The Innovative Character of the Idea

Working for sustainability in shared risks between farmers and customers.

Right from the beginning -  the customers have prepaid the boxes. In the beginning they prepaid three months -   now they are only prepaying one month. Without this it wouldn’t have been possible to finance the growth of the company.

Also the engagement between customer and company has had a longer term character in the form of subscription to a box, where the content is composed by Aarstiderne. This makes planning both of economy and growing possible and more secure.

In this way Aarstiderne has succeeded in creating the difficult combination of ecology and economy.

Setting new standards for transparency and communication

Aarstiderne has re-established the communication between those who produce the food and those who consume it – a farmer to citizen communication –  soil to plate - in a contemporary way. This communication on one hand helps the farmer in getting a true picture of what the everyday consumer thinks, and on the other hand improves the understanding among the consumers of variations in seasons and challenges weather-wise. This vehicle of communication is useful for other purposes as well such as transferring knowledge of sustainability and consideration for nature and health.

Aarstiderne maintains the communication through a very honest dialogue that includes letting the customers know how the farmers and Aarstiderne are doing – and not only when the news is good. Doing this creates a high degree of confidence and loyalty.

With the launch of this new web site in August 2002, Aarstiderne has taken another step towards being fully interactive with customers. The customers are now able to manage their own accounts on-line, corresponding directly with the administrative system. Furthermore the site and thereby the customer communication is made accessible to all the employees of Aarstiderne, meaning that the “human voice” of Aarstiderne is actually “voiced”  by real living human beings!

Showing new ways of marketing

The marketing processes of Aarstiderne has been an enigma to the whole marketing industry. It has been driven by  “relation” or “viral” or “Gonzo” or “winning through worst practices”.

In the case of Aarstiderne this has meant  spreading the idea through word of mouth from one customer to another. And since the customers have always been part of the idea themselves, Aarstiderne has received a tremendous help in spreading the message.

It has also meant putting up street kitchens in Copenhagen and other main cities.

Selling meals and telling the story of the cooperation between the farmers and the customers and the message of sustainability and care for living systems.

Furthermore the two founders have engaged themselves in a  number of issues of public interest. Thomas Harttung has held and still holds the chair of a number of government and private associations related to environmental and research questions -  as well as participating in governmental think tanks etc.

Søren Ejlersen has  worked with the mass media and has been part of a series of television shows, cooking and teaching out of Aarstiderne produce and philosophy.

Growing an organisation – the organic way

Aarstiderne is constantly facing the challenge of  huge growth – from 4 to 100 employees in 3 years – and simultaneously sustaining the core values of empathy, quality, creativity, development, growth, transparency, and organic farming. The learning process of this will never stop, but by thinking untraditionally and avoiding the urge to be a “square company”, Aarstiderne is creating a unique and very dynamic culture of working together on the same idea, being able to help and take over for one another and always looking for good working practices, and awareness of inefficiency through bureaucracy and the race for prestige. Aarstiderne tries very hard to call things by their right name and not cover anything up always – “getting rid of the nothing to see the something”.

Aarstiderne uses various methods in this work and have run several Open Space Technology conferences, openspaceworld. A tool very well suited for the way of working at Aarstiderne.

Seeking low tech

The idea of organic farming is in itself low technology and this way of thinking is as much continued in Aarstiderne as possible. The boxes are all packed by hand for the purpose of ensuring  the quality of the produce put in the boxes right on time and for nursing the produce as much as possible.

Until 2002 where the demand grew enormously, the accounting was done on a rather old fashioned software and the overall attitude is to “not fix it, if it ain´t broken” – save the resources for as long as possible – and then do it right. The new website is a good example of this.

Seeing diversity as a paradigm

For the time being every business book talks about focus. Also in this field Aarstiderne stands out. Diversity is seen as a paradigm at Aarstiderne. This influences the way the boxes are put together, the way of the cooperation with the farmers, the engagement in projects of all kinds not really relating to core business such as projects with the public schools system, The Red Cross and various other bodies  and last but not least in the hiring of staff and the openness to new ways of doing things.

This thinking is a direct consequence of working closely with organic farming. Diversity here is a matter of survival and protection of the resources. To Aarstiderne this makes good sense.