Lars Karlsson: CapacityNow

I do a lot of lectures, masterclasses, speeches and presentations every year, in many different forums.

I am form believer in learning and reading, and I have in my academic research work done a lot of studying around my field of expertise. B

eing a Doctor of Education (Honoris Causa) I also see it as my duty to share my findingd and to motivate others to do the same. In parallel with doing work in my professionaö sectors customs, blrders and internationalbtrade policy – I have also done a lot of work around eladership and management. Soon mynuodated edition of my leadership book, ’When Elephants Fly – They haven’t landed yet’ will be available. The world has changed, multiple times – and what has changed in ten years in relation to leadership in our field.

I have a number of own experiences from my leadership and management career on all levels to share and I also want to share what has inspired me. One thing I have always believed in is passion.

To be a good leader you need to be pSsionate about what you do, your team and the organization you work for. We need to share the purpose and value of our mission.

Sometimes I go back and watch the American well-known business leader Steve Balmer from the moment when he made his first aplearnace after takkng over from the founder Bill Gates as new CEO for Microsoft, see the video above.

ou could argue that he is puttimg on a show in a critical moment for his company – but I know that he really wasn’t. This is Steve Balmer being himself and it is his version of passionate leadership. Most importantly, it worked. It wouldn’t in allm organizations, but here it was a just genious.

Another week of 2022 has passed in rocket pace. It started in Morocco and ended in Stockholm. Now I am on my way home.

There are so many things happening in the world right now. We need to constantly evaluate and re-shape our models, while staying strong in our strategies.

Sometimes there are difficult and challenging decisions to be made, like when we this week closed down the TradeLens – the to date leading trade blockchain.

However while still being convinced of the need for blockchain technology in the global trade iniverse, our firm belief that these platforms need to be independent, open for all and commercially viable. So many colleagues have worked extremely hard to establish this new data pipeline, the learning will be used in our other platforms.

We had not yet used TradeLens for our Customs operations and will now move forward with the alternative solutions going forward.

Now we are planning for 2023. the year when Global Trade 2.0 will be on top of the agenda, everywhere. There are many new innovative projects and initiatives to be revealed soon.

A “super-cartel” that controlled one-third of the cocaine trade in Europe has been taken down in six countries, police have said.

The EU police agency, Europol, announced that 49 suspects were arrested during the investigation, after raids in Europe and the UAE targeting the cartel’s “command and control centre” and logistics network.

One of the suspects is a British national, who is thought to have led the cartel. The British suspect is described as having links to the Costa del Sol. He left Spain after an attempted kidnapping plot against him and fled to Dubai, where he continued to run the drugs operation, according to a statement from Spain’s Guardia Civil.

A Europol source told the AFP news agency that one of the Dutch suspects was an “extremely big fish”. A total of 14 arrests were made in the Netherlands in 2021, while two “high-value” Dutch suspects were arrested in Dubai.

The Dutch suspects are allegedly linked to Ridouan Taghi, who was arrested in 2019 and is now on trial in the Netherlands, where he faces charges of murder and running an Amsterdam-based cocaine-smuggling group.

Source: Guardian