Ericsson's Wake-Up Call

Carl-Henric Svanberg made his name and fortune from locks. As CEO of Sweden's Assa Abloy in the 1990s, he turned a local security company into the world's biggest lockmaker — acquiring over 100 new firms and restructuring them in a way that boosted Assa Abloy's stock twentyfold. When he left earlier this year, he took with him a personal fortune of $60 million.

You might expect Svanberg, now 50, to ease into early retirement. But last month he took over as president and CEO of Ericsson, the sprawling Swedish telecom-equipment maker that's all locked up in a...