Sture Eskilsson, at the time working for Swedish Employers’ Association's information and communication department, noted that the intellectual momentum belonged to the left which also dominated public discourse.

In a PM from 1971 to the directors of the Swedish Employers’ Association, Eskilsson outlined an action plan to promote the values and ideas supporting a free market economy.

Social Democratic daily Arbetet wrote about a “secret document” put together by the Swedish Employers’ Association: “[...] this is how the leftish tendency should be stopped.” A fierce debate ensued on how big business wanted to change the intellectual climate in Sweden.

In the left-leaning journal FIB/Kulturfront, author Jan Guillou and journalist Peter Bratt wrote an article head-lined, “The secret document  of the board of Swedish Employers’ Association” about the alleged efforts by “buyer's of labor to shape our opinions”, and that the document, “ ... outlines the experiences to date for influencing how opinions are formed in Sweden, as well as giving guidelines for the near future.” Eskilsson's PM is today viewed as a major turning point for the public discourse in Sweden even though its effects during the 1970s were rather modest.

It was done through the publishing of books, educational efforts for the younger generation of opinionmakers, and presenting reports in different central areas, including labor policy, the European Union, integration of immigrants, taxes, welfare, and general ideological issues.

In 1983, Timbro participated in arranging a demonstration in Stockholm to protest against the Social Democrats’ efforts to make into law that revenues of private companies should be shared with labor unions.

Operation Garbo, a literary effort to influence security policy, was a great success leading to media coverage that was instrumental to ideological debates.

In later years it has also published books by major center-to-right thinkers as Fredrik Segerfeldt, Mattias Svensson, Johan Lundberg, Lena Andersson, Erik Hörstadius, and Katrine Marcal.

In addition to Swedish writers Timbro publishes international books on current events by, for instance, Deirdre McCloskey, Friedrich Hayek, Milton and Rose Friedman, and Ayn Rand.

Other notable former Timbro employees are Gunnar Hökmark, today Member of the European parliament, and Ulf Kristersson, the current chairman of the Moderate Party and Prime Minister of Sweden.