Passport story

I was traveling from Manila to Shenzhen via Hong Kong, a trip which put me close to being deported from the People's Republic, but also gave me interesting insight into three different cultures.

As the immigration officer at Ninoy Aquino in Manila was checking my passport, the identification page of my passport fell out. I froze up, and thought "Man, they are never going to let me on this flight!". The officer however, just looked embarassed, smiled at me and said "Sorry sir, but here is your passport, I am afraid it broke, please pass through". I smiled back at him, and made a mental note of how friendly, and somewhat ad hoc, Filipino government employees always are.

As I was walking towards immigration in Hong Kong International Airport, I tried to stick my now loose identification page into my passport again, hoping that the glue would keep it together for those crucial thirty seconds. However, as the immigration officer examined my picture, the page fell out of my passport and onto his desk. Ever so slowly, as I again froze up, he picked up my renegade identification page and looked at me, "Sir, your passport is broken. Do you know why?" I panicked, thinking that there was no good reason for my passport breaking all of a sudden and I could only stammer "Eh..I travel a lot and...now...you broke my passport!". The unfairly accused immigration officer called on a supervisor, and after three minutes of paperwork I was let through with a courteous "Please get a new passport, as others might not be as lenient as us." A sigh of relief erupted from my lungs and I made a mental note of how professional, expedient and courteous Hong Kong government employees always are.

Now, my passport was still broken, and I had one more passport control to go before I reached Shenzhen. At the border to the People's Republic, I again waited nervously in line to see if I could make it through. Olympics is coming up, and security is tighter than ever in the old Middle Kingdom. As the Chinese immigration officer was swiping my passport, the identification page again fell out. "Damn passport! What should I do know?" I thought to myself. The immigration officer did not hesitate for a second, he immediately pointed a finger at me and yelled "The first thing you have to understand is that this is YOUR problem, not OURS!" I was taken aback by the rudeness, but tried to keep calm as I knew that I was clutching the short end of the stick. During fourty five minutes of waiting my passport travelled through all the levels of authority at this particular border control station. I imagine that when it finally reached the head honcho, he glanced at it for a few seconds before muttering "Just let him through". As I was let through immigration and finally reached my destination, I made a mental note of how rude, slow and inefficient Chinese government employees always are.

Back to the lab again

So, it seems decided.

On August 18 I will be back in Sweden to finish of my Master's degree at Stockholm University. I will be there for a single semester, then graduate. After that my ambition is to work in management consulting. I will be applying for a pretty broad spectrum of consulting firms, but my priorities are two:

1. Working for an American consulting firm with an internationally recognized brand
2. Getting exposure to the intersection between strategy and organization

It feels strange to go back to Sweden. I have come to love Asia very much for its diversity, sensitivity to social relationships, the warmth and the openness of its people. I will miss all of that back in Sweden.

At the same time it seems that Sweden is the logical place to start my career, even though I don't aim to stay there for very long. I will enjoy to live in Stockholm for a brief period of time, and I don't feel any anger towards my native country any longer.

But still, for me it is a springboard to a larger world filled with more color, adventure , diversity and life than Sweden can offer.

The Day Freedom Went Away

The Swedish Riksdag just voted through a proposal to implement extensive monitoring of all Swedish emails, SMS messages and phone calls that cross Swedish borders. A new supercomputer has already been bought (even before the proposal was voted upon) which will be used to search the massive volumes of data collected.


The proposal met almost unanimous resistance amongst our national media and the Swedish blogosphere. There were demonstrations outside of the Riksdag for several days. Yet, our liberal majority pushed through. Can you believe that? The liberals voted this through, while the socialists voted against (the socialists were the ones who came up with the proposal in the first place, but later abandoned it)!

It makes me sad to see the Western World betraying its fundamental ideas to protect itself against the (illusory) threat of terrorism. In the process of trying to protect what is valuable in our societies, we are destroying the very same values.

But, who is surprised? Nobody should be. The logic of any living organism is that it wants to live, grow and avoid death. Any organization aims to stay alive, hopefully grow and definitely not die. Give the same organism access to unlimited amounts of food, endless regenerative capacities and it will just continue to grow, forever.

Organizations also behave according to the same rules as living organisms. My prediction is this; governments with taxing rights will inevitably expand, unless or until an external threat destroys them.

Rage against the Machine

4th of June, 19 years ago

Remember the dead, honor the courageous, resist the machine

What is Leadership, really?

I have often been thinking of various ways to describe leadership. There is obviously no single way of describing leadership that is more or less correct than any other, but various descriptions shed light on different aspects of leadership. A very technical description of leadership is this:

A set of concentric circles emanating from the individual:

1. Individual Self Development (Psychological, Spiritual, Competencies)
2. Relational Leadership (Coaching, Team Leadership, Human relations)
3. Organizational Leadership (Structure, Culture, Vision, Incentives, Decision Rights, Performance Measurement)
4. Societal Leadership (Multi-sector cooperation, business role in facing global challenges, politics)

This gives you a feeling for the different fields of leadership. However, the individual at the center of the circle remains the core, no matter what leadership we are seeking to describe.

Having observed many leaders, and also having had the experience myself, I have often reflected on the fear that leadership constantly needs to fight against. The future is inherently uncertain, and this causes fear. Leadership is therefore a capacity to point out the direction, where there is no clear direction to see, to show people where there is light, even if only darkness can be found. As long as a leader point towards the light, even though he might not be able to see it himself, the people following him will be able to see that light.

During my MC year I learned about a different way of viewing leadership, and this model has become very important (and dear) to me. It describes leadership as expansion. By this I mean the capacity to expand your circle of awareness, concern and influence beyond yourself. As you expand, there also seems to be a certain diminishing of the center. During extreme situations I have experienced mental states where my own well being is of no concern whatsoever, and only things outside of the center matters. For me, these are the most extreme examples of expansion, where the center disappears and concern for oneself does not exist.

In reverse we can also contract. This is usually associated with feelings of sadness and insecurity. When we feel bad about ourselves,we tend to contract. We care less about what is happening around us and what other people are doing. We focus entirely on ourselves and our ego. I have also experienced this mental state, and it is very destructive, egoistic and self-indulgent. It's not a happy place to be in.