That ‘About’ page on your website is important. Why? Because people like people. To put it as simply as I can, people want to know who they’re dealing with.

People want to put names to faces, they want to connect. It’s why social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook exist. We’re all just big gossips deep down!

But to get back to my point, I’ve seen some great ‘About’ pages recently. Companies that have obviously gone to the trouble to think a little bit outside the box.

I find the best ones are those which really emphasise the company’s human side. Take Pownce for instance, the newest information sharing and networking site on the block. With a little bit of thought (and humour) they have created something which, while achieving its aim of conveying background and context, also serves up a big dollop of personality.

The feeling I’m left with after looking at their ‘About’ page is : ‘They’re just ordinary folk like me!’

Now, not every company can take such a personal approach. But even the big boys could take a leaf out of the Pownce book.

My advice? Be direct, be a little light-hearted (if you dare!) and don’t be afraid to use pictures. Show your customers who you are. When you meet, it’s one less obstacle to break down.

I was at a meeting the other day – a Danish-born multinational company – when there was an awkward moment of silence. It happened because the English and German country managers had asked that the brand of their company should be “less Danish”.

The Danish managers then asked what exactly that meant. The halting reply came that subsidiaries outside Denmark experienced the management style as “dusty”, “slow” and “bureaucratic”.

Interesting really, when you think about the tremendous speed of fast-developing economies such as that of China. Makes me wonder how competitive Denmark might be in the future – particularly when I also hear a comment from Grundfos’s large Chinese subsidiary say (quoted in Børsen) that, in their opinion, Chinese engineers are better than Danish engineers!

My colleague Anastasya blogged last month about some of the marketing phrases that had amused her.

Expressions like ‘blue-sky thinking’, and ‘reinvent the wheel’ are commonplace in certain sectors of the business world. Personally I can’t stand them. There is a word in English which sums them up for me. . . corny. It means trite, or needlessly dramatic.

Another bugbear of mine is jargon. My one self-imposed rule as a copywriter is ‘keep things simple’. But all too often I encounter text that looks like a set of random words that have fallen out of a dictionary.

It can be quite amusing sometimes trying to deconstruct sentences as obtuse as: “Expediting this value chain requires optimal synergistic leveraging of the entire back-end processing systems.”

OK, I made that one up but the Plain English Campaign has some real-life examples that will make you smile.

Something else I came across this week was Apple’s hilarious corporate jargon lorem ipsum generator.

A must for graphic designers with a sense of humour!

We’ve been installed in our lovely new offices in the heart of swanky Svanemøllen for two months now and the debates about the office layout are continuing at a furious pace!

I’m optimistically viewing the process as ‘organic’. By which I mean that we’ll eventually arrive at a consensus if only because people will lose the energy to object to each other’s ideas!

Realistically, though, I know the girls will have the final say. I’m just trying to put up a fight for as long as I can!

It would be interesting to hear your stories of office moves. What tips can you pass on that might make things a little easier for companies about to relocate?

My suggestion? Outsource the job to a good interior designer!

I was just trawling through some of my feeds (I use Google Reader to keep track of the dozens of interesting sites that make up the bulk of my online reading) and found an interesting piece about whether Google might be planning to buy Salesforce - the popular CRM software company.

We use Salesforce here at Eye for Image, and the point the author makes about Salesforce not having a complete email solution is valid. Imagine the time you could save if it had a fully integrated email client?!

Google helps me streamline my IT to the extent that, outside of work, I’m hardly using any paid-for software these days. I use GMail for email, Picasa for picture storage, and I’m now even beginning to use GoogleDocs instead of Word - and all in one browser!

The thought of transferring the usability and simplicity of these applications to my work IT environment is certainly an enticing one!

I’ve just read that Denmark has retained its position as the world’s fifth most competitive economy.

What do you think really makes this economy tick?

Flexibility? Educated workforce? We’d love to know your thoughts.