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16 tunities for action, even long distance. With the control viewer we can let the plumber into our homes while we are at work - and check if we remembered to turn off the iron. In this way, embedded computing becomes an integrated part of private spaces like our homes and our cars. Navigation systems are standard equipment in new medium-priced cars. At the same time the systems blend into a converged network so that entertainment and logistic aids can be connected in all sorts of ways. Embedded computing is worked into the public spaces at a very slow rate. It is generally agreed that the feeling of surveillance is the worst. Wearable computing (WC) is gaining ground where it strengthens the personal freedom of action of the individual. Street advertising that can send internet links to people's WCs is now more common than simple posters. In recent years, this technology has been expanded to include Bluetooth and has found fertile ground everywhere. At the bus stop you can e.g. access updated information about delays. Towards convergence of market and democracy The nation states have generally lost significance for Scandinavians. However, a minority of the population still seeks to stage the nation as a counterpoint to globalisation. This movement was ushered in around the turn of the millennium with the growth of the nationalistic right- and leftwing parties. Nor do people show much interest in EU, which only really functions in trade matters and on the technical level. The borderless internet corrodes arbitrary national borders. For most people the prevailing picture is one of a complex and global world, and intuition is becoming more accepted as a decisionmaking tool. Parliamentarianism in the classical sense is increasingly perceived as uninteresting. More and more vote with their wallets and participate in electronic referendums. But the turnout at the last general election was poor, as with the one before. Market and democracy are melding. In the same breath as the political consumer, we now also talk about the hypersensitive consumer, who on the one hand reacts strongly to impressions and signals sent from the complex media market and on the other hand consumes, acts and seeks self-actualisation by using and refining others' expressions and developing his or her own. Con amore and increasing polarisation in working life In connection with working life, more and more ask to be liberated from time and place in their work. To more and more, this is becoming realistic. UFO work (Unspecified Floating Objectives) has become more common on most of the labour market. This means more development orientation and performance control. The work has become easier and more fun because computer technology is taking over more and more of the initial stages. Computers are integrated intelligently in our office surroundings and have in the later years doubled their speed every fifteen months. Creativity is no longer one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration: the ratio has changed and will change even more. The exciting work is really gaining ground. The rise of new industrial countries that export cheap goods is providing the developed capitalist countries with strong competition. For this reason most of the physical production of products now takes place in third-world countries. The difficult and challenging decisions we handle ourselves: we still increasingly want to be stimulated and to create something in our working lives. In return we perform more than proscribed by the old-fashioned 35-40 hour workweek. The challenge for companies has thus very much been to develop organisation forms that on the one hand support the creative urge and BLUETOOTH is a global standard for wireless access. The technology is based on globally available short-range radio access. It dispenses with the wires that normally connect digital units. When two units equipped with Bluetooth are within 10 metres of each other, they can connect without being in line of sight of each other. A PC can e.g. send information to a printer in a nearby room. In the future, Bluetooth will most likely be standard equipment in mobile phones, computers and other electronic units UFO WORK is the term for a way of working that gains ground everywhere. It can be summarised as 'greater demand for decisions'. UFO work is development-oriented, communication-based and strategic work. It is independent of time and place. It requires cross-disciplinary co-operation and has generalist characteristics. It includes customer orientation and adaptation, and often also loose terms of employment, project work and performance-related pay. Consultants, project managers, product developers, engineers, communication people, IT programmers, and journalists, among others, often do UFO work. Read more in members' report 1/2003: UFO work
17 ability of the individual and on the other hand converts the particular contributions to the benefit of the overall goals of the organisation. The most adaptable companies have succeeded in this. However, a number of employees still feel discontent with their work because their workplace hasn't managed to struggle free of historically-determined principles of organisation and development, including the idea of time as a measure of the amount of work. The most dynamic employees solve the problem by starting their own company or becoming free agents - the fastest growing group on the Scandinavian labour markets. Others instead use their energy on family life and association activities, where the opportunity for personal expression is far greater, or they periodically take on dull work in order to finance more pleasurable work that isn't profitable here and now - but always is con amore. Working life today has thus become polarised between dynamic, networking single-person companies - or larger companies that emulate this structure - and the more sluggish traditional companies. <strong>Branding</strong> in 'Create and Brand Yourself' The monolithic corporate branding (page 6) was around the turn of the millennium implemented in many companies. The inspiration came from the really big and global companies that long had used this tactic successfully. These megacorporations have continued to grow. The thesis that we one day would have between 500 and 1000 big and dominant commercial stories held true, and the logic from the book about the Dream Society can thus be said to have been implemented. The struggle for market shares has for these conglomerates become a struggle for stories. The megastories that have won are those that support the idea of the emotional individualist, and these have become carriers of culture. Many are stories that already at the turn of the millennium were favourite examples of management books, e.g. Nike (personal faith in progress), Marlboro (the personal outsider and rebellion against authorities) and Harley Davidson (freedom). "The perspective we see outlined is thus a future with perhaps 500 or 1000 global suppliers, each with its own 'country' of stories. The strong stories can easily defend their borders while the weaker ones succumb. They get 'invaded' and conquered by the stronger stories. The struggle for market shares becomes a struggle for stories." Rolf Jensen in The Dream Society The Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies The big corporate story has lost But the big corporate story has still lost over a wide front, especially among the small and medium-sized companies, which on an international scale means most Scandinavian companies. The megastories are too strong. Only companies that have their alliances in place, their megaphones up and charged, and money enough to do the work properly, have a chance of getting into the struggle at the top. The situation is aggravated by the paradox that along with our propensity for megastories, we increasingly focus on our personal tale and our personal emotions, which over the years have made everything in between fairly uninteresting. The emotional and the immaterial may well be a strong driving force in society, but individualisation is stronger. Life isn't a theme park that we walk through as passive observers; life is an emotional and personal development that we like to influence ourselves. This means that the prefabricated dream, communicated by professional storytellers, will lose out to the individual's need to tell its own story through active contribution. The little emotional story wins. At the same time many companies experience that their values increasingly are seen as inconsequential. They have too high a level of abstraction and far too few common denominators to embrace and interest employees and other stakeholders. CSR (see page 7) is much less a topic than it used to be. Corporate branding is dying The idea of the all-embracing corporate brand has thus suffered serious damage
Page 2 and 3: Contents: Part I: Branding. The sym
Page 4 and 5: 4 Part I Branding. The symbol as ar
Page 6 and 7: 6 The brand as corporate metaphor T
Page 8 and 9: 8 Two central uncertainties for bra
Page 10 and 11: 10 and adventure. Services that ver
Page 12: 12 The precise future to come may n
Page 15: 15 1. Create and Brand Yourself Lif
Page 19 and 20: 19 personal and the unique. All thi
Page 21 and 22: 21 extended family. However, we are
Page 23 and 24: 23 designer'. Trend spotting is of
Page 25 and 26: 25 moving from being a citizen to b
Page 27 and 28: 27 sure time is corroding. Values a
Page 29 and 30: 29 4. The Logic of Great Solutions
Page 31 and 32: 31 tools, it has become possible to
Page 33 and 34: 33 Personal branding on the wane Th
Page 35 and 36: 35 H. Lundbeck A/S (2003) Lundbeck

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