As someone who spends a lot of time telling international brands and companies what to expect from the Brits – when “very interesting” can mean “very interesting” or “this is clearly nonsense” it was great to come across Sofie Hagen’s piece in The Guardian Weekend.

Some thoughts on two of Sofie’s five biggest differences:

The Danes are direct – whilst agreeing with what she says, delighted to comment that we (Rochester) too are direct, we have to be.  But I can also think of occasions in the early stage of a relationship when “brave” could also mean “insane”.  But generally, to ensure that we can represent a brand here in the UK we have to be able to tell the truth (politely, of course, we are British) whether that’s about their website, photography or content.

You do Christmas once a week – she’s talking here about our love of a Sunday roast.  We think the UK’s food and drink scene is increasingly impressive and our market entry booklet is full of suggestions of where to eat and drink, especially in London.  We also ask a question in our ongoing research of what different countries’ business leaders are looking forward to most when entering the UK market.  52% of Danish businesses voted for our food and drink being one of things they were most looking forward to in the UK (compared to Turkey at 21%) so we’d suggest even more of you try and sample a Sunday roast when you are over.

If you’d like to see Sofie on tour, visit sofiehagen.com