I was at an event yesterday where one of the speakers talked about the cultural differences between Swedes and Danes in a business context. This is what they came up with:

But looking at this photo of ABBA, I’m sure there’s more to these Swedes than meets the eye.

What do you think? Do you agree with the above comparison?

On Saturday 4 April, when the Danish Prime Minister was officially appointed the next NATO Secretary General, I sat watching the Danish TV presenter get more and more excited. When she finally heard though her earpiece that Anders Fogh Rasmussen had got the job, she was so ecstatic she just about bounced up and down in her chair. It may have been the highlight of her onscreen career, but having grown up from about as far away from NATO territory as you can get, the moment was lost on me.

A recent opinion poll by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten found that 60 percent of Danes think Fogh’s appointment will be good for Denmark. But what will Fogh’s appointment really mean for Denmark, if anything? Do people even care about NATO or know much about it? The current NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, is hardly a household name. And if put to the test, can you pinpoint NATO headquarters on a map?

This speaks volumes about NATO as a brand. And probably explains why last year, NATO hired a former Coca-Cola executive to improve the way the alliance is seen around the world. So any positive spin-offs from Fogh’s appointment might have to wait until NATO gets it street cred in order. Meanwhile, as the next Secretary General, Fogh’s had to deal with Denmark’s biggest branding gaff ever, the Mohammed crisis, which doesn’t look like it will go away. That for now, looks like one of his biggest challenges in his new role.

Everywhere you turn these days there’s a story about Twitter coming to the rescue of a fire or police department. In less than 140 characters on Twitter, agencies - including the FBI - can post crime and suspect details. So far it’s a huge success, but there are plenty of skeptics. For one, social networking sites such as Twitter aren’t secure and many feel that Twitter can’t be a source of trusted information (there have been incidences of phony police accounts). But the FBI, for example, is using it for updates on missing children, fugitives, job fairs and computer viruses - and won’t accept tips over Twitter. 

With a fast growing number of users and the ability to efficiently get quick messages out to computer and mobile users everywhere, questions over Twitter users’ authenticity won’t be the straw that broke this camel’s back.

It’s the Easter break here in Denmark, and businesses are closed for an extended weekend. But I’m still at work – albeit in quite different circumstances. This time it’s helping out at the GHG gymnastics club, which is hosting the Sjælland Championships (Denmark) in TeamGym. (Eye for Image sponsors GHG.)

Being part of an event like this is quite special. Probably around two thousand people were involved on the first day alone. The sports hall buzzes with techno and pop music mixes, loud-speaker announcements, cheering, clapping – and of course a good deal of nervous energy emanating from the competitors.

It’s wonderful to see the joy and enthusiasm of the young gymnasts. And it’s great to see the support they get from their families who spend several hours waiting for the few minutes in which their kids will perform.

But I take my hat off to two very special groups of people. First, the coaches who are devoting most of their Easter holiday to helping their gymnasts enjoy the moment. Second, the championship organizers – in this case, from “our” club, GHG. Seeing the focused efforts of all the GHG organizers and supporters, this for me is what teamwork and ambition is all about – pure and simple. Businesses large and small, take note.

I’m ready for another 12 hours of it tomorrow!

Governments have been trying to craft unique, visible and successful brands for ages. But the current Obama administration has been especially creative lately. They recently unleashed a huge rebranding strategy to cover military activities and even the current financial crisis. Here are a few highlights:

- George Bush’s War on Terror, or The Long War, is now Overseas Contingency Operation

- Terrorism is now called ‘man-caused disaster’

- Toxic Assets are now referred to as Legacy Assets

- And the US government will no longer refer to people being indefinitely held in places like Guantánamo Bay as ‘enemy combatants’. I guess they’ll just be called detainees now.

I wonder what their new name for the financial crisis itself will be?