My top 10 visitors

These are the top 10 visitor countries to my blog for the month of September 2012: UK, USA, Russia, Australia, Germany, Denmark, France, India, Italy, New Zealand.

But, if one recalculates in terms of per capita population, a quite different list emerges:

1. Denmark
2.  UK
3. New Zealand
4. Australia
5. USA
6. Russia
7. Germany
8. Italy
9. France
10. India

Wonder what that tells us if anything? Are Danes and Kiwis especially interested in innovation, creativity and leadership? And, if so, does that show up in their economic performance?

Immigrants drive exports

A Danish friend has sent me a fascinating article from yesterday’s Politiken.DK.

What it reveals is that Danish exports to emerging markets have been hindered substantially by language and cultural barriers ‒ and that a major solution has been found in using second and third generation immigrants to Denmark as intermediaries.

Apparently the policy has been so successful that exports from Denmark to Asian, Middle Eastern and South American countries have lifted rather dramatically.

Now a database has been created so that appropriate people can be matched with relevant markets. Says Jonas Ghiyati, “For example, Morocco is difficult to penetrate with only English. A person with Moroccan roots can reverse the language, will have contacts at all levels, knows the culture and system – and how to dodge corruption.”

Wonder how many other countries with multicultural populations (and negative politics/media around immigrants) have tried this approach?

The building blocks of LEGO

Some years since, I took a trip to Denmark – not to Copenhagen or Aarhus or Aalborg, my usual destinations, but to Billund. A hundred years ago, it was a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. Now it has an international airport, no less. All this the result of the amazing global success of LEGO.

While I was there, I was told by my hosts at the company about their origins. This is what happened.

His business going bust, a carpenter in Billund, Ole Kirk Christiansen, decided to fill in the time - and in 1932 he started making wooden toys for his family and friends. In the depression years he also traded toys for food. A new company was formed, and in 1947 they started making plastic toys, two years later producing the first batch of the famous interlocking bricks. Quite simply, they were developed from traditional wooden bricks.

By the way, the word LEGO comes from the Danish “leg godt”, which means “play well”.

Altogether a small step for mankind. But a giant leap for children around the world. And for Billund.

(By the way, I keep wondering why this blog consistently has so many visitors from Denmark. Any answers?)