“A magical evening of exquisite food and wine, brilliant performers and a festive display of lights,” reads a review of Baugur’s annual staff party back in May 2006 in their newsletter.

The annual event, held in Copenhagen’s Tivoli in 2006, was, from what I understand, held to remind staff that the company was a lead investor and was all about having fun while building business—or so reads the extract.

Earlier this week a video of Baugur’s 2007 party surfaced on the net. The 2007 party looked even more extravagant than that of the previous year.

The video on YouTube, an in-house motivational video, shows the staff party in Monaco: fancy hotel, private jets—even a concert with Tina Turner. All the right material for the party of the year.

The executive party included a long list of guests, speakers and performers, including cast members from Little Britain. As so many columnists, bloggers and journalists have commented, it’s no wonder, with splurges like this, that Baugur ran into financial difficulty. And the question remains—who ended up paying for this? 

Flaunting your success, your assets, is no longer acceptable, as it was once was. Those who are suffering most are no doubt upset at the extravagance. After failing to meet payments, Baugur requested receivership earlier this year.

The Baugur Monaco 2007 party clip was removed from YouTube soon after being posted, citing copyright claims by the production company. But not before about 48,000 people had viewed the film.

It’s not the only video of its kind. There’s also the “Banana Republic of Iceland” video—a light-hearted look at fraud in Icelandic companies. I only recently started using YouTube and am impressed to see how well the medium is used to disseminate information.

The now nationalized bank Kaupthing also has something to show. The bank made a slick video called Kaupthinking. The “Kaupthinking: beyond normal thinking” clip is well worth checking out for its comic value:

“We thought we could double in size—and we did—every year for eight years. We thought we could increase our balance sheet and we did—by 500 percent in just three years. We think we can continue to grow the same way we always have, by trumping bureaucracy,  by moving fast, being flexible, building clients’ businesses and our own—and have fun doing it. What is Kaupthinking? Kaupthinking is beyond normal thinking—is thinking beyond,” the voiceover runs.

A spin-off of the video—“Kaupsinking”—followed.

Sigurdur Einarsson, the bank’s former CEO, was recently named as suspect in fraud investigation. At the time of writing, the bank is set to announce a new name. A new name, for a new era.

An era where the party is well and truly over.

Zoë Robert – zoe_robert3@hotmail.com