Pia is an enthusiastic entrepreneur with a great personality. She has a strong drive and an action driven approach to learning. I have always very much enjoyed working with Pia.

Pia is an influential leader within the Axel Johnson group. With her strong entrepreneurship and ability to explore new ways to solve business problems, Pia is a key person for developing people and business in her role as Vice President of People and Innovation. Her passion for action learning permeates the leadership culture and is a great source of action and inspiration for young and experienced leader alike.

“I have worked with Pia for several years, where she among other things has managed the development and implementation of a new Talent Development Program, as well as group wide top management conferences. Pia has a unique ability to work with individual and team performance with a clear business perspective in the first place . She always looks for opportunities, and has the ability to concretize complex issues to something that is clear and understandable, always with a positive approach and a can do attitude”.

Our Action Lab Greenhouse is an excellent concept. It is intensive action learning in which real business challenges as well as team and individual learnings are combined into an intensive 5-days frame with follow-up feedback. As key stakeholder I find the Action Lab Greenhouse very rewarding and know that it is highly appreciated by participants, In general they rate the outcome more than 4.5 on a scale from 1-5. We have engaged with Action Lab A/S annually since 2004 in conducting the concept.

Geert Egger can best be described as a committed partner in creating a well-planned, ambitious and seamlessly executed action learning experience that deepens the business understanding of our key talents while keeping sharp focus on the personal and group level learnings, contributing to increased awareness regarding their strengths and development areas as leaders. In addition, Geert keeps a close eye on the interests and needs of his stakeholders while upholding the integrity of the learning principles in a well-developed methodology.

The action learning programs have been very good at breaking barriers between professional experts. With the common aim of delivering something of relevance to the organization many have in a small focused process learned about the complexityof an effort, learned to appreciate what others bring . and learned about themselves .
It has been useful for us to bred new leaders, in particular those with leadershipskills rather than management courses.
So while giving good coaching and personal development for talented idnividuals, it has help the organization in tackling complex problems and getting a collective view on a particular task.
On a personal level. You have in your dealing with people manged respectfully to get people to adjust themselves.

I came into contact with Gunnar when I was the newly appointed EVP HR at a Dometic Group, which had a, politely stated, somewhat eccentric CEO who had come from Atlas Copco. This CEO told me that he had done some really good leadership development program there and wanted me to do something like that for Dometic Group. Calling on my network, I quickly learned that it was Gunnar George who had run the successful BDAL program for Atlas Copco. I organized a meeting with him and quickly formed a now 6 year long collaboration, with two extremely successful HIPO Programs and one Emerging Talent Program that impacted both individuals and the organization in profound ways. After working systematically and purposely with BDAL, Gunnar has helped to make lasting impacts on both participants, sponsors, the leadership team and the company.

Gunnar is a person who combines deep business insights with deep insights into organizational development, organizational learning as well as individual development and learning. He is creative, inspiring, fun to work with and always 100% reliable. He is a humanist with corporate savvy and a businessman with COMPASSION – as he so aptly named his company.

My warmest congratulations to Gunnar on this well-deserved reward.

"The best strategy is the one being implemented”: Gunnar George has played a key role in defining an approach on how to communicate and anchor our Group’s strategy, formulated in 2014. A methodology built on dialogue maps quickly transferred ownership and we are now experiences the strength of an aligned organisation.
Gunnar also guided us in defining the corporate culture and key behaviours essential to bring out and leverage the size and strength of our entire organisation. In addition Gunnar George has supported and challenged me to perform and develop.

I have worked with GG for 9 years, setting up Top Talent Programmes for 3 different companies.
It has been enjoyable in many ways.
Gunnar is a person who takes the opportunity seriously and aims to achieve sustainable change.
He not only challenge the participants in the programmes , but also the “buyer” of his professional services, which has been myself.
In his role he will be seen as senior, approachable, connected, demanding and fun to be with. What more can an HR Director wish for?

Dear Åke,

I’m certain, knowing you for the very humble and private person you are, that all of this public fuss is almost more that you can stand. I am sorry for your discomfort my friend. You’ll have to put up with the spotlight for just a few more moments -- so please bear with us.

And excuse me if I use some of the “Harold Words” you have so often tried to suggest I consolidate into more simple and straightforward statements. You are right…of course.

It’s nearly 30 years since you and I first met. You were much younger then and, as I recall, had considerably more hair… It was a bit darker too I think. Still relatively early in your career, you were transitioning out of a HR leadership position with Phillips Electronics and looking, I suspect, for an entrepreneurial adventure. And I (also somewhat younger and more hairy at the time) was working for Caliper, as it was seeking to expand its enterprise beyond its US boarders.

For reasons that were more serendipitous than planned, Sweden was selected to be Caliper’s first international location and you, Åke, had the dubious honor of being selected as the company’s very first International Managing Director.

Together with our friend Scott Corwin, Caliper’s Head of Finance and Business Operations and me, the company’s resident academic nerd and Head of Research and Consulting, we became friends and colleagues as we worked together to figure out how to translate and adapt the Caliper personality concepts, tools and business model to the Swedish culture. It was then and there that I first came to know a measure of your wisdom, your curiosity, your patience and your ability to coach, align and mentor.

It took us nearly a year to complete the task and, in the end, what we accomplished was much more personal than the mere translation of a personality tool and the creation of a workable business model. For in the process translating the tools, we stayed at each others homes, we learned about each others families and cultures, we talked about how the world worked and what we liked and didn't like and our aspirations and our goals and world history and economics and religion and philosophy and business and what was and is important and what was and is not.

I thank you, my friend, for your willingness to share your ideas and feelings, for your empathy and patient collaboration, for your willingness to engage and most of all for your tolerance of my only speaking English. You are a remarkable human being for that alone.

You stayed at Caliper for only a few short years where we had the opportunity to explore and collaborate on a number of projects (including the development of a proprietary assessment tool for ABB—see me later for a copy of the original) and then you went on to have a distinguished career with KF Industries and as the HR Director for the City of Stockholm before joining with your friends Yury, Chantal and Karl-Georg some 20 years ago.

And then, in 2003, with yet another expression of your generosity and friendship, you introduced me to the GEL team as I was beginning to transition out of my role at Caliper. For that I am most grateful because it provided an opportunity for us to collaborate and see each other again and for me to have the opportunity to honor you tonight.

Though I am sure this will embarrass you, I once told your dear wife and our friend Agneta, that I loved you…and I do my friend. I have learned much from you over these years and hope to do so for many more years to come. Congratulations on this award and recognition. I can think of no one more worthy and I am honored to be among the presenters.

Dear Ake,

Our Story started 20 years ago in the South of France, thanks to the Theseus Business School. It’s where the idea to build our network around BUSINESS DRIVEN ACTION LEARNING was born. I remember you saying the acronym BDAL sounded great!!!

You have always been our “Wise Man” showing continuous common sense, always pushing us further and further with your favorite question: what next?

Beyond your huge experience, you are very progressive, always looking to the future.

Simplification is your way of life. I love your few words “this sounds complicated, could we do something about it”.

Above all, people are your “raison d’être”. You teach me empathy and I admire your secret way to empower people and to make them stronger while questioning some of their behaviors, and this, always, with elegance.

Finally, I would like to say I really appreciate the profound and durable friendship we have built along these 20 years which has helped us overcome the natural milestones of our lives. We have never missed opportunities to celebrate this friendship wherever we have been in the world. I shall always treasure and never forget these wonderful moments.

Thank you.

Dear Åke,

On my part just a few short comments why I think you are the right person for this award and what it should mean to you.

You will not know, but you have introduced to me to an essential part of Business Driven Action Learning.
In your case, it is the art of active listening.
We hear a lot about questions and questioning techniques but rarely about the art of listening and the importance for learning.
Respect and appreciation of people is the foundation for listening, thus allowing access to people and their knowledge. In this respect, I am still trying to learn from you.

It’s of course not the case that you don’t have anything to say. No, just the opposite.
I'll never forget how you have summarized-- at the very beginning of our cooperation-- a fairly intellectual contribution by a program presenter with the words: “Corporate bullshit”. You captured the essence of it beautifully.
And that's something I've learned as well. Respect but also the courage to call things by their real name. Thanks for that.

Ultimately, we've both hopefully grown gray with honor. Dear Ake, I am happy to tell you that this is only an optical phenomenon with you. I sometimes close my eyes and concentrate entirely on the voice of a man. While listening to the sound of a voice you can figure out how awake a brain is and how engaged it is with life. Voices are, in general, aging. Yours, however, is as fresh as the first day we met.
So enjoy the award. For sure it does not mean that you’re on the shelf from now on. In fact, the very opposite.