With the office back in place, we would like to thank all the lovely people who dropped by to celebrate Stagis last night. Thank you for all the nice flowers and presents and a special thank you to the all the people who contributed with interesting perspectives on the recent 15 years of Stagis. 

Especially the kind words from some of our fantastic customers and partners made the evening memorable, and a short trip down memory lane with stories and anecdotes from the past 15 years with Stagis pointed out the strong ties and relations that makes Stagis go deep into the heart of companies and organizations. Lars Hargaard from OKI Printing Solutions told the story about how a grey color printer named 3400 became "OKI Identity" and how it was marketed as a piece of furniture that would fit an office or space in every possible color. Lars was quite surprised when he got the first prototype - his grey printer had turned into a ferrari-red designer-item. "There was a lot of talk about the market position and so on, and Stagis was quite secretive. But finally they unveiled this red printer and we really liked it!". Watch the case and a video. Birgitte Qvist-Sørensen told about her time at Helsingør Kommune where Stagis was involved in various design projects and Nikolaj Stagis showed a few glimpses from fifteen years passed. "It's hard to believe that fifteen years passed", he explained and talked about the development of Stagis in the year to come, when Stagis will turn 16. "The development of Stagis is dependent on the development of myself and the people that are in the company," he said. The evening also included a hula hoop show my Ms Mia which was quite fascinating. We enjoyed celebrating our 15th anniversary with all of you.

The Stagis team and I wishes you all a lovely weekend.

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.

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!

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).

Vi søger en dygtig projektkoordinator til at dække en bred palette af opgaver indenfor salg, promovering, eventkoordinering og kommunikation for Nikolaj Stagis. Jobbet bliver i de kommende dage slået op på en række websites. Du kan læse hele opslaget på vores job-side.

Den nye projektkoordinators primære ansvar bliver at booke foredrag og arrangere events med samarbejdspartnere for Nikolaj Stagis og bogen “Den autentiske virksomhed”. Desuden får du rollen som assistent for Nikolaj Stagis, hvilket omfatter hjælp med stort og småt i det daglige, herunder planlægning og koordinering.

Jobbet medfører koordinering, aftaleindgåelse og kommunikation om events, foredrag, workshops, mediesamarbejder og assistance omkring udgivelse af Nikolajs bog på udenlandske markeder. Opgaverne er primært i Danmark i 2012, men på sigt også i udlandet. Events arrangeres i samarbejde med organisationer, brancheforeninger, medier, virksomheder og universiteter. Du får ansvar for salg og booking, herunder kontakt til arrangører og en lang række lancerings- og kommunikationsopgaver.

DINE KOMPETENCER
Du har erfaring med salg, relationsopbygning og projektkoordinering. Du motiveres af ambitiøse mål og kan godt lide at præstere både alene og for at understøtte teamet. Du er imødekommende og menneskekender – både på telefonen og live. Du er en dygtig skriftlig formidler og taler og skriver flydende engelsk og evt. et tredje sprog. Du har læst virksomhedskommunikation, branding, strategi eller marketing på kandidat-/masterniveau. Jobbet er på fuld tid.

Yesterday a photo exhibition ”Bus from Bagdad” opened at Kongens Nytorv, just between the Metro and Strøget – probably the best spot in Copenhagen, where more than 10.000 people walk by every day.

Inside a bus the mayor of integration in Copenhagen, Anna Mee Allerslev, gave a great speech on the relationship between meaningful work and successful integration.

The exhibition is part of the Stagis project Bus Driver with Character. The photographer, Henrik Saxgren, is giving voices to 30 bus drivers with foreign background, telling their stories and thereby pulling them out of anonymity. The exhibition will be on the road the next five months and can be seen in several major cities in Zealand. See the tour plan and read more about the background of the exhibition here.

Vi søger en erfaren designer/AD'er, som vil være med til at sætte kursen for det kreative arbejde i Stagis de kommende år. Jobbet er slået op på markedsforing.dk, danishdesignassociation.com, danishdesigners.com og bureaubiz.dk. Her er et udsnit af jobopslaget, som du også kan se på vores job-side:

Designchef
Art director som brænder for design af visuel identitet og image-kampagner
Du brænder for at udforme identitet og skabe brands, og er både fagligt dygtig og ambitiøs nok til at hæve vores kreative niveau. Vi arbejder på tværs af medier og faggrænser, og fokuserer på at skabe den løsning, der bedst udtrykker kundens autentiske identitet. Ligesom os har du høje forventninger til konceptuelt stærke løsninger og kvalitet i eksekveringen.
Hvis du har en drøm om at være selvstændig, så læs videre. Stagis er en lille virksomhed, som kører på lige dele passion, talent og ambitioner - og vi er på jagt efter potentielle partnere.

Stagis udløser potentialer
Stagis lever af at få øje på virksomheders potentiale og folde det ud ved at udvikle brands og designe visuel identitet, image-kampagner, websites, tryksager – alt hvad der kommunikerer. 
Du har lyst til at indgå i teamet og være ansvarlig for udviklingen af identitet og visuel kommunikation, som er baseret på indsigt og afspejler virksomhedens sjæl. Vi står over for at vækste Stagis til det næste niveau og vil i løbet af det kommende år ansætte medarbejdere med potentiale til at gøre Stagis større og stærkere.

Dine kompetencer
Vores nye designchef har mere end fem års bureauerfaring, kommer fra én af de anerkendte design-uddannelser, kan vise en stærk portfolio, en imponerende kundeliste og trives godt med både at nørde med detaljerne alene og udvikle løsninger i samråd med et team af faste eller freelance kolleger. Du kan gøre rede for et koncept både på skrift og ved et præsentationsmøde, du trives med at tage føringen og du kan lide at have kundekontakt.

Du har udviklet logoer, navnetræk og brands, kan udtænke koncepter på brand-niveau og til image-kampagner og udvikle idéer til interaktive websites. Og så er du detaljeorienteret nok til at sikre, at projektet bliver fulgt til dørs og leveret i høj kvalitet. Du har erfaring med at planlægge og gennemføre større projekter i samarbejde med strategikonsulenter, tekstforfattere og webudviklere.

We are very proud and exited to announce that we have been chosen to assist the City of Copenhagen in their pursuit to win the European Green Capital Award in 2014.

The prestigious award, which is given annually by the European Commission, is an endorsement of the winner as the most green city in Europe.

The City of Copenhagen has been shortlisted along with Bristol and Frankfurt Am Main to make a final presentation before a European Commission jury in Bruxelles on June 8. Stagis will assist the City of Copenhagen in creating a presentation that will highlight the unique “green” qualities that Copenhagen possesses.

In the process of identifying Copenhagen’s green qualities, Stagis will utilize a 3-part process involving culture, design and communication. First, we will identify and document specific examples of the City’s way of working with green solutions. Secondly, we will create a design for the presentation that will help to showcase these examples. Finally, we will produce a plan for communicating our findings in the final presentation and help to train the presenters.

During the months of April and May, we will work intensively on creating the best possible presentation of Copenhagen as Europe’s greenest Capital. If all goes according to plan, Copenhagen will be awarded the title of European Green Capital 2014 at the award ceremony in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain on June 29 2012.