This book received a good deal of attention even before it was published. It promised to reveal a whole new approach to thinking about management. Neither of us was familiar with the characters or with Moomin Valley. Having read this book, we wonder what we have learnt from the Moomins. And we come away with some questions.
Moomins are characters whose first images were created in the 1940s by Tove Jansson, a Swedish-speaking Finn. They experience all kinds of adventures in her books, like “The Moomins and The Great Flood” (1945), “Comet in Moominland” (1946) and “Finn Family Moomintroll” (1948). Tove Jansson continued to write stories of the various Moomin characters into the 1950s and 1960s. Since her death in 2001, the Moomin characters continue to be protected, branded, marketed and licensed worldwide. They are now a business with, according to the New York Times in 2020 (The Moomins Meet a Real-Estate Developer, and Outrage Ensues – The New York Times), an annual turnover of €750 million.
Is this book an organizational ethnography? It is based on two years of observations, interviews, informal conversations, parties … But we hear little of this detailed knowledge and insight. There is no thick description. We are not taken there in our imagination. Instead, we read lots of short paragraphs, most of which refer to generosity.
Or they are long quotes from, or references to, the CEO of Moomin Characters Ltd, Roleff Kråkström - “Rolle” to his close friends. Have a look at the index under “Kråkström” (152) to get an impression of how important he is to the text of the book. There are 18 subheadings, even more than the 10 following “brand/branding”, considered so key to the Moonim success (150).
So, Roleff Kråkström is ever present in this book – literally from the very first sentence on page 1, where he is quoted announcing the sad postponement of a party, to the very last pages of the book, where the story of a huge birthday party for Sophia, his wife (and niece of the late Tove Jansson), is told. Kråkström's speech to Sophia is characterized as “very special” (139). “(T)here was a lot of dancing. Sophia loves dancing … ” (140).
The authors write of the book as a “balancing act … between sympathy and critique. The story we lay out is a positive one, but this does not mean that it is devoid of tensions, fractures, and risks, now and in the future” (22). After reading it from the first to the last sentence, this is indeed what stays with you as a reader: a book written by sympathizers, who have added a pinch of critique to refer to and substantiate that they present themselves as “critical organization and management scholars” (23).
Nowhere in the book do the authors reflect on their positionality in any detail – surely something of a standard operating procedure for organizational ethnographers? In this context, the criticality almost sounds staged and apologetic.
In terms of Brown and Humphreys’ (2003) iconic text on epic and tragic tales in organizations, we read an abundance of epic tales but rather fewer tragic tales. There seems to be an imbalance between the two. This could be because epic tales usually come from the higher levels and top management in organizations and the more tragic tales from lower down in the organization. The many references to “Rolle” and Sophia may have been instrumental in creating this imbalance.
Conceptually, as indicated by the subtitle of the book, “generosity is at the heart of Moomin” (3). The authors promise the readers that their “ … book seeks to redefine generosity by offering insights to developing a business that is committed to bringing people comfort” (4). Through the redefinition of the concept of generosity, they “wish to send out a message of hope” (7).
After having read the book from cover to cover, we do wonder in what ways our understanding of generosity is genuinely redefined. The “ecosystem of companies” detailed in the book are keenly, to the level of fanaticism, focused on protecting, licensing and selling the Moomin brand. In what sense are they generous? Merely repeating the word does not transform it.
Or is it generosity within the company? Are the lavish parties to be seen as an expression of generosity? If so, it would have been interesting to look at the importance of parties at Moomin from the perspective of the phenomenon of the potlatch, “a ceremonial feast of the American Indians of the northwest coast marked by the host's lavish distribution of gifts or sometimes destruction of property to demonstrate wealth and generosity with the expectation of eventual reciprocation” (Potlatch Definition and Meaning - Merriam-Webster, our emphasis).
After all, the authors devote their final chapter of the book to “Let's party!” They “understand parties as an important management practice at Moomin” and that “parties are a fundamentally important part of the Moomin philosophy” (137).
It was hard work reading this book. It was like wading through treacle in that we came away feeling worn out and slightly unclean. You have the feeling that you have had a close shave with a cult. Do the employees discussed in the book work in some form of Moomin Valley bubble where the stresses, strains and crises of the modern world are excluded, belonging to a place beyond the valley? The Moomins may be for children, but Moomin Management is for the adults. We await the merchandise – the mugs, the wallcharts and other accessories. Surely, there is a brand here to be protected and sold, and this book is one of the tools to do that.
