At the art museum ARoS on Aarhus managers from two of Denmark’s most successful companies share their stories on the development of their business’ authentic identity.

“LEGO Idea House is a sanctuary, that shows where we come from. The first casting machine, carpenter's bench, our first motto cut out in tree in that carpenter workshop, in that building, where it took place. It is full of sounds and smells and old products and archives”. In the book “The Authentic Company” written by Nikolaj Stagis, that is how Jette Orduna describes the significance of the LEGO museum.

But the LEGO Idea House is much more than a dusty museum. Both the developers and the management in LEGO utilise the house to generate ideas, for sales meetings, management meetings and the like. The company’s history is used actively in the daily work and that is a completely calculated strategy. Come and take part in the conference where Jette Orduna will talk about the significance that the museum has for LEGO, a company that in only 6 years turned crisis into success and to day turn out one record-profit after another.

While LEGO is an excellent example of a large authentic company, Bøgedal Brewery is an excellent example of a small company that has positioned itself on the basis of its history, its dissociation with the market and the high level of personal presence. Bøgedal is a two-man business, with only an outcome of 700 bottles of each brew. The bottles reaches the consumer through the best restaurants in Denmark and internationally and through exclusive wine merchants. Casper Vorting, one half of the two-man business, will at ARoS share the secret behind the success.

Nikolaj Stagis will not only facilitate and host the conference but will also talk about the methods to define organisational authentic identities with the aim to create companies with transparent purposes, uses their history actively and differentiate itself in the market. He will use several of the case-companies from the book, among others Ducati, BMW Museum, Alessi and Hästens.

The conference will take place in the auditorium at ARoS the 25th of May:
15.00-16.00 Book signing
16.00-19.00 Conference
19.00-20.00 Networking

Participants have the opportunity to visit the museum exhibitions both before and after the conference. The price for the conference including a copy of the book “Den autentiske virksomhed" (in Danish) is 590 kr. The price for the conference alone is 300 kr. Buy your ticket here. Stagis is hosting the conference in corporation with the Danish Chamber of Commerce and Erhverv Aarhus.

On February 23rd I launched the Danish book "Den autentiske virksomhed" (The Authentic Company) in the Old Stock Exchange in Copenhagen. During the conference and the reception in the evening some 300 guests joined the event. I was especially grateful to Federico Minoli, former CEO of Ducati and Dr. Andreas Braun from BMW in Munich for travelling to Copenhagen to join the conference and deliver two very interesting talks about the turnover of Ducati and the ideas and qualities of the BMW Museum.

We've just created a video channel where we'll present videos regarding authenticity and the book "Den autentiske virksomhed". The first eight videos are available now - all from the event in the Old Stock Exchange. Most of them are in Danish but Minoli and Dr. Braun and the last video with the panel discussion are in English.

The presenters on stage were:
Peter Kreiner, Noma
Andreas Braun, BMW
Majken Schultz, CBS
Astrid Gade Nielsen, Arla
Casper Vorting, Bøgedal
Nikolaj Stagis, author

If you didn't have a chance to join us at the event you'll have a chance to discover some of the ideas - if you were there you can rediscover the talks. I'm working on a new Danish website that will accompany the book - it's soon to be launched... You can watch the first video with Federico Minoli here:

Hvordan jeg lærte fra Ducatis fans med Federico Minoli from Nikolaj Stagis.

For the past three years I've been working on 'Den autentiske virksomhed' (or, The Authentic Company, as it may be in English). Now I'm finally coming to an end. There is a full 360-page manuscript which I'm now editing to about 300 pages. I'm planning to deliver the final document to the publishing house Gyldendal Business sometime in May and hopefully see a real book looking a bit like the picture above during the summer. Besides my theory on business strategy development based on the authentic strengths of the organization, there is a string of case studies in the book. Some of them are Noma, LEGO, Ducati, Alessi, Hästens, Novozymes, BMW and Absolut. I've been really lucky to visit them and talk to their CEOs, owners and leaders.

During the fall I'll tour Denmark to talk about The Authentic Company and discuss how companies of all sorts can explore and develop their strengths from within. Some of the talks are already being arranged as I receive calls almost every week from people who want to discuss authenticity and what it means. Here are some of the talks that I'm doing soon:

14. April 2011, Hewlett-Packard Denmark (workshop)
3. May 2011, Vanebryderdagen 2011, 'Bremen' in Copenhagen (conference)
5. May 2011, Dansk Industri (talk)
11. May 2011, Dansk Kommunikationsforening (Day seminar)
13. May 2011, Medieforbundet i DR (workshop)
23. May 2011, Danske Fysioterapeuter (talk)
23. August 2011, FTF (workshop)
10. October 2011, Master of Management Development, CBS (education)
1. November 2011, Efterskoleforeningens lederkonference (talk)

During May we'll put more video clips from some of my talks on the website and once we get closer to the release date of the Danish book we'll start publishing parts of the content here on the blog, on Facebook and elsewhere. We'll make sure you get notice!

If you want to know more or want to book me for a talk, take a look at stagis.dk (Danish) or stagis.com (English). Lots of students want to know more - don't hesitate to write!

Last month, Rene Redzepi, the celebrated No. 1 chef of restaurant NOMA, was introducing his new book at the Sydney Opera House. I just received the book by mail this morning. It's beautiful and well worth reading. Inspiring story (and diary) and inspiring photos. Out on Politikens Forlag in Denmark and Phaidon elsewhere.

We have been working on the book cover for 'The Authentic Company', coming out in 2011 in Danish and in 2012 internationally. Here is a shot from Annes screen I took the other day. The hardcover has a black and white pattern illustrating boxes. At the center of the front page you'll see boxes within boxes - because there are layers underneath the surface of the company that you have to explore in order to find the authenticity of the company. I've just finished chapter 14 which means I'm working on the last four chapters of the manuscript while the editor at Gyldendal is outlining words with red marker in the first 13 chapters...

If you like patterns, check out the Patternity blog "seeing pattern everywhere" on www.patternity.co.uk

Today, restaurant Noma was announced the World's number one restaurant. Tonight chef René Redzepi is being celebrated in London. Last year I was interviewing René a couple of times for the book I am working on. He has rediscovered Scandinavian food culture and reinvented what it is. And when I say invented I do mean it. It's a creative and innovative place that dares to stand by it's beliefs and tries to challenge the tastes and opinions of it's guests. The first mental border they crossed was shedding light on the exotic side of home. When everyone was still looking at France, Italy, Spain, Vietnam, Japan and all the other well known gastronomic territories, Noma began to worship our own terroir.