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Country Guide Norway
from TWSM#8
Where to Work Country Guide Norway
Tromsø
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A Well-Oiled Machine
Harstad The July 2011 shootings shook the Norwegians and the Norwegian government, forcing them to analyze both their cultural attitudes and their approach to business. Despite occasional internal threats and a eventually limited supply of energy, the country and its business leaders continue to embrace a liberal philosophy.
Norwegians were forced to take a good, long look at themselves and the unique society they have created after one of their own was able to plan and carry out a mass murder of students with shocking ease last summer. Months later, they are more certain than ever that their oil-rich, socially-just world is worth fighting for. Even by the standards of Norway’s famously flat and understated corporate culture, Kantega – an IT solutions company with offices in Oslo and Trondheim – is an exception. Started in 2003 as a 40-member, 100% employee-owned business, its staff number has swelled to 85, and most have taken up the option to buy into the business after three years with the firm. Those who have left have sold their shares back the company – as their contract obliges them to do – ensuring that only those working for the firm Trondheimhave a direct vested interest in it. Notably, we’re not talking about oil, fish, timber, minerals or any other of the
Bodø
Population 4,691,849 inhabitants
Moi Rana
Norwegian Mainland is 432 km at its widest point, and
Norway has an indigenous Sami population as well as five national minorities
Sweden
only 2 km at its narrowest 10% of the houses were built before 1920 29% were built after 1981
Sundsvall
Bergen
Stavanger
Norway
Oslo
Drammen
Karlstad
Europe
Where to Work Country Guide Norway
By THRASY PETROPOULOS
founding blocks of Norway’s enviable, but perhaps ultimately unsustainable, prosperity. We’re talking about a company that develops tailor-made computer software systems for banks and public services. We’re also talking about modern, architecturally-groomed offices and a calm and confident working environment. The company’s ninth year of operation will be like the previous eight, providing a healthy end-of-year dividend for its staffcum-owners on top of their monthly salary. Last year’s company takings were the best of the lot, with revenues of 76 million Norwegian krone (NOK), up from 17.9mn in 2003, and after-tax profits of 8.4mn NOK. If you’re reading this from anywhere within the debt-blighted European Union, then the words of Frode Standal, co-founder and chief technical officer of Kantega, will jar “I see myself as very lucky to be born in Norway,” he says. “There’s always room for improvement but we have a general trust that money is spent quite wisely. We have a good welfare and health system and free education. That’s partly possible because businesses pay their taxes and both men and women work. And of course we have oil.” It would be superficial, of course, to describe Norway as an El Dorado. Its newspaper headlines are still dominated by the trial of Anders Behring Breivik, whose murder of 77 people in an orchestrated attack in central Oslo and at a political youth camp on the island of Utøya in July 2011 shook the country’s society to its famously liberal foundations. Immigration issues are also widely discussed, especially after a recent spate of late-night rapes within the capital, believed to have been carried out by migrants. One in four Oslo residents is now thought to have been born outside Norway, a significant demographic shift for a city of only 610,000 residents and untilnow largely homogeneous people. But the country’s vital statistics tell a different story. Unemployment is only 3.2% and Norway has the second highest GDP per capita in Europe (after Luxembourg), with Eurostat reporting that the country’s earning capacity per individual in 2010 was 179% above the average among the 27 EU member states. Also outstripped in the 2010 wealth stakes were the US (149%) and Japan (107%). Twice – in 1972 and 1994 – Norwegians voted by referendum over whether they should join the EU, with a marginal victory on both occasions for the ‘no’ vote. How relieved the yes-voters must be now. The upshot is a country that sees itself as both part of and separate from Europe. Its currency is expensive, often prohibitively, for just about everyone who wishes to visit or to buy Norwegian products. At the same time, however, it relies heavily on exports to the European Union and beyond, with oil and gas representing 45% of export revenue. And, of course, Norwegians are no different than anyone else in preferring not to spend money if they can avoid it. Yet Standal stresses that there is a commitment to quality that allows many homegrown companies to succeed over cheaper foreign competitors. In Kantega’s case, foreign competition is referred to as “off shoring” – the taking advantage of substantially cheaper IT solutions from rivals in India, Pakistan, and China. “It remains to be seen whether it will con-
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Kantega is a Norwegian consulting, technology services and application outsourcing company.
Using agile and iterative software development methods, they design and develop user-friendly, secure software with high reliability.
Kantega is an employee-owned company with a corporate culture based on equality and solidarity and has more than 80 employees
in Oslo and Trondheim. Their consultants have on average 10 years consulting experience and 4 years of university education.
01 Dynamism at Kantega 02 Employee working at Kantega 03 F. Standal is the co-founder and chief technical officer of Kantega
The managers' photos were taken for Work Style by photographer Martin Skulstad. Martin was born in 1976 in Norway. He is a photographer living and working in Oslo. He studied at Central St. Martins in London, the School of Visual Arts in New York. Since he graduated in 2001 he has been working as a freelance photographer.
tinue or not because there is a trend that businesses are trying to save money,” he notes. “But it is very difficult for a company in India to understand the real needs of a local authority in Norway. Quality has always been very important and people have been willing to pay for it. And I believe that in the public sector [which employs almost a third of the workforce], it will probably take an even longer time before they go towards off shoring – both for political reasons and the fact that domain knowledge is so specialized.” Specialized knowledge, it seems, is one of the keys. It is one thing to have the resources to create wealth and quite another to produce a system that allows for one of highest levels of citizen contentment in the world. Forbes ranked Norway third (next to Denmark and Finland) in its 2010 Happiest Countries list. Little matter, apparently, that Oslo often appears in similar ‘Most Expensive Cities’ lists. Despite enduring long winter months of darkness and cold, Norwegians like their system and will go to great lengths to preserve it. And why wouldn’t they? Graduates can expect a salary of around 400,000 NOK (50,000 Euros) a year in the right job, ac-
04 Jannik Krohn Falck is administrative 05 Brainstorming between Lars-Erik Horde, Anne Johnsrud, Ingrid Mørk and Jannik Krohn Falck.
04
05 The Norwegian List
of Best Workplaces
By Jannik Krohn Falck Great Place to Work@ Institute Norge, Country Manager
Some 140 companies entered the Great Place to Work competition for 2011, split between the various categories, and what was noteworthy was that the satisfaction level was high – very high for the smaller companies where communication is better. What’s more, in Paris last May there was a sorting of the best 100 workplaces in Europe. There were 1,600 companies considered for both categories and eight of the top 100 had offices in Norway. The financial downturn hasn’t struck very hard here, so optimism is fairly high compared to neighboring countries, although there has been a slight shift in the last few months in terms of exports. And of course our national resources are often discussed because we know we won’t be able to rely on oil and gas forever. You have to innovate. We need to focus more on getting people with the right knowledge and competence for the right jobs. If you look at the labor market now, perhaps we don’t have enough people with the right knowledge. Take information technology, for example, which has developed from a fairly immature industry to a very mature industry. Most high-knowledge workers have a high salary so people aren’t really competing on a salary level. It is about what work and projects are more interesting. People don’t really move for better benefits, so companies are increasingly focusing on how they can differentiate themselves from others to succeed and keep their talent. In one way we have a very open, flat structure. You expect to be able to talk to the CEO of all but perhaps the largest organizations on a first-name basis. The top executives try to be as much on the same level as possible as other workers. There is no culture of difference. Being rich and showing off money just isn’t allowed. Of course you know who the boss is, but in other ways you are the same. There is an iconic picture from a few years ago of the Norwegian king sitting on a train going up to the mountains to go skiing. The prime minister walks to work, with as little security as possible.
JANNIK KROHN FALCK
2011 Best Workplaces Norway
Over 250 employees
01 FINN.no 02 Reitangruppen 03 Steria 04 Accenture 05 Canon 06 Cisco 07 McDonald's 08 Statnett 09 Bertel O Steen 10 Statoil Fuel & Retail
50-250 employees
01 SAS Institute 02 Microsoft 03 Webstep 04 Kantega 05 Miles 06 Optimum 07 Affecto 08 Abbott 09 SKAGEN Fondene 10 UNIT4 R&D
Great Place to Work® Institute Norge
Middelthunsgate 27 PO 5492 Majorstuen 0305 Oslo T +47 922 12 747 [W greatplacetowork.no]
cording to Jannik Krohn Falck, the administrative director of Norway’s Great Place to Work Institute. Maternity leave lasts 46 weeks with full pay, or 52 weeks on 80% pay, and men are legally entitled to a part of it. The retirement age, 67, is on the high side by European standards but pensions are generous and secure. And in many companies there is a commitment to pastoral care. •
On the right track
The danger, of course, is complacency. With such generous state perks, and salaries appearing to cover costs, surely the only benefit left for a company to offer its staff is job security? Well, try passing that argument by the average human resources manager. The flip-side to a 3.2% jobless rate, they will tell you, is that it can be hell to hold on to good staff. If something’s not quite right – the relationship between management and colleagues, working hours, or just the office location – then there’s every chance a disgruntled employee will move on. Consider the following statement from one company employee “we’re a wealthy state – and affected by it both positively and negatively – because people take it for granted. Girls and guys take it for granted that, combined, you get maternity and paternity leave for a whole year; we don’t think it’s special because we don’t understand that we’re one of the few countries in the world with such a system. So you have to find other things that are important – a sense of pride, good colleagues, a modern working environment. When you go to a party you want to be proud, not ashamed, of where you work.” The company in question is Flytoget, which operates Oslo’s airport express train service and is located on the 13th floor of a building found deep within the city’s central train station, and the words are from Kari Skybak, the human resources director since 2005. With all due apologies to airport express train operators around the world, a modern working environment and high social standing at a party aren’t what come to mind when you picture the typical rail company. And yet Flytoget is now a regularly found at the top of the list of leading companies as judged by Norway’s GreatPlace to Work Institute. In fact, in 2008 they came top of the pile for workplaces with more than 250 employees. From close up, it isn’t hard to understand why. Considerable thought and expense have been put into creating a modern, bright and sociable office space that encourages all Flytoget employees – from drivers and ticket inspectors to top management – to eat and spend time together. “In fact, we were in different offices in 2008 with different departments for different sections of the company, and we moved here one and a half years ago,” explains Skybak. “We were trying to build a strong culture and we thought that the next step to develop this was for us all to be together: drivers, hosts on board, technicians, sales staff, administration… to meet in the elevator or by the coffee machine, and to eat together.” Even within the older, more dispersed setup, Flytoget scored highly when judged by the answers of its staff on matters of trust and openness with management, despite the strict safety concerns of a rail operator that necessitate a need-toknow relationship in many areas. Such concerns, however, constitute finetuning. It goes without saying that, long
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Flytoget, the Airport Express Train offers the best means of transportation to and from Oslo Airport by emphasizing security, punctuality and service.
All of this through a unique identity, the most effective solutions and enthusiastic staff. At the same time,
the company will actively orientate new business areas and the Norwegian train market.
06 Flytoget Airport Express office dynamics 07 Flytoget Airport Express employee 08 Last call for boarding this Flytoget
Airport Express train 09 Kary Skybak, human resources director of Flytoget Airport Express
before issues of elevator chitchat and whether or not the espresso machine stocks decaf, is the fundamental concern of whether the company makes money. And here, perhaps more than anywhere else, lies the most important factor in judging how a company like Flytoget reflects the business practices of the country: It is both state-owned and run as a private enterprise. “We are state-owned but with no government support,” explains Skybak. “On the contrary, because we are 100% commercial we pay all our costs – even 70 million Norwegian krone a year towards the infrastructure – and 70% of our profit goes back to the state. With another government we might be sold. You can see the development of the railroad industry in Europe, there is a lot of privatization.” Transporting 5.5 million passengers a year and with a 35% market share of transport from the airport – the highest of any airport in the world – such confidence is justified. And then, almost as an afterthought, Skybak delivers the sentence that separates Norway from so much of debt-ridden Europe “if we were in debt, the government wouldn’t bail us out, they would expect us to reduce our costs. They just wouldn’t accept red numbers.” •
The oil adventure
But then, Norway isn’t like the rest of Europe. The discovery of large deposits of oil and natural gas in the late 1960s changed everything. And though the country isn’t alone in having oil, it has handled its wealth in a unique way. Øyvind Maarud, human resources manager of Statoil Fuel & Retail, couldn’t be clearer in explaining it “a large extent of our national identity these days is built around the oil industry. That’s what people outside this country know us for, that we have been able to use the oil as a basis for creating a welfare society that is unprecedented around the world. Within Norway it stands for solidity… that we can rely on it for a while longer and we can take care of future generations. It has brought us into the modern world somehow.” A portion of the country’s petroleum revenues goes directly into a pension fund that only invests abroad. By the end of 2010, the Oil Fund, as it is commonly known, had swelled to an eye-watering 375 billion Euros – yes, billion – more than the entire public debt of bailout-of Greece. Statoil charts that success, having become (as 67%-government-owned Statoil ASA) the largest company in the Nordic region by revenue and profit. Statoil Fuel and Retail, a “downstream” offshoot of the mother-company, was founded as a listed company in May 2010. It already has 2,300 petrol stations across Scandinavia, Poland and the Baltic States and operated profits of more than 1.6 billion NOK (190mn Euros) in 2010. Impressive figures, but it begs the question: What happens when the oil runs dry? “There’s no doubt that over the last 30 to 40 years of our oil adventure, we have perhaps got too used to and have begun taking it for granted. It has been discussed widely in the media for the last couple of years because we are now in what is called peak oil. It’s getting harder and harder to pump it out of the oceans, so you need to invest more and more in order to do so. Last year, they said it would
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Statoil's biggest activities are located in Norway with corporate functions both in Stavanger and Oslo.
They are the largest operator on the Norwegian continental shelf, and a license holder in numerous oil and gas fields.
Their onshore facilities in Norway are active within such areas as gas treatment, crude oil reception, refinement and methanol production. Statoil also has the technical responsibility for the world’s most extensive subsea pipeline system for the transport of gas.
10 Maarud, administrative director at Statoil. 11 Statoil employee on the field
last only 20 to 30 more years but in recent months they have discovered a few large oil fields that are quite promising so we can extend that period by another 10 to 20 years. “And as long as there is transportation in the world, we see it as our purpose to supply the fuel of the future. We’re the only oil company in Norway supplying biofuel. It’s bigger in Sweden and elsewhere for the moment, but here we are pioneers in supplying E85, which is 85% bioethanol.” Money is money, of course, but where does this leave the country’s fossil fuel footprint? Well, the country’s electricity needs are entirely covered by hydroelectric power plants. But that simply means that the Norwegian government is forced to turn to buying carbon credits and fund reforestation projects abroad to satisfy its Kyoto Protocol commitments in offsetting its petroleum exports. “I think that is why, as a country, we try to compensate in some way,” says Maarud candidly. “The government has tried to be visible in other arenas, such as peace negotiations.” The fact that a Norwegian state body – and not the Royal Swedish Academy –chooses the yearly Nobel Peace prize winner is a matter of great pride in Oslo. But Norwegian troops have been active in Afghanistan, Libya, and Kosovo. •
The legacy of July 22
Closer to home, Norway is, of course, still coming to terms with the events of July 22, 2011, when its residents were terrorized by Breivik’s bomb blast in central Oslo and mass shooting on Utøya. Most shockingly, 55 of the 69 people gunned down on Utøya were teenagers. Worth recalling from that fateful day was the assumption that the attacker had Islamic connections. Ironically, there are those who are now relieved it was a “blond Norwegian guy who did it” as Falck, of Norway’s Great Place to Work Institute, puts it. “It was a time for everyone to look at Norwegian society and consider whether it has been a success or not,” Falck explained. “In one way Norway has been fairly restrictive in whom it lets in, but in other ways the country has been way too open, naive even.” And yet, Norwegians rallied to Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s call that, above all else, the mass murders demonstrated that the country’s liberal values are worth fighting for. Rather than acting as an Islamic fundamentalist, Breivik – who had managed to create hugely powerful bombs as well as amass an armory and join local shooting clubs with worrying ease – was motivated by a hatred of Muslims. Notably, there are those who talk with conviction of the benefits of a multicultural society, particularly as immigration enters its second and third generation. Take Reitangruppen, the massive Norwegian wholesaler and retail franchiser that boasts the ubiquitous Rema 1000 supermarket and 7-Eleven chains and has a thumb in the lucrative energy and real estate pie. “Of the approximately 90 franchises of our 7-Eleven stores, more than 50 are owned by people with non-Norwegian backgrounds,” says Solfrid Flateby, Reitangruppen’s communications director. “We think that’s exciting. It brings some-
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Reitangruppen's values and culture is maintained in all business areas: Real Estate, Energy and Fuel, Grocery and Service Trade. It operates
quickly and efficiently and wants its employees to get the focus on its creative desire and passion for
the work they do. Franchising and partnerships are fundamental to their business model and philosophy.
12 Solfrid Flateby communications director 13 Employee concentrated at his workstation 14 Informal meeting 15 Customer service 16 Employee working comfortably from his office
thing new to the business, regardless of background because it only ever comes down to what competence that person has and what values they have and are willing to adopt.” And why wouldn’t it? The franchise formula has been good to Reitangruppen, which this year ranked second in Norway’s Best Workplaces list. Since the company’s founder Odd Reitan opened his first grocery store in 1972, the company's store portfolio has swelled to 2,850 in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Latvia – all of them run on a franchise basis. Gone are the days where Rema 1000 stores offered just 1,000 selected products sold at discounted prices, but the franchising discount model is still at the heart of the operation. Reitangruppen is also the fifth biggest business in Norway, and far and away the country's most successful grocery outlet. “The key to our success has been not to believe in big. We believe in small,” says Flateby. And understanding consumer trends, presumably. “Norwegians often complain about things being expensive – like food – but if you present how much an average Norwegian spends on groceries, it is a lot less than elsewhere in Europe, around 11%. And still people want it to be cheaper,” says Flateby. “We are not known to Europeans as a discount chain because we don’t look like it. Lidl tried to get into the market here at the end of the 1990s and everybody thought they would put pressure on the Norwegian grocery kings, and we ended up buying Lidl in 2001. They weren’t succeeding. They had red numbers every year because they didn’t understand the Norwegian consumer who wants both low prices and high quality. Consumers here are quite modern, eating a lot of fresh fish. One of our biggest products groups this year is sushi. At the other end of the scale, we had this very successful campaign last year: dinner for the family for less than 100 NOK. It was meat and fish and vegetables, really great food. It was very popular.” Even though the franchisees have virtual sole responsibility for running their outlets, the mother company offers guidelines (not to mention 6,000-product shopping list to stock up from) – all for a 3% total margin for Reitangruppen. On average, each Rema 1000 franchisee made 1.9 million NOK (243,000 Euros) profit after costs last year. Above profits and salaries, however, Flateby emphasizes that the key to having a successful store is having a happy store. Again the country’s keywords spill out “a flat corporate structure and regular conversations between employee and employer.” “Mostly we’re talking about happiness,” she says. “If you are happy towards a customer they will spend more. Ask an employee if you smile at a customer and they smile back at you, how does that make you feel? You have to like the culture, and the philosophy and the values. It’s not for everybody. If you think it’s all right to get a sale even though you have to lie and cheat a bit, then you don’t fit in.” You get the feeling she might as well be talking about the country. •
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Corey Arnold is a photographer from Portland, Oregon. His photographic chronicles of the commercial fishing lifestyle in Alaska and
worldwide have been exhibited in leading
galleries throughout the world. Fish-Work is the title of an ongoing life project documenting his journey as a commercial fisherman in Alaska and his travels exploring fishing cultures in Norway and beyond. Corey says “I have a love-hate relationship with commercial fishing. The work is often grueling and mundane, sometimes dangerous and soul-crushingly repetitive. But inversely, there is beauty and freedom in the act of manual labor, surrounded by a vast and remote sea wilderness. For a fisherman, the reward is often found in the amazing stories of triumph, disaster, and pride that are brought home to the civilized world. I’ve chosen to tell my story in photographs.”
17, 18, 19, 20 Photos by Corey Arnold
