Being Competitive in Sports vs. Business

The Tour de Finance

Every weekday morning a highly competitive sporting event takes place in Oslo. It's not a marathon or football game. It's not even a real event to be honest, at least not an officially recognized one. However the corporate foot soldiers, especially those in the finance industry, all know about it and many of them participate as well.

You've no doubt heard of the bike race the Tour de France but please let me introduce to the Norwegian version, the Tour De Finance. It takes place every morning as the Norwegians living in the suburbs (Bærum) make their way on bicycle into the city center. But this isn't your normal morning commute.

Here on the urban grid of streets and bike paths, the Norwegian worker has the chance to do something that's more difficult to do within the office walls. That is of course to directly, and quite aggressively, compete with their coworkers and perhaps a few business competitors.

When Competition Is Acceptable

When physical activity is involved then it's OK in Norway to get hyper-competitive as one does not win by simply being a slick salesperson or ruthless in business dealings. In physical competition you have to put in the work. You have to extend your own limitations and practice often. You have to take great pride in the effort to truly master it.

This is what earns great respect with Norwegians. Sports, therefore, is one of the few areas that one can be super competitive in Norway. Great athletes here even reach an almost hero level of status in society.

A Different Story in Business

In business it's a bit of a different story. It's not often that a Norwegian businessperson is heralded for being ruthless and decimating their competition. Even something like being a great salesperson is not well-liked here in Norway.

Which was really unfortunate for me as I'm a damn good salesman! Modest as well! So I had to adjust my approach and competitive nature as I spent more time in Norway. I had to leave both my mean lawyers and handguns back in California which left me feeling unprepared on the battlefield of business in Norway.

The Language of War in Business

And to Americans business really is a battle. If there's one thing American's seem to enjoy (or at least enjoy doing often) it's fight. That mentality has filtered down in how we do business as well.

I first noticed the contrast between Norway and American in this regard in the very words we use in business. Our business lexicon borrows from the dictionary of war when we use words like:

• •'Beachhead' — to indicate cracking open a small part of a business market before trying to expand at scale
• •'Sending in air cover' — to add extra people and resources to important business deals
• •'SNAFU' (Situation Normal: All Fucked Up) — means completely messed up
• •'FUBAR' (Fucked Up Beyond All Reason) — basically completely broken

Norwegians I worked with almost never knew any of these terms. That's because business here is less about war and more about joint problem solving. Think more like NATO and less shock and awe.

Helt Texas!

Speaking of cowboy style, Norwegians have adopted an interesting American-inspired slang when they say Helt Texas! or "That's Texas!" to imply something is crazy. This is used in both a positive and negative connotation.

Picking Your Battles

In Norway you have to pick both your words and your battles wisely. There has been more than one occasion when I have failed to do so. By being too competitive and taking actions that would have earned respect back home in America (or at least created some fear in my competition), I have lost the trust of my colleagues.

To show them such ruthless competitiveness only made them feel that if given the chance, I would do anything to win even if that action was at their own expense. Such selfish behavior just doesn't fly in Norway.

When Ruthless Tactics Backfire

One final example: while working in Norway I was once competing directly with another company for a rather large contract. During that competition, I had learned the executives from the competing firm had been involved in some bad behavior outside of the office.

I outlined to my colleagues that we simply needed to plant a story in the press and let the court of public opinion drag them down. I then surveyed the room, proud of my devious plan, only to see looks of great concern upon their faces.

This was a battle tactic they were not willing to try despite its chances of significantly improving our competitive advantage. They preferred we compete by offering a higher quality product, even if that meant it would take significantly longer for us to win.

Competing in Physical Activities

I have however tried to compete in the way Norwegians prefer to in the areas of sports and physical activity. This is of course a rather futile effort because when us mere mortals (non-Norwegians) compete in this regard we are at a substantial disadvantage.

The combination of a few thousand hamburgers and years of the lazy American lifestyle hasn't exactly turned my body into a finely-tuned sporting machine. It's more like a big noisy diesel engine huffing and puffing as I try to keep up.

Norwegians do appreciate the effort though and take some pleasure in knowing that while their business drive doesn't always match other international business cultures, they can absolutely decimate you on the cross-country skiing trails.