I'm hooked on my new iPod (video). I've never purchased a CD on my own before. After I got my iPod, I've purchased music and videos from iTunes. This is a good example of how the overall market for music and old video content just increased. The pie just got bigger. iTunes has solved some of the problems with illegal music. They've succeeded with micro-transactions. It's easier to pay a small fee than to search for the content through file-sharing software. I save time and I avoid the risk of getting viruses and/or bad content. iTunes is a winner.

On another note, I just finished listening to the audiobook Freakonomics. The book should be required reading for all economics students.. Correction.. It should be required reading for everybody. It provides a down-to-earth perspective on practical use of advanced economic methods. An example. The sharp decrease in the crimerate in New York during the early 1990's was in large part a result of the legalization of abortion in 1973! The logic is simple. Kids that previously grew up in troubled homes with a high likelyhood of becoming criminals no longer grew up, because their mothers had an abortion. The book presents interesting examples on simple economic principles.

I wrote an article about e-mail marketing.

Bruk epost-nyhetsbrev for å få mer salg

Introduser et registreringsskjema på nettstedet ditt – gjerne etter et avsluttet kjøp. Husk å bygg tillit ved å fortelle mottakeren nøyaktig hva de kan forvente å motta fra deg. Få kunden til å kjøpe mer gjennom å:

• Promoter arrangement
  
• Sende ut rabattkuponger, spesialtilbud og andre gode tilbud
  
• Informere om nye produkter
  
• Promotere konkurranser
  
• Send ut påminnelser
  
• Gi kunder oppdateringer om hendelser, produktforbedringer, osv.

Bruk epost-nyhetsbrev for å bygge relasjoner

Send nyttig informasjon til interressenter som medlemmer, tidligere studenter, bidragsytere, sponsorer, kunder, tilhengere, aksjonærer og viktige meningspåvirkere:

• Del av din kunnskap og erfaring
  
• Informer om seminarer, konferanser og andre viktige hendelser
  
• Gi kunder beskjed om uforutsette hendelser eller planlagte reperasjoner
  
• Gi kunder beskjed om tjenesteforstyrrelser eller avbrudd.
  
• Tilby ferske nyheter om din bransje
  
• Tilby pressen en mulighet til å motta pressemelding
  
• Spre informasjon om temaer som er viktig for dine kontakter

Etabler mål og måleinstrumenter

Utform en plan for hva du vil opnå, og begynn å bygg en e-posteliste. Du kan ikke forvente å få allt riktig første gang – etabler mål og implementer måleinstrument for å måle effekten over tid. Viktige mål i e-postmarkedsføring er:

• Open Rate (krever HTML e-poster) Hvor mange har faktisk åpnet e-posten din. Er antallet lavt har du kanskje feil målgruppe eller en lite appelerende avsenderadresse eller emnefelt.
  
• CTR Hvor mange (%) klikket på linker i e-posten. Gir en svær god indikasjon på om det skriver er interressant for dem du henvender deg til.
  
• Conversion rate Hvor mange (%) av dem som klikket seg videre gjennomførte ønsket handling (kjøpt). Ikke glem målet med e-posten – gjennomfører mottakerne den handlingen du ønsker?
  
• Unsubcribe rate Hvor mange valgte å melde seg ut av nyhetsbrevet? Er denne veldig høy har du bommet med innholdet i e-posten. Er den veldig lav kan det tyde på at folk ikke har lest e-posten i det hele tatt – sjekk open rate!

Få de riktig personene på din e-postliste

For å komme i gang med et effektivt e-postmarkedsføringsprogram, må du bygge opp en e-postliste. De mest effektive listene er de du bygger opp selv. Dette kan gjøres ved å samle sammen e-postaddressene til dine eksisterende kunder, ansatte, partnere og leverandører. Innhent tillatelse til å sende dine kontakter e-post! Det er mange måte å promotere ditt e-postprogramm på:

1) På ditt eget nettsted – informer om hva mottakere vil få ut av nyhetsbrev. Dette skaper en forventning og øker sjansen for at e-posten blir lest. Det sikrer også at du får de riktige adressene på listen. Gjør innmelding enkelt – ikke vær redd for å ha et skjema på de fleste sidene på netstedet.

2) I korrespondanse med dine kontakter; på fakturaer, på brosjyrer, på emballasje, i kataloger og andre utseender og så videre. Oppgi webaddressen din på alt markedsføringsmateriale som går ut til kunder. Vær annerledes og trykk bedriftens webadresse på alle tenkelige steder. Sørg for at nyhetsbrevet finnes på en enkel adresse (URL) – eksempelvis: www.dinbedrift.no/nyhestbrev. Inviter partnere og kunder til å motta e-post med nyttig informasjon.

3) Kontaktpunkter. Samle sammen e-postaddresser på alle steder der du har kundekontakt. Det kan være utstillinger, konferanser og andre steder der din bedrift er representert. Frist med spesialtilbud til kunder som registrerer seg. La tilbudet være noe som primært er interressant for din målgruppe. Eksempelvis et whitepaper om et aktuelt tema. På denne måten unngår du freerollers og når frem til dem som er interresert i de du tilbyr.

GULLTIPSET: Sørg for at alle ansatte har link til påmeldingssiden i sin e-post signatur.

Hvordan utforme effektive e-postkampanjer

Når du skal utforme en e-post bør du ha følgende punkter friskt i minne:

• Vær direkte og relevant. Teksten bør begrenses til en side. Kom til poenget umiddelbart. Å Skrive e-post er forskjellig fra brosjyrer og annen DM, men de grunnleggende prinsippene er fremdeles gyldig: Skaff oppmerksomhet, vekk interesse, skap et behov og oppfordre til handling.
  
• Bruk grafiske elementer med omhu. E-posten du sender bør laste raskt i e-postleseren til mottakeren. Det er innholdet ditt mottakerne er interressert i, ikke hvor pent du klarer å presenterer det.
  
• Unngå vedlegg i e-poster.
  
• Avsnittene bør være korte. 4-5 linjer per avsnitt er passende.
  
• Kjenn leseren. Bruk ord og uttrykk som mottakeren kjenner til. Bruk "Buzzord" som du vet mottakeren reagerer på. Eksperimenter gjerne med ulike versjoner og mål effekten.
  
• Fokuser på fordelene for mottakeren.
  
• En tommelfingerregel for nyhetsbrev er at innholdet er 80% målrettet og relevant innhold og 20% "reklame".
  
• "Call to action". En god e-post forteller leseren nøyaktig hva de skal gjøre etter å ha lest e-posten. Det kan være å besøke et nettsted, abonnere på et produkt/tjeneste eller det kan være å ringe kontoret ditt.
  
• Tilbudet/informasjonen du sender bør inneholde noe som føles eksklusivt for mottakeren. Tilby et avslag i pris, et gratis Whitepaper eller noe annet som mottaker kan ha umiddelbar nytte av.
  
• Gi mottakeren en god grunn til å handle nå. Tidsbegrensete tilbud virker.
  
• Eksperimenter med avsendelsetidspunkt. Mandager og fredager er gjerne dårlige dager å sende e-post til forretningssegmentet. Finn ut hvilke dag og tid på dagen som passer best for din målgruppe.

GULLTIPSET: Sørg for at e-posten er leselig uten bilder og tekstbaserte e-postprogram.

Unngå disse feilene

Ikke gjør feil andre har gjort før, følgende råd skaper sikrer at mottakeren får tillit til ditt budskap:

• Send kun e-post når mottaker spesifikt har gitt deg tillatelse til å kommunisere via e-post.
  
• Alle e-poster bør tydelig kommunisere hvem som har sendt e-posten og hvordan man kan kontakte avsender på telefon eller per brev. Oppgi gjerne fullstendig kontaktinformasjon (adresse etc) i e-postem – dette er med på å skape tillit.
  
• "Fra" feltet er meget viktig – det bør være fra et troverdig og annerkjent navn. Man bør være konsekvent når det gjelder "fra" addressen. Vær nøye med å oppgi ditt firmanavn i e-posten.
  
• En god tekst i emnefeltet vil drastisk forbedre åpningsraten på en e-post, men ikke bruk "hype" og ikke lur kunden med misvisende emnefelt. Misleder du kunden en gang leser han kanskje aldri neste e-post. Emnefeltet bør fortelle leseren hva de kan forvente i e-posten!
  
• I e-posten er det viktig å minne leseren på hvorfor de får e-posten.
  
• Informer om frekvens på utseendelse.
  
• I alle e-poster som blir sendt bør det være en enkel måte å melde seg av e-postlisten.
  
• Husk å opplys om retningslinjer for personvern i alle e-poster.

Karl Philip Lund var leder for interaktiv markedsføring i flyselskapet Norwegian fra 2003 til 2005, og er nå med å starte opp netttjenesten www.studentrabatt.no. Christer Ljones jobber i Synlighet.no og er sertifisert Google Adwords Professional.

I found a new an interesting blog today. It's about Word of mouth marketing. I've seen it before, but today I actually read some of it: http://ads.womma.org

I've finally completed my move to the great city of Stockholm. The first two nights were spent on a matrass on the floor. No lights, no chairs and no tables. Pretty sad. Today my mom(!) came over from Oslo. I picked her up at the airport and we went to IKEA to shop. I really hate shopping....

IKEA has an interesting business model. They're very successful with it and they haven't focused to much on internet sales. I do, however, believe that an interesting model is emerging. My real estate agent actually told me about.

There's been a lot of talk about ordering online and getting everything delivered at home. There's also been alot of writing about ordering online and picking stuff up at the store. IKEA's model may turn out to be a different model.

The annoying thing about IKEA is that you go out there, find the stuff you want, you have to pick down everything on your own, you have to make sure that you get everything. Then you have to, if you're getting large stuff, arrange with home delivery. My real estate agent told me that it was a hazzle to make sure everything was there. He told me to go out there, write down everything I wanted and then order it online from home. IKEA would then pack all the stuff and ship it to my home. May IKEA should re-engineer how they do stuff and actually promote this way of doing business. It would be much more effective in the store and it would generate more money on shipping.

Managing time is important. Here are som interesting suggestions:

Each of the following will help you to get at least one more hour out of your day for additional productive time to do the things you really want to do. Try it.

1. Systematize. Stop reinventing the wheel and recreating the same things over and again. Create systems to handle repetitive tasks. For example, I have standard letters created and saved in my computer along with standard documents such as directions to my office and various articles I share with others. Be sure to have adequate supplies you can readily access. Use one calendar to keep track of appointments. Work with a clean desk and have most frequently used items within arm’s reach. Schedule maintenance for your equipment and yourself.


2. Plan Adequate Sleep. You can have a great to-do list for the next day, but if you are tired, your productivity will be adversely impacted. Schedule a sufficient amount of sleep, which is different for each of us. Some need eight hours, some more and some less. Your body knows the answer.


3. Take a Speed-Reading Class. The average person reads at about 200 words per minute and spends a couple of hours each day reading. What if you could double your reading speed? What takes two hours could be done in one hour. Or you could continue to spend the same amount of time reading, but read twice as much. Sign up for a speed-reading class.


4. Develop Your Communication Skills. A lot of your personal success will be in direct relationship to your ability to competently and confidently communicate what you know both orally and in writing. Make it an ongoing commitment to continue to improve your speaking and writing skills. You’ll save time and have a more successful career.


5. Develop Your People Network. High personal productivity has a lot to do with the good cooperation of other people. On an ongoing basis, develop your list of personal contacts, your networking list. Always offer to help everyone on your list whenever you can. ("To have a friend, first be a friend.") Do it right and your network will be there for you when you need it.

I found this at http://www2.darwinmag.com/read/feature/aug05_time.cfm. Pretty good reading.

Oops. Pretty bad day today. I drove my car off the road and into a tree. It was raining and it the road was slippery. The car was in pretty bad shape after the accident, but I was OK. Right before I drove off the road I heard on the radio that Sweden's King, Carl Gustav, had just had a traffic accident. His car looked better than mine:)

On another note, here's a great quote from Perry Marshall about Google Adwords:

This is about getting in front of people who are looking for what you sell right this moment and getting them to respond. It's about understanding your audience, refining your sales message, perfecting your sales process and determining your Return on Investment, faster than ever before in the history of marketing - and doing all of this for a very modest sum of money.

As you probably know, my girlfriend is on an interesting expedition to the Arctis. She's doing research on what has actually happen up there. A journalist from Aftonbladet is part of the expedition. She has her own blog: http://www.nordpolen.blogspot.com/ .

On Monday, August 15th, we're launching the next version of www.studentrabatt.no! You can check out the next version at www.studentrabatt.no/str2 . The new version has a cleaner design and more intuitive navigation. The new version will also launch in Sweden in a few weeks. It's fun to see that our hobby project from 2000 is still going strong. Data-entry is not very exciting, but the site is now more or less updated:)

Back in Gothenburg. Tomorrow my girlfriend is starting her journey towards the North Pole:) The boat has a tracking system so I can see where she is at all times. For the location of the boat(delayed 24 hours), click here.

Last week I came back from a week on the Algarve coast of Portugal. We spent a few days on Tavira Island and then we drove to Sagres on the tip of Portugal. It was a great vacation.

I've spent the last two days moving out of my apartment, working and reading about what will most likely be my new home. It turns out that the place I'm moving to is a modern, ecological part of Stockholm where resource effectiveness is the focus. If you read Norwegian, you can read more here. Pretty interesting. Now I'm selling off my polluting car (it's a pretty good deal I think) and moving to a environment-friendly neighborhood in the peaceful country of Sweden:) I just spent alot of money to replace the brakes on the car and fixed some other problems. I took the car to a Mercedez shop in Sweden so I think I saved a lot of money.

Other then that, I've read a lot about web project management the last couple of days. If you work with internet projects and you haven't read this book, you've missed out. I wish I read it years ago. Alot of the things in the book are obvious and the book confirms some of my opinions on old-fashion IT project management. The book also addresses some major issues when it comes to early stage "brainstorming".

I'm moving to Stockholm in October! I bought an apartment in Hammarby Sjøstad which is located close to the center of Stockholm:)

Things are moving along. I'm still waiting for the perfect apartment in Stockholm. Until then I'll be travelling back and forth between Oslo, Stockholm and Gothenburg. It's pretty tiring, but at least I get som travel experience.

Conversion rate is a the keyword of the week. Take a look at www.conversionchronicles.com . Pretty interesting reading. I also found out this week that a large ferry company in Scandinavia has approx. 0,5% conversion rate. This means that very few of their visitors end up with a purchase.

If 100 people visited the site, and the conversion rate was 10%, 10 people would end up with a purchase. If the conversion rate was 5%, 5 people would end up with a purchase. If the conversion rate was 1%, 1 person would end up buying. With a conversion rate of 0,5.. VERY few sales are made. Now consider making some simple changes that would triple the conversion rate.. how much would that be worth over a one-year period?

I did a quick review of the site and identified some simple quick-wins that will help the conversion rate. If you're interested in learning more about this, send me an e-mail at philip@studentrabatt.no ;)

No new books read this week. I'm still working on Seth Godins, Free Prize inside book.

I just finished reading "Winning" written by Jack Welch, one of the worlds most successful leader and former CEO of General Electrics. It's very interesting to relate the experiences of one of the most successful CEOs in the world with my own working experiences. In essence, I think this is one of the keys to learning; reading what smart people have thought and written about issues, and applying their learning and experiences to my life.

If that ultimately leads to happiness is difficult to say, but it allows me to critically evaluate the impressions I get from people and situations in my life. I believe that happiness is different for every person. Happiness for me is a set of people and situations that make me feel happy. This means that I have to maximize the time I spend with the the people(my girl-friend, my family, my friends, my boss) that make me feel happy and repeat the situations(soccer, hiking, travel, learning, teaching) that make me feel good.

I don't know if these thoughts are meaningful, but who really cares. They were thoughts and now they're also written down;) Now to the book:


Attributes of successful companies-- key points and my thoughts

Clear mission
They answer the question "How do we intend to win in this business?". The management of successful companies have an easy-to-understand and clear answer to this question.

My thoughts: At the beginning of my employment at my previous company, the mission was clear. We were going to beat our major competitor on price. Everybody in the company understood it. This was easy. Our major competitor was a behemoth with costs running out of control and we were small, dynamic and quick. As time went by, the competitor was able to reduce its costs and also focus on building company culture from within. This weakened our initial pricing answer. The management of my previous company was not able to convince me on how we were going to win when the price was equal. In order to continue to be successful, I believe they have to come up with a clear answer to the mission question. I could have written alot more here, but I've chosen to relate my comments to the key topics of the book.

Candor (means sincerity, honesty, openness)
They promote and reward candor within the organization. Lack of candor basically blocks smart ideas, fast action, and good people contributing all the stuff they've got. To get candor, you need to reward it, praise it, and talk about it. Make public heros of people who demonstrate it.

At the beginning of my employment, I felt I had a boss that supported me and took care of the political and organizational issues that were caused my candor and my direct approach to internal and external issues. I achieved alot and the results were both visible and measurable. At the same time I now understand that for every action I made, my first boss had to spend some political kapital to defend me. When my first boss left the company, my new boss was dedicated to continuing to defend my direct and sometimes unwise approach. As time went by, this became a tough weight to carry and eventually I felt like I had lost alot of my bosses support. In retrospect I see how my bosses action caused the organization to lose even more candor. At the end it seemed like nobody wanted to discuss the problems that obviously existed. It was easier to just NOT talk about them. The lack of honesty and openness between departments combined with inexperience and lack of skill eventually leads to inaction which in turn hurts the company. Welch also talks about layers of management and how all manager's with a GE leadership style immediately remove as much layers of management as possible. In a company with less than 500 people, it should not be necessary with 4-5 layers of management. I reported to my boss, she reported to a commercial leadership group, which reported to the main leadership group which reported to the CEO. I think Jack Welch immediately would remove the main leadership group.

Differentiation
Companies win when their top managers make a clear and meaningful distinction between top- and bottom-performing businesses and people, when they cultivate the strong and cull the weak. Welch makes a pretty strong argument that differentiation work all over the world(not only in the US).

Welch also focuses on that good companies focus on its people and that the director of HR should be one of the most important people in the company.

At my previous company, there was no incentive plans. This meant that you could work your ass off without reaping any rewards for your hard work. The director of HR had little influence and I met him twice(?)

What good leader do

1. Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach and build self-confidence.
2. Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it.
3. Leaders get into everyone's skin, exuding positive energy and optimism
4. Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, and credit.
5. Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls
6. Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with actions.
7. Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example
8. Leaders celebrate.

My first boss was a strategic thinker with alot of candor. In relation to me he evaluated, coached and built my self-confidence. He was able to communicate his vision to me, but he did not live and breathe it. He did not get into everybodies skin and he did not exude positive energy and optimism. He established trust with candor, transparancy, and credit with me and some other people, but not with everybody. He had the ability to make unpopular decisions and gut calls. He did cover point 6, 7 and partly 8. My second boss was a nice person with great skills and she is a good diplomat. She delivers good results and she also has the ability to celebrate. She exuded positive energy and optimism. Apart from that I feel that both my previous bosses have room for improvement and I think that together they would be a great team.

Hiring the right people

First you test for integrity, intelligence and maturity, then Welch uses the 4-E framework:
- Positive Energy
- The ability to Energize others
- Edge(the ability to NOT over-analyze all options before making decistions)
- Execution (the ability to "get things done")

In addition to the four E's, you should also look for passion when you hire people. When you become a leader, the rules change. Before, your job was about yourself. Now it's about them.

I understand in retrospect that my passion for the job could be perceived as lack of maturity and arrogance. I need to improve on this and respect everyone. At the same time I do have a lot of the other traits that are described in the book.

When you have the right people..

1. Elevate HR to a position of power and primacy in the organization
2. Use a rigorous, nonbureaucratic evaluation system, monitored for integrity
3. Create effective mechanisms- read: money, recognition, and training - to motivate and retain.
4. Face straight into charged relationships- with unions, stars, sliders, and disrupters
5. Fight gravity, and instead of taking the middle 70% for granted, treat them like the heart and soul of the organization.
6. Design the org. chart to be as flat as possible, with blindingly clear reporting relationships and responsibilities.

Some good advice that needs to be followed!

Crisis management

Assumption 1: The problem is worse than it appears

Assumption 2: There are no secrets in the world, and everyone will eventually find out everything

Assumption 3: You and your organization's handling of the crisis will be portrayed in the worst possible light.

Assumption 4: There will be changes in processes and people. Almost no crisis ends without blood on the floor.

Assumption 5: The organization will survive, ultimately stronger for what happened.

No crisis have occured:)

About competition and strategy

When it comes to strategy, ponder less and do more. If you want to read about NOT to do it, go to page 181 (this is how one of my former employers did it;)

First, come up with a big aha for your business - a smart, realistic, relatively fast way to gain sustainable competitive advantage.

Second, put the right people in the right jobs to drive the big aha forward.

Third, relentlessly seek out the best practices to achieve your big aha, whether inside or out, adapt them, and continually improve them.

Using budgeting and compensation to gain a competive advantage

Answer two basic questions:

1. How can we beat last years performance?
2. What is our competition doing, and how can we beat them?

The key is: "Compensation for individuals and businesses is not linked to performance against budget. It is linked primarily to performance against prior year and against the competition, and takes real strategic opportunities and obstacles into account".

Six Sigma

Once you understand the simple maxim "variation is evil", you're 60% of the way to becoming a six sigma expert yourself. The other 40 percent is getting the evil out.

When good people leave..

Every person who leaves goes on to represent your company. They can bad-mouth or praise.

The way you act before, under, and after an employment situations affects your reputation - on both sides. I'm not impressed:)

After a week in Boston, I travelled to Istanbul, Turkey to attend the Champions League final between Liverpool and AC Milan. The game was a blast that Milan set off by scoring in the first minute. After the first half the Italian team were ahead by 3-0. As a Liverpool-fan, I saw no hopes of winning. We had paid a lot of money just to see our favorite team lose to a much better team in the final of the worlds most prestigious club championship. We were disappointed but we sang along when the hardcore Liverpool-fans sang the famous song "You'll never walk alone". It seemed that the song revived the hopes of Steven Gerrard and the other Liverpool-player. The six magical minutes in the second half will stick to my memory for years to come. The game ended 3-3 and Liverpool went ahead to win the penalty shootout. The afterparty was affected by bad logistics planning by the Turkish officials. The roads to and from the game moved very slowly and most of the fans didn't get in to town until 3 am!

Affiliate programs are interesting. The idea is to reduce the customer acquisition cost by paying small sites to promote your own site and pay them on a cost per action basis. Examples of this are www.flysiden.no , www.flybilligst.com , www.bestepriser.com and more. They present existing information in a new way and earn money by generating sales for the companies that run the affiliate programs. A good place to learn more about affiliate programs is: http://money.howstuffworks.com/affiliate-program.htm

Today I testet Keyhole.com. It's amazing and scary. In the movies Enemy of the state and Minority report, we see how the government can track down individuals using advanced satelite pictures. This is now available to the general public through Keyhole. I tried it and I was able to see the cars parked outside the house I lived in when I went to PLU. Truly amazing. Google has acquired the service and will develop it further. Google's search technology combined with a powerful imagry service like Keyhole will be an interesting combination. If you add GPS on all mobile phones, anybody can see where you are at any given time. I need to read George Orwell's book, 1984;)

Yesterday I quit my job as Director of interactive marketing at Norwegian. It's been fun and I feel I have accomplished alot. During my time at Norwegian, we have:

• made www.norwegian.no one of the most visited websites in Norway
• increased the online booking percentage from 50% to almost 80%
• launched a successful e-mail marketing program
• reduced the response time to customers by over 150%
• become highly focused on tracking marketing campaigns
• implemented a new online booking engine that makes it easy to book airline tickets
• received recognition for being the best airline website in Europe (in Norwegian)
• received recognition from the Norwegian Consumer Agency for being customer friendly (read more).
• become visible in all the major search engines through organic and paid listings
• grown passed SAS Braathens(the largest airline in Scandinavia) in terms of internet traffic
• in cooperation with hotell.no become the major player for hotel bookings in Norway
• been invited to tell the story about the success of www.norwegian.no (read more)

My next job will be at studentrabatt.no ANS, a company I co-founded in 2000. Revenues are up and finally I can work full-time with my own business. To be continued..

Spring is coming. Summer is around the corner. Hiking is wonderful. I think walking stimulates the mind and brings new perspective on the world. Yesterday I met my mom to look at new cars for both of us:) Since neither of us really care about what type of car we drive, we went on a walk instead. A wonderful walk around a lake in Oslo(Sognsvann). After the walk, we ate lunch and talked. Today I bought a new baking oven. The new one is very nice, but I doubt that I'll start making alot of quality meals.

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..

I had an interesting experience with an intense customer today. The customer hand-delivered a complaint about a bug in the Norwegian booking engine. The complaint was sent to our customer relations department. They contacted me to discuss the issue. We sent a response, but the customer was not satisfied with the response. Since I was on vacation in Australia, it took quite a bit of time to respond to the customer. When I came I responded to the customer once again. He responded again and we had a discussion going. I went to Linkedin and searched for the customer's name. It turned out that he knew one of my connections. He also had knowledge about a topic where my skills are very limited. I used a random customer response in combination with a personal contact CRM connection to make a connection. I think it's interesting....... A lot of the people that use Linked in are so-called "sneezers", people that spread the word. Customers that complain really care. They spend their valuable time to complain about something... They're similar to the people that call the 1-800 number that's printed on bars of soap.. The type of people that call this number are really valuable customers..

One of the most frustrating things in professional life is working with people that don't care. Another frustrating is working with incompetent people that are not interested in learning!

Warren Buffet seeks to invest in companies where the employees have "ownership". By this he means that he looks for companies where employees are careful with the companies money. They don't spend money easily and they have a loyalty-feeling to the companies stockholders.

Last year a friend of mine told me that successful businesspeople often make presentations. I like to think of myself as successful. Even though I hate presenting in front of a crowd, I say "yes" to speaking engagements because I have a strong desire to be a successful business person... Is this a self-fulfilling prophecy? Anyway, in June I'll be presenting at a conference along with a lot of famous people! Not bad...

I'll also be presenting at a conference in Oslo in June. Read more about that here

The cool thing about speaking engagements is that I force myself to learn new stuff. Here are a few interesting sites:

http://www.womma.org/ - Word of Mouth Marketing Association.
http://www.bzzagent.com/ - A very interesting idea.

Back from Australia. It was a great trip. The trip took about 20 hours. I'm totally caught by jetleg and I woke up at 4 am this morning. We went to Brisbane, Sydney, Fraser Island, Herron Island (click on the link for more info on the islands) and Melbourne. Fraser Island is the worlds largest sand island. Emma and I had great time together and I'm planning to move to Stockholm pretty soon....

On the cultural side, we attended the opera "Carmen" in the Sydney Opera House. It was a very warm experience. The air condition in the building was not very effective. Here's some pictures from our vacation.

I did some reading on my trip to Australia. I finished up Victorian Internet, which compares the telegraph with the modern internet. Pretty interesting book that is light reading with interesting observations about innovation.

I also read a book about the world's most successful investor, Warren E. Buffet. His book, Buffett : The Making of an American Capitalist follows Buffet from his early childhood to the present day. His investing record is truly amazing and he has consistently beat the market the last 30 years. His successful investing style is explained here. It looks easy, but if it was so easy, everybody would be doing it. I like Buffet's down to earth personality and his ability to explain things in its simplest form. Simplicity is genious!

The final book I read through was a book about Richard Branson called Losing my Virginity. This autobiography introduces the founder of Virgin Atlantic, the successful low-cost airline that fought a vicious battle with British Airways. Richard Branson is a risk-taker that has succeeded(So far).

I just checked in at a hotel in London. Tomorrow I'll be attending some travel conference somewhere in London. The hotel has a wireless connection, but I have to sit down in the lobby to access it. Wireless networks are popping up everywhere. Soon we'll have wireless phones with direct always-on access to the internet. What will happen to the phone companies?

I'm reading the book Victorian Internet for the 3rd time. I covers the first real worldwide network; the telegraph. The book compares the telegraph with the internet. Pretty interesting to read how there were geeks and techies back then as well. Even more interesting to read how these technology freaks became absolete when the technology went from technology controlled to business controlled. We are seeing the same trend when it comes to the internet.

SMS marketing is getting pretty hot. Consider a medium where the advertisers pay someone to receptable for well-targeted ads. The recipient controls what type of ads they want to receive and at what rate they receive it. Wouldn't it be great to be able to let the newspapers and TV stations know what type of products and services you're interested in and then get paid everytime you viewed them? The term infomediary comes to mind. It's an old term, but a very interesting one..

I forgot to mention that I'm heading down to Australia for a couple of weeks. I've never been there and I think it'll be fun:)

I'm meeting Emma down there! What an adventure. My boss got a little upset when I forgot to tell her how long I was staying down there. I'm getting a little tired of my job. To much politics and discussions and not enough action. It's depressing to work with people that are more focused on going through the motions(processes), rather than worrying about the results. I guess it's a conflict in philosophies? What do I know?

Sometimes it seems like people are more interested in finding problems than finding solutions.. I wish I didn't care, but that's not part of my nature.

Well.. hopefully a couple of weeks "down under" will get me back on top;)

Happy new year. A new year with new opportunities. Yesterday I decided to go visit Australia. I've never been there, so it's about time. I'm leaving on February 7 from London. What a blast!

I finally sold the Jeep I imported from the US. I got cash and a Mercedes E230 in exchange. Nice little profit.

Finally I got some help at work! I actually have two people to help me with the internet initiative at www.norwegian.no ... One of the guys has experience from EBookers. He's seems talented and works hard. He's a smooth talker and easy to work with. He has some very good connections in India that will help us with som search engine optimization.

The other guy is a web designer. He's a hard working guy... We finally got moving on a new web development project. We've chosen to work with Apt. They have a good reputation and has done some amazing stuff.

I went to Stockholm last weekend and spent some quality time with my girlfriend. We stayed in a nice hotel and had nice and romantic weekend. I actually enjoyed SHOPPING! What a disaster.. People are asking when we're getting married.. I'm getting tired of the question.