Mr. Paer Ola Sjoesten is the president and CEO of GO! Magazine Group and an International businessman in Asia, Gulf Coast Countries, and Europe. Spreading happiness throughout regions, the GO! Magazine is one of the most original and valued media publications that you can see. Paer Ola Sjoesten is paving the way towards a brighter future with the goal of uplifting and inspiring people around countries and regions.
Paer Ola Sjoesten and his company are unique compared to other publications because they solely focus on positivity rather than anything else. They emphasize what you can do and how. Mr. Paer Ola Sjoesten has been a third-generation publisher in the media industry since the 1980s, making him an immensely experienced businessman.
Our interview with Mr. Paer Ola Sjoesten enabled us to understand his ideas and ambitions, which were pretty inspiring. So let’s learn more about him and the award-winning Go! Magazine.
Paer Ola Sjoesten Explain the background of you and the company in detail.
Well, I’m the third generation of publishers and media, so my path was set from the beginning. The legacy will continue with me, which I was prepared for. I have been in the publishing and media business for about 40 years. When I came into this business, I had my goals set on a bigger market than the Scandinavian arena. So, in the mid-90ies, I took over and started my journey to success.
Honing my skills in China, Italy, and the Baltic regions, I did my due diligence and found promising markets for GO! Magazine in all of these places. As it usually is, I had friends in UAE who encouraged me to look at the Gulf region as my next step.
What are your goals?
My goals, or rather the company’s goals, are to be successful and provide the unique touch of GO! Magazine to the regions we operate in. As President of GO! Magazine Group, my first and foremost goal is to enrich every country and region with information on what to do, what to see, and what to experience. However, my goals go beyond this.
Globally there has been a trend to focus on the bad things happening, even more so with the digital era where everyone seems to chase the bad and spectacular information to get clicks and followers. GO! Magazine is quite the opposite. We find all the positive news and happenings in the region and push inspiring news and content. People need to be uplifted and inspired by all the positive things happening.
What do you feel is the biggest strength of yourself/company right now?
In sharp contrast to most media today, we focus only on positive and inspiring content. What creates conflicts is mostly the lack of understanding of people from other backgrounds and cultures. Here we actively publish content on what is the cultural divide to bridge any obstacles. Our strength is that we dig into what people need to know about different cultures to be able to embrace all the positive things one can experience with the right knowledge and mindset.
What was the path you/your company took to get to where you are today?
As a matter of fact, most places we operate in today were just a gut feeling of “Can we do this?” and we have looked at some other countries too. Some are still pending, others we have turned down, but UAE was a sure bet, for example. It is a vibrant community with both natives and ex-pats thriving to make the most out of it and have a good life. It all comes down to determination and gathering people around us that we believe in and can trust. Sure we have stumbled and doubted our mission to spread happiness. In the end, we’ve always managed to find the right people and contacts to work with and the right contacts to engage with. ·
Paer Ola Sjoesten Why did you start (or want to be the head of) this company?
That is a very good question. In times of trouble and things not developing as we want, the doubt is there. But doubt is also good. As a famous author once said, “without a doubt, you are not sane.” I think that covers it all. And also, something I picked up in China can be the trademark of my thinking and vision. Did you know that the Chinese sign for “crisis” and “opportunity” is actually the same? So it all depends on how you wish to see the situation.
Out of every challenge, there is a good thing to come out of it. So to answer your question in more detail, it wasn’t really something I made an active choice to be the President of GO! Magazine Group. Instead, it results from determination and hard work to get where we are today. Also, another important point is that all the good partners and employees we have are a big part of my success.
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As I said before, I really don’t see challenges as a negative part of the equation. Every challenge has an opportunity built into it. However, there were moments when some companies and individuals approached us whom we had to distance ourselves from. In their mind, they just want to take us for a financial ride but with no commitment. Unfortunately, it only takes one bad apple in the harvest to ruin the whole batch. But with time and hard work, we learned, and now we have a fantastic team that shares my vision for GO! Magazine, today and in the future.
Give us one word that describes you the best.
I would say “happiness.” Happiness is such an underrated word. Happiness is what we all want, right. Happiness makes us get out of bed in the morning and do good things. Happiness is what makes you take all the negativity and bad things in your life and carry you to your next goal, right.
What makes you excited about Mondays?
Tell you what; I love Mondays! It is the start of a new week with lots of possibilities and a new lease on life. I prefer to think of it as a great chance to engulf myself in new and exciting things to come. Sometimes you don’t see them on a Monday, but for sure, when Friday comes, you look back at the week and feel blessed for all the good things that happened and all the marvellous people you encountered.
What do you value most about your culture and vision?
It doesn’t really matter where you come from or what background you have as I see it. First and foremost, we are humans. We all want the same. We all have the same needs. It doesn’t matter what religion you have as long as you are a good person and respect others and their beliefs. It doesn’t matter if you come from a wealthy family or not, just as long as you treat everyone with respect and dignity. My vision is that we shall make the world a better and more tolerant place for everyone. And here is where GO! Magazine plays a major part. You act upon what you are fed, right. If you only take in bad and negative influences, that’s what you are passing on. On the other hand, if you have a positive mindset and soul, this is what you are projecting on others.
Tell us about a project that forced you to be innovative and creative.
Yes, that would be something, right. But, of course, in our line of business, we are not spilling the beans on anyone. But if you mean “innovative and creative” in the sense that we had to go an uncharted road to be successful, I have so many stories to tell.
What are your company’s strategies, and how do they stand unique from your competitors?
We do have competitors in all the markets we operate in. However, they are detached from the local markets in a sense. Not to name anyone in particular, some are owned by overseas risk capitalists that only see the product’s value in the bottom line. And when the profits go down they bail out.
On the other hand, we engage local staff, producers, writers, and photographers to create our content. And I really love to work with local talents. It is truly inspiring. Something else we are very proud of and actually one of our strongest core values is to give back to the community as a way to say “thanks for letting us come to you.” We have allocated 4-6% of our revenue to sponsor local schools, training centers, hospitals, and communities for children with special needs, environmental projects, and so on. It is so rewarding to be able to do this.
What are the key values that helped you overcome the roadblocks/challenges in your career? Tell us something about your memorable incident in your leadership?
You have to be willing to give it all of your energy and time. Being headstrong and not giving up at the first hurdle. This is what I teach to younger people who want to get into the business. As a former military officer, you learn that you can go three times as far as you think if you just put your mind to it.
Roadblocks will come, that is sure, but it’s all the matter of how prepared you are and how you deal with them. When I started my companies, both in the Gulf and in SouthEast Asia, many advised against it. There will always be people with limited visions to tell you you will fail. But I was sure I would make it after all and embracing the fact that opening a new company on a new market would take up all of my time for the next year or so; it was just rolling up your sleeves and getting “down and dirty.”
Before setting up any formal company, I always go there myself for a “field test.” Doing cold calls, knocking on doors, getting into places because if I can’t sell the vision of GO! Magazine as “happiness is what we do best,” I really can’t ask anyone else to be successful, right. It takes all you got, and then some. But this also led up to us being awarded “Best original content Magazine” in Singapore 2018 and “Best Lifestyle and Entertainment Magazine” in UAE in 2020.
How do you see the company changing in two years, and how do you see yourself creating that change?
I am blessed with two business partners who are just magnificent. They entered the business just as I was at a junction, business-wise. I can’t reveal any of our plans yet, but I think we should have a new chat within the next two years, and then I can tell you. But let’s say; where we are going with GO! Magazine, no one has gone before in this fashion. ·
Where is your leadership going? What benefits do your clients get from your company in this competitive world?
That is an easy question, but still very relevant. Without our clients, we cannot be successful. And what the client needs is a reliable partner to take care of their needs. GO! Magazine is the only Magazine and/or media with only 100% positive content.
Let me give you an example. We approached a small business many years ago that offered chartered fishing trips on the local waters. They were not really interested and were looking at other media to advertise for a lot more money than we were asking. After some weeks, they decided to go for the more expensive alternative, which pretty much emptied their bank account. So spending all that money on a tiny advert somewhere hidden in the big newspaper, they prayed for customers to come in heaps. Finally, the day came when their expensive advert was going to be published. No one came. Because on the same page, the National Board of Health advised against eating fish that came from these waters.
What are the services/solutions or products offered by your company at par with the current industry standards? Tell us something about your upcoming products or services?
We have just launched our new digital platform, and it has been a phenomenal success. We grew 160% in a week. Me earning my wings in the analog era, I was not really sure how to transform the soul of GO! Magazine to a digital platform. But again, with the right people in place, it turned out well over my expectations. We are still going to do printed magazines but more as a novelty and extra value to advertisers and readers. Funny enough, when we decided to re-launch our digital platforms, clients started to ask about printed magazines. I guess I will learn as long as I live.
Connect with Mr Paer Ola Sjoesten on LinkedIn!