Today, when I logged on to Facebook a lot of my girlfriends had posted testimonials regarding the International Woman’s Day. It’s a reminder to respect and appreciate woman and to ensure their equal rights. Statements like: Equal rights to all women and: We can do it! influenced the picture on Facebook.

Today, many people are celebrating the International Women’s Day – especially women all over the world. It started out as a demonstration in 1910 for women’s rights and it has changed the view on women in general in a lot of countries. But is it really necessary to celebrate this day, when women in the western world celebrate women’s rights in the year of 2013?

But I can’t help to wonder whether it’s still necessary to celebrate women’s rights today – at least in the western world. We already have equal rights, and you do not see many housewives taking care of husband and children while taking care of the home. In fact, many women today enter the labour marked, working their way into the executive suites. And young women, taking their first steps in their career, dominate the higher educations - at large, the young men are left behind.

So why even celebrate this day at all? Well, not all women have achieved the same results yet. And keep in mind that women in Denmark haven’t even been able to vote for a 100 years yet. There’re still a lot of things to fight for. Maybe not as much in the western countries as in other places, but the fundamental importance of the International Women’s Day is simply solidarity between women. That is what we celebrate and fight on for.

In my perspective, it’s therefore still important to mark the day, showing that not all women have obtained the same kind of rights as we have in the western world. But what do you think? Have the day lost it’s political flavor and simply become a mixture of Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, or is it still a fight worth fighting?

As a public information of interest, I can inform you, that the idea of an International Women’s Day was stated by Clara Zetkin at a congress held at ‘Jagtvej 69’ – yes, the well known place for many inhabitants of Copenhagen also known as ‘Ungdomshuset’             

In an earlier post Nikolaj addressed our cooperation with Kolding and the seminar back in October on which Kolding’s authentic strengths was found. The purpose here fore was to find a solid basis for the development of a new vision for the city of Kolding. With the authentic strengths in place, the next step in the process of finding a vision for Kolding was a civic forum, for which one percent of the citizens of Kolding where invited. The event was held in Kolding last week (the 29th of November) and here is a brief update on how it went down. 

More than 600 citizens showed up on the evening in TreFor Arena in Kolding, All eager to put their mark on the future vision for the city, which made the night both productive and inventive. Based on the authentic strengths located on the vision seminar, the city council, advised by Stagis, had come up with three potential directions for Kolding to work towards in the future.

-       The voluntary design city

-       The enterprising design city

-       The knowledgeable design city

(For more information)

During the evening the participants took part in the discussion of the scenarios, and a SMS system was set up which made it possible for everyone to follow and comment on the process. Furthermore the citizens were split up into groups to discuss the three different roads for the future of Kolding. 

At the end of the night all of the attendees had to make a choice on, which of the three directions they desire for Kolding to turn to in the future. This decision was made physically, by letting the all of the participants walk to the scenario that they believe the most in. The enterprising and knowledgeable design city was clearly favored by the citizens of Kolding. On the 10th of December the city council will make the final decision on which direction Kolding will move towards in the future. One thing is certain, the members of the city council were sent home with an expanded perspective on the future vision, due to the involvement of the citizens of Kolding.

We are excited to learn which of the three directions Kolding chooses for the future.      

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at a conference at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) together with my good colleague and dear friend, professor Majken Schultz. As always it was a great experience to share my theory and experience with an interested and engaged crowd, who were keen to learn more about how to create value in a company by using authenticity to grow a passionate brand.

I have lectured at CBS a number of times, however this was the first time after the launch of my new book Den autentiske virksomhed (“The Authentic Company”). I was delighted to share the podium with Majken, who was my supervisor back when the book was still a dissertation in 2006. The whole experience brought me back to where it all started – it has been a wonderful and exciting journey to where Stagis and I stand today. A journey that included visiting owners and managers of companies such as LEGO, Hästens, Alessi, Absolut, Ducati and BMW.

More than one hundred and twenty managers, communications professionals and students attended the conference. They heard Majken and I speak on authenticity, branding and identity and the value of joining these three elements as a means of creating growth, passion and leadership in the brand of the company.

I started the conference by presenting authenticity as a concept and a tool. I had chosen the two companies Ducati and Noma to illustrate where authenticity has been used successfully to respectively create a turnaround and provide inspiration for a new unrecognized position in the market place. I then elaborated on the three dimensions of authenticity (historical, reflexive and expressive authenticity) and how a company can be rated on these three dimensions in order to discuss possible ways forward for the brand. The discussion that followed had excellent questions and insights from the audience and I really enjoyed the debate. For me it's certainly the most interesting part of giving a talk, when the participants want to know more, discuss the cases and the idea and question to what extend it can be used.

In the second half of the conference Majken explained organizational identity and how this ties to authenticity. One of her most important points in this regard was the fact that identity is at the same time “who we are” and “where we are going” and an ongoing internal discussion in the company between employees, managers and stakeholders to reach consensus on this. Authenticity can be used to create a point of reference for all involved parts.

At the following networking reception I spoke to a bunch of interesting people telling me how their companies are working – or not working – with creating a focused and passionate identity. Many of them told me that they felt inspired by my presentation. Well, I am the one getting inspired by all of you. Every presentation that I give leaves me with loads of inspiration and new perspectives and viewpoints on authentic identity and I often receive feedback that I can use in my future work. I know Majken Schultz had a great time too, so hopefully we'll get back to doing more talks during the fall.

Thanks to everyone who participated at the conference – I look forward to meeting you again sometime. The participants have received emails with a link to our presentations. If you missed it, don't hesitate to send me an email. We might put together a few sound clips and video from the event - until then you can view videos from our conference in February.

Yesterday a photo exhibition ”Bus from Bagdad” opened at Kongens Nytorv, just between the Metro and Strøget – probably the best spot in Copenhagen, where more than 10.000 people walk by every day.

Inside a bus the mayor of integration in Copenhagen, Anna Mee Allerslev, gave a great speech on the relationship between meaningful work and successful integration.

The exhibition is part of the Stagis project Bus Driver with Character. The photographer, Henrik Saxgren, is giving voices to 30 bus drivers with foreign background, telling their stories and thereby pulling them out of anonymity. The exhibition will be on the road the next five months and can be seen in several major cities in Zealand. See the tour plan and read more about the background of the exhibition here.

Last week we were fortunate enough to receive The Danish Communication Award 2011 from the members of Danish Communication Association (Dansk Kommunikationsforening) in the concert hall of DR. About 250 participants in the audience of corporate communication professionals voted after presentations of the five nominated communication projects. A few hours later we got the result and were called to the stage to receive the award. I went on stage with the executive of the project from Movia, Maja Nellemann, and my colleague Louise Kramer, who is project manager at Stagis.

Many of the participants (including myself) summed up the events on Twitter - look for #komdag. You can see my tweets on twitter.com/#!/nikolajstagis. At Stagis we've been blogging about the project quite a few times since we started implementing it in 2008. Here's the most recent about the nomination for the award. Or you can find more about the project on our website by clicking "cases".

We are really proud of the award and the acknowledgement we've received from our colleagues in the field of corporate communication. Our project "Bus drivers with character" received about twice as many votes as the next nominated project and the audience cheered after seeing a short introductory video with bus driver Torben who was - as always - quite entertaining. What makes me just as proud as receiving the award is meeting some of the bus drivers who has been involved in the project, and who tells me that it made a difference in their lives. Like the bus driver Linda, who was awarded the Danish bus driver of the year on September 2nd and is soon flying to Singapore to see public transportation there and meet bus drivers in that region. She loves the bus and the passengers and now she is going to board an aeroplane for the first time in her life to fly to Asia! You can meet her on "Bus driver TV".

Danish article about the project online (Update November 18th)
Danish Commucation Association (DKF) just released a Danish article about the project. You can read it on kommunikationsforening.dk. There are videos and lots of other articles from the event on the site, too.

The Danish Communication Association (Dansk Kommunikationsforening) has nominated five projects for the Danish Communication Award 2011. One of them is ’Bus drivers with character’, a project that was initiated and executed by Stagis. The project integrates efforts in the fields of organizational culture, corporate branding and corporate communication in order to create more ”character”, pride, appreciation and job satisfaction for the bus drivers and managers in Greater Copenhagen. The ultimate aim is to deliver a higher level of service and create a better experience for the bus passengers and get more copenhageners to use public transportation.

Three years ago we set out on this wonderful journey with a test project that proved it was possible to change attitudes and pride within the bus companies that participate. During the past year the project has been supported by the Danish Transport Authority which has made it possible to bring the project to a higher level. Almost 7.000 bus passengers have sent their stories about ”Good Moments” to the bus driver website www.buschaffor.dk, the bus drivers have been in the media with positive stories every month, a group of bus drivers are making ”bus driver TV”, the training program ”Movia Akademi” is on it’s way to be integrated into the regular bus industry training institutions and on September 2nd the bus driver of the year was announced at a great event in central Copenhagen. There has been lots and lots of other activities to help everyone make the bus experience better.

On November 9th the Danish Communication Association is hosting Communication Day 2011 (Kom-dag’11) and we are happy to be one of the five nominated projects. The criteria for professional communication is defined as:

-       Target managed (clear goals)
-       Involves management
-       Target audience oriented
-       Multi-pronged and integrated (several integrated activities)
-       Return-oriented (return more than invested)

We try to make all our projects live up to these criteria (and more!) and Bus drivers with character is no exception. It has an extreme degree of integration and especially in the first two years lots of people from all sides of the project asked me if I thought it was possible. We were trying to get seven private bus companies, one public company and the union to work together in order to change culture and attitudes within a group of 4.500 employees and 200 managers across 20-odd work places. And to begin with there was no funding. Everyone involved had to find a way to fund the activities. Why didn’t I give up when things are so complex and difficult? I always thought it was possible – I just didn’t know exactly what the obstacles where. And today it’s paying off. When I meet bus drivers Lars or Rene or Linda, just three of several hundred bus drivers I’ve met, they tell me it’s made a huge difference in their lives, beyond and above their work hours.

I’m really excited about the award. There is an award given by the professional jury and another award given by the audience on the day. I will be there on the day together with my colleague Louise Kramer who is the project manager of the activities we are running and Maja Nellemann, executive of the project and representative of the public transportation authority Movia. Keep your fingers crossed!

Last weekend I had the pleasure to participate in the seminar: Map Marathon, an event that is part of the annual Frieze Art Fair, based in Regents Park, London. The seminar had an impressive line up of scientists, mathematicians, graphic designers and artists all talking about how mapping can be used and unfolded in different directions and for various purposes. Two sessions caught my mind in particular. One was a presentation made by editor of Wired, David Rowan and Hal Bertram. They revealed the technology behind some amazing new technologies for turning dynamic data into useful mappings. For instance the showed us how OpenStreetMap - an open map system generated by people all over the world - helped the rescue workers when the earthquake hit Haiti, and how the timetables of London buses can show the density of traffic in London. And how the air traffic was monitored during the ash cloud incident last spring.

The other was graphic designer and cartographer Joost Grootens. Joost runs a design studio in Amsterdam, specialized in making books – Atlases in particular. It was impressive to hear Joost explain about the history of mapping, and how the graphic reproductions has developed. The concern of detail in color, typography and precise communication of data in his work, has result in beautifully crafted atlases, that is worth a study in information graphics. 

Yesterday afternoon and evening, Stagis hosted the 21st DDA Bar, an event for the members of Danish Design Association. Peter Kreiner, CEO of Noma gave a brief talk on the success of Noma. He also added an important comment on the window of opportunity that not only Noma and Danish restaurants have due to Nomas status as the Worlds leading restaurant. Other Danish companies, especially the creative ones, could use the possibility to travel out in the World and export more of our social and creative skills. At the end of the two talks we decided to create a new platform in Danish Design Association focusing on internationalization in the Danish design industry.

Nikolaj gave a talk on authentic organizational identity, demonstrating our concept of authenticity and explaining how we come about understanding the authentic strengths of the company in order to help them grow into authentic market positions. He used Noma, Bøgedal, Absolut and Ducati as casestudies – all part of the book that Nikolaj is working on (he says there are only the last 80 pages left to go).

After the talks our guests looked around the Stagis Museum which has been updated and we served local, nordic snacks from Manfreds (former Noma chef) and DinBaghave (“YourBackyard”), all organically grown, primarily delivered from Kiselgården, a small farm who also delivers to Noma.

Thank you to everyone who joined us - both new and known faces! We had a lovely evening.

If you want a tour in the Stagis Museum, let us know – just call or drop a line to email@stagis.dk. You can read more on the Danish Design Association website and see more pictures on our Facebook Page.