What a wonderful Easter vacation! Emma and I spent 3 wonderful sunny days in Lillehammer. We got up early every morning and went skiing in the Olympic downhill slopes of Hafjell. We spent alot of time with my brother and his family.

I've started to read "Intelligent Investor", a book written by Warren Buffet's mentor Ben Graham. It's a different book than what I usually read so it will take som effort to complete.

On another note, I've been following The Word of Mouth Marketing Association. WOMMA focuses on word of mouth marketing techniques such as the art of honest, authentic two-way communications with customers. Blogs, communities, viral marketing, buzz, evangelism, word of mouth, and other new techniques are creating a fundamentally more open relationship between businesses and the people they serve. I will be following these guys closely. Very interesting...

I read Seth Godin's blog today. He was asked how to build an e-mail list. He answered:

"I told her that the first step was to offer something in your email newsletter that people would actually want to read. That the second step was to promise people exactly what you intended to give them. And the third step was to create content that was so remarkable that people wanted to share it. I explained that if you take your time and keep your promises, it'll build if it deserves to build."

Pretty interesting..

Easter vacation is just around the corner. I'm heading up to Lillehammer, the olympic host of 1994. Emma is flying in on thursday and we're driving up in the evening.

Last week Norwegian.no was rated the best airline website in Europe. The independant review was done by the respected consumer magazine www.dinside.no (roughly translated to"your side/page"). We beat Ryanair, SAS, Sterling, FlyNordic and many more.. The only differentiatiors was our "Low fare calender", which shows all the prices to one destination in a calender format. It's not unique, but it appeals to customers that are price aware.

Other job news; I am speaking at another conference http://www.estrategi.no/konferanse . Estrategi is one of the leading publications when it comes to strategy and the web..

One strategic dilemma that Norwegian has these days is whether to select a focused product promotion strategy or a wide approach. By this I mean;

Focused product promotion is to focus on the core business of selling more airline tickets to our customers. We can still promote 3 party products, but our focus is on selling airline tickets.

Wide approach is becoming more of a travel agency. Doing everything yourself.

It's an interesting dilemma that reminds me of the Amazon.com vs. eToys dilemma. This dilemma ended up with Etoys going out of business, while Amazon.com created a joint venture with Toys 'R Us.

I think the correct approach is to look for strategic partnerships where each party keeps a focus on their own core competency. If you look at Amazon.com today, the entire Toys section is branded with Toys 'R Us. I believe this has proved over time to be the winning strategy. Strategic partnerships where you benefit from the "start-up spirit" and new technology of Amazon.com while the large brandname Toys 'R us brings the experience from the toy industry and the infrastructure.

The good thing about blogging is that you don't have to worry that much about grammer and sentences making sense;)

Another winter day in Norway. I was just invited to yet another wedding. This time in the USA.

Tomorrow is friday. The weeks pass by quickly. I'm heading off to Stockholm tomorrow. Spending the weekend. Might look for some apartments.. Nothing new. Had coffee with an old friend yesterday. We discussed all kinds of stuff. Very interesting..