One of the most successful Nordic entrepreneurs, Petter A. Stordalen, recently wrote a book titled “Endelig Mandag” (translated as “Finally Monday”). In it, he highlighted what he sees as the ten guiding principles for achieving success. Because the book is written in Norwegian, it is not accessible to most members of the Lorange Network. Here I have attempted to summarize the book’s findings in English.
Petter A. Stordalen was born in a small town called Porsgrunn about two and a half hours south of Oslo. As a young man he already started to show an inclination towards business. While still in school, Petter was named the “top strawberry seller” in a local paper. Later he started the Nordic Choice hotel chain, which now employs more than 15,000 collaborators covering 160 different nationalities. Stordalen has an estimated net worth of US 1.3 billion. In his book, Stordalen outlines his ten principles for success, which can be summarized in three words: Positive Mental Attitude. Over a period of 17 years, the author explored these three words, trying to grasp their deeper meaning, and has condensed his learnings into ten rules.
RULE ONE: Do what is best, without attempting to be a hero
Have the courage to make your own choices in life. These choices should not be influenced by how you want to be perceived by others. To support this point, Stordalen gives an example of a goalie in a football team attempting to save a penalty kick. If the goalie dives to one side of the net to try to save the goal he has a 13% success rate, compared to 33% if he remains standing up. However, the theatrics and image of diving are more impactful to the audience than just standing, despite having a lower probability of success. Don’t be a hero in the eyes of the viewer, stand up and be successful.
RULE TWO: 80% is enough
An 80% quality of completion ratio is more than enough. Moreover, reaching this point typically only requires 50% of energy. The remaining 50% of energy you can use to score another hit, improving your chances of success. High productivity turns out to be crucial. For example, when writing this review, I have applied the same principal. I wrote the first draft and kept returning to it for improvements. This allowed me to write the first draft with speed. Although the first draft lacked perfection, with my “saved” energy I could return to perfect it. Keeping focused on the totality of the task is critical.
RULE THREE: To be naïve is a superpower
Be naïve and honest especially when negotiating deals. This attitude will create a sense of confidence on the other side. Although this initially may result in a less favourable and more expensive outcome, in the long run this approach is beneficial.
RULE FOUR: Do not follow your dreams
Instead, think “outside the box.” In the age of digitalization, where robots are gradually taking over what has traditionally been more routine-driven human tasks, the deferential factor is unconventional thinking. For instance, when publishing this book Stordalen dreamed of using one of the established publishing houses. Instead, he assigned the publishing tasks to two relatively unknown individuals – and the book turned out to be a commercial success!
RULE FIVE: Building a new airport does not guarantee air traffic
Many successful businesspeople may brag about how little sleep they need but the dictum that success is correlated with little sleep is not necessarily correct. The recipe for success is to go to bed early and get enough sleep! The “airport-construction syndrome” is false.
Similarly, a crisis might turn out to be a blessing at some point in the future. The author got fired from the prestigious warehouse Steen & Stöm in 1996. In turn, he got an opportunity to build up the Nordic Choice hotel chain. One should relish the small events, above all by keeping the big picture in mind.
RULE SIX: Read fewer newspapers
Despite all of the negative news out there, the author argues that the world is better than ever before. Progress is likely linked to one trait that humans possess, namely that we tend to have a strong faith in progress and that we can “see” the future. This was not always the case. Until approximately 200 years ago, technology was evolving at a snail’s pace. Since then, open-minded thinking has prevailed, improving the lot around us.
Stordalen also argues that this “can do” attitude is the differentiating factor in success in business, far more important than having a great idea and seed capital. Obviously, the willingness to make an effort is also a prerequisite for success. The paradox is that while there is more progress than ever before, most sources of news are typically negative.
Negative news is what makes papers sell so the moral of the story is read fewer of them.
RULE SEVEN: Appear dumb
Rule seven discusses three approaches for improving performance. Firstly, when hiring new executives, it seems important to hire candidates who demonstrate strong attributes. Current advances in knowledge take place faster than ever and highly intelligent people are typically in the best position to quickly internalize new wisdom. On top of this, to go for diversity within one’s management team tends to stimulate others to learn faster.
The second means of achieving high performance stems from the fact that many executives may have an excessive self-confidence, which is not necessarily backed by a high degree of knowledge. Such persons end up on “Mount Stupid,” and regrettably over-confident but under-skilled people abound on this mountain. The author deals with this issue by doing the so-called “cross bearings,” which implies meeting with key executives individually, listening a lot, and not revealing his own preferences when it comes to the particular question at hand. In this way, he is able to get a broader set of input factors to base his decision on. And it should be observed that no group meetings can achieve this. Such meetings typically tend to be “political.”
The third approach to achieving high performance is maintaining friendships. This does not exclusively mean old, loyal friends only, but new ones as well. Such “living” groups of friends tend to enrich us and stimulate further development of each individual. Again, we see diversity at work! The author also refers to how children seem to excel, by having strong genes and by having strong groups of friends. Interestingly, mannerism taught by a child’s parents, does not seem to be that important.
RULE EIGHT: Utilize the entire world arena
In today’s ever-changing world, a fundamental question that all corporations ask is how to successfully adapt to change. This represents a particular conundrum given that innovations typically tend to come from “the sidelines,” such as smaller and younger firms rather than from the more established players, many of which will eventually disappear. The author sees successful adaption as having a strong ability to solve problems. Traditions and conservative thinking, so typical in established firms, jeopardize the corporation’s ability to solve problems effectively. How might one ameliorate tendencies to resist change? Again, the recipe in the author’s view is diversity. New solutions are linked to diversity. As a result, diversity in the management team is key and has been demonstrated to pay off! One should always be surrounded by the broadest possible diversity.
RULE NINE: Brush your teeth every day and you will be rewarded
This chapter deals with a competence profiles that can be desirable. As a starter, do not complicate things unnecessarily. For instance, what are the most critical competencies to look for when hiring a new employee? If faced with a choice among three candidates where one has exceptionally high IQ score, the other has a high propensity for being creative, and the third is highly organized and systematic, the author recommends to choose the candidate in the third category because of this person’s likely strong ability to deliver and get results. The author also values endurance. He makes a claim that a high degree of such endurance and resilience might make the candidate better prepared to cope with failures, simply by not giving up. Good routines tend to support the building of resilience.
A final trait that the author sees as key is self-control. This is probably more important to have than charisma. An often-overlooked self-control habit that is critical to develop is promptly responding to e-mails. This is widely appreciated amongst most people and it equally leads to more respect.
RULE TEN: When at the top, turn around and look back
The Nordic countries are among the wealthiest in the world. This is not only a result of oil revenues (Norway, Denmark) but likely also associated with the emerging societal dynamism that came about after extensive deregulations in many sectors. The governments in the Nordic countries are efficient and predictable. Even though taxes are relatively high in such welfare state regimes, the Nordic governments are indeed not anti-business nor anti-capitalism as the author documents it. The Nordic’s top national happiness surveys and social mobility is high, largely due to the free education provided in these states. Diversity, again, is seen as another contributing factor to the high ranking of the Nordic states.
But, after all, money is not all, but a “way to keep score” (Trump). Many have reasons to be grateful and it is important to stop, look back and take it all in.
Conclusion
I find this book very refreshing. The author is one of a relatively large group of new/young entrepreneurs. His thinking is often different to what we might expect from a successful capitalist. This probably demonstrates that fact that success in today’s societal context calls for an emphasis on entirely new dimensions compared to the past: teams, diversity, utilization of emerging technology, and to create a highly motivated organizational context.
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