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 beginning of a new era in the history of danish television. From now on, we can update on news 24-7!
But this makes we wonder - I allready have acces to near real-time news on the internet, so what legitamizes TV2 News in the danish media world? I mean, what is the purpose of this new news channel?

I hope that TV2´s latest offspring can provide news profesionally served by experienced journalists. That would make the channel an alternative to both the internet and foreign news stations like CNN and BBC World.
I think that TV2 has made a good bet on hiring known faces from the danish world of TV news like Mette Vibe Utzon and Poul Erik Skammelsen. These high profile journalists gives TV2 News the credability and recognizability, that can diffentiate the station from CCN, BBC and especially the internet.

TV2´s potential problem is getting the consumers aka. viewers to accept, that news on TV is available around the clock. For endless times the daily dose of news has been served along with the evening coffee by "TV-Avisen" at nine o´clock at DR or by "Nyhederne" at TV2. And we - the consumers - have been happy with this arrangement.
So my essential question is: Why change it if it ain´t broke?
Do we need 24-7 access to television news in danish?
For my part I guess, I´ll take a peek at TV2 News, just to see what all the fuzz is about. And if the quality is satisfying, I´ll probably stay tuned in. We´ll all just have to wait and see.

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 with themselves, as the surplus reached a staggering 10,49 BILLION us dollars.
This means that in july, august and september, Exxon made 114 mio dollars. A day. That comes down to 4.75 mio an hour, 79.166 a minute or 1319 dollars every second, 24/7!
It´s an insane amount of money!

This makes me wonder: how do a large global corporation deal with the minor issue of social responsibility? Maybe it´s just me, but I don´t get the impression that the american oil industry is reknown for its contribution to the world´s sustainability - you know, with the fossile fuels, polution and all that other stuff, the lefties are going on and on about.
Nevertheless, companies like Exxon are making billions every year. Is this an example of a company legitamizing itself only by making profit?

Of course ExxonMobil is putting a lot of money into reseach on new energy technologies that can insure their position in the market when there is no more oil and gas to be extracted. In my opinion, this company is only driven by the need for profit. 20 years ago that wouldn´t have been a problem, but these days the privileged consumer is looking for more in a company. We want the large corporation to behave decently. We demand organic milk, non-gmo corn, and renewable energy sources.
But as the Exxon-case shows, companies can make a lot of money without marketing themselves as social responsible.
I don´t have a problem with Exxon making a lot of money. I just hope, that a large part of the 10 billion USD, that Exxon made in the third quarter of 2006 will be spend responsibly.

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 mine to pursue "The Perfect Business Meeting". But until I find it, here is something to think about.

In a danish newspaper I read about this guy, who´s applying a large financial corporation for a new job. Along with his resume, he sent this video of his job application. Take a look, it´s sort of special.

As any other applicant would do, the guy presents himself in the way, that he finds best. He stresses his competences, shows his hobbies and generally acts as we probably all would at a job interview. He is even well dressed in a dark suit. Nothing wrong here. The young man speaks to the camera about his understanding of succes: what is means to be succesfull and how to reach your goals. Still no problem - that´s pretty normal in the given situation. So why is it, that this man is currently the laughing stock of  Yale, Ivy league University?

Well, if you haven´t watched the video yet, do it now! It will give you an idea why...

The poor guy´s video was published by the company, in which he applied for a job, and now he´s getting thousands of mails from people he doesn´t know, just making fun of him. The increasing number of "fan mails" has made the guy quit his studies an move back to his parents. I think it´s a bit unfair to treat him like this. After all, he was just trying to get a job in an unusual way. And he even makes a couple of good points about succes in every day life. I think that next time I´m applying for a job, I´ll think of this young man. I´m sure I can learn from his experiences, just not sure what it is...

So... This was quite a long way from "The Perfect Meeting". And still, a job interview can definetly be seen as a business meeting. Both parts are trying to make the most of the situation, and no one wants to loose (a potential employee or a potential job). Anywho, I will continue my search for the holy grails of business meetings, and if I discover something new, you will be the first to know!

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.
How would you like to be called "President for people and culture", as one guy I talked to? Or how about "Master of Laws" (my personal favorite)? But gives a fancy, long title more credability to you as a person? I tend to think so. Perhaps I´m just an easy target, but I find it a bit intimidating to call up a chief executive officer (officers - shouldn´t they be in the army), and ask for a minute of their busy day.
But when I come to think of it, top corporate leaders aren´t the only ones with long impenetrable titels.
My own academic title is ba.scient soc., stud. komm., and my colleague Amanda Karlsson is ba.art, stud media. I´m not sure, that these titles give us any edge in this business, but they´re definetly long!
I would love to hear your opinion on this topic - do you have an impressive titel, or do you know anyone that does? Please feel free to join this undoubtedly heated debate!

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 Iraq.
I can see why the soldiers feel a need to blog, but the real question is, what is in it for the newspaper (i.e. the company in general)? What do Politiken have to gain from the blogs of two unproffesional writers taking up attention and space from "real" reporters?

In my opinion, the soldier-blogs give Politiken´s reports from Iraq a touch of authenticity.  The  blogs are signalling "we bring you the truth, no filters are protecting you, our reader, from the harsh reality of every day life in Iraq".   And this authenticity effect adds - of course - to the credibility of the paper.
The same effect is desirable for every company. You want your surroundings to belive in you what you say is what you do. This is exactly why blogging caries a great potential for companies around the world. The authenticity of a message written without filters, without censorship, should create a mutual trust between the reader and the blogger.

But usually the reader of any blog (especially company blogs) posseses a healthy critical sense. So how does a blogger/company ensures that the blog is perceived as reliable? I´m not sure. But I would love to hear from you.

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 meetings. Certainly a wide range of activities!

All these different tasks help to get an understanding of the soul and essence of Stagis - it´s been great fun.
The new impressions have been massive, and together with longer hours than usual (I come straight out of college), it´s all a bit heavy on the head. But  everything is getting easier by the minute, so I´m looking forward to the next four months.

Enough with all that talk about work! The sun is shining on Vesterbro, and Stagis´ neighbourghood couldn´t look nicer. Just up the street at Vesterbro Torv, the winos blend in with trendy rockstar lookalikes, all of them having a cold beer or two. Very "urban" atmosphere! It can do nothing but stimulate your  sense of creativity!

That is my overall experience of my first week here at Stagis - a good mix of new inputs.