A decade of visions – and a few failures

A decade of visions – and a few failures

A decade of visions – and a few failures

Eternal life, the metaverse, Google glasses: they came, they saw, but did they conquer? For the past ten years, the Schibsted Future Report has pried open the door to the future. It has seen a decade of visions – and a few failures. We decided to look back at some of the trends we highlighted in the course of those years to see how they turned out.

By Erica Treijs
A decade of visions – and a few failures

A decade of visions – and a few failures

Eternal life, the metaverse, Google glasses: they came, they saw, but did they conquer? For the past ten years, the Schibsted Future Report has pried open the door to the future. It has seen a decade of visions – and a few failures. We decided to look back at some of the trends we highlighted in the course of those years to see how they turned out.

By Erica Treijs

Future Report 2018: Biking into the future

Cars and cities make a bad combination. A car takes up a lot of space. On average it stands idle 96% of the time, and when it does move, it’s like a heavy, dangerous, noisy colossus which, if run on fossil fuel, also causes global warming.

For obvious reasons, a bike takes up much less space. And in recent years this 200-year-or-so invention has undergone a metamorphosis. Already in the 2018 edition of the Future Report, we predicted that we would cycle into the future, and we now have modern designed pedal-driven contraptions for every occasion and purpose. Not even cycling uphill with a heavy load has to end in snot and sweat as long as your electric motor kicks in at the first sign of an incline. When it comes to bicycle-friendly cities, Copenhagen is in front position, with lots of spacious and clearly signposted bike lanes.

Cities like Oslo and Stockholm still have some way to go, unfortunately, but that hasn’t impeded the advance of rental bikes or electric scooters, all of them based on access to new technologies, and recent years have seen huge developments in sensors, mobile technology, GPS trackers and artificial intelligence. Everything is paving the way for a new sharing economy, and this is just the beginning.

A decade of visions – and a few failures

In the 2018 edition of the Future Report, we predicted that we would cycle into the future, and we now have modern designed pedal-driven contraptions for every occasion and purpose.

A decade of visions – and a few failures

In the 2018 edition of the Future Report, we predicted that we would cycle into the future, and we now have modern designed pedal-driven contraptions for every occasion and purpose.

Future Report 2018: How to make friends with robots

Being digitally represented by an avatar is one thing, but having a robot as a friend is something quite different. That was precisely what we predicted would happen within just two years when we published the 2018 edition of the Future Report. A little robot that served you freshly brewed coffee in bed with a smile on its steel-grey lips might not be such a bad idea, but getting the day’s main headlines projected onto the ceiling seemed a little over the top, as did having a robot decide what you should wear.

Still, if a robotic friend were to become a reality in the foreseeable future, what would it look like? Research shows that we tend to think of robots as charming as long as they resemble something non-human, like a bear or a rabbit, but that we flinch the moment we meet robotsthat resemble humans. Perhaps the question shouldn’t be whether or not robots should resemble humans, but rather whether they would come to redefine what it means to be human? What ethical standards and values should your robotic friend have to really be your friend?

We tend to think of robots as charming as long as they resemble something non-human.

A decade of visions – and a few failures
A decade of visions – and a few failures

We tend to think of robots as charming as long as they resemble something non-human.

Future Report 2019: A new space age

“Don’t be afraid of the man in the moon,” sang David Bowie in his self-titled debut album, two years before Neil Armstrong took one giant leap for mankind in 1967. And only a month before the Apollo 11 space flight, Bowie sang about Major Tom, and the people on Earth joined in and stared into space. There’s something alluring out there, in the unknown. But maybe it’s like Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins said, that the moon is not a destination; it’s a direction?

In 2019 we wrote about the showdown in space, which no longer is happening between countries but between private entrepreneurs. Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, believes that when World War III breaks out, civilisation will survive on Mars. Jeff Bezos, Mr Amazon, sees space more as a place to do our dirty work, where mining, manufacturing and recycling will be done as part of a vision to keep Earth “clean.”

And even though we can now travel into space with SpaceX, there’s little talk of colonies on Mars and mining operations. The rockets seem to have ended up in a more mundane sphere as carriers of satellites and space station equipment. And perhaps most importantly, new areas of application here on Earth are often found for innovations that were developed for space technology.

A decade of visions – and a few failures

Famous entrepreneurs don’t speak very loudly about the next space age anymore.

A decade of visions – and a few failures

Famous entrepreneurs don’t speak very loudly about the next space age anymore.

Future Report 2017: Reality is getting hacked

Suddenly we saw them everywhere: people who moved around the city, often in groups, with their phones at the ready. They were out hunting, but not for blood; instead they were frantically searching for some of the 700 figures in the Pokémon Go game. Using mobile phone cameras and geolocations, the game combines virtual and actual reality, and when it was launched it spread like wildfire. For a while, the game had more daily users in the US than Twitter, and users even spent more time on the app than on Facebook. One of the truly unique features of Pokémon Go was that its users not only made imaginary or digital friends; it created communities of people who met and searched for Pokémon both in their own towns and further afield. Of course, the movement had its own “pokestops,” where more commercial actors made a fast buck from the hype. Its huge success in 2017 is unquestionable, so its sudden demise and the fact that no successors pursued the augmented reality track came as a surprise. But the game world is a lucrative hunting ground, with no limits on technological innovation. No one knows what will come next, only that more will come. A lot more.

In 2017 Pokémon Go was a huge success.

A decade of visions – and a few failures
A decade of visions – and a few failures

In 2017, Pokémon Go was a huge success.

Future Report 2015: The rise of wearables

It had been in the cards for some time. It was 2015, and smart devices were to become wearable accessories and be used in combination with smartphones and tablets. Google Glass was essentially a brand of glasses that could communicate through audio, record video and show information via the tiny display above the eye. This new gadget was clearly going to fundamentally change everything. But there was a catch, namely human vanity – and possibly the USD 1,500 price tag.

Aside from being hideously ugly, heads-up/hands-free technologies demanded way too much attention. To be able to put down your phone and shut off the computer is, after all, something that allows human behaviour other than that based on ones and zeros. Google Glass disappeared from the shelves in 2015 but wasn’t sent to the graveyard until 2023. But – now Apple is soon entering the scene. Their Vision Pro is said to be the future of AR/VR experience. More for indoor gaming than city cruising though.

A decade of visions – and a few failures

Wearables that demand too much attention is a challenge.

A decade of visions – and a few failures

Wearables that demand too much attention is a challenge.

Future Report 2017: Cars reinventing urban life

Electric vehicles have now become part of the urban landscape, with cables all over the place, and chargepoints sprouting up on streets and in car parks and residential parking facilities. Electrification is going more or less as the politicians planned; the EV fleet is growing and the charging infrastructure is gradually expanding. But what’s next?

Autonomous vehicles, many would say, and back in 2017 we predicted their rapid development. The technology now exists, for sure, but there are still no real answers to the ethical and/or moral issues. Who or what is at fault when an accident occurs? The technology is being tested in many places, with good results when it comes to aspects like accessibility and energy consumption. Put simply, it is progressing but, as is often the case, not as fast as expected.

On 16 August 2016, Ford Motor Company announced its intention to offer on-demand autonomous vehicles in 2021. By the time 2024 comes around, these driverless vehicles will still not be running on European roads and fundamentally changing the entire transport sector. No one knows when it will happen, but we know that it can. Just look at how electric vehicles entered the market.

There are still issues to solve for autonomous vehicles.

A decade of visions – and a few failures
A decade of visions – and a few failures

There are still issues to solve for autonomous vehicles.

Future Report 2019: Hacking the code of ageing

“If you could choose between eternal life and having children, which would you choose?” A rhetorical question that effectively drives the point home. Not even in Silicon Valley can immortality be bought – yet. But the idea that it might be possible to prolong human life has for some become an obsession and for others a business concept, and it’s a trend that has grown since 2019.

What is immortality, anyway? Is it a matter of charging your brain in the cloud, or does it take cryonics, preserving human bodies at ultra-low temperatures in the hope that they can one day be revived? Well, research is already being done on how a body can get rid of ageing “zombie cells,” on the human anti-ageing pill NAD+ and on injections of stem cells, all with the aim of prolonging human life.

More attention and funding are needed if researchers are to fully investigate the limits to human health and life expectancy. And those who think that manipulating the course of nature is unnatural should also ask themselves whether it isn’t human behaviour to push our boundaries. Only time will tell.

A decade of visions – and a few failures

The interest for eternal life is growing.

A decade of visions – and a few failures

The interest for eternal life is growing.

Future Report 2023: Redefining our digital lives

Few subjects in the world of technology have prompted such unbridled optimism and contemptuous scepticism as “the metaverse,” the next chapter for the internet. A difficult to define successor to today’s internet, though in a 3D universe. The concept itself, championed primarily by Meta, has almost disappeared from the agenda, in step with the company’s cutbacks.

But regardless of what we call it, there are two things we know: as the boundaries between the digital and the physical are increasingly blurred, we will use more of our bodies and our senses to integrate with computers, just as computers will become increasingly embedded in our everyday lives. Our digital lives will become more social, and it will be harder to differentiate between a game, a concert and a social network.

Read more
The editor’s reflections on the tenth anniversary


Erica Treijs

Erica Treijs
Reporter at Svenska Dagbladet
Years in Schibsted: 23
My favourite song: Chronically Cautious – Hello – Adele


Serendipity opens up your mind

Serendipity opens up your mind

This 2024 edition of the Schibsted Future Report is the tenth. Upon reflecting on the past reports, one article stands out as unexpectedly relevant today for editor Ann Axelsson. It celebrates the imagination and creativity that comes from unexpected encounters.

In this tenth report we also look back at some of the trends we have looked into during the years – read more here.

By Ann Axelsson

Serendipity opens up your mind

This 2024 edition of the Schibsted Future Report is the tenth. Upon reflecting on the past reports, one article stands out as unexpectedly relevant today for editor Ann Axelsson. It celebrates the imagination and creativity that comes from unexpected encounters.

In this tenth report we also look back at some of the trends we have looked into during the years – read more here.

By Ann Axelsson

Do you recognise the feeling of not knowing where an idea came from? Suddenly it was just there, perhaps because you let your mind wander in unplanned directions. Or sometimes a name you didn’t know you remembered simply pops into your head. Our brains truly work in mysterious ways. Our brain is also the inspiration for the AI technology we have today.

For the past ten years, we have produced the Schibsted Future Report. From the very beginning, AI was an important theme, and over the years, we have dived deep into the technology behind it – as we also do now. But when I started to reflect on all the reports we’ve produced, one article came to mind as being unexpectedly relevant in our discussions about technology and what it means to us as humans and society.

The risks of filter bubbles

It’s a story written for the 2016 report by Professor R. Ravi, who was involved in setting up a digital competence program for Schibsted. The title is “Serendipity – in search of the human algorithm,” and it’s about the risks associated with filter bubbles. But as I now reflect, it’s the very concept of serendipity that has stuck with me – and the benefits of serendipity that often lead to creativity and new ideas. The concept of serendipity comes from a Persian fairy tale about the three princes of Serendip, who were always making unexpected discoveries of things that they weren’t necessarily searching for. Professor Ravi describes the benefits of serendipity in his article like this:

“Letting one’s attention wander is an important precondition for free association and discovery via synthesis of ideas from various unrelated domains. Indeed, bright flashes of creativity are often preceded by such wanderings among seemingly unrelated concepts.”

Perhaps this ability is the biggest differentiator between us humans and AI applications, however advanced they are. And what will happen if we let go of that and lean too much on machines and the existing data from which they learn?

With that in mind, it’s no coincidence that the illustrations that accompany the AI articles in this report are not made with the help of AI. They are made by a human hand. Our photo editor Emma- Sofia has printed and cut out photos to create paper figures, put them on sticks, and placed them on a scene made of cardboard. An idea we came up with after a visit to the Museum of Technology in Stockholm. AI has and will continue to make wonders, no doubt. Not least in the media industry. But I believe that it’s important to also remember that human creativity is unique.

AI is like electricity

Over the years we have put different names on the new realities we’ve foreseen.
We have spoken of the synthetic decade, of the Internet of Things, and of the Metaverse. But perhaps the description given in the 2018 report by Azeem Azaar, Schibsted’s VP of Venture & Foresight in Schibsted2016-2017, is the very best. He described AI as electricity, an infrastructure that will power all parts of our daily lives, without us even noticing.

Speaking of serendipity, we have through the years also tried to capture trends that are not only technology-driven but have also caught people’s interest. Like biking into the future, or what a truly sustainable society looks like, or Formula 1. In this tenth edition, we look back on some of the trends we have written about to see if we were right – or wrong. Open this fold-out to find out.

As an editor looking back, there is one obvious reflection about the report itself and about Schibsted. Today, Schibsted is reaching out to people more often as one company in itself. Millions of end-users meet us every day through Schibsted’s login service Schibsted Account. And in the last few years, this report has become an important tool to spread the story of who we are and what we do.

Ten years is a long time, not least when considering the speed of change in technology, society and business. But from other perspectives, it’s not long at all. This year we have asked all contributors to pick their favourite song from the last decade. I was certain which song I wanted to pick – until I realised that that song was about 20 years old.

I hope you enjoy all the songs on our Schibsted Spotify playlist, individually selected by several creative and unique human beings.

Facts

10 issues of Schibsted Future Report have been published.
174 people have contributed with text to the reports.
50,000 is the approximate number of reports distributed.


Ann Axelsson

Ann Axelsson
Senior Product Manager, Strategic Communication, Schibsted
Years in Schibsted: 25
My favourite song the last decade: Paper Doll – John Mayer


Meet Our People 2024 Business

Meet Our People 2024: Business

Meet some of our people

New offers of news bundles are a first move to create an ecosystem within Schibsted. AI brought a 500-year-old king to life. Tibber will help you get in control of your energy consumption. Meet three people from different Schibsted business areas.

Meet Our People 2024 Business

Giving users the best experience

“Schibsted reaches 80% of all Swedes and Norwegians on a weekly basis through our different brands. So, we have a unique opportunity to give these users new offers and great ­experiences,” says Karl Hahtovirta, Director of Subscriptions in Sweden.

Schibsted is closer to an ecosystem

Schibsted has been working towards an ecosystem across our brands for many years. Now we’re getting one step ­closer with the Alpha project.

“Schibsted reaches 80% of all Swedes and Norwegians on a weekly basis through our different brands. So, we have a unique opportunity to give these users new offers and great ­experiences,” says Karl Hahtovirta, Director of Subscriptions in Sweden.

Karl, who has worked in all of Schibsted’s three business divisions, really sees how broadly Schibsted’s ­various products touch people in their daily lives.

Since we can share data across different Schibsted products, we have a much deeper understanding than before about the people who use our products and their needs. This ­data could help improve the products we have – Aftonbladet, for instance, could learn from the needs of Blocket users, Karl explains.

“We could also offer bundles with Schibsted brands or in co-operation with partners. And we could identify clusters of new products needed by these users and create them.”

As a start, Schibsted is already offering bundles of our different news brands in Sweden and Norway. Karl is also sure that the ongoing AI wave will open up for exciting opportunities, in which news brands can expand the content they serve and also offer the right format to the right user.

“In this AI-era, trust will be a great asset, and here Schibsted is well ­positioned with our loved brands.”


Karl Hahtovirta

Karl Hahtovirta
Vice President Subscription Sweden, Schibsted
Years in Schibsted: 9
My favourite song the last decade: Get Lucky – Daft Punk

Chatting with a 500-year-old Swedish king

How do you bring a 500-year-old king to life? With the help of AI, of course.

“We created a chat where our readers could talk to Gustav Vasa. He got 2,000 questions and 60,000 people followed the live chat on Aftonbladet.”

Moa Gårdh is Director of Product at Aftonbladet. She is responsible for developing Aftonbladet as a product, making sure it lives up to users’ expectations – and at the same time ensuring it stays relevant and maintains its important role in society as a media company.

“The Gustav Vasa chat was an exciting way to develop editorial content and a great example of how we can work with AI. Not least it was a fun way to teach young people about history.”

Now, you might think that ChatGPT made it easy to create the chatbot. But it turned out there was a significant knowledge gap when it came to the ­historic Swedish king. So, the team behind it created a database with information about him, and they also trained the model to answer questions in a way similar to how Gustav Vasa would talk.

“It’s the social platforms that drive the development for how we consume content,” Moa explains, adding that as a media house, Aftonbladet needs to be open to new consumer habits and prepared to think outside the box.


Moa Gårdh

Moa Gårdh
Product och UX director, Aftonbladet
Years in Schibsted: 6
My favourite song the last decade: Ålen – Amason

Tibber is pushing an energy revolution

Their mission is to make green electricity more smart and cheaper for all households. Now Tibber has started to sell batteries to help consumers optimise their consumption, even more.

“We believe that technology will ­accentuate the green shift and every single customer experience. We are in the middle of a revolution,” says Edgeir Aksnes, CEO of Tibber.

The company delivers ­electricity to households in the Nordics, The Netherlands and Germany. But their idea is to help customer lower their energy cost with the help of digital services and devices. Like batteries for households with solar cells.

“We have created the world’s smartest battery, together with our partner Polarium. It adapts to electricity price, how much the sun is shining and to your consumption. And through our grid ­reward, you can get paid for supporting the power grid.”

Edgeir believes that helping people get control of their power consumption is crucial.

“When we started we had an idea that we would create the Internet Of Electrical Things. Today we see that that’s what we’ve done.”


Edgeir Aksnes

Edgeir Aksnes
CEO and co-founder Tibber
Years in Schibsted: 2
My favourite song the last decade: Faded – Alan Walker


Meet Our People 2024 Tech

Meet Our People 2024: Technology

Meet our people

Hanna Lindqvist is leading a project to create a new common platform for Schibsted’s marketplaces. Eivind Hjertholm Fiskerud is coordinating AI initiatives within news media and Deng Wuor Joak is detecting vulnerabilitis. Meet three Schibsted people working with tech.

Meet Our People 2024 Tech

Meet our people

Hanna Lindqvist is leading a project to create a new common platform for Schibsted’s marketplaces. Eivind Hjertholm Fiskerud is coordinating AI initiatives within news media and Deng Wuor Joak is detecting vulnerabilitis. Meet three Schibsted people working with tech.

Giving users the best experience

After leading some large transformation projects at Svenska Spel and PayPal, Hanna Lindqvist was sure of one thing – never again. Nevertheless, she’s once again in charge of just such a project in Schibsted, creating a common platform for all Nordic marketplaces.

But Hanna seems calm and confident. The change is motivated by a clear goal: to give users of Schibsted marketplaces the best possible experience.

“When I came to Blocket two years ago, we worked as if conditions were the same for selling different things on the same platform, but different in different countries. Now we know that the user needs are similar when selling a car in all countries – but different from selling a t-shirt.”

That’s why Finn in Norway, Blocket in Sweden, Tori and Oikotie in Finland, and DBA and Bilbasen in Denmark are now cooperating to develop the best service in four categories. They will do so from the same new platform, a platform developed from one of Schibsted’s four exciting marketplace platforms, but good stuff from the others will be integrated.

“We talk about closing gaps,” Hanna explains. “This means testing and finding out what works and fixing what doesn’t.”

Making a shift like this is very business critical – and complicated. You can’t fail, and as you make the transition, business must run as usual.

The strongest upside for Hanna is working with all the people in different countries, and that confidence of hers relies on one simple fact.

“The transformation is made by our own people, people who know the platforms and the business.”


Hanna Lindqvist

Hanna Lindqvist
SVP Technology, Schibsted and SVP Aurora Foundations
Years in Schibsted: 2
My favourite song the last decade: Wake Me Up – Avicii

He hacks to keep companies secure

He started his Schibsted journey as an engineer at Mitt Anbud four years ago. After coming second in a Schibsted hacking competition, a part of Schibsted’s security program, Deng Wuor Joak transitioned into the field of cyber security. He has since built a security program for both Mitt Anbud and Distribution Innovation to make sure that their systems are safe.

Distribution Innovation has developed new technology for logistics and more than 2.2 million deliveries each night are enabled by their services in Sweden, Norway and Finland.

“If we get hacked, most of the newspapers and parcels that are supposed to land on the doorsteps in a large part of the Nordics wouldn’t get there,” Deng says.

When he started at DI, the company lacked a security program, so he built one from scratch. The company’s security has gone through a large transition, since the development of this security strategy.

And Deng knows what he’s fighting for. After the hacking competition, his boss at Mitt Anbud asked him to ethically hack their site. As a result of the hacking, Deng found a severe vulnerability in their systems that he presented to other engineers. This led to a job offer from Distribution Innovation.

“Hacking got me into this field and I still find it challenging and exciting to find potential vulnerabilities.”


Deng Wuor Joak

Deng Wuor Joak
Head of Cyber Security, Distribution Innovation, Schibsted
Years in Schibsted: 4
My favourite song the last decade: Mamma Sa – Jonas Benyoub

Using AI to strengthen news

Eivind Hjertholm Fiskerud has a long and storied history in Schibsted, having worked in several positions within Schibsted and Bergens Tidende. Now, he serves as Project Lead for Nextgen Newsrooms in Schibsted News Media, taking a central role in our work with AI.

“I’ve long been very interested in how we can use data to strengthen our news media,” Eivind says. When it comes to using AI in News Media, Eivind says it comes down to strengthening the journalists in their profession. Enhancing investigative journalism, using AI for creative storytelling, and making every day easier for our journalists by using AI for time-consuming tasks, letting them focus on the journalistic core.

News Media’s work in AI begins with a clear stance on how we use AI, grounded in our longstanding tradition of journalistic ethics.

“It’s important for Schibsted to be in the forefront in this area, to take responsibility and make sure AI is used in a responsible and trustworthy manner,” Eivind says.


Eivind Hjertholm Fiskerud

Eivind Hjertholm Fiskerud
Project Lead AI, Nextgen Newsrooms
Years in Schibsted: 16
My favourite song the last decade: To Mminutter – Lars Vaular & Röyksopp


When we unify our efforts, we can be in the forefront

“When we unify our efforts, we can be in the forefront”

Schibsted has a new SVP Engagement, Communication and Employer Branding. Jane Throndsen has her roots in News Media, coming from VG. Now, her primary focus is to create a common mindset about what Schibsted can achieve together – in a world that’s on fire.

By Ann Axelsson

Jane worked as an editor at the competitor newspaper Dagbladet in Oslo before being recruited by VG in 2012. During her time at VG, she served as both the Feature Editor and later as the Head of Paid Content, holding key positions within VG’s management team. After just two years at VG, she was named the Female Media Leader of the Year in Norway.

“When we unify our efforts, we can be in the forefront”

Schibsted has a new SVP Engagement, Communication and Employer Branding. Jane Throndsen has her roots in News Media, coming from VG. Now, her primary focus is to create a common mindset about what Schibsted can achieve together – in a world that’s on fire.

By Ann Axelsson

“Schibsted is a company with enormous power and so many competent people. At the same time, it’s a complex matrix organisation, with all its functions and brands,” says Jane.

Schibsted has some of the ­strongest brands in the Nordics. And it is not­ ­always obvious to employees in each of those brands why they are a part of Schibsted. Jane knows this well, ­having come from VG. She points out that each brand does an excellent job in engaging their employees – but that there is room for more of a Schibsted perspective. She wants to build this common pride, brick by brick.

Amidst this complexity, internal communication can be a strong tool to create knowledge and trust in a shared strategy, where a main message for Schibsted is that we are more than just the sum of our parts.

“I would like for our employees to feel that they are part of something bigger – and that bigger is supporting the job they’re doing.”

A tough future to navigate

And she is certain that Schibsted’s muscles are needed today. The world is literally on fire. As we speak, the conflict in the Middle East has just ­awoken. Jane points out the pressure that freedom of the press is under and how media is a cornerstone in a democratic world. But there is also fierce competition from tech companies and technology advancements that will have a great impact on all businesses. It’s a tough future to navigate – and a united Schibsted is a stronger force to take on this future and this level of competition versus each of its brands alone.

Jane mentions common AI initia­tives as an example of how to use those Schibsted muscles across the company.

“There is so much innovative­ ­spirit in Schibsted. Different AI initiatives pop up all over, and new applications are shared across. When we unify our efforts, we can be in the forefront.”

Building internal engagement is also about offering common arenas where people can meet and discuss, like strategy meetings for leaders, tech gatherings, and the Power of Journalism initiative – a conference and awards ceremony where we celebrate the importance of quality journalism.

Then there is the global competition for talent. To attract the right people Schibsted also needs to step up and show what makes us different from other workplaces – in an authentic and transparent way.

“We need to make the success ­stories from all our brands come alive. That’s how we can both attract talents and build pride in being part of the Schibsted family.”

Leaving VG for Schibsted was not an easy decision. And she says that she will miss journalism every day. But she also believes that bringing this perspective into a new role is helpful.

“I’ve seen things from a brand’s point of view. Bringing that experience and my competencies into Schibsted and being part of shaping and growing the company for the future is really exciting.”


Ann Axelsson

Ann Axelsson
Senior Product Manager, Strategic Communication, Schibsted
Years in Schibsted: 25
My favourite song the last decade: Paper Doll – John Mayer


Worklife trends 2024

Worklife trends 2024

Worklife trends 2024

The world of work is in a constant state of flux, with each passing year bringing about new trends and innovations that shape the way we work, interact and live. From the integration of Virtual reality to a shorter workweek and the continued impact of the pandemic, here are the work-life trends you need to know about.

Worklife trends 2024

Worklife trends 2024

The world of work is in a constant state of flux, with each passing year bringing about new trends and innovations that shape the way we work, interact and live. From the integration of Virtual reality to a shorter workweek and the continued impact of the pandemic, here are the work-life trends you need to know about.

Global and remote talent acquisition

Companies are increasingly open to hiring remote talent from anywhere in the world. This trend is leading to more diverse and geographically dispersed teams, enriching the talent pool and promoting innovation through diverse perspectives.

AI-powered productivity tools

Artificial intelligence and automation continue to be integrated in the workplace, assisting with tasks such as data analysis, customer support and scheduling. These AI-powered productivity tools enhance overall efficiency, allowing employees to ­focus on higher-value tasks that require creativity and critical thinking.

Worklife trends 2024

90% of people believe it matters how we feel at work.

Worklife trends 2024

90% of people believe it matters how we feel at work.

90% of people believe it matters how we feel at work, according to Indeed ­­research. 49% feel their organisation is focused on measuring and improving well-being. Mental health support at work has taken on even greater significance, with companies offering a wider range of mental health resources and destigmatising ­discussions about mental well-being. As employees face ongoing challenges, ­fostering a supportive and understanding workplace is essential to maintaining ­productivity and employee morale.

Four days of work a week is achieved by eliminating non-productive activities.

Worklife trends 2024
Worklife trends 2024

Four days of work a week is achieved by eliminating non-productive activities.

A global shift to four days of work

The concept of a four-day workweek is gaining momentum worldwide. Trials have taken place in various countries, including the UK, Belgium, Sweden and Iceland. In 2023, this trend will extend to the US, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and New Zealand.

In the UK, a remarkable 86% of participating companies expressed interest in adopting a permanent four-day workweek policy. Employees are expected to maintain their workload while enjoying an extra day off.

This reduction in working hours is achieved by eliminating non-productive activities, agreed upon in consultation with employees and their supervisors. The four-day workweek promises improved work-life balance and increased employee satisfaction.

Hybrid work models: The new normal

The enduring effects of the pandemic have led to the widespread adoption of hybrid work models, in which employees split their time between remote and in-office work. However, this model presents challenges in scheduling and internal communication, necessitating advanced VR and digital tools to enhance corporate communication for remote employees.

Companies are investing in technologies to bridge the gap between remote and in-office workers, ensuring seamless collaboration and communication. This shift is likely to persist as organisations prioritise flexibility and adaptability in their workforce strategies.

58% of American workers had the opportunity to work from home in 2022.
48% of the workforce will continue to work remotely or in a hybrid fashion, says a survey from Omdia.
58% of Omdia’s survey respondents believe work-from-home has increased productivity.
0% of Tesla’s employees are ­allowed to work remotely.

Worklife trends 2024

New trends and innovations shape the way we work, interact and live.

Worklife trends 2024

New trends and innovations shape the way we work, interact and live.

“Quiet hire” and continuous learning

Lifelong learning has become a cornerstone of corporate culture as employees regularly upskill and reskill to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving job market. In 2023, forward-thinking organisations are embra­cing the concept of “quiet hiring” as a way to acquire new skills and capabilities without adding new full-time employees.

This involves encouraging internal talent mobility, offering specific upskilling opportunities, and leveraging alternate methods like alumni networks and gig workers to fulfil high-priority tasks when a new headcount isn’t feasible. By maximising existing talent and nurturing their growth, companies can remain agile in a dynamic job landscape.

982 billion USD (approximately) is the expected value of the AI recruitment market by 2029. 6.8% is the annual growth rate. As AI plays a more significant role in recruiting, ethical concerns are gaining prominence. Governments are scrutinising AI’s use in hiring, leading organisations to be more transparent about their AI practices, disclose audit data, and offer candidates the option to opt out of AI-led processes. This push for trans­parency ensures fairness and equity in the hiring process.

VR-developments signal a new era in remote work and collaboration.

Worklife trends 2024
Worklife trends 2024

VR-developments signal a new era in remote work and collaboration.

VR for work: Connecting in the Metaverse

Virtual reality (VR) is taking the corporate world by storm. Unlike traditional ­video conferencing, VR allows employees to ­inhabit the same virtual space and mani­pulate reality ­data in real-time, creating an unparalleled level of global connectivity. This technology is set to reshape the future of our digital experiences.

In practice, VR is being used across ­various industries. NASA and armed forces are utilising VR for training, reducing risks and costs. Retail giant Walmart leverages virtual simulations to prepare employees for high-pressure events like Black Friday. Meta is actively promoting VR experiences aimed at enhancing workplace inclusion.

Meta has introduced Horizon Work­rooms, a virtual working environment that facilitates collaboration. Nvidia’s Omniverse is being marketed as a metaverse platform, and Microsoft’s Mesh adds avatars and mixed reality capabilities to Microsoft Teams. These developments signal a new era in remote work and collaboration.


How culture can help you reach your business goals

How culture can help you reach your business goals

How culture can help you reach your business goals

People and culture are the most important assets in every successful company. But how can you ­actively lead culture in the direction that supports your business and gets you where you want to be?

By Enna Kursukangas
How culture can help you reach your business goals

How culture can help you reach your business goals

People and culture are the most important assets in every successful company. But how can you ­actively lead culture in the direction that supports your business and gets you where you want to be?

By Enna Kursukangas

Without people, companies would be empty. And without a ­consciously driven culture, it’s hard to harness the full ­potential of an organisation and deliver the results the company aims for. But how can we define what ­culture is?

There are plenty of suggestions out there. My favourite is one of the simplest ones I’ve heard: “It’s what happens when no one is watching.” Culture is what we do, it’s about our habits, our values and the unwritten rules that affect our actions. On a more practical level, the things that help us to build a culture include the way we lead, how we set targets and prioritise, how we organise ourselves and so on.

Everything we do and don’t do affects our culture, and on the other hand, our culture affects how we do things. Culture is not something that changes overnight; it’s something that continues to develop every day.

Over the past 20 years, I’ve worked in companies of different sizes, different industries and different business situations. I’ve learned that no matter if it is a startup, a huge corporation, or a company in growth or decline, some things have proven to be universally relevant when talking about the importance of a culture and how to build it. Here are my key learnings on why culture is so crucial to all companies.

How culture can help you reach your business goals

Everything we do and don’t do affects our culture, and on the other hand, our culture affects how we do things.

How culture can help you reach your business goals

Everything we do and don’t do affects our culture, and on the other hand, our culture affects how we do things.

There is always a culture, no ­matter what we do about it. But by making conscious decisions, we can have the kind of culture that enables us to get to where we want to be.

Company strategies tell us where to go, and culture makes sure we get there. Culture is a tool for a company to achieve what it’s after. It’s never a destination, but without actively leading culture, it’s much harder to get to the intended destination.

Everything we do represents the culture we have. It’s not soft. It’s not hard. It’s all that and everything in between. It’s in your goals, it’s in your walls, in your websites and in your daily decisions. It’s present when you hire as well as when you need to fire. You can’t separate the culture from anything you do. It affects your actions, and every action affects your culture.

It’s easy to see why culture is an important asset and something you should actively lead within your organisation. But how do you do that? How do you take control of something so organic and something that is so hard to measure? The truth is that you can’t control it, but you can, and you should, actively lead it in the direction that helps your business get to where you want to be.

You should be loud about what kind of culture you aim for and co-design the structures that help you achieve it.

How culture can help you reach your business goals
How culture can help you reach your business goals

You should be loud about what kind of culture you aim for and co-design the structures that help you achieve it.

Discover your current ­culture. To take an active role in leading culture, it’s best to start with understanding the current culture and what it is that you want to achieve as a company. And the best way to get to know your ­culture is by observing it and ­gathering diffe­rent views on it. This should be ongoing work within the company, especially if you have a change need. At these times, it can be useful to seek external support to capture your current ­culture. Since all employees are part of the culture, it might be hard to see the unique traits you have within that culture from the inside.

Define what kind of culture you need and want. To take steps in this cultural journey, we need to define what kind of culture we need to achieve our goals. When defining, there are two ­important things to take into consideration. First, it’s hard to build a strong culture that attracts everyone. And there is no need for that either. Targeted culture should be built for the talents you need for your business to succeed. Second, culture is a tool to get to where you want to go, so make sure that what you define as your target culture, actually ensures you reach your business goals.

Be loud about what kind of culture you aim for and co-design the structures that help you achieve it. You might need a roadmap of initiatives to show the cultural change ahead and how to include people in this cultural work. But don’t trick yourself into believing that ­cultural change is something you can make happen using only flow charts, project plans or workshops. Instead, use the roadmap to illustrate the change you are leading and to get people on board.

Culture is hard to capture, which is why it’s even more important to focus on concrete initiatives, active communication and dialogue within the organisation. The right initiatives always depend on where the organisation is and what it aims for, but company values, a leadership framework and manager role definitions are concrete cultural building blocks that are helpful.

In Schibsted Nordic Market­places, we are in the middle of a ­major transformation, moving from country-based organisations to a cross-Nordic verticalised organisation. To enable this change, we focused on building a common culture across the Nordics and we co-designed four common values for Marketplaces:

  • Make a difference
  • Be curious
  • Be fearless
  • Win together

These values represent what unites us across countries, but also how we work together to really add value for our users, ­customers and ­co-­workers. And how we build sustain­able futures and create ­success on this shared journey. These values form a strong base for our common culture across the Nordics and they guide our behaviours, decisions and actions. These values give us the strength to lean into our transformation journey, because by continuing to be curious, ­staying fearless and focu­sing on ­winning together, this transformation will ­happen, and we will make a difference.


Enna Kursukangas

Enna Kursukangas
People & Culture Director, Schibsted Nordic Marketplaces
Years in Schibsted: 3
My favourite song the last decade: Cha Cha Cha – Käärijä


A new era for photo journalism

A new era for photo journalism

A new era for photo journalism

Today’s photojournalists must be full-service suppliers in the digital visual field. It’s a change that creates much more breadth and depth. Photo editor Espen Rasmussen reflects on how the job has changed during the last decade.

By Espen Rasmussen | Watch t 10 years in pictures
A new era for photo journalism

A new era for photo journalism

Today’s photojournalists must be full-service suppliers in the digital visual field. It’s a change that creates much more breadth and depth. Photo editor Espen Rasmussen reflects on how the job has changed during the last decade.

By Espen Rasmussen | Watch 10 years in pictures

Two years ago, I stood on deck aboard the ship Geo Barents, ope­rated by Doctors Without Borders, to document refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean in inflatable dinghies. Thousands drowned, many were rescued and brought ashore in Italy, while others returned to the north coast of Africa.

I met 17-year-old Zalman, who on his tenth attempt at crossing was finally rescued.

At the age of six, he was orphaned and forced to live on the streets of the Somalian capital Mogadishu. He later fled to Libya, where he was captured by traffickers and tortured. Finally, he made it onboard the inflatable boat, ready to cross the Mediterranean.

The story of the rescue and of 17-year-old Zalman was published as a major digital special in VG. With videos, audio, photographs, graphics and text. It was presented in several chapters, adapted to the mobile phone.

In many ways, this story represents the evolution of photojournalism.

Today, stories are told using all the tools in the toolbox. In addition to ­photography, film is essential. Video adds something extra to the story when it’s presented digitally. It provides presence and emotion. Several of today’s photojournalists also supply text, and they are able to piece ­together the digital stories in the ­publishing tool of choice.

Photojournalists have gone from being classic photographers to now serving as suppliers across a much broader area.

Out in the field, it’s about being able to master photography, film, sound, drone use and interviews. And for breaking news, you should be able to broadcast live TV.

Back at the office, it’s about ­being able to master a number of tools for editing, have insight into how the content management system works and collaborate closely with develo­pers and designers.

We’ve gone from working with ­individual images for print media to now relating to the fact that almost 90% of all journalism in VG is consumed on mobile phones. For photojournalism, this means that photographers must already have the story in mind before they leave the ­office, to a greater ­extent. We need to have a plan for how we want to tell it.

Today, photography is as much about journalistic content as it is about giving digital stories a visual boost and getting readers to scroll on.

The story of 17-year-old Zalman and the refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean has been forever burned in my memory. And it also serves as an example of how today’s photojournalists must be full-service suppliers in the digital visual field. It is a change that creates much more breadth and depth, makes us much more versatile photographers and, not least, results in more impactful photo stories that touch our readers.


Espen Rasmussen

Espen Rasmussen
Photo Editor, VG Stories
Years in Schibsted: 17
My favourite song the last decade: Golden Ticket – Highasakite


If I don’t speak up then who will?

If I don’t speak up then who will?

“If I don’t speak up then who will?”

Isabella Olsén is a successful leadership coach in Schibsted, with an autism diagnosis. Despite some concerns, she decided to share her experience to open up the conversation about neurodiversity.

By Ann Axelsson

Isabella Olsén think it´s important that we don´t let the conversation about diversity get too fluffy, we should instead go a bit deeper.

If I don’t speak up then who will?

“If I don’t speak up then who will?”

Isabella Olsén is a successful leadership coach in Schibsted, with an autism diagnosis. Despite some concerns, she decided to share her experience to open up the conversation about neurodiversity.

By Ann Axelsson

“Do you know that you are ­autistic?” That was the first thing the person evaluating an assessment she had just taken said. Isabella Olsén did not know, and that was the beginning of a journey of deep self-discovery.

Isabella is working as a leadership coach at Schibsted. She has many years of experience as a successful tech leader and she completed advanced education without struggle.

“People who meet me often can’t tell that I am autistic, and some of the traits that come with my autism are ­also the traits that helped me succeed.”

She explains that she can focus very intensely on things she’s interested in, she is very logical, and she can solve complex problems. “When I’m interested in a subject, I don’t read one book – I read ten.”

Special talents for being a coach

Some of her special talents also make her a really good coach. “I am perceptive, have an excellent memory and don’t particularly ­enjoy small talk. I quickly dive into ­real ­conversations, and I seem to make the people I work with feel comfortable sharing and exploring.” At this point, she has coached more than 100 leaders in Schibsted.

But she has always known she is ­different. Some things that are easy for other people to do are hard for her and make her feel exhausted. One of them is social contact.

“Unstructured social situations take a lot of energy from me. I don’t have natural social intuition, at least not according to the neurotypical standards, so I have to think my way through it. And I mask the things I know aren’t socially acceptable.”

So, Isabella came to a point in which her life wasn’t working out, and that’s when she got her diagnosis.

“It took some time to accept, mainly because I don’t fit the stereotype, but in the end, it helped me to understand why I feel different and why some things are so hard for me.”

At the same time, she sometimes feels that she doesn’t fit into the ­autism community either.

“Autism is a broad concept, and I’m not very far out on the scale. So, I often hear that I’m not the best person to talk about it.”

But at one point she decided that she wanted to do just that. In Schibsted many of us saw her in a Town Hall meeting where she explained the ­importance of talking about neuro­diversity and making use of everyone’s special skills and talents. It wasn’t an easy decision to tell that story in front of all her colleagues.

“I don’t want to be identified by my diagnosis only and I was afraid that people wouldn’t want to have me as a coach anymore. Many who also have a diagnosis said they would never share openly like that. But I have only gotten positive feedback after that meeting.”

She will keep speaking up

Daring to speak up is also part of who she is. And why she plans to ­continue doing just that.

“I think we should speak more ­openly about neurodiversity. It’s really important to have different types of people in a workplace. The culture will benefit, and the company will do better.

“And if I don’t speak up then who will? As a coach I expect people to share, be honest and open. So, I should too. I believe in living what you teach and being who you want to be.”

She also believes that sometimes when we speak about diversity, it gets a bit too fluffy. It’s easy to use nice words, but what do they really mean? She thinks the conversation should go a bit deeper. And acknowledge that with these topics come some hard questions.

“I wish we could have a more open conversation, both about what works and what doesn’t in a workplace, and about how we are different and how some of us might need some adaptations to be at our best. Today it’s hard to speak about differences without offending. It’s easy to do and say the wrong thing.”

Isabella is obviously starting that conversation. And it’s a conversation we need to have – today 70–80% of people on the autism spectrum are unemployed.

“We need to create a culture in which we can talk about these topics, equip employees with knowledge, and define what actions we can take.”

Isabella is where she wants to be, working as a leadership coach was her goal and she gets to use all her skills, competencies and experience. And she’s living what she teaches – speaking up.

Still, she also wants to remind us all about one thing:

“I am autistic – but first and foremost I am so many other things. Just like everyone, with or without a diagnosis.”


Ann Axelsson

Ann Axelsson
Senior Product Manager, Strategic Communication, Schibsted
Years in Schibsted: 25
My favourite song the last decade: Paper Doll – John Mayer


Co-creation sparks innovative solutions

Co-creation sparks innovative solutions

Co-creation sparks innovative solutions

News as music, dynamically adjusted content to match your emotional state or combining mindfulness and news. IN/LAB is experimenting to find news experiences that can engage news outsiders.

By Molly Grönlund Müller, Belenn Rebecka Bekele

Rami Syrag, Safy Adem and Salem Mohammad Ali, is working on an idea in an IN/LAB ideation session.

Co-creation sparks innovative solutions

Co-creation sparks innovative solutions

News as music, dynamically adjusted content to match your emotional state or combining mindfulness and news. IN/LAB is experimenting to find news experiences that can engage news outsiders.

By Molly Grönlund Müller, Belenn Rebecka Bekele

IN/LAB’s mission is to prototype future news experiences for current news outsiders. We listen to their perspectives, seek to identify pain points and explore how these can be catered to in future news experiences.

At IN/LAB, a joint venture between Schibsted and the Tinius Trust, we ­believe that co-creation holds the key to unlocking new ideas and ­solutions. By bringing together people with ­different perspectives, experiences, and skills in collaborative creative processes, we can better imagine what the future of news could look like.

Include to innovate

To enable sustainable developments in the news industry, we believe more diverse voices need to be included in conversations about future products and formats. In this age of ­rapid transformation, our industry needs great ideas – and we need to – recognise that they may not always come from ­people heavily invested in ­traditional ways of doing things.

A 2023 study by IN/LAB and Järvaveckan Research showed that close to half of Swedes and Norwegians actively avoid the news, with frequent news avoidance being espe­cially high in socio-­economically vulnerable areas. We think it is of critical importance that we bring these voices in; we need to talk with, not about, them and their perceived issues with the news media.

When we share that our lab is called “IN/LAB,” many assume that the “IN” is for innovation. But really, it stands for inclusion – which in turn enables innovation.

IN/LAB’s co-creation processes inspire thought-provo­king discussions and raise important questions about the possible futures of news.

IN/LAB’s co-creation processes inspire thought-provo­king discussions and raise important questions about the possible futures of news.

Co-creation with young users

Our efforts have involved diverse groups, including young teenagers from outer city Stockholm, young tech enthusiasts and graduates working to fight climate change. What all our great ­co-creators have in common is that they ­express various pain points in and from their news experiences. These pain points involve news that makes them feel too sad and frustrated or news that fails to highlight diverse perspectives. Other frustrations ­involve experiences with ­contemporary pro­duct formats that don’t fit with the needs and wants of the group.

During our first year of operations, we have sought to understand these themes by hosting brief ideation sessions, deep-dive workshops, and programs spanning multiple months. The work always starts with a problem or pain point identified, ­upon which we typically phrase a “How might we…” statement for the selec­ted group of co-creators to transform ­into a possible future solution. Example statements that our work has explored include: “How might we ­enhance ­voices from outer city ­areas with digital tools?”, “How might we involve our friends in our news experience?” or “How might we consume climate news in a way that gives us hope for the future?”

Prototyping Possible Futures

Our co-creation processes have ­yielded prototypes of varying ­degrees of sophistication. Regardless of their format, they serve the common ­purpose of inspiring thought-provo­king discussions and raising important questions about the possible futures of news. To truly innovate, we need to be open to exploring not only the most probable or desirable scenarios but a broader spectrum of futures as well. This is important because some of the challenges facing the news media today might need more than incremental improvements.

By prototyping possible futures, we make them more tangible. Examples of IN/LAB prototypes include:

News as music was a prototype news experience presenting news to the beat of AI-generated music – or as an AI-generated rap song. The experience was tested live on Aftonbladet.se for 1,000 selected young users and was positively received. The idea came from the News Changemaker Program, our ten-week youth co-creation program.

Senti Sense is a fictional news ­product that analyses the user’s reactions to news in real-time and dynamically adjusts news ­content (e.g., language, tonality and ­angles) to match the user’s emotional state and empower feelings of ­clarity and understanding when consuming news. The idea came from News2030, our five-day design sprint co-hosted with Schibsted News Destination Engineering.

Mindfulne(w)ss is a fictional app combining news and mindfulness to make you more conscious in your news consumption. The app contains a conscious check-in, slow scroll and no clickbait – all to promote inner calm. It guides you through the emotions you get when reading a news story and helps you reflect on the news content. The idea came from our co-creation workshop with Naturskyddsföreningen’s young ambassadors.

The power of co-creation

By fostering an environment of shared creativity, we can find new ways of reaching potential ­audiences and tackling critical ­problems in the news media industry. Our work ­underscores the power of co-creation in sparking ­innovative solutions to shape a sustainable path forward.


Molly Grönlund Müller

Molly Grönlund Müller
Community Researcher, IN/LAB
Years in Schibsted: 1
My favourite song the last decade: Step Out – José González

Belenn Rebecka Bekele

Belenn Rebecka Bekele
Community Researcher, IN/LAB
Years in Schibsted: 1.5
My favourite song the last decade: Son Shine – Sault


Aftonbladet is ready for the AI revolution

Aftonbladet is ready for the AI revolution

Aftonbladet is ready for the AI revolution

New technology is just that. Technology. It’s when it’s in the hands of humans that it becomes transformative. People at Aftonbladet made it happen 30 years ago. And people will make it happen now, in the age of AI.

By Lena K Samuelsson
Aftonbladet is ready for the AI revolution

Aftonbladet is ready for the AI revolution

New technology is just that. Technology. It’s when it’s in the hands of humans that it becomes transformative. People at Aftonbladet made it happen 30 years ago. And people will make it happen now, in the age of AI.

By Lena K Samuelsson

Aftonbladet, the largest news destination in the Nordics, engages four million Swedes every day. They come to find out what happened, to understand why and to spend time with our content on news, sports, entertainment, food and lifestyle. They read, watch, listen and interact with us in a digital universe that has grown, flourished and developed over the years. A universe that also expands beyond Aftonbladet when younger audiences engage with our brand and news reporting on social media and through Google.

Embracing new technologies and channels in the service of journalism is what has moved Aftonbladet and Schibsted forward for decades, to the world-leading position in digital media we hold today. It has been quite a journey. Now, generative AI has ­taken centre stage, with full force. It will change us fundamentally. It is a new era. And it feels like 1994 all over again.

1994. The few who even had a mobile phone back then sported an Ericsson, Nokia or Motorola with an antenna. And phones were for talking. Yeltsin was the president of Russia, Clinton was still in his early days as president of the US. That autumn, the passenger ferry Estonia would sink on a stormy night in the Baltic Sea. Pulp Fiction and The Lion King were new movies. Jennifer Aniston starred as Rachel in the first episode of Friends, and we watched OJ Simpson flee from police on live TV.

I was on a trip to the States in the spring of 1994 when Aftonbladet “discovered” the inter­net. We were on a study tour to New York and then down to Atlanta. And that’s where it happened. But the truth is, on that particular day, we split up. My colleague and I visited the hottest new thing: CNN. The others, including Kalle Jungkvist, later the legendary first editor-in-chief of aftonbladet.se, visited the Poynter Institute and Atlanta Chronicle and Journal. And that’s where Aftonbladet discovered the internet.

Aftonbladet is ready for the AI revolution

Aftonbladet’s AI hub.

Aftonbladet is ready for the AI revolution

Aftonbladet’s AI hub.

Right from the start, it was clear that there were two exciting paths to take: News – like us, and classifieds – the marketplaces for buying and selling.

That same autumn, Aftonbladet went online, one of the first media houses in the world to do so. It was an act of curiosity, vision and maybe a little bit of madness.

What started out as a small group of open-minded people with different skills and experiences working together, experimenting and testing, would one day grow into a full organisation, forming the Aftonbladet Universe we know today. It was also the start of an ecosystem of ­media, market­places and other digital consumer services under the Schibsted brand. But that’s a story for another day.

No one could ­fully understand at the time how the internet would reshape the ­entire media business and our daily lives. No one knew that we would all carry incredibly powerful computers in our hands – and on our wrists – and that we would be connected around the clock. No one had heard of screen time, SEO or CTR. We couldn’t begin to comprehend the magnitude of the change.

But we knew it was something completely new. It was computers and code. But Aftonbladet turned the technology ­into a tool, helping us to create entirely new experiences around our journalism, multiply the number of readers and finally crack the code for business and payment. And in doing so, we managed to secure a unique digital position in the everyday lives of the Swedish people.

Aftonbladet’s breaking news desk.

Aftonbladet is ready for the AI revolution
Aftonbladet is ready for the AI revolution

Aftonbladet’s breaking news desk.

2008. The web had challenged the business model of the print news­paper – a packaged product, sold at a specific time, to people who went out to the store to buy it. Now everyone could access Aftonbladet from home or work via their PC, around the clock.

Journalism had become accessible – and largely free. But when Steve Jobs stood on stage in a black polo in the summer of 2007 and introduced the iPhone, the printed evening paper was fundamentally challenged. Suddenly, readers were no longer tied to a computer; they could have Aftonbladet with them in their pocket or bag, ­anywhere, ­anytime.

Suddenly, readers were no longer tied to a computer; they could have Aftonbladet with them in their pocket or bag, anywhere, ­anytime.

And the rest is, as they say, history.

Aftonbladet realised faster than most that this was a groundbreaking shift. When the iPhone was launched in Sweden in 2008, a small group of people with experience, passion and knowledge from different parts of Aftonbladet – editorial, IT and business – took up the fight for the small screen, facing off with an already strong web organisation and a still very powerful print newspaper. Today, most ­people read us on their mobile phones, and still, we are stronger than others ­because we were quick to ­embrace the new technology and use it in the ­service of journalism. What was once a small team that challenged from within is now core business.

Today. With AI available to everyone, a new era begins. AI is clearly not a new channel, like the web or the mobile. It’s not a new ­product either. But it’s a technological shift that will change us fundamentally. With generative AI comes many challenges, but also immense opportunities for those who dare and who manage to go first.

Aftonbladet is ready for the AI revolution

Aftonbladet celebrates winning Stora journalistpriset 2000 in the category New Media.

Aftonbladet is ready for the AI revolution

Aftonbladet celebrates winning Stora journalistpriset 2000 in the category New Media.

In many ways, we have moved past digitalisation; we are almost through it. Now it’s about transforming our digital self. Ensuring that Aftonbladet stands strong when we take the final steps from a newspaper online to a true ­online company with its heart and soul in journalism. A true online news site will be something else. Text, sound and video will merge into new user experiences, consumers will choose how they want to interact with us – rather than just be fed with a feed. Journalism will move beyond the traditional news destination and build more on relation to a brand and profiles. Content will to a much higher degree be personalised. The composition of an article and the presentation will cut its final ties to the print newspaper. Short versions and summaries will become core content, not add-ons. And storytelling will find new paths.

And, at this very moment in our journey, AI steps in. We don’t know where this is going to take us. We can’t foresee how AI will transform society or us. But we know it is something new. And we are, as ­always, curious.

Generative AI will create entirely new conditions for our industry. The one who is quickest to understand and use the new technology will have a huge advantage. Media houses that dive into AI, that unsentimentally examine all their processes and become much better at taking care of both users and customers, will stand strong. Many others will not.

It’s about a culture that embraces data, personalisation and algorithms, making technology our strongest ally in the service of journalism.

AI can become a powerful tool for free and independent journalism and for Aftonbladet, as a true digital ­company, to be more sustainable, more efficient and even smarter.

AI can also become a tool for ­dis­information and hate. We will ­investigate and report on this; we will use AI-empowered journalism as a counterforce. We will help our readers understand the societal shift we are now entering. And we must understand it ourselves. It might be frightening. But it’s also incredibly exciting.

So, here we go again! It’s time for Aftonbladet to turn things upside down. And today we do it together in Schibsted, a group that is world-leading in digitalising its media houses and already has many AI initiatives and specialised common teams.

To genuinely build an Aftonbladet that utilises the full power of generative AI, we have put together a small group of people who are passionate about new things. No one is an expert when it comes to what we don’t know. So, these individuals have different skills and experiences. They come from the newsroom, sports, print, product, pod, tech and UX. They will challenge us, experiment and test stuff, along with our users. And they will slowly change us from within. As always.

Because new technology in the hands of inspired people is transformative. That’s the Aftonbladet Way.

(And yes, this text was written with the assistance of my new friend Chat.)


Lena Samuelsson

Lena K Samuelsson
Publisher Aftonbladet & founder of Schibsted Future Report
Years in Schibsted: 27
My favourite song the last decade: Shallow – Lady Gaga & Bradley Coop


Trust and credibility will fuel news media

Trust and credibility will fuel news media

Trust and credibility will fuel news media

Journalism is facing fundamental challenges as online newspapers are no longer cutting-edge. A group in Schibsted has worked to set the direction for newsrooms in Sweden and Norway in the AI era.

By Gard Steiro
Trust and credibility will fuel news media

Trust and credibility will fuel news media

Journalism is facing fundamental challenges as online newspapers are no longer cutting-edge. A group in Schibsted has worked to set the direction for newsrooms in Sweden and Norway in the AI era.

By Gard Steiro

The editor stood wide-legged in front of the editorial team. On the wall behind him shone an image of a long suspension bridge over a turbulent sea. On one side lay a grey and abandoned village, on the other, an idyllic island with coconut palms, white sand and an aura of nirvana.

“Guys,” said the editor. “Now we just have to cross this bridge. Over to the digital side. It’s safe and comfortable there.”

This is a quite common metaphor in the media sector: the digital transformation is a journey from A to B. From a print to an online newspaper. From ­radio to podcast. From linear television to streaming.

This is wrong.

Trust and credibility will fuel news media

We need to drop the metaphor that digitalisation is a bridge to cross, in the sea. It has no end point.

Trust and credibility will fuel news media

We need to drop the metaphor that digitalisation is a bridge to cross, in the sea. It has no end point.

Let’s once and for all bury the bridge metaphor. Or – more precisely – drop it in the ocean and let it sleep with the fishes. Because the digital trans­formation is not a journey. It has no endpoint. We cannot look forward to calm days on a paradisiacal island. No, unfortunately, we are doomed to ­eternal sailing in turbulent waters.

“We are no longer talking about ­digital transformation, but the transformation of digital,” said Nic Newman, Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Several journalists have later made the quote their own. It’s not ­surprising. Newman is right. Every­thing suggests that editor-­driven media, even in the most digitalised markets, now face fundamental changes. Online newspapers as we know them are no longer cutting-edge. They may suffer the same fate as the print editions. It is adapt or die. Again.

This is something we have tried to ­address at Schibsted News Media. In the spring of 2023, a group of ­employees worked to set a ­direction for newsrooms in Norway and Sweden. The goal was not to micromanage ­editors or editorial teams. They are autonomous units and know their users best. Media houses cannot and should not be subjected to micromanagement.

Moreover, for a large media conglomerate such as Schibsted, it is beneficial and essential that media houses do not make exactly the same decisions in all situations. Different approaches ensure broad innovation, ample room for experimentation, and cross-brand learning.

But some trends are so fundamental that no one can afford to overlook them. The changes are so significant that the ­media must colla­borate to adapt to a completely new ­reality. Some of these potential epochal shifts for ­journalism were ­addressed by the project Next Generation Newsrooms. The work resulted in a series of proposals for ­initiatives at Schibsted News Media. Here are three of the most crucial:

Invest in our brands

Invest in our brands with trust and ­authenticity as our main differentiator. In general, Schibsted’s brands have high trust, and we set strict ­requirements to adhere to our edi­torial guidelines. But all media are being challenged by generative AI on parameters such as speed, cost, and product experiences. It will become increasingly challenging both for ­reporters and the audience to ­navigate sources and facts amidst the explosion of content production.

Therefore, there is reason to prepare ourselves for trust and authenticity to be our most important ­value proposition. Authenticity is our strongest card when much of today’s human-­created content can be replaced by generative AI. The media needs to strengthen and nurture trust and authenticity, and equally important: communicate clearly how we work and how we adhere to our ethical standards. We cannot take for granted that the audience understands what lies behind genuine, truth-seeking journalism.

Leverage AI

Leverage AI for better products and efficient newsrooms. Schibsted News Media has been experimenting with AI and robot journalism for a long time and has a strong foundation to build on. However, the use and development of AI tools have often been limited to ­specific groups and have not transpired into widespread knowledge. This cannot continue. Whilst ­generative AI poses a threat to us, it will be a crucial enabler to deliver on customer expectations regarding our product and content. To succeed, time is of the essence, both to reap short-term benefits and even more importantly to experiment and get familiar with AI in the newsrooms, to keep up and adapt.

After the project group deli­vered its recommendations, all ­media houses in Schibsted appointed AI-responsible personnel. Several teams are collaborating across the board and sharing experiences. We have hired a coordinator with substantial technological and journalistic experience to lead the work. One of the goals is to identify potential new needs and steps in the editorial workflow and recommend the next actions for tooling development. The significant change, however, is not about building tools but creating a culture for experimenting with gene­rative AI throughout the organisation. Even though this technological paradigm shift can be a threat and must be met with healthy criticism, we must also embrace all the opportunities we now have. They can represent a new spring for journalism.

Challenge ourselves

Challenge ourselves from within and outside. If we are to be completely honest, not much has changed since the first online newspapers became accessible to everyone in the early 2000s. We still present our content in traditional formats. The storytelling techniques are strikingly similar to those we swore by when print newspapers were at their peak. It’s a paradox. Our users have long since adapted to new content formats. And yes, they actually prefer them to news media.

Surveys show that the next generation of news readers spend far more time on TikTok than on all traditional media. But that’s not all. They also use social media to keep up with the news picture, even during major news events. We cannot overlook this.

Our challenge is that our core audience, the traditional newspaper readers, are highly satisfied with our products. If we change too much and too quickly, they protest. It’s bad for business. The consequence is that we spend a lot of time on incremental ­innovation, but we probably do not allocate enough time and resources to radical changes and ­experimentation. This causes the gap between us and the next generation to widen. And it could become so large that it’s impossible to build a bridge (pun intended) over the chasm.

To avoid this future, it was a clear recommendation from the project that Schibsted allocate more resources to creating news products ­specifically targeted at young people and ­other groups who do not find us relevant ­today. This can naturally happen under an established brand, but we believe that we should also test out entirely new services, not necessarily to ­replace ­today’s websites, but to ­enable experimentation with very ­radical solutions.

The project does not point to a single redemptive solution for the newsrooms of the future. We cannot draw a detailed map to a safe haven for journalism. Our suggestion is ­rather to launch a whole series of large and small speed boats that can provide us with a higher development pace, better dialogue with the audience, and a greater opportunity to adapt to a technological shift that we haven’t seen the likes of since the internet emerged. We are not sure where it will lead us, but we are confident that our fuel will be trust and journalistic credibility.


All of Denmark’s marketplace is ready to dream big

All of Denmark’s marketplace is ready to dream big

All of Denmark’s marketplace is ready to dream big

A beloved marketplace where you can find everything from a stuffed lion to a used bicycle. With almost 370,000 active monthly users, DBA has a solid position in Denmark – and now a cross-collaboration in Schibsted will make them even stronger.

By Julie Schoen
All of Denmark’s marketplace is ready to dream big

All of Denmark’s marketplace is ready to dream big

A beloved marketplace where you can find everything from a stuffed lion to a used bicycle. With almost 370,000 active monthly users, DBA has a solid position in Denmark – and now a cross-collaboration in Schibsted will make them even stronger.

By Julie Schoen

A glimpse into my everyday life: You can hardly see it. It’s a difficult balance ­because you should ­ideally be able to spot it. At least a little. The right person must be able to see it, while everyone else should rather just walk past.

I have hidden a bag in the hedge. Tucked it under the green leaves. In the winter, it’s a more complex discipline. Then I must think more about the appearance of the bag. It should preferably be a bag that is not particularly noticeable. And if people finally see the bag, they’d instead think it’s trash. A bag without contents, thrown randomly into a random hedge, which people therefore leave alone.

But nothing about this bag is ­random. My bag today contains a cap. Two days ago, a similar bag hid a Barbie doll, and the week ­before, a candlestick. The cap in today’s bag is waiting to be picked up by the DBA buyer.

The cap was for sale for 150 Danish kroner, but the buyer haggled me down to 100 kroner and gained my trust in the deal. I wasn’t at home when it suited him to stop by and to be sure not to lose the deal, I placed the sun-shading headgear in the hedge. Then the buyer can come by whenever it suits him. This way my DBA shop is open 24/7.

It feels a bit silly to hide one package after another in the hedge, especially when some of my neighbours are watching. They must believe that I deal in shady matters. If only they knew that I don’t run a covert business, but on the contrary, it’s something that helps “clean up the planet” by selling second-hand and lining my wallet with the help of old Barbie dolls. My business is not shady, but some degree of camouflage is required.

There are a few hours to go until the cap and its new owner are united and I receive a money transfer. In the meantime, I cycle off to work. A job which is at… yes, you guessed it: DBA.

DBA is common ownership in Denmark. Eleven million goods were put up for sale in 2022 on the trading site for the 5.9 million people who live in Denmark.

All of Denmark’s marketplace is ready to dream big

Julie Schoen with her colleague Astrid Bruun.

All of Denmark’s marketplace is ready to dream big

Julie Schoen with her colleague Astrid Bruun.

Majken from marketing, who sits three chairs down from me in the Copenhagen office, also practices DBA as a hobby, a passion, and a holiday income. This morning, she went out of her front door, and with her, a bag that contained three bibs for babies.

As a press officer for DBA, my job is to get people to remember and ­discover DBA, while Majken’s job is all about making sure that the messages about the benefits of using DBA reach the right target group at the most ­advantageous times. Although the positive arguments for buying and ­selling used goods are gradually ­sitting on the spine of most Danes, DBA does not “sell” itself. There are competitors. Facebook Marketplace, Trendsales, and various vintage apps are emerging and specialising in several categories.

Fortunately, the pie is big enough for all. In Denmark, 80% have bought second-hand within the past 12 months, and the number has increased dramatically in just one year, up from 76% last year.

This is partly due to the economic crisis. There are a lot of new ads for caps and baby bibs on DBA now. Last year, 27% of Denmark’s population answered that they had sold one or more things via DBA within the past year. This year, the figure has grown to 39%. It only makes the sum of everything you can find on the portal even more exciting.

On DBA you can acquire anything from a stuffed lion to a used bicycle. Among some of the more specta­cular items that have been for sale are an old cannon, a replica of Mr Bean’s car, a live hammerhead shark and a ­folding moped. And it is precisely this wide range that makes DBA special. DBA is all of Denmark’s marketplace.

And it is precisely this wide range that makes DBA special. DBA is all of Denmark’s marketplace.

The company was founded in 1981 and was initially just a physical newspaper with advertisements. It was inspired by the Swedish news­paper of the same variety, called Gula Tidningen (The Yellow Paper), and therefore the Danish model came to be called Den Blå Avis (The Blue Paper).

Schibsted Pride Day 2022.

All of Denmark’s marketplace is ready to dream big
All of Denmark’s marketplace is ready to dream big

Schibsted Pride Day 2022.

In 1995, Den Blå Avis came online and was called DBA.dk. Until 2008, the Danish entrepreneur Karsten Ree managed the enterprise. Karsten Ree became famous in Denmark in 2008, when he sold his life’s work, DBA, to eBay for a billion Danish kroner. Since then, Karsten has only become ­richer, but he and DBA remain inseparable. Every time he embarks on a new entrepreneurial adventure, or his company submits accounts, DBA is mentioned.

“DBA… isn’t that the business that Karsten Ree runs?” Almost everyone asks that when you tell them you work for the blue trading site. Or they launch into an anecdote about a sewing machine they just sold, or a time when the buyer was nicer than expected. DBA, therefore, has an extremely strong brand, but by the same logic this makes it difficult to move. Even if we want to push it just ten centimetres.

A reputation that we don’t want to lose is that of our internal ­community. The unity among the employees has been the special sauce behind DBA’s success, and the social part is still very important to us. We are good at ­meeting every Friday at the Copenhagen office, where there is a small Friday bar. And the participation rate is high for the annual Christmas lunch when the Copenhagen office travels to Aarhus for a joint event.

We all eat lunch at the same time, and when the weather is good, we sit outside and enjoy our food – and each other’s company. We celebrate birthdays and we eat cakes. Our two “office mothers,” Lise-lotte and Lene, also try to entice us with fruit and toasted dark-rye (rugbrød) snacks.

All of Denmark’s marketplace is ready to dream big

Since 2021, Schibsted has been the owner of DBA, Bilbasen and Bilinfo in Denmark.

All of Denmark’s marketplace is ready to dream big

Since 2021, Schibsted has been the owner of DBA, Bilbasen and Bilinfo in Denmark.

For some reason, snack options have increased since Schibsted took over DBA (improving upon the boring eBay-sponsored snack selection in 2021). Just when the Danes had collec­tively learned that Karsten Ree no longer owned the marketplace, now we have to correct our table host at the next wedding, who, only ­updated on the second most recent change of ownership, attempts to ascertain: “Well, DBA …that’s what Karsten sold to eBay, isn’t it?”

Despite the fact that behind each change of ownership, there is a long sausage of explanations about who now owns DBA, the switch to Schibsted is a big change. Even though the ­office, the office chairs and the coffee ­machine are the same as when we were in the arms of eBay, there is now room and opportunity to dream big. A ­recent organisational change in the entire Schibsted Nordic Marketplace means that we are collaborating to a ­greater extent with our Nordic sister sites in Norway, Sweden and Finland to ­improve and preserve DBA.

So Majken and I can hopefully, someday soon, intensify the ­frequency of bags that must be delivered inside the garden gate and on the hedge. However, the speculation among my neighbours is unlikely to go away, regardless of how frequently or infrequently I dump anonymous bags into the shrubbery.

Facts

170 people work at DBA and Bilbasen in the Copenhagen and Aarhus offices.
11.2 million listings by private users in 2022.
369,724 active users every month.
Sofa is the most popular search word.
Most listings of men’s shoes and clothes are created by women.


Julie Schoen

Julie Schoen
Press Manager, DBA.
Years in Schibsted: 2
My favourite song the last decade: Stor mand – Tobias Rahim and Andreas Odbjerg


Investment trends 2024

Investment trends 2024

Investment trends

Quarter after quarter we’ve seen activity in the venture market go down. At least so it seems. Simultaneously, we are wondering what’s happening behind the scenes. Looking into numbers, pessimism mostly prevails.

By Sara Myrenfors, Investment manager, Schibsted
Investment trends 2024

Investment trends

Quarter after quarter we’ve seen activity in the venture market go down. At least so it seems. Simultaneously, we are wondering what’s happening behind the scenes. Looking into numbers, pessimism mostly prevails.

By Sara Myrenfors, Investment manager, Schibsted

Do we see light at the end of the tunnel yet?

In hindsight, it is easy to see how boosted the VC market was a few years ago. High valuations and intense competition among investors were two of the main challenges experienced by VCs. Today, we are seeing a ­totally different VC market. There is a significantly ­lower pace of new investments with several VCs experiencing difficulties in finding ­co-investors and receiving considerably fewer investment proposals.

Investment trends 2024

Left: VC investment seed stage per geography (company location) YTD 2023 (Q3). Right: Total VC investments per geography (company location) YTD 2023 (Q3)

Investment trends 2024

Left: VC investment seed stage per geography (company location) YTD 2023 (Q3). Right: Total VC investments per geography (company location) YTD 2023 (Q3)

Even if many of the European VC market ­sentiments deteriorated ­further this year, the expectations for the next twelve months have ­improved. However, the confidence of fund managers in the long-term growth prospects is at an all-time low since 2018. This is largely ­explained by the ­current macroeconomic and geopolitical ­situation making both fundraising and exits challenging.

11 new European unicorns were born in the first three quarters of 2023, three of them in Q3.

Investment trends 2024
Investment trends 2024

11 new European unicorns were born in the first three quarters of 2023, three of them in Q3.

Zooming in on the Nordics, Sweden is starting to lose its dominance. The reason for this could be because the Swedish VC scene is more mature and most declines have been in later finan­cing rounds. Instead Norway and Denmark have gained ground. Will the current climate be a reboot to a more even Nordic VC market, or will it scare off many new investors in the VC space? Time will tell. But a continuous ­cyclical development is the only thing we know for sure.

Investment trends 2024

Most countries are back to 2019 levels of activity, with some exceptions like France (+37%), Denmark (+72%), Norway (+181%) and Italy (+57%), venture investment in H1 2019 compared to H1 2023.

Investment trends 2024

Most countries are back to 2019 levels of activity, with some exceptions like France (+37%), Denmark (+72%), Norway (+181%) and Italy (+57%), venture investment in H1 2019 compared to H1 2023.

Activity levels same as in 2019

Most countries are back to 2019 levels of activity, with some exceptions like France (+37%), Denmark (+72%), Norway (+181%) and Italy (+57%), venture investment in H1 2019 compared to H1 2023.

3,4 trillion USD is the combined value of Europe’s tech ecosystem.

Investment trends 2024
Investment trends 2024

3,4 trillion USD is the combined value of Europe’s tech ecosystem.

11 new European unicorns was born in the first three quarters of 2023, three of them in Q3.

77 billion USD is the value of expected investment in European startups 2023 (well over the previous pre-pandemic record).


We need to embrace and explore uncertainty

“We need to embrace and explore uncertainty”

Nathan Furr’s thesis is that uncertainty and opportunities are two sides of the same coin. And he’s going to give leaders in Schibsted 42 different tools to navigate a world of uncertainty.

Words by Ann Axelsson

Nathan Furr is leading a management program in Schibsted, using a framework he set up after years of working closely with startups.

“We need to embrace and explore uncertainty”

Nathan Furr’s thesis is that uncertainty and opportunities are two sides of the same coin. And he’s going to give leaders in Schibsted 42 different tools to navigate a world of uncertainty.

Words by Ann Axelsson

“I strongly believe that we are missing a critical leadership ­capability in our modern world. The ability to face uncertainty and see the possibility.”

Nathan Furr is a Professor of Strategy at INSEAD and a renowned expert on managing in times of disruption and uncertainty. He’s also an author and co-author of several books. Now he’s leading a management program in Schibsted, using a framework he set up after years of working closely with startups, understanding their mindsets and how they handle risk and uncertainty.

And no doubt, we live in uncertain times. Choosing a path at a time when change is constant and happening fast can be very stressful. Nathan brings up generative AI as an example.

“Uncertainty is when you don’t know all the variables involved. With AI we don’t know where it’s going to go. We don’t know how it will affect our careers or our lives. We don’t know what the future will be like.”

He also believes that uncertainty often is misunderstood and confused with risk – when you actually know the variables involved, you know the probability; you just don’t know the value you are going to get.

“Risks we can manage and ­control, but to handle uncertainty we need something different, we need to ­embrace it and explore it. Because if we see generative AI as a risk, we will probably avoid it and miss out on opportunities.”

We need to embrace and explore uncertainty

Nathan Furr is leading a management program in Schibsted, using a framework he set up after years of working closely with startups.

We need to embrace and explore uncertainty

Nathan Furr is leading a management program in Schibsted, using a framework he set up after years of working closely with startups.

This is where the framework and the 42 tools come in. But perhaps even more important is the ­perspective that this theory is not something reserved for only your work life. That insight was pushed by Nathan’s wife Susannah Harmon Furr, who is an entrepreneur, designer and art historian.

Together, they wrote the book that serves as a guide to the framework, called “The Upside of Uncertainty.”

Susannah helped Nathan ­understand that uncertainty is incorporated in all parts of people’s lives and even if he speaks to leaders, it starts with us as people, as human beings.

“And she was so right. All that ­uncertainty, it fires in your brain. You feel it in your gut. And to help others through it, I really believe you’ve got to start with yourself.”

In the book, Nathan and Susannah prove that. They share some private stories about their lives and their family, times when uncertainty was fundamental and when the framework helped them see the crisis from a new perspective. Like when their son became very depressed in the ­aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they had to watch over and care for him. The tool they speak about is reframing.

“We reframed in that moment to focus on what we still had. And that was each other, the capacity to have him with us and give him the right treatment. Instead of focusing on the uncertainty.”

Reframing is one of four categories in the toolbox.

“We have this heritage from evolution that we tend to run from things we see as a loss or a threat. But when we see it as a gain, we run towards it. So, if you focus on the possibility side you trigger more of that positive momentum, and the tools in this category are about that,” he explains.

The three other categories are called priming, taking action, and sustaining. And with these in place, leaders will be better equipped to dare to explore new possibilities, according to Nathan.

And that’s the whole point. To Nathan, leading in uncertainty is one piece of what he believes is a greater innovation capability.

“As the world becomes more ­dynamic, you’ve got to explore, and you have to innovate. And because I’ve been obsessed about what uncertainty is my whole career, I have also been obsessed with finding all the parts of the puzzle that lead to innovation.”

Some of those parts he has found are connected to behaviours, ­processes, culture, leadership and organisation. Things he will also go into during the course.

On a personal level, Nathan also struggles with uncertainty.

“It makes me really nervous.”

And, depending on personality, he acknowledges that some people will struggle a bit more than others to embrace his thesis.

“But on the other hand, the research is very clear – people can learn this and get better at it.”


Ann Axelsson

Ann Axelsson
Senior Product Manager, Strategic Communication, Schibsted
Years in Schibsted: 25
My favourite song the last decade: Paper Doll – John Mayer