Being shy as a young boy, I learned a valuable lesson about success: it’s about keeping it simple, building your confidence and slowly expanding your comfort zone. I continually get evidence that it is a universal truth, no matter if in personal life, sports or business. It’s not about the money. So, what does keeping it simple mean? In order

Oh, that didn’t sound quite well. What I meant to say is that Sweden has become a cheap alternative for tourists and businesses alike. Not long ago, Sweden were among the most expensive countries to come to. But the Swedish krona (our currency) is so weak right now that both Americans and Europeans alike can have more fun than usual

Yesterday, the Orlando Magic played Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA. Reading the Orlando Sentinel over breakfast, I almost choked on the morning milk laughing. How about this? Bucks Coach Scott Skiles drew a technical foul while protesting a goaltending call. Officials, however, sent the wrong team – Milwaukee – to the free-throw line after ringing up Skiles. Before they corrected

Sports is killing itself. We’re becoming uninteresting to journalists and we’re doing it to ourselves. How? By being so centred on being nice role models, having good relations to each other and what not, that the level of political correctness makes us grey as an old English gentleman a foggy August morning in London. I’ve actually dealt out fines to

We are getting deeper and deeper into a recession that might very well turn into a depression. The signs say that we have not seen half of the effects it will have. As usual, lay-offs have mostly hit the ‘working class’ first, while for example executives and resellers of consumer products are yet to see the worst of it. Connecting

Personal branding is old news. Sports, music and other forms of entertainment have carried that torch for decades. However, the days when you needed to be a wizz kid in entertainment to become a brand of your own is over and done with. Nowadays, personal brands are so natural among our younger generations that we don’t even think about it.

If you ask the common man, a brand is equal to the logo, colours and the name. That’s not really what it is though. If you ask a specialist, they will give you an harangue about brand experience, identity, image… and God knows what. I guess it’s just the nature of things – the more you know about something, the

Just like tribal marketing should be used by more than just sports clubs (see earlier blog), there’s too few that make use of association marketing. By that, I mean associating your own brand with another brand that is either generally stronger than you or stronger in a specific area, bringing value like goodwill. What you look for is the rub-off

As we commercialise sports more and more, we must not forget that the volunteers still are the spine of all sports. They are the coaches that develop our players, they are the parents that drive the players to practice and they are the functionaries that help us realise our events. In short, they are the glue that hold everything together.

Being from the northern parts of Sweden, I must admit that I might not be the most outspoken. It’s just a part of my heritage from upthere, if I might be so bold as to blame something abstract like that (“It’s society’s fault, not mine!!!”). You sometime wait until you really must talk before you actually open your mouth. Some