ScandAsia Singapore - December 2011

DEC 2011

Singapore

Outstanding Claudia Olsson ScandAsia.dk

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2011 • ScandAsia.Singapore ScandAsia.no DecemberScandAsia.se

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Coming Events Danish Christmas Luncheon Date: 9 December 2011 Location: Danish Seamen’s Church

Your FREE ScandAsia Magazine in Singapore

Danish Business Association of Singapore (DABS) invites members and guest to join the traditional Danish Christmas Luncheon on 9 December 2011 at The Danish Seamen’s Church. Ticket for member is 75 SGD and guest is 95 SGD. This price includes lunch, 1 Carlsberg Beer and 1 snaps.

Sign up now at dabs@dabs-singapore.com.

Finnish Christmas Party for Kids

ScandAsia is the only magazine that covers all the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish residents in Singapore.

Date: 10 December 2011 Location: Condo Parc Palais Function room, Hume Avenue Finns in Singapore (SiSu) invites you and your kids to join in the Christmas Party for children on 10 December 2011.

The venue will be Condo Parc Palais Function room, Hume Avenue. Kids will enjoy Christmas program, snacks and of course meet the Santa! Book now at huvi@sisusi.com and please advise how many children (name, age), and adults.

We also publish a ScandAsia magazine in China, Thailand, and the rest of South East Asia.

Please sign up for your own FREE copy: www.scandasia.com Publisher : Scandinavian Publishing Co., Ltd. 4/41-2 Ramintra Soi 14, Bangkok 10230, Thailand Tel. +66 2 943 7166-8, Fax: +66 2 943 7169 E-mail: news@scandasia.com Editor-in-Chief : Gregers A.W. Møller gregers@scandmedia.com Advertising : Frank Leong frank@scandmedia.com Finn Balslev finn@scandmedia.com Piyanan Kalikanon piyanan@scandmedia.com Nattapat Maesang nattapat@scandmedia.com Sasiprapa Silatham sasiprapa@scandmedia.com Graphic Designer : Supphathada Numamnuay supphathada@scandmedia.com Distribution : Pimjai Chaimongkol pimjai@scandmedia.com Printing : Advanced Printing Services Co., Ltd.

Daily news and features here: www.scandasia.com

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Young Professionals Glögg

Family Christmas Party

Date: 15 December 2011 Location: Style:NORDIC

Date: 26 December 2011 Location: Danish Seamen’s Church

Mark your calendar for a fun event - ‘Glögg’ organized by the Young Professionals in Singapore. Everyone is welcomed but has to sign up as a member for 2012. Ticket is SGD 50 for Young Professionals and SGD 25 for students/term. More info will be provided soon at www.sbas.org.sg. Please register with young.professionalssg@gmail.com.

The Danish Church organizes the annual Christmas Party that everyone in family can participate. There will be fun activities for parents and kids. More info will be announced soon at www.dkchurch.com or any inquiries, please contact dkchurch@singnet.com.sg.

ScandAsia News Brief Nordea Acquisition Further Extends International Private Banking Base

N

ordea Bank S.A. has further expanded its international activities by acquiring part of Sydbank's private banking client base in Switzerland.

The agreement was reached after a thorough examination by Sydbank (Schweiz) AG in order to find a partner prepared to take over part of Sydbank’s private banking client base in Switzerland following Sydbank’s decision to partly scale down its activities in Switzerland.

Clients will be transferred to Nordea Bank S.A., Zweigniederlassung Zürich. This kind of arrangement is not a first for Nordea Bank S.A. In 2008 they took over Private Banking clients from Glitnir Bank in Luxembourg, and shortly thereafter made a similar deal with another Luxembourg based Icelandic private

bank, Landsbanki.

"Sydbank's client base can be incorporated in our existing business model," points out Jhon Mortensen, CEO at Nordea Bank S.A. "We have the expertise, infrastructure and language skills in place to provide a first class service. Coupled with our wealth management abilities, we are a strong Private Banking Partner. It's a testament to Sydbank (Schweiz) AG's professionalism that they were not only looking for a successor that could match their own high standards in private banking, but also needed to be sure that their clients would be well served in the months and years to come, in what is an increasingly challenging environment."

A similar arrangement in 2008 saw private banking clients from Glitnir Bank in Luxembourg,

and Luxembourg-based Icelandic private bank Landsbanki, transferred to Nordea.

Nordea Bank S.A. was established 1976 and is the leading Nordic pan-European banking entity in Luxembourg and Switzerland. It has 380 employees and serves a wide spectrum of international clients.

Nordea Bank S.A. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nordea group, the largest financial institution in the Nordic and Baltic Sea regions. Its Capital Markets and Savings division, with the Luxembourg-based operation as a substantial contributor, has created a strong pan-European market position within the investment funds and private wealth management market with a total of EUR 191bn assets under management as at June 2011.

Heather Hansen on Effective Networking

T

he Professional Partners Group of SBAS arranged the highly appreciated event "Network with Confidence" with American speaker Heather Hansen on 3 November in Tanglin Club. Present were President Jan Djerf as well as other SBAS representatives, business leaders and professional partners.

Heather impressed the audience with her powerful and energising presentation. She is a corporate trainer in speech, communications, presentation and interpersonal skills, and the author of the book "Powerful People Skills". She has lived in Singapore for 6 years, where she has built her networks from scratch in order to build her business. Her clients include leading multinationals like Bayer-Schering Pharma, Bank of America Merril Lynch, Becton Dickinson (BD), Abbot Laboratories, Cargill and Citigroup.

Heather made the audience laugh and managed to make them relax and network actively after just a few minutes. She gave lots of useful professional advice on how to communicate, and where and how to network successfully in Singapore.

6 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2011

Jan Djerf, President SBAS, with Lena Häggblom, Ericsson, Sarah Herrlin, Music Matters and Gunilla Daintry, SBAS.

Heather Hansen showed the participants how to communicate effectively with their body language.

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New Swedish Priest Enjoys Working in Singapore

By Kristene Silva Marie

L

ennart Uddling and his wife are enjoying the few months they have in Singapore as he spends his time ministering and she helps out at the church.

He enjoys being part of Swedish celebrations like the Swedish National Day in June, Mid-summer celebration and the upcoming Lucia celebration in December.

As the new priest, one of his first tasks was to meet people from various Scandinavian organizations. He was introduced to SWEA and presented himself at SBAS and visited also some churches and schools around Singapore.

“It has been great meeting so many great people here. Life cannot be better when you can meet so many good people,” he said.

In September, he and the youth from the church made a trip to Rava Island for a confirmation ceremony. Nine boys and girls were confirmed during the trip. The Norwegian Seamen’s Church Pastor Eva Marie was also part of the trip.

Lennart Uddling said that the people at the church are very warm and welcoming.

They made him feel like a part of the family with their hospitality.

Since there are certain staffs of the church who are part of the young adults, he said that he has a lot of fun planning events and activities with them.

www.newlaunchsingapore.com

“I want those coming to church to feel at home even though they are thousands of miles away from home,” Lennart Uddlings says.

Sharing about the types of activities he likes to take part in, he said that he is a very outdoor person. Some of his favourite activity or games he likes to be part of are skiing, skating and his favourite above all, football.

“My son played in the same team as current Swedish national player, Henrik Larsen, back in his school days but later decided to give it up, which I feel is too bad,” he said.

Among the things he enjoys in Singapore is the variety of food the city can offer although he admits that Indian food is a little spicy for his taste. Overall, Singapore is a very good city and country with very friendly people. he says.

“It is a challenge to be in a different place, but it is definitely interesting to see another style of life. Although Singapore is similar to home, it is quite different at the same time,” he said.

Not least the weather.

“I have three children and seven grandchildren back in Sweden and one of my grandchildren could not believe it when I told him that it was 33 degrees here instead of the seasonal 13 degrees he had back in Sweden,” the priest said laughingly.

His wife has found interest in helping out with the food preparation. She now works as an assistant to the chef and also with children classes.

The decision to move to Singapore for five months had to be taken very quickly.

“We had to make up our minds in 24 hours,” he says.

Initially he was not notified that it was only going to be for a few months and was ready to decline the offer. But when informed of the actual duration of the stay, he and his wife grabbed the opportunity.

One of the recent events organized was the hat-themed Ladies Lunch where he and the other young people at the church entertained the ladies by putting on costumes and a variety of ladies’ hats.

December 2011 • ScandAsia.Singapore 7

Outstanding Claudia Affordable Quality H At an age when the horizons of her peers extend to managing that first job and dating, 27-yearold Swede Claudia Olsson is shaping up as a future global leader who is already making the planet a better place to live. In conjunction with her studies in industrial engineering and international economics she has already led projects across the globe that have involved identifying technological innovation and improving healthcare worldwide.

8 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2011

Olsson: Healthcare for All

O

lsson’s unique combination of youthful enthusiasm, academic smarts, inspirational leadership and management experience means she is sought after by corporations and organisations across the world, but it is Singapore that has claimed her for now.

She is regional managing director for the Singapore-based South-east Asian arm of international health consultancy ACCESS Health International, a non-government organisation with offices in South and South-east Asia and Latin America. The organisation aims to help countries provide their citizens with greater access to quality, affordable healthcare.

Accolades worldwide Olsson actually set up the whole Singapore office, known as ACCESS Health Southeast Asia, in early 2011 after being specially recruited for the role. The post follows an extraordinary career so far that has involved leadership experience working for the United Nations in New York and Geneva, managing projects in India, Poland and Peru as well as connecting international scientists and Nobel Laureates at the Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar in 2009. Olsson was also chosen as the first Swede to participate in the NASA Ames and Google-project Singularity University in Silicon Valley in 2010.

Appointed as one of Sweden’s top-talents, leaders and a member of several prestigious international talentnetworks, there seems to be no end of the accolades heaped upon her.

“A unique person with unlimited courage and a true inner conviction to create global, social change,” declared the jury that awarded her Sweden’s ‘Nova of the Year’ last year.

The award is now in its ninth year and recognises Swedish top talent.

“Claudia is bright, charming and completely unafraid,” New Yorkbased business woman and investment banker Barbro Ehnbom, founder of the exclusive women’s network ‘Barbro’s Best and Brightest’ and the Swedish-American Life Science Sum-

mit (SALSS), enthuses in an email.

“She is an incredible networker and helps many people on the way.

She thinks out of the box and is also a skilled strategist despite her young age.

As for my Barbro’s Best and Brightest network, I didn’t choose her. She chose me! I then chose her as project manager for the SALSS summit where I’m the chairman,” Ehnbom said.

Early international focus Born in Stockholm to a Polish interpreter and economy consultant mother and a Swedish administrator father, Olsson credits her parents for laying the ground-work for her global ambitions. This started with a strong interest in languages. Olsson was brought up bilingual (in Polish and Swedish) and speaks English, German and French.

She has also learnt some basic Japanese.

“I think it really starts with your upbringing,” Olsson said in an interview in Singapore.

“My parents encouraged me to pursue a wide range of interests and activities from an early age, interests that were not necessarily their own, including technology. My favourite toy was a flying saucer.”

Olsson became interested in how technology is connected with economics, how these interact and how technology can be used to make a difference in society. In high school, a leadership project initiated by Raoul Wallenberg Academy made her interested in international relations and global leadership.

“It was amazing to be told at such a young age that you can actually make a difference in the world,” Olsson recalled.

During her studies in industrial engineering and energy at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and international business at The Stockholm School of Economics, Olsson took on as many projects as possible, in order to find her passion. She became involved with practically all student-committees at the Industrial Engineering Department at KTH. Alongside her studies, Olsson also managed several international projects, including the Stockholm

International Youth Science Seminar for the Nobel Foundation, the Swedish-American Life Science Summit and the leadership training and cultural exchange-trip Project Peru.

Projects in India and Silicon Valley sparked mission for global health Aged just 25, it was in India that Olsson became passionate about improving health on a global scale. She worked with a school-health programme in Hyderabad and Rajasthan, which involved visiting hospitals, schools and villages, looking at strengths and weaknesses in their technological and economical systems. This meant working with a health provider who cooperated with the government and local authorities.

“I hade a systematic perspective and could advise them how to further improve programmes,” she said. “I was touched by the people’s warmth in the hospitals and it was exciting to be able to apply my knowledge in this way.”

After India, Olsson took off for Silicon Valley and the project Singularity University, arranged by NASA and Google. During 10 weeks, some of the best of young global minds and entrepreneurs had the chance to try all the latest technologies, including activities such as diving with astronauts and playing with robots.

The goal was to learn how to use technological development to address the great global challenges like water, food and health.

“The speakers we had there were incredible,” Olsson said. “The idea was to understand how very fast tech is developing today, to think 10 years forward and build companies that can meet this development.”

After the programme in Silicon Valley, after UN, and after having seen so many ineffective health systems, Olsson was inspired to make a difference which led her to Asia.

Working in Singapore and global leadership Recruited by Dr. William A. Haseltine, a former Harvard-professor in

medicine, successful entrepreneur, founder and president of ACCESS Health, Olsson’s mission as regional managing director for the NGO is to identify and take advantage of all innovations and technologies, find new supply chains, new ideas and solutions in order to make global health care more effective. She cooperates with health ministries across the region.

ACCESS Health has a staff of 30 people globally. Olsson manages an international team of Indians, Singaporeans, Australians and Swedes, including a team of six people in Singapore.

“The founder William Haseltine’s strategy is to leverage the energy of young Swedish entrepreneurs to build the organisation,” she says. “He has a strong belief in us, which is amazing. I’m basically a hired entrepreneur. I’m here to create a hub for identifying health innovations and to spread them.”

Olsson also works actively with leadership and spreading global knowledge about health innovation which can sometimes come from unexpected sources.

“We don’t look only at the West but mostly on innovation elsewhere,” she said. “For example in India, doctors have very few resources but have managed to create innovations that are very effective.”

Authority, respect and drive in Asia The Singaporean respect for hierarchies is both a challenge and an advantage for Olsson as a young leader in Asia. She often deals with local interns, engineers and economists, only four years younger than herself, yet who show great respect for her authority. “ I had to challenge my interns to think differently to get their contributions and in the end, they were very valuable,” Olsson said. “Now they want to explore the world themselves. They want to go to China and Silicon Valley. They have also taught me a lot about their local culture.”

One of Olsson’s former interns and soon-to-be employees is Dexter Sim, 23. A student of real estate management at the National University

December 2011 • ScandAsia.Singapore 9

Christmas in Asia The Ziegler’s Going for Christmas in Denmark Birgit Ziegler, Managing Director, Boutique Nicole and Ziegler Shoes, will be going back for a traditional Danish Christmas in Denmark with the family.

“We are going back home to see my father in Aalborg,” Birgit Ziegler says.

“We have a summer house on the west coast of Denmark. Then we’re going to my mother’s home and eat duck, pork roast, sweet potatoes and red cabbage. We’ll decorate the home with all the Christmas decorations.”

Pre-Christmas in Singapore But Finland Is the Real Deal Petteri Kostermaa, Sales Director, Finnair enjoys taking part in the many Finnish community events in Singapore.

“In this pre-Christmas season we have enjoyed the various Scandinavian Christmas Bazaars in Singapore. We also plan to attend a Finnish Christmas Carols singing event and really enjoy Singapore’s great Christmas decorations and festive mood,” Petteri Kostermaa says.

“But as we also do love white Christmas and winter sports, we are heading back to Finland for a week’s vacation. We hope that there will be enough snow for either cross-country or alpine skiing.

“Last December we were in the process of moving to Singapore. We expected our moving container to arrive a week before the celebrations and were eagerly looking forward to a cosy Christmas in our new home in Singapore.

“We then got a notice from the shipping company that our container was delayed and will only arrive in Singapore on Christmas day with delivery a few days later. So what do?

There were two vacant seats on Finnair Bangkok flight so we flew to Helsinki and then drove 400 kilometres to the Finnish West Coast (known as Österbotten to Swedes) to spend the Christmas with my wife’s father and siblings and with my sister’s family. There was plenty of snow and we feasted on traditional Nordic Christmas food. We then drove back to Helsinki on the night of the Boxing Day. The white scenery in the early morning hours was really beautiful and it was really enjoyable to listen to the Finnish and International Christmas carols on the radio while driving.

Claudia Olsson manages an international team of Indians, Singaporeans, Australians and Swedes, including a team of six people in Singapore. of Singapore (NUS), he did a two month internship at ACCESS Health and was involved in most areas related to setting up the organisation.

“Being around Claudia made me feel motivated and inspired,” Sim says. “Her management was very different in terms of creativity and the empowerment she gave me to make my own decisions.”

On the question of drive compared to local bosses, Sim says: “I’d say she’s equally driven as Singaporean leaders. Actually, she’s probably more driven. After the internship, I knew she was a boss I wanted to work for. She is pretty much the reason I joined ACCESS Health.”

On working in Singapore, Olsson said “There is such an incredible respect for knowledge here. I have never felt that I’m a woman or even young. When I meet people, the focus is on what I can contribute in terms of new ideas, innovations and perspectives.”

She finds the island to be an amazing platform for innovation, education and international cooperation, and indeed her whole experience in Asia has proved insightful: “The strong drive in Asia to go forward and create new solutions sometime leads to a situation where they skip many of the steps we’ve taken in the West and get directly to the new technology,” Olsson says.

“For example villages in India that are getting medical advice on their mobiles, something we can learn from even in Sweden today. It’s reverse innovation.”

Project on ageing Singaporean population Olsson’s most recent project deals with the challenge of the ageing

10 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2011

Singaporean population, something that the island shares with most of the developed world. The median age in Singapore is climbing towards 54 (by 2050) which will need great investments in infrastructure, domestic help and which raises issues such as increased pressure on the young generation.

“Our goal is to identify best practices in health care and policy for a sustainable system for the elder generation,” Olsson said. “We aim to work closely with the policy makers here and we are writing a book about this issue to share knowledge with other countries facing similar challenges.

We take into account such figures as for example the fact that Singapore’s health expenditure is 4% of the GDP as opposed to 16% of the GDP in the US, and yet still they managed to deliver better health results here.”

Supporting young women Despite a heavy workload and constant travel for speaking engagements, Olsson takes time to support young women in various ways and is generous in her networking. She is often asked how to promote self-esteem and confidence in women and she urges them to take more chances.

She said: “My theory about confidence and self-esteem is that you will never get it unless you are willing to try many different things, take chances and be willing to risk failing until you succeed.”

“Claudia has established an important presence in Singapore for ACCESS in a short time, both with the government and private investors there. I first met her when she was working for the United Nations here in New York. I think her dream is clear – Secretary General of UN!”

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NewsWatch

Ambitious Danish Media Surveillance Company A year ago media surveillance company NewsWatch declared they were going to take the market of media surveillance in Denmark. With a mere 15 employees that plan sounded farfetched. Today, the company has grown to 58 persons, offices in five countries and a market share of three percent - and NewsWatch is far from done.

By Anya Palm

Steffen Egelund has meetings with his colleagues in Denmark over Skype. Most of the communication is done through Skype or Facebook, because of the spread out offices in Copenhagen, Manila, Bangkok, Jakarta and Singapore.

D

iana West Mortensen parks her car outside the supermarket, grabs her phone, which immediately starts buzzing, and slams the car door. She is chief analyst at the Danish media surveillance company NewsWatch, based in Singapore, and on her way home from work. However, the Skype message she receives on her phone tells her, she is not off duty yet. While picking out groceries, she gets briefed about the work load.

“What time is the deadline”, she asks and jots down the reply before getting back into the car, now heading for her laptop at home.

It´s election time in Denmark and that means the 44-year-old mother of three and her colleagues work almost around the clock to keep up with the extra workload - election time is as busy for media surveyors as it is for politicians and reporters.

“As soon as the election was announced in Denmark, we knew NewsWatch as a company had its first big chance to show how strong we are in our field. Our whole organization is put to the test, both in terms of the individual employees and our technical capacity. And I feel we are really showing that NewsWatch can deliver a quality

12 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2011

product and keep focus on the clients, also under immense pressure like this,” she says.

Grown 400 percent in a year Steffen Egelund Pedersen, Partner and Head of Production, agrees. He and two friends started up NewsWatch in January 2010, with the clear goal of taking over the throne of media surveillance from market monopoly giant, InfoMedia. Egelund, himself a former press chief for the Conservative Party of Denmark, is thus well aware of how important media surveillance can be for those who work with the media.

The same goes for co-founder Jens Kloppenborg-Skrumsager, a former local politician and the investor, Jacob Lund Nielsen.

“We were not satisfied with the

existing media surveillance in Denmark. The articles came in a messy state, they came too late in the morning and we believed we could do it better by tapping into the unused talent of accompanying Danish spouses out here among other things. That´s why we decided to start up NewsWatch in Singapore two years ago,” he explains The three guys with their new, unproven sorting system didn’t look like the winning horse back then.

But getting a rated email with all relevant clips from all newspapers, radio and TV in summary form each day at 6 in the morning - the latter an easy advantage due to the time difference-quickly proved attractive to the spin doctors and press chiefs in the important offices at home.

And so NewsWatch grew.

We believed we could do it better by tapping into the unused talent of accompanying Danish spouses out here, among other things.

NewsWatch team during the day’s surveillance. The deadline at 1 pm Singapore time must be met, so the customers have their media surveillance, when they get into work at 6 in Denmark. From left they are Camilla Skat Andersen, Lisbet Andersen, Louise Johannesen and Kirsten Tolstrup.

It is about the product Today, the company boasts 58 employees, in five different countries.

The most important thing for NewsWatch - and in Egelund’s opinion the way to achieve the goals - is to focus on what it initially started with: Making a better product than anyone else on the market.

“We are expanding our business every day by grabbing a bigger and bigger share of the Danish me-

dia monitoring market, and we are doing that by constantly keeping our focus on delivering a state of the art product,” Egelund says.

So while the company itself expands its customer base and hires more and more people, focus is on developing and enhancing the media surveillance tool itself: A social networking option in the morning surveillance has been introduced, so the articles can be easily shared.

A range of different features within the surveillance allows the receiver to comment and share it internally the way he likes it, and a virtual archive - the biggest in Denmark - has been launched as well.

Diana West Mortensen’s phone rings again. Having gone from 15 employees to 58 puts a certain pressure on those who possess information, and as a full time chief analyst, she is the go-to person,

when a problem arises amongst the employees-she has already reached her laptop, and is now pushing to meet the next election deadline, while answering questions from all sides to the best of her ability.

Back in the office, Steffen Egelund is well aware of this limitation.

“Yes, that’s one problem, we have these days,” he says, smiling.

“We need more hands!”

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13/09/2011 13:45

Swedes Create Mobil in Singapore Monterosa challenges Singapore with mobile apps and world class Swedish talent

By Andrea Chalupova Hessmo

S

wedish know-how in high tech is making its mark throughout the world, but in Singapore, one company has achieved this in an unlikely area – helping local guys in the flirting and dating game.

Monterosa Singapore, one of the global leaders in mobile application development, helps romeos keep track of their girlfriends. The company’s dating app is for multinational giant Unilever, whose products include the AXE deodorants and a range of grooming products for guys.

Together with the advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), Monterosa was awarded the Spike-award in Asia for the AXE Auto Romeoapp. It is just one of a dozen apps the Swedish-based firm has developed mainly for iPhone, iPad and Android the past two years since setting up a centre in Singapore.

“They are pioneers and offer a service that very few mobile developers can match in terms of creativity,” says Shawn Loo, creative director, BBH. “Their experience is completely different, they are very meticulous and their products are top quality.

When I work with Monterosa, I get the sense I’m working with the very best,” he says.

Another big client is Japanese car giant Toyota for whom the company

developed the app-concept “a glass of water”. The drivers were encouraged to use the mobile app, which simulates a real glass of water, place it on the dashboard of their car and drive carefully without spilling a drop.

It was downloaded by 100,000 users and became one of the most popular free apps during the summer, a strong boost for eco-driving.

With apps such as these, Monterosa has already received accolades from the advertising industry, winning multiple Lion awards at Cannes (The World Championship of Advertising) and The Clio Awards in New York, Guldägget awards in Sweden, as well as the Spike award in Singapore.

“The glass-of water-app is a good example of what you need to be successful,” says regional managing director Sandra Appelqvist, 36, who comes from a publishing and sales-background with seven years of experience of working in Japan. “You need a unique and really simple idea.

Simplicity always works best,” she says.

Singapore – testing ground for Asia Founded in 2009 in Stockholm, where the company has its base with 22 employees, Monterosa also has offices in New York (two employees) and Singapore (four employees) and is scheduled to open in Sydney next year.

14 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2011

The globally growing company has notched up over 70 apps in its portfolio so far. It has a range of high profile clients in Sweden and has also managed to attract prestigious clients in Asia such as German luxury carmaker Mercedes Benz, card giant American Express, energy company Chevron and entertainment group Harry’s Bar International as well as Universal Studios.

“We were lucky to get courageous clients early on, and the fact that even Google asked Monterosa to create a mobile app for them was amazing for us” says Carl Norberg, 40, one of Monterosa’s six founders, of whom the remaining five are Swedish-based.

Norberg has a long background in advertising and the web-industry, both in Scandinavia and in Paris. He moved to Singapore in 2008 to find out about business opportunities in Asia. He saw the potential very quickly and proceeded by setting up offices on River Valley Road. However, he notes that while Singapore has the largest usage of smart-phones in the world, it is behind in terms of mobile web and app-solutions.

“This is a great place for us to be. The potential outcome of a good idea here is massive. You need an incredibly strong idea to reach out to many people in Scandinavia. If you succeed delivering that in this

crowded part of the world, the effect can be enormous,” Norberg says.

A highly tech-savvy population, keen to try all the new and latest stuff, makes Singapore an ideal place for trying out new ideas for the Asian market. There are clear parallels with tech-savvy Sweden that used to have a similar global testing-ground position. Even though the Singaporemarket is small, it is a concentrate of many Asian cultures and close to all the new markets, something that excites the Swedish entrepreneurs.

Asian hierarchies and codes – a challenge But working in Asia has by no means been a smooth ride for the Swedish entrepreneurs. The hierarchical approach and traditional way of doing business in Singapore is very different from Scandinavia and social codes have proved to be a real challenge.

The direct contact with clients is much tougher than in Europe.

“The first thing a prospective Singaporean client will ask is not ‘what’s the concept’ but ‘what’s the cost,’” says Norberg. “We have difficulties with this approach because we’re a creative agency selling ideas and creating great value for companies. We’re not selling sand or bricks or whatever. I also find there is a lot of fear. People seem scared of pushing new boundaries and more

le Apps

Christmas in Asia Markussen’s Norwegian Christmas in Singapore Bjørn Tore Markussen, Managing Director, DNV, will celebrate a traditional Norwegian Christmas in Singapore. It is the fifth year in a row for Bjorn and his family.

“The day starts with breakfast and then some time by the pool. After that, we’ll put on our Christmas clothes and go to Norwegian Seamen’s Church for Christmas Mess. Then back home to Tanglin for family dinner and gifts. And of course Skyping with family in Norway and France during the evening after we have opened the presents.”

Monterosa’s Singapore team, (from left) Anders Färdigh, Sandra Appelqvist, Carl Norberg, one of Monterosa’s six founders, and Esa from Finland.” concerned with security. You have to make 100 calls up and down in the organisation and have 30 meetings to make one sale. In Sweden it’s normally more like 10-3-1,” he says.

Business is a lot more networkbased here than elsewhere. In Asia, it is all about relationships and these take a while to build. In Singapore you have to network and participate at many events, which can be time-consuming. Understanding the national culture takes time.

“We are foreigners here,” says Norberg. “Sometimes we do feel that no matter how great we think our ideas are and how many times we give our business-cards with our both hands, at the end of the day, it’s really down to mastering the social codes. And that takes a while to learn,” he says.

Sharing further insight into the process of setting up in Singapore, the Monterosa co-founder adds: “Yes, we have attracted prestigious clients but there is a lot of very hard work behind that. And there are many enthusiastic entrepreneurs who have failed before us. People who said ‘don’t go there. It just won’t work.’ We like to challenge people and show new ideas, ways of working and thinking, and not only adapt to the cultural dogmas of Asia. For example, I really like the fact that we have Sandra - a tall, vigorous, powerful woman, as MD.”

Deserving the client’s time In spite of cultural challenges, the company is taking advantage of the current hype in mobile apps. The business is different from advertising in television and print where the ad comes on as a break when you do something else. The mobile app-business, on the other hand, is first about getting people to know it exists and then getting them to download it, sometimes pay for it, use it and spread it to a wide audience. Appelqvist and Norberg work a lot with advertising agencies and find that their programmes are in demand.

“A few years ago, nobody wanted to be the last one to have a web-page,” Norberg says. “Now, everyone wants to be the first to have an app. But the challenge still is to get the clients to understand why they need it and what their customers want from an app. The stuff we do has to be interesting enough for the consumers to actively choose to spend their precious time with it. And we have to deserve their time. We have to be both fun, quick and easy, otherwise we’re lost. Our goal is to create brand addiction in everything we do,“ he says.

The best talent is in Sweden

“Christmas in 2009 was special with our one month old third child, Oskar, born in Singapore, together with us. We also have a tradition of renting a bum boat on New Years eve and view the fireworks at Marina Bay with friends and we are already looking forward to do that again this year.”

Christmas in Singapore with other Swedish Families Claudia Olsson, Managing Director of ACCESS Health, will stay in Singapore this Christmas “I will celebrate Christmas in the lovely climate of Singapore with my family from Sweden,” Claudia says.

“We will probably also visit Singaporean friends, exchange Christmas gifts and also organise a Christmas celebration for our Swedish friends who are here in Singapore – especially for other young professionals with families far away. ” “Last year, my Christmas here was magical. I had both the Swedish tradition with a pine-tree and Donald Duck on tv as well as an exotic pool-party with a large and very welcoming Chinese family. The evening ended with a very atmospheric midnight mass with my Philippine friends. It was a warm and very international Christmas.”

The biggest challenge for the company’s expansion in Singapore is not to find clients but to find talent. It December 2011 • ScandAsia.Singapore 15

Christmas in Asia Christmas Means Pizza and the Beach in Sihanoukville

Norberg: We like to challenge people and show new ideas, ways of working and thinking, and not only adapt to the cultural dogmas of Asia. For example, I really like the fact that we have Sandra - a tall, vigorous, powerful woman, as our MD!

Edwin Engeland, founder and owner of Velkommen Inn restaurant and guesthouse in Phnom Phen, Cambodia has not celebrated Christmas the traditional way since 1998. But that does not mean Christmas is not important to the Norwegian father of Karen, now 23 years old. ”December and January is so black and cold, so when I still lived and worked in Norway, I started going to Sihanoukville together with my daugther Karen and celebrate it there. She would celebrate Christmas with her mother before we left. She got her present and I send flowers to my parents,” Edwin says.

In Sihanoukville the traditional Christmas dinner could be BBQ, Pizza or Asian food. ”Karen never complaint about the lack of a Norwegian Christmas with me. She has grown up with this kind of Christmas on the beach in Sihanoukville. This year she comes visiting me again and we will be at Otres beach in Sihanouksville again. I have no problem with other people celebrating Christmas,but when I’m in Asia it’s not natural for me to celebrate”, says Edvin.

Christmas on a Riverboat in Copenhagen Martin F. Olsen is the man behind thousands of Scandinavians coming back from a medical trip to Thailand with a new look, thanks to Thai doctors beautification skills. The Dane also runs two lamp factories that have been busy delivering Christmas presents to five continents. ”I usually celebrate Christmas with my Thai family. There are lots of children and it is usually a big hit,” Martin says.

But this year, Martin, his wife and three year old son will celebrate Christmas in Denmark.

“We are going for something completely different this year. We have booked a riverboat in Nyhavn in the center of Copenhagen as our base!”

Working is usually forbidden during Christmas. But if you promise to keep it a secret, the Dane admits that he is planning a couple of appointments now that he is there.

16 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2011

Regional managing director Sandra Appelqvist, 36. has proved difficult to find the right people locally.

“We need app-designers, programmers, mobile strategists and we have tried to find them here in Asia but failed,” Norberg says. “The reason is that the best talent in our field is in Sweden! Swedes really are in the global frontline when it comes to mobile applications. Okay, we have recently recruited Esa from Finland now, so say, the Nordic countries.”

“Anders ‘Jesus’, our creative director, is a real app-guy, he’s totally technically savvy but also has the creative and artistic eye,” says Appelqvist.

Anders Färdigh, 28, nicknamed “Jesus” both for his goodness and holy-like appearance, was recruited from Sweden and has been with the company in Singapore for a year. He says that working in Singapore brings you closer to the world.

“We get contacts on a much more global level here, such as projects for the US,” Färdigh says.

“Although cultural barriers makes it take longer to establish trust here, we feel very confident in what we do and it’s a great position to have,” he says.

The projects are established in Asia but produced in Sweden, which is the other way around compared to how most companies work in Asia.

Attracting the best talent is also the reason why Monterosa is opening up branches on different continents.

“The best people in our industry want to be able to move to New York for a while, then maybe move on to Asia, then Sydney and so on.” says Norberg. “We’re expanding not only because of the demand from the clients, but also in order to attract the best talent in the world and keep it.”

Teaching Scandinavians Married to a Dane and having lived four years in Denmark, Singapore-based corporate trainer Heather Hansen, 31, from the US is no stranger to Scandinavia, nor to our various cultural peculiarities.

Other than English, she speaks Danish and German and has made communication her passion and profession.

By Andrea Chalupova Hessmo

H

eather Hansen trains corporate executives in the areas of speech, communication, presentation and interpersonal skills. She also does seminars on networking and social media.

Recently, she held a highly appreciated workshop “Network with confidence” for the Swedish Business Association in Singapore, where the participants were energized and inspired in a way unseen before.

ScandAsia met her for a conversation on successful public speaking and networking, the Scandinavian “jantelagen” and how to raise confident kids.

Born confident?

You come across as extremely confident in your public speaking. As you encourage others: you do own the place! Were you born that way?

“No. It has a lot to do with how I was raised. Maybe I had innate abilities at some level but mainly, my parents supported anything I wanted to do, whether it was soccer, swimming, any extracurricular activity or interest.”

“School was incredibly important and there was an emphasis in my family of doing your best. Not in the

sense that “you have to” but more from the angle “we know how smart you are, we know you have the capacity to be the best, so do your best because it will be the best.”

They encouraged learning because I showed lots of interest.”

“I also think in American culture there is a strong focus on speaking and oral exercises from a very early age. Already at the age of 5, we had oral presentations about our favourite toys in pre-school. I didn’t go to a private school but a good public school and I was in a gifted children’s programme.”

“I was also a competitive swimmer and did gymnastics. Our gymnastics-studio had the words “I CAN” on the wall. Our teachers encouraged confidence building and it was all about “I can, I can.” We were not allowed to say “I can’t” in class.”

In what way was competition important to you?

“I got the competitive drive from sports. I wanted to beat my own score and get better and it taught me self-discipline. It wasn’t my parents who drove me, though. I drove me.

It’s not about beating your kids up to compete with others, it’s competition with yourself that’s important.”

18 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2011

“And I can never remember being criticised by my parents or them ever saying a negative word about me. I’m sure they steered me in certain directions, though, and I was an easy kid.”

Is it something we can learn?

Can anyone learn to speak well in front of an audience?

“Yes absolutely, you can! We all know how to speak, so why can’t we express those thoughts publicly?

Most of it is related to confidence and it’s usually because you’re fighting against yourself and you think that you are not good enough.”

“It’s about finding out what’s really holding you back from speaking well. For some people it’s the pronunciation, for others it’s English grammar but mostly it’s your mindset.

In Scandinavia, we are known to be quite shy and reserved. We tend to regard this kind of strong and confident optimism as very “American”.

It somehow isn’t part of our culture.

“Well, what’s really interesting is that I struggle to explain the content of my book ”Powerful People Skills” to Danish friends. There is no word in Danish for “interpersonal skills” or “people skills.” Relationship building

seems to be a totally foreign concept in Scandinavia.”

So do you think we don’t know how to communicate?

“I think that Danes and other Scandinavians just aren’t taught these skills. Nobody has taught them how to make small talk and have a friendly chat. It’s only recently I’m starting to see networking groups popping up in Denmark.”

“I have so many friends in Denmark who would say “Oh I’m so envious of my American friends. You always come across as so friendly and open”. But that has a lot to do with how Americans are raised. It’s part of the culture in the US.”

Networking The idea of networking is still a relatively new concept in the Nordic countries.

From Danes and Swedes here, I often hear that people just don’t network the same way back home. Also, people are certainly not so generous with sharing contacts like here, maybe only at a very senior level. What is your comment on that?

“Maybe there has never been a need to network in Scandinavia. Part of it is a kind of provincial mentality, not in a negative sense, but these are small countries and small towns and

s to Speak Up It seems to me that Scandinavians never get the chance to celebrate themselves and their personal achievements.

everybody is pretty much connected anyway. You don’t go outside of your circle and maybe you don’t ever need to as the mobility is not so large like in the US. That is changing, though.”

you down. I think we are more supportive of each other in the US. When somebody does well we say ”Fantastic! Good for you!”

Jantelagen

Would you say then that there is less envy in the US? “I’m sure there is just as much envy in the US, but I think the jantelag brings the envy out in the open. It kind of institutionalizes envy and makes it legitimate and allowed.

Maybe in the US we’re just happy on the surface, maybe we hide such negative feelings.”

In Denmark, the positive side of the jante is that people are more honest. You’re not so superficial.

You’re raised to challenge ideas and find weaknesses in arguments. High taxes in addition to jante mean that people choose professions following their passions more in Scandinavia. If somebody studies medicine it’s because they truly want to help people, whereas in the US, status and money can also play a role in that decision.

What do you think of “jantelagen”?

“It was one of the things that really bothered me. I told my husband that if I ever left Denmark one day, that would be the reason why. But I can see pros and cons to the jantelag.

The biggest con, for me personally, is that it’s the total opposite of how I was raised. I think you should feel that you are somebody, that you are worth something and that you can do anything. Jante is all about “don’t get too excited about your achievements and don’t think you are any better than anyone else.”

It can be oppressive.

“Yes. It seems to me that Scandinavians never get the chance to celebrate themselves and their personal achievements. I was shocked when Denmark was crowned the happiest country in the world because I don’t think they’re that happy, really.

I don’t feel that Danes really get the chance to celebrate their successes because there is always something or someone negative there to bring

Americans less envious?

What is your top tip for Scandinavians how to network better?

“The key is to have a giving attitude and go beyond yourself. When you meet someone, think: how can I

help this person? Can I connect him or her with someone? It’s to be creative in your thinking and fully open and when you give, it really does come back to you in the end.”

“In my circle of speaking professionals, we share a lot. We don’t necessarily compete as we all have our own expertise and niche. We complement each other.”

Raising confident children How do you raise your daughters to be confident?

“I try to do what my parents have done. I try to support them. I do get impatient sometimes, of course, but there is a difference between disciplining your kids and being negative about who they are as people. I’m not saying “you’re a bad girl” I’m saying “what you did is not acceptable”.

It’s about identifying their strongest skills and where they excel. Then encourage the areas they’re naturally drawn to.”

Are you familiar with the debate around the book “The battle hymn of the tiger mother” by Chinese American Amy Chua? In it she argues that Westerners are too preoccupied with their kids’ self-esteem, that they’re not pushing them enough to excel, as opposed to

Chinese parents.

“I’m very familiar with the Tiger Mom. She would definitely disagree with much of what I’ve said and how I was raised. The difference is I was never forced to do anything I didn’t want to do - including practice for hours on end or play an instrument I had no interest in. I was encouraged to be the best I could be. If I didn’t hit the mark, I wasn’t ridiculed and forced to practice until I was perfect.

I was asked why I thought I didn’t do my best and what I needed to do differently next time.“ “By focusing on myself, the end result was that I was normally leading the pack as well, but that wasn’t where I got my motivation it was simply to do better than I did last time. That’s how I was taught self-discipline instead of just being disciplined by my parents. And that’s really what self-discipline should be about. Putting the blinders on and staying focused on your own talents and capabilities.”

To learn more about Heather, visit her website: www.HansenCommLab.com

December 2011 • ScandAsia.Singapore 19

Johan Staël von Holstein in Singapore:

We Are Enslaved by 2.0 Tec Johan Stael von Holstein, the controversial entrepreneurship advocate from Sweden, urges politicians to reign in the chaotic free Internet and introduce a global micro payment system.

By Joakim Persson

T

he Swedish serial entrepreneur Johan Staël von Holstein has for decades been a strong advocate for innovations and entrepreneurship.

“Entrepreneurship is the second best beautiful thing to love,” he said at the Designing Asia 2.0 gathering of the leading innovation network in Asia, arranged by Qi Global.

In his opinion, Singapore is the country with the “smartest politicians in the whole world” and a splendid place for business start-ups.

Facebook enslaves you Still, while calling for increased support especially for the IT entrepreneurs. he is at the same time now genuine concern for where things are heading: “We are totally enslaved by 2.0 technology companies,” Johan told his audience.

The evolvement of technology is going to continue being absolutely exponential for innovations, and entrepreneurs can solve all the problems the planet is facing.

However, he highlighted a fundamental concern relating to privacy, ownership and control of the individual’s digital assets.

Facebook is a concern? Yes. “90 per cent of all my communication today takes place via Facebook, and 90 per cent of what I do there is work-related. And 90 per cent of all people I know and another 4000 I am connected with are on Facebook – how could I leave that? They digitally enslave me.”

“People are forced to accept this and be stuck in these structures. And as long as you keep these technologies away from the individual – we can taste them but we cannot access them to utilize to our own advantage and do what we want. We are completely in their hands,” he explains to ScandAsia.

In Johan’s mind one’s own combined experiences, interests and skills should be controlled by the individual – and not be owned by Facebook or anybody else.

Each and one of us should have our own, if you like, cube.

“Privacy isn’t going to be dead for a long time. I hope. And why is this so important? I am no consumer - I am a person. I consume maybe 10 seconds a day. It’s about my memory, tastes, photos and my relations. I am giving away my brain to corporate institutions as they please.”

“This is going to be so bad that ‘1984’ will look like nothing. Brand already says they “own their customers”. But if I own you and all the value you create is mine – then it is slavery!”

Regulate entrepreneurs “As a result of how the financial and political markets wrongly views entrepreneurship in a wider perspective, the engineers have built something like a gigantic Soviet, where everything is monopolistic, where you have one search engine etc.,” Johan says.

The uncontrolled world of Internet is the source of the problem - where most content and info today is either for free or controlled by monopolies.

“A new understanding must come that we have to let go of the most important thing which has happened to mankind in the past 150 years, which is the Internet breakthrough; there is not anything else so drastic – both positively and negatively. But it’s taking place under completely chaotic forms, where politicians and law makers are two steps behind, and allow digital slavery just as politicians and kings and emperors allowed slavery for thousands of years.”

“Entrepreneurs build the world but thanks to politicians and lawyers.

Therefore the liberals are wrong saying: no politicians should interfere and all should be Laissez-faire.”

20 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2011

Speaking at the Qi Global gathering in Singapore, Johan Staël von Holstein captured his audience with his passion for entrepreneurs and his vision that maybe the introduction of a micro payment system can solve the current chaos on the Internet and create entrepreneurs out of all the millions of unemployed people.

chnologies

*)

*) Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, TripAdvisor and many other popular websites are nicknamed “Web 2.0” - a category of new Internet tools and applications that allow anyone without any web publishing skills to participate, create, share, collaborate, publish and communicate to the world.

Nature of entrepreneurs So Internet entrepreneurs have become like dictators running monopolies?

Yes, but - and this is very important - Jan Stenbeck, my big idol, once told me: ’As every true entrepreneur I want to break monopolies’. That’s what he made most money on. And then he said: ‘And as every true entrepreneur I want to build my own’.”

“Entrepreneurs are the most beautiful people on earth, they are creating all jobs in the world but they are no better humans than anybody else – they want to maximize their self-interest. Therefore one must also regulate them.”

“The politicians inability makes that the engineers do with Internet what they are doing – and not because of ill will but because they don’t understand the consequences. They should. They are our leaders voted to take care of us and protect us, and the law-making institutions.”

“Free” is a disaster The idea that everything should be for free on the Internet is a catastrophe to Johan.

“Put away that incentive to earn money in order for things to be for free – how will it then end? If I take my combined knowledge and experience and pack it as information and put it on the Internet and the info is for free – then information and knowledge is useless.”

“If we live in societies with such realities – no wonder Europe and the U.S are falling apart like a house of cards!”

Johan has little hope that politicians will solve it for us, but he is nevertheless optimistic: “entrepreneurs love problems!”

Internet as a remedy that would lead to exponential growth – and consequently the downfall of the powerful banking system as we know it. This micro payment system should be a solution where each individual gets the ability to have an own platform.

“If it would be standard - say 20 pennies - to read this article online, and easy to pay with a simple click, for sure one would do it,” Johan believes.

“Currently, the VISA online cost per transaction is 43 cent on a dollar. That makes it impossible for you and me to charge 20 pennies for our stories. You must leave VISA etc. and create something new. The only way to do that is by giving back the responsibility to the individual. That’s the future!”

This could even be a remedy for very high unemployment: The unemployed youth in European countries stay at home surfing and they are super savvy Internet users, believes Johan.

“Should they get their freedom back from Facebook, and a micro payment sum, a majority of them could become Internet entrepreneurs.”

“Those who would benefit the most from setting free all individuals within social media and giving them opportunities to make money on their knowledge and experiences, is this whole gigantic group of unemployed.”

“The instant this becomes reality it connects the physical and digital societies into one and there are exponential business opportunities and ideas. So it’s just a matter of breaking away from the boring things where one does not thrive and staking on a good idea one would like to fulfil,” he believes.

Food for thought and a lot to digest…

Micro payment a remedy?

Johan sees a worldwide regulation to protect privacy and the introduction of a micro payment systems for the

Christmas in Asia Christmas Free Thailand Is Highly Appreciated Anders Lundahl, the Swedish owner of the real estate company Scandic Pattaya, would perfer not seeing any Christmas celebrations at all.

“I was actually a hard core Bandidos rocker back in Sweden”, Anders Lundahl admits.

But Anders was saved by the religious organization Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“Accordning to our beliefs, Christmas is just one huge scam, so my answer is No! I am definitely not celebrating Christmas!”

“It might be a little too much to say that I have been living all these years in Thailand because the Kingdom is almost free from Christmas celebrations - but it is certainly one thing about Thailand, that I enjoy,” Anders says.

Unfortunately Anders Lundahl’s company has been doing too little business over the past year. Anders - who suffers from a chronic back problem - has therefore decided to go back to Sweden. At least until he has refilled the cash box he brought with him several years ago, after he sold his transport business in Sweden and moved to Thailand.

Finally a Beach Christmas Alexandra Leyton Espinoza, ScandAsia’s busy journalist in Beijing, will be leaving the cold and smoggy capital for warm and sunny Thailand this Christmas. “ I used to envy people that went to Thailand for Christmas or any other hot country for that matter, because I can’t stand Christmas carols and all the Western shopping mania. It was quite OK when I moved to China since they don’t celebrate Christmas here,” Alexandra says.

But she admits her fiancée has bought a Christmas tree and decorations to make her feel more at home previous Christmases.

“Christmas is not where you are but who you spend it with, and this year we will spend it with my mother for the first time since I moved here in 2008. That means a lot to me.”

What she misses around Christmas time in China is Pannetone, an Italian bread that is very popular in South America during the festivities, you can easily find it in Sweden but it’s trickier in China. “ If you find it here, it cost a fortune so my mum is bringing me as many as it fits in her language,” she says laughing.

Johan’s talk at the Qi gathering can be viewed online at the Qi website.

December 2011 • ScandAsia.Singapore 21

Galanga Living E Elsebeth D. Spangberg is the owner of the furniture and home accessories shop Galanga Living. She is also an active triathlete. Here she shares her perspective of how business is run and how she manages her staff.

By Kristene Silva Marie

lsebeth Spansberg has always been vividly interested in mixing ideas and creating new designs since she was a child. She always had a passion for art and was quite good with her hands especially in designing things.

Growing up in the small island of Fanoe in Denmark, life passed by at a slow pace around her. Referring to it she says it was like her very own fairytale land.

In 1998, Elsebeth moved to Singapore working for an IT company in the sales and marketing department.

After three years, she went on and established Tinderboxx, a company that initially sold children floor rugs and later expanded into beanbags and baby accessories.

When Elsebeth took the next step and decided to open a furniture company together with a business partner the self taught designer already had extensively experience with manufacturers in Thailand, China, Vietnam and India. The aim was to offer Scandinavian designs to Scandinavians in Singapore at moderate and reasonable prices.

“We see furniture sold at such high prices making people only want to peep into the store without any intention of actually purchasing something

22 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2011

there for their home, so we decided to do it differently,” she said.

“We wanted to make our furniture available to anyone who was interested and enable them to bring something back from our store,” said Elsebeth explaining the concept of Galanga Living.

All products at Galanga Living have been specifically selected from handpicked suppliers around the region as well as from Scandinavia and many of them are unique pieces made exclusively for Galanga Living. Since they buy directly from the manufacturers, prices are kept low and quality high.

The Store Located on Henderson Road, Galanga Living is one shop to visit for a fresh perspective of interior and exterior furnishing. Unlike other shops that offer products with the same porcelain smooth finish, Galanga offers products which have an edge of creativity with a slightly rough finish to give your home a cozier feel.

Some of the popular pieces at Galanga are selected from suppliers all around the region and Denmark.

Since the store started in 2008, Elsebeth has been working with many furniture manufacturing factories.

Through this list of contacts, she was able to pick and choose exactly

what she wanted the store to offer the customers.

Initially the furniture at the shop was for outdoor living, and included a few indoor accessories but over the years, customers’ demands for indoor furniture rose.

Elsebeth business Partner Gitte Svarrer is now located in Denmark, promoting Galanga Livings product range to Scandinavian importers and retailers.

Good with her hands While being the owner of Galanga Living, Elsebeth also holds responsibility as a wife and a mother of her 10-yearold son and eight-year-old daughter.

Her husband works in the shipping line and at times, she is forced to juggle between her business and commitments to her family.

“My children were born here and they have been going to school here as well so I try to keep them close to their Danish culture through language,” she said.

“We also go back to Denmark every summer to visit our family members there. The children enjoy that very much,” Elsebeth said.

Elsebeth leads an active life.

Apart from being a business and family woman, she is also a triathlete.

She actively participates in Triathlons

every year keeping her healthy and in great shape.

We wanted to make our furniture available to anyone who was interested and enable them to bring something back from our store.

Galanga Team Running a store providing a unique range of products, Elsebeth was glad to mention the uniqueness in the team of staff at Galanga as well.

“One of the unique things about this store is that we have a very mixed staff and I like it,” she said.

“They are a good team of staff and having such a mix enables customers of different cultural backgrounds feel at ease with someone who can speak in their language or understand them better,” she continued.

Even though her staff is a diverse team, Elsebeth keeps an open mind on how to pass her visions for the store through to them. She believes that given a chance, anybody can be taught.

“It is different from Denmark but it all comes down to how I explain what I am thinking and I can’t blame them for not understanding me,” she said.

When Galanga Living needs new staff they are looking for people with a smiling and friendly personality.

With an effective team by her side, Galanga has been able to expand further to meet more of their customers needs and wants.

More information about the products, such as prices and images, at Galanga Living can be found at www.galangaliving.com.

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Embassy Showcasing a Smorgasboard of S S What must be described as an intensified Sweden PR showcase is going on in Singapore, courtesy the Embassy of Sweden, where the focus so far has been on food products and Swedish cuisine. Next up is fashion and design.

By Joakim Persson

weden’s Ambassador Ingemar Dolfe is initiating new ways and taking every opportunity to promote Sweden and its business.

“The Embassy should promote a positive image of Sweden in a variety of various ways,” says Ambassador Dolfe.

“Regarding export we are not just talking about traditional Swedish products such as cars, furniture, but also the new creative sectors - and one such is our food, which is part of to the Swedish image.”

“To give info about Swedish delicacies is therefore a suitable concept here in Singapore - in this country there is a large interest in food. We feel there is an openness here to try out other food cultures, and I think we Swedes can be proud over what we have to offer,” he adds.

As a result, Singaporeans now get enticed with for them unfamiliar food items such as lingon- and cloudberries, gravad lax med hovmästarsås (marinated salmon with a mustard sauce) or räkcocktail (Swedish seafood cocktail).

They also get the chance to occasionally see the ambassador himself in person don the chef hat and whip up the Swedish classic Janssons Frestelse (‘Jansson’s Temptation’, a kind of potato gratin with anchovy).

Cooking himself The food culture initiative started in May 2011 when local food bloggers

24 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2011

and writers were invited to the ambassador’s residence for a Swedish luncheon, also introducing a Swedish star-chef, Jakob Esko, who is normally with the Capella Singaporehotel on Sentosa island.

“Jakob Esko then cooked an especially composed menu with modern Swedish food. We feel satisfied with that attempt and got large attention in media, and reached out very well to Singaporeans via acknowledged food writers and journalists.”

During the summer the largest newspaper, Straits Times, visited the Ambassador in his residence, wanting to know more about this. That was when he cooked food for them himelf, and gave them a taste of Janssons Frestelse, and herring and hard bread - classic Swedish food.

‘Never have I heard of cloudberries until today! These berries a local delicacy grown wild in northern Sweden, Norway and Finland,’ wrote one blogger.

Asia-city.com’s writer took note of the Swedish Embassy’s more personal affair and the ambassador’s own introduction of the food.

And most suitably, the Embassy of Sweden, among other embassies have also been approached by the People’s Association in Singapore, which initiates and offers a wide range of programmes and services to cater to the needs and interests of Singaporeans from all walks of life.

Sweden A series of events People’s Association want to offer foreign groups to better inform Singaporeans of their country’s history, heritage and culture, and has therefore started with activities revolving around food.

“They learned that Sweden has done events within this and thought it was interesting to look into a collaboration.”

As a result Sweden’s Embassy could continue the food theme with ‘All About Sweden’ events, held twice during the autumn in collaboration with the association’s Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians Division, as well as with the Swedish Women’s Educational Association (SWEA).

“The events have a broad approach, but with focus on Swedish food and spreading info on that - with a tree-course dinner based on ingredients one can buy here in Singapore,” says the ambassador who once again, along with his wife, cooked Jansson’s Temptation on stage.

ist country in order to promote and create a positive image of Sweden.

At the same time this contributes to a growing interest for Sweden as a country and its produce and products and thus also benefits our export to Singapore.”

Next : Fashion Next up was SwedeStyle - an event held in November with trendsetting Swedish fashion and design, including a fashion show by participating brands and a display of Swedish designs, held at the Volvo showroom.

Then the Embassy will summarize what they have accomplished.

“But we feel there is a strong interest here in Singapore for Sweden and Swedish food culture so there are all the good reasons to continue on this path onwards,” Ambassador Dolfe says.

Tourism add-on In addition beautiful Swedish sceneries accompanied with music were shown on a big screen providing exciting travel information. Tourist brochures provided via the Swedish Institute were also distributed.

“Our goal is to wake interest for Swedish food and Sweden as a tour-

December 2011 • ScandAsia.Singapore 25

The Foldager Family Thriving in Kuala Lumpur Moving from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Bjarne and Henriette Foldager thought the quality of the school was going to drop. But the kids are now thriving in Mont’Kiara International School and their parents enjoy the overall quality of life.

By Joakim Persson

T

hanks to his wife, Bjarne Foldager today is the Managing Director for Maersk Line in Malaysia and Singapore and their three children are growing up studying in English and getting a high quality international education. And they seem to be very much in harmony and at ease in their newly adopted hometown Kuala Lumpur.

Back in the spring of 2008 Bjarne was in Switzerland, taking a course as part of his MBA programme, when he got a job offer in Southeast-Asia. While Bjarne was initially hesitant Henriette was immediately hooked: “Singapore, are you crazy? We’re moving tomorrow!” he recalls her saying.

In June the same year Bjarne and Henriette went to Singapore and then back to Denmark and closed down everything for the move.

Only their oldest daughter, Mette, who had already done three years in school was unhappy to leave.

Bjarne and Henriette had signed their children up for the Overseas Family School in Singapore on the recommendation from other Maersk families.

“When we moved the kids did not speak any English at all,” Henriette recalls. But when she told the teacher about her worries, she had pointed

Mette

26 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2011

out that none of the fifteen kids in that room knew any English either.

“Then she said: Now, if you parents would please leave!” Bjarne adds.

Fast forward and in January 2011 it was time to move again. Bjarne’s assignment in Singapore had come to an end but he was offered another position as MD for the commercial activities of Maersk Line, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. His area of responsibility now covers Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore.

Moving and changing school from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur was smooth.

“Plug out and plug in,” Henriette laughs.

“The curriculum is roughly the same, so it was very easy.”

Bjarne elaborates: “Schools in Singapore are so much better than in Denmark, so we thought the standard was going to drop now that we were moving to KL. But in reality, it could actually improve even a bit more,” he says.

“I think the difference, compared to Singapore, is that here they place a higher emphasis on the social aspects for the kids here.

I think it’s part of their philosophy; you have to grow up to become a whole human. So you have to stay as a human being in order to become a whole human being, and I

Marten

think playing and performing arts is an important part of that. It’s not enough to focus solely on the academic skills.”

“They have counsellors whose only job is to ensure that the kids function well personally and socially and have friends to play with. And a lot of emphasis is put on music,” Henriette adds.

“In this school system it’s important to learn reading and writing but likewise to do your best in music and arts.”

At Mont’Kiara, they also try to teach the children how to think.

“In Singapore it was very important that you could repeat what the teacher told you. Here they actually try to teach the children to try to think for themselves. And I think that’s very good,” says Henriette who is a teacher herself.

As for learning Danish they are back to mom’s school after having had that in the Danish Supplementary School in Singapore.

They always speak Danish at home and also stays in touch with friends and relatives in Denmark via Skype and social media. Henriette also try to get the kids to write a letter to them now and then.

Henriette adds, that expat families from the other Nordic countries get help from their respective

Marie

governments to teach their children their mother tongue, Danes are left on their own.

The Foldager’s new home is a stone’s throw from Mont Kiara school, on the highest floor in a penthouse condominium unit.

“When we moved to Singapore I was convinced we would live in a

house, But then we started looking at apartments and I realized that condo living is actually quite nice.”

“We’ve got a convenience store where we can buy all the daily necessities, and very nice restaurants, a fitness centre, and a swimming pool.

And there are a lot of other kids also within the complex.”

A family pastime is to play the dice game Balut. They also try to go on a nature-oriented weekend trip once a month. The next one in the pipeline, a trip to Selingan Turtle Island outside Borneo, gets all the children talking excitedly about maybe actually getting to see turtles coming on shore to lay eggs!

I think the difference, compared to Singapore, is that here at Mont’Kiara International School they place a higher emphasis on the social aspects for the kids here. The children have to grow up as a whole human, and I think playing and performing arts is an important part of that. It’s not enough to focus solely on the academic skills.

The Daily Maersk Challenge Bjarne Foldager and his team has just launched the Daily Maersk service in Malaysia, introducing absolute reliability.

W

orkwise Bjarne has just accomplished a very big project for Maersk Line by launching a ground breaking new service on 24 October: Daily Maersk.

So it’s actually about making it easier for our customers the way they conduct business and taking the cost out of their system by reducing their inventory and taking buffer out. This can lead to huge savings for them.”

This shipping service means that any cargo gated by 8 pm every night at four key ports in Asia will be available on a certain day at any of three selected ports in Northern Europe.

“Effectively it means we are building a conveyor belt, so every night the customer can deliver whatever they have ready from the factory and production in Malaysia and Singapore. We promise what time the cargo will be available in

Europe, so we’re talking about introducing absolute reliability. Then the customers can plan their supply chain much better.”

Maersk Line has already seen some good response from customers and already quite some new business as a direct result of the promotion activities, says the country manager.

December 2011 • ScandAsia.Singapore 27

The Real Group in Singapore The School of the Arts in Singapore hosted the annual A-cappella Festival from 13 October 2011 featuring popular Swedish Acappella group,The Real Group, entertaining the audience from 8PM onwards.

T

he Real Group consists of five members, Emma Nilsdotter and Katarina Henryson, who are the lead female singers, Anders Edenroth, the beatboxer, and Anders Jalkéus, the bass, all from Sweden together with Morten Vinther from Denmark.

The Swedish Ambassador to Singapore, Ingemar Dolfe, was also present that night at the School of the Arts, Singapore (SOTA). Also present in the audience were the team from the Norwegian Seamen’s Church and Swedish Church.

28 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2011

Kicking off the night with their first performance, The Real Group performed an original jazz number called Pass Me the Jazz followed by another original piece; A Lifetime takes a Lifetime to Fulfill.

The group kept the crowd entertained as they briefly paused between numbers to make small conversations with the audience.

They commented not only on the A-cappella festival but also about how great the auditorium looked while doing a great job in making them sound so good.

The crowd cheered after they

had performed a piece written by Emma Nilsdotter called Bumblebee which she dedicated to life as she let on that she was expecting.

One of the most interesting songs of the night was Perpertual Motion Thingamabob which was performed which an icing of humour. The sound effects and harmony made it one of the best performances that night.

The Real Group also performed two significant medleys, one of pop hits in the recent years and one of Michael Jackson’s hits, both of which were harmonious with hints of humour.

There were around 500 guests at the auditorium at SOTA consisting of students and lecturers there and also other guests not from the school.

After the performances, the members of The Real Group came out for an autograph session for the audience. Many of them bought the group’s latest album at SOTA. The Real Group travel the world attending music festivals and events.

They had come to Singapore after spending some time performing in Taipei, Taiwan.

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Medium

Pepparkakor

cookies with black pepper

P

epparkakor in Swedish, piparkakut in Finnish and pepperkaker in Norwegian are not to be confused with Danish Pebbernoedder.

Pepparkakor - ginger cookies - are rolled quite thin (often under 3 mm, and cut into shapes. This is where the fantasy of the children come in! Whereas Danish Pebbernoedder are more like little lumps of ginger cookies. But the basic taste is the same. Cloves, cinnamon and cardamom are important ingredients of these, and the actual ginger taste is not prominent. Allspice was used formerly to season ginger biscuits, but cloves replaced it later.

1 cup (2 dl) water 1/2 cup (1 dl) syrup (molasses) 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon of ground cloves 1 tablespoon of ground ginger 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom 1 teaspoon black pepper (opt) 1 tablespoon of bicarbonate (baking soda) 10,5 oz (300 gr) butter 2,5 cups (5 dl) sugar 7,5 cups or about 1 lb. (1.5 liters) flour

Evil

• Mix butter, sugar and syrup. Add spices and bicarbonate, then water and finally part of the flour. Mix in the rest of the flour. Let the dough sit over night, wrapped in foil in the fridge. Roll the dough as thin as possible using flour.

Cut out figures - preferable Christmas figures, hearts, stars etc.

• Bake in oven for about 5 minutes at 200-225 degrees C. Watch them! They burn fast once they start.

• You can get about 300 cookies, depending on how big you make them.

It´s nice to make some quite big hearts, decorated with frosting and maybe hang them up in the window.

Are you done?

ENJOY!!!!

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