Charlie Tango Talks

At a time where design is playing an increasingly important role, but where the concept of design and the role of designers is undergoing tremendous change, I have invited Christian Bason for a talk. He has been the CEO of Danish Design Center for 7 years and has written a number of books on design, innovation and management. We are addressing how the design task is being changed by computers, what role design is playing in innovation processes and how companies are coping with the general ability to innovate.

The construction industry has a reputation for being one of the most conservative industries, lagging behind when it comes to the technological and digital development. But that is not sustainable. The industry faces a number of major challenges when it comes to building green, a lack of productivity and inefficient project management. Fortunately, a new exciting digital and data driven development is underway and lots of exciting technologies look to turn the way we build upside down. That is the topic of this Charlie Tango talk together with the CEO of Molio – the knowledge center for the Danish construction industry and one of the initiators of Contech Lab

So stay tuned if you want to be updated on the rapid technological development that the construction industry is facing.

After one year of lock-down, retailers around the world face a new reality, where user behavior has shifted rapidly towards online channels.

The way to survive is through Radical User Centricity, according to my guest in this Charlie Tango talk. Jacob Johansen has spent 20 years in China, and after a brief stop-over in Denmark he has decided to go back and follow how Chinese companies develop with an outside-in approach, much different to what you see in Europe. This leads to a whole category of “new retail” solutions – the topic of Jacobs latest book: “From customer to user”, and the topic of this Charlie Tango talk.

The global growth of digital technologies, which in many ways enrich people's lives with efficiency, service and distribution, has been shown to have problematic side effects like lack of transparency for users or bias in algorithms. Some companies are gradually beginning to understand that behaving properly and ethically is a business-critical necessity. But how do we handle this area and what to do? Get the answers in this talk with author and digital strategist Peter Svarre.

Denmark is among the leaders in climate change. We also have one of the most digitized public sectors in the world. And now we have an extremely high ambition about reducing CO2 with 70% in 2030. The way to get there is foggy at best. But a series of public-private taskforces have come up with relevant initiatives. Eva Berneke – CEO in one of Denmark´s largest IT companies - is heading the IT, consulting and service group, and she guests the Charlie Tango studio for a talk about this and many other relevant topics.

In a time of upheaval, where our eyes are mostly on the United States and all the crazy things happening over there, we risk missing the development in China, which is going furiously fast in many areas: Electric cars, solar power, financial consumer services, social shopping and AI just to mention a few. It just doesn´t get much attention on our latitudes and it is both a pity and worrying at the same time. Here is your chance to get more savvy on China, when I speak with one of the leading experts in the field Christina Boutrup.

True Energy is one of our most interesting energy startups. Founded by Charlotte Sand two years ago, they now control Denmark´s largest battery and help electric vehicle owners save money and CO2 by automatically controlling when your car recharge. Listen to this fascinating talk about our future smart grid and how a software solution can help you be more sustainable while saving money. And finally, hear one of our few danish female entrepreneurs tell how it is to start up a company in Denmark and what it takes to succeed.

The acclaimed innovation expert and author behind the new book: "What's your problem" Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg visits The Charlie Tango studio for a talk about innovation and reframing of problems. Thomas has worked with corporate innovation for a very long time.

Back in 2013 he published the book: "Innovation as Usual" at Harvard Business Press. It led to the recognition as “Top 20 International Thinker” in HR Magazine.

Now he is back with a new book, which the former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt praises with the words: "If you want the superpower of solving better problems, read this book".

Hear Thomas talk about why it is so difficult for large companies to work systematically with innovation and what they should do about it. And learn how you can work with reframing problems yourself.

The World changed for Nemlig.com over night the 11.th of September in Denmark, when the country closed down. Suddenly more than 60.000 people lined up digitally to get into the online grocery store. Listen to the exciting story of how Nemlig.com coped with – and survived this Digital Tsunami, what they learned and how this changed the company. The CEO Stefan Plenge visit the Charlie Tango studio to share his story and view of the future for online shopping.

With a market cap of $ 10 billion, Zendesk might be the most successful Danish digital startup ever. Founded by three Danes in 2006, they have revolutionized how customer service gets handled digitally and made the customers of + 150.000 companies happy. And never has this been more relevant than today where Corona is forcing companies to shift from analog to digital services. What does this mean and how does the future outlook for customer service and communication look? Get a unique chance to hear about this directly from the CEO of Zendesk, Mikkel Svane in this episode of Charlie Tango talks

Imagine that you could control your surroundings directly with your thoughts? Apparently, we are much closer to this being a reality than most of us know. In this episode I talk with Sune Alstrup – investor in NextMind and one of our leading experts in the topic of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) to shed some light on this fascinating new technology area. So, buckle up for 45 minutes of science fiction becoming reality.

Denmark is in the process of reopening after the Corona crisis. But now awaits the huge assignment of restoring as much of the business we had before. How do we do that? What has changed for good and what will the consequences be? And how can we use innovation to get back on track? These are some of the topics I discuss with CEO of IT Branchen, Natasha Friis Saxberg. The conversation is in Danish.

Can you imagine living without electricity at all? Tune in on our latest edition of Charlie Tango Talks and hear Global Entrepreneur Frederik Ottesen’s take on securing reliable energy in rural Africa - a continent where the population growth rate outweighs the electricity access rate. Frederik and Olafur Eliasson co-founded Little Sun to put energy poverty on the global agenda and they have so far distributed more than 1 million solar-powered lamps.

What is the status of digital development and digital marketing among Danish companies? Tune in and listen to Kim Jong Andersen, Co-founder of Berg + Jong Advisory Partners and Founder + Chairman of Danish Digital Award, for a talk covering the upcoming DDA, the greatest digital trends today and tomorrow, and what it takes to become a leading actor in the field digitisation. Hear how a wish to destabilise democratic countries through polarization might have led to the current shitstorm towards SAS and their newest campaign, and what Kim thinks is the holy trinity of future technologies. The conversation is in Danish.

Do the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) influence how your company operates? Tune in on this Charlie Tango Talk to hear Professor Steen Hildebrandt’s take on how we responsibly secure the well-being of future generations through among other quantum leaps in technology. Hear about how we today witness private companies moving quickly on this – developing sustainable business models posing for new digital solutions. The conversation is in Danish.

What is the perfect gadget gift this year? And what will happen in 2020? Get great inspiration from the tech expert David Guldager, and hear how he decided to go solo after 10 years on danish TV. Hear about the exciting project of the digital home of the future. Besides that we talk about the rapid development of AI within eSport, and the future of self-driving cars and flying robo taxis. The conversation is in Danish.

Philips lighting managed to go through a huge digital transformation away from lightbulbs and into intelligent lighting systems, changing their name as well to Signify. Hear what happened when I talk to Astrid Simonsen Joos, Chief Digital Officer, at Signify Global about the future of smart home IoT, the future of LED and 3D printed mass customized luminaires.

Curious about the state of cryptocurrencies and Facebook’s challenges with its new stablecoin Libra? Listen to this conversation with Hans Henrik Hoffmeyer, COO at Coinify, and one of our leading experts within digital payments solutions. He gives his predictions on how new market trends and developments may affect the Cryptocurrencies industry and the financial sector in general.

Today's technologies need to support the effort in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Nana Bule, CEO of Microsoft Denmark share her insights on this topic. She has been with Microsoft for 18 years and witnessed how the company transformed from a traditional software business to an internet-based services and programs leader with great success. The conversation is in Danish.

My guest in this episode is an expert in public digitization, but he is also the chairman of the Board at Roskilde Festival. After serving as CEO at the Agency for Digitization he is now on the management board of Dansk Industri. We talk about how Denmark got it´s leading digital position, how the public sector is going to transform and the biggest challenges within the digital transformation of Danish companies. The conversation is in Danish.