NEWSLETTER

BLOG

ARCHIVES

november 2011 oktober 2011 september 2011 august 2011 juli 2011 juni 2011 april 2011 marts 2011 februar 2011 december 2010 november 2010 oktober 2010 september 2010 august 2010 juli 2010 juni 2010 maj 2010 april 2010 marts 2010 februar 2010 januar 2010 december 2009 november 2009 oktober 2009 september 2009 august 2009 juli 2009 juni 2009 maj 2009 april 2009 marts 2009 februar 2009 januar 2009 december 2008 november 2008 oktober 2008 september 2008 august 2008 juli 2008 juni 2008 maj 2008 april 2008 marts 2008 februar 2008 januar 2008 november 2007 oktober 2007 september 2007 august 2007 juli 2007 juni 2007 maj 2007 april 2007 marts 2007 februar 2007 januar 2007 december 2006 november 2006 oktober 2006 september 2006 august 2006 juli 2006 juni 2006 maj 2006 april 2006 marts 2006 februar 2006 januar 2006 december 2005 november 2005

ENTRIES RSS

Stagis on facebook Stagis photo blog

CONTRIBUTORS

Anne Schourup-Kristensen

Designer

Nikolaj Stagis

CEO

Nikolaj Stagis

CEO

14.11.11

KOM-prisen 2011

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.

30.10.11

KOM-dag 2011

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!

24.10.10

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.

The air traffic of Europe. London Heathrow being the most busy one.

The air traffic of London, projected slightly from the side. Red=departures, blue=arrivals.

The density of traffic in London.

14.09.10

I'm thrilled to tell you, that I'm participating as speaker at Kom-dag 2010 (Communication Day 2010) on November 23rd which is being organized by Danish Communication Association. The theme of the year is authentic and reliable (trustworthy to be exact) corporate communication. At the end of the event the Danish communication prize 2010 will be awarded to the best communication effort of the past year.

The lineup of speakers are:

Peggy Simcic Brønn, professor, BI Norwegian School of Management

Antoine Harrary, StrategyOne, Edelman Europe (they are the ones who release the Trust Barometer every year)

Peter Straarup, Danske Bank

Henrik Dahl, Sociologist and writer

Dorte Spiegelhauer, DR (Danish Broadcast)

Nikolaj Stagis (that's me!), Stagis A/S

Charlotte Mandrup, management advisor and writer, Møller & Mandrup

And it seems there's going to be a series of interactive activities and a board of professors discussing the theme. Exciting day!

DDA BAR 21

26. august kl. 16.30
Sted: Stagis A/S, Kompagnistræde 14, 1. sal, 1208 København K.

Autentisk identitet er vejen til succes
Stagis har udviklet en metode til at undersøge en virksomheds autentiske identitet. Processen involverer antropologiske metoder og kortlægger autenticiteten på tre dimensioner. Nu bruger Stagis sine værktøjer til at udvikle strategi og identitet for kunderne. Nikolaj Stagis er ved at færdiggøre en ledelsesbog med titlen "Den autentiske virksomhed", som bruger LEGO, Noma, Absolut, Alessi og Ducati som eksempler. Nikolaj fortæller om arbejdet med autentisk identitet og hvilken effekt det har på de organisationer, der bruger metoden.

Noma er brudt igennem som verdens restaurant nr. 1. Med dybe rødder i det nordiske køkken og en kreativ ildsjæl i spidsen, har restauranten skabt en autentisk identitet, som er blevet en verdenskendt succes. Direktør Peter Kreiner er gæst og fortæller om strategien og giver sit bud på, hvordan det kunne lykkes for en dansk kreativ restaurant at bryde igennem.

Program:
16.30: Drinks og besøg i Stagis Museum
17.00: Den autentiske virksomhed, Adm. direktør Nikolaj Stagis
17.45: Nomas gennembrud, Adm. direktør Peter Kreiner, Noma
18.15: Drinks, nordiske snacks og netværk

If you want to join the event, please write an email containing your name and company to event@stagis.dk.

Members of Danish Design Association are invited to sign up for the event through the DDA website. Our customers, partners and freelancers are invited to join on a first-come, first-serve basis. The members of DDA will have priority access.

03.04.10

About two weeks ago, I gave a lecture on Authentic Organizational Identity at University of Technology in Sydney as I was invited to join a series of lectures called Future Design Strategies. Martin Kornberger (who's just published a wonderful book on branding called "brand society" - I haven't finished reading it, but do check it out, he's a very smart guy...) suggested my giving a lecture 'down under' and it was great fun!

Graduate students across the fields of visual communication, fashion, product design and architecture showed up, appearing to have very high expectations (I was surprised by three students asking before the lecture if they were allowed to record the lecture - I don't recall that happening in Copenhagen...?) and the concept is great. Basically this series of lectures is asking what kind of strategies or processes will help us create better design in the future? As my theory on organizational authenticity is basically a process towards understanding an organizational identity before doing strategic design work I went ahead, curious wether the 'aussies' would enjoy my ideas - and even more curious about the mix of students. After all, there's a big difference between designing logos, skirts, skyscrapers and chairs. But they seemed to enjoy themselves and they were eager to participate. We were discussing Absolut and wether they should make their heritage more visible to the public (most of us still haven't noticed the historic print on the front of the bottle) and how you explain this stuff to a CEO - not an easy job, one participant assumed.

Among the group were a couple of professors and a marketing manager from Sara Lee. You might not know Sara Lee - it's one of those corporations that own and trade a large portfolio of product brands. Just like Procter & Gamble or Unilever. And that was his concern exactly. How do you start utilizing the authenticity of the company when in fact most of your time is spend dividing the marketing efforts between different product brands that seem to have nothing to do with the corporate brand? No easy task at all. As I am writing in the first part of my book (I'm writing chapter 12 now - it will soon be done. Promise!) I think there's a movement in the world of branding towards more corporate brands that create value to their fans (both customers and employees and other stakeholders) by expressing the same ideas, values and beliefs through their products. It is becoming more and more difficult to divide different parts of the brand and the idea of the brand as a virtual construct carried by advertising and digital imaginary universes is not only becoming difficult, it is also lacking the authenticity that people value and ask for. Never the less, my new friend from Sara Lee is doing his best in one of these product-brand-dividing companies and his concern is real. What do you do? Is organizational authenticity relevant?

First of all, the leadership, organizing, marketing, sales work and everything else going on in the corporation involves managers and employees who have to find motivation, common ideas about what it is they are doing and pride in their work. I'm sure all these people want to work for a company that is sure of it's identity and tries to become the best it can be. After all, authentic organizational identities are better at focusing their efforts, have lower transaction costs, better coordination and higher motivation. Being sure what Sara Lee as a company is all about is a good start. Even if we imagine that only employees and retailers knows the corporate brand.

Secondly, lots and lots of the product brands that are marketed by corporations like Sara Lee come from somewhere, were started by someone, they carry ideas for change, values and meaningful messages that can be rediscovered and utilized. There is plenty of inspiration for development of both the specific products and the organization behind them to be discovered in these products.

One of the reasons I love to get out there (not only out to Australia, but out and about in general) is the questions I get. There is always some angle, some idea or someone's everyday concerns that I haven't thought of. And these meetings keep me on the toes. Looking forward to more challenges out there!

28.02.10

"Actually, I saw something new about my organization, that I didn't see before," said one of the participants at the end of a lecture I did at Copenhagen Business School a few days ago. She was a senior manager in a large organization and I was asking wether the model we had worked with during the afternoon was of any use to the participants. She had seen something new. To me that's a big thing and about as good as it gets. Most managers don't see anything new most days, as they are primarily focused on communicating how they have been seeing things for a long time, and a lot of them are not keen on admitting it when they do see things in a new light. After all, managers are supposed to see it all clearly from the start, long before everyone else, right?

Seeing new things about your organization and discussing your findings is a really good starting point for keeping what's precious or changing the things that call for change. But too often we don't take the time to ask and listen, rather than talking. So when a tool for looking at the organizational identity helps a top-manager see new aspects of the organization, it's a good thing. It's the foundation for strategic choice; What are you going to allocate more resources and what are you going to limit?

I was lecturing at Master of Management Development, a focused executive MBA-program for senior managers at Copenhagen Business School. MMD is a special place for seeing new things. One of the primary skills that the program develops in the participants is challenging the way things are perceived. There's never one true meaning of things, there are as many as there are people and relations between them. So in a sense it's a great place to present your work, because people want to use the tools at hand to shed new light on their ideas of the company, structures, organization, management, systems and so on.

Professor Majken Schultz had invited me to join the program for the day (just like we did with the last class, two years ago), to talk about authentic organizational identity, the concept I developed while writing my thesis from the exact same program in 2006. The model and the methodology that I've developed in a conceptual framework helps people see the identity of the company in new ways. After presenting my ideas on organizational authenticity we split up into 9 groups and each group worked on one of the specific questions that I've developed to discover the authenticity of the company on three dimensions:

Heritage Authenticity
Reflexive Authenticity
Expressive Authenticity

When we started working on the model itself, I suggested scoring the authentic identity of the MMD program itself. Does the program use it's history? Does it have beliefs of it's own? Does it express it's authentic identity? Everyone was really getting into the exercise, wanting to discuss how several different organizations performed on the three dimensions of authenticity. I was running from one end of the blackboard to the other, sketching up the profiles of the examples brought up. After a few examples one participant brought the process to a halt. "I might see it as very authentic, but my customer would probably see it differently..." he said. And that's one of the things that make the perception of image, identity and the authenticity of an organization so interesting. The truth (if there is such a thing) really depends on the person or the group you ask. The management group, the employees, the customers and the media might see the authenticity of the company in very different perspectives and rate the degree of authenticity of the company accordingly. But when you do ask them, you're bound to see something new about your company - and you can never go back to 'unsee' it again.

20.04.09

I just received an invite for the Direct Marketing Day, facilitated by the Danish Postal Services (Post Danmark). I'll be joining the day, talking about authentic organizational identity and look forward to it. I will have to ponder about ways of connecting identity, authenticity and direct mail. Read more on the DM Dagen website.