The state of Denmark shares its history with the oceans and waters that surround the country. Early settlers who came to what is now known as Denmark were attracted and overwhelmed by the abundance of fish that the vast coastlines of Denmark had to offer. Now, there are few fish left in the Danish oceans, and with modern times comes solid infrastructure that leaves the water ways desolated. The ease of transportation is encouraged by new bridges, which today connect main parts of Denmark. With the past decades and century of bridge building the ferry lines stand to lose their attractiveness - arguably, choosing a bridge to a ferry seems like the cheap and efficient alternative to old ferries. However, hidden values of ferrying have emerged and many people still choose the authenticity of a ferry to a bridge. The ferry has become a place where you can rest, catch a nap, spend time on the deck with travel companions etc, and today stands as a part of the experience economy. Now, the responsiveness to CSR demands has led Scandlines, a Danish ferry operator, to install electrical powered engines in their vessels, relieving the standard diesel engine whenever they can:

“The technique is known from hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius”, Søren Poulsgaard, CEO of Scandlines, explains.

But is Scandlines in jeopardy of losing their touch with its customers with its new addition to propulsion? You wouldn't think so, right? However, some (i.e. me!) would argue that the feel of going by ferry is inherently connected with factors such as the vibration from the ship’s engine, that special humming sound you can drift away and fall asleep to, the smell of diesel and oil when you walk on the deck, the steam (and pollution) from the big chimney’s that make up a huge part of what a ferry is all about. These factors all add to the experience of travelling by ferry, and it must be reckoned with if ferry lines are to stand a chance in a competing market.

In Stagis we often see the need for companies and organizations to redefine their identity and move away from being 100% focused on the historical aspects of the brand. Is this the case for Scandlines? Does the technical shift in propulsion create an opportunity for Scandlines to become the new green way of transportation of the modern age?   

It will be interesting to witness if consumers will applaud the transition and continue to use ferries countrywide. How will Scandlines keep their identity and image intact, while changing key factors, such as the propulsion system? And how will they come about the potential re-branding opportunity that inherently lies before them?

Sources for this blog post:

How can text messages create better public transportation? Well, they can’t. Not on their own anyway. But if the text message campaign is a part of a larger project on delivering a high level of service and better travel experiences for the passengers it starts to make sense.

The project “Bus driver of the year” is part of the huge project “Bus drivers with character” which is initiated and executed by Stagis. The goal is to create pride, appreciation and job satisfaction among bus drivers in order to deliver world class service. The campaign and the text messages focus on “Good moments”, asking the passengers to write about their best moment from the bus. One of the text messages from yesterday reads something like this:

“6A. I was on my way home from school and got a new hair cut, but no one at school had noticed. And then when I was heading home the bus comes and I show my bus ticket. And the bus driver smiles and says, “Did you get your hair cut, it’s nice!” and I smile and say “yes!” and get on the bus. That was my best moment”

For the last three weeks signs and posters in the buses in Copenhagen and all over Zealand in Denmark have called passengers to send text messages with praise to their driver. During the first three years of the project it was focused on Greater Copenhagen. This spring the project has expanded to cover about a third of Denmark. A lot of passengers have taken the possibility to comment on their daily bus travel. Besides receiving praise this effort shows the drivers how important their attitude and behaviour is to the passengers' experience of the ride. This really makes a difference to the drivers – to discover just how significant their daily work is.

Within the next few weeks 6 to 10 drivers will be nominated for the title as “Bus driver of the year”. The passengers will be asked to vote for their favourite candidate on the bus driver website buschauffor.dk and the winner will be celebrated at an event on September 2nd. We’ll keep you posted!

More than 200 people – bus drivers, their passengers and passers-by - were there when the “Bus Driver of the Year” was awarded Friday 2nd September in central Copenhagen.

Six bus drivers were nominated for the title of Greater Copenhagen bus passengers, who had sent text messages with good moments in the busses. The winner – Linda – was the bus driver who most passengers had voted for.

For the Stagis team this party was the culmination of months of hard work getting campaigns, press work and the actual event going. This year, it started in May with a campaign in the busses that urged bus passengers to send their best moments from a bus trip to the webpage www.buschauffor.dk where users could vote on the best moments and from thousands of text messages, and later on the passengers voted on the nominees to win the award “Bus Driver of the Year”.

Danish entertainer Huxi Bach hosted the event and singer-songwriter Alberte went on stage. Three awards were given to outstanding colleagues in the bus industry, and one lucky passenger won his own bus with a driver for a weekend for having sent the best text message. Movia CEO Dorthe Nøhr was on stage, and Movia market manager Anders Due and Jan Aage Hansen of 3F’s transportation group presented the prizes.

Bus driver Avi Achi, who won the prize "Joker of the Year," thanked his passengers - and Denmark - for giving him the prize in a speech that seemed to touch everyone present. And "Child Friend of the Year", Jan Willum Jensen, sang a children's carrol on stage. For me, these moments were the real treat of the day: Meeting Avi, Jan and especially Linda – the Bus Driver of the Year – and seeing the pride and joy in their eyes. As the first winner of the prize Linda will fly to Singapore with her colleague (who is also her husband) to experience public transportation there. One of the things that thrills Linda, she told me, is that it will be her first time on an aeroplane. Ever. You can meet Linda on ChaufførTV (Bus Driver TV) where she's been active making videos about her life since the spring.

The party gathered bus drivers and passengers to give each other a pat on the shoulder. For the same reason, "Pat Day" (Skulderklappets Dag) was founded - with the bus drivers as ambassadors.

The Pat Day and the party were created to focus on recognition and the bus drivers, who are making an effort to turn bus trips into a good experience for their passengers. The plan is that the awards be given each year, so the focus on good moments and recognition is maintained. It was a proud day for the bus drivers and a proud day for everyone working on the project at Stagis!



Avi Achi is reading a highly unexpected and unusual speech that he prepeared - he thanks his colleagues and Denmark for the life that he now has. The speech touched many in the audience.

Within the recent couple of weeks a discussion about CO₂ emissions from IT service providers has attained considerable media coverage. It is said that two searches on Google use the same amount of energy as boiling a kettle of water. This is worth giving an extra thought the next time you google at work, or at home. Working at a communications bureau, and everywhere else, you use the Internet to gather information to support your working process, or as a source for inspiration. Using Google, for example, to search the web uses much more energy than you probably are aware of. Surely, opposing arguments about the validity of the conducted research on Google’s energy efficiency have been presented, but this does not affect my point; we consume a lot of energy that we are not even aware of.

A couple of weeks ago I heard about Blackle. Blackle is a search engine build upon Google’s databases, but provides an eco-friendly interface to the information. The background color is black, which uses less energy, than the normal white background color you usual see on web pages.

That made me think – if it really does use less energy, should CSR-minded companies, and everyone else, add a black version of their website so the environmental-minded visitor have the opportunity to choose an eco-version, and there by reduce their personal CO₂ emission?

According to the creator of Blackle it was the blog ecoIron that inspired him to the development of Blackle. You can read more about this and how to reduce the energy used by your computer on Google’s blog.

Recruitment and Employer Branding are project related communication and leadership concepts that I'm working on now, as part of projects in STAGIS' pipeline. That includes taking part in seminars and networks on Employer Branding. Here figures confirm that employees seem to thrive in job-change: Apr. 61% have been offered positions in other companies. 68% consider changing their job. 49 % don't think they'll be working for thir present company in just three years. Our Ministry of Employment tell, that more than 700.000 a year change their job in DK.

With the growing challenge for companies to attract employees, the unemployment rate in DK now also being as low as 86.000, demanding questions for businesses and organizations to ask themselves are:

"How can we recruit the people we need, to enhance our services, product development and business - what makes us attractive, in a way so that we can not only hire, but also keep our work force engaged? And how can we do better in competing for man and brain power, compared to other businesses and companies?"

Learn from your favorite volunteer organization
One way to develop your organization's attraction factor on the job market is to let your Employer Brand be inspired by the high degree of engagement that characterizes successful voluntary organizations.

Even though we tend to spend many hours on our jobs, the interest in voluntary work in our society is still advancing impressively. Especially among young people. And in many different kinds of sectors and fields. One explanation could be the present prosperity in DK. Another, that people actually lack meaning and the sense of making a difference through their (paid) jobs; so they seek to give and be additionally fulfilled on this parameter other where.   


Create loyalty on another level
Sense of pride and meaning, humanity, thankfulness, sharing and being part of a larger and mutual beneficial 'project' are key words here - values, that most businesses would do good nurturing within their organization.

Why is that? Because with our present job-market, employees simply expect salary and workplace organization to be in order: The loyalty from co-workers and employees is to be build on another level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, where softer values are present. Especially young people - Generation Y - seek value-based leadership, and to be part of organizations that clearly signal what they stand for and how they make a difference! They don't want too easy solutions...

Give employees a reason to stay
That's why private companies may learn from the engagement to be found in volunteer corps or organizations. I'm not just talking CSR, even though this is a part of it - but also values, ethics, general meaning, 'project-pride' and community spirit!

So, with the weekend coming up and all, think about it: What characterizes your favorite volunteer organization, learn from it - and give your present and future employees obvious reasons to choose your project, spent half of their wake hours on contributing and sharing - and staying engaged.

This week STAGIS helped Kræftens Bekæmpelse publish its new version of www.blogomkraeft.dk that we designed for them.

Meet Charlotte, Jacob and Malthe at www.blogomkraeft.dk, three strong persons blogging openly about their everyday life or what they have at mind, while living with and fighting cancer, to share their experiences, advices and realities.

They - and the bloggers that will follow them in team rotations now and then - have chosen to make a difference that I personally admire in the debate and raising awareness of the fight against cancer; something that matters to all of us, since its a disease that affects and threatens so many and different people all over the world.

Maybe you or someone in your life is also affected by cancer? Feel free to participate in the dialogues on www.blogomkraeft.dk. In short; its a blog for life!

Help sharing: Spread the word on www.blogomkraeft.dk
So in the new version of www.blogomkraeft.dk, the perspective has gone from CEO to patients’ postings. And later on also employees from Kræftens Bekæmpelse will be among the bloggers.

With Kræftens Bekæmpelse prioritizing to develop www.blogomkraeft.dk, it tells us something really good about the organization being aware of their social responsibility related to cancer and people affected by the disease - and their awareness of how they can communicate in new ways and create the necessary dialogue with new tools that we helped them bring in and take to use.

The contributions of www.blogomkraeft.dk from Kræftens Bekæmpelse is to create a concerning debate, that can make a difference for people in Denmark affected by cancer, directly or indirectly. Sharing is one valuable way of handling tough challenges, demanding realities and life-changing experiences. One reason being, that sharing brings in feedback that can turn into dialogue, change your perspective and move you!

So you are welcome to spread the word on www.blogomkraeft.dk, thereby contributing to a meaningful cause; raising awareness of the reality of and fight against cancer.

No firm is!
I mean, up until this very friday, my relationship with everyone here was good and amicable. But nothing more than that. That isn't bad. Not at all. It's good mannered work-ethic.
However, after our party, it just seems that these people now are beyond colleagues for me. They're, like, grown-up friends ! And I definitely think that it shakes together a company to do something else but work together. Of course, all you smart PR-People out there already knew this. But hey, I'm just sharing my point of view here!
So, let your hair down and shake it up with the person in the cubicle next to you!
x
Emma
(Looks like the summer's coming back now, lads!) :-D

Pretty much the view from where I was standing the entire night; The bar!

The picture is taken from the Stagis Moblog where there's loads and loads of other pics from this great evening!

Historie om Specialekontoret nu også nu DRs online nyheder

Radioavisen (the danish national newscast) woke me up this morning to talk about Specialekontoret. The idea is to create the best physical and mental environment for students. I just grabbed it with my Mac. You can hear it here:

Specialekontoret DR P1
or find it on DR Radioavisen - it was on at 8.00 this morning.

If you're working in a business consider if you could support the project. It's a great way of getting involved in the development of Denmark as an innovative nation, it's a great way of getting young managers training in coaching, it's a great way of getting the next generation of talents into business. There's lots more to know about the project. Read about it on www.specialekontoret.dk.

Not so long ago, I paid a visit to one of the many small communities that students have created in order to have a place to go to as they do their final dissertation at the university. As of now there are about 8.000 students working on their master-thesis (specialestuderende) in Copenhagen and only 7-10% of them can get a space to work in during the 6-12 months they are working on their masters. The room is about 20 m2 and a group of six students are sharing this space. They've each brought a table and a chair. There's a window at the far end of the room placed just inches above eye-level so there's no view. A few posters and the other students constitutes inspiration and motivation. Is this how we help the next generation of knowledge-workers and innovators thrive and deliver their best to Denmark?