Great enterprises, a noted philosopher once suggested, are lengthened shadows of great men. During the past century thousands of outstanding men and women have contributed to the creation of the present Ericsson Group of telecommunication companies, today one of the leading organizations of its type in the world. But the imprint of Lars Magnus Ericsson, who founded the enterprise in 1876, is still unmistakable.

The continuing traditions of imaginative engineering, superior craftsmanship and widespread international operations all owe their origins to him. The pages that follow, based largely on a manuscript by Hemming Johansson, a business associate and personal friend to Lars Magnus Ericsson for more than three decades, are presented as a brief biographical sketch of one of the telecommunications industry's true pioneers, Lars Magnus Ericsson.