Yesterday, I got the question “why do you blog?” of course I had around a million answers to respond with. Then I realized that the reason the person asked was not to find out why I blogged but to see if there was any reason to why he should blog.
This got me thinking about what [...]
Archive for October, 2009
What is the art of powering through?
Posted By Annelie Näs on October 28th, 2009
Everyone is different and thus work in different ways. I guess this is also the case when it comes to getting things done. Now, I have not read the book “Getting things done,” which I have been meaning to, so my opinion might change. But for now, I would say that everyone has different ways to complete their todo-list. That is if you even keep a todo-list.
As you know, from a previous post I have a todo-list actually I have a to-do book. Keeping a list makes me more structured and help me to not forget about those smaller things that could make a difference, but is not really super important. Anyway, I am usually very good at getting things done and thus crossing them of the list. But once in a while I find myself struggling with one or two of the things I need to get done, for various reasons. I am sure you recognize the situation.
Anyway, in the past I usually dealt with the situation by doing everything else on the list until the only thing I had left was the thing I really dreaded doing. This used to work very well, and I was happy keeping it this way because I spent most of my time doing the things I liked to do. However, this stopped working the day my list grew longer and the things I was postponing became more time consuming. Thus, instead of only postponing them until I had to complete them, I ended up never doing them, because never managed to get everything else done. So to not be known as someone who did not keep her word, and most for my own sake, I needed to find a solution, and I did.
I decided to complete my todos in a hierarchal order no matter how much I was dreading them, the only time I am allowed to bend this rule is for things that come with a time-frame. Said and done, I began following my new rule. Which worked great for a while, and I got a few things I really dreaded to do crossed off.
However, when I again ended up in a situation where there were less things on my list, I realized that I not only neglected the highest priority things, I did nothing else either. I got lazy! So, perhaps I should change back to my previous rule, since that worked better when I had less things going on?
Do you have a todo-list? What are your secrets to getting things done? How do you power through those things that you really do not feel like doing?
Are male organizations Taboo? – Day 2 in St. Petersburg
Posted By Annelie Näs on October 21st, 2009
Sightseeing in the center of Saint Petersburg
Before we arrived the schedule for the week was not set in stone. A few things changed and a few others were not on the schedule because they were surprises. One of them was the sightseeing walk in the city center combined with some shopping.
One participant from the meeting at the municipality of Russia, Anna and her friend Arseniy and our translator Elena picked us up at the hotel at ten o’clock and took us into the city with a trolley bus. You know one of those busses that run on electricity which is taken from a trail of wires that are connected with the roof of the bus. Both Anna and Arseniy are still attending the university, and have been very active in the teenager + organization that I mentioned yesterday. When meeting the two of them you get even more examples of how cultural Saint Petersburg is, since Anna used to be a tap dancer and Arseniy is an acrobat and sings. Elena our translator is also a very fascinating young woman, as she speaks Russian, English, Finnish and Estonian fluently after graduation from the university last year.
As I was about to tell you these fascinating young people took us on the trolley bus into the must central part of the city and we got off on the famous Nevsky prospect which is one of the biggest streets in Saint Petersburg. According to Bodil and I almost everything in Russia is huge, not on the height but in all other ways it is massive.
Anyway they walked us around to some off the most famous building, statues and monuments and told us about the history of them. We also learned that there are many myths about the statues in the city. One statue was of a photographer with an umbrella with is dog, and the myth about this statue is that if you touch the tongue of the dog it will bring you money. Ofcourse we touched the tongue! On the same street the corners were decorated with cats. The cats use to be seen as protectors as they protected people from diseases carried with the mice. This time the myth says that if you throw a coin to one cat you get a wish.
The Cathedral of the Spilled Blood
We continued to walk around the centre and saw one of the ballet theaters, the biggest museum with Russian artists and my absolute favorite “The Cathedral of the Spilled Blood” it is incredible to look at. When we came to Saint Petersburg we were told that the city is the cultural capital of Russia and I completely believe them. There is culture in every street, building and person from the city. I cannot recall how many times I have so far asked how come they know so much about their city and the reason seems to be that it is because they love it.
The sightseeing walk in the center ended with a lunch at a typical soviet styled café. In the cafe Bodil, Janis and Tuukka tried dumplings, a typical Russian dish, while I got to enjoy yet another meal with fish. I am really starting to understand that vegetarians have a hard time enjoying a meal at a restaurant in Russia, since there is only fish to choose from. We also got to try typical Russian coffee which is very sweet.
Russian market & the water museum
After lunch we went to the oldest market in St. Petersburg. Apparently the square where it is located used to be place for both trade and public executions, not at the same time of course but we were told that the feelings you get from the atmosphere is contradictive because of this. Personally I was too interested in experiencing the market as it is today, to reflect on what feelings the square might have expressed. At the market we got to see how cheap Russia can be for us Scandinavians. I for example bought a pair of real leather gloves for 7.5 EUR.
After the market we continued to the museum of water, which was absolutely fabulous. We began our tour by learning the story of a symbol for how water works that were a part of the floor in the museum. During the visit at the museum we got to see a few videos, the first one demonstrated the power of water in its different forms, such as snow and ice. We got to see how water affects life and death, trough avalanches and floods and the life in the sea etc. The movie was very powerful and you felt it in your heart. We also got to see examples of how research has shown that water has a memory. And another movie with footage from floods in Saint Petersburg from the beginning of the 20th century. There was also a monument for all the floods in the city.
Today’s meeting
The museum visit and the tour around the center gave us a better picture of the city and its history, and I think all of us wanted to learn more. But when leaving the museum, we were not heading home to rest after a long day, but instead to change and get ready to today’s meeting. This meeting was at the consulting group “TEAM.” There we got to meet three very interesting young people with different professions in different spheres.
First we listened to Victoria, a human resource professional who where only a few years out of school, and already lead her own project at the Hermitage. The project was called “Photosphobos” which in Latin means photos phobia. It is a photo expedition by two photographers. One called “new Hermitage” and is based on pictures from the reconstruction, and the other one is called the Hermitage by night and as the title states it is of photos taken of the Hermitage at night.
Next up was Andrey a former art student who now worked with graphic design for the biggest design company in Saint Petersburg. Andrey is an extremely talented artist, and showed us his portfolio which contains both paintings, drawings, sketches and graphics, each more impressive than the other. Although he did not talk about being a painter he most talked about the advertising that they have done. One particular project was a calendar for Microsoft pushing for the use of legal software which his company of course uses.
Last up was another man named Andrey who actually worked as a consultant for the firm “TEAM” that was responsible for the meeting. He talked about a few different social projects that he was involved in. The one who stuck with me was a society for men who have been abusers in the home, and how they support one another to get away from such behavior. Andrey talked about the face that male organizations are very taboo, and that they have to struggle because of this.
When they day was over we were more than exhausted and enjoyed a nice dinner before we went to bed to catch some sleep before the next adventure: Vyborg.
Posted in Annelie's Musings
Small Business Growth At The Municipality Of Moskovsky District – day 1 in St. Petersburg
Posted By Annelie Näs on October 14th, 2009
The Journey to St.Petersburg
The trip began early this morning, which mean that I caught the first bus to the airport at 5.10. Before this I had manage to take a shower, but my stomach was screaming for food and a cup of coffee would definitely have done wonders.
When I got the airport there was no line to the check-in, because most people check in online nowadays. That is people with a printer, since it apparently is required to print the boarding pass at home if you check in online. How are people who only travel occasionally supposed to keep up?
Anyway, since my bank had told me that they could not make a money exchange to Russian Rubel, I wanted to change money at the airport. Only at the airport I found out that the exchange office was closed and I was on my way to Russia without any cash, great! Instead I focused on my next mission food, which was more difficult than expected since airport food cannot manage the combination sandwich without meat and seeds, it was either or. So I ended out with two mini-yogurts. But as I had a Starbucks coffee in my hand I was not too disappointed.
Anyway, my journey to St. Petersburg was in general very uneventful. I had a layover in wonderful Denmark, a great idea since I got both a sandwich without meat and seeds and a few hundred Rubels. And by the time I got on the next flight I had no worries.
However, my luck was about to change again as I got in the airport in St. Petersburg, only to find out that they had lost my luggage somewhere. Later I found out that at least from Finland there are only three flights a week to St.Petersburg, so I could only hope that this was not the case from Denmark.
Anyway without a change of clothes or any idea of where the rest of my team was, I sat down in the car with the Non-English speaking driver who was going to get me to the next meeting. (I had to come a day later than the others because I had to work Monday)
The first meeting
The first meeting was at the Young Entrepreneurs at the municipality of Moskovsky district of Saint-Petersburg. And the first thing that you should know, is that in the Nordic countries we mean young people, under 30 perhaps who are entrepreneurs. Here they have another definition; a young entrepreneur is someone who recently started a business, no matter the age of the person.
The municipality of Moskovsky’s main goal is growth of small business. Today there are more than 16000 small business and 4500 individual entrepreneurs in the district, which have 300.000 inhabitants. The district has the highest quantity of small businesses in St.Petersburg and there are entrepreneurs in all different areas.
At the municipality we got a few presentations about different programs that the Moskovsky district has been working on. One that started this September is a new grant program for small businesses.
The grant program is open for anyone with a startup company. The business owners can apply to get 70 % (max 300.000 RUB) of their budget paid for from this government program, and this is money given to them, meaning that they do not have to pay them back. The only requirements are that the owners have a business plan and that they attended seminars in business development. Ofcourse the grant givers track the money and the receivers have to be able to explain every Rubel spent. I found this program very inspiring, so far 48 people have got the grant which gives them a great opportunity to succeed with their small business.
This is only one of the programs that they provide. The municipality of Moskovsky has a lot of smaller goals to help them improve the growth of small business. For example they arrange conferences and seminars to teach entrepreneurs about how different thing work, such as renting offices, taxes and entrepreneurial rights. They also participate in the law making for entrepreneurship. Another great service is that they always have the door open if entrepreneurs want to come and businesses idea or problems etc.
All this is only a few examples of that the government and the municipality of Moskovsky are working on, and they are all great example of how much Russia has changed during the resent years.
Another interesting organization that was presented was teenage +. It is an organization for teenagers between the age of 13-19 where the main goal is to develop leader qualities in young people. Something I found very promising. This goal is reached by letting young people participate in for example social and charity events, such as visiting old people, plant trees and keep the city and the playgrounds clean. The organization is founded by private contacts such as entrepreneurs and public organizations and as mention before the municipality of Moskovsky. The organization also arranges seminars, training and summer camps where the young members can get more theoretical knowledge and practice.
After the meeting a few of the participants took us on a sightseeing trip in a small bus around the Moskovsky district.
The evening
As I arrived fashionable late to the trip, the meeting I wrote about was the only one I took part in on Tuesday, and I must say that I found it very fascinating. They have a lot of good ideas and concepts, even though the grant for example does not really help entrepreneurs that do not have funds to cover the rest etc.
After the meeting we left our Russian hosts and went to eat a three course meal at a restaurant near the hotel, and even though I could not wait to see the rest of the city, I was too tired to begin with that after the meal. So instead my team mates and I spent the rest of the evening at the hotel catching up. It is amazing how many business ideas we could come up with only by having a conversation.
And for you who might wonder, our third participant Michael could not join us for the trip due to problems with the visa.
Posted in Annelie's Musings
4 improvements that would make SAS unbeatable
Posted By Annelie Näs on October 13th, 2009
First, I have to make it clear; I like SAS as an airline. I fly with them often and I am a Eurobonus member. I feel very safe when flying with them and think that I can count on them for being on time. During all my years of flying SAS I think they have been delayed around three times, and that is a very good result considering my amount of travelling.
However, there are a few areas in which they definitely could improve. If they had all these following requests I would probably choice to only fly SAS, but because they do not I fly with other carriers sometimes.
The possibility to:
• Make multi-destination bookings. On the SAS website you can only book return flights to the same destination as you came from. For example if I fly from Stockholm to London I cannot book the return flight to Copenhagen on that same booking. If I want to fly like that I have to make two separate one-way bookings. This is obviously time-consuming and annoying since I cannot see my whole flight plan as I book it.
• Bring extra baggage for a fee. If you want to check in two pieces of luggage in economy class you cannot pay for the extra luggage as a second piece. Instead you have to pay per extra kilo. The price per kilo is about 70 SEK, which mean that if I bring a bag of ten kilos I might pay more for that bag than for the actual flight ticket. This is definitely a problem for those who move abroad to study or work for a longer period of time and want to bring some extra baggage, especially for those who study online who are already short on cash.
• Eat for free on-board. When I began flying SAS, they always offered a complementary meal onboard the airplane. A few years later they stopped offering a free meal after ten o’clock, but kept the complementary breakfast on the morning flights. Today they charge for all food in the economy class (even on international flights through Europe), and since you cannot preorder you never know what will be available. And if you have happened to be a vegetarian or vegan you better bring your own food since there are meal alternatives for you. Personally I would definitely pay more for the ticket if I could get food onboard, at least in the morning, since I usually do not have time to eat before you leave for the airport if you fly out early. If it is too expensive to do this, at least offer the possibility to order food when you book your ticket.
• Get help with Eurobonus via SAS. A while ago my Eurobonus card stopped working and I had to order a new one. As I realized this while I was at the airport I went to the SAS customer care only to find out that they could not help me and that I would have to call or contact Eurobonus online. Fine I thought and did that later, but when I think about it, I would have been much more pleased with the SAS customer service if they would have helped me issue a new card. Because for me as a customer I see Eurobonus as a service from SAS. If I perceived it that way should the system work that way as well?
I know that SAS is famous for keeping the flights on-time and for their work on making flying more environmentally friendly, and I would really like to see them succeed with the last one. But imagine how much more money they could spend on these goals if all their flights where full since customers enjoyed flying with them so much? Customers first, always!
Anyway, SAS I love to fly with you, but making this changes would make me choice your airline everytime!
Posted in Annelie's Musings
IKEA Let The Customers Spread The Word Via Facebook
Posted By Annelie Näs on October 11th, 2009
I am usually impressed by how IKEA manage to keep their advertising and marketing very current so they play on what is actually going on in the world. Like their metro adds in Washington DC, around the 2009 election.
Pictures by buschap
A few days ago I found this new Swedish campaign where they use let people invite their friends to a breakfast at IKEA, via Facebook.
The ad read: “Invite your best Facebook-friend to breakfast. Click here”
then it switch to a picture of two Facebook user and breakfast
and it says “Cris treated Anton to breakfast at IKEA. ten SEK/two people. (Two for the price of one.)”
If you click on the ad you get to a Facebook application that they have built for this. The application allows you to invite your friend to breakfast by posting an invitation to your friends wall as well as an invitation to use the application. And of course you can write a personal message along with the invitation if you want to.
People often talk about building viral marketing campaigns. That means that the message you want to send is spread trough social networks and the internet by the users through word of mouth. I think this IKEA campaign is a great example of a successful viral campaign as people benefit from it.
Ten SEK is a bit more than one dollar, and who would not want to have breakfast for that amount with a friend. Also I think Ikeas is often a place where you go as to with your family, by expanding that to a place where you go shopping with your friends, the number of visits to IKEA will increase per person.
Thus this marketing campaign is not only spread by the customers, the customers are also reminding one another that IKEA, is a place where you could take your friend just because its it pleasant to meet.
Can you see other benefits with the campaign that you want to share? Or can you find a disadvantage to share?
If you want to see more examples of IKEA check out these pictures
Posted in Social Media
Get better by saying NO and succeed
Posted By Annelie Näs on October 5th, 2009
I am one of those people who have a really difficult time saying no. Especially when it comes to things I enjoy, but also when it comes to doing people a favor. My problem is so big that the parents of my friends started telling my mom that I would get burned out when I was only 14. I am still not close to burned out and I will not be as long as I remember how and why to say no.
But I’m not supposed to talk about me; I just want to remind all other people like me why it is sometimes better to say no.
Many students who have shown their capability in the beginning of their study program start getting a few or more offers as they reach graduation day. By this time they also start feeling the pressure of having to find a job and mange to support themselves after school. Thus it is easy to begin accepting every offer, take extra classes etc. To make sure, that you have done your best when it is time to graduate.
Of course this might be the best you can do and it could open a lot of opportunities. But it could also mean that you are taking on too much, and that is the danger of it all. If you start taking on too much you cannot longer perform the best at everything you do, and will have to start compromising to have time to get everything done.
This mean that you can end up on the “okey” pile in a lot of what you do instead of the “excellent” pile in everything you do. And which one of these piles will matter in the end?
Surely this is not only a problem that students face, but that all human who strive to be the best and to succeed. You can be at many stages in your development, sometimes you have to get better at your weaknesses and other times you should focus on what your good at etc. But either or you should never take on too much at the same, time leading to not succeeding in anything.
Because after all people like successful people and head hunters want the best! Show yourself that you can do a few things great and believe in what you do and they will see it as well.
The To Do book makes me more efficient
Posted By Annelie Näs on October 4th, 2009
Once again I’m going to mention one of those small things that make a difference :D
A few weeks ago I went in to the store Hema to buy a few things for school. As I love stores like that and can walk around in them for hours, of course a spent a little extra time in the store this time as well.
Then I found the book in the pictures, a “To do” book with lists and a place to cross them off. On one side of the paper you find the “To do” lists and on the other there is a section for taking notes.
It amazing how this book have managed to make me so much productive for the last couple of weeks, thus I recommend everyone who like lists to buy one. I have made lists on my own before but for some reason crossing things off in this book make me feel so much more effective.
Therefore I recommend all why want to get productive to buy a “To do” book!
….Now I have to cross off “blog about to do book” on the list!
Posted in Annelie's Musings
Give the yearly profit to your employees
Posted By Annelie Näs on October 3rd, 2009
Åke Persson the owner of Montior has decided that for the next eight years he will split the company profit among his 80 employees. Persson says to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet “I’m already a multimillionaire why should my employees be it as well? After all, some of them are smarter than I.”
The profit is looking to be around 500 million SEK (Around 13 million dollars), but it could turn in to more according to Persson. How the spit among the employees are made is set by the number of hours they work and how much their colleagues like them.
The process of whom gets what: The 80 employees will grade one another from 1-5 and the grade will be multiplied with the amount for hours worked by that person. Persson guess that each employee will get among 150 000 and 600 000 SEK (20.000 to 80.000 USD) during the first year.
We can only assume that Åke Person will have a large amount of job applications on his desk on Monday and why should it not be? Who would not want to have a boss like that?
Do you know a similar story? Would you consider sharing the profits with your employees? Do you believe that this will work?
Personally I think that the idea, and the concept is great, the only concern I have is that it will change the atmosphere at the office. However if the employees manage to handle this in a good way and Persson can help them keep a good atmosphere in the office, I think this is great, it definitely puts adds to being a real team.
Posted in Annelie's Musings
Rookie mistake: I forgot to proofread the title!
Posted By Annelie Näs on October 2nd, 2009
Ok, so honestly even when I proofread there is mistakes in my posts. Primarily because English is not my first language but also because I just do not see the mistakes sometimes. I am especially bad at this when I am trying to proofread something I just wrote, because I tend to read what I was supposed to write and not what I ended up typing.
I have got the advice: write and leave the post for a few days or at least hours before you proofread it. But for some reason this habit seems to be difficult to get into. Anyway, except for this post which I just have to publish because I feel ashamed for missing a flaw in the title of yesterdays post, I will try to follow this advice in the future. Wish me luck!
Posted in Annelie's Musings
