Page 117 - Harnessing the Strengths

100 ■ Servant-Leadership in the Intercultural Practice

Problems and Solutions

The dilemma of passionate versus controlled emotions has
to do with the legitimacy of expressing your feelings. This
dimension is concerned with the measure to which your
emotions are shown or controlled in the workplace. In this
dilemma the following tensions play a role:

• Technical excellence versus aesthetic appeal
• Seriousness versus playfulness
• No-nonsense approach versus humor
• Controlled emotions versus passionate emotions

Technical Excellence Versus Aesthetic Appeal

Anders Knutsen, a servant-leader par excellence, was CEO
of Bang & Olufsen from 1992 to 2001. The last big chal-
lenge he faced there was to guide his company through the
looming crisis by making products that were both techni-
cally superior and aesthetically or emotionally appealing.
This was a subtle and diffuse concept to master.
Fine audiovisual information needs to be transferred to
instruments that are worthy of the artist and composition,
just as the instruments of an orchestra attempt to re-create
the emotions and the soul of the composer and transmit this
to the audience.
Traditionally at Bang & Olufsen, technical excellence
and emotional appeal were always important—more than
sales or marketing—but these defi ning qualities were no
longer in harmony. First, one had been dominant, and then
the other, and the race to excel in both had priced the prod-
ucts out of the market. However, “Time is in our favor,”
Knutsen said. “The world is overrun with discount junk