Articles

Traditional incumbents, collaboration and competition The livestock auction at Seljord in Telemark, Norway is an old school meeting place, gathering 80,000 visitors once a year. This is a tradition that goes back a hundred years. Even if the main attraction is animals, you can find a variety of merchandise and service providers. With enjoying multiple entertainments, especially fiddles and accordions. This arrangement is a typical analog...

Asset and wealth management had a major impact of coronavirus in the financial serivices market space. As much of a calamity as COVID-19 has been for the world from a health perspective. It has also had a serious impact on the financial services industry. Given what amounted to a global recession during the summer, it’s hardly a surprise to point this out. However, as we...

Larger insurance companies often consider outsourcing or the use of external capabilities. They consider which parts of their organization they can outsource and which to keep in-house. A crucial question arises: ‘Will outsourcing this system or process provide a cost advantage?’ If affirmative, they proceed to shift the operation outside the organization. Unfortunately, the decision is not that simple. What is outsourcing in the insurance companies? Let’s first start...

My first memory related to automation is from a school excursion. When I was going to the local shipyard in my hometown, Harstad, Norway. They had some automated steel plate cutters run by a punched card device. It was made by Kongsberg Weapon Factory, enabling any specific shape. We learned that this was safer, faster, and more precise than a manual operation. During the same time, I had...