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).