About
After more than three decades in senior financial leadership, Jörgen Raa could have continued along a familiar and well-established path. Instead, he chose to explore what might come next. Today, his work spans e-commerce, communication, business development and music. Connecting these different interests is a quality that has stayed with him throughout his life: curiosity.
The opportunity to begin again carries a deeply personal significance. In September 2021, Jörgen survived a ruptured aorta and seven hours of emergency surgery. Five years later, life includes new ventures, new songs and the arrival of his first grandchild. Alongside his family, he is discovering how much there is still to experience and create.
Through Zellify AB, Jörgen brings his business and creative interests together. At its centre is Maskinvaruhuset.se, a Swedish e-commerce business specialising in professional tools, machines, workshop equipment and industrial products. Raa Kommunikation is a developing initiative focused on communication, leadership and business development, while Korshamn Music brings a lifelong musical interest into songwriting and production.
Before entering this entrepreneurial chapter, Jörgen spent more than 30 years as a CFO and Finance Director in Swedish and international corporate environments. Those years gave him a deep understanding of financial discipline, analysis and the factors that create lasting business value. They also taught him how much effective financial leadership depends on understanding people, customers, technology and organisational change. Decisions rarely arrive with complete information, and sound judgement often matters as much as the analysis behind them.
“Good business is rarely about finding the lowest price or the quickest solution. It is about making the right decisions over time, working with the right people and understanding what genuinely creates value.”
That philosophy shapes his approach at Maskinvaruhuset.se. The business combines the efficiency of modern e-commerce with specialist knowledge, quality products and personal service for Swedish businesses, professionals and demanding private customers.
The principles remain familiar: understand the economics, measure what matters and never mistake growth for value creation. The tools continue to evolve. SEO, digital advertising, analytics and automation now sit alongside traditional financial and commercial analysis.
“Technology makes it possible for a small organisation to do things that once required entire departments,” he explains. “But technology doesn’t replace judgement. It makes good judgement more powerful.”
Running a smaller business also brings him closer to the practical consequences of each decision. Product selection, supplier relationships and customer service all require attention. His corporate experience provides a foundation, while the daily work continues to introduce new questions.
Long before becoming a CFO, Jörgen was fascinated by songs, melodies and the atmosphere music could create. He worked as a DJ and, during the 1980s, was involved in starting a radio station. Broadcasting and programming gave him an early understanding of how music can hold attention, set a mood and connect people.
Music remained part of his life throughout his corporate career. Through Korshamn Music, he now has the opportunity to develop that interest further, drawing on decades of listening and a growing catalogue of his own songs.
His music moves between jazz, soul, orchestral pop and contemporary production. Modern production technology and artificial intelligence expand what he can create, while the choices behind each song remain personal: the story, the mood, the phrasing and the feeling he wants to leave with the listener. For Jörgen, AI serves as an instrument within that process. A feeling, memory, melody or groove provides the starting point; technology helps him explore how it might become a finished piece of music.
The guiding line for Korshamn captures the territory he wants to explore: “Music For Somewhere Between Memory and Tomorrow.”
His most ambitious creative project is The One I Let Go, a musical set in post-war London. Its story begins in 1947 at the fictional grand hotel The Bellamere, where Eleanor, a young singer, and Daniel, a man returning from war, face different hopes for their future. She longs for freedom and a career, while he hopes for security and a family. At its heart is a question that reaches beyond the stage: where are you going, and do you really want to get there?
Developing the story, characters and songs allows Jörgen to bring analytical and creative thinking together. A musical requires emotional instinct, but it also needs structure, patience and a willingness to reconsider what is not working. Bringing it to a stage remains an ambition. The writing is already underway, giving concrete form to his willingness to attempt something unfamiliar even when the route to completion is uncertain.
Moving between business and music gives Jörgen energy and fresh perspectives. Commercial work benefits from imagination; creative work benefits from discipline and the ability to make decisions. Experience, in his view, should help that process remain open.
“I don’t think experience should make you certain that you already know the answers,” he says. “It should give you the confidence to keep asking better questions.”
Three values have become increasingly important to him: curiosity, creativity and love. They connect his professional ambitions with the people who make those ambitions worthwhile: his family, friends and the colleagues he has met along the way.
Success now includes the freedom to work with people he values, build something useful and make time for ideas that once had to wait. An e-commerce business, a new song and an unfinished musical each offer a different reason to look forward.
After more than 30 years in business, he has accumulated plenty of experience.
He just has no intention of behaving as though the story is already written.
- Website: Maskinvaruhuset.se, Korshamn Musi
