Have you ever wondered what makes life worth living? It’s a question that often arises as we navigate the complexities of adulthood.

Karl Ove Knausgard beautifully captures the essence of this inquiry in his book “Autumn”: “What makes life worth living? No child asks itself that question. To children life is self-evident. Life goes without saying: whether it is good or bad makes no difference. This is because children don’t see the world, don’t observe the world, don’t contemplate the world, but are so deeply immersed in the world that they don’t distinguish between it and their own selves.”

I have to share something that fills my heart with joy. One thing I greatly appreciate is living in the middle of Oslo city, surrounded by nature’s beauty and the city’s cultural wonders. From the nearby forests, hills, and waterfalls to the sea, Oslo has a way of making you thankful for life’s simple pleasures.

Jeg har aldri vært naturtalent når det kommer til håndverk og reparasjoner, men jeg har en mann som har vært omgitt av Gjør det selv eller Do It Yourself (DIY) fra barndom. Hans interesse ble vekket i oppveksten da han jobbet sammen med faren sin, en DIY entusiast, i hans verksted og hjalp ham med diverse prosjekter. Denne interessen har fulgt ham gjennom hele livet. Ingen oppgaver eller prosjekter er for vanskelige for ham, selv om han aldri har gjort det før. Han leser, lærer og fikser.

Amid ongoing debates about remote vs. in-office work, especially here in the Nordics, it’s crucial that we, as managers, start asking the right questions. The past year has shown us the convenience and flexibility of working from home during the pandemic. Don’t get me wrong; I value convenience, but it should never come at the cost of productivity, efficiency, and collaboration — essential for startups and companies alike.

As a physicist, I often find myself thinking about how the basic rules of physics can shed light on all sorts of situations, whether they’re about work, social interactions, or personal experiences.

The other day, I was chatting with a friend who just started a new job. She was sharing how her new boss keeps giving her new tasks on short notice, and she wasn’t sure how to handle it. The conversation at the table quickly turned negative, with everyone saying she should stand up to her boss. I stayed quiet because I had a different perspective on the matter. I actually didn’t see anything wrong with how her boss was acting. I spent some time pondering this and couldn’t help but relate it to the laws of physics.

Product management is about dealing with the relative balance of desirability, feasibility, and viability when it comes to developing a product. Desirability refers to the features and functionality that customers want, feasibility refers to the technical and practical aspects of producing the product, and viability refers to the financial sense of developing the product for the company and its potential success.

Luck is not a mysterious and unexplainable phenomenon. I find it a probability game that plays out in two stages.

I believe that the world around us is filled with new ideas, thoughts, and opportunities, floating around us, everywhere, and at all times, nudging us to interact with them. The success of the interaction ultimately boils down to how open we are and how and if we take notice. The next stage of luck or probability plays out in how we respond to and handle received ideas or inspiration and what we make out of these.

The creativity process has always fascinated me and my ideas about what creativity is has changed over the time. I have come to define creativity as something that takes shape when one has self confidence to explore a space of given constraints using your talent(s) applied through self discipline and fearlessness.

If you think about it, most of these ingredients in creativity are acquired and not something you are born with.

I made a tough decision and declared in August last year that I was closing down my startup Parampara.co, a marketplace where people could buy quality secondhand clothing from professional stores from all over Europe.

That was a weird period. My head and heart were still processing experiences from the last few years, while I was also trying to figure out my future path.

I wanted to share some tips and guidelines that have helped me as an immigrant in Norway and hopefully will be useful for others.

I am aware that I am addressing a relatively small and diverse group. Some of you may have arrived in Norway only recently while others have been here for a very long time. Maybe you are frustrated with your stay in Norway or maybe you have easily slid into a comfortable living here. My purpose is not to judge or discredit your personal experiences, but rather share principles and practices that have served me well through nearly 30 years in Norway.

In Norway, however, only 2 % of all venture funding goes to companies founded by women, as opposed to 80 % to companies with male founders. The remaining 18 per cent goes to companies where at least one of the entrepreneurs is women. These figures are alarming and raise many questions. One may wonder why so few of scale-up companies are founded by women and if then, supported by venture funding.

Ble det stilt strengere krav til meg enn mine mannlige kolleger da jeg søkte finansiering hos eksterne investorer, spør artikkelforfatteren. Innlegg skrevet av Anjali Bhatnagar, Dr.scient., gründer, tidligere forsker samt direktør for produkt- og prosjektutvikling i Telenor, blant flere lederstillinger.

En fremtidig økonomisk vekst i Norge forutsetter at flere smarte mennesker etablerer innovative bedrifter og næringer — og får gode vekstvilkår for disse.

Customers seem to be steadily approaching more sustainable fashion consumption alternatives like resale and rentals. Nevertheless, I believe that businesses providing sustainable fashion alternatives will struggle to become financially sustainable, because of three main reasons: they are in direct competition with an already struggling retail industry; resale and rental businesses have, by definition, low financial margins, and both demand high operational costs.

The message that the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry globally finally seems to be catching up with the mass market in the western world. Resale is growing 21 times faster than retail and is expected to bypass fast fashion within the next decade.

However, the challenge in making secondhand and rentals a mass-market phenomenon is not only about convincing consumers. The struggle also lies in finding financially sustainable and scalable business- and supply models that can provide consumers with what they expect from online resale and rental shopping: easy access to quality secondhand clothing for a price they deem reasonable.

Kvinner står bak kun én prosent av alle investeringer i gründerselskaper. Andelen burde vært høyere. Derfor var jeg positiv da klesutleietjenesten Fjong i fjor satte i gang en folkefinansieringskampanje rettet mot kvinner. De lyktes med å få mer enn 100 kvinner til å registrere seg som investorer, fikk mye oppmerksomhet fra mediene, en hel del nye ambassadører og, viktigst av alt, frisk kapital for å kunne iverksette sine vekstplaner.