When Rasmus Ankersen was at a conference in Finland to give a keynote address, he happened to meet three Nokia employees. Every single one of them had an iPhone in their pocket.
“I thought, ‘Working at Nokia and owning an iPhone must be an unforgivable sin,’” he said.
Six months later, Nokia’s phone division was sold to Microsoft – “the company became a brutal reminder of the short distance from greatness to (a) fall,” said Ankersen. “From 50 per cent market share to three per cent in just five years.
“It made me think that while we talk a lot about how to achieve success, we rarely think about how to sustain success. To me, Nokia proved that it is harder to stay successful than to become successful. It’s harder to innovate when you have something to lose. And it’s a lot harder to create an urgency to improve when all you see around you is abundance. This is exactly the dilemma that any successful organization faces: How to create hunger in paradise.”
“Hunger in Paradise: The War Against Complacency” is the title of Ankersen’s most recent book, as well as his upcoming Annual Conference keynote.
While we talk a lot about how to achieve success, we talk too little about its consequences –– about the complacency, arrogance, and the fear of losing it all again, which often follow as a shadow of success. Success produces complacency. But how do you stay humble and keep innovating when the company cashes in record profits? That’s the central question Ankersen will address on February 2, 2017 from 12:00 to 2:00 PM.
During the keynote, attendees will master the five lessons we need to learn avoid becoming another victim of complacency: Never trust in success; Burn your trophies; If it ain’t broken, consider breaking it; Kill the illusion of perfect conditions; and Create a compelling ‘Why.’
Ankersen has trained with the planet’s best athletes to translate their secrets of high performance into usable strategies for leaders and businesses. His previous bestselling book “The Goldmine Effect: Crack the Secrets of High Performance” was written after Ankersen travelled around the world to unlock the secrets of success of top athletes.
Ankersen wrote his first book, “The DNA of a Winner” and a year later, published his second book, “Leader DNA,” based on field studies of 25 high-profile leaders. Among Ankersen’s clients are organizations such as Facebook, Boston Consulting Group, IKEA, Rotman Business School, Nasdaq, and Ernst & Young. He has been featured on Sky News Business, CBC, Global, and Fox Sports, and is also a regular columnist in several business magazines.
For his work, he has won a Berlingske business magazine award and has been named one of the three biggest business talents in Denmark. Rasmus is also the Chairman of FC Midtjylland, and holds the position of Co-Director of Football at Brentford FC.
Attend Rasmus Ankersen’s keynote address at HRPA’s Annual Conference and Trade Show, February 2 at 12:00 PM.
