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Executive Director of The
DABF,
Suzanne Lassen Kürstein |
| Courtesy DABF |
Going into business in another country can be like
traveling through an electrical storm. Sony’s
misadventures with Columbia pictures were worth
a couple of cautionary books. Denmark, with its
basic honesty and corruption-free environment, offers
an easier landing. There are even organizations
to guide you in.
The Danish-American Business Forum is a unique
partnership established between embassies, ministries,
trade and business development agencies, and business
leaders from major Danish and American corporations.
It represents one of the things that Denmark is
trying to market: knowledge.
The dissemination of practical commercial information
exposes members to the experiences and knowledge
of each other. The Danish-American Business Forum
considers that their core activities are designed
to facilitate contacts and relevant information
at high-levels in both countries.
They are there to assist Danish companies with
individualized counseling on how to enter the American
market, establish contacts with potential business
partners, and to provide assistance to U.S. firms
wishing to enter the Danish and European markets.
The United States, with 270 million consumers,
is a market worth putting some study into.
Suzanne Lassen Kürstein, Executive Director
of the Danish-American Business Forum, interviewed
for her current position on Sept. 11, 2001. Her
great-grandmother was American, and she feels that
this gives her a unique perspective on the two countries.
She felt that, “it was right to take this job.”
She is fluent not just in both languages, but also
in both cultures.
“We are trying to make top executives and
investors aware of the advantages and challenges
of doing business in the U.S. and in Denmark. Danish-American
Business Forum is a network organization, facilitating
exchange of information and contacts between companies,
government agencies and organizations promoting
the commercial relations between the U.S. and Denmark.
It is built on active participation and exchange
of knowledge between executives from large and small
companies across all sorts of industries. We are
practically oriented in the sense that we focus
on the Danish firms sending business to the United
States. You can call this a unique investment into
the global skill base and exchange of knowledge.”
A global skill base would be defined as a constantly
changing and evolving pool of knowledge, where people
come to dip into it.
“Yes, so my job is to be constantly at the
forefront, constantly finding out what is new, what’s
coming up, what do people want to know and learn
about. My job is to make sure that top executives
and their corporations get something out of their
membership, creating the optimal link between people.
We hold at least 20 events a year to cover the bases.
A subject could be something very practical as our
seminar on Transfer Pricing or our meeting with
Andrew K. Black, president, LEGO North America,
talking about the global success of the LEGO brand
or a meeting with one of the ministers.”
These events are free for members, a considerable
accomplishment when one considers the caliber (and
normal fees) of some of the speakers. The members
are fascinated by the experiences of other managers
who successfully are doing business in the U.S.
They basically want to learn and share both bad
as well as good experiences. You learn more from
a “roller coaster experience” than “a
home run.”
She paints a picture of a classic mistake. “You
send out a guy just below thirty, ambitious, but
he’s never been to the U.S. He becomes the
subsidiary manager. He has never dealt with this
sort of managing before. His wife joins him. However
she’s bored, living in the suburbs, unable
to work as she did at home. They haven’t been
given the right training and backup or basic information
on the cultural differences. Then something like
9/11 takes place. His wife gets scared and wants
to go back. So after spending more than DKK 500
thousand, management at the parent company in Denmark
sees it all lost because the guy doesn’t want
to stay there anymore.
“We try to direct people to the right outplacement
people or motivate them to speak with other people
who been through similar experiences.”
According to Kürstein, networking and the
knowledge business is big.
“I don’t think it’s that known yet,
but there’s a growing awareness of it. If you’re
going to be successful in a global society, you
have to have a society that can compete globally.
You have to educate people that Denmark is a great
country and part of an ever-changing global economy.
When people have been exposed to a foreign country,
with different business opportunities, culture,
and other technologies, it is extremely important
that we bring them back, so there's no brain drain.
Currently we see a loss of top-educated people leaving
Denmark because of our taxation system. It is extremely
important that we make it attractive for people
to come to Denmark and work. For companies it is
to some extent prohibitively expensive to bring
back their talented people who have gotten a taste
for earning a good salary.
“Especially the entrepreneurial people with
the initiative to produce, those are the people
who are going to set up companies; those are the
people that are going to set up the knowledge base
with which we’re going to live for the next
100 years. Those we want to attract to come to Denmark.”
The Danish-American Business Forum is in a large
part trading on its word. The organization relies
on its international experience to guard against
scammers, she acknowledges.
“I use basic common sense. Since I have a
deep background in the United States (She has, among
other degrees, one from Johns Hopkin’s SAIS)
I might call up some friends in related fields.”
She would typically run a check, and then schedule
a face-to-face meeting, which is when her interpersonal
skills come in (one of the three, lateral thinking,
analytic skill, inquisitiveness, that she draws
on the most). Her father was in the Danish resistance,
parachuted into Denmark by the English SOE (Special
Overseas Executive). “He parachuted into occupied
Denmark, and lived a tense, undercover life before
being captured by the Germans and put into concentration
camp. If you are in a life and death situation you
have to be able to judge someone quickly on their
actions not on their background. I learned how to
do that. Judge people for their actions not for
the sins of the parents.”
For more information: http://www.dabf.dk
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