Doing Business in Norway

All the tips to launch a business in Norway are in this article!

Norway is famous for its beautiful nature with long fjords and mountains. The country is located in the North of Europe which makes the winter cold and dark and the summer light and warmer. To connect with the Norwegians you should talk about the beauty of the country.

THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT IN NORWAY

The Norwegian business environment is characterised by highly skilled workers with high productivity. They like to be efficient with their time at work. Email answers can be very short and direct to the point.

The country is innovation-oriented and has a lot of programs and facilities to make it easier for start-ups to start and accelerate their business. Norway has one of the most important economic growth in the world. It is a leader in oil, gas, marine activities but also in medical, financial, and education technologies.

When working in a Norwegian company the hierarchy is not important with a flat structure in most companies. An intern can for example have a quick chat with one of the managers. When talking to each other the Norwegians are direct and are not used to formalities. In fact, they only use their first name when talking to someone.

Norwegians don’t drink alcohol at work, but they usually have parties with their colleagues in December (Christmas) and in May (Summer party) where they usually have a nice dinner and drink (can be a bit too much) with their colleagues.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

A typical working day starts between 8.00 and 8.30 a.m. You will have a lunch break of 30 minutes with your colleagues around 11.00. Don’t forget to bring your own food! The working day ends at 4.00 – 4.30 p.m.

To comply with Norwegian culture, you should organize meetings before 3 p.m. You also have to avoid meetings on Friday afternoons. The Norwegians will not be available as they are leaving the city for their places in the countryside! The Norwegians also care a lot about Easter week, May (as there are a lot of holidays), July, and the end of the year. So be careful not to set an appointment during these periods!

Last but not least, although they are very friendly, body language is not very expressive in Norway, so do not interpret this as a lack of interest!

THE WRONG STEPS

In an interview with “Carlo” from Italy, who is working in a Norwegian accounting company, he shared his biggest “wrong steps” with us. Norwegians like to start their business meetings at the scheduled time, and because of this, it will not be appreciated if you arrive late to a business meeting. If you are late, they will probably start the meeting without you, and when you arrive, you will have to be as quiet as you can to avoid looks from the others. This happened to “Carlo”, and he did not feel good about it.

Another aspect Norwegians appreciate when it comes to business, in general, is being prepared. If you arrive at a meeting without preparing for the planned topics to be discussed, it will be considered disrespectful. The reason is that they will have to use a timeslot of the meeting explaining things to you that the others already know, and by this, they risk not having enough time to cover all the planned topics for the meeting.

“I learned the hard way that in Norwegian business meetings it’s not tolerated to be late”