History

The world is marked by growing geopolitical unrest, shifting balances of power and sharpening conflicts. At a time when compromise is ever harder to reach, the need for dialogue only grows. With the theme Balancing the Scales, The NHH Symposium 2025 took that very imbalance as its starting point, and explored how balance might be created in an increasingly unpredictable world. Speakers included WTO Chief Economist Ralph Ossa, The Economist Deputy Editor Tom Standage, EQT CEO Christian Sinding and African Union Commissioner Amani Abou-Zeid, who together made the conference an arena for international dialogue: precisely when it was needed most.

Under the theme From Norwegian Champions to World Champions, The NHH Symposium 2023 asked how Norway should shape its future over the next seven years, borrowing the language of winter sports to talk business, from "changing skis" to "the talent factory". Speakers included NBIM CEO Nicolai Tangen, Minister of Research and Higher Education Ola Borten Moe, DNB CEO Kjerstin Braathen, Posten CEO Tone Wille and Bjørn Lomborg of the Copenhagen Consensus Center.

The conference set out to challenge the established order. It took up the questions raised by a business world in constant change, and urged industry to be a driver of that development rather than merely a spectator. It focused on companies' ability to stay flexible in meeting the challenges of tomorrow's society, and on the role today's young people play in it.

The NHH Symposium 2017 was also about the millennial generation and its part in shaping the future. The conference aimed to give students a voice in public debate, not least by taking a hard look at the education system.

At the 2013 conference, The NHH Symposium asked whether Norwegian decision-makers and the system around them are well enough equipped for the time ahead. The question was explored through the sub-themes War for Talent, long-term thinking, ownership and growth.

Speakers included Financial Times editor and commentator Martin Wolf, former World Business Council for Sustainable Development President Björn Stigson, Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, E.ON executive board member Jørgen Kildahl and Lucy Hockings of the BBC.

The financial crisis was at its worst, but a timely theme still brought the business community to the conference. H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon returned after 2007, this time as a speaker.

The Crown Prince gave the opening address, arguing that the vast imbalance between rich and poor is bad for global stability. Other highlights for participants were talks by Telenor Norway CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas, Børge Brende, Paul-Chr. Rieber and Elin Ørjasæter.

The Norwegian value creator of the future. It is hardly too bold to say that we at The NHH Symposium had, among other things, become better at making advertisements. In 2005 we were visited by, among others, Dr. Karen Stevenson of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, who explained why the Pentagon had used her methodology to map al-Qaeda's terrorist network.

The 1993 conference focused on how risk can be handled.

DNO's Torstein Hagen urged the Norwegian state to sell off its oil wealth and let others invest in the sector. Statoil Norway CEO Harald Nordvik gave a talk, as did McKinsey & Company director Jon R. Katzenbach, GATT Director-General Arthur Dunkel, and Karl Glad and Svein Aaser of NHO.

A Europe in flux within an ever more complex world was on the agenda as the 1980s drew to a close. Towering figures on European questions made their way to NHH, among them GATT Director-General Arthur Dunkel, IMF managing director Helene Ploix, European Commissioner Peter Sutherland and, last but not least, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

The 1985 business symposium was held on 11–12 March at the Norwegian School of Economics. The conference gathered around 690 participants from among students, business and the public sector.

Speakers included Gro Harlem Brundtland and Stanford professor Harold J. Leavitt. The programme took up the future of Norwegian industry, new market opportunities and the conditions business operates under. The event ran without a single speaker dropping out.