Monthly Archives: December 2006

December 28, 2006
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Creativity and Leadership

CSR in 2007

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http://www.23hq.com/STAGIS/photo/1518559 ...
December 22, 2006
StagisLife

Happy Holidays
See you in 2007

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Thanks for a great year everyone! A lot of things has happened but most of all I think that 2006 prepared a lot of great things to happen in the new year. We’re off from december 22 until monday january 8. We look forward to seeing you full of joy. Or just full. Happy holidays […] ...
December 14, 2006
Communication

Blogs will disappear!

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This is the prediction of Jeremy Wright. He doesn’t mean that they will suddenly disappear like ghosts – but will become such an integrated part of company websites that they will soon be forgotten as buzzwords. He also strongly believe that blogs as a communication medium will never die ...
December 13, 2006
StagisLife

Ho ho ho!

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A few days a go I got to play “Santa” for my colleagues. I was to plan the yearly Christmas lunch in pleasant company with my partner in crime, Lasse. I had so much fun planning it that I simply forgot that I my self had to participate in the “challenges”. Well well well – […] ...
Creativity and Leadership, Design and Identity

Redesign in Colour

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Six months ago I was asked by OKI in Scandinavia to help out selling their smallest colourprinter. The OKI C3400n. Its pretty bulky, it prints 16 colourpages a minute and 20 blackn’whites. You can print to it through your network. Its good quality. Japanese. For good reason OKI wanted them sol ...
December 12, 2006
Creativity and Leadership

The Standard is upside down

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Today a girl named Nanna paid me a visit in the office to talk about working for us in the spring. As she was explaining why she preferred STAGIS over so many other companies she described us as creative and “playful”. Not that I oppose the idea but I was wondering what brought her to [& ...
December 11, 2006
Communication, Design and Identity

Helping an oldtimer back on track:
Askov Højskole

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In september the new headmaster at Askov Højskole had just arrived. And one of the first things he did was write us an email. It was brief. Hans needed help bringing the school back to a state that it hasn’t seen for a while. With a whopping number of 300 beds the school is ready […] ...
December 1, 2006
Anthropology and Culture

Good News or bad News?

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Today is a very special day for danish TV2 – or even danish television in general. Not only can the program “MorgenTV” celebrate it´s 10th anniversary, but what´s more important, TV2 is launching a new TV-station. TV2 News, it´s called. And in fact, we are witnessing the beginni ...
November 28, 2006
Design and Identity

Master of Reality

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Now its not only enough to have courses in university regarding game theory and the likes. As read on the Sprinwise site, Indiana University is now offering a course to their students in reality tv that covers areas such as legal, historical, ethical, psychological, sociological and economic perspec ...
November 22, 2006
Creativity and Leadership, Design and Identity

Visit from the free Belarus-press

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Today Birgitte and I got a visit from far away. The editor and a reporter from the belarussian “Belarus and Market” came to visit. They are visiting Denmark to receive help on the development of their weekly newspaper which they are fighting to publish in a country where it’s not p ...
November 21, 2006
StagisLife

Authentic Master Delivered

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Today I defended my master thesis with the title “Between Action and Meaning, on Authentic Organizational Identity” which I handed in a couple of weeks ago after three months of intense work (at home after work – so it’s been pretty hectic). It was very well received – ...
November 20, 2006
StagisLife

“First they ignore you – Then laugh at you and hate you – Then they fight you – then you win”

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– Robbie Williams Recently I have been working on creating promotion for one of our clients. And one of many steps in the process is to buy advertising space in several more or less well known magazines. My first time buying advertising space.. Piece of cake I believe. I am from Jutland – I ...
Communication

Første blogging lektion

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Så har jeg haft min første blogging lektion med Catrine og Mette, der er elever på Askov Højskole – på journalistlinien. De kom og besøgte mig i København uden nogensinde at have blogget før og efter et par timer var de officielt en del af blogosfæren og havde skrevet deres første in ...
November 10, 2006
Communication, Creativity and Leadership, Design and Identity

Master’s out, colours are in!

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Yesterday I gave in my master thesis at MMD at CBS. I’ve been working on it on and off for four month and then intensely for the past three weeks. And after I gave it in yesterday I just saw Mads and Rasmus’ discussion about colours on our moblog. Check it out – there’s more ...
November 9, 2006
Anthropology and Culture

The sun is shining on Exxon

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Waoh! I´m definitly in the wrong industri! Clearly there´s much more money to be made in the energy business than in communications. This week american oil giant ExxonMobil presented it´s financial report from third quater of 2006. I imagine the members of the executive board were quite pleased w ...
November 1, 2006
Design and Identity

Design creates bottomline says Dansk Handel & Service

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In the monthly newsletter from Danish Designers (which I’m a member of) journalist Helle Lorentzen refers to Dansk Handel & Service (trade organization) who’s increasingly focusing on design in a wide understanding of the term. Design is not just clothing or graphic design (which wa ...
October 29, 2006
Communication

The bottom line of blogging.

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They other day I was in a meeting talking to a client about the benefits of corporate blogging and other social media. A long way in to the conversation we could agree that it would have some really positive effects on the companies communication with their customers. There was one time in the conve ...
October 25, 2006
Anthropology and Culture

No time for playing in the culture-club

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HC Andersen is walking the streets of Copenhagen again. Only now he is in an animated version. Today Guppyworks launched the computer game HCA and the creative director of Guppyworks, Per Rosendal visited “Go’ Morgen Danmark” this very morning to talk about the process and the game. Guppyworks ...
October 24, 2006
Anthropology and Culture

Would you hire this man?

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Hmm… In my last post, I promised to come up with a design of a meeting situation, that would eliminate the effects of what I call the Ego Game. This is definetly easier written than done! Right now I haven´t got anything new on this subject, but I will make it a personal quest of […] ...
October 18, 2006
StagisLife

Sarcasm – the lowest form of wit?

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I come from a very sarcastic family – my entire childhood is based on sarcasm. Now, I don’t know why, I just know we are. My granddad is from Gibraltar, and he has this saying that he keeps repeating to us all – Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. Despite all of this, I […] ...
October 9, 2006
Communication

CPH – Company Problem Headache?

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We all know that this summer hasn’t been great for CPH airport. The queue in security has been awful and usually the airport has blamed the security because thy have been on strikes and so forth. Having spent (to much) time in CPH airport lately, I find myself puzzled by the fact that it isnt [&he ...
October 4, 2006
StagisLife

Getting used to beauty

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A very good friend of mine is studying in Island these days and just came home to visit. She told me about the nature, the wild horses, the hot water, the very special light in the evening and how she is actually getting used to the beautiful view outside her window… You can see more [… ...
October 2, 2006
Anthropology and Culture

Why there is no editor on a corporate blog

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I have just red the comment on my post on Lego. It was well hidden, Søren 😉 I agree that it is a challenge to write in a language that everybody understands. You can never be sure that people read and understand what you “put out there” just the way you want it to be […] ...
September 27, 2006
Anthropology and Culture

We all play the Ego Game

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During my two months in Stagis, I´ve participated in several business meetings. Some have been interesting, some have been educating and yet some have actually been fun. But what these meetings all have in common, is the presence of what I call The Ego Game. The Ego Game is a game of lies and decep ...
Communication

The Advertising Man

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The other day at Stagis a colleague came back from a meeting and said that someone called him an advertising man (reklame mand). Its safe to say that he didn’ t see it as a compliment because we who live and work (maybe in a bobble?) in this world of communication and consultants think adverti ...
Branding

Authentic playground…?

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Last monday Nikolaj and I went to a meeting in Billund with LEGO System A/S. I don’t know if any of you have visited the place – not “Legoland” but the “Headquarter”? It is possible to be mistaken about the two. When arriving you enter a large hall with a desk where it’s actually diffi ...
September 26, 2006
Communication

Barriers to Corporate Blogging

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In writing my thesis I am getting under the skin of the corporate bloggers in Denmark. I have just talked to a guy from a big Danish council about how blogging could be interesting for them as an organization – but he wasn´t convinced;-) The feed back Im getting from the corporate bloggers I ...
September 25, 2006
Talks and events

Podcast 3: Nikolaj Stagis and Jonas Kjær, On Corporate Bloggging and Relatoins

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Friday I spoke with Jonas Kjær, who is writing his master-thesis on the effect of corporate blogging. He is researching to what extend the relations created through corporate blogging are connected to the company or to the individual writing the blog-posts. So he’s interviewing me and discuss ...
September 22, 2006
Communication, StagisLife

Finding time to blog

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Phew… Another bussy week whizzed by. It’s difficult to find time to blog when everything is going fast. I am working on my master-thesis about authenticity in organizational identity and trying to help clients use their potential as well as they possibly can and then we’re running ...
September 12, 2006
StagisLife

Spain

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Hi! So, this is my first time writing a real blog on Stagis and I’m very excited about it. I’m looking forward to this whole blooging experience, which is something I’ve never tried before, and I suspect I’ll be posting more or less regularly on Stagisblog. However, you will ...
StagisLife

The flight united 93

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I went to the movies the other night and saw United 93 a highly recommendable piece of work directed by Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy 2004, Bloody Sunday 2002 and Theory of Flight back in 1998). The movie is about the flight united 93 that was hijacked by terrorist and later crashed near Sha ...
September 7, 2006
Communication

The media is the new court system and you’re the judge!

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A few days ago I was watching “Operation X” on TV2. The program exposed the “safe-chat” consultant Rudy Frederiksen as a cheat who appeared publicly as a consultant counselling children and parents about how to navigate safely around the internet without meeting scary old men ...
September 6, 2006
Communication

Why aren’t there more corporate blogs in DK?

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I have just finished a really interesting phone interview with Maja Møller from Arla. I asked her the difficult question; why are we in Denmark lacking behind when it comes to companies using blogs in their communication? We could not find one answer but agreed that it might have been a slow start ...
Jobs

Does anyone care about grades anymore???

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After 5 years of studying most students are looking forward to getting out there – getting their first job and becoming part of what other people refer to as the “real life”.(I wonder what we have been living for the last 30 years?). Before they (or should I say we) are completely ...
September 5, 2006
Anthropology and Culture, Creativity and Leadership

Managers are hiding while new opportunities disappear

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As you can se elsewhere we’re trying to get a number of managers to gather around a big project (that we’ve been working on for 7 month). And at the same time as Amanda was writing the post about Bendt Bendtsen (whom she and I and everyone we know – except Villi, he couldn’t ...
Communication

I (hope) I get by with a little help from my friends…?

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I need to get a meeting with Bendt Bendtsen Nothing fancy. Just a meeting. One hour should be enough to tell him about an extremely interesting project, which he must participate in – contribute to – and simply support! Is there anybody out there who happens to know a short cut to Bendt? ...
August 31, 2006
StagisLife

What to do with the 70 billion?

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According to one of the new free-papers (“gratis-aviserne”) have several more or less well-known personalities suggested how we should spend these extra “goodies” that Thor Pedersen seems to be in possesion of. One of them (also well-know for spending money and being awful good at it ...
August 30, 2006
StagisLife

Was it an authentic ride we had with Madonna in Horsens?

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I am one of few (?) who actually think that her concert in Horsens was fabulous. Maybe because my friend and I were practically sitting on the back of one of her dancers – that’s how close we were to the queen of pop. And we were thrilled! And we didn’t for a second think […] ...
August 24, 2006
Design and Identity

Does a fancy title improve your credibility?

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During the past couple of weeks, I´ve been calling a lot of different companies to talk to the person responsible of human resources. Usually that would be a HR manager or perhaps even a president of human resources. But sometimes in my way through the corporate world I encounter some cool titles. ...
August 18, 2006
Communication

DSB Harry

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DSB neddrosler Harry Sommerens trafikproblemer får nu DSB til at skære ned for Harry i en periode. På den korte bane er der mere brug for information end reklame. Copyright. Markedsføring Dato: 18/08/06 Problemerne på skinnerne har fået konsekvenser fortæller underdirektør i DSB Christian Bj ...
Anthropology and Culture, Design and Identity

A management challenge: Change the culture of 1 billion people

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The other morning I heard on danish national radio P3 that the chinese tourists are misbehaving to such a degree that the chinese government wants to campaign for better behavior when the chinese are travelling around the world. Apparently the chinese tourists are disrespectful and telling everyone ...
August 16, 2006
StagisLife

Mums are the best!

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Thats something we all know….but are they also the best female employees? Uaually when talking about the subject of how to be a mother and have a career at the same time women (yours truly included) are sometimes worried about how they are going to balance work and children and how they might ...
August 15, 2006
Communication

I will blog for money

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A few days ago I raised the question of wether or not (private) bloggers would promote products or companies in their blogposts. Silles description of Compeed made me wonder. Mostly because most of the bloggers I know (who are hardcore bloggers and have strong opinions on the ethics of their life in ...
Communication, Creativity and Leadership

CBS and blogging in the media

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Master of Management Development was on DR P1 just a moment ago. Lars Ginnerup was interviewed by Anne Vig about the new management paradigm and the use of social software, which is a part of the CBS executive program MMD. If you find that interesting, you might also want to join Ole Fogh Kirkebys & ...
Communication, StagisLife

New STAGIS.COM launched – running BETA

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It’s late and we’re in the middle of launching a stagis.com beta version. I posted some of the look-and-feel a couple of weeks ago and said I’d come back with more to hear what you think. But now we decided to go a little further and launch even though it’s not finished at al ...
August 14, 2006
Communication

Number of danish blogs taking off

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This morning a journalist named Lene was just asking about numbers of bloggers. Well, here is a bit of input even though the hardcore facts on danish company blogs don’t seem to be available: If we take a look at blogs in general (all types of bloggers) there’s David Sifry’s “ ...
August 13, 2006
Anthropology and Culture, Communication, Creativity and Leadership

Internal blogs – how social media is helping to create meaning

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Yet again I got the question “how many companies in Denmark are blogging?”. I really can’t tell. First of all because I don’t know of a place to search for danish corporate blogs and secondly because if I found it, the number still wouldn’t be right as the technology is ...
August 11, 2006
Communication

If it works, they are gonna blog about it

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When it comes to blogs and blogging my main-interest is how blogs can be used in organizations, but lately I have been following the feed from Sille. Finally I’m getting it; Once you start following someones story about ups and downs they become interesting. Just like getting a new pen-pal, re ...
August 10, 2006
Communication

Memoirs of a soldier – more blogs on politiken

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It appears that Politiken has discovered the wonderes of blogging. A few days ago Nikolaj wrote about journalist Erik Jensens blog at Politiken, and now the newspaper has posted two more blogs by Ronni D and Christian. This time it´s not journalists or reporters, but danish soldiers being sent to I ...
August 9, 2006
StagisLife

A week in the life

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So this is the communication business? During my first week at Stagis I´ve had the chance to get a newcomers first look into a world more or less unknown to me, and it has been seven interesting days. I have been subjected to everything from scanning newspaper over bying lunch to attending customer ...
August 7, 2006
Communication, Creativity and Leadership

The greater purpose
Co-creation on Lars Kolinds blog

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Leader and management developer Lars Kolind recently finished the book “Kolind Kuren – fra bureaukrati til vækst” and started blogging about the ideas from the book. His ideas are great and there’s lots of new thinking for oldschool managers. He is having great success in ge ...
August 2, 2006
Communication

More on blogs and the explorations of Politiken

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Politiken journalist Erik Jensen has thrown himself into the wildside of the blogosphere. At least he is exploring and reporting on danish blogs. Yesterday I was asked how many blogs there are. I had to admit I didn’t know. I still don’t. And the number is growing by every minute. And so ...
August 1, 2006
Communication

The other view on corporations:
Petite Anglaise

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The Telegraph – along with lots of other media – wrote the story about Catherine, aka Petite Anglais, who lost her job in Paris because she was writing about her personal life on a blog. If her blog wasn’t famous before it’s certainly become famous now. And the case is now be ...
Anthropology and Culture, Communication

Primary Sources: CEOs get ready for your blog-career, I refrain…

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Recently I wrote about the most persistent CEO-blogger I can think of, Jonathan Schwartz, the CEO of Sun. Sunday the New York Times ran a story about CEOs and blogging and of course Mr. Schwartz was taking quite a bit of the picture. One of the quotes goes like this: C.E.O. blogging should no longer ...
July 30, 2006
StagisLife

Happy link of the day: There’s nothing rotten in Denmark

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I’ve had a good day today, reading about rock authenticity, authentic country music (and how it all began) as part of my studies. And then my mother sends me this story (what’s up with mothers and technology these days – they’ve gotten faster than their kids when it comes to ...
July 28, 2006
Communication

Question for graduate students: Why are students at the universities all excited about blogs?

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I was just discussing with Birgitte which aspects of blogs and blogging (and social software in more general terms) are interesting to graduate or master students at the universities? Over the past few months I’ve met a few students who are writing their thesis on blogging. What catches intere ...
July 27, 2006
Communication, Creativity and Leadership

Media buzz: What happens to the media when everyone is their own media?

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The media is no longer a distribution of communication created by journalists, it’s becoming a forum or context (maybe even container) for communication created by users who are being coached by journalists and editors. The role of the media as well as the employees is changing. Basically, the ...
July 20, 2006
Communication, Talks and events

Feed me! Get STAGIS in your iTunes and iPod

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Now you can get the podcasts from STAGIS to download automatically to your iTunes and iPod (or any other device you may use to organize and carry audio and video with you…). In iTunes you can simply choose “subscribe to Podcast…” and insert this link: feed://feeds.feedburner. ...
Communication

Blogging Workshop August 2006

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Blogging and blogs are words that are slowly becoming part of the discourse when talking about communication and in particular the ways companies are communicating. This is both in the way that companies are talking about their products and their identity. Even if more people are getting more famili ...
July 19, 2006
Communication

Jonathan Schwartz, Sun, is all about authentic communication – and the tool is the blog

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As part of my studies (and Birgittes) I was just reading “blog!” by David Kline in which there is an interview with Jonathan Schwartz, the CEO of Sun Microsystems. Sun is a server and network company founded in 1982 that employs 38.600 people worldwide and was ranked number 194 on the Fo ...
July 18, 2006
Communication

Why aren’t the danish companies blogging?

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I spoke with a couple of danish journalists over the past couple of months about blogging and the use of blogs in organizations in particular. They all ask why there are so few companies that blog. And this morning I just thought to myself, well, everyone who has an answer to that question happens t ...
July 15, 2006
Design and Identity

How Do I Look?
How I loathe and love doing our own identity

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During the past month or two Mikkel and I have been working on the new stagis.com corporate website. And yet again I remember how difficult it is to work on your own identity. Not so different from standing in front of the mirror. Most of us loathe it and love it. Loathe it most of […] ...
June 30, 2006
Communication

Are blogs dangerous?

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As I have mentioned before next to working here at Stagis I’m currently writing my thesis on corporate blogging. I was reading a few articles when I came across one about how blogs could come back to haunt you later in life. It might sound scary but the issue was regarding students who love sh ...
Talks and events

Podcast 2: Jacob Benbunan, Saffron Consultants, On Country Branding

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Yesterday I spoke with Jacob Benbunan, CEO of Saffron Consultants, who works with corporate branding and country branding (Chairman at Saffron is brand-guru Wally Olins whom I met earlier). One of the countries that Saffron is working with is Poland. I asked Jacob if an organization can have any sin ...
June 27, 2006
StagisLife

Louise, Amanda & Annemarie

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A friend of mine asked me the other day: Do you feel close to the people you work with? ...
June 26, 2006
Creativity and Leadership, StagisLife

Navigating in Unknown Waters

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I was on the radio this morning, DR Københavns Radio asked if they could do a live interview about the job-swop that Lars Konggaard from Deloitte and I did a couple of month ago. “On deep waters” they called it, metaphorically mentioning my being away from my own safe haven. Jette Beckm ...
June 22, 2006
Communication

Blog’n’roll

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As mentioned in an earlyer post, danish companies are just about to discover corporate blogging as a coomunication tool with many purposes. However, the picture is slightly different when you consider the danish music business. Every band with worth mentioning has a profile on Myspace, and here blog ...
June 18, 2006
Talks and events

Podcast 1: Mary Jo Hatch on Authenticity

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The first podcast on stagisblog is a talk on authenticity with Professor Mary Jo Hatch from McIntire School of Commerce at University of Virginia. Mary Jo is known for a number of academic papers, articles and books on organization theory, leadership, identity, image and organizational symbolism. Yo ...
June 16, 2006
Anthropology and Culture

It’s Always Exciting with PostDanmark

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Lately I have had a lot of experience with PostDanmark. It is always exciting what is going to happen when you mail something or when you are waiting to have something delivered, because in PostDanmark, everything is possible! …Except bringing out mail or handling packages. I am expecting two ...
June 14, 2006
StagisLife

How low is your “Bacon-number”?

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I know someone who knows everyone. I mean seriously everyone. I know a person who is a living prove of the fact that there is only seven links between you and me – only in her case there is not seven but one: And she is always the one link! She is the Danish version […] ...
StagisLife

SUMMERPARTY AT STAGIS

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Last friday, Stagis celebrated summer with friends and customers. The first guests started showing up at five o´clock in the afternoon, and the last guests left at four o´clock in the morning ( I actually think it was the same guests…). So it was elleven hours of partying. And what a party i ...
Creativity and Leadership

Hackney vs. Nike

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Hackney council in London is threatening Nike with legal action since they became aware of the fact that the famous brand had “borrowed” the Hackney council logo for several of their products such as shirts, footballs etc. for the promotion of its grassroots football campaign for the Wor ...
Communication

Google Loves Blogs

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Louise has been writing about her experiences with riding scooters during the past weeks. As I was surfing the net in order to better understand some of the tendencies within the field of transportation I google’d “køre scooter” (“ride scooter” in danish) and our blog ...
June 12, 2006
StagisLife

Danish Summer Launch: The Yearly Party in the Backyard

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If anyone out there is wondering why this blog has been quiet for a few days there is a good answer: On friday the yearly party at Stagis went down. I’m confident there’ll be more to tell as soon as we’ve gotten through the hangovers and reconnected our Macs… But for now, let ...
June 7, 2006
Communication

Conference “Samtalerne”

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On the 31 st of May Stagis was one of the sponsors of a conference called Samtalerne (conversations), a pre-conference leading up to the community event Reboot8. The focus of the event was the question of how and if organizations have become ready for conversations. This means, acknowledging that co ...
May 30, 2006
Design and Identity

Building the Authentic Reputation in New York and Maybe in Denmark

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Over the weekend I attended the 10th annual Reputation Institute Conference in New York City. A number of interesting people from the academic as well as the professional side of corporate reputation showed up to discuss how we can understand and build corporate reputation. One of the founding farth ...
May 29, 2006
StagisLife

Something is going on in the yard…

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Day one: People armed with shovels and dressed in Kansas from top to bottom enters the yard, Gasværksvej 4E. They look determined. Day two: People (still armed) are digging, restructuring the bushes. Day three: People measuring up Day four: Seriously measuring up. Seriously. … and then today two ...
Anthropology and Culture

Alarming Flight with Continental Airlines

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Yesterday I flew home from NYC with Continental Airlines. The cab-driver was rude and didn’t understand a word of what I said. I succeeded in guiding him to Newark. Not a problem being the standard with New York cabs and a reason to feel OK. Then things got funny. The e-ticket screen didn̵ ...
May 28, 2006
Communication

Behov for en politisk øjenåbner

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Under et foredrag for en gruppe efterskoleforstandere i sidste uge, var dagens tema efterskolernes fremtidige udfordringer. Diskussionen kom selvfølgelig også til at handle om den politiske situation og den uvished, landets efterskoler må forholde sig til lige nu. Hvad skal der ske med 10. klasse ...
May 23, 2006
Creativity and Leadership

Customer Made

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These days companies are doing all they can to get their customers involved in co-creating their products. CUSTOMER-MADE: “The phenomenon of corporations creating goods, services and experiences in close cooperation with experienced and creative consumers, tapping into their intellectual capital, ...
May 19, 2006
Creativity and Leadership

Free stuff – garbage

By
garbagescout.com ...
May 16, 2006
Anthropology and Culture, Design and Identity

Mind the Gap, Please!
(Or, Actually, Don’t Mind it at All)

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Recently I’ve been working with the implications of corporate brand identity gaps; for instance the differences between the vision of management and how tasks are worked out in a bussy everyday life among colleagues in the organization. As you may have experienced yourself, most companies expe ...
Creativity and Leadership

EuroGel 2006

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GEL is short for “Good experience Live” and is a conference, and community, exploring good experience in all its forms — in business, art, society, technology, and life. The conference started in New York but this year the first European version (EuroGel 2006) is coming to Denmark ...
StagisLife

Scooter experiences #2

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These helmets seem to be girls biggest protest against scooters. Now that I have tried these things on several times, I think it’s time to introduce some light and shade into the helmet discussion. – Yes, helmets are not suitable for any hairstyle! But as long as you keep it simple, it&# ...
Creativity and Leadership

The movie that puts South Africa on the map

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…That is what Nelson Mandela said about the movie “Tsotsi”. I went to the movies last night to see “Tsotsi” and I must say: Go! Go! Go! On Thursday it will disappear only to return on DVD in a couple of months. Tsotsi made a great impression on me and was not only a visual […] ...
StagisLife

Scooter experiences #1

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As a part of an target group research carried out for a scooter supplier, we now have four scooters here at Stagis. And I can say for sure, it’s a big hit among the girls here at the bureau. Personally, I had my first scooter expererience the other night when I was going to a […] ...
May 15, 2006
Anthropology and Culture, Design and Identity

Is B&O Losing Itself trying to Gain Market?

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Today I heard regional director Lars Kirstein from Bang & Olufsen talk about the current state of the old danish audio and design company as did my co-students at MMD. It was a great experience as I was utterly surprised by some of Lars’ statements. “Design is a commodity” for ...
May 8, 2006
Communication

Blogging is a Free Choice

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There is no doubt that when companies decide to start an external blog they will have a number of worries. What if someone writes negative comments about our products or services? Do we have enough time to keep the blog updated with new posts every day? All these worries are understandable and somet ...
May 3, 2006
Communication

Innovative marketing tools

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Because I’m writing my final thesis (as part of my communication studies) on corporate blogging I get to spend a lot of time reading fantastic books on the subject. The best way of explaining what blogs does for businesses are by giving examples of cases that have been either successful or uns ...
April 30, 2006
Communication

Kashmir og kreativiteten

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Kasper Eistrup & Mads Tunebjerg bedre kendt som Kashmir deltager aktivt i debatten omkring fremtiden for efterskoler. De mener begge at deres egen tid på Kastanievej Efterskole, hvor de startede deres band, har været en betydelig faktor i forhold til deres succes. På Kastanievej Efterskole l ...
April 29, 2006
Communication

Hvem er i den anden ende når dine (skole)børn surfer på Arto?

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På det seneste har der været en (endnu) større debat om børn og unge teenageres brug af bl.a. børne-forumet Arto, hvor børn kan finde “Venner, fællesskab og underholdning”, som det hedder på siden. Debatten går på, hvordan en del unge teenagere gennem sitet er kommet i kontakt ...
April 28, 2006
Design and Identity

Make Your Next Analysis a Cocreative Identity Project

By
Imagine you wanted to know more about your customers/users in order to develop a better service or to create better communication. Then imagine you went through a proces that would not only let you know a lot more about your customers through first-hand experience but would even wind up creating you ...
StagisLife

To day is a good day

By
Today is the day where we sent out the first directmail that informs about our report on continuation schools. In spite of truble with the transport and some lost packages, we recieved the result of last weeks layouting and long hours, and it´s looking great. So for me, the rest of the day is gonna ...
April 25, 2006
Communication

To Name a Few Organizational Blogs…

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As promised I have search for some interesting examples of Danish corporate blogs. There is not that many to choose from yet, but to name a few: Årstiderne(online shop – organic vegetables), Arken(art museum) and Patent – og Varemærkestyrelsen. Internationally Denmark is not in the for ...
Design and Identity

IKEA Rules…

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Ikea, the Swedish furniture chain has been voted the world’s top retailer in a new global poll. The survey was carried out by Business Week magazine and the Boston Consulting Group and ranked Ikea as world number one for innovation in the retail industry, ahead of global giants such as Wal-Mart an ...
Communication

The door to a different world

By
The other day I was looking for a specific jeans brand on the google website, but in stead of the official brand website, I enterede a lot of chatrooms, personal weblogs and so on. And that was when I realised a couple of things. First of all I didn’t allways understand the language that was [ ...
April 24, 2006
Communication

Hvorfor ikke udnytte hjemmesidens fulde potentiale?

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Beslutningen om at tage på efterskole bliver ikke taget fra den ene dag til den anden. Der ligger mange overvejelser bag, og i den proces er det især efterskolernes hjemmesider der står for skud. Det er her både elever og forældre søger hen for at få et indtryk af de enkelte skoler. Det betyd ...
April 23, 2006
Communication

When You Don’t Know Who You Are Trying to Reach

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Organizations, politicians and individuals communicate in ways that they each understand which works to perfection when it comes to maintaining self-understanding and identity. But problems arise when their need is to create a community which is what communication is all about (commune = being toget ...
April 22, 2006
Anthropology and Culture, Design and Identity

Visiting the IT-University and my recollection of Maeda and Design By Numbers

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Yesterday I posted a picture from IT Universitetet in Copenhagen on my moblog on hq23. Mach replied and explained how it all went down. The students can no longer continue the digital conversation in the public space at IT-U which is sad. It was such a great idea: On some of the screens the students ...
April 19, 2006
Anthropology and Culture

Becoming an Innovation Culture

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Was just reading a case discussed by Edgar H. Schein who was at one point helping an organization create an innovative culture as the client management felt the need of flexibility in order to answer to the changing environment. One of the factors keeping the culture from becoming more innovative wa ...
Communication

Ar(gh)la!

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The last few weeks I have scanned the daily press for articles about blogging – because the journalists are finally catching on to the trend – and it seems they are nearly convinced that blogging is here to stay. This is positive news for me, because I´m going to use the next 6 month wr ...
April 10, 2006
Creativity and Leadership

London

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Just a quick post to let you know I´m going to London for my Easter break. I love going there because it´s a good place to spot new trends. One trend I will be keeping an eye out for is Being Spaces, extensions of peoples living rooms where you can hang out, work, network and […] ...
April 4, 2006
Communication

The best communication channels for the purpose

By
One of the main conclusions in the new Stagis report “Hvorfor efterskole – og hvorfor ikke?” is that the main condition for choosing the continuation school life is that you know what this kind of life is all about. What’s it like to live far away from your parents? What acti ...
StagisLife

Here we go again…only faster this time.

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Here we go again. We have to be faster, brighter and more efficient. And we have to keep it going for a longer time than before. I’m referring to some of the welfare issues released by the Government today and especially those regarding the students – a segment to which I belong. I feel reli ...
April 3, 2006
Communication

See My Moblog – Blogging Gone Visual and Easy

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Moblog means “mobile weblog”. During the past couple of months I’ve been taking pictures of people, situations, odd stuff. Pictures tell stories in different ways than words. And for some people it is easier to show what they are experiencing than to describe it. Check out my moblo ...
Creativity and Leadership

Talking About Talking About the Weather…

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For the past two month I’ve been talking more about the weather than I do the remains of the year. Constantly hoping for sunshine and dry roads so I can drive my motorbike. Today I drove it to the shop to get new tyres (enjoying a bit of rain doing it) and came to think […] ...
March 31, 2006
Communication

Can dentists and nurses share their experience from anywhere? Digitally? Now?

By
The other day Gitte, one of my fellow students at Master of Management Development, asked me about blogging. She is considering how a blog could be used within certain parts of the danish public health sector. Especially by dentists and nurses working around the same patient. At first she thought it ...
Communication

Internal Affairs

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No, I’m not referring to an excellent movie although I certainly approve the cinematic “touch” brought in by Nicolaj’s movie experience on “Me and you and everyone we know”. It sounds like a movie I would enjoy! When writing Internal Affairs It’s more about “me and you and a few othe ...
March 30, 2006
Communication

Making sense of the corporate blog

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A lot of posts and comments these days are about the use of blogs – what are they for, what effects will they have, how can corporations use them to gather information, have customers co-create, communicate authentically and so on. There’s even a tendency to try and condensate blogs or t ...
March 29, 2006
Communication, Creativity and Leadership

Me and You and Everyone We Know

By
Last night I saw the movie Me and You and Everyone We Know. It was just an amazing movie – for once a piece of work that actually explores the art of moviemaking. The story is great and there’s just this amazing variety of details in the language and the little stories within the story. ...
March 28, 2006
Communication

External Blogging

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Following up on the discussion of what blogs can do to optimize businesses here is a few examples from the excellent read naked conversations by Robert Scoble. These examples show how companies can benefit from blogging externally and thereby be part of what the authors identify as a Communications ...
Communication

Ridin’ the wave!

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Well, anytime I have the chance to talk about corporate blogging I emphasize the element of staying in touch with your end consumer – the valuable possibility to share views directly between two persons. That the conversation is “recorded” in text just ads to the value. Now even McDonalds has ...
March 27, 2006
StagisLife

Scooters and haircuts

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It’s obvious that wearing a helmet is a big deal. But I think it’s all about the haircut. I don’t see Sinead O’Connor having any trouble. It’s only a matter of time untill Bree Van De Kamp is seen on one of these up and coming things – even a helmet wouldn’t ...
March 24, 2006
Communication

Fortune 500 blogs

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As of march 14 only 4.6% of the Fortune 500 are blogging. The Fortune 500 Blogging Wiki shows 24 corporate blogs made by such companies as 3M, Apple, AT&T, Eastman KODAK, HP, Levi, Microsoft, Nike, Strauss & Co., McDonalds, Sun and UPS. So I think it’s fair to say blogging has become ...
Communication

Corporate Blogging

By
If the deeper mysteries of corporate bloggins still aren’t crystal clear to you, I just want to share a very interesting link with you. I haven’t been too much around this blog, but enough to identify it as more than interesting to any blogger with just a hint of corporate blogging inter ...
Communication

My time is mine and mine alone!

By
Why are we so afraid of sharing time? We are afraid of wasting time on someone or something that we find less important. We are scared to death when realizing that we haven’t got enough time. Time is in a really high rate of exchange these days. Isn’t it? That is why it has become […] ...
Communication

Go for a ride.

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One of my best friends, Iben, lives in Italy. She is the worlds most radiant and sophisticated mother of two. She has her own little interior decorating business in Scandinavian style, a nice house in the mountains just outside Milan and a husband who’s never at home. And I tell you she looks stun ...
StagisLife

Funen is blogging – the world is blogging

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If you’re from the little danish Island of Funen (Fyn) you are well aware that if something goes in Funen it goes everywhere. Maybe this was one of the reasons that this place used to be the test-grounds of many danish companies represeting the country well with about 10% of the danes living t ...
March 23, 2006
Creativity and Leadership

What u need, when u need it …

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Now that things are out of the way, I just want to tell you about a little mail-out we did last week. One of the big events in the Danish advertising and communication world is the Direct Marketing Prize and this year STAGIS wanted to do things a little different – after all it is […] ...
March 22, 2006
Communication

United colors of blogging

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Link of the day: BENNETONTALK One of the things I like about this blog is the very purpose and how clear Benneton defines it: “We would like to talk, but above all we would like to listen to your ideas and opinions, comments and stories. Everything will be collected on a portal which, because ...
March 21, 2006
StagisLife

Getting a new job – and getting the old job back

By
Last week I was a manager in Deloitte for a week. I swopped jobs with Lars Konggaard who is the Project Director there. The week went really well I think. Instead of being part of the STAGIS “family” I became the member of the Deloitte Village – 1.200 employees in one building is a ...
March 17, 2006
StagisLife

The long planned child of Stagis

By
Finally!!! Just this morning, we put the finishing touches to the book. The report concerning continuation schools (efterskoler) is ready for press. It took us all night (but what a funny, strange, inspirering and absurd night), I still havn’t closed my eyes and I bump into everything. In retu ...
Anthropology and Culture, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Creativity and Leadership

At være swopper i Stagis i en uge

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I uge 11 har jeg byttet job med Nikolaj Stagis. Nikolaj er projektchef i Deloitte og jeg er direktør i Stagis. I dag er min femte dag i Stagis, hvorfor jeg efterhånden har et ganske godt indtryk af hvilke rammer der gælder for ledelse her. Her er en række af de ting jeg synes er […] ...
Communication

Why are executives afraid of blogging?

By
Why is it that the huge growth in blogs is from private users rather than companies? There is especially a lack of blogs from management in large companies. According to an article in Business Week out of the Fortune 500 only 4.4% of the companies have a corporate blog. They might have a large numbe ...
March 10, 2006
Communication

Podcast About Authentic Communication

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Jacob Bøtter paid a visit today as he wanted to interview me about Authentic Communication. He’s set up a blog with his podcasts where he interviews people who talk about blogging and social media. You can go directly to our talk from this morning here. ...
StagisLife

Getting Ready for A Week in Deloitte

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On monday I will be starting a new life. It will only last for five days but I’m sure I’ll remember it for a long time. Lars Konggaard, Project Director in danish Deloitte headquarters and I will be swopping jobs for a week as part of our executive-MBA program Master of Management Develo ...
March 9, 2006
Communication

Bloggers aren’t media, they’re real

By
Today I read an amusing, yet disturbing article on the danish Kommunikationsforum with the title “Blogospheric PR”. The author David Michelsen seems to have just come across blogs (in this case not corporate blogs but personal ones – the real thing which have been around for almost ...
Communication

Social Software Squared

By
Thomas Madsen-Mygdal and Trine-Maria discussing blogs, blogging and bloggers ...
March 8, 2006
Communication

Don’t worry!

By
News from the frontline! This Monday I attended a meeting about blogging – corporate blogging in particular. I attended the meeting to get more input on the different facets of blogging, ethics etc. and to se if my own ideas and expectations were in line with what other people see in the conce ...
March 6, 2006
Communication

Berlingske catching something new

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Tore is writing a story for Berlingske Nyhedsmagasin about the beautiful world of authentic communication and the use of blogs in corporations. I think what I said about people writing blogs becoming the new competitors in the media sounded scary to him. No worries, Tore, it’s not going to go ...
March 3, 2006
StagisLife

Emilies last day

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Emilies last day after two years picking up phones, paying bills, shopping… We’ll miss you and we’re happy that you’ve promised to come by now and then! ...
March 1, 2006
StagisLife

Authentic Emmery, Double Value

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So, after visiting Uffe Elbæk at Kaospilots in Århus I went with Louise to the original Emmery’s which used to be “just” a fine, traditional bakery, founded in 1898. Since Louise only knew of the newer Emmery’s in Copenhagen I tought it would be a fun place to go for lunch. ...
February 28, 2006
Creativity and Leadership

Kaospilots Flying, but is Denmark Crashing the Project?

By
Today I had a meeting with Uffe Elbæk at Kaospilots in Århus. This place is a top-of-the-line innovation-, entrepreneur- and projectmanager school with a bunch of really friendly, enthusiastic, committed people. One of the things that strike me is they’ve been keeping up the spirit for 15 ye ...
February 26, 2006
StagisLife

Snowboarding Vallåsen, Sweden

By
Getting off the lift with a snowboard can be difficult… 13 sec video ...
Anthropology and Culture, Communication, Creativity and Leadership

Authenticity in a working perspective

By
Hans Henrik just asked about authenticity. Are you authentic due to what you do or is it a part of you, he asks. Well, for the more theory-savvy there is lots and lots to read and discuss when it comes to the term itself. The Philosophical understanding is best defined by Søren Kierkegaard, Martin ...
StagisLife

STAGIS skiing

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A bunch of us went skiing today. I’m sure you’ll be able to read more about it here during the next couple of days. And there is promising video footage on it’s way. Especially an amusing bit showing how getting off the lift can become a form of artistic expression… Click the ...
Communication

The blog as a tool for building authentic organizational identities

By
Hans Henrik left one of the first comments on our newly released STAGIS blog, asking a couple of questions (thanks for a great ignition of a number of thoughts, Hans Henrik!). First, why english? Well, we discussed it and considering the following issues we decided to go ahead and write in english: ...
February 25, 2006
Communication, StagisLife

www.stagisblog.com online!

By
We’ve launched the site on www.stagisblog.com! We look forward to start getting lots of comments and use the blog for what it’s supposed to: being a connection between STAGIS and everyone around us. We look forward to getting your comments! ...
February 24, 2006
StagisLife

Quite a few…

By
Just a little thing: tapped in the word “blogging” at Google and had 84.000.000 links.. The word “weblog” returns 126.000.000 links. And the word “Jesus” returns 72.200.000 links….just a thought… ...
StagisLife

Happiness?

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Is happiness measurable? I always learned that happiness is individual – closely connected to preferences, and as we all know: “Interpersonal preference comparison” does not make sense. Well, apparently it does! Looking much forward to starting the course in happiness every second ...
StagisLife

Katjas last day before birth

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On wednesday Katja is planned to become a mother – so today was her last day at the office (at least for a month, she says). During Katjas first month of motherhood we will be releasing a report on childrens thoughts on choice of school, which Katja has been working on during the summer and [& ...
Communication

Moblogging (blogging with your mobile phone)

By
Recently an innovations-expert working with one of our clients asked me, what people were to do if they were not so keen on writing. Let’s say you want to make blogging a part of your organizations sensemaking (the ongoing conversation about “what are we doing” and “who are w ...
Communication

Bonus links

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OK, friends, you need this before the weekend: Beocast …which (among other things) led me to: Business Opportunities – how much is my blog worth? Here you can test the URL of your blog and see what it’s worth. At this point the STAGIS blog is worth….. 0,- $. But that will cha ...
Communication

Blog-links and podcast-links of the day

By
I just looked at Jacob Boetters blog. He is a hardcore blogger and is currently doing a lot of podcasts. I found a couple of interesting links on Jacobs blog: Four students at DTU are writing about corporate blogging and the diffculties around participation. They call themselves Guld 4 and have just ...
February 23, 2006
StagisLife

To make the most out of it…

By
Our first day working with luck in pleasant company with Lars Ginnerup has come to an end. And wow! I actually felt a certain degree of enthusiasm as I went home on my bike – no lights on and riding against the traffic. And I couldn’t help thinking about how this project concerning luck, happine ...
February 21, 2006
Communication

Wiki Wiki!

By
I was researching on the history of blogging when I fell over this word. At first sight it meant nothing to me but after a quick browse on the web I learned that it means “quick” in Hawaiian. The term describes the WikiWikiWeb a certain on-line communication that was first introduced by computer ...
StagisLife

Bowling alone?

By
I once came across the american author Robert Putnam in my early studies at Roskilde University Center. In his book ‘Bowling alone’ he is talking about how the americans are no longer doing anything together – they are even bowling alone! And this, he says, is a problem because the ...
February 19, 2006
Anthropology and Culture, Branding

How did Arla Find their Authentic Position?

By
On danish TV2 today Arla CEO Peder Tuborgh mentioned the ethical statement of Arla which dictates respecting cultural differences. And this is why, the CEO continued, we are now taking a clear stand against the cartoons published by JyllandsPosten. My question is: Why did Arla have to think about th ...
February 18, 2006
Communication

Museums Coming to Life /PS1 Talks Online

By
Yes! For years I’ve been wondering why museums didn’t bring their assets into their digital worlds – first of all being their websites. European museums seem to be far behind their american colleagues when it comes to finding use of digital media in both their shows and communicati ...
February 17, 2006
Communication

It could be better …

By
Am I the only one that find stain remover ads, toothpaste tubes, corporate websites (or even weblogs) without interaction or updates annoying? I think not! So let’s start a little game: Blog about the gadget, design, ad, website, tv-show or anything that is supposed to be a clever construction ...
February 16, 2006
Communication

The Department for Corporate Listening

By
Yesterday a group of project managers at STAGIS including myself held a meeting with my good friend and certainly also idol in life Hanne Feldthus, a strategic planner and former partner at Wibroe, Duckert og Partners. We spoke about corporate blogging and how many companies lack the ability of list ...
February 11, 2006
Creativity and Leadership

Growth Creating Startups

By
In the danish business daily Børsen today Kasper Kronenberg writes about new research from Aarhus Business School where Kent Nielsen has published a report on danish entrepreneurs and how well they did from 1998 – 2004. Only 47% of the danish startups succeed the first six years. Kent Nielsen ...
Design and Identity

Design and choosing designer

By
http://www.designcouncil.org.uk http://www.cph127.com/ ...
Branding, Creativity and Leadership

Make the Authentic Story Thicker

By
Yesterday I spoke with a CEO of a fashion brand. I asked him how his business was and what sort of challenges he saw for his organization. At first he told me that the challenge was keeping the quality of the design and keeping the relations throughout the distribution (about eight contries in Europ ...
February 10, 2006
StagisLife

Do you consider yourself unlucky, or lucky?

By
Today at lunch we talked about luck. Why do some people always seem to find fortune when others don’t? Is luck your own responsibility and how can you increase the amount of luck in your life? By a closer look, luck seems rather interesting and I am certainly looking forward to the “luck-seminar ...
StagisLife

Swedish people watch out!

By
It’s Final! The ski trip is now planed; it’s set on February the 25th. We will be leaving in a minibus early Saturday morning from Vesterbro to Vallasen in Sweden, where the day will be spent by snowboarding and by hanging out among the snow covered ski runs of Sweden. The snowboarding p ...
StagisLife

Go Happy, Go Lucky

By
Just the other day I received an email from a project manager working in an ad-agency in Copenhagen. She wrote that she’d heard we used coaching and coaches at Stagis and she wanted to know how we did it and who helped us out. First of all, I coach. I’m in an executive masters-program at ...
StagisLife

Team Stagis

By
Two weeks from now you will be able to see Team Stagis on the Swedish slopes. We will do our best to document our trip with (I’m sure) wild photos from the snowy and cold hills – We will definitely bring our digital camera. If you are into taking digital photos and want to share […] ...
February 9, 2006
Communication

“Blogging” becoming the no. 1 word

By
On his blog The Obvious, Euan Semple writes that on a list of 45 tracked terms “blogs” has become the number 1 mentioned term by the end of 2005. Co-creation of content, matter and meaning has become not only a needed but also a wanted way of thinking and working. ...
February 8, 2006
Design and Identity

How to … #3

By
Well – just a little appendix: It might be hard to shoote a graphic designer – but how’bout getting into the head of one? (like “Being John Malkowich”) Try visiting this blog by graphic designer Anders Mortensen: wunderblog ...
Design and Identity, Jobs

We forgot to aim!

By
Why all this talk about how to shoot a graphic designer? Forgot to tell that we are actually looking for one. Go see the jobdescription and send us an application as soon as possible… ...
February 7, 2006
Design and Identity, Jobs

How to shoot … #2

By
Well, as in so many other cases the most obvious and simple way is the most effective. Graphic Designers are good at networking – that’s how they keep themself busy when freelancing. What binds them together is not hip cafées, glossy magazines, newspapers, internetsites or job-markets; ...
February 3, 2006
Design and Identity

How to shoot a graphic designer!

By
Well, not exactly shoote – sorry – no one will be harmed, but it is rather interresting to find a way to get to the mind of a creative without using the communication channels that are obvious and therefore most “noisy”. I can start wit an easier example: A student. Rather ea ...
February 2, 2006
Communication

Play it again vs. the authentic position

By
Eric Weaver writes about competitive marketing and has a few healthy thoughts on the paradoxes of marketing as it has developed for quite a number of marketers; doing the same thing over and over again, not caring that people try to avoid “advertising” in the word’s most common sen ...
January 26, 2006
Communication

Yet another blogging-session

By
So, yet another blogging-session at Stagis whizzed by. It’s funny how fast time goes when you set out on a new journey trying to learn something new. So today Birgitte, Amanda and Louise discovered the new world of corporate blogging. Expect to meet them here soon! ...
January 19, 2006
Communication

If U got it – flaunt it!

By
Are you who you say you are? The world is filled with people who pretend, act or even lie their way to an identity different from their real one. Would you trust them, invite them into yor house, let them take care of your investments or just your pet? No – of course you would […] ...
January 10, 2006
Creativity and Leadership

Free your mind!

By
“What road should I choose”, asked Alice. “That depends a great deal on where you want to go”, said the Cheshire Cat. Inspiration can be found in many places and in many qualities. Where to look for good inspiration depends a great deal on what kind of problem you want to sol ...
StagisLife

Isaberg

By
Never tried blogging before. – just got intoduced to it. And already created a Emilie blog. I will use this post to intoduce to you The Stagis ski trip to Isaberg this year. Last year we had so much fun, go see the pictures. I’m sure this trip will be just as fun. It’s not [&hellip ...
January 9, 2006
Communication

Stagis Team-blogging Coming Up!

By
Today the Stagis-team is beginning to blog. During the next month we’ll be practicing blogging and in mid-february we’ll launch the site in a new design and go public. A few of the tools we’ll be using (as any good blog should contain them): Links lots of them and including credits ...