creating great wealth in the United States. Here are a few examples. The gains we carved out equal Sweden earnings on its annual exports to the United States. It takes 20,000 Nordic employees working one year to create value equal to $1.5 billion. The huge gains we carved out will pay for 20,000 college level degrees; or lifetime basic pension payments for 90,000 Nordic pensioners; or annual medical care for 500,000 Nordic citizens.

We found honest and fair ways to “do the right thing,” to “create value”, and to “make good things happen” in the United States for all stakeholders. We risked our future to create wealth for all stakeholders. We honestly and fairly earned a full measure of medical, education, and retirement security for our families. We also earned future opportunities for our families.

We earned $1.5 billion for Sonera in the United States. In doing so, we earned $46.1 million for our families. Sonera seized those earnings. TeliaSonera has seized more than $66 of earnings on our seized earnings. In doing so, they seized all of the security and future opportunities we earned for our families. We got deception and evasion.

Who is Greedy? The Sonera US team that created great value or Nordic leaders who want 100% of that value?

If you think Nordic leaders are not trustworthy, fire them. Stop buying goods from Sweden and Finland.

STAY TUNED—MORE NEXTWEEK

Nordic Ethics, www.nordicethics.com www.nordicethics.com May 27, 2010

Mr, Lilliberg,

Thank you for your comments.  Permit me to make a few points.

First, Nordic pay levels and standards are not relevant to this discussion.  Your country agreed long ago that host country, in this case U.S., pay standards are the relevant benchmark for executives working in the United States.  My salary and bonus pay were modest and competitive by U.S. standards.  Higher U.S. productivity levels, treatment of social needs, and many other cultural factors are among the reasons why compensation practices are different between our countries.

Our U.S. team created great value for all to share in the U.S.  Our Nordic partners realized great value in the U.S. economy under U.S. standards.  Your side claimed all the benefits of U.S. standards.  Your side tried to use Nordic standards to set our compensation.  Now, your side seeks to use Nordic standards to justify the wrongful taking of our team’s share of the great results we produced in the U.S.  That’s just plan wrong.  It violates all of the moral, ethical and legal standards Nordic business and political leaders claim to stand for. 

Nordic leaders promised us a share of any results we produced in the United States to engage and encourage us to give our best efforts.  We delivered great results, great gains.  Your leaders took all, 100% of the results we produced, including our small 3% share.  Other similarly situated but money losing executive teams received retroactive protection of their interests.  Our successful money winning team did not.  Where is the fairness and justice in your leaders’ actions?  We protected your interests.  Who protected our interests?

Nordic business and political leaders caused this problem.  Nordic leaders failed to agree on incentive schemes on a timely basis.  Meanwhile we delivered exceptional gains in the U.S.  Granting our team the promised share of those gains, doing the right thing, was politically risky.  So Nordic leaders seized our small share of the great result we produced by switching us to a future incentive scheme.  Sonera got a great result, a great harvest from our work.  Then they switched us to a future harvest already made worthless by their failures.  Why should anyone in the United States trust Nordic leaders who support such self-serving actions.

Today all of the people of Finland and Sweden own a part of the results we produced though State ownership of TeliaSonera shares.  At some point, they all will benefit when the State uses the proceeds from selling its TeliaSonera shares to help pay for healthcare, education, retirement and other benefits.  Our team will never benefit from any of those Nordic schemes.  Frankly, my colleagues’ and I earned better treatment for our families.  The bottom line is that your children and grandchildren will benefit from our work and results.  Ours will not.  And that is just plain wrong!

Moreover, your leaders have stolen opportunities from all Americans.  My plan is to contribute one-third of the incentive we earned to support Diabetes research and programs for disadvantaged elderly in the United States.  Another one-third or more will go to pay U.S. income takes.  Our team will share the remaining one-third of the incentive we earned.  Our shares will most probably go to pay for healthcare, education and retirement security.  So, as in your country, most of our 3% share of the great results we produced will go to provide benefits for others. 

I hope this helps you to understand, if not agree with, my point of view.  The main problem appears to be that your side earned a lot of money with our help and guidance in our economy and our culture.  Yet your culture makes it difficult to share that bounty with us.  I look forward to the time when Nordic leaders respect our team and all U.S. citizens enough to bring fairness and justice to this matter. 

Meanwhile, I would look for decreasing U.S. sales of Nordic goods as your side’s self-concerned attitudes and actions become more widely known in our country.