I was attending a conference on the use of mobile technology in business and communication today, as I was presenting a Stagis project called Busdrivers with character ("Chauffører med karaktér" in Danish), presenting the way we've been working with customers as a means to change organizational culture through appreciative communication. The passengers in the buses gave positive feedback to the busdrivers by text messages and pictures. They helped us create positive hype and media coverage, resulting in a better image and an increased spirit among the employees. You can download my presentation here (however you will not be able of seeing the videos). Even though there is no campaign for the activity now, there are still text messages and images coming in from (mostly) happy passengers in the buses and I know the busdrivers are really pleased to read the messages on the web site. You can see them on www.buschauffor.dk (Danish website).

Before I did my presentation, two british consultants from Simply-goodadvice delivered a talk on internal communication and the impact of mobile media. They mentioned a study which shows a correlation between the company's ability to communicate and the company's financial performance. If you invested 100 dollars in 2004 your money would have decreased to 84 dollars worth by now, had it been a company with bad internal communication. If the company belongs to the group of companies that are good at creating a healthy communication environment in the organization those 100 dollars would now be worth 130 dollars on average. Better internal communication simply leads to a better financial status of the entire business. Recently Novartis and The Exchange Bank of Korea (I think) gave smart phones to all of their employees to push the internal communication further throughout these international organizations.

Even though Stagis is a small company, we're increasingly communicating on email, Skype, text messages, media messages, Facebook etc. In large organizations all those platforms are necessary if you want to keep the communication going across geographic boundaries. One piece of advice from the two british consultants was "don't over regulate," which is interesting in light of recent debates over employees use of Facebook (ie Danish national newspaper Berlingske made Facebook politics, check Journalisten or Politiken articles). Some companies are trying to regulate internal communication as well as the private use of social platforms such as Facebook or blogs. Most employees are really quite responsible - just as they are in their everyday work in the company. Even more importantly, does the use of social and mobile media (and the two combined) help things flow smoother or do they take away time from 'real' work? One Australian study mentioned on Wired says Twittering makes better employees.

A handful of other interesting points on mobile media at work from simplygoodadvice:

• Mobile technology creating major tipping point in empoyee communications
• Employees expect you to have it (if you're a big/international company)
• Top performing companies are setting the pace
• Better internal communications create value that reflects in overall performance
• Internal communication strategies need to keep up with the mobile technology

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.

Vi søger en senior kommunikationskonsulent til at skabe og gennemføre projekter som udvikler virksomheders autentiske identitet og markedsposition. Konsulenten får til opgave at rådgive om identitet, PR, pressehåndtering, opbygning af image og omdømme og gennemføre projekter med udgangspunkt i sin kommunikationsfaglighed. Jobbet stiller både krav til, at konsulenten kan levere et solidt praktisk kommunikationshåndværk og har gode relationelle evner og projektleder-kundskaber, da vi arbejder tværfagligt med organisationskultur, corporate design og kommunikation.

Jobbet som senior konsulent
Vi forventer at du tager aktivt ansvar for virksomhedens udvikling og vækst. Du får ansvar for både at drive og udføre projekter for eksisterende klienter og proaktivt skabe ny forretning med udgangspunkt i dit faglige område. Du får ansvar for en andel af vores salgsarbejde. Det bliver også dit ansvar løbende at håndtere den eksterne kommunikation om Stagis, om vores projekter og om de begivenheder vi laver. Projekterne gennemføres i samarbejde med både interne og eksterne kolleger og samarbejdspartnere. Vi arbejder primært med danske kunder, men forventer at skulle arbejde mere internationalt fra 2012.

Kender du nogen der kunne være interesseret? Så del det med dem. Læs mere om jobbet på www.stagis.dk eller send en email til nikolaj@stagis.dk.

(Danish job-post, we are searching for a senior communications consultant who could potentially become a partner in the firm. Must write and speak fluent Danish)

To be honest I'm not a huge sports person, nevertheless the European Championship in Athletics dragged my attention yesterday. It was the medals round the necks of the champions I found exciting. The medals are in my opinion quite remarkable due to the v-shaped design, and as the medals are hanging from a white ribbon, the medal itself is a perfect reflection of the ribbon.
I'm note sure if the medal lead my thoughts to the sport, but its very simple and beautiful. The designer is the Spanish Martin Ruiz de Azua's who is a man of medals. Among others he designed medals for the 2003 World Swimming Championships, a transparent bubble filled circular design, which indeed leads my thoughts to swimming.