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).

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).

Casper Vorting does something nobody else does. He produces beer the old fashioned way. Boegedal Brewery (Bøgedal Bryghus) produces beer without the use of pumps or thermostats of any kind. Casper uses original recipes from the 18th centrury and brews his beer using methods dating more than 100 years back. Even the location is a farmstend from the 1840’s. All these factors establishes Boegedal’s authentic position. Everything is done by hand and every brew is unique, when Casper mixes the ingredients by heart.

Boegedal Brewery is an excellent example of a small company that has positioned itself on the basis of the tradition of the craft and the producers own personal history, its dissociation with the market and the high level of personal presence. The marketing strategy is also different from other brands, as bottles are sold only through the best restaurants in Denmark and internationally, and through exclusive wine merchants. Meet Casper Vorting in this film or at the conference at ARoS on May 24.

If you didn't have a chance to join us at the book conference "Den autentiske virksomhed" in February you'll have a chance to discover some of the ideas on video - here is Casper Vortings talk:

Det autentiske bryg – med Casper Vorting fra Bøgedal Bryghus from Nikolaj Stagis.

"Inspiring and sympathetic management book with analysis and cases of international quality and scope." This is how the danish newspaper Politiken starts its review of Nikolaj Stagis' book The Authentic Company. Politiken uses hearts as a rating system, and the book recieves five out of six hearts from the reviewer, Kresten Schultz Jørgensen.

Here is a short extract of the review in Danish:

”Inspirerende og sympatisk lærebog, hvis analyse og cases har internationalt vingefang. Man fatter jo ladestokken og strammer kuglen helt nede i løbet ved mødet med endnu en bog om ”autentisk” kommunikation. Som Henrik Marstal så rigtigt analyserede begrebet i Politikens kronik 17.2 er ”autenticitet” pr. definition en relativ størrelse, en kamelæon, der kan bruges til at betegne næsten hvad som helst afhængigt af sammenhæng. Så hvad i alverden, kan man spørge, vil en tænksom kommunikationsmand som Nikolaj Stagis med en bog udgivelse om den autentiske virksomhed? Grave et spadestik dybere med en øvelse, der faktisk lykkes med en gennemarbejdet og klog bog om et begreb, man sagtens kan grine af, men som ikke rigtig kan undværes (…)
Bogens kommunikationsprojekt er en linedans: Forfatteren redegør for, at vi lever i postmoderne tider, hvor beskueren insisterer på at have ret, og hvor spin og overflade dominerer. Svaret er ifølge Stagis, at virksomhederne – hvis de har noget at byde på – i stigende grad søger indad efter identitet og de vandbærende lag. Dér ligger, i en verden af mediestøj og markedsanalyser, muligheden for at fremstå autentisk”.

At the art museum ARoS in 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, this 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 today 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 April 18th Stagis is hosting DDA Bar in cooperation with Danish Design Association (DDA) in Stagis’ office in Kompagnistræde, Copenhagen. The event is themed around architecture and design, and the speakers professor Kristian Kreiner, Copenhagen Busines School and Nikolaj Stagis, CEO Stagis will each provide insights on the idea of authenticity as a way of developing the design agency and it's ability to compete - even under a strict set of rules.

Professor Kristian Kreiner is on the verge of publishing his book “Dialog og konkurrence” (Dialogue and competition) on architectual competitions. At the event, he will discuss the need for designers with an approach based on autheticity in today’s design competitions. His argument is, that is has become more and more common that competitions today are so organized, that the creative aspect of design is suffering.

The event will be concluded with networking and refreshments from Bøgedal Bryghus (Boegedal Brewery). Sign up for the event on DDA’s website.

Yesterday we launched my book "Den autentiske virksomhed" (The Authentic Company) at a great conference in one of Copenhagens most beautiful and historic settings, the Old Stock Exchange. The speakers at the conference were Federico Minoli, former CEO and president at Ducati, Dr. Andreas Braun, BMW Museum, Dr. Majken Schultz, professor at Copenhagen Business School, Casper Vorting, owner of Bøgedal Brewery and finally Peter Kreiner, CEO of Noma restaurant.

I've worked on the book for about four years – a great journey into the authentic and less authentic including visits with some of the greatest companies and their leaders and owners. A lifetime experience that led to 360 pages and climaxed at the conference and reception yesterday. Great crowd, wonderful talks, good food from Aamanns and about 300 people coming to visit either the conference or the reception. Thank you all for your kind support, questions and interest. It's been a long journey sofar - and it's only just begun. i'm looking forward to get around Denmark and visit different companies, organizations and cities to talk about the authentic companies over the months to come...!

During the next few weeks I will launch a new website focusing on the book and I'm looking forward to sharing more pictures and videos from the event!2

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!