2009-02-11
During the eighties, my family and I had the great privilege of living in Hong Kong!
Other cities must envy this wonderful city with a range of goods and services.
Here was service, which was difficult to find in Sweden in the eighties and a job and work intensity that surprised everyone. Talk about entrepreneurship and laboriousness. Each little space had some kind of business that went from early morning to late evening. Here the toddlers slept and the school children did their homework while their parents worked. Job satisfaction and pride over the job were apparent in their faces. Here, people thought that it was fun to go to work and they cherished their work with pride. I experienced this when I tried to throw an odd teaspoon away for three days. Each afternoon the same spoon was outside my door. The garbage collector, who carefully sorted all the garbage, obviously thought I was a negligent person of the worst kind who could not distinguish from goods and garbage. Finally I gave up and let the odd teaspoon be equally used as the other spoons.
During my time in Hong Kong, I had the task to form a limited company for a Scandinavian travel company which was very exciting and instructive. I got the title Managing Director. New doors opened up for me overnight. I could meet people who had never given me a thought earlier and I was invited to cocktail parties where I mingled with like-minded people. I was the Managing Director.
But, was it more fun to go to work because of my new title? Yes, it was!
With this title in the baggage, our business became even more successful and my wonderful staff was as equally ambitious and loyal as before. It went well for us and we had fun!
During the twenty-first century, I have also worked as Managing Director in Sweden with the principals in Norway. If we say that Finland is the “thousand lakes country” then Norway is the “thousand Directors country”. In Sweden the title is now fortunately not very important, but instead the importance is based on doing a good job, being a good leader and to ensure that the rest of the organization thinks it is fun to go to work since everybody will do a better job. We have fun at work in Sweden as well. During certain months, we are working under extreme stress which includes a lot of overtime. Then it is important to have fun at work, since we spend most of our time there.
In Norway, the Director title is important and the responsibility is great because nobody dares to make a decision that has not been sanctioned by the Director. In addition, people work a short period of time each day (ending 3.15 pm in summer and 3.45 pm in winter) so they are not able to take as many decisions. It is a pity! The working hours for a Chinese and a Norwegian are extremely different, Swedes are somewhere in the middle. But do you have fun in Norway as the Director and do all employees have fun with their Directors? Well - that question I am afraid I have to leave unanswered. It would probably be successful for the business climate in Norway if I could have answered YES!