It has really dawned on me that I am actually a walking version of Lidl - personified in the Norwegian society.
A successful formula elsewhere, I am hitting the buffers of being taken seriously here and am once again being side lined for a Norwegian to get a creamy job like the one I have had until now.
In my line of work they are just looking for something and won't see that other products may fit perfectly.
Just like Lidl, I lack the recognisable, colloquiol brand names on my CV: , Grimstad Høyskole, BI, Statoil and so on...
Lidl was great- huge success in many countries who get the thing about central purchasing and no frill service and shelving. Here in Norway it bommed while over the border in Sweden it seems to be thriving. Why ? It was full of immigrants and although they did a cow turning on local brands on the shelves, it never got the high spending, once a week fill ups which other countries did. It didn't establish credibility because it was both alien and did not try hard enough to fit in.
Hmm, where do I get the feeling I could be describing myself?
tirsdag 18. september 2012
tirsdag 11. september 2012
Once again I have broken my own rules and taken a job which has, ahem, evolved in a direction I have no wish for it to go, and in effect not just a boring one but also a dead end for me.
It does give me however, 6 months of useful experience: but then all the invoices and VOR's will come in and it will be a nightmare.
Actually this isn't particularily Norsk : if you start a job with poorly defined responsibilities you will continue that way at the mercy of who ever drops the monkey off their back.
However the sly way this has happened is quite norsk: and discriminatory.
So what; it happened because I needed the job and I did not have any power to determine my responsibilities exactly. Now I am all bitter and pissed, but in fact I have to see that I was super lucky to get the experience I have had the last ten months. Usually you would need to haver...erm....more experience to get this! Experience being the quality you acquire the moment exactly after you most needed it.
Well well, put it down to experience and now I will try hard to utilise my experience to do what I never, ever do and that is NEGOTIATE conditions in a new job before I leave the old one!!
It does give me however, 6 months of useful experience: but then all the invoices and VOR's will come in and it will be a nightmare.
Actually this isn't particularily Norsk : if you start a job with poorly defined responsibilities you will continue that way at the mercy of who ever drops the monkey off their back.
However the sly way this has happened is quite norsk: and discriminatory.
So what; it happened because I needed the job and I did not have any power to determine my responsibilities exactly. Now I am all bitter and pissed, but in fact I have to see that I was super lucky to get the experience I have had the last ten months. Usually you would need to haver...erm....more experience to get this! Experience being the quality you acquire the moment exactly after you most needed it.
Well well, put it down to experience and now I will try hard to utilise my experience to do what I never, ever do and that is NEGOTIATE conditions in a new job before I leave the old one!!
onsdag 5. september 2012
Now I have completed the first 8 years of my survey into Norwegian management and can only conclude that I hope it is misrepresentative!
How to summarise ? Well a substantial proportion of middle and higher managers show the uncharming traits as follows: Arrogance, under communication, discrimination, croney-ism and being coated in a good lick of Teflon: nothing sticks.
Again I find myself the victim of the "gutter klubb" and to some extent it is understandable. Also someone my own level is lurking to take away my ambitions. i appreciate that people are used to much longer periods at one employer, but I do not like when my performance is completely stamped upon by someone coming in from another place and reducing my responsibility and therefore future, to about 70% of what it was last week. If that in terms of future.
It seems the BI oslo is not a glass ceiling it is a bloody reinforced concrete, brand stamped boundary to foreigners getting promoted in Norway. You can suffer small companies and get on faster with lower pay and longer hours than in a large company, but you will not be able to do the reverse.
It comes down for me personnally not only to the whole BI /NHH thing but also the futher means in which confidence is built between norwegian males. There is all the false modesty and under communication to deal with. Then there is the obtuseness- playing smarty pants devils advocate all the time. Further there is then the language "barrier" which works in kind of reverse: if you can speak very good norwegian it works against you: you move from that "welcomed guest" I wrote about earlier to that "interloping invader" which so nearly is what "innvandere" (immigrant) inholds for many Norwegians: Xenophobia and the clanish way they stick to the Oilberg and it's rather dull traditions.
Cast in my own personal foibles of some neurosis, passive-agrression, up-and down moods, up and down confidence, risk taking initiatives and then the whole big big question mark lies over me as a person DESPITE any actual measureable performance.
There is a fundamental lack of trust in immigrant labour here and also a bad attitude that is is immigrants who are always expendable. I get paranoid about it being my own foibles but so often I hear that this is the case or that an immigrant must totally over perform and cover two norwegian's jobs ( not that hard if you have either worked in London or for an american multinational).
So there sit the "fløtepuser" the cream fed cats with their mamma and pappa perm and their 500 thousand krone a year, tax deducted loan on an Audi and detached house with big capital gains. Lazy sods, they are positively rewarded for having their head above water many of them " permierte" they say: however I also have many hard working colleagues and very competent ones: they just by in large don't want to include me much.
My head is just underwater all the time, bobbing there in the belief I will one day breath the air of the norwegian lifestyle I deserve already given my effort and input! It doesnt take much, but the very flat wage structure for those not premierte means I could creep up quite slowly in reality.
This time I have anyway slipped through the perment employment net which so often is used to screen out immigrants : from temp bureau to contract to not making your six months to permanency. Instead they are conspiring a little to either make it constructive dismissal if they dissolve the tight area I am responsible for, or just by patronising me by reducing my responsibility they hope I will get the message
How to summarise ? Well a substantial proportion of middle and higher managers show the uncharming traits as follows: Arrogance, under communication, discrimination, croney-ism and being coated in a good lick of Teflon: nothing sticks.
Again I find myself the victim of the "gutter klubb" and to some extent it is understandable. Also someone my own level is lurking to take away my ambitions. i appreciate that people are used to much longer periods at one employer, but I do not like when my performance is completely stamped upon by someone coming in from another place and reducing my responsibility and therefore future, to about 70% of what it was last week. If that in terms of future.
It seems the BI oslo is not a glass ceiling it is a bloody reinforced concrete, brand stamped boundary to foreigners getting promoted in Norway. You can suffer small companies and get on faster with lower pay and longer hours than in a large company, but you will not be able to do the reverse.
It comes down for me personnally not only to the whole BI /NHH thing but also the futher means in which confidence is built between norwegian males. There is all the false modesty and under communication to deal with. Then there is the obtuseness- playing smarty pants devils advocate all the time. Further there is then the language "barrier" which works in kind of reverse: if you can speak very good norwegian it works against you: you move from that "welcomed guest" I wrote about earlier to that "interloping invader" which so nearly is what "innvandere" (immigrant) inholds for many Norwegians: Xenophobia and the clanish way they stick to the Oilberg and it's rather dull traditions.
Cast in my own personal foibles of some neurosis, passive-agrression, up-and down moods, up and down confidence, risk taking initiatives and then the whole big big question mark lies over me as a person DESPITE any actual measureable performance.
There is a fundamental lack of trust in immigrant labour here and also a bad attitude that is is immigrants who are always expendable. I get paranoid about it being my own foibles but so often I hear that this is the case or that an immigrant must totally over perform and cover two norwegian's jobs ( not that hard if you have either worked in London or for an american multinational).
So there sit the "fløtepuser" the cream fed cats with their mamma and pappa perm and their 500 thousand krone a year, tax deducted loan on an Audi and detached house with big capital gains. Lazy sods, they are positively rewarded for having their head above water many of them " permierte" they say: however I also have many hard working colleagues and very competent ones: they just by in large don't want to include me much.
My head is just underwater all the time, bobbing there in the belief I will one day breath the air of the norwegian lifestyle I deserve already given my effort and input! It doesnt take much, but the very flat wage structure for those not premierte means I could creep up quite slowly in reality.
This time I have anyway slipped through the perment employment net which so often is used to screen out immigrants : from temp bureau to contract to not making your six months to permanency. Instead they are conspiring a little to either make it constructive dismissal if they dissolve the tight area I am responsible for, or just by patronising me by reducing my responsibility they hope I will get the message
tirsdag 24. april 2012
Are Norwegians so really deadly effective at work that they can afford to work the short hours and weeks they do? Or are they purely floated on oil so-to-speak? What can other countries and employers learn from Norwegian "arbeidskultur" ?
Well the pico blog says this: It is not so much a fact that Norwegians are so much more effective minute for minute in actually executing "value added activities" and " critical processes", it is just that they spend far less time on BS: blunt and simple, they do not jump through hoops-
Well let us first exclude offshore oil fields, and shipping. People work long boring hours, and then get a lot of time off. With net export of oil far larger than the USA, who guzzle their own "gas", Norway is in a complete situation exclusion on that front: blue-eyed arabs. However it does not need to go to say that the on shore industry would necessarily be so widespread here, despite the ethos of statoil : state-owned-oil. It is pretty effective in delivering solutions to this huge local market and holding on to those "valie added processes" when metal bashing finally floats away to low cost low low land.
So out in land based industry and services, they avoid the BS: they don't read general, long winded e-mails often and tend to skim read them when on a flight for example. They are often late out with all but absolutely critical information or even tenders for jobs. '
In just doing core activities you not only of course are perhaps overall more effective in terms of hours you can tackle in a week, but also the "noise" of corporate crap is filtered and your brain works more effectively in those minutes you actually use on the core!
The fact is though, that even here, the "value added activities" tend to attract workaholics, who rise to become divisional managers or start their own companies. I know the type quite well- usually they have a domesticated wife who keeps house, home and second job together while their man works 10-12 hour days and travels 100 days of the year. Also they travel business class and go to a good few seminars, and tend to take winter, easter, juletide holidays and a week here and there rather than the common holiday in july. See the pattern: the are what some call male chauvinsists, what otherwise you should maybe call the bread-winner who follows what is described as a "traditional roles " in the family.
Finally you have to come to another pair of cultural points: there are a lot of clever engineers who have grown up on a farm or with a dad who was a first engineer. Or been both themselves! Also they have a bit of a bloody minded way of looking at things, and egalitarian: why cant a junior engineer or I just fix this issue without a lot of meetings and permissions and approval for ideas?
So the real back bone of "norwegian effectiveness" in my opinion is that there are some conclusions 1) work is number two in life: work hard, but short hours. 2) ignore stuff you don't think is important and focus on only the real McCoy 3) be a smart alec and ignore the glass ceiling.
Well the pico blog says this: It is not so much a fact that Norwegians are so much more effective minute for minute in actually executing "value added activities" and " critical processes", it is just that they spend far less time on BS: blunt and simple, they do not jump through hoops-
Well let us first exclude offshore oil fields, and shipping. People work long boring hours, and then get a lot of time off. With net export of oil far larger than the USA, who guzzle their own "gas", Norway is in a complete situation exclusion on that front: blue-eyed arabs. However it does not need to go to say that the on shore industry would necessarily be so widespread here, despite the ethos of statoil : state-owned-oil. It is pretty effective in delivering solutions to this huge local market and holding on to those "valie added processes" when metal bashing finally floats away to low cost low low land.
So out in land based industry and services, they avoid the BS: they don't read general, long winded e-mails often and tend to skim read them when on a flight for example. They are often late out with all but absolutely critical information or even tenders for jobs. '
In just doing core activities you not only of course are perhaps overall more effective in terms of hours you can tackle in a week, but also the "noise" of corporate crap is filtered and your brain works more effectively in those minutes you actually use on the core!
The fact is though, that even here, the "value added activities" tend to attract workaholics, who rise to become divisional managers or start their own companies. I know the type quite well- usually they have a domesticated wife who keeps house, home and second job together while their man works 10-12 hour days and travels 100 days of the year. Also they travel business class and go to a good few seminars, and tend to take winter, easter, juletide holidays and a week here and there rather than the common holiday in july. See the pattern: the are what some call male chauvinsists, what otherwise you should maybe call the bread-winner who follows what is described as a "traditional roles " in the family.
Finally you have to come to another pair of cultural points: there are a lot of clever engineers who have grown up on a farm or with a dad who was a first engineer. Or been both themselves! Also they have a bit of a bloody minded way of looking at things, and egalitarian: why cant a junior engineer or I just fix this issue without a lot of meetings and permissions and approval for ideas?
So the real back bone of "norwegian effectiveness" in my opinion is that there are some conclusions 1) work is number two in life: work hard, but short hours. 2) ignore stuff you don't think is important and focus on only the real McCoy 3) be a smart alec and ignore the glass ceiling.
lørdag 24. mars 2012
Cool or cold look warm countries
Seems i ride the back of cool and fall off it too. I was in glasgow in the late 80s when it was the cool under ground, indy reply to manchesters post punk poets
I lingered too long but inverness was happening for itself. The antichrist of aberdeen, a necropolis to faith, camraderie and goodwill for the most. Mountian biking was a saviour.
Then back to manchester when it became look cool. Then life took off to ireland when it was the coolest and hottest. It overcooked in a Corrs drenched euro sell out, my girl friend being the epitomy and breaking my heart.
Cheshire suddenly became cool and i ran a mile to the liquid nitrogen near zero kelvin coolness that was edinburgh in the late 90s.
Edinburgh had been cool for me personally for ever and a day. Deltics , the look, the pancake lace and spudulike. Haymarket depot. Hot little studenty sluts.
Then i laid routes downin oh so coola nd aloof and best in the world quilty of life, terra norvegicus. But it shows its greedy face polluting the wolrd for ski cabins and audi 2:4s.
Where is cool now? Well where it is beat. Instead of a war we have had a defeat for everyone. The rich lost a huge battle but regrouped to be able to counter attach and make poorland pay war reparations to a sub prime shit fight they werent even involved with.
Beat means finnaky there are places cheap enough to be beat.
onsdag 7. mars 2012
Us ...AS
Strategic Review
2011 saw a change in strategic direction to meet market conditions which have been prevailing and anticipated to continue. Following an earlier matrix analysis of core competancies versus opportunities, the company restructured around two main competance centres and revenue streams.
The matrix analysis reveraled that two divergent core competancies would secure adequate revenue streams in reshaping the strategic possibilities. The finance crisis has threatened to render activity tactical and therefore both higher risk and lower long term reward scenarios. However, the new strategy as mentioned plays to the market and maintains direction and development of the core business and creative skills required for the long term growth and enrichment of the firm.
The two focus areas are divergent : namely within purchasing, specifically oil field drilling equipemtn and education. Education took little adjustment to place resources into the public sector and excellent performance was rewarded with extended contracts utilising more than 80% of capacity. Moving into oil related markets required some major realignment however, with the route chosen being tactically through shipping supplies. Oil drilling is one of the few industrial markets showing double figure growth since the finance crisis and resulting recession began in Q3 2008.
Another key factor is the willingness to accept a far higher level of risk and to take advantage of subdued prices in capital assets. The company moved from renting large premises with high upkeep to leveraging their new income to buy new premises which are smaller and more economic. The additional cost of leasing premises in the new location for purchasing is expected to be offset by tax deductions and the proximity to a long term market centre.
Income growth was then projected as negative with a positive cash flow expected only by September. However the company was forced to meet market demands and relocate the major competance centre of purchasing to the customer and supplier centre some 120 km to the south. Growth is expected to be low with cautious estimates and a degree of dependency on reduced tax burden in order to generate enough gross margin for any profitability in 2011. The following two years however are anticipated to be a period of high growth in top line while projected costs can be contained within those of today. Cost pressures in the new location are expected but a longer term lease is to be secured mid Q2.
So to summarise in 2011 the firm was able to utilise its non material assets, namely intellectual property and hired-out services, to leverage into their own premises and enter a new, high growth market which is running counter recessionary in line with dollar-barrel price.
Through 2012 we will maintain financial stability and aim to grow income by 4%. In terms of profitability, Tax deductions are yet to be fully negotiated so we continue to issue our long standing profit warning while maintaining strict cost control and willingness to reduce expenses further in the event of unforseen circumstances. The small surplus from tax deduction pay out 2011 paid out in june 2012 however this is expected to be consumed by the loss of income during the summer period and holiday payments to employees at this point.
2013 is expected to be a major growth year with more lucrative contracts in both public and private sectors being sought before competitors are expected to be in a position to react. This is in part a willingness to accept higher risk to exploit opportunities than most competitors, but due to turbulent times an alternative strategy of slower growth and consolidaiton of current revenue streams with potential for cost reduction in 2012-13 is also in place. This would postpone higher risk movements and reloactions to 2014.
2011 saw a change in strategic direction to meet market conditions which have been prevailing and anticipated to continue. Following an earlier matrix analysis of core competancies versus opportunities, the company restructured around two main competance centres and revenue streams.
The matrix analysis reveraled that two divergent core competancies would secure adequate revenue streams in reshaping the strategic possibilities. The finance crisis has threatened to render activity tactical and therefore both higher risk and lower long term reward scenarios. However, the new strategy as mentioned plays to the market and maintains direction and development of the core business and creative skills required for the long term growth and enrichment of the firm.
The two focus areas are divergent : namely within purchasing, specifically oil field drilling equipemtn and education. Education took little adjustment to place resources into the public sector and excellent performance was rewarded with extended contracts utilising more than 80% of capacity. Moving into oil related markets required some major realignment however, with the route chosen being tactically through shipping supplies. Oil drilling is one of the few industrial markets showing double figure growth since the finance crisis and resulting recession began in Q3 2008.
Another key factor is the willingness to accept a far higher level of risk and to take advantage of subdued prices in capital assets. The company moved from renting large premises with high upkeep to leveraging their new income to buy new premises which are smaller and more economic. The additional cost of leasing premises in the new location for purchasing is expected to be offset by tax deductions and the proximity to a long term market centre.
Income growth was then projected as negative with a positive cash flow expected only by September. However the company was forced to meet market demands and relocate the major competance centre of purchasing to the customer and supplier centre some 120 km to the south. Growth is expected to be low with cautious estimates and a degree of dependency on reduced tax burden in order to generate enough gross margin for any profitability in 2011. The following two years however are anticipated to be a period of high growth in top line while projected costs can be contained within those of today. Cost pressures in the new location are expected but a longer term lease is to be secured mid Q2.
So to summarise in 2011 the firm was able to utilise its non material assets, namely intellectual property and hired-out services, to leverage into their own premises and enter a new, high growth market which is running counter recessionary in line with dollar-barrel price.
Through 2012 we will maintain financial stability and aim to grow income by 4%. In terms of profitability, Tax deductions are yet to be fully negotiated so we continue to issue our long standing profit warning while maintaining strict cost control and willingness to reduce expenses further in the event of unforseen circumstances. The small surplus from tax deduction pay out 2011 paid out in june 2012 however this is expected to be consumed by the loss of income during the summer period and holiday payments to employees at this point.
2013 is expected to be a major growth year with more lucrative contracts in both public and private sectors being sought before competitors are expected to be in a position to react. This is in part a willingness to accept higher risk to exploit opportunities than most competitors, but due to turbulent times an alternative strategy of slower growth and consolidaiton of current revenue streams with potential for cost reduction in 2012-13 is also in place. This would postpone higher risk movements and reloactions to 2014.
onsdag 2. november 2011
Sloth and outright Sharp Practices
I need to get this one out of my system!
This year sloth, rude service and outright sharp practice have gone way over the mark in Norway.
It started with my new phone: when the teleseller didn't manage to upsell me over the basic package ( tenner a month !) then he sounded a bit neutral. He then didn't bother to do the admin for my new phone and I had to wait two weeks of course while I hassled them and got good service !Nothing in writing, he could probably blame it on friday..blah blah
Later it was with our old bank when I wondered if I could get a 20% rise in visa card limit to pay for some repairs to the car. I wasn't very hopeful, but the guy was so rude and blunt about the whole case- worse than your worst nightmare about rude council or railways employees - that I did complain and I got a new case adviser allocated. I wasn't all that fussed about the credit limit, but the rudeness incensed me.
Latley then it has been a loan from the council to cover the deposit on the new house, which is a great action to get people to live here. However we now sit with a bloody bridging loan - on the whole sum at higher interest- because of sloth at the council and they then are not 100% sure they will grant it to us! In fact it is then the bank's problem, as they did not grant us 100% and presumed we would get the 20%. So there is a good 500 quid GBP either down the drain or darn hard to recoop.
The thing that annoys me is that this was of course, taken to the wire and my other half was then left sitting looking a bit naive in trusting all to go smoothly given they had 8 weeks admin time.
So many times before there have been small sharp practices: less discount, an extra included cost not stated until you are on the line to sign and pay. Let alone those arseholes in oslo who tried to take us for all our deposits!! Next time I will always want to see that " flaps, mats, tank and plates" are inclusive and in writing before I go forward in the deal, and make a point of not delegating so much over to my other half unfortunetly .
This year sloth, rude service and outright sharp practice have gone way over the mark in Norway.
It started with my new phone: when the teleseller didn't manage to upsell me over the basic package ( tenner a month !) then he sounded a bit neutral. He then didn't bother to do the admin for my new phone and I had to wait two weeks of course while I hassled them and got good service !Nothing in writing, he could probably blame it on friday..blah blah
Later it was with our old bank when I wondered if I could get a 20% rise in visa card limit to pay for some repairs to the car. I wasn't very hopeful, but the guy was so rude and blunt about the whole case- worse than your worst nightmare about rude council or railways employees - that I did complain and I got a new case adviser allocated. I wasn't all that fussed about the credit limit, but the rudeness incensed me.
Latley then it has been a loan from the council to cover the deposit on the new house, which is a great action to get people to live here. However we now sit with a bloody bridging loan - on the whole sum at higher interest- because of sloth at the council and they then are not 100% sure they will grant it to us! In fact it is then the bank's problem, as they did not grant us 100% and presumed we would get the 20%. So there is a good 500 quid GBP either down the drain or darn hard to recoop.
The thing that annoys me is that this was of course, taken to the wire and my other half was then left sitting looking a bit naive in trusting all to go smoothly given they had 8 weeks admin time.
So many times before there have been small sharp practices: less discount, an extra included cost not stated until you are on the line to sign and pay. Let alone those arseholes in oslo who tried to take us for all our deposits!! Next time I will always want to see that " flaps, mats, tank and plates" are inclusive and in writing before I go forward in the deal, and make a point of not delegating so much over to my other half unfortunetly .
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