British Chamber of Commerce

By C.W. Griffin

Strong finances, growing member-ship ranks and a full slate of events: the economy may be in crisis, but for the chamber it is full speed ahead

The lasT year was a tumultuous time economically for businesses and consumers alike. as the economy worsened, everyone was doing their best to maximise their earnings in the worst of times. One of the ways that many individuals looked to conquer the crisis was to turn to networking events where they could meet new people, new companies, exchange ideas, and learn. The BCCD-BIU is one such organization where these types of meetings occur. The Copenhagen Post had the chance to sit down with the outgoing chairman, alf Duch-Ped-ersen, who spoke of the year that was for the BCCD-BIU.

right away Duch-Pedersen ex-pressed optimism about the future by revealing the recent success of the chamber. “This has probably been the most active year the chamber has ever had with many events and par-ticipants,” he said.

while it may seem counter-intui-tive that more people would want to join the chamber during a recession, it makes sense when one considers that “when the going gets a bit rough everyone is trying to do better and be more active and the chamber is primarily a networking forum.” Duch-Pedersen also noted that between the swell in new membership and the increases in activities, the chamber made a profit in the last year.

Thanks in part to its financial sta-bility, the chamber has been able to grant two Danish students sponsor-ships to study in the United Kingdom for a year without expenses. Duch-

Pedersen seemed particularly pleased with this program, noting that it is possible due to the hard work of Mari-ano a. Davies, President of the BCCD-BIU, who has attracted new sponsor-ships in order to build up capital. The

chamber hopes that when the two students return from abroad that they will be able to address the audience at the next gathering to offer details of their stay.

Because of the influx of activity

amongst the ranks, the BCCD-BIU has been able to have a broader reach with its agenda. One topic in particu-lar that it has been focusing on has been the area of corporate social re-sponsibility. as association members

range from private individuals to ma-jor corporations, everyone has their own opinions and ideas on imple-menting such a structure. while the large variety of membership means that “it’s not really one size fits all”, as

BCCD-BIU: when the going gets tough, we keep growing

Steen Langebæk, a former BIU chairman together with BCCD-BIU president Mariano A. Davies, present retiring chairman Alf Duch-Pedersen with thank you gifts after more than 20 years on the board of the BIU and the BCCD-BIU Photo: Hugh Mayo

By Alex De Herrera

Sir Bond: We’re all at fault

If yOU have The ChanCe to sit down with sir John Bond, whose work experiences include companies such as hsBC and vodafone, ask him ques-tions relating to finances, economics, and his current business practices. you can expect to hear the phrase

“it’s complicated” prefacing most of his responses. yet for every “it’s com-plicated” he throws out there, he also includes a detailed explanation that gives you a much better understand-ing of the topic at hand. his wealth of knowledge covers the entire busi-ness spectrum, as he is able to give lucid answers on topics ranging from corporate governance to the affect of green economy.

having worked in the banking sector for many years and most re-cently as the chairman of vodophone, Bond has a keen insight towards both industries and their impact on the current world-wide financial crisis. One of his viewpoints is that it would be a mistake to reduce corporate gov-ernance in a time like this. rather, he believes we need to “apply existing rules in a much more effective way

and where there are gaps in the rules we need to have new rules”. while the recession is causing worry all over the globe, there are lessons to be learned from it.

Part of the problem is that eve-ryone is blaming each other for the current economic situation. In Bond’s mind we are all at fault in one way or another.

sir John Bond – helping us make sense of complicated, complicated economy

story continued on pg 15 u

story continued on pg 2 u

Sir Bond: We’re all at fault

BRITISH CHAMBER OFCOMMERCE DENMARK

23 SePteMBer 2010 - SPeCIAL SUPPLeMent

the British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark - British Import Union - 23 september 2010

Duch-Pedersen put it, it does provide a platform where members can have lessons “where others tell us what they’ve been doing and what they think. In a way it’s networking on a corporate level. It’s been pretty good and it’s high up on the agenda”.

In addition to corporate social responsibility, the chamber has also focused on improving the transition to Denmark for families from other countries. according to Duch-Peder-sen, the lack of international schools throughout the country alongside the language barrier has made such a move prohibitive for some families. starting at the board level, the BCCD-

BIU has been working to make it easi-er for families to come to Denmark. By doing so they are hoping to help fami-lies in need so that they can come to Denmark and have a much smoother transition.

as the last full year of Duch-Ped-ersen’s time as chairman of the BCCD-BIU drew to a close, he expressed great optimism about the coming future. Based on how well member-ship and sponsorship increased in the last year, it should continue to rise. The chamber is financially sound and actively seeking new members for the many activities they have planned for 2010.

President and Publisherejvind sandal

Chief executiveJesper nymark

editorKevin McGwin

Layout & Designlyndsay Jensen

JournalistsC.w. Griffinalex DeherreraClaire ClausenTom widmannKersi - CsrColin CalderDavid GeePenny schmithemily Clarkalexander Kjærulf

Staff photographersPamela Juhlhugh MayoGareth Garvey

Sales and Marketing Directorhans hermansen

Sales and AdvertisingMark Millen amanda Knoll

If you would like to contact us or leave a comment: [email protected]

this supplement is published by the Copenhagen Post, please refer to our disclaimer on page 2 of the newspaper.

Looking forward, but remembering the pastBy C.W. Griffin

new BCCD-BIU chair thomas thune Andersen wants to use his own ex-periences abroad to make life bet-ter for expats in Denmark

ThOMas ThUne anDersen, chair-man of the British Chamber of Com-merce in Denmark-British Import Union, knows what it means to make it in a new country. he has held posi-tions in hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, the Us and the UK. Because of this, he is especially suited to contrib-ute to an organisation like the cham-ber that, strengthened by the merger between the chamber and the union, caters to the needs of businesses, or-ganisations and individuals finding their way to work and live both in Den-mark and abroad.

“with my family and I having lived a large part of our life as expats and coming back to experience and see some of the situations in Denmark, I think there are a number of things which work well,” andersen said. “In Denmark, there is a higher under-standing of other cultures and other people.”

This higher understanding has made Denmark’s current climate with immigration not go unnoticed by an-dersen. “There is also, for us Danes if you will, an opportunity to be more open, to be better at integrating at all levels,” he said. “I think there are things that we can do better to make it easier for expats to arrive in Denmark.”

when considering the current ex-pat’s place in Denmark, andersen said: “you hear about the debate in politi-cal circles now with both the existing government and the opposition talk-ing about how we can create growth in Denmark, and a big part of that, if you’re reading some of the subtitles, is related to making sure that integration is better - both as we Danes go out in the world and also as we welcome the rest of the world into Denmark.”

This has lead to a vision for the chamber that andersen thinks em-bodies the mission that has been handed down from his predecessors and previous generations. “The vision for the next few years is really to build on the foundation which has been made and make sure that the merging of the two organisations, BCCD and BIU, continues to be very focused and sharp on delivering the events and services which are to the benefit of the members, be they Danish or British.”

he continued: “another aspect of the vision is to pursue a number of different areas that will increase and enhance, not only business-oriented goals, but also encourage more cul-tural and social interaction between Denmark and the UK.”

“It’s a question of continuing to modernise oneself while still main-taining the values of the past.”

andersen insists that the chamber owes an enormity of credit to his pred-ecessors, who paved the way for the ever-evolving and dynamic role the joint venture plays in Danish and UK society and commerce.

“Over the years the boards of the chamber and the union have done so much to bring both organisations to where they are now,” andersen said. “and what I am really getting excited about is the opportunity, from this platform, to try and continue some of those things and see how we take it to the next level.”

In this vein, the chamber would like to highlight four upcoming events that they are especially excited about. On 5 October, as part of their “On the way home” series, an event entitled Internationals in Danish Business Life focuses on the “benefits and chal-lenges of a diverse workforce”. also part of the same series, the seminar Intellectual Property, taking place on 13 October, addresses questions of intellectual property important to business managers as well as in-house legal advisors.

On 28 October, the chamber is joining with DaBf and Bech-Bruun to hold a seminar called Mergers and Acquisitions: A Global Perspective. fi-nally, the Chamber will be premiering woody allen’s new film, You Will Meet A Tall, Dark Stranger as part of an on-going film series at the Grand Thea-tre cinema in Copenhagen, where members can meet and socialise over drinks and a movie.

new chairman thomas thune Andersen (right) during the AGM enjoying a moment with British Ambassador nick Archer and Danish Ambassador in the UK Birger riis-Jørgensen Photo: Pamela Juhl

continued from pg 1 u

“You will meet a tall dark stranger”

Woody Allen film premiere

Date: 23 november 2010

time: 17.30Venue:

Grand theatre in Copenhagen

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British embassy and Chamber of commerce work hand in glove to promote ‘UK PLC’

By Claire Clausen

British Ambassador nick Archer and BCCD-BIU President Mariano A. Davies discuss how the embassy and the chamber will work together to promote all aspects of British business in a globalised world

when TwO sIMIlar organisations have common goals, it could be easy for them to stake a claim to the same turf, but for the British embassy in Den-mark and the British Chamber of Com-merce-British Import Union, nothing could be further from the truth.

for ambassador nick archer, who as Britain’s representative in Denmark and the chamber’s patron stands astride the collaboration between both organisations, the reason for the good working relationship is because it is based on two principles: compli-ment and supplement.

The BCCD-BIU, archer said during a recent conversation with chamber president Mariano a. Davies, plays a valuable role in here, and supplements the work of the embassy’s trade and investment department in many ways.

as an example, he explains that UK Trade and Investment has strategic objectives that are decided by the Brit-ish government and is now very sector focussed.

“The embassy is working closely with Danish business in such areas as green technology, life sciences and information communication technol-ogy,” ambassador archer says. “It no longer prioritises broad promotion of British business, and this is where the chamber has its strengths. It has many contacts in Denmark and in the UK and has entrée via its ever increasing network. In that way, the embassy and the BCCD have a synergy from which both benefit.”

archer is keen to emphasise the intense interest he has experienced both by Danes keen to investigate in-vestment in the British markets and conversely, by British who want to

move into this small but lucrative mar-ket across the north sea.

“what is important to remem-ber here is that we are now all one single market,” he says. “In the past the embassy played an active role in smoothing the path for two-way trade between nations. But nowadays there are no legal or regulatory restrictions or structural obstacles to hinder access to these markets for profitable and successful business. where the Brit-ish government no longer prioritises certain business areas, the chamber successfully continues to promote and support. It has very broad remit and a valuable network.”

Davies agrees: “The BCCD exists

to assist and facilitate on a day-to-day level, but also to create a forum for debate on a wide spectrum of issues dominating the current business cli-mate. we work closely with the em-bassy, for example, if a British trade or fact finding mission is in Denmark. The chamber facilitates business through alliance and seeks to collaborate with many other organisations like Copen-hagen Capacity, Invest in Denmark, the Danish Chamber of Commerce and the Confederation of Danish In-dustries, in order to identify the best possible Danish contacts and links.”

extensive global networks“a similarity between embassies and chambers is our huge global reach,” says Davies. “Just as the foreign and Commonwealth Office has embassies all over the world, the British Cham-bers of Commerce also form a global network. The UK is celebrating 150 years of B2B activity this year. Interna-tionally, the BCCD is a member of the COBCOe (Council of British Chambers

of Commerce in europe) network, where British Chambers of Commerce all work to promote ‘UK PlC’. This glo-bal reach is reflected in the close re-lationships we have with many of the C20 companies in Denmark. sMes and ‘Gazelle’ companies use the BCCD for networking, for local, regional and international contacts. Probably the main difference is that as a member driven organisation our activities re-flect what is taking place in the busi-ness community.”

the patron’s roleexplaining his part in the chamber’s operations, archer says: “as I see it, my role, which is non-executive, is to sup-port and encourage, to convene and to validate the chamber to both British and Danish companies and business people. The embassy can make space available for events and an annual din-ner for the key sponsors and members is held at the residence. Branded as British organisations, the embassy and the chamber are reputationally linked.”

he adds that the British brand is the lynchpin and the mutual aim is to promote best practice at all times. Both archer and Davies agree that the BCCD complements the diplomatic mission and works to add value. af-ter all, the Union Jack waves above all these efforts.

Value for Memberswhat do members get for their fee? Davies’ first response is “contacts, networking”, pointing out there is a monthly lunch featuring a promi-nent speaker, as well as smaller, more subject specific “on the way home” meetings hosted by a member com-pany. There are social events and in-formal gatherings for sports or cultural events.

The keynote speakers at the monthly lunch meetings are chosen with care, and the subject is either market or member driven. The topic is often selected in order to promote the overriding objectives of the cham-

ber, which currently include corporate governance, climate and environmen-tal protection and the employment of internationals in Denmark.

Davies points out that the BCCD can facilitate in “soft” ways – pointing members and new business people in the right direction. additionally, it sees itself as creating a forum for debate and discussion of wider issues.

the future looking to the future, both Davies and archer agree that these issues are vital. “we have had a series of top-level speakers to address issues such as the internationalisation of boards and women on boards, to ensure an increased number of people with spe-cific skills and competences on boards, and the recognition of high-potential females,” says Davies. “Other aspects soon to be covered are corporate gov-ernance in the financial sector in Den-mark and the UK.”’

The international workers theme will include the provision of more in-ternationally recognised education in Denmark, such as the International Baccalaureate and how to maintain a good spread of educational centres close to industrial regions in times of increasing urbanisation. Talented students will move away, important skills and competences will be lost and interest in moving to Denmark will dwindle if the children of the interna-tional business community have no vi-able educational opportunities here,” says Davies.

The two also agree that although technical communication skills are improving constantly, they will never replace good, human, face-to-face relationships. “In fact,” archer says, “UK Trade and Investment have just completed a survey showing that customer satisfaction ratings are far higher – for the same service – when the company knows which individual has been working on its behalf. so the personal element still matters hugely.”

The common goals underlying

both the embassy’s and the chamber’s work are promotion of British business in Denmark and assistance to Danish trade and industry investing in Britain. It is the promotion of best-practice for British business; collaboration, cooper-ation, in-depth knowledge, broad per-spectives and vision under the British brand. It is a partnership that clearly works and will mature even further with time with the Union Jack flutter-ing amiably above them.

“The embassy is working closely with Danish business in such

areas as green technology, life sciences and information communication technology”

HIStory of tHe BCCD-BIU

How did it start? The British abroad have always been good at creating clubs and associations for networking and social congress. half a century ago, the British Business-men’s luncheon Club in Copenhagen was founded for this purpose, offer-ing a lunch and a good speaker once a month, a tradition which continues to this day. The embassy has always been supportive, and commercial staff found membership useful for networking with expatriate British businessmen and Danish business partners.Parallel to this was another club, the British Import Union. here, senior Dan-ish business people with anglophile connections in trade and industry met for the same reasons. a former com-mercial councillor at the embassy, ray Pringle, asked the obvious question. why isn’t there a British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark? It was clear that co-existence was the key for both clubs, who already shared membership and interests.

Two British ‘flagships’ mergeBy 2003 the charter was announced. Mariano a. Davies, the first chairman and now president of the BCCD, decid-ed that the chamber’s next goal was to merge the two British business groups into one organisation. The BIU soon saw a successfully established chamber of commerce from which its members could derive much benefit, and the le-gal merger was celebrated in 2008. To-day, the members of the merged board work closely to promote British busi-ness in Denmark and beyond.

1. ambassador archer and chamber pres-ident Davies – complimentary and sup-plementary roles2. archer together with actor John net-tles at a BCCD-BIU event3. Davies thanks sir David walker for speaking to BCCD-BIU members4. recent arrivals amb. and Mrs archer taking time for an interview5. archer presents a lene Grønbech sø-rensen with a scholarship to study in the UK

1 2 3

4 5

the British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark - British Import Union - 23 september 2010 5

corporate members

Corporate membersa P Møller Mærsk advokatfirmaet stendahl Ottesenadvokatfirman Delphialfa1labangela Barla a/saxel Ketner a/sBech BruunB-innovationBiotech IgG a/sBP Gas Danmark a/sBritish airwaysBritish embassyBruun & hjejle Calliste Consulting

Coloplast a/sCompaction a/sCopenhagen Business schoolCopenhagen CapacityDaloon a/sDanatex a/sDanders & MoreDanisco a/sDanish-UK Chamber of Com-merceDanmarks rederiforeningDanish German Chamber of CommerceDanmarks skibskredit a/sDansk elektro-svejsningDansk Tysk handelskammerDanske Bank

DelacourDeloitte DfDs a/sDIDOnG energyDujardin a/segon Zehnder InternationaleM Growthernst & youngesbjerg International schooleversheds advokataktieselskabeye for Imagefinansrådet forsvarsministerietfoss electric holding a/sG4s security servicesGarrad hassan

Gorrissen federspielhays specialist recruitmenthortenhotelInvest Kalvebod a/s / Marriott hotelInsightsearch ltdIntelIntercamp a/sInternational Business walesIss a/sKarriere Konsult a/sKisserup International Trade roots europe apsKPMGKromann reumertlett advokatfirmalICengineering

Milcom a/sMiller rosenfalck llPnew venturenordea Bank Danmark a/snordia novozymesnykreditOrr litchfield Oxford Institute Persolit entreprenørfirmaPKf Kresten fogedPlP- GrUPPenPricewaterhouseCoopersradiometer Medical a/sradisson Blu royal hotel/rezi-dor hotel Grouprahbekfisk a/s

rambøll Denmark a/srealkredit Danmark a/sregusresources Global Profession-als a/srs Components a/ssaxo Bank a/sscanafric a/sscandinavian airlines system Denmarkshell strategia finans a/sThe Copenhagen PostUIP Consult aps Private Investigatorsworld Translation apsaage Damgaard aps

our board

thomas thune Andersen - Chairman of BCCD Thomas Thune andersen is presently a director on the board of numerous UK and Danish companies including scottish and southern energy, vKr holding, Petrofac and lloyds register. having had close relationships to the UK during most of his career, he is very much involved in the issues of BCCD-BIU. Mariano A. Davies – President of BCCDDirector of the International Institute of written Oxford english. as president, Mariano represents BCCD-BIU in all international matters and attends a significant number of events of a representative nature branding the Chamber.

Gareth Garvey – Partner, B-innovationGareth is a member of the Chamber’s management team. he is a UK citizen living in Denmark who is keen to continue to use his background and experience to foster business relationships between the two countries.

Suzanne D Lassen - Strategic facilitator and Integrator ApSsuzanne’s membership of the BCCD-BIU board provides her with the opportunity to spar with other professionals and meet interesting and very knowledgeable people and speakers. Patrick orr - Senior Partner, orr LitchfieldPatrick’s specific role for the BCCD relates to legal compliance and the provision and management of legal advice for the BCCD-BIU, where required.

Lene Skole - Chief financial officer, Coloplastlene skole is executive vice president at Coloplast a/s. she is also on the board of DfDs a/s, TryG a/s and the american Chamber of Commerce. Vagn thorup – Partner, Kromann reumert, a gold sponsor of BCCDvagn’s primary fields of expertise are mergers and acquisitions and corporate law. he hopes to support BCCD in promoting the exchange of trade, commerce and culture between Britain and Denmark.

Kirstine troldborg - Assistant Deputy Director of Public ProsecutionsOver the years Kirstine has kept personal and professional relationships with the UK and is therefore very honoured and pleased to have been elected to the Board of BCCD-BIU. torben von Lowzow - Partner, CapManTorben von lowzow is a partner in Capman, a listed private equity investor with its base in the nordic countries. Torben feels that the BCCD-BIU is a strong and attractive networking place for individuals and companies that are exposed to business in both Britain and Denmark.

contact details bccd

British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark - British Import Unionarne Jacobsens allé 16, 3. sal, 2300 København sTel: +45 31 18 75 58 / +45 70 20 84 10 e-mail: [email protected]

Penny schmith - executive [email protected]+45 61 68 94 24

Katherine vyce - networking & events [email protected]+45 31 77 92 71

Ida von arenstorff - administrative [email protected] + 45 31 78 53 77

Thomas enggaard-nielsen - accountant [email protected]+ 45 26 20 10 50

By C.W. Griffin

As The wOrlD COnTInUes to focus in varying degrees on the global energy dilemma, Denmark once again finds it-

self at the forefront. In a report that was submit-ted to Parliament on 28 september, a journey that began over two and a half years ago will move one step closer to uncovering a solution to what could be the question of our time.

In March 2008, the Danish parliament cre-ated a commission to study the growing cli-mate crisis, and Klimakommissionen, or the Danish Commission on Climate Change Policy, was born. Katherine richardson, vice-dean of the faculty of science at the University of Co-penhagen and the commission’s chair, spoke about the coming report and the commission’s progress.

“sooner or later, Denmark has to become in-dependent of fossil fuels because we’re going to run out of them,” richardson said. “It is a political decision to decide how and when that is going to happen, and this report is a very good basis for making that decision when the time for that decision comes.”

In fact, the urgency for the commission’s creation and mandate was driven, according to richardson, “by the fact that the amount of fossil fuels, especially oil and gas, is very limited and right now it’s estimated that there’s only 40 years left of global oil, if the world population continues to use oil at the rate that it is now. and so Denmark is going to be in a position of being a net importer of oil very soon, and that means that we’re going to be competing with others to try to get hold of this oil which, as far

as we know, is mostly in the Middle east.”The commission is attacking a two-part

challenge. They are to address the prospect of Denmark becoming completely independent of fossil fuels, but also how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“This is basically two sides of the same coin,” said richardson, “because 80 percent of green-house gas emissions are caused by fossil fuel use. so if we could remove fossil fuels from the picture, then we would make an immediate and huge impact on our greenhouse gas budget.”

Though she could offer no details as to spe-cific proposals the report makes, she reassured

that “[the report] will make many concrete rec-ommendations, but all will focus on things that can be done here and now, in the next 10 to 15 years, with the purpose of arriving somewhere else in the middle of this century.”

“we will not pick the winner,” richardson said, “we will not say this should be wind, this should be biomass, this should be solar, and that is due to the fact that we believe that it should be market processes that choose the winner.”

In light of this fact, richardson has insisted that the commission not exist in a vacuum. “If you’re going to do this as a whole country, it requires a lot more than ten people in a closed room to figure out how you’re going to do it. If we want to have the market help us to do this, we need to be in discussion with industry and business. at the county level – they’re the ones that have contact, they’re the level that carry things out – they also have to be involved. we’ve been in a very constructive dialogue with busi-ness organisations, individual companies, nGOs, the different counties – and school children, be-cause it’s their future we’re talking about.”

when asked how she expected the report to be received, richardson said: “In a democratic process, if everybody agreed, it would be a lousy process. I am definitely optimistic, and we’re try-ing to be very fair and identify all sides of the story in our report, but of course there will be opposition and there will be obstacles.

“There are a lot of topics vying for political attention that are in focus right now. I think that the best insurance you can buy, or provide for yourself, is to make sure that your report is thor-ough, and that you really have turned over all the stones that are necessary along the way.”

richardson sums up her expectations like this: “It’s been a wonderfully positive approach all the way through by everyone. That doesn’t mean that [the ten members of the commission] have seen things exactly the same way. The fact that we have these different perspectives, trying to understand where other people are coming from, I think that’s one of the strengths of the report. we really have weighed and considered every aspect of [these questions] in great detail. The vision that I have for it is that it will be re-ceived and respected as being a very solid piece of work.”

regardless of its receipt, once the report is submitted on 28 september and revealed at the world Climate solutions on 29-30 september in Copenhagen, the commission’s mandate will be complete. Then, said richardson, “a bottle of champagne”.

“Sooner or later, Denmark has to become independent of fossil fuels

because we’re going to run out of them”

Leaving no stone unturnedCatherine riChardson


a year and half in the making, the danish government’s climate commission is ready to unveil its two-front strategy for combating climate change

interview

Catherine richardson


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stored in the breakthrough nanophosphate-based lithium-ion energy storage system.

The hybriDrive system takes advantage of regenerative braking, capturing some of the vehicle’s kinetic energy either to supplement power from the generator or to store it in the energy storage system. Because the engine is not directly linked to the traction motor, it can run at peak efficiency independent of driving conditions, significantly reducing fuel consumption and pollution. The hybriDrive system also simplifies the transmission, re-ducing maintenance costs for transit opera-tors. and series-hybrid system architecture is best-suited to adapt to future zero-emission technologies such as fuel cells and fully elec-tric vehicles.

Bae systems’ application centre in roches-ter, UK, is working with market-leading bus manufacturers to offer series-hybrid technol-ogy to the european and UK markets. In part-nership with alexander Dennis limited in the UK, Bae systems offer series-hybrid technol-ogy on the enviro400 double-decker bus and the enviro200 single-decker bus. alexander

Dennis, with nearly 200 years of engineering and bus-building experience, is Britain’s lead-ing manufacturer of single- and double-decker buses, which carry almost 10 million passen-gers per day in london and hong Kong.

Twelve Bae systems-powered enviro400 double-decker buses and five enviro200 sin-gle-decker buses have been in revenue service for more than a year as part of a trial by Trans-port for london. with more than 500,000 miles logged, data shows fuel reductions in excess

of 30 percent, with corresponding reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. This trial has led to the order of more than 100 hybriDrive-equipped alexander Dennis hybrid buses un-der the UK government’s recent Green Bus fund initiative.

These buses will be entering revenue serv-ice across the UK in cities such as Manchester, Oxford and london, helping to save fuel and re-duce greenhouse gas emissions. The Green Bus fund, set up by the UK government in 2009, is a £30 million fund to help bus companies and lo-cal authorities in england hasten the introduc-tion of low carbon buses.

Transport for london is committed to intro-ducing hybrid buses to london, with a stated goal to ensure that in the future all new buses entering service in london will use hybrid tech-nology. with Bae systems’ hybriDrive system, the new enviro400 double-decker bus is well-positioned to take advantage of this commit-ment and help transport operators in the UK save fuel, reduce life-cycle costs, and greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Website: www.baesystems.com/hybridrive

Hybrid Propulsion drives green buses across the UK

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“Bridge to Growth” seminar with Advantage West Midlands

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London’s iconic red buses are among those being powered by BAe’s low-emission systems


The UK. Powering the

world’s energy industry.

Visit www.go-uk.org to find out more

The British government's renewable energy strategy provides the basis for a £100 billion investment in renewables by 2020. To �nd out more about opportuni-ties in the British wind energy supply chain, join our targeted seminar on 28th October 2010, by contacting Investment Market Adviser at the British Embassy Copenhagen, Thomas Sylvest:

Tel: +45 3544 5291, E-mail: [email protected]

Is it possible for Corporate Social responsibility to be “authentic” and profitable?

By Kersi Porbunderwalla

As CSr spreads to a broader range of corporate issues companies need to ensure their efforts

BUsInesses are InCreasInGly being subjected to new and higher expectations of their corporate citi-zenship. whether the focus be Csr, renewable energy, business in the community or sustainability, many organisations are finding it difficult to keep up or decide how best to lead.

Businesses can respond because they feel obliged, or because they want to find a competitive edge. It is perfectly possible to establish a mar-keting advantage by being more re-sponsible or “green” than the next. But customers, employees, stakeholders of all kinds are also increasingly sensi-tive and alert to companies adopting an approach which is merely “skin-deep”.

Underlying all these integrated is-sues is the need for an ethical corpo-rate culture and ‘good’ corporate gov-ernance which operates effectively at all levels. But this is easy to say and difficult to deliver.

the european scenea growing component of governance, risk and compliance (GrC) is Csr. In Denmark the requirement to have a Csr policy and to evaluate its effec-tiveness is required by law. several

other countries are in the process of adopting similar action plans for Csr disclosures but have not yet estab-lished a clearly defined path.

Both in Denmark and the eU, Csr has been on the agenda over the past ten years. Currently the focus has moved from an exclusive centre of attention on a limited number of is-sues and is now included in a much broader range of issues and subjects that are characterised by increasing globalisation.

Csr is also increasing its visibility on the european scene in the context of the lisbon strategy’s objectives, which are to strengthen both compet-itiveness and sustainable growth. Csr was also reflected in the Commission’s Competitiveness report from 2008. The report analysed the competitive-ness and the conclusion was that Csr must be part of core business to have a competitive effect.

Most recently, the Council on Competitiveness, (December 2009), recognised Csr as a contribution to the post-lisbon strategy of the eU countries.

Resources Global Professional plays an important role in addressing and enhancing disclosure requirements on CSR issues as recommended by most stock exchanges with focus on issues like

• incorporating CSR disclosure re-

quirements into listing rules and corporate governance standards• implementing disclosure require-ments on a “comply or explain” basis• supporting the requirement for a resolution on a esG or sustainability report• exploring measures to encourage best practice amongst companies e.g. through sustainable indices

After the successful CSr breakfast briefing several ideas were gener-

ated that could be rolled out within the CSr network. these were:

• second meeting with specific fo-cus on corporate governance and ethics• three-day in-house CSR course developed and available to all rGP offices on Csr and sustainable De-velopment• roll out the CSR Network Charter to all rGP offices

Professor David Jackman of resources

Global Professionals was one of the keynote speakers. he is a pioneer and expert both on Csr/sustainability and how these are driven by corporate ethics and governance. he has led the development of some important standards in this area and contributed to the writing of the new IsO 26000 on Csr; due to be released later this year. This is much anticipated –sets an international benchmark for company action and engagement.

Businesses can respond to higher expectations out of obligation or as way to get ahead

By Colin Calder, Ceo, PassivSystems

radically different approaches to managing power delivery will be needed in order to make the smart grid a reality

There Is a GrOwInG MOMenTUM around smart grids – both at a national and european level. Governments and utilities are starting to talk about them as an all-in-one solution for re-ducing carbon emissions and global warming, preventing the further rise of energy bills and making the most of renewable energy.

There is no doubt that a grid with the abil-ity to deliver power from suppliers to consum-ers, using two-way communications technology to control appliances in the home, could have a positive impact on energy use. The sensor, meas-urement and control devices used are exceed-ingly smart, making it possible to dynamically respond to changes in grid condition and distrib-ute energy accordingly.

But mostly missing from the debate thus far is the role and rights of the consumer in making the smart grid work. how do we shift focus from the commercially and control-orientated world of utilities to the homeowner? how do we make the smart grid work for consumers?

energy complexityOver the next decade the supply and manage-ment of energy across europe is going to become much more complex. encouraged by feed-in tar-iffs, central generation and transport of energy will soon give way to distributed generation of both electricity and heat. Besides renewable

systems like photovoltaic panels and micro-co-generation of heat and electricity in homes, we will also see a growth in the adoption of electric heat-pumps, solar-thermal and smart appliances.

new electrical loads will appear, including battery vehicles and air-conditioning. The use of residential district heating schemes based on combined heat and power (ChP) is likely to be-come more widespread too.

as the smart grid emerges, analysts and busi-nesses are waking up to the need for a radically different approach to consumer engagement.

heating, cooling and air quality systems are in-creasing in complexity. The same could be true for the devices connected to a smart grid – they add a further layer of complexity to consumers’ already busy lives.

A need for changeThere has been much talk of smart meters work-ing in conjunction with a smart grid. across eu-rope governments are looking to install them in as many homes as possible, as quickly as possi-ble, and the introduction of household energy usage displays in conjunction with domestic smart meters will raise the level of awareness of users in the energy that they are consuming.

But smart meters will not create savings by themselves and neither will they add value from

the smart grid to consumers. In-home energy monitors only offer short-term value for consum-ers and short-term energy reduction. The answer lies in the way a home consumes, generates and manages energy within the context of a national energy supply network. This will have far wider- reaching implications for the consumer than merely providing information on their energy use could ever hope to achieve.

already in the UK, a number of retailers and broadband providers have begun offering ener-

gy services, and as trusted brands with a strong customer service heritage, this makes sense. such business models will see the marketplace open up in ways previously unthought-of, with a retailer’s customers perhaps becoming an energy community, or providing the retailer with an opportunity to sell white goods to their energy customers. This additional consumer choice will in turn encourage utilities to place more emphasis on customer needs.

It is this consumer-focused vision that Pas-sivsystems has been very vocal about in the UK, and with the support of UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) it is keen to bring to the energy agenda in Denmark, too.

Home energy managementfor consumers to participate fully in the smart grid, an energy management device is required. This can guide the management of distributed loads and to control local electricity and heat generation.

More use could also be made of local en-ergy storage (heat, cold, and electricity) using time-variable pricing and matching supply and demand efficiently and using sophisticated en-ergy service tariffs akin to mobile phone con-tracts.

at times when electricity is least expensive, such a system could turn on selected home appliances like washing machines, or put en-ergy into storage. at peak times it could reduce demand by temporarily turning down appli-ances like freezers, or switch to alternative en-ergy sources including distributed stores like battery-powered cars. The system could also be used to deliver new models of carbon man-agement, such as setting individual targets for householders.

an additional point is that currently, the investment in these technologies is too dis-jointed. Consumers are being encouraged to

purchase their own renewable energy systems, whether that is solar Pv, solar thermal, heat pumps or wind generation, but the return-on-investment is not clear because the energy isn’t being managed effectively. for these technolo-gies to function at their maximum levels they need to be integrated, and for consumer take-up to increase they need to see clear rOI. The cost to the consumer has to be minimised if engage-ment and take-up is to grow.

Therefore we need to use digital technology to control appliances in homes to save energy, optimise carbon and increase grid resilience. But it’s also vital that due account is taken of con-sumer preferences and lifestyle needs, because a one size fits all model simply will not work in this complex mass market. The most realistic way of achieving this is in more consumer-focused brands entering the energy market-brands that understand consumer needs and can respond to them.

In the home, a single point of interface is needed. a home energy management system can integrate all of the heating, cooling, hot-water and appliance-control functions, letting occupants meet their needs cost-effectively and automatically. These new systems will also take account of dynamic factors such as occupant behaviour resulting from lifestyle, social and eco-nomic factors; building age, type and structure; legacy appliances and energy systems; prevail-ing weather conditions; and the cost of different energy supplies at different times.

the time to act is nowThe smart grid presents a real opportunity to make a difference in homes across europe. smart meters are a valid, but small part of the equa-tion. The key to the future of international energy management is ensuring that consumers are in control. whilst the home energy management technology is available now, full control can only come if the smart grid places the consumer at its heart and if companies in the smart grid space – and that may well be non-utility companies - deliver solutions that are based on a real under-standing of consumer need. Only then will the true benefit of the smart grid be unlocked.

Colin Calder, CEO, PassivSystems will be speaking at World Climate Solutions at 10:00 30/09/2010 as part of the ‘Plugging in Intelli-gent Buildings’ panel session.


Already in the UK, a number of retailers and broadband providers have begun

offering energy services, and as trusted brands with a strong customer service

heritage, this makes sense.

Making the smart grid work for consumers

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Smart grids will allow two-way communication between power producers and consumers

Colin Calder, Ceo of PassivSystems


An active proponent for change to the comprehensiveBy David Gee, european environment Agency

“Changing course A Global Busi-ness perspective on Develop-ment and the environment”, 1992. Schmidheiny et al

The “BOOMs anD BUsTs” in ecosys-tems such as fisheries, where there is often a focus on short term flows of fish rather than on the longer term maintenance of fish stocks, is bad business, as the 50 leaders of multina-tional companies pointed out in their contribution to the rio conference on environment and development in 1992.

Unfortunately, their message went largely unheeded, as did similar early warnings, about the impending financial crash in 2007-8, from nour-bini, stiglitz, soros, and the Bank of International settlements. The finan-cial system was too focused on flows of profits and incomes, rather than on the stocks of the financial assets leading to asset inflation, then to its destruction, along with that of con-siderable economic capital and public trust in financial and political leaders. It was also bad business.

from the european environment agency’s earlier work on “late les-sons from early warnings”, in addition to a similar disregard for early warn-ings, we have noticed other common features and their related solutions among the financial crisis, the energy

and climate crisis, and the less visible crisis of eroding natural capital.

first, there is an imbalance be-tween managing stocks of capitals and their flows of incomes and servic-es. In finance we need more conserva-tive capital/liabilities ratios; whilst with energy, we need to use less stocks of fossil fuels and more flows of energy efficiency and renewables. One cause of the failure to finance sub-prime mortgages in the Us was the oil price peak: we don’t need to wait for shortages to turn to smarter energy sources.

as sheik yamani said during the 1973 oil shock: “we did not leave the stone age because we ran out of stones.” with the flows of ecosystems services, such as water recycling, pol-lination, and pollution absorption, we need to account for and maintain the natural capital that sustains them: and all three activities need longer term decision making.

second, the full costs, risks and debts created by product exchange are not transparent. This can allow debts and damage to rise danger-ously without much visibility to either consumers or decision makers.

for example, “toxic financial debt” was buried deep within triple-a weighted, yet complex and opaque financial products that few outside their creators, including CeOs, un-derstood; whilst the creation of toxic pollution and degraded ecosystems is often invisible to consumers.

a step towards greater transpar-ency in the exchange of financial, energy, and ecosystem commodities is to ensure that all costs and risks of debts and environmental impacts are reflected in their prices. such inter-nalisation of “externalities” into more realistic market prices via taxes, per-mits, and liability regimes is necessary to deal with this informational asym-metry. such market based instru-ments are less economically costly than taxes on labour and capital. and they facilitate a shift in tax structures away from incomes and onto lifetime

consumption, which helps both to en-courage investment and to deal with the shrinking income tax base that arises from an ageing population.

Third, we have been steering with the wrong compasses: indicators of “progress”, such as the GDP or of pre-dictability, such as models of complex and uncertain financial and ecologi-cal systems, have provided mislead-ing guidance to decision makers. The french stiglitz Commission has recently restated the inadequacies of the GDP; and critiques of the math-

ematical models used in the financial sector have demonstrated how they provided false certainties that in turn encouraged unsound risk taking.

fourth, there is a mismatch be-tween private and social incentives: in the financial sector, pay and bo-nuses encouraged short term profits to the detriment of the longer term viability of assets; whilst for energy and ecosystems, the desire for more consumption, exacerbated by overt and hidden subsidies and tax breaks (to biofuels, fossil fuels and forests destruction), erodes the natural base from which consumption is derived.

fifth, a common failure of homo stupidus is an inability to learn from history. The financial sector did not learn from the failure of long Term Capital Management or from the dot-com bubble, whilst even earlier les-sons were seemingly lost to history:

“Boom and slump ... has gone on decade after decade ... as every fresh crop of small accumulators saved suf-ficiently to invest ... there appeared plausible leaders of finance with a get rich quick scheme, casting it before his victims as an angler casts his flies for trout.” (Thomas Johnstone, lord Privy seal, Minister for scotland, in “The financiers and the nation”, 1934).

finally, many have described the personal and wider moral fail-ings within the financial sector. This includes “implicit bribing of rating agencies, incompetence of regula-tors; complicity of corporate directors,

collusion of bankers and politicians; naivete of investors ... which together have exposed our financial system as fundamentally corrupt, fragile, never to be trusted” (l.J. Kotlikoff, former senior economist, Us President’s Council economic advisors).

It seems clear that the morality of piling up ecological debts for our children is also questionable, as well as being more costly for them to deal with.

There are some significant differenc-es between the three systems:- unlike the biosphere, financial sys-tems are human made, yet we still un-derstand little about them- financial crises are visible, short term, and largely reversible, unlike climate and biodiversity crises- financial systems are more volatile: perceptions, expectations and behav-iour rapidly change the system dy-namics via herd behaviour and rapid feedback.

Chris Bean, deputy governor of the Bank of england, has observed of the financial crisis: “The mistake of most of the economics profession was a failure to see what was really going on beneath the surface.” (The Great Moderation, Panic, and Contraction, schumpeter lecture, Barcelona, aug 09).

we hope this analysis can make a modest contribution to joined-up thinking about all three crises.

“The bottom line is that the human species is living more off the planet’s

capital and less off its interest. This is bad business.” (Changing

course A Global Business perspective on Development and the Environ-

ment, 1992. Schmidheiny et al.)


An active proponent for change to the comprehensive

By Alex Deherrera

Sir David Walker challenges companies to take a more long-term perspective

“They wOUlD Tell Me, ‘you’re not asking the right question’,” he recalls. “I absolutely loved that, because maybe I wasn’t at the time.”

walker contends that if more CeOs and board chairmen had been subjected to what he calls “creative dissension”, some of the worst abuses of the recent financial meltdown might have been avoided. Too many boards are filled with people who are afraid to speak up and chal-lenge bad policy.

last year he was tapped by the British gov-ernment to look at corporate governance in the financial sector, in hopes of avoiding a recur-rence of the conditions that led to failed entities on both sides of the atlantic. he came up with 39 recommendations, most of which are being adopted and could also be applicable to compa-nies other than financial institutions.

earlier this year, walker discussed his find-

ings and recommendations in a talk in Copenha-gen jointly sponsored by the British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark, nordic Capital Markets and the Copenhagen Business school.

although he understands the “retributive mood” of taxpayers who now find themselves with unlimited liability, walker warns that it’s important to strike a balance and not let the pendulum swing too far in the direction of more regulation.

“There’s a prevailing schizophrenia that calls for ample cheap credit and safe banks,” he says, noting that these goals are not simultaneously attainable.

Prominent among his recommendations: executive boards must hold the chairman and CeO (who, in walker’s mind, should not be the same person) accountable and responsible. and shareholders must play a more active steward-ship role in helping companies avoid excessive risk.

“CeOs are competitive, with sharp elbows,” he says, “and they grow increasingly intolerant of others’ views. This is normal behavior but the

board has to challenge and channel it.”a board should evaluate the performance of

its top executive yearly, walker says, and take im-mediate steps to remove anyone not up to the job. “These executives should be subjected to a ‘star chamber’ review by regulators and a panel of former board members, and they should take their jobs more seriously,” he notes.

walker says that financial risk is the product of every financial institution. The risks can be minimised, he says, if boards are the appropriate size and understand the business.

“If a group’s business is beyond the com-prehension of its board, the board needs to be changed or the business needs to be restruc-tured,” he says.

The two biggest dangers, however, are the lack of independent risk advice and the trou-bling drift toward short-term investing.

“The foundations for long-term vision have been weakened by myopia in the system,” walk-er argues, adding that 60 percent of Us stock trading in 2009 was “high frequency”. with such short term ownership, boards have less knowl-

edge of their shareholders.“Owners need to be owners and not just

traders,” walker says, “and well-run boards need shareholder support for long-term strategies.” fund managers need to clearly disclose the busi-ness model of the fund he added and sharehold-ers need to move in the direction of more organ-ized power over boards.

walker also points to the need for independ-ent risk advisors, especially in the field of merg-ers and acquisitions. lack of independent bank-ing advice led to bad decisions that brought down the royal Bank of scotland and put lloyd’s at risk, he says, and there was blatant disregard for shareholder concerns.

“There was palpable failure in the govern-ance of banks and a real need for improvement in risk governance of boards,” he notes, adding that the only way to fend off more tax and regu-lation is “to be able to say that the private sector is doing a better job than regulators.”

walker closed on a note of optimism: “I am cautiously positive there is going to be change, which is needed in sclerotic, ineffective boards.”

Sir Walker agitates for a change that would see an end to ineffective boards Photos: Hugh Mayo

“Soft” corporate governance law better for listed companies, says Sten Scheibye

aT a seMInar OrGanIseD by the British Chamber of Commerce, sten scheibye, Chairman of the Committee on Corporate Governance, underlined the importance of establishing volun-tary regulations for listed companies rather than waiting for government to introduce legislation to regulate the market.

scheibye, who has held a string of top management positions in Danish business and is currently chairman of the board of novo nordisk, spoke about the new Danish recommenda-tions for good governance and inter-national trends.

The latest recommendations,

which were published in april this year, revise two previous lists pro-duced by the committee in 2001 and 2008.

During the seminar, attended by executives from a number of ma-jor Danish companies, scheibye de-scribed the recommendations as a form of “soft law” in contrast to the “hard law” that government provides when they legislate for minimum standards for company conduct.

“soft law is typically relatively easy to amend and therefore more dy-namic than government legislation, which means that recommendations can always be kept up-to-date. soft law describes best practice and com-panies can choose to comply or not, which makes them preferable to hard law that sets minimum standards for

everyone,” he said.“The other big advantage of soft

law is that it is easy to alter and adapt to new circumstances, while govern-ment legislation is hard to change. for this reason, the recommendations are much better suited to companies that have to survive in a dynamic environ-ment.”

scheibye explained the differ-ences between the German and Brit-ish models for corporate governance. while German companies maintain a strict division between management and a supervisory committee, there tends to be a large overlap in func-tions between management and their boards in British companies. In the Danish model, however, the board and management have more clearly defined roles.

In terms of corporate governance however, the British were leading the field, according to scheibye.

he told the audience that the 77 recommendations which the Com-mittee on Corporate Governance had published could be divided into three main categories: those that con-cern overarching themes such as the role of shareholders, Csr and creat-ing transparency; recommendations which define the role and make-up of management teams, and remunera-tion for managers; and finally, recom-mendations relating to accounting and auditing practices.

with regard to the duties of man-agement, the new recommendations state that companies should have the necessary strategic competencies and financial resources in place to reach

their strategic goals. The committee also recommends

that companies ensure that the work of the management, as well as finan-cial and managerial oversight, be based on regular annual monitoring. Other recommendations encompass the role of the deputy chairperson and the tasks assigned to the board chair, as well as the importance of regular reporting.

as far as the how boards are con-stituted, the committee put forward a number of new recommendations such as proposing that companies make public the skills of individual members, as well as ensuring that boards achieve a good gender bal-ance a mix of age groups, and people with international experience when recruiting members.

Good corporate governance requires the “soft” approach


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By Penny Schmith

the chamber’s new office at Øres-tad gives it plenty of space in just the right place

The BCCD-BIU Is GrOwInG BOTh in terms of members and number of high quality business networking events being arranged throughout the year. after careful consideration, the board and secretariat agreed that now was the time to move on, from the comfortable environment of support which regus provides in their office concept for small busi-nesses, to our own facilities, at field’s shopping Mall.

we chose to move on 1 July to the “Copenhagen Business District” in Ørestad for many reasons, all of which have proved to be correct ones in the last two months:• Transport connections are fabu-lous. The Metro connects us to all parts of Copenhagen in under 20 minutes; the coastal train comes in from north Zealand on a direct line in one direction and goes to the air-port in the other – offering a no hitch location for our visitors from the UK and Denmark alike; driving is equally easy as in one minute you can be on the motorway to the airport or north

Copenhagen. Parking is not only close by but also trouble-free and at a fraction of the cost of central Copenhagen. It is the perfect loca-tion for an organisation which is “in-ternational” like ours, as the airport is less than 10 minutes away, what-ever mode of transport you choose. Members can also cycle from town in 30 minutes if the urge comes upon them!• field’s offers a complete and easy solution to virtually all the needs of a developing chamber. If we need something, it is simply a trip down in the lift to the shopping centre where the choice is overwhelming. Perhaps we need a gift for the next speaker, maybe a member is suddenly invited to a business meeting where a suit will be more suitable than jeans, or an IT cable is required right now to complete the task.• Cost? yes of course this had to be a consideration. we now have around four times the space for the same outlay and this includes kitchen, toi-let, and printer room areas, plus our own meeting room. we could never have achieved this in central Copen-hagen unless a member hosted us.• This is a vibrant and rapidly growing international business area which sets the right “tone” for the location of a modern chamber. we already

have members such as rambøll and the Crowne Plaza as neighbours, and the potential for new recruitment to our network in this dynamic hub is considerable.

we are now settled in and the of-fice is almost ready for visitors.

Two of our members who are art-ists, Gordon fazakerley and alexan-dra hayles, have kindly agreed to let us have some of their art on our walls and we look forward to paintings ar-riving in the next few weeks.

Our meeting room for eight is equipped with digital screen with wireless connection and will before long be set up with fully function-ing web conferencing and bluetooth teleconferencing for mobiles. how-ever, we also have a flip chart for those who prefer a non-technical solution to presentations! This room will shortly be available to members for booking on an hourly basis.

we also have two extra desks, in addition to the three workstations reserved for chamber use, which will soon be offered to members as an additional “hot-desking” service. we hope it will be a valuable ben-efit for individual and small business members, especially those who are further away from Copenhagen and need an occasional base for work when in town.

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the chamber’s new office in the field’s building offers plenty of space and easy access locally, nationally and internationally Photo: Hugh Mayo

“Internationals in Danish Business Life” with AIESEC


Venue: KLP Building in Ørestad

BCCD AUtUMn eVentS


“Consumers borrowed more money than they could sensibly repay, in the hopes that asset prices would go up and be the source of repayment.” yet these consumers were only able to borrow the money from “people who lent money lent it without taking fully into consideration people’s abilities to pay”.

alongside weak laws regulating this practice, governments them-selves were spending more money than they had earned. That formula leads to “debt at the government lev-el, the corporate level and the voter/consumer level and it’s going to take a long time to work it through”.

This situation could be seen in Greece, which teetered earlier this year on the brink of economic col-lapse. The Greek government has a substantial level of debt that will take a long time to resolve because “you can’t pay back very substantial sums quickly, least of all when the econo-mies are weak”.

Making the situation even more complicated is the fact that Greece uses the euro which limits their abil-ity to borrow extensible. when you have sixteen countries sharing a com-mon currency “it’s hard for the sur-plus countries to persuade their vot-ers that they should rescue another country”. Bond does not think that it is right for him to preach what the other countries should do, since their politi-cians have to listen to their electorate, but he feels that the likely solution is a bail out funded by the International Monetary fund and partly by other

european countries.Transitioning from working at

hsBC to vodafone gave Bond an in-teresting perspective on the relative impact of each industry. Interestingly enough, while “banking has been around for close to 500 years and probably roughly 23 or 24 percent of the world’s populations have a bank account, mobile phones have been around for about 25 years and 65 per-cent of the world’s populations have a mobile phone”.

while these numbers are as oppo-site as can be, both of them are con-sumer-driven businesses. Banks lend money and receive deposits while vo-dafone “connects consumers to their network”.

Bond’s period at vodafone also gave him a different perspective on the current green movement sweep-ing the globe. while hsBC was not necessarily a large user of electricity, vodafone on the other hand is. They are aiming to “become carbon neutral within twenty years” and in addition are “looking for ways to buy green electricity”. although vodafone is trying to limit its impact on the envi-ronment, there are other countries in different stages of economic develop-ment that seem to be less strict with their regulations. India, for example, has “relatively little per capita carbon dioxide emissions” and likely does not want to “sign up for the level of com-mitment [towards emission stands] that some of the western economies have done”. accordingly, Bond says “it’s very hard to apply a uniform code to all economies because different

economies are in different stages of evolution” but that it should not im-pact individual companies, such as vodafone, from making a difference.

Bond has been able to accumu-late a unique perspective on differ-

ent facets of globalisation because of his experiences working and living all over the globe. he was knighted in 1999 for his services to banking and received a lifetime achievement award at the 2007 european Business

awards. Between the honors, awards and his achievements in business, it’s no wonder that he was giving a speech at the Danish British ambassa-dor’s residence on the night I was able to sit down with him.

u story continued from pg 1

Join us in the Garden…

Children have a seed inside that needs nourishment to

grow.

The seed is their own, we simply support it in its

development.

Children’s Garden opens its doors in October 2010, as a newly established International Preschool providing a holistically based early childhood education for the International and Danish community of the greater Copenhagen area.

Curriculum goals dovetail with international as well as Danish requirements for preschool learning, and meet the standards for direct entry to, the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program, the British Key Stage One, as well as Scandinavian school systems.

I n f o : www.childrensgarden.dk

Bernstorffsvej 75,2900 Hellerup DK. Tel.:+45 73752900

Sir Bond’s transition from finance to telecoms gave him a unique perspective on the two industries Photos: Pamela Juhl


Copenhagen – the place to be for expats

By frank Jensen, lord mayor of Copenhagen

Denmark’s capital is taking active steps to make sure that it can attract and retain for-eign employees

“wITh DesCrIPTIOns lIKe ‘CITyslICK’, ‘cool’, ‘smart’ and ‘dynamic’, trendspotters and the in-ternational media leave no room for doubt: Den-mark’s capital city is the place to be. Over the past decade, Copenhagen has transformed itself from an inconsequential city on the outskirts of europe to a blossoming, cultural city that every-one is talking about.”

The newspaper based its picture of Copenha-gen on the input of some of the world’s leading trend forecasters, including li edelkoort of the netherlands and new york Times travel reporter seth sherwood, as well as reports from Usa To-day and the magazine Monocle.

we can see that Copenhagen is attractive for foreign companies and that an increasing number of students are choosing to study at the city’s universities. The reason can be found in our good infrastructure and Copenhagen’s high quality of living. we are just one of a handful of cities worldwide where it is possible to swim in the city’s inner harbour. Moreover, it is our ambi-tion to become the world’s first CO2-neutral city.

But we can and must do it better. The OeCD has shown that Copenhagen has fallen behind other comparable cities in terms of growth. Our “Growth Through Internationalisation” plan calls

for us to make a special effort to attract highly skilled foreigners by improving services and in-frastructure.

one-stop shop for expatsnew arrivals in Denmark need to do a number of things before they can become official residents: the regional state administration processes your residence permit. If you plan to work, you’ll need to contact tax authority skat. and if you want to be able to use the health service you will need a health card. In the past, this meant going to three different public agencies. But, on 2 July, the city opened its One stop shop.

for new arrivals, it may not sound like much that all of these things can now be taken care of at one place, but getting three agencies, each at a different level in the bureaucracy, to open an office together and focus on the customer’s needs, not the system’s, is sensational.

I am certain this will benefit foreign employ-ees and the companies that hire them.

equal service for all, more international schoolsCopenhagen and the rest of Denmark is known for its well-developed social welfare system. This system also encompasses nurseries, daycares and schools. and as a father, I am aware of how important school quality is, and that our schools can offer a seat to our children.

a number of studies have shown that there is an acute lack of capacity at our international schools – and that the situation is getting worse. Companies in the city tell us that schooling is critical for whether international employees and their accompanying families have a good stay in Copenhagen

we are working with other organisations to solve this problem. I am personally aware of many cases in which foreign employees have been forced to break their contracts or leave their fam-ilies behind in another country and travel back and forth on weekends in order to see them. This is unacceptable, particularly if Copenhagen is to be an international city in the 21st century, when

growth will become increasingly dependent on the knowledge economy, and when countries’ growth will become increasingly dependent on the economic health of their cities. My goal is to increase the number of international students our schools can accept by 1,000.

Urban development with a capital CPHCities worldwide are growing at a rapid pace. In Copenhagen, we expect the number of resi-dents to increase by 50,000 in the next 15 years. This will require the expansion of some city dis-tricts as well as the construction of entirely new ones. we have big ambitions when it comes to sustainability and our aim of becoming a world class “knowledge city”. Two of our primary de-velopment plans were contenders for this year’s “world’s Best Master Plan” award at the world architectural festival in Barcelona. Carlsberg took home the honour for its plan to convert its former Copenhagen brewery into a living, dy-namic neighbourhood encompassing a total of 600,000 square metres of floor space, 45 percent of which will be for commercial use, 45 percent for residential and 10 percent for cultural pur-poses.

Copenhagen’s other contender, nordhavn, calls for the former industrial port to be con-verted to a modern, attractive urban landscape. In the initial phases, some 600,000 square meters of floor space will be used to establish enough commercial space for 8,000 jobs and housing for 8,000 residents.

Cities are defined by the kind of housing they can offer to highly-paid researchers as well as to students. we need an international dormitory as well as housing for foreign researchers in order to make sure that our companies can continue to benefit from a high level of knowledge and research activity.

World class universitiesIf we are to see our growth rate increase, Copen-hagen needs a world class pool of knowledge employees. Copenhagen and the rest of the Øre-sund region specialises in life sciences, clean-

tech, and information and communication tech-nology. In the coming years, an extra 5 billion kroner is to be pumped into our universities, part of which will help to establish a new “knowledge city” at Copenhagen University’s north Campus housing natural and health sciences facilities.

Two new materials sciences research facili-ties – european spallation source (ess) and MaX Iv – focusing on medicine, food and environment will be opened in lund, sweden. ess expects to employ 500 researchers and technicians, MaX Iv another 200. an additional 2,500 are expect-ed to serve as guest researchers annually. Data processing for ess will be done in Copenhagen and this will require a professional infrastruc-ture that can accommodate the new employees working at these and all the other exciting new workplaces that will be created in the years to come.

International accessibilityIn order to maintain our international position, it is important that clients as well as employees can easily travel to, from and within the region. In order to make sure this is possible, a group of public and private organisations has set up a 200 million kroner route development fund aimed at adding new international routes from Copenha-gen airport. The planned fehmarn Bridge and its high-speed rail link to hamburg will put Copen-hagen at the heart of a region of over 8 million people – compared with the 4 million currently encompassed by the Øresund region. The Co-penhagen-hamburg link will connect Copen-hagen to europe’s high speed rail net. and once travellers get here, the expansion of the city’s un-derground rail system will make it even easier to get around the city.

Join usCopenhagen wants growth to go hand in hand with quality of life. But this isn’t something we can do alone. we need to work with research centres, businesses, residents and visitors from around the world. It’s no coincidence that our slogan is cOPenhagen!

“Cities are growing at a rapid pace. In Copenhagen, we expect the number of residents to increase by 50,000 in the next 15 years ” - Lord Mayor frank Jensen



By emily Clark

Student organisation AIeSeC helps students find internships, and companies to find new talent

as The wOrlD BeCOMes smaller and com-merce more globalised, by choice or by neces-sity Danish businesses are increasingly taking advantage of an international work force. In so doing, they often use the services of an or-ganisation called aIeseC, which helps in the recruiting, screening and placement of student interns, many of whom become permanent em-ployees.

aIeseC, short for the association Interna-tionale des Étudiants en sciences Économiques et Commerciales, is the largest student organi-sation in the world. founded in 1948, it oper-ates in more than 100 countries and serves as a bridge between universities and employers. students get access to a huge employer data-base, and employers get interns with specific skills whom they can keep on after the intern-ship ends.

according to Catrine Jacobsen, aIeseC’s team leader of exchange and sales at the Co-penhagen Business school, the organisation has a rigorous screening process.

Before students can access the international database, they are tested by a review board of aIeseC staff, teachers and psychologists to as-sess their collaboration skills, emotional stabil-ity and decision-making abilities. additionally, students are asked about their experience and motivation. Once approved by the aIeseC re-

view board, the student’s application is upload-ed onto the database.

next, aIeseC sends a detailed job question-naire to the company requesting an intern. The

returned questionnaire is posted on the da-tabase, students send in resumes and aIeseC reads through and screens hundreds of appli-cations to find the candidates whose skills best match the company’s requirements.

Once a company chooses its interns, aIeseC in Denmark helps with accommodations and visa requirements, accompanies an intern to the first day of work, and arranges social en-gagements and outings.

Omada is a 10-year-old Danish software company that relies on an international work force. The company, which also has offices in the Us, develops software for central manage-ment of user rights, making it a niche provider within the software security field. Omada’s offi-cial language is english, and it uses aIeseC to find interns who could be potential employees.

according to henning Therkelsen, who heads up Omada’s human resources division, “you invest in your interns – there’s a knowl-edge transfer, so you want to keep that person.”

Therkelsen said Omada looks primarily at academic records and communication skills – critical for a company that sells internationally – but also relies on aIeseC to make sure the intern has the personality makeup to leave home and work in another country.

Omada has employees from 15 different

countries. “Competing for the best brains is not so easy in Denmark, where most students want to go with the big companies. so it’s better for us to recruit internationally.”

Petr seidner, who left the Czech republic and came to Copenhagen as an intern, now works in Omada’s sales and marketing division. aIeseC played a big role in connecting him with the international worker community in Den-mark.

“aIeseC helped with housing, bank ac-counts and the tax office and put me in touch with other students working in other compa-nies,” he said, adding that Omada also made him feel welcome. “I was lucky with the com-pany and the country,” seidner said.

Therkelsen smile as he recalls the first day seidner arrived in Denmark to begin his intern-ship. “It was our poker night. Petr was tired and said he didn’t really know how to play poker. Then he won all the money. But we let him stay anyway.”

AIESEC is hosting a corporate event on the 5th of October together with the British Chamber of Commerce-British Import Union on the sub-ject of having internationals in Danish busi-nesses, any interested participants can sign up at bccd.dk.

opening the door to international careers

proud member of BCCC

Kisserup assists Governments and private sector by providing export expertise in:• SME Capasity building Institutional Strengthning• International Trade Research• International Trade Training• Workshop Design and Facilitation

www.kisserup.com

“Improving your Business Intellectual Property Strategy”


Venue: Delacour Dania in Copenhagen

BCCD AUtUMn eVentS

Students who qualify to become AIeSeC interns find themselves on the inside track to employment in companies worldwide


Achieving Potential New thinking is a growth driver

www.ey.com/dk

Second city puts foreign workers in first placeBy C.W. Griffin

Århus has launched a number of expat-oriented initiatives that other cities are looking to for inspiration

To Tiny Maerschalk, project manager at International Community aarhus, an expat is an expat.

‘I think no matter whether you are in Copenhagen, Århus, Gedser or ska-gen, or somewhere else in Denmark as an expat, it is the same because you are new to a place.’ One thing that Århus and Jutland expats have, though, is International Community, an organization dedicated to transi-tioning expats to Danish business cul-ture and social life.

International Community (IC) works in close partnership with local companies and businesses, as well as the authorities, to, as Maerschalk put it, “establish a network both on a social and professional level, and also find initiatives aimed at expats”.

Intercom, IC’s online interactive community, provides instant ac-cess to a network of information and community of members in Denmark. “[Intercom users] can use the other members in the network,2 Maerschalk said. “They can share information on difficult things regarding daily life, but also experiences from others. and that is important because all of the expats are able to help and guide one

another. They’ve all been in the same situation.”

Indeed, Intercom also offers a serv-ice to spouses of new workers in Den-mark to profile a resume online that companies can view and determine whether his or her qualifications might be a match for that company’s needs.

One of the greatest resources that International Community offers to ex-pats is the One stop shop, a service that lives up to its name. Maerschalk explained: “One stop shop is actu-ally where you can meet the public authorities in one physical space, so instead of having to go to the central region of Jutland, and to the tax office, you can meet them all in one spot, right here, every wednesday from 2 to 4pm, so that, upon arrival to Århus, the legal documents phase of entering Denmark becomes much less frustrat-ing.”

Indeed, expats in Jutland can get face-to-face assistance in applying for their certificate of registration, their social security number and their tax card. all in one place at one time.

There are other sections of IC’s website that are worth noting. “an-other good feature is the live & work section, where you can put informa-tion in your e-mail folder. By doing this you can compose a welcome package that is relevant to you personally,” Mae-rschalk explained.

“and by cooperating [with com-

panies and authorities], we are able to present more relevant information, and thereby also minimize resources for the different hr departments searching for employees.

“In general, International Commu-nity finds its strength in the way that we cooperate with private businesses and the authorities. we are able to find connections between these different parties, but also we are able to influ-ence what can be developed in the future because we are the information channel: we get a lot of information from businesses, from the authorities, from expats and from Danes that have lived abroad, and we can communi-cate this to decision makers.

In fact, the IC’s experience with the One stop shop in its first nine months of existence made it a model and authority for a national initiative to implement the One stop shop on a larger scale.

In addition to these services and resources, International Community sends out a weekly newsletter every Thursday that details news relevant to expats, including changes to laws and policies regarding work permits or tax rules. for the socially-inclined, the newsletter offers at least three tips for the coming weekend in which local and regional events that might offer the expat and Dane an opportunity to interact and learn from each other are highlighted.

when she was asked to mention any upcoming events on IC’s calen-dar, Maerschalk laughed: ‘It cannot be denied, Christmas is on its way.” and during the rapidly approaching holi-day season, IC will host a family day where members and their families are invited to participate in making Christ-mas decorations, dancing around the glowing tree and experiencing Christ-mas as a Dane.

also coming up soon is the Morn-

ing seminar on 26 Oct which will as-semble businesses, institutions of higher education and authorities alike to meet and discuss the practi-cal challenges expats face upon arrival and how these challenges can be ad-dressed.

visit the organisation’s website at internationalcommunity.dk for more information about the work Mae-rschalk and her colleagues are doing for expats in Århus and Jutland.

often in the shadow of the capital, Århus finds itself eclipsing many other cities in making expats feel welcome


British Chamber of Commerce meet-up at Charlie’s Bar

1. esben von tangen Lund, PontiConsult‘It’s all about networking. I’m starting my own consulting business and it’s very competitive, so I’m all about meeting people. These are fun events and you never know who you’re going to meet.’1. thomas Moore, Moore events‘I moved my company from New York to Denmark a year ago and I love the openness and inclu-sive atmosphere of these meet-ups.’3. Karsten riise Kristensen, Change Management ‘I used to be a neighbor of the British Chamber and stuck with it. I like to combine life and work. The chamber also has interesting sessions on topics like the British election and the Danish krone versus the Euro.’4. James Derry, nemetos.‘It’s the spirit of the old British Lunch Club. I have clients in the area and I like the social aspect of the meet-ups. The Danes have a great beer culture, and it’s fun to do business down at the pub.’5. elise Møller, e M Growth‘I like the lunches and the happy hours because of the social aspect—it’s important in developing trust and relationships.’

“Mergers and Acquisitions” seminar with Danish American Business Forum

Date: 28 october 2010time: 09.00 - 12.30

Venue: Bech Bruun in Copenhagen

BCCD AUtUMn eVentS

Since the early days of both the British Chamber of Com-merce in Denmark and the British Import Union, the two organisations have sought to make sure that the profes-sional business of networking never lost its social aspect. this is something that continues to this day with our monthly luncheons, seasonal events and not least our bi-weekly meet ups at Charlie’s Bar in central Copenhagen, because even in today’s world of facebook and LinkedIn, the most social form of networking remains the face-to-face kind. We caught up with some of our members at a recent Char-lie’s meet up to get their opinion of why the like being members of the BCCD-BIU.

1 2

3 4 5

By Alexander Kjærulf

to err is human – to learn from our mistakes is the key to sucess

IT seeMs lIKe faIlUre Is all around. you need look no further than the football field where english goalie robert Green cost his team the victory against the Us, or when Den-mark’s simon Poulsen scored an own goal against the netherlands – and just when we were doing so well...

and of course mistakes are also abound at work. Tony hsieh, the CeO of american on-line shoe seller Zappos, recently tweeted this: “$1.6 million mistake on sister site @6pm.com. I guess that means no ice cream for me tonight. Details: http://bit.ly/blflnf.”

apparently an employee had made a mis-take while updating the prices on the web site, which meant that for a whole day, no item could cost more than $49.95. some of their items cost a lot more. Ouch!

now what do you do? In many organisa-tions, a mistake like this would be the start-ing point for a witch hunt. who is responsible? how did they screw up? what would be an ap-propriate punishment?

But this is not how they do business at Zap-pos. at the link above, Tony hsieh writes:

“To those of you asking if anybody was fired, the answer is no, nobody was fired – this was a learning experience for all of us. even though our terms and conditions state that we do not need to fulfil orders that are placed due to pricing mistakes, and even though this mis-take cost us over $1.6 million, we felt that the

right thing to do for our customers was to eat the loss and fulfil all the orders that had been placed before we discovered the problem. Ps: To put an end to any further speculation about my tweet, I will also confirm that I did not, in fact, eat any ice cream on sunday night.”

This is not soft or wishy-washy, it’s a great way to handle mistakes in a business. rather than stigmatising failure, we should acknowl-edge and even celebrate it.

yes, that’s right, I said celebrate our mis-takes. I’ve long argued that we should cel-ebrate success at work, but we should also cel-ebrate mistakes, failure and fiascoes. The thing is, when you celebrate mistakes, you learn more from the mistakes you make.

In one company, the CeO was told by a trembling employee, that the company web-site was down. This was a big deal – this com-pany made most of its sales online, and down-time cost them thousands of dollars an hour.

The CeO asked what had happened, and was told that John in IT had bungled a system backup, and caused the problem. “well, then,” said the CeO, “let’s go see John!”

when the CeO walked into the IT depart-ment everyone went quiet. They had a pretty good idea what was coming, and were sure it wouldn’t be pretty.

The CeO walked up to John’s desk and asked “you John?”

“yes,” he said meekly.“John,” said the CeO, “I want to thank you

for finding this weakness in our system. Thanks to your actions, we can now learn from this, and fix the system, so something like this can’t happen in the future. Good work!”

Then he left a visibly baffled John and an astounded IT department. That particular mis-take never happened again.

Peter Drucker provocatively suggested that businesses should find all the employees who never make mistakes and fire them, because employees who never make mistakes never do anything interesting. admitting that mistakes

happen and celebrating them when they do, makes mistakes less likely. so my challenge to you is to start celebrating your failures. next time you or someone on your team messes up, admit it, celebrate it and learn from it. Tackle the situation with humour (as Tony hsieh did) rather than with fear and shame. and yes, this goes on the football field as well.


too err is human – to learn from our mistakes is the secret success

“Come back strategy for the dismissed executive”

Ida Bratting Kongsted, AS3 Nordic Executive A/S


Venue: radisson Blu royal Hotel in Copenhagen

BCCD AUtUMn eVentS

Celebrate your mistakes as the first step in eliminating your problems, is the advice from the man known as the Minister of Happiness Photos: Gareth Garvey

By emily Clark

Whether it’s Marmite, baked beans or crisps British expats crave, local retailers can satisfy

fOr The hOMesICK eXPaT, the taste of familiar food can lift the spirits, especially during holiday periods. Products from the UK and Us used to be hard to come by in Denmark, and expats with-out basic Danish language skills found them-selves wandering around markets in a fog, un-able to identify anything.

These days it’s a lot easier to satisfy a crav-ing for salt and vinegar crisps or baked beans, thanks to a couple of stores and an online order-ing service.

In the heart of Copenhagen, abigail’s has been selling British items for more than a dec-ade. Most customers find the small shop, on a side street off Krystalgade, by word of mouth.

according to store manager Brian Moore, abigail’s can fill special requests with a week’s notice. Popular items include baked beans, bacon, crisps and Marmite, a yeasty dark sub-stance spread on bread and usually topped with cheese. Moore said Marmite is especially popu-lar with vegetarians because of its high vitamin content.

super Best in hellerup stocks around 200 British items and its butchers are used to filling customers’ requests for certain cuts of meat not usually found in Denmark. rasmus vejbaek, one of the store’s owners, said he is using customers to expand the range of offerings.

‘If a customer asks for something, we try to get it,’ he said. ‘and if we get it and it sells, we

keep it stocked.’about 20 percent of super Best’s custom-

ers at the hellerup location are native english speakers, mostly women and mostly from the diplomatic community, Maersk and the Co-penhagen International school. super Best conducts regular store tours for newcomers, vejbaek said, ‘to show them what we have and introduce them to things like deposits for bottles and paying for bags’.

Best sellers at super Best include soups from Baxters, salt and vinegar crisps, Twin-ings teas and self-rising flour. at Christmas time (and american Thanksgiving) the store imports turkeys from france and mincemeat pies. It also carries frozen haddock and British sausages.

for British expats living in Jutland, food from the UK has long been synonymous with David Darlington and food from home. Ten years ago Darlington quit his job as a disc jockey because an idea came to him like the proverbial cartoon light bulb.

‘I could see that the selection of foods from the UK and the Us was pretty poor in Denmark, and I saw a need and a niche.’

Darlington opened an office in his cellar, spent three months researching and building his customer base, and opened an online shop called food from home. he recalls that at first, ‘it was just me in my truck making deliveries’. But early media exposure helped him grow his busi-ness, and a year and a half ago he started sup-plying the hellerup super Best with products. This enterprise has now spread to 50 super Best markets around Denmark.

‘I still have my web business, but now the wholesale part is the biggest,’ Darlington said. ‘My turnover has tripled in a year, and we’re branching out and expanding our offerings.’ he said new products include more gluten-free and vegetarian items and frozen goods.

so rather than hauling suitcases full of prod-ucts from home, or begging friends to bring them, British expats can shop local and tuck in to their own comfort foods.


tastes of home, right here in Denmark

for more information: www.nytnordiskforlag.dk

Dining withthe Danes

a cookbook in english about danish food culture. this book will take the readers on a tour of denmark, emphasising the country’s quality of life and its good products.

One hundred recipes from the Danish kitchen have been collected and developed by American-born

author and food consultant Lynn Andersen who has lived in Denmark for 25 years. This book is not only about Danish food traditions, but also takes the reader to places that no tour of the country is complete without visiting.

Denmark has a lot to offer: from Copenhagen to the top of Jutland (Skagen) there are many exciting offers for both the eyes and the tastebuds.

The recipes have both English and American mea-surements, plus degrees in Celsius and Fahrenheit. A cookbook in English about Danish food culture. A perfect present for foreign friends and business contacts.


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Documents

British Chamber of Commerce