Malmö Arena Talk

On May 1st, I celebrated three years as an independent consultant. Symbolically*, on the same date, I was signed as a business advisor for NyföretagarCentrum Öresund, the one year old agency counseling start-ups in Malmö. Now they’re expanding their team of advisors with two advisors focusing on making business across the Öresund, the hot-spot region of Southern Sweden (Malmö) and Copenhagen.

*Symbolic, because as part of the assignment, I learned that the definition of a start-up is exactly that: the first three years of a company’s life.

I find this a great way to combine my passion for entrepreneurship and business development in the area of culture and media with my long standing interest in Nordic co-operation. And I’m excited to be sharing the assignment with Dane Søren Lassen Andreassen.

Søren and I will be spending some time collecting information on Öresund business development and to establish out approach to Öresund business coaching, before we open for business mid-September at Öresund Direkt.

Our sessions will contain both traditional business development as well as basic information and references to authorities and information services on taxation, social aspects, hiring people etc. in the different countries.

Also, as a Nordic enthusiast with more than 7 years experience in planning and executing Nordic projects, I’m very aware of the cultural differences between our countries, which I think it will be important to bring to the attention of entrepreneurs looking to branch out across the Öresund.

Though it’s hard to compress this in a bullet point “to do” list, I think the essence here is awareness and curiosity. Understanding that there are differences in how we establish trust, make decisions and use humor is a good starting point to understanding that crossing market borders is also crossing cultural borders. And subtle differences can create the most difficulties: It’s easy to trip when you can’t see the hindrances.

So, as I will give to the start-ups: A little reading list for inspirational background and practical tips on inter-Nordic co-operation:

• Nyfiken på Danmark: Klokare på Sverige, Hanne Sanders (in Swedish)
• Når vikinger slåss, Kirsten Weiss (in Norwegian) – Article about this book (in Swedish)