Currently on my mind

Edge is our everlasting search for relevant competence and how we maintain and grow it (just like we have our everlasting search for the right talents and the right engagements) Edge is making sure we as a company have the necessary current valuable competence and to make sure that shared competence bring value to each and every client of ours. Edge is how Netlighters create together, challenges each other and creates an inspiring working climate together, for all to develop and grow within.  Fragments from my opening speach at Netlight Edge Conference 2014, Oslo; A year has passed since last year’s Edge Conference, when we met in Clarion, Stockholm. And what a year. I get moved to tears when I hear about all the amazing deliveries we’ve made out there. Without naming any of the client we’ve helped, looking at the value we’ve been providing, the increase in revenue, the increase in share price or merely the public success and growing brand recognition. It’s cle...

Very engaging presentation by Marten Blankesteij, CEO Blendl, about the highly interesting product Blendl.nl - today at Netlight Edge Conference 2014 in Oslo. "Young people will never pay for newspaper articles anymore" - just like "Young people will never pay for musik anymore"...right? :-) "Blendl is described as “the sexiest paywall in the world”. All major Dutch publishers have joined, as well as The Economist. Previously, Blankesteijn was editor-in chief of a travel magazine and editor of one of the biggest newspapers." The story of success - once again it has been proven; Focus on user value - if your product provides value obvious to the user, the user is willing to pay for it. Focus on user experience - make it easy and make it obvious, focus on what is important. Care about your user and dare to trust the user - trust will provide a better user experience and a better brand recognition, it always show if you care for real....

Netlight Edge Conference, Oct 5th 2014 - the 5th edition of our own grandios technology conference. http://ec.netlight.com/ This year the conference will be held in Oslo with our Oslo office hosting the event and we're expecting more than 500 visitors. Media will sort of be the theme of the day. The reason we chose media is not that it’s hot and trendy right now but rather that we see media currently leading and driving technology forward. The industry have been up to a huge challenge, and still ongoing, in going from traditional print to digital. And the challenge to take online from being simply a marketing channel, free of use for the customers a couple of years ago, to provide ones full product portfolio and all service offerings online today, experimenting with different alternatives of payment wall strategies. Netlight loves media and are very much involved in all the main players in Stockholm, Oslo and more and more in Munich. During the Swedish elections recentl...

Being a great entrepreneur and leader is not about starting a new company, nor it's a one-man-show. It's about believing in something and then engage in the challenge. It's about finding the right people to create together with and to grow talent together with. There are no shortcuts, only hard work - but it's so much fun and I love it! If you succeed, if you find the right thing to believe in, if you find the right people to create together with and if you really engage, then you can become a part of something great, be part af a great piece of art, like a monument. Or as Steve Jobs would have put it " make your dent in the Universe and start not just a business, but an entirely new way of life". Here is a great post and some examples to become inspired by. They have all found something to believe in, found the right people to work with and grown talent together. They all have built "life is great" organisations around them that believe in w...

When our (Netlight’s) CEO Erik Ringertz (@ringertz) win the Swedish national nomination of “boss of the year”. Doesn’t it have to mean that all we stand for and fight for is appreciated also by the “outside” world? http://chef.se/erik-ringertz-vd-netlight-ar-arets-chef-2014/ When it’s proven again again that working and creating together for real provides so much more value and fun for all. Spring is here (in Sweden) – if only for a day or two When you feel your garden wakes to life after the very long winter sleep When you find three newly laid eggs in your hen house When your hen can walk around freely in the garden and after several tries manages to scare away the neighbour cat by themselves (yet again by working together) When you can start with all the wonderful work and projects you have in front of you in your garden together with your family - to get a rest from work and to get new inspiration. When you finally get to prune your young hedge of privet (liguster) to l...

What an exciting year we have in front of us. My list of top trends of 2014 is based on the buzz across industries where IT is business critical. It’s based on what we, Netlight, are involved within. Netlight is a Genuine Consulting firm, which means we are totally independent, we work and create together for real (to make sure the gathered competence and experience of all consultants are utilized) and we totally focus our work based on the true need of our clients. What we do on a daily basis is totally ruled by the challenges and opportunities of the companies we’re helping. So what we work on is really what is hot currently - and if not we’re doing something wrong. ·          Streaming and VOD (Video On Demand, Music On Demand, Radio On Demand…) ·          Cloud hosting ·          O rganisations and teams – increased productivity ·    ...

The past year I’ve met numerous organisations suffering from outdated outsourcing strategies. Either very business critical areas or the entire IT has been outsourced. The typical symptom one meet from this are lacking support of new business strategies, a general lack of control of IT decisions, frustration due to differentiation of incentives and drivers between buyer and supplier. Also the vendor lock-in situation is common, leading to lack of gain of a healthy multi-vendor competition in terms of cost, skills and innovation management. In other words your business is getting hurt.  As a consultant in different roles such as strategic advisor, manager (Manager/Team Manager/Project Manager) or Enterprise Architect, I meet many organisations and people in many different situations; different cultures, different levels of maturity and different industries. However one thing they all have in common, they are all working with business where IT is business critical. ...