The reviewer, business commentator Henrik Jørgensen, had his doubts when he first heard of authenticity as a concept for improving the business of a company. However, after reading ”The Authentic Company”, he acknowledges the topic and the book as a useful tool to highlight internal strenghts in the company – and to use these strenghts to actively create value and growth.
He especially notices that the book delivers on the question of “how?” a company can use its internal strenghts to grow and develop a unique competitive power and Henrik Jørgensen recalls the focus on core competencies from the nineties (which I also mention in the book). He also comments the way the book tackles this by using a spectrum of historical, reflexive and expressive authenticity and how these different varieties of autheticity helps the reader to appreciate the constant journey a company neccesarily must be on to discover its authenticity.
I recently visited Henrik at Børsen for an interview about the book and the topic of authenticity. The interview is available on borsen.dk (in Danish).
A brief quote from the written review: (in Danish)
“Udnyt virksomhedens indre værdier
For som bogens undertitel antyder, “Gør indre styrker til fremtidens vækststrategi” handler det meget omkring hvordan vi benytter organisationens interne værdier til at udvikle og skabe en unik konkurrencekraft.
Det er et fokus som nærmest så småt blev glemt da de fleste skulle besvare det ekstremt vigtige spørgsmål, som jeg ynder at udtale med min udprægede Århusianske accent, ”Hvordan?” – for hvordan sætter vi rent faktisk fokus på at udvikle vores virksomhed ved at sætte fokus på de interne styrker?
Det kommer Nicolai Stagis med et rigtig godt bud på i bogen. Hvordan virksomheder ved at sætte fokus det der er Autentisk i virksomheden kan komme frem til noget der er unikt og på rejsen der til være med til at udvikle virksomheden.”
You can also read the full review of The Authentic Company: “Derfor har Emmerys problemer og NOMA succes” (in Danish).