Vi har netop oprettet en ny praktikstilling i 2013 i forbindelse med udgivelse af "The Authentic Company" i udlandet:

Få et stærkt internationalt netværk i forlagsbranchen
Har du læst marketing, kommunikation og sprog, og har du lyst til at være i kontakt med oversættere og internationale business-forlag? Vær med til at drive den internationale udgivelse af Nikolaj Stagis bog “Den autentiske virksomhed” i England, USA, Tyskland og Norden.
Prøv dine teoretiske færdigheder af i praksis i et praktikforløb, som fokuserer på opbygning af netværk i forlagsbranchen.

Dine opgaver vil bl.a. omfatte følgende:

• Research om udenlandske forlag samt kontakt til dem
• Deltagelse i research og udviklingen af den engelske version af bogen
• Udvikling af præsentations- og pressemateriale
• Skrive tekster til website og blog samt sociale medier
• Udvikling af PR-aktiviteter i forbindelse med udgivelsen
• Evt. planlægning af begivenheder vedr. lancering

Over the past few months the largest bank in Denmark, Danske Bank, has been deploying a new strategy which involves cutting 2.000 jobs and closing some 75 - 100 branch offices. Today the CEO, Eivind Kolding, claims that the bank wants to "build trust". A statement that seems rather difficult at a point in time where most customers experience severe increases in financial expenses, and can expect a lower level of service in a near future. 

This summer our new design director, Christian Leifelt, joined the team. Christian is an experienced graphic designer, art director and artist, who has been specializing in developing visual identity for the past 15 years. After receiving his degree from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, he joined renowned design firm Kontrapunkt, specializing in graphic design and working on projects for organizations such as Microsoft and The Danish Ministry of Defence and later started his own design studio, combining design work with art projects and exhibitions. One of the later projects was the visual identity for Kulturværftet, the new cultural centre of Elsinore. We're excited to have Christian on the team and look forward to presenting a new corporate website for Stagis by the end of this year, designed as a collaboration of Anne and Christian.

Another new face in the office this summer is executive assistant, Kristoffer Schou, who joined us in the beginning of September. Kristoffer holds a masters in philosophy and international marketing management from Copenhagen Business School and has been working with such varied ventures as IT companies, wind turbine project and an art institute, promoting art publications. He is now in charge of the talks and conferences we are involved in, the translation and international publication of my book "The Authentic Company" and helps running the day-to-day business of Stagis, especially helping out with strategic projects.

There is one other new member of the extended Stagis family on it's way. Our highly esteemed designer, Anne Schourup-Kristensen, who has been working at Stagis since 2006, just started her maternity leave last week as she and her boyfriend Kent is becoming a family of three very soon. We are looking forward to hear if it's a boy or a girl very soon and we look forward to having Anne back in the office next summer.

Stagis is growing up – 15th anniversary
The Stagis company is certainly no baby any more – this year the company has been in business for 15 years, and is well on it's way to becoming an adult with a character and life of it's own. Still too young to marry, but old enough to compete with the old boys of the business, I'd say that we "punch above our weight", as president Obamas phrases it. For me it's hard to grasp that the business I started in my home in Odense and moved into a small space that same year has now been running for 15 years, since 1997, now in the third office that we've had. Next month we will celebrate the 15th anniversary of Stagis. Kristoffer, Esben and Christian is planning that and we will be sending out invitations to new and old business relations and friends very soon. I hope to see many faces visiting our office when we open doors to celebrate 15 years of business at the end of November!

New ambitions for the New Year
As we want both our clients and Stagis to grow during the next years, I'm starting several initiatives to develop a business with even more skills and more competencies. During the coming weeks we will start searching for a senior strategist who will also be in charge of operations in our Copenhagen office. I expect to have our new business strategist and COO in place sometime during the first quarter of 2013. I'll make sure you hear more about that during November and December as we start preparing for a new year with lots of ambitions and actions to make both mine and the team members dreams about the future come true.

Over the past months we've spent a lot of time in the city of Kolding, as we are assisting the municipal authorities developing a new vision for the municipality. In 2013 I expect to work more with city branding and place branding as well as new commercial clients who wish to focus their business strategy and the identity of the company in order to drive the business and their growth further.

Friday night it was officially announced that Copenhagen is awarded the title of European Green Capital 2014. The title is awarded by the European Commision in Bruxelles and given once a year to the city in Europe that shows the most initiative and innovation in creating green, sustainable solutions for cleaner and healthier city life.

Copenhagen competed with 19 other cities in Europe for the award. Three cities were selected to present their bid in front of a jury in Bruxelles. Frankfurt Am Main, Bristol and Copenhagen were the final three candidates.

Stagis’ role in Copenhagen’s bid for the award was to help the Municipality of Copenhagen to put into words and images the many great green initiatives and innovative solutions that Copenhagen offers its citizens. The end result was a great presentation; although deciding on which green activities and initiatives to include in the hour-long presentation was a difficult task – Copenhagen really has so much to offer in this regard. For instance, Copenhagen has a unique central heat distribution, we are becoming the no. 1 city in the World in terms of using the bicycle to get around the city, and the city is developing new recreational areas to make life in Copenhagen greener and easier.

Through a workshop and several meetings with the Technical and Environmental Adminstration of Copenhagen, Stagis helped to concentrate the many green initiatives and solutions into a concept which provided a red thread through the presentation. The concept, which we named ”Sharing Copenhagen”, describes not only the green solutions and the benefits to all Copenhageners, but more so the actual way the City of Copenhagen works in creating a better, cleaner, healthier and greener city. The Municipality of Copenhagen has a unique approach to making the green growth happen: Whenever there is a problem to be solved, they try to find a solution that will work in several ways. For instance, there is a growing problem with traffic congestion (just like so many other big cities) and the solution doesn't only solve congestion - it also aims to create long term health improvement, more green areas, less air pollution and lower cost. That's why the streets close to my house at Dronning Louises Bro has wider bicycle lanes than car lanes. It helps more people bicycle and less people to choose the car. So, the way we solve problems in Copenhagen is by thinking "smart" solutions across several boundaries. The other strength that is important in Copenhagen is our ability to share. We share ideas, we get people to participate, and the city is open to share solutions with the rest of Europe. We thought "sharing" was a key concept in the way Copenhagen works. And certainly an important part of the role Copenhagen takes on in 2014.

I am really proud and happy that my team has helped Copenhagen (and all you copenhageners!) claim the title as European Green Capital 2014. I think there are so many things that we can share and teach to other cities in Europe, and around the World. Although I might be a little biased, I believe that it is well deserved. First of all it is well deserved by the team that did an extraordinary effort during May, developing the concept and preparing the copy and design for the presentation for Bruxelles (well done, Marc, Søren and Michael!). Secondly, I think it's well done by the City counsil and everyone in Copenhagen. We look forward to 2014 when Copenhagen will have many great activities celebrating the city’s year as the greenest, most livable city in Europe. We might not be the biggest city or the biggest country, bu we should still participate in being a role model that others can follow.

Here is a selection of the 66 slides of the one hour-long presentation that was delivered by the director of, and his colleagues from, the Technical and Environmental Adminstration of Copenhagen in Bruxelles:

There is an article on the award on Danish newspaper Politiken.

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).

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.

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!

Casper Vorting and Nikolaj Stagis at the conference Autentisk vækst (“authentic growth”) at ARoS art museum in Aarhus May 24th 2012

Last week we did a great event in Aarhus called "Autentisk Vækst". The presenters at the conference were Winnie Johansen, professor in corporate communication at Aarhus University, Casper Vorting from Bøgedal Brewery (Bøgedal Bryghus) and Jette Orduna who is in charge of LEGO Charity and LEGO Idea House at LEGO Group.

Casper and Jette were there as representatives for two of Denmark’s most succesful companies in terms of defining the authentic identity of the company and driving their business forward. They both shared stories of the continuous development of their business’ authentic identity.

Casper Vorting would never use ad campaigns to market his products. “That would go against the authenticity of my business” he says. But he realizes that no business can survive without staging itself somehow.

Bøgedal Brewhouse’s success comes from the image that Casper has created of Bøgedal in his network of buyers. Only the best restaurants and wine merchants in Denmark and abroad sell beer from Bøgedal. They have all bought in to the story, the craftsmanship, the presence, the organization and the process that is Bøgedal. What's important here is the fact that the "story" is not just something Casper invented in order to tell a story and market his product. He actually does what he believes in and one the concerns of his partner, Gitte Holmboe, during the first year the brewhouse was built at their farm house was, whether Casper would ever finish building it, start brewing and actually get the product out in the market. His inspiration and motivation seemed to be the process of the ingredients and the primitive brewing process, not the marketing, the business or the customers. And that's what makes Bøgedal such a great brand! You could say they are introvert, but that secluded life, almost 'secret' to the public, has an enormous attraction and that it is this code of authenticity which drives the stories told by sommeliers and wine merchants.


Jette Orduna from LEGO Group shared the story of the crisis that LEGO experienced some years back. The crisis that was threatening the LEGO company in 2003 and 2004 forced the management group of the company to go through a change process with the goal of rediscovering the company's authentic identity. This process helped LEGO restore confidence and credibility among its customers and adult fans, called AFoLs. What these two examples so brilliantly show are that companies need to focus on their own inherent strenghts and not on opinion polls. If a company only aims to satisfy the interests of its surroundings, then that company’s identity becomes unclear and its credibility diluted.

I think one of the key learnings of the day was that the management of the company must explore inner strenghts of the company and use these to drive development and growth.

The conference on authentic growth ("Autentisk vækst") at ARoS art museum in Aarhus was held May 24th. Some 70 managers and business students attended the event and the following networking session.

Our next event on The Authentic Company:
On June 12th Copenhagen Business School and Stagis will jointly host the conference “The authentic company” at Copenhagen Business School. The speakers are professor Majken Schultz and myself. Read more on stagis.dk (Danish conference and website)

”One of the best books in Danish on this subject. (…) The Authentic Company is an interesting book that invite leaders to focus on the company's inner strengths instead of market analysis and spreadsheets”.

The reviewer Henrik Ørholst from the newspaper Berlingske seems to be fond of my book even though he thinks the book has too many pages, and that the language is a bit to academic. I’ve certainly considered shortening the cases and the book in order to make it a quicker read and easier to get an overview. On the other hand, I know that some of the managers from the public sector are happy that I use examples that fit their mindset specifically, and managers from public and private healthcare organizations who appreciate the stories and examples that fit their everyday view of work.

The review is accompanied by an interesting article about the corporate museums, largely using examples from the book. I think the upside of the many pages (about 360 including introduction etc.) is that different people with a different focus can find examples, case-studies, research and knowledge that suit their need. I personally hate professional books that only refer the theory and the numbers – I want the story aswell. What did they do? How did they do it? And in their own words, please... So I’ve included the voices of Jørgen Vig Knudstorp from LEGO, René Rezepi from Noma, Alberto Alessi from Alessi, hoping that when you read the book you get to meet them and find inspiration from them, just like I did when I met them. Even though I largely view organizational authenticity as a strategic way of focusing the business, it is also about personal meetings and the way leaders are able of telling the story about what they did and where they want to bring the organization next.

I am considering making a shorter version of the book by shortening some of the case studies, taking out some of the contextual descriptions of what I call the “meaning society” (meningssamfundet) and focusing a bit more on the possibilities and tools that a manager can use in order to create an authentic company. So maybe by the end of this year or next year Henrik Ørholst get a book on the subject with fewer pages.

Here is a short extract of the review in Danish:

”Bogen har flere eksempler, som alle er spændende. Her finder læseren den utilpassede kok René Redzepi fra restaurant Noma. Her er der opbygget et stærkt brand med udgangspunkt i det nordiske fortælling, hvor der er mad fra vores del af verden, som er i centrum, og iscenesættelsen får alt hvad den kan trække pågodt og ondt. Bedst er historien om den italienske motorcykelfabrikant Ducati, der rejste sig fra ruinerne og blev forvandlet til et succesfuldt brand (…). Sidetallet er oppustet, og det er med til at sløre for budskaberne. Men nårlæseren får destilleret budskaberne, er det en af de bedste bøger på dansk om emnet. Forfatteren har eksemplerne parate igennem hele bogen.”

Noma is once again the World's best restaurant. Through their concept which is at the same time historic and uses the terroir of the Nordic region innovatively, they are able of creating a unique experience - what I call an authentic identity. When I released my book Den autentiske virksomhed ("The Authentic Company") in March, Nomas CEO Peter Kreiner gave an excellent talk on the authentic identity of the restaurant. He talked about the concept and how Noma has continually been striving to focus and narrow the identity and the concept of the restaurant in order to be more and more clear on the identity and the story of the organization.

You can view a segment of his talk on my vimeo-channel here:

Nomas fornemmelse for tid og sted med Peter Kreiner

I was ever so pleased to participate in a live interview on Danish TV2 News this evening during the event in London where the 50 best restaurants 2012 were named. You can also read about Noma and the importance of their identity in the article Det gør Noma rigtigt ("What Noma is doing right") on Berlingske www.b.dk today (Danish article).