Czech & Slovak Leaders 01/2020

Czech & Slovak Leaders I/2020

JANUARY/APRIL 2020

PROTECTING THE SOVEREIGNTY of the Czech Republic is one of the Senate’s roles Miloš Vystrčil, President of the Senate

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P ublisher ’ s

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DEAR READERS,

events  page 8

As you read this publisher’s note, we are in the middle of one of the worst outbreaks of Covid 19, the coronavirus pandemic. Here is some good advice from the experts of the World Economic Forum for keeping a healthy mind during uncertain times: Fight fear with facts; be good to yourself and others; think about your mental health if you are self-isolating; try to focus on positive news.

Spring is lingering in the air and hopefully soon, depending on the coronavirus and restrictions, we can again be strolling around outside and enjoying nature in its most beautiful springtime bloom, showing the variety of its colors and diversity of its fragrances.

Meanwhile, I and my great team are quite busy now finishing this Jan/March issue of Czech & Slovak Leaders Magazine, coming out approximately at the end of March. You will find many top level events and interesting interviews and articles.

On our front page, we are happy to have Mr. Miloš Vystrčil, President of the Senate replacing Mr. Jaroslav Kubera who suddenly and tragically left us. We have a very interesting interview with Mr. Vystrčil. Other interesting interviews, to mention a few, are Mrs. Pekarová-Adamová, Head of Top 09, Mr. Willi Song, CEO of Huawei, H.E. Petr Kubernát, earlier Czech Ambassador to Luxembourg and Holland, MUDr. Hana Raková, Esthe Clinic, Tomáš Klvaňa, Journalist Advisor, Jiří Berger and Jiří Polák.

A few of the prominent events reported on are Czech 100 Best and Key Success Factors by Comenius, Legendary Karel Muzikář, National Day of Myanmar, Thailand and Ghana, PragArtworks exhibition by Louise Beer, Public Policy Debate with Zdeněk Tůma

by UNYP, Biofach, Women Mission to Israel, Responsible Travelling in Vietnam, Discover Sweden at Czech Centre Exhibition, Miro Gallery Exhibition, EU Matters, and UNICEF meeting Partners.

I am extremely happy to announce that our visibility has gone up considerably. In 2019, we had 5.370.000 page views, 795.000 visitors, 60.000 newsletter subscribers and 15.000 followers on social media. Great news and we will grow even stronger in the coming years. I and my great team are fully committed to this.

Finally, all of you, try to keep calm, be optimistic, take care of each other, protect yourself and, together, we shall all ride out and overcome this terrible coronavirus pandemic.

Dear readers – another year is before us – let’s make it a good one, despite the dreadful situation right now.

Benke Aikell benke.aikell@czechleaders.com www.czechleaders.com

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New Year´s lunch held at Lány – Miloš Zeman and Andrej Babiš with their families

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President of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman representing the Czech Republic 12 Small in stature, but a giant of a man Farewells bid to Jaroslav Kubera in Prague 21 The Pulse Lecture at UNYP The Czech economy in a Central European and international context 34 The success story of Biofach and Vivaness 2019 40 UNICEF Partners meeting in Hilton Prague Old Town 57 Dana Zátopková in memoriam 68 ČSÚZ 86 Lions Club Prague Bohemia Ambassador 89 Public policy debate with Zdeněk Tůma  page 14

C ontents

interviews

culture events  page 5

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From left: Michael Specking, General Manager, Hilton Prague; Jiří Bambas, CEO, BMS Creative; Anton Korenčík, Director, Gesto Computers; Terezie Sverdlinová, Director, Tereza Maxová Foundation; Gabriela Lašková, Presenter; David Lesch, Managing Director, AV Media; Filip Eisenreich, CEO, Leel Coils Europe; and Roman Uhlíř, F&B Quality Manager, Hilton Prague, as Santa

Miloš Vystrčil

5 Interview with Miloš Vystrčil Protecting the sovereignty of the Czech Republic is one of the Senate’s roles 22 Interview with Ayesha Patricia Rekhi I admire the resilience of the Czech people 36 Interview with Willi Song Success has many fathers 42 Interview with Gabriela Křivánková The right management strategy bears fruit.

Vision, consistency and the art of enduring are important!

46 Interview with Petr Kubernát The phenomenon of returning from abroad 54 Interview with Markéta Pekarová Adamová Politics requires the courage to step outside one's comfort zone 58 Interview with Hana Raková Laser medicine isn’t Photoshop 64 Interview with Jana Tikalová 65 Interview with Vít Horký 72 Interview with Jiří Berger and Jiří Polák Make sure to use innovative methods! Learn more about “See-Through” model 78 Interview with Tomáš Klvaňa On media, career shifts and extending your runway

11 ELAI house-warming party 16 Comenius Czech 100 best awards ceremony 26 Annual Christmas Charity Concert of Hilton Hotels in Prague 48 A legend celebrates his 80th birthday Birthday party of Karel Muzikář 60 Porcelain for Expo Dubai 20 BLOSSOMS 2018 66 Trial by Theatre – reports on Czech drama by Barbara Day, published by Karolinum Press 93 PragArtworks 96 Discover Sweden Exhibition of Swedish design 98 MIRO Gallery – Opening ceremony of the Joachim Elzmann exhibition – Pralinky  page 30

H.E. Mrs. Ureerat Chareontoh, Ambassador of Thailand and Thailand team in Prague

diplomatic events 24 Independence Day of Myanmar 30 National Day reception of the Kingdom of Thailand 32 63rd anniversary of the Independence Day of Ghana reception

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contributors 39

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Tereza Urbánková Does culture eat strategy for breakfast?

Eva Gáboríková What do Germans miss in Slovakia and the Czech Republic in cross-cultural business?

Cristina Muntean Humanity 2.0: the entrepreneurial career and our journey into the future Jan Mühlfeit and Kateřina Novotná Unlocking a child’s potential. A parent as a partner.

Alena Huberová Are you rejecting your feminine traits?

Iva Drebitko Beethoven – 250 years since the birth of a musical genius Linda Štucbartová Second women entrepreneurial mission to Israel Linda Štucbartová Enjoy your journey in 2020. Wishing you responsible and conscious travels.

James A. Cusumano Universal Truth. Dialogue II: your path is the way.

James A. Cusumano

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Publisher: Benke Aikell Head of Editorial: Lenka Helena Koenigsmark Office Assistant: Tatiana Fominykh Webmaster: Petra Kubernátová DTP: Šárka Čičková EU Matters: CEBRE Czech Business Representation, CESES, Europlatform Contributors: James A. Cusumano, Martina Hošková, Lenka Helena Koenigsmark, Jan Mühlfeit, Kateřina Novotná, Linda Štucbartová, Tereza Urbánková, Alena Huberová, Cristina Muntean, Emanuel Šíp, Eva Gáboríková, Iva and Joseph Drebitko Photographers: Vladimír Weiss, Hana Brožková, Martin Janas, Katarina Gritt, Stanislav Milata, Jaromír Zubák, Eva Davidová, Tereza Šlápotová, Stanislava Kyselová, Amelie Gluntz, Jitka Tomečková, Tereza Šlápotová

Figure 2: An effective meditation practice can not only reduce stress and increase your state of wellbeing, but can also release feelings not unlike a “runner’s high”.

EU matters 100 Interview with Radka Maxová Social policy is close to my heart 102 EU debate Ever closer, never single. High level lunch on obstacles in the Internal Market Czech gaming industry shown in Belgium CEBRE founders met Czech MEPs to discuss digital agenda 104 EU matters business

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INTERVIEW WITH MILOŠ VYSTRČIL, President of the Senate

Protecting the sovereignty of the Czech Republic is one of the Senate’s roles RNDr. Miloš Vystrčil was elected to head the Senate following the unexpected death of the renowned and high-profile figure of Jaroslav Kubera. He is heading the Senate until the autumn elections.

President of the Senate and Vice-Chairman of the Civic Democratic Party, Miloš was originally a teacher.

He entered politics shortly after November 1989. Like his predecessor, he has experience of municipal politics, having been Mayor of Telč. He also has experience of regional politics, having been Governor of Vysočina.

With experience of how the Chamber of Deputies operates, he was re-elected to the Senate in 2016.

He describes the Senate as the freest and most democratic institution he has experienced. It is the institution which is the least manipulable and hardest to manipulate. And it is an institution in which the vast majority of senators always put the benefits and future of the country first.

Despite his experience, he remains very modest. His inaugural speech included a humble proclamation that even should he be elected to head the Senate, giving him the role of the second-highest-ranking official in the country, he would still remain one of 81 senators, and that should he ever forget this then his colleagues should remind him.

My interview with Miloš wasn’t just about his vision of leading the Senate and the political issues he has been long-focused on. We also looked at protocols and ceremonial affairs. Despite a heavy workload, the President of the Senate can serve as an example in how to manage a challenging job while still actively taking part in sport. And finally, our readers can look back on the recent 170th anniversary of the birth of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.

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Mr Senate President, thank you so much for your time and willingness to grant an interview to Czech and Slovak Leaders readers. Let’s begin with your vision for leading the Senate. You’ve got a relatively brief eight-month period left in the role. On the other hand, you’re taking over the role of the secondhighest-ranking official from Jaroslav Kubera, who was not just a distinctive, but also a very active, political figure.

You can’t make any fundamental changes to how the Senate operates in eight months, and we don’t need to do so anyway. The Senate is carrying out its role and operates very well in terms of approving laws, assessing their quality and organising other events which take place in the Senate. I am personally focusing on three areas in which we can make progress during this short period of time. The first is to increase the Senate’s visibility and explain its role to the public. Here, however, I am building on the work of my predecessors, Milan Štěch and Jaroslav Kubera, whom you have mentioned.

I think it is important to go out into the regions and hold discussions with the public, and not just in connection with major events.

Last weekend, when we marked the 170th anniversary of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk’s birth, I visited not just Lány but also TGM’s

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birthplace, Hodonín. I talked with citizens not just about the president as liberator, but also about the meaning and importance of the Senate. The second point on my agenda is to establish close communication with the Chamber of Deputies, especially in terms of information exchange. I am convinced that if the Chamber of Deputies could share their draft laws or intentions in a different form to the current so-called excerpts, then this could make the legislative process significantly faster and improve quality. My third point is to organise a number of public hearings on core issues which affect the Czech Republic. I’d like to discuss issues such as the ageing population and the related topic of pension reform. I’m from Vysočina, so I’m also very much aware of the issue of forest dieback. Vice-President of the Senate, Miluše Horská, and I are also planning a discussion on human rights. These public hearings are essentially a different form of Senate session, and they serve to stimulate debate and help resolve crucial issues.

What has surprised you in exercising your role? In a positive and negative sense?

In terms of the nature of the work, there was no surprise there. What I do feel is a certain satisfaction in regard to a perception of an active approach to the role and its utilisation

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

for the daily operation of our institution. Many have told me that the role of Senate President is mainly a symbolic and ceremonial one, taking part in various events and awards, and welcoming important figures. This leaves no space to influence laws, the operation of the Senate and the Czech Republic in general.

But my experience so far is the opposite, and very positive. I’ve seen that if the Senate President communicates well with the other Vice-Presidents and caucus chairpeople, then it can affect the Czech Republic’s position on crucial issues in a significant way. If there were no Senate, some issues would not be dealt with at all. The behaviour of the Chinese ambassador, an example of a crucial issue which is of interest to the general public today, shows that protection of the Czech Republic’s sovereignty is one of the Senate’s roles, and it fulfils this role much better than any other institution.

And have you had any surprises of an unpleasant nature?

I don’t know whether to call it an unpleasant surprise exactly, but I have had to deal with loss of freedom. I’ve been assigned protection officers and I have to report my movements to them. Some might be jealous of this fact, but they don’t realise what it’s like to live, knowing that you mustn’t forget

to inform them even when you’re taking the dog for a walk with your wife.

By virtue of your office, you hold one of the seven keys to the Crown Jewels Chamber in the Chapel of St Wenceslas.

How does that feel?

I’ve got the key in my safe. I think I won’t experience that special feeling until the moment I take the key out of the safe and set off to the chapel with the others. So far, I’d compare the feeling to having a fine ceremonial outfit. It’s one thing to have it in your wardrobe, but the opportunity of wearing it out in society is an entirely different experience. In regard to ceremonial practices, I’d mention a different matter, though. The President of the Republic swears an oath to the Constitution of the Czech Republic in the presence of the Senate President.

Thus the Senate President acts symbolically as a guardian of the Constitution, and by swearing on the Constitution, the President undertakes to observe not just what is written in the Constitution, but also its principles and constitutional customs. Unfortunately, after the oath is given, the Senate President can no longer oversee the matter, but in terms of the experience it is a very important event.

Let’s now look at issues linked to your membership of the Committee on Public Administration, Regional Development and the Environment. In recent years, the Czech Republic has been mainly focused on the prevalent drought, with a number of conferences being held, including ones abroad, where this issue has been discussed with representatives from Israel. You’ve already mentioned forest dieback. What do we need to do from your perspective?

Forest dieback is very closely related to the drought. When there isn’t enough water, trees are much more prone to various diseases and find it more difficult to combat bark beetles, something which has heavily impacted Vysočina specifically. In terms of securing water within the landscape, we just need to go back to the proven methods of our ancestors. Instead of vast fields, let us return to hedgerows, wetlands, and rivers and streams with meanders instead of regulated straightened courses. Unfortunately, the situation is not helped by the inconsistent measures taken by different state institutions.

While the Ministry of the Environment provides grants for re-meandering rivers, the Ministry of Agriculture offers grants for the regulation and de facto concrete lining of river beds. An absurd paradox. If we’re not able to grasp the crucial nature of respecting the natural world, then any inspiration from the surrounding world is of little use. The basic way we act is up to us. We know what we have to do, but we don’t do it because we think we can beat nature.

Do you miss the school system? Your original profession is teaching, from which follows your engagement in

social issues. How do you perceive Czech society in terms of the school system, social divisions and intergenerational solidarity? Czech schools have long been accused of not being able to develop talent and help children achieve a higher education than their parents achieved.

I miss the school system. Sometimes my original profession manifests itself when I teach my colleagues; I have a tendency to test them and grade them. But I haven’t received any report cards in my Senate office yet, and I’m not planning to give out end-ofterm reports (laughs). In terms of the school system, you’re right. My opinion is quite a distinctive one. I think we need to trust teachers and not force all teachers to teach in the same way. A strapping young male teacher will build authority in a different way to a smaller-statured, middle-aged female teacher. Teachers usually manage the situation well. What we can do is secure them better remuneration and provide them with enough space to carry out their profession.

In terms of remuneration, the situation is improving. In terms of trust and respect, it is not improving. Many people who have no experience of teaching others still think they can advise teachers. We lay people don’t advise brick-layers on the best way to build a wall, and we don’t tell carpenters how to make tables. I’m an advocate for expanding the powers of both school principals and individual teachers. With this power comes responsibility. I can imagine that after completing their final 9th year at elementary school, pupils might do some kind of leaving examinations in maths, Czech and a foreign language. They might be anonymous for the pupils, but the aggregated scores would provide information on the level of the particular school.

In terms of social issues, I am a great proponent of an approach based on intergenerational solidarity. I myself am involved in the charity Sdílení, which provides home hospice care, respite care, various medical aids, and also provides training to medics. If this type of

organisation could operate at the level of municipalities with extended competence, then this would be the most effective way of providing social services. When people know each other, there is no danger that anyone might not provide a quality service to another, would dare to steal from them, or would even be negligent in care provision.

How do you manage to relax? You’re a football fan. When were you last at a match, and when do you play football yourself?

I go to see the football in Telč regularly; we play in the 1A league, but it’s the winter break right now. I consider myself a bit of a coach on the sidelines; the mayor and I are both former players, so we drink beer and advise the young players. We really enjoy it.

I no longer play football actively; you’re always dependent on the group and when the others are available, and I’m often working at different places. Instead, I go running. I run alone and can clear my head doing so. I’m looking forward to the Victory Run on 8 May, and I regularly run the Jihlava half-marathon. I need to start training at the end of March; I’ve already informed my security. So they can get ready too.

Your final message for Czech and Slovak Leaders readers?

We recently marked the 170th anniversary of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk’s birth. I’m using words originally spoken by Mark Twain, but Masaryk liked to quote him. “If you ever need a helping hand, it is at the end of your arm.” I think this quote applies to all the situations we find ourselves in today. From the situation around COVID-19 to the debate on securing your old age, it all begins with personal responsibility towards yourself and your children. Those hands at the end of our arms can be the first to give us help when those around us, or the state, fail.

Linda Štucbartová české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

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P hoto : A rchive KPR, H ana B rožková

PRESIDENT MILOŠ ZEMAN

The address of the President of the Czech Republic at the festive ceremony on the occasion of the Czech National Day on the 28th of October

General Staff of the Czech Republic celebrated 100th anniversary of its foundation – around the table: Andrej Babiš, Prime Minister, Miloš Zeman, President of the CR, Aleš Opata, The Chief of the General Staff of the CR, Jaroslav Kubera, late President of the Senate, and Lubomír Metnar, Minister of Defence

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Jaromír Jágr, well-known hockey player and Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic at the festive ceremony on the occasion of the Czech National Day on the 28th of October

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H.E. Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic with his wife Ivana, surrounded by distinguished personalities whose deeds were awarded with state honors

Zuzana Čaputová, President of Slovakia and Miloš Zeman at the occasion of the Opening of the Czech House in Bratislava

Zuzana Čaputová, President of Slovakia and Miloš Zeman at the occasion of the Opening of the Czech House in Bratislava

State Visit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Miloš Zeman with Gerhard Schroder, former Chancellor of Germany

State Visit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Miloš Zeman with Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany

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New Year´s lunch held at Lány – Miloš Zeman and Andrej Babiš with their families

Appointment of the judges

Miloš Zeman with the nominees of the Village of the Year competition

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Miloš Zeman at the formal lunch with Cardinal Dominik Duka

G ala E vent

ELAI house-warming party European Leadership & Academic Institute (ELAI) provider of open, practically focused workshops with leading personalities from the Czech business entities and organizer of one of the biggest Czech technological event - Innovation Week, hosted a house-warming party at the end of January, 2020, in their new offices - Národní třída 39, Prague 1.

Lecturers, clients, friends and many other interesting guests enjoyed a lovely evening.

From left: Katarina Emma Schapiro, CEO, Continuum Partners, Eva Anderová, Vice President for Public Affairs at UNYP, Vladimíra Josefiová, Advisory Board Member at Reflex Capital SE, H.E. Daniel Meron, Ambassador of Israel to the Czech Republic, Jana Hrstková, Operating Principal, Keller Williams Czech Republic, and Benke Aikell, your Publisher

From left: Karel Sedláček, Deputy Director of Czech Society of Friends of Israel, Benke Aikell, your Publisher and Lucie Brešová, former Managing Director of startup Kiwi.com

From left: Tomáš Sedláček, Chief Macroeconomic Strategist, ČSOB and Šimon Pánek, Director, People in Need

Jan Snaidauf, Head of Advisers to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic

Senta Čermáková, Director, Brand & Strategic Innovations at Deloitte and Miloš Čermák, Journalist

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S enate

Small in stature, but a giant of a man Farewells bid to Jaroslav Kubera in Prague

Memorial gathering in Prague’s Rudolfinum

A day of national mourning was declared on 3 February 2020 following the unexpected death of Jaroslav Kubera, President of the Senate and former Mayor of Teplice of many years. Hundreds of people came to bid farewell to the popular politician, including leading public figures, at the Krušnohorské Theatre in Teplice, where his coffin was on display.

On the same day, the Senate held a memorial gathering in Prague’s Rudolfinum for this major figure of Czech public life. In his speech, Senate President Emeritus Přemysl Sobotka emphasised the fact that Jaroslav Kubera was renowned for his openness, insight, humour and generosity.

Highest Constitutional Officials of the Czech Republic

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S enate Teplice’s North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Senators

Dvořák Hall echoed with music played by Teplice’s North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Former senator Tomáš Töpfer, violin virtuous Václav Hudeček, and Honorary Chief Conductor of the North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Charles Olivieri-Munroe, also shared brief personal memories of Jaroslav Kubera.

At the close, the audience present were moved by a unique archive recording of Mack the Knife as performed

by Jaroslav Kubera himself.

Violin virtuous Václav Hudeček

Highest Constitutional Officials of the Czech Republic Former Senator Tomáš Töpfer

Honorary Chief Conductor of the North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Charles Olivieri-Munroe

Highest Constitutional Officials of the Czech Republic

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S enate

Small in stature, but a giant of a man Farewells bid to Jaroslav Kubera in Teplice

Condolence book

Senators in the guard of honor

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Radek Vondráček, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic

S enate

Krušnohorské Theatre in Teplice Jaroslav Kubera, in memoriam

Senators in the guard of honor

President Miloš Zeman

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš

Minister of Finance, Alena Schillerová

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comenius czech

100 best/awards ceremony

In

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C zech & S lovak L eaders

Comenius, the pan-European society for culture, education and scientific-technical cooperation has staged the “24th annual competition Czech 100 Best”. The objective of this competition is to discover, select, visualize and reward Czech companies, enterprises and societies from the entire spectrum of economic activities, who achieve remarkable, extraordinary or positively noteworthy results.

24th annual international conference

“The Key Factors of Success”

From left: Jaroslav Míl, Government Commissioner for Nuclear Energy, H.E. Daniel Meron, Ambassador, Embassy of Israel, Willi Song, General Director, Huawei Technologies, Kateřina Blažková, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Defence, Miroslav Černošek, Owner, TK Plus, H.E. Eva Filipi, Ambassador, Embassy of the Czech Republic in Damascus, and Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius

On the Friday of 29th November 2019, the finale of the “Czech 100 Best” survey based competition occurred at the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle in the presence of more than 700 VIP guests, including the late President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic Mr. Jaroslav Kubera, the President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Mr. Radek Vondráček, Minister of Industry and Trade Mr. Karel Havlíček, Senators, MPs, President of the Czech Chamber of Commerce Mr. Vladimír Dlouhý, Rector of the Charles University, Deputy Ministers, ambassadors and others.

From left: Dagmar Švarcová, Bělohrad Spa, Jitka Ferbrová, Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board, Bělohrad Spa and Lucie Urválková, Deputy Chariman of the Board, Uniqa pojišťovna

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From left: Petr Řezníček, Director, TGS Nástroje and Pavel Diviš, Chairman of the Board, TGS Nástroje

comenius czech

100 best/awards ceremony

From left: Prof. Zdeněk Souček, President, Stratég Klub, Thai Ngoc Nguyen, Managing Director, Sportisimo, H.E. Christoph Israng, Ambassador, Embassy of Germany, Renata Zajíčková, Mayor, Prague 5, Miroslav Jansta, President, Czech Union of Sport, Ondřej Landa, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Finance, and Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius

Karolína Topolová, Chairwoman of the Board, Aures Holding and Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius

Willi Song, General Director, Huawei Technologies and Kateřina Blažková, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Defence

Jaroslav Míl, Government Commissioner for Nuclear Energy

During the Gala the awarded were establishments and institutions of 8 industry categories with immediate impact on the welfare of Czech citizens. I.e.: Tourism & Hotel Services, Dynamic Growth & Stability, Information & Communication Technologies, Inventions - Deployment - Export - Profit, Construction & Transportation, Employment & Cooperatives, Agriculture & Food, Health - Education - Humanity.

One of the peaks of the event was the recognition of six women and seven men with the popular title “Lady Pro” and “Gentleman Pro” respectively.

The ceremonial peak of the event was the declaration of "In Thirty Years a Capitalist Out of Nothing Award" and top ten “best of the best” of the Czech Republic.

An integral part of this last day of November at the Prague Castle was the morning conference on the traditional theme "Key Factors of Success", where a diverse list of personalities on the subject had the right to speak about their success.

From left: H.E. Daniel Meron, Ambassador, Embassy of Israel, H.E. Eva Filipi, Ambassador, Embassy of the Czech Republic in Damascus, and Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, Kateřina Blažková, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Defence, and Renata Zajíčková, Mayor, Prague 5

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comenius czech

100 best/awards ceremony

From left: Jaroslav Kubera, late President of the Senate of the Parliament with his wife and Tomáš Březina, Owner, Best with wife

In

cooperation with

C zech & S lovak L eaders

Thai Ngoc Ngyuen, Managing Director, Sportisimo with his friend

Winners of the category Construction Industry & Transportation with Radek Vondráček, President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic

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comenius czech

From left: Václav Růžička, Chairman of the Board, Alkom Security, Eliška Coolidge Hašková, Lady Pro 2019, and Roman Knap, General Director, Česká pošta with his partner

100 best/awards ceremony

From left: Rostislav Dvořák, President, Union of Czech and Moravian Production Cooperatives with company, and Pavel Tvrzník, Chairman, Granát, družstvo with company

Winners of the category Tourism & Hotels with Jaroslav Kubera, late President of the Senate of the Parliament

From left: Benke Aikell, your Publisher, Lenka Koenigsmark, Marketing Manager, Mattel Czech Republic, and Eva Anderová, Vice President for PR, UNYP and President, Kafka Centre

From left: Radek Vondráček, President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Jaroslav Kubera, late President of the Senate of the Parliament, and Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius

Winners of the category Dynamic Growth & Stability with Karel Havlíček, Minister of Industry and Trade

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

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comenius czech

100 best/awards ceremony

In

cooperation with

C zech & S lovak L eaders

Winners of the category Information & Communication Technologies with Karel Havlíček, Minister of Industry and Trade

Fashion Show by Tatiana

Lady Pro 2019 with Jaroslav Kubera, late President of the Senate of the Parliament and Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius

Top 10 of the Czech 100 Best

From left: Lady Pro 2019 with Vladimír Dlouhý, President, Czech Chamber of Commerce, Jaroslav Kubera, late President of the Senate of the Parliament, Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, and Radek Vondráček, President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

For 30 Years the Capitalist Out of Nothing with Jaroslav Kubera, late President of the Senate of the Parliament, Radek Vondráček, President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Vladimír Dlouhý, President, Czech Chamber of Commerce and Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius

UNYP

THE PULSE LECTURE AT UNYP

The Czech Economy in a Central European and International Context Ing. Miroslav Singer, Ph.D., the third Governor of the Czech National Bank, presented a lecture on “The Czech Economy in a Central European and International Context” to an audience of UNYP students and guests.

Miroslav Singer is one of the most distinguished Czech economists of our time. Dr. Singer was the Governor of Czech National Bank from 2010 until 2016. From early 2017, Dr. Singer served as the Director of Institutional Relations and Chief Economist at Generali CEE Holding, and he became a member of the Executive Committee of Generali CEE Holding in January 2018.

Ing. Eva Anderová, Vice President for Public Affairs at UNYP

During the lecture, Dr. Singer shared his views on some critical political and economic issues, evaluating the new global political uncertainty and its effects on the European economy.

He also focused on the results of the European parliamentary elections, and raised the question of whether the rift within the European Union is the primary source of this uncertainty.

Dr. Singer analyzed the current stage of the global economic cycle and concluded his lecture with an in-depth discussion of the Czech economy.

From left: Sotiris Foutsis, Ph.D., General Manager, UNYP, Ing. Miroslav Singer, Ph.D., the third Governor of the Czech National Bank, and Ing. Eva Anderová, Vice President for Public Affairs at UNYP

From left: Ing. Miroslav Singer, Ph.D., the third Governor of the Czech National Bank and Benke Aikell, your Publisher

From left: Her Excellency Virginia Hesse, Ambassador of the Republic of Ghana in Prague, Ing. Miroslav Singer, Ph.D., the third Governor of the Czech National Bank

Sotiris Foutsis, Ph.D., General Manager, UNYP

Audience of the UNYP students

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

21

I nterview

with

H. E. A yesha P atricia R ekhi , A mbassador

of

C anada

to the

C zech R epublic

Ms. Ayesha Patricia Rekhi was appointed Ambassador of Canada in August 2019.

Her life journey and career serve as an embodiment of the Canadian dream. Her parents came to Canada from India, searching for freedom and to be able to marry the person that they wanted to marry. Canada gave them the opportunity.

Making the parallels to many Czech immigrants, their lives were not always easy, but they invested in their child’s education, built community and lives and worked hard to succeed. Now their daughter being the Canadian ambassador is an enormous source of pride. Ms. Rekhi sees her work for the foreign service partly as gratitude for the country that gave an opportunity to her parents.

Ms. Rekhi earned her BA in political science at McGill University in Canada, pursued further specialization in developmental studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science and she completed an MPA from Harvard University.

Ms. Rekhi started her career at the Canadian Department of Citizenship and Immigration in 1999 and joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 2002. Before her appointment in Prague, she served in various diplomatic positions in Hong Kong, New Delhi, Hanoi, and Bangkok.

Ms. Rekhi came to Prague with her two children and her husband Cameron Stauch, a celebrated chef. Cameron has travelled the world with his wife, which allowed him to explore the local cuisine of Asia in-depth. In between his family’s postings abroad, Cameron spent six years in the kitchen in Ottawa as one of the cooks to three Governors General of Canada, cooking for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh; the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall; the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge; and the Emperor and Empress of Japan, to name a few. He describes his cooking style as “cooking globally and sourcing locally” and particularly enjoys learning about local ingredients and meeting the people who grow, produce, and cook local flavors where he may be living. Cameron is also a published author. It was during a three-year posting in Vietnam that he was inspired to write his first cookbook, the James Beard Award nominated and Taste of Canada silver medal winner, “Vegetarian Việt Nam”. During his time in the Czech Republic, he is working on his second book, “Thai Veg Kitchen”.

Our interview took place over the phone. As much as I have tried to avoid COVID-19 in writing for this issue, our magazine provides interviews and coverage with a broad perspective and due to the fullquarantine and current state of emergency, the COVID-19 concern could no longer be avoided. Despite this fact, I found the interview truly energizing, full of hope and a wider perspective. In many of the responses, the COVID-19 perspective provided more depth and underlined the trends we as a society perhaps avoided, but definitely should pay more attention to now.

P hoto : A rchive

22

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

Ms. Ambassador, how are you doing these days? I know you just finished an emergency briefing with the embassy staff.

We are living in unprecedented times with the current pandemic. Many Canadians, like Czechs, are at home and they are trying to deal with the situation. We focus not only on work issues, but we also need to take care of our families. At work, we make sure the embassy staff stays safe and healthy, while we provide assistance to many Canadians in the Czech Republic. We also share information with Canada to support the overall global response.

As I am also a mother and a wife, I am helping to cope with the situation at home. Furthermore, I make sure that my children keep learning and we as a family find some joy and have fun during these stressful times. Getting out in the sunshine during the weekend, watching a movie at home, connecting remotely with our friends and family, using all the latest technology available.

In terms of responses, the measures

taken by both Canada and the Czech Republic are similar in many ways, some of them taken only a few days apart. In Canada, we are following the advice of the World Health Organization aimed at flattening the curve and protecting our most vulnerable groups. You can see our governments and communities reacting to the latest information available including from scientists, experts, and public health authorities.

I would like to comment on the enormous rise in people taking action and helping each other.

In Canada, the term #caremongering, instead of scaremongering, is becoming popular with so many people checking in and providing care for their neighbors. Here in Prague, my husband, a chef, has been cooking with the produce that had already been purchased for Embassy events that are now postponed. This week, he is providing food for the shelter in the neighborhood of the Canadian Embassy Prague. These acts of kindness remind us that now it is time to look out for each other, safely and at a distance, but still, look out for each other. We need to follow the advice of the experts and act to protect the more vulnerable members of our communities. When I go for a walk, I take heart in seeing people in the streets maintaining a distance but still waving at each other. We are all in this situation together.

You came to Prague in August 2019. What were your first impressions of the Czech Republic? I hope that the current crisis will not leave any bad memories.

When I first arrived, I felt very warmly welcomed. I could feel the close connections between our people and our countries.

I was struck by the very deep affections that Czechs have for Canada and Canadians. And the same is true the other way around. I grew up in Toronto, which had a vibrant and visible Czech community. I also witness the strong connections on both sides even during the current situation as people who have relatives here or in Canada, reach out to us and want to make sure they stay healthy and safe. I feel very fortunate to call Prague home. I admire the resilience of the Czech people. Throughout history, the Czechs have survived a lot and managed to thrive. The inner strength is one thing we will all draw upon in this current period.

I see it in my Czech colleagues, in my team and my Czech friends. I try to be an optimistic person and remind myself and my family and my colleagues that we will get through this situation. Yes, the world will look different.

I am a mother and one reason why I joined the diplomatic service was to make a better future for my children, for the next generation and I remain committed to that. I do not think that this crisis will change my impressions of your country. Once this situation is over, and we can all meet and gather again, we will, I hope, be able to appreciate how we pulled together to get through the difficult times.

My next question was originally intended to ask about your strategic priorities and the priorities of the Canadian

government. Once we are back to the post-corona world, what will your agenda focus on?

My job as a Canadian ambassador is about positioning Canada for success in an increasingly uncertain, unpredictable and interconnected world. That was the reality before the coronavirus spread, coronavirus only underscored it and it will be valid for the near future. In Canada, the government approach is translated at the federal, provincial and municipal levels which means that in order to accomplish our goals, you need to work together. For Canada, we work together both nationally and internationally because we know that we cannot succeed alone. This is why we put a strong emphasis on multilateralism and the rule-based international order because these institutions and efforts give us a level of predictability which is important to both Canada and the Czech Republic alike. This core belief will stay the same. We will always stand for values such as transparency, human rights and equal opportunity. Therefore while I anticipate change, it will be with regards to some specific projects and emphasis. Last but not least, I need to stress that positioning Canada for success in this uncertain world also means looking at collaboration with Europe. Europe, the Czech Republic remain key partners for Canada, in terms of shared values, geopolitics, economic and political interests. I hope that with regards to the post-corona world, we all will collaborate to adjust to a new reality.

As we already mentioned, Canada is a dream country for many Czechs. When I was doing research, I was surprised to find out about its two most pressing challenges, before COVID-19. These were climate change and the aging population.

Climate change is a clear priority of the Canadian government. As such, it is reflected in our strategic documents but it is also a high priority for Canadian citizens themselves.

There is a strong commitment to fight climate change and a deep understanding that climate action and economic growth must go hand in hand. Needless to say that now we all focus on fighting the coronavirus and the impact on the health of all of our people.

The economic situation will also be an issue all of our governments will have to address. The Canadian government has already announced an economic package with respect to the impact of the virus. With respect to our aging population, Canada has an aging population, coupled with low birth fertility rates, and an immigration policy has become important in ensuring that the population and our labor force are continuing to grow. Now, we are turning to questions of how our infrastructure and health system are ready to respond to the new reality. This crisis will likely raise some issues that we need to pay more attention to as we will continue the call to flatten the epidemic curve, to make sure that vulnerable segments of the population will have access to health care services when they need it.

Now, from the aging population, let me turn to our children and education.

Canada prides itself on having perhaps the best educational system in the world, with one of the highest percentages of population reaching tertiary education.

My daughter applied to one of the most prestigious Canadian boarding schools.

What is the secret sauce for Canada being also a global leader in scientific and technological research?

We are fortunate in terms of Canada being a leader in education. I come from a family of educators, my mother was a teacher, my husbands’ parents were teachers, my sister in law is a teacher. We see the value of highly trained educators who bring diverse perspectives and skills into our schools. 26 Canadian universities ranked in the 2020 QS World University Rankings and a very good network of high schools. However, there is more than education. The quality of life in Canada is also an important factor. I am glad we have a lot to offer to parents who look for quality education for their children. We rank quite high in top students’ cities and our degrees, diplomas or certificates are recognized by employers all over the world. We have a lot to offer and we definitely look forward for having the students back in classrooms!

My last question comes from the perspective of a working mum, now more than a week trying to reconcile working from home, homeschooling of children, and being an active as well as responsible citizens, how do you personally manage to balance a two-career relationship?

I have already spoken about my motivations for my job, one being about my past and one being about building a better future for my children. As a woman ambassador, as a mother, as a daughter, as a wife, I would not be able to do my job without the support of my family, my husband, and my children. My daughter is 16 and my son will celebrate his 11th birthday during the quarantine period, so we still have to figure out how to make his birthday special.

We also got a small puppy when we moved to Prague, as many Czechs do, so the puppy keeps us busy and happy amidst these stressful times.

Now, as I am busy responding to the crises, I am lucky as my husband makes sure that the family is fed and that children have their daily routine. I could not do what I do without him.

And he is an accomplished person of his own, he is a great chef, he is also a great father and a great spouse. He also moved his career around the world for the sake of the family. For him Czech Republic is especially nice as he is also a hockey player, so we enjoy hockey being another connector between our countries.

We enjoyed the warm welcome the Canadian team received at the world junior competition and the sincere congratulations I received from my Czech colleagues after we won spoke a lot about our mutual respect and shared love of the game.

Linda Štucbartová

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

23

Diplomatic event

72nd Anniversary of the Independence Day of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar with Ambassador of Myanmar H.E. Mrs. Kay Thi Soe at SAVOY Hotel Prague

INDEPENDENCE DAY OF MYANMAR

P hoto : J itka T omečková

From left: H.E. Kay Thi Soe, Ambassador of Myanmar and Benke Aikell, your Publisher

From left: H.E. Sundus Albayraqdar, Ambassador of Iraq, H.E. Egemen Bagis, Ambassador of Turkey, H.E. Kay Thi Soe, Ambassador of Myanmar, and H.E. Kaoru Shimazaki, Ambassador of Japan

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

Diplomatic event

From left: Benke Aikell, your Publisher, Martin Tlapa, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eva Anderová, Vice President for PR, UNYP, and Kateřina Farská, Head of Foreign Relations Unit, Office of the Government of the Czech Republic

From left: H.E. Valery Kurdykov, Ambassador of Belarus, H.E. Perebyjnis Jevhen, Ambassador of Ukraina, and H.E. Yordan Parvanov, Ambassador of Bulgaria

From left: H.E. Kay Thi Soe, Ambassador of Myanmar and H.E. Zhang Jianmin, Ambassador of China

From left: Mrs. Keiko Shimazaki, wife of the Ambassador of Japan, Mrs. Suyeon Kim, wife of the Ambassador of South Korea and H.E. Egemen Bagis, Ambassador of Turkey

Martin Tlapa, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and H. E. Leonora Rueda, Ambasador of Mexico

From left: H.E. Kay Thi Soe, Ambassador of Myanmar and Martin Tlapa, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

25

G ala E vent

Annual Christmas Charity Concert

of Hilton Hotels in Prague

From left: Michael Specking, General Manager, Hilton Prague; Jiří Bambas, CEO, BMS Creative; Anton Korenčík, Director, Gesto Computers; Terezie Sverdlinová, Director, Tereza Maxová Foundation; Gabriela Lašková, Presenter; David Lesch, Managing Director, AV Media; Filip Eisenreich, CEO, Leel Coils Europe; and Roman Uhlíř, F&B Quality Manager, Hilton Prague, as Santa

On December 18th, Hilton Prague and Hilton Prague Old Town hosted the 23rd annual traditional Christmas Charity Concert featuring the Brno Philharmonic and clarinet soloist Anna Paulová, conducted by Maestro Debashish Chaudhuri.

The Christmas spirit was brought by the International Ladies Chamber Choir Viva Voce. The evening was presented by Michael Specking, General Manager of Hilton Prague together with Gabriela Lašková. Hilton Prague Executive Chef Franco Luise surprised the audience not only with a delicious Christmas dinner after the concert, but also with a duet performed together with Lenka Vitovská from the marketing department of Hilton Hotels in Prague.

A charity cheque in support of Teribear project amounting to CZK 50,000 was handed over to Terezie Sverdlinová, Director of Tereza Maxová Foundation by Michael Specking. Thanks to the partners who helped us make it happen again – AV Media, Leel Coils, Gesto Computers and BMS Creative.

International Ladies Chamber Choir Viva Voce

26

Anna Paulová, Clarinet Soloist; Debashish Chaudhuri, Conductor

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

Brno Philharmonic Orchestra

G ala E vent

From left: Jiří Bambas, CEO, BMS Creative; Gabriela Lašková, Presenter; Filip Eisenreich, CEO, Leel Coils Europe with his wife; Anton Korenčík, Director, Gesto Computers; H.E. Narinder Chauhan, Ambassador of India; Anna Paulová, Clarinet Soloist; Michael Specking, General Manager, Hilton Prague; Debashish Chaudhuri, Conductor; Terezie Sverdlinová, Director, Tereza Maxová Foundation; and Roman Uhlíř, F&B Quality Manager, Hilton Prague, as Santa

Franco Luise, Executive Chef, Hilton Prague; Lenka Vitovská, Assistant to Marketing & PR Manager, Hilton Prague & Hilton Prague Old Town

Debashish Chaudhuri, Conductor

Brno Philharmonic Orchestra

Brno Philharmonic Orchestra

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

27

G ala E vent

International Ladies Chamber Choir Viva Voce

Lobby, Hilton Prague

Brno Philharmonic Orchestra

Ballroom, Hilton Prague

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

International Ladies Chamber Choir Viva Voce

Gabriela Lašková, Presenter; Michael Specking, General Manager, Hilton Prague

D iplomatic

event

National Day Reception of the Kingdom of Thailand H.E. Mrs. Ureerat Chareontoh, Ambassador of Thailand and Thailand team in Prague

On 3 December 2019, H.E. Mrs. Ureerat Chareontoh, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand to the Czech Republic, hosted a reception on the occasion of the National Day of the Kingdom of Thailand, the Birthday Anniversary of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great and Thailand’s Father’s Day 5 December 2019 at Mirror Chapel, Klementinum.

H.E. Mr. Antonín Staněk, member of the Chamber of Deputies and Chairperson of the Czech-Thai Interparliamentary Friendship Group attended the reception as the Guest of Honour. The reception was also attended by many dignitaries, high level officials and representatives of the Czech government and private sectors, Ambassadors and members of diplomatic corps, academics, local journalists.

Approximately 200 guests were present the reception.

H.E. Mr. Richard Hlavatý, Director-General of Department of Foreign Economic Policy II, Ministry of Industry and Trade with Ambassador of Thailand

30

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

From left: Mrs. Livia Klausová, former First Lady of the Czech Republic, Ambassador of Thailand, and H.E. Mr. Zhang Jianmin, Ambassador of China

D iplomatic

H.E. Mr. Vitalie Rusu, Ambassador of Moldova and H.E. Mrs. Rosaura Leonora Rueda Gutierrez, Ambassador of Mexico

event

From left: H.E. Mr. Kees Jan René Klompenhouwer, Ambassador of the Netherlands, Mrs. Livia Klausová, former First Lady of the Czech Republic, H.E. Mr. Dominik Furgler, Ambassador of Switzerland, Mr. Arber Vllahiu, Chargé d´Affaires e.p., H.E. Mr. Francesco Saverio Nisio, Ambassador of Italy, and H.E. Mrs. Tanja Strniša, Ambassador of Slovenia

Distinguished guests at The Thai National Day Reception, Mirror Chapel, Klementinum

H.E. Mrs. Ureerat Chareontoh, Ambassador of Thailand and H.E. Mr. Antonín Staněk, Member of Chamber of Deputies, Chairperson of the Czech-Thai Interparliamentary Friendship Group and Guest of Honour at the Reception

From left: Benke Aikell, Publisher of Czech and Slovak Leaders, H.E. Mrs. Ayesha Patricia Rekhi, Ambassador of Canada , Ambassador of Thailand, H.E. Mrs. Liliana De Olarte De Torres Muga, Ambassador of Peru, and Mr. Guido Filippi - UniCredit Bank

From left: Mrs. Delfina Caula, Second Secretary of Embassy of Argentina, Mrs. Ariel Jahner, Second Secretary of U.S. Embassy, Ms. Kakanang Amranand, Counsellor of the Royal Thai Embassy, Mr. Milan Frola, Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Agustin Gimenez, Second Secretary of Embassy of Argentina

From left: Miss Wajanan Silpawornwiwat, Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) in Prague, Miss Wipawee Wanapongs, Director of Thai Trade Office in Prague, Ambassador of Thailand, and H.E. Mr. Karel Stehno, former Czech Ambassador to Thailand

From left: Ms. Amira Karawani, Minister-Counsellor, Chargé d´Affaires a.i. of Syria, and H.E. Mrs. Kay Thi Soe, Ambassador of Myanmar

From front: H.E. Mrs. Kenssy Dwi Ekaningsih, Ambassador of Indonesia and H.E. Mrs. Zanariah Bt Zainal Abidin, Ambassador of Malaysia

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

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P hoto : J itka T omeฤ kovรก

Ambassadors and dignitaries at the 63rd Anniversary Celebration

63rd ANNIVERSARY OF THE INDEPENDENCE DAY

OF GHANA RECEPTION

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Delegation from Mendel University led by the Vice Rector with H.E. Madam Virginia Hesse

Martin Tlapa, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs being welcomed by H.E. Madam Virginia Hesse

H.E. Kaoru Shimazaki, Ambassador of Japan being received by H.E. Madam Virginia Hesse

H.E Madam N Ribbon Mosholi, Ambassador of South Africa with H.E. Madam Virginia Hesse

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

Deputy Czech Foreign Minister being welcomed

by H.E. Madam Virginia Hesse

H.E. Madam Virginia Hesse welcoming H.E. Muhammad Khalid Jamali, Ambassador of Pakistan

diplomatic event

H.E. Madam Virginia Hesse with a group of Ambassadors

H.E. Madam Virginia Hesse with the Honorary Consuls of Romania, Slovakia and Hungary

H.E. Madam Virginia Hesse with H.E. Mrs. Narinder Chauhan, Ambassador of India

H.E. Madam Virginia Virginia Hesse with Mr. Rudolf Jindrรกk, Director of the Foreign Affairs Department of the President's Office and Deputy Foreign Minister Mr. Martin Tlapa

Mr. Martin Tlapa , Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs admiring the investment passport

Mrs. Nicol Adamcova, Director, Sub-Saharan Africa Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs being received by H.E. Madam Virginia Hesse

From left: Mrs. Shiela Philips Reindorf , H.E. Madam Virginia Hesse, and H.E. Gerald Philips , Ambassador of Luxembourg

H.E. Mr. Khaled Al-Atrash, Ambassador of Palestine being welcomed by H.E. Madam Virginia Hesse

H.E. Said Hindam, Ambassador of Egypt and Vice Dean of the African Group being received by H.E. Madam Virginia Hesse

The Apostolic Nuncio and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps Mr. Charles Daniel Balvo with H.E. Madam Virginia Hesse, Dean of the African Group

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

33

The Success Story of

BIOFACH and VIVANESS 2019 In Nuremberg, the BIOFACH organic food trade fair and the VIVANESS Natural Cosmetics Fair were held from February 12th to 15th. The largest European organic food fair celebrated its 31st anniversary with a record number of participants: 3,792 exhibitors from 110 countries showcased their products to trade visitors in a display area of almost 60,000 m2 – featuring two brand new halls designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.

Hall with new products

After Germany, with 1000 exhibitors, the main exhibiting countries were Italy (550), Spain (240), and France (222). The fair presented a wide range of organic products ranging from fresh to frozen food, bakery and confectionery products, beverages, and raw food. More than 47,000 professional buyers from 136 countries were won over by the new developments, trends, and innovations from all around the world.

History of Biofach The exhibition was founded by Hagen Sunder, Hubert Rottner, and Jürgen Ries; it all began with 197 exhibitors in the Ludwigshafen Stadthalle in 1990. Some 2,500 visitors attended the "1st European Trade Fair for Organic Food and Natural Products" at that time. Over the years, BIOFACH has now developed into the World´s Leading Trade Fair for Organic Food. The natural cosmetics segment was separated from the exhibition in 2007 and since then has been organized parallel to BIOFACH as VIVANESS, International Trade Fair for Natural and Organic Personal.

34

Opening ceremony with top-level attendance – record visitor numbers for Congress The combined trade fair was opened jointly

by Julia Klöckner, Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, and Dr. Jane Goodall, primate researcher, environmental activist and UN Messenger of Peace. The participants were deeply moved by the keynote given by Dr. Goodall and gave her a standing ovation. This was the first year that the BIOFACH and VIVANESS Congress gathered almost 10,000 delegates and discussion participants in 149 individual sessions, confirming its role as the most important international platform for sharing knowledge and information in the sector.

The main congress theme, “Organic delivers!”, attracted an above-average total of 75 participants to each of the ten sessions. Bio contributes at many levels - protecting our water, improving soil fertility and increasing biodiversity. Bio protects the climate and provides basic conditions

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

for life. For example, organic farming reduces nitrogen supply by 28 percent, the abundance of earthworm populations is 78 percent higher and biomass is 94 percent higher. Organic breeding is beneficial for biodiversity: organically certified meadow sets provide a home for up to 5,000 animals and plants.

Topic “Water - the basis of life in danger?” became another theme of this year. In lectures and many other forms, a number of associations, institutions and companies presented their water projects and products as a resource for life. The key trends of this year´s BIOFACH fair were "Packaging", "Vegan 2.0", "Open Pollinated Varieties" and "Region 2.0".

What motivates the bio world in 2020: less packaging, more regional products, and more biodiversity. Customers would prefer to have their favorite products ecologically packaged, or rather, unpackaged instead of waiting for a new product. For food packaging, beeswax fabrics came up repeatedly. Products of regional origin

Winner of Mundus Vini, Fattoria La Vialla , Italy

Sonnentor stand, Austria

have their own history that creates emotional connections for consumers. An example is rice from Austria, which supports local agriculture and provides consumers with products that would otherwise have to travel thousands of kilometers.

Best New Product Award As part of the News & Trends block, visitors voted for the best new product in seven categories.

Three categories were dominated by Austrian companies. Featured products included the Organic Rebell hot cheese from Käserebellen GmBH, an organic sheep organic milk ice cream from the Seegut EISL farm or the Essential Spicy Oils by Sonnentor.

Over at Vivaness, acclaimed products included SPEICK Naturkosmetik soaps and shampoos, or hemp seed oil and other products by two-time winner PRIMAVERA LIFE. Assortments, OLIVE OIL, WINE and VEGAN had dedicated their own worlds of experience.

In addition to product presentations, there were tastings and a specialized accompanying program.

Czech stand

The MUNDUS VINI International Wine Award bestowed their silver, gold and Grand Gold medals.

The distinction of best international producer of organic wine was awarded to Fattoria La Vialla from Tuscany. Meanwhile, the olive oil rankings were dominated by oils from Spain and Italy.

Vegan – This range is one of the most dynamic and ever-growing segments of the fair. 1787 exhibitors presented their vegan offer and 1461 vegetarian offers.

Raw is also popular – raw or live food (food that has not been treated at more than 45 ° C) were presented by 1414 exhibitors.

Czech Republic This year, for the thirteenth time, 32 Czech companies exhibited at Biofach. Twenty companies applied for the attention of the international audience at the national stand, covered by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic.

Organic farming in the Czech republic represents about a 13% share of total agricultural land; in particular, it is comprised by orchards and vineyards. Organic food production in the country amounts to approximately CZK 3,5 million, of which about half is sold on the Czech market and the rest exported abroad. The average Czech consumes about CZK 314 worth of organic food per year, (compared to the EU average of 67 euros), representing 1,2% of the total food market.

Information about organic food PRO-BIO LIGA, consumer branch of PRO-BIO Association of Organic Farmers PRO-BIO Šumperk with nationwide scope is focused on promotion and education of organic food and organic farming system among the consumer public. For more information, visit www.lovime.bio.

Jaromír Hampl

Photos: NürnbergMesse

Julia Klöckner, Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

35

INTERVIEW WITH WILLI SONG,

CEO, Huawei for the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria

SUCCESS has many fathers

36

P hoto : A rchive

The year 2019 was regarded challenging and transformational for many individuals, companies and in fact, even countries and society as a whole. I believe that for you and Huawei, this was no exception. Looking back, how do you evaluate the year from both, personal and company perspective?

You are right that 2019 was a challenging year for Huawei. However, 2020 will be even more challenging. Still, in 2019, we managed to grow rapidly in Q1 and also in Q2 owing to sheer momentum in the market.

Our major products, such as the 5G products and services are almost not affected by the fragile global economy and the US sanctions our company is facing. We have signed 91 commercial 5G contracts and shipped over 600,000 5G Massive MIMO Active Antenna Units (AAUs).

Our major 2020 focus is to build the Huawei Mobile Services ecosystem (HMS). HMS has covered more than 170 countries and regions, with users exceeding 570 million. The active monthly users of Huawei AppGallery has exceeded 400 million.

For me, it was also one of the most challenging years. However, the Czech team has shown that they perform best under pressure. They are not afraid of challenges and thank them for that. Huawei has always faced challenges and has always succeeded in being stronger and better. So I expect that this will also make us better and stronger in the future.

Being interviewed for the Czech and Slovak Leaders Magazine, what is your definition of leadership? What kind of a leader you are? Can you share with us some of your role-model leaders?

In my opinion, there are a lot of definitions of leadership. And good leader should inspire and succeed. But what is it succeed? As the saying goes, “Success has many fathers”. And what about strong leaders? Strong leaders provide a sense of purpose to their people.

Huawei’s and my first, foremost concern is the customer. Many companies adopt a customer-centric culture, but how many of them truly live it? Huawei distinguishes itself from the competition in this regard. Let me tell you a story, that I’ve heard. Several years ago an institutional investor delegation led by Stephen Roach, chief economist for Morgan Stanley, visited the Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen. Such visits were usually made by venture investors hoping to get buyin to Huawei. Huawei’s founder Mr Ren Zhengfei asked Mr. Fei Min, his executive vice president of R&D, to entertain the delegation.

Later, Roach said, in disappointment, “He was rejecting a team with $3 trillion.” The explanation by Ren Zhengfei was quite telling: he told us that he would meet any customer in person, no matter how small they were, but that Roach was not a customer.

Huawei is considered the technological leader in 5G network. Yet, such position is generally viewed with a suspicion, rather than appreciation. What is the biggest misunderstanding and how to address it?

Actually, there are several of them. Let me highlight three, first of them being understanding of 5G as such. 5G networks and technologies do not represent anything mysterious. We had and actually still have 2G, 3G and 4G. These are just generations of the mobile network as they evolve and develop over the years. Fifth-generation networks will, of course, be different from the previous ones, but still, the technology only represents the development of what carriers are using today, with extended and exciting new capabilities for both consumers and industry. There is nothing to be scared about 5G. When it comes to Huawei and 5G, there are two major misperceptions. One of them is the belief that a company may become the world’s number one in telecom equipment for the sake of pursuing any government’s interests. The other is that Huawei, as a producer of telecom equipment, handles users’ data. None of this is true.

Huawei is where it is today thanks to massive investment into R&D, thanks to the dedication of our almost 190,000 employees in 170 countries and regions. This is why we are ahead of our competitors in 5G. Huawei is

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INTERVIEW WITH WILLI SONG,

CEO, Huawei for the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria And such situations occur very seldom. It has never happened in the Czech Republic.

a purely privately owned company and does not share any data of its customers with any government. If we were asked to provide data to Chinese or any other government – as our founder Ren Zhengfei likes to say – we would rather close down the company than compromising our client’s trust.

Another misunderstanding about Huawei is that we handle and process end-users data.

No, we don’t. We are a telecom equipment supplier. We produce the pipes through which the data is channelled, but we do not have any access to this data. The data is managed by the carriers, not us. Nowadays, even the operator is not able to know what is flowing on their network because almost all data by users are encrypted. I believe you notice “HTTP” has been replaced by “HTTPS”. “S” means Secure Socket. In other words, we can´t share what we have no access to. Huawei only access carriers network if there is any network problem the carrier is unable to resolve with its staff. This happens in a highly monitored environment under full control of the carrier.

In December, the Ministry of Industry and Trade announced the five cities as the winners of the "5G smart cities” competition. Do you see it as a silver lining in this sphere?

I don't know who came up with the name "smart city", but many countries have carried out so-called smart city projects. Essentially, smart city solutions aim to improve urban or community management and services.

However, these solutions have different focuses based on different situations in each city.

5G in the regions is a very important topic, and Huawei has a lot to say in that. 5G technologies are crucial to the development of local governments. As a result, municipalities will be able to work more closely with companies and universities on new systems such as smart transportation, security and digital applications for citizens. The winners (Bílina, Jeseník, Karlovy Vary, Plzeň and Ústí nad Labem) could become a role model for other municipalities in making life easier and better for people using the latest technology. The examples of best practice that will emerge from the winning urban 5G projects will be shared across the Czech Republic in order to inspire other municipalities.

The smart cities topics are very important for Huawei. Huawei has helped build more than 160 smart cities in over 100 countries and regions. One of those cities is Gelsenkirchen in Germany, where Huawei designed a city-wide security platform that brought together local businesses, city officials, and law enforcement to maximise safety, minimise theft and other crimes, and provide future city services.

You are responsible for the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria. Do you see any differences with regards to the attitude towards the 5G network?

The situation in each market is different.

We have a huge number of loyal customers from these countries and strive to continue providing super products and services to them in cooperation with the dealers and carriers. Also, we supply equipment to all major Czech mobile carriers, and there is more to come with the 5G era.

Fundamentally, Huawei sees Europe as a second home market. For example, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has told local media that his country is "fundamentally technologyneutral" regarding 5G construction and that he expected Huawei to be part of it.

Huawei has not been officially excluded from Slovakia's 5G deployment.

I appreciate the Czech sense of humour.

Businesswise, I need to appreciate the high standard of cooperation we have with national carriers. I am also amazed by how much people in your country are keen on latest innovations and technology novelties; which is obviously great for Huawei as we are in a very good position to introduce our latest products and services here with great reception.

The Czech Republic has announced the Innovation strategy 2019-2030 as the Czech Republic Country for the Future.

What can we learn from China with regards to innovation?

Openness to new technology is a key factor in China’s success for the past decade. Use the technology first, and regulate it the second. I am not sure whether countries can learn from other countries. My personal belief is that people learn from people, have relationships with people, and the miracle of development is always based on open minded individuals. Such people can be found all over the world, and they are attracted to organisations enabling and supporting learning environment. Huawei has proved over the decades of its operation that we are such type of organisation, combining the best of Chinese and international approach.

We apply the same approach in each country where we operate and are successful in attracting the greatest talents in every market.

When it comes to management structure and work effectiveness, we have been very much inspired by leading US companies.

Your final words for Czech and Slovak Leaders Magazine readers…

Exercise self-reflection. Sense of crisis and self-criticism is key to make an organization a dissipative system and stabilize the core ideology of the organization. Criticism escorts companies out of its fatigue and sickness and evokes vigour. I would take a quote from Romain Rolland „Behind all greatness is suffering“. This is the reflection of Huawei, and I firmly believe our suffering today is for the greatness of the future.

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Compiled by Huawei

Does culture eat strategy for breakfast?

Tereza Urbánková is a PR, communications and marketing professional with 20 years’ experience and proven success in delivering awardwinning communications programmes for multinational companies operating in industries such as hospitality, retail, IT, defence, broadcast, logistics, pharma and engineering. After having lived and worked in the UK for 12 years, she moved to Germany where she now works for Boehringer Ingelheim, a global pharmaceutical company, as Head of Global External Communication, Animal Health. Tereza is a member of the Executive Committee of the Czech British Chamber of Commerce in London and can be reached through her LinkedIn profile.

surprise that when they try and talk to each other, chaos may erupt.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is a phrase attributed to Peter Drucker, a management consultant, educator, and author, and made famous by Mark Fields, President at Ford.

Since then, there have been several iterations of the sentence, one of them being “culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner” to emphasise the importance of culture in business.

What is culture and why does it seem to be important? The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines culture as ‘the customs and beliefs, art, way of life and social organisation of a particular country or group’. Although we live in a global and digital world, understanding cultural differences in human interactions still matters. At work, this understanding can either drive the business forward; lack of it, on the other hand, can sink deals, endanger careers, as well as contribute to frustrations, dissatisfaction and ultimately to unproductivity.

Human beings are fundamentally the same as deep down, we are all driven by common physiological and psychological needs and motivations. We can all feel human emotions such as jealousy, passion, sadness, joy. However, every individual is also very different. Each of us has a different style, preferences, dislikes, interests and values; each of us is unique. On top of it, due to the culture in which we grew up, we are conditioned to understand the world in a particular way – that also applies to communication patterns, taking decisions and ways of working.

For me as a professional communicator, the chapter about communicating was super interesting – see the image below. Did you know that Americans are the most explicit or low-context culture there is (low-context meaning their conversation assumes relatively little intuitive understanding)?

This is probably not surprising for a young country composed of immigrants that prides itself on straight-talking. Thus, for example, Americans in Japan should pay attention to what's not being said while Japanese in America should brace themselves for direct language.

Working globally requires unlearning, as much as it requires learning. I can consider myself lucky to be aware of the Central European culture which I come from but also to have experienced almost 12 years living and working within the UK culture as well as a very international environment. And now

I live in Germany. Therefore, I could become a bridge in teams that may struggle to work together and arrive at consensus as for example, when it comes to persuading and evaluating, the UK and Germany are quite far apart. Although the book offers strategies for negotiating these differences, the most basic solution, as with all scales mentioned in the book, is simply to be aware.

Doing business can be challenging enough with people from our own culture. Doing business across cultures adds a whole new layer of complexity. However, the reality of modern business is that we work with colleagues, customers and business partners from diverse backgrounds, across the country and across the world. In today’s global economy you might be a Slovak giving a presentation in the US, an Italian negotiating a deal in Japan, or a Korean managing a team of Germans. There are lots of ways to do that – email, Skype, telephone, or getting on a plane. That’s the easy part.

The hard part is figuring out how we conduct ourselves with another culture, and the more the world globalises the more important this skill becomes.

Managing across and working with the diverse cultural contexts of today’s workplace may be challenging and it requires a great deal of flexibility but it’s so rewarding and fascinating to learn about other cultures, behaviours, ways of working and see how that knowledge has the desired impact.

By Tereza Urbánková

I’ve recently read a book titled The Culture Map – decoding how people think, lead, and get things done across cultures, one of the most insightful books I’ve ever read. I’d recommend it to everyone who works in a multinational environment – it provides useful guidance and helps navigate through cultural differences as well as avoid falling into cultural traps. It includes many real-life stories that one can reflect on when trying to work harmoniously together with people within a multicultural environment.

As an example: Americans precede anything negative with three nice comments; French, Dutch, Israelis and Germans get straight to the point; Latin Americans and Asians are steeped in hierarchy; Scandinavians think the best boss is just one of them. It’s therefore no

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U nicef M eeting

UNICEF Partners Meeting in Hilton Prague Old Town

On 18 February, the UNICEF Partners Meeting was held in the Hilton Prague Old Town hotel. UNICEF CR Executive Director Pavla Gomba thanked all partners who had provided UNICEF with financial, material or media support in 2019. Certificates of thanks were given to partners by actor Jitka Čvančarová and writer Michal Viewegh.

Also taking part in the event were the hotel’s General Manager Christian Schwenke and Michel Le Pechoux from UNICEF headquarters, who spoke of his experience on missions in Mozambique and North Korea.

Guest at this year’s Partners Meeting, Michel Le Pechoux from UNICEF’s Geneva headquarters, who spoke of his experience during a mission to Mozambique, which was hit with two catastrophic cyclones in 2019, Idai and Kenneth, within a space of just a few weeks

UNICEF CR Corporate Partnerships Manager Eva Langerová speaking to Zdeněk Chmelík of MS Pharm

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UNICEF CR Executive Director Pavla Gomba welcomes Lada Klokočníková of Czech Radio Hradec Králové

U nicef M eeting

Hilton Prague Old Town General Manager Christian Schwenke received a certificate of thanks from actor and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Jitka Čvančarová

Pavel Urban, Futurum Hradec Králové shopping centre, receiving a certificate of thanks from UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors

Interview of writer and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Michal Viewegh by Lada Klokočníková, head of Czech Radio Hradec Králové

Veronika Zídková, Dětský balet Praha (Prague Children’s Ballet), UNICEF CR Event and Volunteers Coordinator Aleš Foltýnek

UNICEF CR Executive Director Pavla Gomba welcomed the 10% increase in Czech support for UNICEF programmes

Veronika Zídková, Dětský balet Praha (Prague Children’s Ballet), Pavel Kukleta, CEO of Panda Production

From left: Fashion designer Liběna Rochová, UNICEF CR CEO Pavla Gomba, actor and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Jitka Čvančarová

Pavel Kukleta, CEO of Panda Production, receiving a certificate of thanks from UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors

Viktor Knapp and Ladislav Veselý, Slevomat.cz, receiving a certificate of thanks from UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors

Zdeněk Chmelík, MS Pharm s.r.o., receiving a certificate of thanks from UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors

Zuzana Pohorská, Marketing Director at BURDA Praha publishers, receiving a certificate of thanks from UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors

David Táborský and Jana Roztočilová, FTV Prima, receiving a certificate of thanks from UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors

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I nterview with G abriela K řivánková , C o - founder and C hairman of the B oard of yourchance

The right management strategy bears fruit.

Vision, consistency and the art of enduring are important!

Gabriela Křivánková, graduate of the

University of Economics in Prague, successful businesswoman, co-founder and chairwoman of the board of yourchance, implementation leader of the nationwide projects Financial Literacy into Schools and Start on the Right Foot, holder of the title The Woman of the Region in district Prague 2018 and mother of two children in an interview about her mission, personal approach, leadership and work-life balance.

The story of yourchance began in 2009 when Gábina and her friend Jana Merunková decided to work on something in partnership. What was the impulse to start your own company?

More than a decade ago, I stood at an imaginary crossroads, whether to be employed again or start my own business. In most companies, I had heard that I was young, overqualified and that managerial positions are for older people.

I knew Jana from my previous work and our cooperation worked very well. One afternoon we had coffee and thought that together we could start making the world better. At the same time, both of us knew very well that entrepreneurial and employee attitudes had its own specifics. That's why yourchance initially acted as a brand and the two of us were self-employed.

We founded the NGO eight months later. During these months, we invented meaning, drew the process structure of functioning, talked about our personal values as well as those of yourchance. And finally, we confirmed that the name yourchance captures the fact that we, ourselves, at a certain stage of life have gotten a chance from someone, and that these people held us when we needed to. And that is the mission of our projects.

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What is your company focused on and what is its purpose?

Yourchance teaches people personal prosperity, which we view as a four-leaf clover in the form of health, finances, quality relationships and fulfillment of personal mission. Through the project Start on the Right Foot, we help young people leaving orphanages and foster care to live a “regular life” even though they did not have a bed of roses at the beginning. We teach them the right principles of household economy, work, finance, relationships, and personal development. The other project Financial Literacy into Schools focuses primarily on teachers. We create an environment and conditions in which it will be possible to educate pupils in financial literacy and entrepreneurship. Secondary target groups are primary school pupils, secondary school students and parents.

How do you and your co-founder Jana share your roles?

The entire yourchance team is built on people's strengths. Jana is great at negotiating cooperation and support from our donors. Thanks to her studies in journalism, she also has the gift of spoken and written words. In yourchance she is responsible for fundraising, coordinating media and PR. I, in turn, can see and develop the potential of our people, devise steps to achieve the set goals. I like facts and charts with numbers. That is why I lead our managers, human resources and marketing.

What is your experience with strategic management outside yourchance?

I met strategic management at the time of my studies, when I was given confidence, could attend management meetings and be part of the creation of a smaller company. Later I worked on transformation projects in international corporations.

What are the specifics of running an NGO and both of its projects, Financial Literacy into Schools and Start on the Right Foot? After all, it is not a corporate environment…

Since Jana and I both originally came from a business, yourchance is in some ways different than most organizations in this field. In the beginning, apart from defining the process structure, we also divided competencies according to our strengths.

We have regular strategic meetings, semi-annual tactical meetings, and team meetings. Our people understand the importance for us of internal customer-supplier relationships that we follow in terms of quantity and quality. We do not limit them in terms of working time or free time. If the result is delivered on time and in the required quality, they can work from anywhere. Yourchance is a valuedriven company. One of the values ​​is leadership when we use our skills for the benefit of people.

We are their support, motivation, role models, counselors, but also those who discover their skills and abilities and develop them. It is important for us that our work is always of the highest possible quality. Each team member has a deepening of their professional skills and self-education in the job description. That's why we've created a library where our people can borrow books written by Maxwell, Carnegie, Kiyosaki, as well as professional P hoto :

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titles on financial literacy, psychology, and pedagogy. Magazines such as Forbes, First Class, and others are available for all. We realize how fast the world is moving forward in using modern technologies and applications, we keep our eye on trends.

The fundamental value for us is the responsibility for the goodwill of yourchance, to each other and our clients, partners, and donors. Most of the time we use leadership to lead people. But we can also switch to management mode, resolve a situation and then return to leadership. Our company is funded by donations of individuals and companies, so we regularly report our results. At the same time, it is important for us that our donors feel part of social change, because only through cooperation can we implement activities that will affect the entire system.

At what time horizons do you plan? Is there a proven mechanism and frequency in this strategic planning?

We have a strategic plan for five years. Once a year we review and redefine it according to the current situation and expected trends. Every fortnight we have team meetings and once a month we have yourchance meeting with the management team and PR managers. We have also created expert teams from both projects, which meet at least twice a year and deal with the technical issues of the project. At the system level, we consult with advisory board members, which are experts on the subject or successful business owners who have demonstrated their skills in company management.

In particular, what do you think affects the future relationship with potential colleagues, applicants for yourchance projects?

Potential colleagues come to us, especially because they want to do work that has a certain overlap and mission. At the same time, they seek a work-life balance. From a management perspective, they must value our vision and want to be an active part of social change with us. It is important to have defined responsibilities and competences, precise assignments, established methodologies for the functioning of both projects, both professionally and systemically.

You have dozens of volunteers in the get started right project. How do you work with them? In what form is their addressing and subsequent management?

We have volunteers in the Start on the Right Foot project who are mentors for young people from orphanages and foster care. A mentor is usually a more experienced or older person, who is his mentee support and guide. It helps him to know himself better, his potential and his abilities. For a mentor, mentoring is often a way to better selfknowledge, an opportunity to help someone who needs it. We address mentors through jobs.cz and LinkedIn. Potential candidates can also apply via the response form on the project website. We have coordinators for mentors for Bohemia and Moravia region, who are dedicated to them. We are preparing training, supervision and nationwide meetings for them to share their mentoring experience.

If you were to name three of your life values, which would it be?

They are health, family, and self-realization. When a person is healthy, he can do everything. I take care of my mental and physical health and lead my family to it. Family is an important building block for me. That is why I care about friendly and loving relationships and create the warmth of home where everyone wants to return. I need self-realization to be satisfied and complete, I take care of my personal development by regular trainings, seminars, and reading books. At the same time, I lead people and whole teams, work with them on their way to their goals, I am a motivator, mentor and role model for them.

Last year yourchance managed to expand outside the Czech Republic. The newly established company yourchance global is engaged at an international level especially in spreading financial literacy. Would you describe to our readers your activities abroad?

In an international context, we have launched the "Mission Lombok". Its essence is financial education, entrepreneurial spirit development, and entrepreneurship in Indonesia. We have had two visits. From the first one, we published a book of the same name. The second trip to Indonesia was based on teaching hotel industry basics. Our goals are much higher there. That is the reason why we started cooperation with the Indonesian embassy in Prague. There are also partners interested in our activities in Italy and Great Britain.

How do you combine the work of a businesslady, a key manager and a mother of young children?

Harmonizing the value of family and self-realization is an important base for my personal satisfaction. Both children are and have been part of yourchance since childhood. Last but not least, we have a caring grandmother and, if necessary, other family members will be involved. I think it's important to get help when there's it too much on you. It is not easy to harmonize personal and professional life. I always say that a happy mother is important and then the whole family is happy. You can always make it happen, even if you sometimes feel like you can’t handle it ... but your brain will surprise you and come up with something for you. You need to have the right focus.

You are leading hundreds of people both internally and externally. What final advice would you give to all leaders?

It is important to realize that you are the first person you lead and influence in your life. Your people will follow you if you have a great vision and leave you because of low leadership. That is why you need to constantly work on your personal development and learn from people who are where you want to be one day.

By CL české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

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COACHING

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What do Germans miss

in Slovakia and the Czech Republic in cross-cultural business?

Eva Gaborikova

Eva has been cross-cultural consultant for more than 15 years supporting companies with trainings and workshops in Europe, USA and Asia. Working with international companies, teams and different cultures, she inspires her clients to look for their new strategies on how to deal with cross-cultural challenges and differences. She helps companies to keep talents and develop a successful cross-cultural communication between leaders and teams. In the year 2016 and 2018 she was awarded Great Award in competition with trainers and consultants from USA, Europe and Asia.

You can reach her via email egaborikova@gmail.com or www.evagaborikova.eu.

As an intercultural consultant I have been working with international teams, managers and leaders for more than 15 years. My mission starts with supporting top leaders and continues with implementation of ideas and establishing bridges between them and their teams. German managers and leaders cooperate with local teams in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

I’m introducing them to their cross-cultural cooperation and help them interpret what values and behaviors they bring to their multicultural teams.

Professional expertise:

German team members and managers are expected to be technically capable in their respective areas. They contribute to discussion if they are asked to propose a solution based on their experience and knowledge. Responsibility is delegated by a manager to a team member who is technically competent to carry out a particular task. The team member performs a task without undue interference or supervision. The same is true for German’s approach to local team members in different cultures managing their local teams.

Clear and precise instructions:

German communication style is direct and based on facts. Cooperating with their colleagues and teams they prefer a direct communication where Yes means Yes and No means No. There is no need to look for a hidden meaning between lines. On the other side, cultures with an indirect style can feel offended by their direct feedback and criticism. Czechs, Slovaks and Hungarians view German’s feedback as an offence.

Building relationships:

Slovak, Czech and Hungarian business culture invests time into relationships building. Rela-

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tionships are built to cooperate on projects, to create a positive team atmosphere and build long-term customer care. People from those cultures see the German manager-subordinate relationship as distant and cold.

Planning, planning and planning:

Germans could be described as planners who like to attend meetings having done a considerable amount of preparation. They devote a lot of attention to scheduling plan of a project implementation with detailed steps and scenario for emergency events.

This approach can be mistaken by people from other cultures as pettiness and even arrogance. Some cultures feel that they do not have enough space to contribute on their side because German colleagues have made up their minds before arriving at a meeting. They lack flexibility and there are lots of discussions focused on presenting Germans’ points thoroughly and asking for well-researched data.

Contribution to discussion:

Germans are not afraid to ask direct questions, take a floor to deliver their points of view and provide a negative feedback or reaction at an annual meeting, conference or team discussion. On the other side, they are missing an expert contribution from their business colleagues and partners and willingness to share pros and cons of a particular situation.

A direct and deep debate is expected and encouraged in order to promote the development of the right answer. Therefore, meetings can sometimes seem to be quite heated for those cultures which prefer a diplomatic approach to discussion. They can misinterpret this exchange of ideas as overt.

Details, details and once more details:

German presentations are usually supported with a lot more specific detail than might be felt necessary in countries such as Hungary, Slovakia or the Czech Republic. There’s an idea that the lack of supporting details can severely weaken the credibility of an argument. They like to analyse problems in great depth before reaching a conclusion.

A strong separation between a private and professional life:

“We are at work to work.” Germans keep a dividing line between work and their private life. Having friends in their private circles doesn’t mean that they will be friends meeting as the representatives of their companies and discussing contract of cooperation.

Rules keeping:

“We have rules to respect and keep them.” German colleagues and business partners ask for rules, provide detailed rules and follow rules.

They are not very open to flexibility which is seen as a positive approach in the emergency situations in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. If there’s a need to finish a project, to deal with urgent obstacles, there is a wellfounded reason why to “bend rules”. Rules are set to avoid uncertainty and help people to find a common way of cooperating together.

Time perception:

Germans belong among cultures which believe they can control time. Appointments are precisely planned. Colleagues and business partners are expected to adhere to the agreed schedules.

Punctuality is a matter of good manners.

Eva Gaborikova české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

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INTERVIEW WITH PETR KUBERNÁT,

former Ambassador to the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

P hoto : A rchive

The phenomenon of returning from abroad My interview with Ambassador Petr Kubernát was held within the recently renovated Classicist Trauttsmandorff, or Trcku, Palace. We first went to the chapel dedicated to diplomats who lost their lives performing diplomatic services abroad. We both took this time to honour our former colleague Ivo Žďárek, who was killed in the terrorist attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, in 2008. Although he survived the immediate bombing with minor scratches, right after the attack he helped to evacuate the wounded from the burning building. He didn’t get out of the building a second time, becoming trapped in the fire, where he perished. Such a scenario can sometimes occur in the diplomatic service.

The palace is also home to the Diplomatic Academy, where I began my professional career and where I first met the Ambassador in 2002 when he was Deputy Secretary of State for European Affairs. As Director General of the EU Section at the Foreign Ministry he was responsible for the overall co-ordination of the negotiation process and for the Czech Republic’s preparations for Union membership. He has been Ambassador to the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Before that, he worked in Brussels for the Czech Republic Mission to the EU. In the Netherlands, he also represented the Czech Republic as its Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and was the first Czech elected as Chairperson of its Executive Council for a one-year period. The Ambassador also has experience working in the private sector through his consulting business and in his role as President of the Czech Republic – Netherlands Mutual Chamber of Commerce. Petr Kubernát completed his post as Ambassador to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in December 2019 and returned to Prague.

Mr Ambassador: we are meeting shortly after your return from five years in Luxembourg. The phenomenon of returning from abroad within a career interests me greatly. From my own experience, in both the civil service and corporate world, I know that while employees make preparations for departures, hardly ever prepare for their return. What is it like to return home after so many years?

Departures and returns are closely connected to the somewhat itinerant lifestyle of a diplomat.

I myself feel that it is a good idea and useful for diplomats to return home after a period working abroad and settle at the so-called Headquarters before any further departure abroad. There are of course times when one goes from one assignment to the next, but this is exceptional and occurs only when absolutely necessary. The situation is always changing, within domestic politics, in society in general and, last but not least, also here at the Ministry. So it’s good to

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be able to refresh not just your knowledge, but also your contacts, to pick up new information and impulses. This also applies to family life, as we can stay with our wider family and deepen relationships with our friends. I agree with you that the return may not necessarily be simple.

One can feel somewhat out of place, and miss one’s previous lifestyle or working tempo. I don’t mean the car with the flag, because personally I enjoy taking trams and buses. I often walked or cycled in Luxembourg and The Hague, and I even used an electric bike in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg is quite a hilly city and from 2018 they introduced the option of using electric bikes there. My return involves not just the end of my mission and saying goodbye, but also packing and moving. The return to Headquarters is another chapter. We don’t usually return to a specific position, but rather we have a transition period of a few months in a temporary post, which gives us the time to decide on our further focus.

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How does the end of a mission play out from the ambassador’s perspective?

Usually one officially says goodbye to the leading representatives of the country of your assignment. I held a final audience with the head of state, Grand Duke Henri, said goodbye to the President of the Chamber of Deputies, F. Etgen, and Prime Minister X. Bettel and Foreign Minister J. Asselborn organised a goodbye lunch for me. These meetings also serve to evaluate the current status of bilateral relations and also to review my own period in Luxembourg. I was pleased at how positive their response was. The Embassy also has to be transferred to the acting head, and of course I need to say goodbye to colleagues, compatriots and friends.

As a general rule, upon one’s return a roundtable is held to discuss the particular teritory, at which the outgoing and incoming ambassadors meet to evaluate the course and outcome of the mission alongside other participants. The incoming ambassador also presents his own

concept of how he will be working, and priorities and areas of focus are discussed. This is of benefit to all those taking part in terms of reflection, maintaining continuity and being informed.

For readers, I would note that according to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, outgoing and incoming ambassadors should never meet within the country they are working, which is why this meeting is held in Czernin Palace (Foreign Ministry Headquarters).

After having completed a number of other administrative tasks, I am currently thinking about my next post, and this will of course depend also on the Ministry’s needs. I can offer experience in bilateral as well as in multilateral diplomacy, the process of European integration, and I have also experienced two EU presidencies in the countries to which I have been posted. There is now a recruitment procedure for all positions, both abroad and at Headquarters, with internal selection processes taking place. Only if a position is not occupied by an internal candidate is the vacancy opened up to external candidates.

Do you miss Luxembourg?

Not yet. I’m in contact with my former colleagues, my friends and compatriots in particular. There is a large compatriot community in Luxembourg, and we did a great deal of work together. They are compatriots who see themselves as modern migrants, and so the term “ex-pats” is often used for them, a term I don’t particularly like. Many of these compatriots came to Luxembourg to work following the European Union’s expansion, and they work in institutions in Luxembourg, whether these be the European Investment Bank, the EU Court of Justice or the European Court of Auditors. It may surprise many to know, however, that only a minority of Czechs are employed by EU institutions. The majority work in the private sector, in multinational companies headquartered in Luxembourg, within branches such as IT, finance and banking. It is evident that Czechs really are smart, able to succeed in the world, and can find their place in the sun. We’re talking about almost two thousand Czechs who work in Luxembourg. The Czech community is very active. The “Divadlo v Luxu” drama club arranges theatrical productions which it performs in various languages, so the performances aren’t just for Czechs and Slovaks.

There is also a children’s folk dance and song club called Melimelo, made up of children of Czech, Slovak and Luxembourg origin, and there is a weekend Czech school which is working well. Another interesting aspect of the community is that lots of entities co-operate in Luxembourg on the basis of the former Czechoslovak Federation. In fact, that’s where the name of our association itself comes from, which has the abbreviation ATSL, meaning the Association of Friends of Czechs and Slovaks in Luxembourg. In 2018 we planted a Czech – Slovak linden tree of friendship dedicated to the Luxembourg capital on the occasion of the anniversary of Czechoslovakia’s founding. With all these contacts, any forlorn feelings from my return have not yet really sunk in. Luxembourg isn’t far, and my friends are already planning visits to Prague.

Staying with Luxembourg, Luxembourg is beautiful; I was there during a working trip when I was at the Diplomatic Academy.

I get the feeling, though, that Luxembourg is not entirely appreciated by Czech tourists. Plus the country is very expensive.

It’s true they have a high standard of living, so it is an expensive destination. As I said, many people living in Luxembourg have a high income, not just within EU institutions, with 150 foreign banks there as well as many branches of large multinational corporations. Prices are thus high. Housing and rents are very expensive.

Many people who work in Luxembourg live in neighbouring countries: in Germany, France or Belgium. The population of Luxembourg balloons every day with the addition of 200 000 cross-border commuters. Furthermore, apartments are expensive and so are not really accessible. Demand outstrips supply, and quality is poor.

But let’s go back to travelling in Luxembourg. It’s true that the size of the country doesn’t allow for a week’s planned holiday. Many tourists come for one or two days on their way to Belgium or France. I’d definitely recommend visiting the capital, Luxembourg City, which has many Czech connections. There’s Jan Palach Square, with Luxembourgers amongst the first to name a square after Jan Palach, doing so in 1969, initially illegally. Our shared forefather, John of Bohemia (also known as John I of Luxembourg or John the Blind) is buried in the crypt of Luxembourg’s largest cathedral, the Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Behind the Grand Ducal Palace is a statue of John of Nepomuk. There are also streets named after Prague and Charles, and there is even a school named after Charles IV. One of our compatriots, Mr. Klouda, who is over 80 years old, has been giving tours for many years. He told me about these connections. I hope another will be added this year when a street will be named after our former president, Václav Havel. Last year, I gave a tour for tourists of Czech connections as part of the Ministry for Tourism and Local Development’s “Guide for 1 Day” project. Our walk ended in the embassy’s gardens with a tasting of cool Plzeň beer. The tourists were satisfied. And I must mention another tradition set up by John of Bohemia. This is the annual funfair, or the Schueberfouer, which began in 1340. The original market, which aimed to promote Luxembourg and its products to buyers travelling between France and Italy, gradually transformed itself into the largest entertainment attraction in the country.

The Moselle River, forming the border between Luxembourg and Germany, flows through a beautiful valley, but furthermore there are renowned vineyards on either side. Moselle, predominantly white wine, is a well known phenomenon. Crémant, a kind of sparkling wine using the same method as for Champagne, is produced in this region, although since it is not from the Champagne region it bears a different name. Near the City of Luxembourg is the mediaeval castle of Bourglinster, which is also used for state events. This also has a Czech connection in the form of two tapestries by academic painter and Czech compatriot, Ota Nalezínek, who lives next to the castle and

celebrates his 90th birthday this year. In the north is the famous Vianden Castle, which is very similar to Karlštejn. A craft festival is held there every year, with Czech artisans also taking part. The castle also marks the beginning of the Ardennes with its beautiful forests and lakes.

Anyone who loves the countryside should come here after visiting the capital and the Moselle. In a relatively short period of time, you can visit the entire country and get an idea of its diversity. I’m glad that a regular direct flight has been restored between Luxembourg and Prague, operated by Luxair. There are four flights a week in the summer season. When I used to fly to the Czech Republic, it would take me two and a half hours from the doors of the embassy to arrive home in Prague.

Let’s move on from visiting Luxembourg to return to diplomacy. You’ve worked in countries which were founding members of the European Union. Upon your return, have you begun to perceive Czechs’ fairly critical perspective on the EU? And we’re meeting in early February, so how do you perceive this post-Brexit period?

I follow the news, read the newspapers and of course I perceive public opinion. I do notice a certain shift in the perception of the EU, but there is no fundamental change. In terms of Brexit, the Czech and Luxembourg approach is the same. We regret the fact that the United Kingdom is leaving the EU. I still think about what has happened, and what the departure has led to. It is still hard to believe that the UK has left. I don’t think the departure of one country will lead to a domino effect. The period of preparation for departure was so long that it is unlikely other countries will follow the UK. Brexit will undoubtedly have a negative impact on both the UK and the EU! It is important now to negotiate the best possible agreement on our future mutual relations. The Czech Republic has lost an ally in many areas, and this will be a challenge for our diplomats too. In regard to further European integration, I am no sceptic, but rather am pragmatic. I held such a position even when we were joining the Union.

We must of course look at where we are going next. And investigate all the options.

Decision-making at the EU level is not always the only option, nor the best. Might it be time to return decision-making in some areas back to the national level? Let’s begin posing these questions and discussing them openly. The EU project has arrived at a new phase in its further development. At the end of the day, the principle of subsidiarity is one of the EU’s core principles. And the fact that the EU has operated in a particular way up to now does not mean that change is impossible. Furthermore, the young generation is more critical in its approach to the EU, and this may further shift the European integration project.

Linda Štucbartová české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

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P hoto : J an K amenář

A LEGEND CELEBRATES HIS 80th BIRTHDAY

Café Slavia, February 3, 2020 From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, Tünde Bartha, Head of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic, and Andrej Babiš, Prime Minister

It has become the tradition of Mr. Muzikář to celebrate his birthday every five years with his family and friends. He calls the celebration a „purposefully timed meeting of a select group of exceptional people”.

“A man, celebrating his 80th birthday, had to be born in the first half of the last century of the past millennium and that sounds frightening”, said the invitation to his momentous jubilee. With this in mind the celebration was designed to be in the spirit of thankfulness and helping others at the same time.

Mr. Muzikář again used the opportunity of his birthday to support those who are in need with his wish that guests send a donation to the Saint Charles Borromeo Home in Řepy instead of presenting him with any birthday gifts. During the evening Sister Konsoláta Miroslava Frýdecká, Sister Superior of the Saint Charles Borromeo Home, personally expressed gratitude for all the donations. The total amount collected was overwhelming, more than 2.000.000 CZK. 48

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From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, Miloslava Procházková and Jiří Vacek, Owners, Avanti Floors

From left: Antonín Pačes, Chairman of the Board, Excon, Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, Kateřina Čapková, Executive Director, Excon

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From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Jiří Zelenka, CEO, Toseda

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Jaroslava & Radek Sajvera, Owners, Rapeto

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Michal Pešek, Managing Director, Pešek Machinery with his partner

Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Sister Konsoláta, Mother Superior of Saint Charles Borromeo Home

Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Karolína Topolová, Chairman of the Board, Aures Holding

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, Pavel Košek, PR Manager, Huawei Czech, and Willi Song, General Manager, Huawei Czech

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Václav Růžička, Chairman of the Board, Alkom Security with his wife

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From left: …Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Josef Lžičař, Lawyer

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Erik Best, Publisher, The Fleet Sheet

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Jiří Zapletal, Owner, Moser

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From left: Jiří Neudörfl, Managing Director, Zemědělská společnost Dobříš, Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, and Jiří Zelenka, Chairman, ZD Krásná Hora nad Vltavou

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, Lucie Bedrníčková, Director of Department, ČEZ ESCO, and Jan Oberman, Managing Director, Korado Consulting

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Čestmír Motejzík, Chairman of the Board, ZŘUD

Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Jaroslava Valová, Owner, SIKO koupelny

Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Marie Benešová, Minister of Justice

Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Eva Anderová, Vice President for PR, UNYP

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From left: Martin Kramář, Partner, Skils, Victoria Tortorici, Karel Dřevínek, Partner, Skils, Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, Karolína Horáková, Partner, Skils, Joe Tortorici, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, and Karel Muzikář Jr., Managing Partner, Skils

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From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Benke Aikell, your Publisher

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Petr Kubernát, former Ambassador to Netherlands and Luxembourgh

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From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Jiří Weigl, former Chancellor of the President of the Republic

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, Alena Vitásková, former Head of the Energy Regulatory Office, and Mr. Arnošt Thon

Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Renata Vesecká, Lawyer

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Pavel Švagr, Chairman, The Administration of State Material Reserves

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Petr Paukner, General Director, Carbounion Bohemia

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Ivan Pilný, former Minister of Finance with his wife

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Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Monika Nebeská, Chairwoman, ZD Všestary

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, Zita Muzikářová and Pavel Tykač

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From left: Prof. Václav Klaus, former President of the Czech Republic, Livie Klausová, former Ambassador to Slovakia, Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Karel Muzikář Jr., Managing Partner, Skils

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Jiří Rusnok, Governor of the Czech National Bank

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Jiří Nekovář, President, Euro Trend with his wife

H.E. Roberto Alejandro Salafia, Ambassador of Argentina

Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and his speech

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and H.E. Daniel Meron, Ambassador of the State of Israel

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, Jaroslava Sílešová, Director of the Office of the President, and Radek Vondráček, President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament

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From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Pavel Baštář, Executive Director, Invelt with his wife

Klára Sovová, Shareholder, Luční bouda and Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius and Prof. Václav Klaus, former President of the Czech Republic

I,

Humanity 2.0:

the

B rand

The Entrepreneurial Career and Our Journey Into the Future

Cristina Muntean is a consultant, trainer, mentor and coach who specializes in personal branding, strategic communications, emotional and systemic intelligence for leadership. A former journalist with more than 12 years of experience in the Czech, Romanian and international media, she founded Media Education CEE, a PR advisory and training agency in Prague in May 2010. Her clients are executive level managers and entrepreneurs with Top100 companies in the Czech Republic and Central and Eastern Europe. Cristina is also an internationally certified trainer and coach with the Enneagram, a complex system of personal development, and a facilitator of systemic dynamics in organizations. She provides services in English, Czech, French and Romanian, her mother tongue. Cristina can be reached at +420 776 574 925 or at cm@cristinamuntean.com.

The end of April this year marks a milestone in my life. This is the day when, ten years ago, Czech Business Weekly (CBW), the English language economic magazine where I worked as a reporter, then as the chief reporter and deputy editor-in-chief was closed, throwing our lives into disarray. A bunch of English language journalists laid off on a foreign market in the midst of the toughest economic crisis of the last half a century – what career journeys could open ahead of us? We couldn’t answer that question at that time. Ten years later however, life has a different flavor and a different perspective.

If someone had told me that day, when I was standing on the sidewalk looking at our offices for the last time, that ten years later I would have a thriving career in people development I would have told them they were kidding. I would also have waved them off had they told me that in 2018 I would have the honor to publish the first book on personal communications ever written in Czech by a non-native speaker – You, the Brand – Personal Branding for Career Growth, or for organizing the first digital conference in the Czech Republic, the Personal Branding Summit 2019, all of that on my own, without the backing of money or loving support of a life partner or by the impactful glamour of having worked in the past for a global company.

No. Ten years ago, life looked bleak. With losing our job many of us also lost our professional identity. To be honest, it’s pretty scary to have your sense of professional identity stripped away from you in one week and to have to deal with the consequences of such a cataclysmic event on your career. But life moves on, as we all, the former CBW team, had to learn on our own.

The Blessing in Disguise What I wish someone had told me those ten years ago, as I was standing on that sidewalk, was quite different. As it shows, getting laid off from CBW was, in fact, a blessing in disguise that ended up propelling many of us on an entrepreneurial journey.

Stripped of what we knew we were left with no option but to do the best with what we had left. We became more resourceful. I decided to ask my tae-bo trainer to lend me 200 000 CZK, the price of creating a limited liability company in 2010 in Prague. We started learning new things. I joined a course to become a trainer of personal development. There I discovered the importance of emotional intelligence and the Enneagram, a complex and dynamic system of personal development which opened a whole new world for my relationships and

work. I gradually learned how to mentor and coach. To finance my becoming I started taking companies on a retainer to execute media relations and integrated communications strategies for them. Now I mentor people on how to do that for their companies. In 2011 I was already conducting my first complex media communications development program in Czech. Soon after I discovered the power of systemic intelligence, which sky-rocketed my understanding of organizations and team work.

My service portfolio was starting to shape up: advisory, training, coaching and mentoring on strategic communications, emotional intelligence and leadership. Through challenges, struggle and anxiety balanced by the joy of new client wins and relentless hope the pieces of the puzzle were finally coming together. It was only two years ago, in 2018, when I felt an inner shift. After eight years I was finally feeling that I had landed in my new profession: people development. And boy, does it feel good to have your own life in your own hands again after such a long, long time.

Nothing Can Prepare Us for Transformation Looking back to what happened when CBW was closed I realize that nothing could have prepared us for transformation. Life happens; it comes and it kicks us in the gut, stripping away what we hold most dear: our health, relationships or our career. And we need to deal with it. What we are also stripped away of are our certainties: that we will be forever held by the gentle arms of an inclusive company or by the capacity of a state to pay our pensions. That’s an illusion. The sooner we learn to accept that, the sooner we can start stirring our life boat in the direction of something more meaningful – discovering, cultivating and unleashing our full human potential.

Your Own Unpredictable Journey into the Future More and more leaders with whom I work on personal branding and people development assignments are currently noticing tectonic shifts in their careers and companies. These shifts are triggered by their company transformation processes or by personal burnout. As companies continue to redefine their mission, implement more digital and data-driven strategies and bet more and more on robots and artificial intelligence, our very definition of career management is transforming. In the 20th century our careers used to be linear: you join a company, develop your expertise and grow into new roles until you retire. End of the story. The career lifespan

was anywhere between 25 and 40 years. Today we are considering careers with lifespans beyond 52 years. The jobs of the future, those that we need to fill in 10 to 15 years from now haven’t been even defined yet. On top of that we are also facing massive challenges in terms of declining physical and mental health across the board.

This, but not only, is what makes more and more people to leave their companies to take longer and longer sabbaticals to recover, regenerate and redefine their life purpose. When they come back, they are different for they have felt the taste of empowerment. They have no hesitation to push back and say no to their managers. They understand the value of networking, strategic communications and personal branding. And they are ready to act – at the right time, for the right reason and in line with their life mission.

That’s why in the future companies with no sense of purpose will get more and more push-back from their employees. Leaders all over the world are currently in a process of redefining their approach from managing resources, processes and people to managing humanity and to leading with purpose in increasingly complex stakeholder systems. We are slowly moving into the era of Humanity 2.0 where the only certainty that we have is our capacity to stay humans: to discover those gold nuggets in our brain that we don’t know they exist, to boost our curiosity, creativity and to become more empathetic, considerate, kind and all-embracing. As we are more and more on the Planet, it becomes clear that the only sustainable way forward into the future is to learn to serve each other, as opposed to pillaging our resources and each other. And the people able to do that? Well, they are the same people whom life kicked in the guts, for they are those who know how to operate when all you’ve got left is your humanity. And this capacity, paradoxically, is our key into a better future.

So when the invitation is there for you on the table to jump into the unknown, just go for it. It will hurt, I am sure. Yet through pain we grow. Who knows, perhaps what we are experiencing today is nothing but the labor pain of a new form of humanity that is calling to all of us. In this light our whole becoming turns into a journey of personal discovery, individual and community empowerment.

Just open up and feel free to embrace it – for your own good and for the good of us all.

By Cristina Muntean české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

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I nterview

with

M arkéta P ekarová A damová , C hairwoman

Ms. Markéta Pekarová Adamová, MSc, has been Chairwoman of the TOP 09 political party since November 2019. During the years 2015–2019, she was its Vice-Chairwoman. She has sat in the Chamber of Deputies since the year 2013, and before that she worked as a representative and councillor for the Prague 8 district.

The Chairwoman of TOP 09 studied the field of andragogy in the Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University Prague, followed by the field of economics and management in an engineering study programme in the Czech Technical University in Prague. Within the scope of her studies, she devoted herself to the issues of the physically disabled and diversity. She is actively involved in volunteer activities, having helped out in children's homes in Armenia and Morocco, worked with disabled people in Serbia and participated in an environmental project in Scotland. Every year, she helps organise children's camps and events for children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds in Bohemia.

Her motivation for entering politics in the year 2009 was an appearance by Jiří Paroubek, who was Chairman of the Czech Social Democratic Party at the time. She is currently the only woman to lead a Czech political party represented in the Parliament of the Czech Republic. What I appreciate about Chairwoman Pekarová Adamová is, among other things, that she has managed to remain a woman in a male environment. Apart from natural cultivated media and press conference appearances, she is also known for communication on social networks. She has never stooped to rudeness or vulgarity, yet her cultivated and refined responses have managed to figuratively

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of the

TOP 09

political party

knock even seasoned media debaters to the ground. Chairwoman Pekarová Adamová skilfully handles reactions to offensive declarations, particularly by the Spokesman of the President of the Republic, Jiří Ovčáček. Reactions to his offensive tweets, in the form of a recipe for pancakes or a list of specific acts in the field of humanitarian aid, have gained great popularity.

Given the current situation regarding the Covid-19 crisis, the interview was conducted remotely. However, we both agreed that the word coronavirus would not be mentioned during the interview. We dealt with topics that will remain relevant even after the current crisis has subsided. We discussed not only TOP 09's strategy for the upcoming elections, but also politics as a craft. Of course, the conversation also led to topics that Chairwoman Pekarová Adamová holds dear, such as volunteering and local politics. I also asked Chairwoman Pekarová Adamová about measures aimed at the greater involvement of women in the political and economic sectors. Why in these two specific areas? According to the so-called global gender inequality index's latest indicators for the year 2020, published by the World Economic Forum, the Czech Republic ranked 78th out of 153 countries. Despite the fact that we're in first place in the categories of education and health, in the category of participation in economic life we're in 87th place, and regarding the issue of representation in political life we're in 77th place. We finished with rest, and the harmonization of career and free time. The recommendation “Take care of not only your health, but also your close relationships”, is simultaneously topical and timeless.

POLITICS requires the COURAGE to step outside one's COMFORT ZONE Chairwoman Pekarová Adamová, you've led the TOP 09 party since November 2019. The latest election polls, from March 2020, indicate that TOP 09, along with two other democratic opposition parties, is on the threshold of electability, with preferences of around five percent, which are necessary for entry to the Chamber of Deputies. What is your party leadership vision, and strategy for the autumn elections?

My vision is ambitious. I want to achieve success that will enable our party to be part of the government. Only in the government can we promote priorities, and turn the steering wheel of politics in the Czech Republic. It's clear to me that, given the low preferences, we must look for allies before the actual elections. We're trying to create an electoral grouping that will have a chance of victory, and thereby of changing the political situation.

The inability of the democratic opposition to come together and collaborate seems to be an almost constant “evergreen” of Czech politics.

I perceive unification to be not only in the vital interest of the parties, and the politicians who comprise them, but also in the interest of the citizens of the Czech Republic. The current governmental constellation interconnects media and business interests, as well as the Prime Minister's personal interests, a little too much. This situation endangers the very essence of liberal democracy in our country. The situation in Hungary and Poland has shown that individual pillars of democracy can be demolished easily and quickly. If all of us in the opposition have a unified interest and goal, then we must also be capable of some sort of compromise and detached view, which will allow us to rise above partial differences, whether they're of a programme, opinion or human nature. Only effective collaboration will bring about the change of course we desire. In this respect, I'm an optimist. It's all about will. Positive examples of a collaborating opposition can also be found abroad.

On the other hand, I must admit that the steps leading to collaboration aren't easy at all, and lots of voters who call for collaboration on the opposition's part may be disappointed that it doesn't happen quicker.

The interview is intended for readers of Czech and Slovak Leaders Magazine, so let's talk about leadership. What's your definition of a leader, and do we have enough leaders in society at the moment?

To me, a leader is someone who can get others on board regarding their view. It's P hoto :

archive

not someone who merely monitors the opinions of others, a so-called follower, but someone who actively forms opinions.

A leader is someone who is followed because they have natural authority and charisma, and the ability to get others on board regarding their view. A leader must be able to listen, but their opinion shouldn't change according to what the other side wants to hear. A leader must be able to stand behind unpopular opinions, and defend them.

I think that there aren't many personalities who fulfil the afore-mentioned characteristics. Not only in politics, but in society as a whole. That makes true leaders, who are able to positively change a situation, whether in politics or in a private company, all the more valuable. I don't think that a person is born a leader. They must mature into the role of a leader. It's a journey, and in my opinion many people have the potential to become a leader if they set off on a path of personal development. That's the case with me, too. I constantly feel that I have room in my development for learning and self-improvement. This should be natural for everyone, regardless of their age or position. I myself work, with sincere selfreflection and humility, on improving my shortcomings. I'm currently focusing on improving my communication skills, and rhetoric as such.

Now you've surprised me. I personally appreciate your factual, non-confrontational communication style. And when necessary, you have no problem dealing with real oafs. Is it difficult for you to adapt to your environment, while staying true to yourself? Women in top leadership, whether in politics or in business, are often criticised for excessively imitating their male counterparts, and thereby losing their authenticity.

Thank you for the compliment; it's kind.

I think that it's more complicated for women to stay true to themselves, because we're surrounded by so many male leaders.

Therefore, we're naturally inclined to learn from them. There are fewer female leaders whom we can follow. It's important to be able to maintain a balanced state, where a person can still feel natural, and not let yourself be dragged into unnatural positions that are expected by people around you or society. Ultimately, there's nothing people appreciate more than authenticity.

My example of authentic female leadership is Angela Merkel, who you can see does not bring male attributes into her leadership style. Maybe that's why she has stayed at the top for so long. With some women, I had

the opportunity to see how they lose their femininity and authenticity as their political career progresses. I myself try to take care not to become someone who dominates a space because I'm the only woman in a party's top leadership. It bothers me, because I really wanted other women to be present in the leadership, but I respect the results of a democratic election.

Your political path and attitudes have been significantly formed by two milestones. The first was volunteering, the second was local politics. How do you perceive volunteering in Czech society?

As we're talking about my career path, I'd like to mention both my family environment and my personal attributes. I was never one to just talk about things; I was always proactive, and changed things directly. Courage, high personal involvement and a willingness to step outside your comfort zone are always necessary if you want to reach the top. I myself operate in an exposed environment, but I certainly don't consider myself a heroine. For example, I regard doctors, who are responsible for their patients' lives and are under great pressure, as true heroes.

There are many similar professions that are performed by so-called everyday heroes.

Regarding volunteering, I'm pleased that interest in volunteer activities is growing in society, and many private companies support this trend. Most of us need to perform some activity that gives us a sense of a higher purpose. In the case of the young generation, we see that they want work which is meaningful but at the same time not detrimental to their earnings. I myself observe that many people carry out some form of volunteer activity, but don't talk about it.

The fact that they don't talk about things doesn't mean they don't happen. Take for example many sports groups, which the people in question organise because working with children brings them joy. On the issue of volunteering in Czech society, I'm definitely an optimist.

A certain parallel offers itself between volunteering and local politics, where you started out, after all. More women are also involved in local politics, because they feel more confident there.

Based on my previous experience, local politics is the best level of politics at which a person can operate. You can directly influence the environment in the place where you live, and you have direct contact with the citizens so you obtain immediate feedback.

You see the results behind you. At the level of the Chamber of Deputies, it's much more complicated with specific successes. Even

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when you manage to push through some legislation, it cannot compare to a successful reconstruction of a public open space. In communal politics, a person learns a lot that they can then put to use at higher political levels. I often give talks in schools, and recommend that young people get involved at this level. You're right in saying that the local level is natural for women. We shouldn't forget that women are often the driving force behind cultural events and social projects. In short, communal politics means less ornate words and more action. I like to quote Margaret Thatcher, who expressed herself as follows: “If you want something said, ask a man.

If you want something done, ask a woman.”

How do you manage to get young people interested in politics? I often ask doctors what we don't know about their specific discipline. So I'd like to ask you, too: what don't we know, and should know, about politics?

After the New Year, we launched a kind of awareness-raising campaign, focusing on both our party and politics as a whole. It's important for people to be interested in politics, to not be indifferent to it. When I ask young people if they're interested in politics, not all of them admit it. When I ask them whether they're interested in what's going to be taught in schools, almost all of them raise their hand. It's important for young people in particular to realise that most things are a result of a political decision. I like to share my

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experience that politics isn't so terribly dirty, and full of scams, lies and manipulations, as people usually claim. Yes, you can encounter dishonest behaviour. On the other hand, I've come to know lots of politicians who keep their word, don't lie, are decent, and didn't enter politics to enrich themselves. Politics is simply a craft. It's not an easy craft, and you have to learn it gradually. The vast majority of us have an opportunity to get involved in politics in some way. Politics isn't, and cannot be, removed from everyday life.

In the introduction, I quoted the World Economic Forum's statistics, according to which the Czech Republic ranks in unflattering places, particularly in the area of women's involvement in economic life and politics. What are you doing to improve the situation?

The foundation is to have enough examples that we can follow. I'm not a proponent of quotas. I call on women not to wait for other women to change the situation. We cannot be passive. Let's bring our work to the market, and support one another at the same time. I notice one more stereotype that is hindering women. In the Czech Republic, we still rely on the woman to provide childcare. She's the one who's expected to give up her career. So I'm trying to improve the conditions for the harmonization of work and family life. We need accessible and quality services that would care for the youngest children. By the way, this is one of

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the areas that can be easily influenced from a communal level. Another issue is a lack of part-time work and shared positions.

For years I've been campaigning for parttime work to have lower contributions. The fact that sharing a position is more expensive and administratively demanding for the employer than filling the position with one employee is the main barrier preventing its wider use. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to reach an agreement on this point.

To conclude, let's talk about the most important thing we have, which is our health. How do you manage to combine work and family life, and stay fit in toplevel politics?

Unlike the current Prime Minister and some members of the government, I'm not of the opinion that working 16-18 hours a day is a sign of heroism. I think that it's either workaholism, which is a disease, or an inability to organise one's time well. I myself try to have time for both relaxation and family. A well-known proverb states that a dull axe chops wood much longer than a sharp one. Work isn't everything, and I've learned to make sure that I have time for relaxation.

I take care not to neglect my health, or my relationship with my husband.

By Linda Štucbartová české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

Dana Zátopková

A L egend

1922 – 2020

A legend of Czech athletics, loved by the nation for her achievements as well as character, joined sports heaven this March at the blessed age of 97. Dana Zátopková was a great Czech javelin thrower and wife of the famous runner Emil Zátopek, who himself was a four-time Olympic champion. Due to the restrictions caused by the current pandemic, the public was excluded from the funeral ceremony, one more reason to pay our humble tribute to this outstanding personality by remembering her in our magazine.

Dana Zátopková won the gold medal for javelin at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games and the silver medal eight years later at the Rome Olympics. She was the European champion in 1954 and 1958. She also set a world record in 1958 when she was 35, making her the oldest woman to break one in an outdoor athletics event. She first met her future husband Emil at a stadium in the Central Bohemian town of Příbram and they quickly fell in love marrying a few months later in October 1948.

Czechoslovakia won seven medals at the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952. Four of them were won by Dana and Emil Zátopek. Dana’s Olympic victory came minutes after she took the medal her husband had just received for luck. By the time they returned home, they were a world-renowned sports couple. It is quite interesting that they were born the same day, month and year.

After 16 years of competing at the top level, Dana Zátopková retired in 1962, focusing instead on training upcoming athletes at home, while also being a member of the International Association of Athletics Federations, the governing body for athletic sports. When the district of Troja in Prague, where she lived, was badly hit by the floods, she was fully engaged in organizing relief for the community.

As the president of the Czech Olympic Committee, Jiří Kejval put it, “Mrs. Dana not only was a great athlete but primarily a great person. She was a role model for several generations of Olympians. We all feel very sad that she is not with us anymore”.

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INTERVIEW

Laser medicine isn’t

Photoshop MUDr. Hana Raková, MBA

is a renowned Czech doctor working in aesthetic laser medicine. In addition to holding three medical licences and completing three foreign placements in Sweden, she has also studied for an MBA. She has furthermore stood on the notional winners’ podium three times in various management and business competitions. Clients say she has not just golden hands, but also a golden heart. Hana Raková is also well-known as a supporter of female enterprise and female solidarity. You can come across her regularly at events of the Helas Ladies Club, a club she has been a member of since the very beginning. I take my hat off to the breadth and depth of Hana’s knowledge. Yet she sees herself as still not yet fully educated, and would like to study more. Are you wondering what subject this successful doctor and businesswoman would like to study? The answer is simple: quantum physics.

What do you consider the benefits of aesthetic dermatology? How do we perceive aesthetics?

More in this interview focused on trends, the benefits of laser therapy in dermatology, and also the life story which has shaped the great personality of this still modest and humble doctor.

My first question to a doctor is always the same. What do we not know about your field which we should know about, i.e. specifically about aesthetic laser dermatology?

I’d first consider the word “aesthetic”. For me personally, an aesthetic outcome is related to health. What is aesthetically acceptable from my own field’s perspective? For me it is skin which shows no signs of a problem, and is thus healthy. When skin looks healthy, it looks youthful. The saying, “there’s no cure to age” is true, but only partially so. From my own perspective, “aesthetic” means returning someone to a healthy appearance. Unfortunately, over the past 20 years there has been a greater focus on aesthetic surgery, which often aims to restore youth, rather than aesthetic dermatology, which is actually a treatment. Our lasers can resolve serious issues which may not be a threat to life, but can nevertheless make it very unpleasant, as they are considered unaesthetic. Such illnesses include rosacea, and various skin growths such as fibromas, warts and milia. So I perceive the word “aesthetic” within a broader context, and every field of medi-

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cine incorporates an aesthetic aspect. But let us also note that aesthetics and how aesthetics is perceived is highly individual, and I personally warn against some excessive procedures. Common sense is important, even in my own field, and it isn’t good to have unrealistic expectations. And aesthetics itself? For me it is just a fashionable term which is rather hollow.

Do you often have to explain to clients that laser therapy is not Photoshop? And what are your standard clients like?

I personally don’t understand the Photoshop phenomenon. I am the way I am, so I don’t need to retouch myself in photos. Merely retouching photos won’t achieve permanent changes. I remain the way I am in real life. So why do it? Laser therapy really can achieve rejuvenation. A laser beam has huge heat energy, which is transferred to a particular layer in the hypodermis. This leads to a kind of micro-oedema, which after absorption strengthens the collagen and elastic fibres, creating taught skin. And here we are again at a natural trend for healthy-looking skin. Personally, I fell in love with lasers twenty years ago, and I am still impressed and fascinated by everything lasers can do.

My clients range from one year old to 80-plus. The youngest come to us with viral warts. The traditional use of repeated liquid nitrogen applications is difficult for adults, never mind for children. Adolescents come to us to deal with problematic acne.

And we’re back at aesthetics. What might appear to us as superficial or banal, is of crucial importance to an adolescent who wants to look good. Our melanoma pigmentation advisory service is available to all age groups. At middle age, we deal with problems of the circulatory system, pigmentation patches and so-called adult acne. In terms of the trend for skin rejuvenation, it is clients from 30 years of age and above who express interest in this procedure. I have a client who has celebrated her 80th birthday, and she likes to look after herself.

Although women predominate, men are also beginning to visit our clinics. They most commonly come to deal with birthmarks they don’t want to get rid of the traditional way, i.e. excision. The saying, “the more youthful the skin, the worse the scar” has unfortunately been proven in my many years of practice. Lasers do not leave scars.

The latest issue of a dermatology textbook can clearly be seen on your desk. You hold three licences, you have undertaken three foreign placements and you’ve also studied for an MBA. In theory, you have the ideal profile for someone of the 21st century, the quintessential Type T personality. You have an in-depth professional specialisation yet also a broad scope. Life-long learning is not a new trend for you; you are its embodiment.

What you say is interesting. I still feel I don’t know enough. Learning is as natural as breathing for me.

I’ve got used to reading specialist books like fiction. So I always have the feeling I’m not educated enough, and that I’m never going to cover everything. I’ve got three medical licences, although I knew I wouldn’t need the extra ones; these are

P hoto :

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required for heading departments and I never wanted to be a head doctor. I’ve changed fields three times; I began at ENT, then I moved to dermatology and plastic surgery. My beloved lasers came later.

Your path to your private clinic began right after the revolution during a placement in Sweden.

It’s a story which only life itself can write. I had an aunt and uncle who had emigrated to Sweden.

After the revolution in 1989, I asked them whether they could help me arrange a placement in Gävle, and I set off the following summer. It was 1990, and my salary at the time came to 4200 CZK, so all my savings went toward the ticket there. I was surprised to find that medical procedures there were the same. What was fundamentally different was the atmosphere, interpersonal relations at work, and the attitude to patients. And of course I could not help but notice men’s different behaviour towards women in Scandinavia, the cradle of women’s equality. I had mistakenly thought that the differences would be in practical procedures and that Czech medicine would be much less developed. I spent literally days and nights at the clinic. By the end of the placement, I received a great reference, and I had four days of placement left to go. I decided to set off for Uppsala, because the clinic in Uppsala was one of the most renowned in the world. I invested the last money I had in the bus there, and I was ready to sleep at the station.

I found the university and ENT clinic in Uppsala and planned to meet the head of the clinic. His secretary, however, was unwilling to let me see him. Suddenly the door opened, and there stood Professor Anniko. I took advantage of the moment of surprise and introduced myself to the professor as a doctor from Prague who had four days until she returned and would be unlikely to come back, and could I possibly stay at the clinic for those four days? Professor Anniko was taken aback by my request and explained that students from Japan, for example, had to wait for over half a year to find out whether they could get a placement. My response disarmed him: “Yet they can go back, but I cannot.”

And so I was able to stay. I must have seemed like an alien from across the Iron Curtain to everyone there. After four days, I left with a personal invitation to return for a longer placement. Upon my return home, I readily shared the new techniques and findings I had discovered with my colleagues, but it was clear that management would not allow me to undertake another placement. This was confirmed, as they said they had no-one to work the out-of-hours service. With a heavy heart, I wrote to tell Uppsala that I would unfortunately be unable to go. Professor Anniko, who was himself a political refugee, did not give up, however. He wrote a personal letter to the head doctor asking him to release me to undertake the placement. So I set off for a second time, again spending some amazing days and nights at the university, but also private, clinic. In the end, I went a third time too. I came back with a different view of the world, along with the vision for my own private clinic. Everything else was a matter of time for implementation. It is no

exaggeration to say that without my stay in Uppsala, my clinic would never have come about.

Let’s look more at the issue of female solidarity. It’s said of women that we are unable to support each other. How do you perceive the phenomenon of female solidarity?

I don’t like generalisations. When we say women, this refers to half the human population. It doesn’t work like that. I surround myself with women, and we support each other hugely.

Within the Helas business club, we travel together, discover new places and support each other. I can imagine the situation might be more complex in the corporate sector. But mutual support comes from each of us, and each of us can influence the social paradigm. Mutual support is based on our own mental model. And it doesn’t depend on whether we are male or female. And men who respect women are always welcome.

Let us work on ourselves so we can be mature and well-adjusted and then everything will change. When feelings of injustice and envy fall away, support and co-operation follow naturally.

It is common practice to support each other.

What is abnormal is not to co-operate.

The new year of 2020 is beginning. What are your plans?

I try not to plan for the long term. At my age, I believe that the right things come at the right times by themselves. I have studied psychosomatic medicine and psychology, and sought out other areas related to medicine. I’ve always come back to lasers. I’m proud that my team of 25 colleagues is now entirely independent. I make sure to leave space for my younger colleagues. If they’re going to really mature and blossom as personalities, I cannot cramp them. So I focus on representing the clinic and transferring my experience, and leave the day-to-day operation to others. My goal is to be healthy and to have space to focus on other activities. I’m fascinated by quantum physics. I listen to various popularisers of science to understand it. There is no such thing as mass; there are particles of massless waves which organise depending on whether and how you observe them. I study the consequences of this discovery and the new paradigm which arises.

Don’t you find it fascinating?

And what is your final word for readers of Czech and Slovak Magazine?

I’m Czech through and through, and I’m glad to live in the Czech Republic. I would wish us all to be able to be thankful for the fact we live in one of the best countries in the world. Let us live attentively to the world and to daily life. And with attention naturally comes taking responsibility.

Linda Štucbartová české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

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culture event

Porcelain for Expo Dubai 20 BLOSSOMS 2018 The biggest national collection of porcelain original pieces presented over the last 100 years celebrated its closing party. More than 300 pieces of twenty six famous artists were presented at the exhibition.

From left: Dita Pístecká, Entrepreneur, Jiří Rajl, General Manager, CNCB, Viktoria Sion, Editor in Chief, Statuss magazine, Lena Hronková, PRAGA1, Bára Graftnerová, Actress, Jana Horačková, Entrepreneur, Zuzana Olssons, Entrepreneur, Jarmila Hla Shwe, Project Organiser, General Manager and Owner, Blossoms 2018, David Kotlár, Student, Helena Leisztner, Artist, David Kotrba, Entrepreneur, Edith Holečková Krištůfková, Owner, Armando, Roland Leisztner jr., and Roland Leisztner, Owner, Rolei Ltd.

From left: Jarmila Hla Shwe, Project Organiser, General Manager and Owner, Blossoms 2018, Helena Leisztner, Artist, and Boris Nosek, Artist and Curator of the Project

From left: Ivanka Kaucká, Sales and Marketing Manager, CZECH TOP 100 and Helena Leisztner, Artist

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

Pavel Číhař, Entrepreneur and Olina Kahlova, entrepreneur

culture event

Helena Leisztner, Artist with her master piece surrounded by friends – from left: Gabriela Muller, Lecturer, Roland Leisztner, Owner, Rolei Ltd., Dita Pístecká, Entrepreneur, Shimon Muller, Ministry of Agriculture, Jiří Rajl, General Manager, CNCB, Roland Leisztner jr., Student, Benke Aikell, your Publisher, Jan Struž, President, CZECH TOP 100, Ivanka Kaucká, Sales and Marketing Manager, Viktoria Sion, Editor in Chief, Statuss magazine, Helena Leisztner, Artist, Lena Hronková, PRAGA1, and Jarmila Hla Shwe, Project Organiser, General Manager and Owner, Blossoms 2018

Bára Graftnerová, Actress and Karel Kuruc, Entrepreneur

Helena, Leisztner, Artist at a welcome speech

Jarmila Hla Shwe, Project Organiser, General Manager and Owner, Blossoms 2018 and Boris Nosek, Artist and Curator of the Project

Conversation at the art piece Triptych

From left: Jiří Rajl, General Manager, CNCB, Roland Leisztner, Owner, Rolei Ltd., Helena Leisztner, Artist, Kateřina Krylová, Lawyer, Museum of the Municipality of Prague, and Pavla Kalousová, Luxent

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UNLOCKING A CHILD’S POTENTIAL

A PARENT AS A PARTNER Jan Mühlfeit and Kateřina Novotná

RULES/BOUNDARIES

In our courses we help children not only to discover their talents, but also deliver constructive advice to parents in the terms of raising kids. Parents at our workshops often tell us that before they had children, they were firmly determined not to repeat their own parents’ mistakes, however, the reality is different. Now that they’ve become parents, they constantly find themselves shouting at their children and ordering them around. They are exhausted and unable

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to truly listen to their children, then feel guilty and think they’ve failed as a parent.

The bestseller ‘Unlocking a Child’s Potential’, originating from a successful course with the same name, characterise four types of parents in one of the chapters. The division is based on the quantity of rules/boundaries and interest/listening, which is set by them. In the following paragraphs we will focus on the ideal one – “Partner” Parent.

DICTATOR

PARTNER

SLACKER

CONFIDANT

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INTEREST/LISTENING

‘Partners’ are ideal parents. They set the rules, but they also observe how the child reacts to them. Together, they can adjust the rules to suit both sides. Having rules and boundaries is necessary, but parents don’t have to be the only ones setting them. A parent can react flexibly to whatever the child tries to tell them and to any situations that may arise.

If a parent is interested in their child and knows how to listen to them, the child will absorb and imitate this pattern of behaviour.

With this, the parent and child will become ‘partners’ and both will be equally happy in their relationship. Communication, active listening and mutual respect are key.

How to become a Partner Parent?

In any situation, you can take a step back and realize that you might be doing something you don’t want to. You might have just given your child a stern talking-to and now they’re crying. Do you really want to make your own child cry? Most parents will say that they definitely do not want to. Don’t keep your feelings to yourself. Tell your child how you feel. “Look how we’re treating each other right now,” you could say. “I’ve been yelling at you and now you’re crying. Neither of us is happy. Let’s talk about it and see if we can do things differently next time, so this won’t happen again”. Whenever you make this realization and act on it, you’re one step closer to becoming a ‘partner’.

Another catch point might be asking the following question on a regular basis: “Am I on the right path to become a Partner Parent?”. If not, then ask yourself some more questions: “What am I doing wrong?” or “What is my child doing wrong?”. “We both want to become partners”. “What can I do about it?” or “How can I help my child meet me halfway?”

Nobody’s perfect Stop striving for perfection. Don’t be afraid to lose your temper in front of your child.

Things can’t always be perfect. You might be tired after a long day of work, exhausted by your child constantly pestering you or testing their boundaries. You might lose your temper from time to time, and that won’t be pleasant for either one of you.

However, if you keep your anger bottled up, pretending that everything is hunky-dory, or if you keep shutting yourself in the next room to recharge and restore your positive attitude, you might be heading toward something far worse than a simple emotional outburst. Even a very small child can handle it, even if you’re not able to keep your cool at all times. They will pick up your patterns of behaviour and will find their own natural ways to express their feelings and emotions.

Sometimes you may think that children

are too young to understand the parents’ problems. Children are sensitive however, and often they can sense your bad mood and calm down. Sometimes they might even give you a hug or a kiss, or even put their reaction into words: “It’s going to be all right, Mom.”“I’ll never hit my sister again, I promise.”

Together Give your child a chance to participate in setting the rules – within limits determined by you as a parent, of course. If your child keeps acting up at every turn, disrespecting the rules you’ve set despite your constant reminders, try to shift some of the responsibility for establishing the rules to the child.

Instead of being constantly annoyed and telling the child off (“How many times have I told you not to jump up and down on the couch?”), take a deep breath and ask your child to try and find a solution. “Do you think we could try jumping somewhere else where you might enjoy it just as much? Can you think of anything we can do so we’ll both be happy, and we won’t break the furniture?"

The ability of listening is crucial Imagine that you’re at a playground. Some other boy’s mother is mad at you because your son kicked hers in the leg. How do you respond? Do you reprimand your child straight away? “Why did you do that? Do it again and we’ll be going straight home!”

Or will you perhaps try to find out what really happened? Your son might explain: “That other kid stomped on my beautiful sandcastle, and he wouldn’t apologize, so I kicked him.” You may think your son’s reaction was inappropriate – but even so, try to show him that you understand his anger.

You might get angry yourself sometimes; the only difference is that you’re an adult, and you can control your emotions in a sensible way.

You could try saying to your son: “I’m sure you must have been really mad at him to have kicked him so hard. I guess the sandcastle took a lot of work, and he ruined it, right?”

Your son might start talking about the whole incident: “He made me so mad! You don’t do something like that! He deserved it.” At this point, there’s no need to tell him that his reaction was over-the-top; he will most likely realize it himself. What he needs from you is your sympathy and understanding. He needs you to listen and show him that you know how he feels.

Sometimes, all you need to do is nod; in the end, your child will realize that he might have overreacted. You could remind him of the Monkey, who is usually responsible for such fits of temper. In the end, your child will find out that you can only control such emotions as anger, fear or nervousness if you can identify and understand them.

Try to slow down In today’s fast-paced world, it is hard to just enjoy the moment. You don’t always need to have a special program prepared to entertain your child. Sometimes all you need to do is just stop and simply be there for your child – here and now.

Your child may be fascinated with ants crawling up a tree, a puddle in the shape of an elephant, or even a simple daisy flower – but you’re in so much hurry, trying to get them to school on time. You’re late as it is, and you still need to go grocery shopping and answer a bunch of e-mails and you don’t have the time or the patience to just wade in a puddle.

Do you still remember how such things used to captivate you when you were little, and how the adults would never understand – or perhaps they didn’t want to? We may unwittingly miss many beautiful moments.

Perhaps your child just wanted to tell you that the puddle looks like that elephant you saw on your vacation together, and that they would very much like to go on another adventure with you. If only you could give him a moment, they might surprise you by how much they remember from that trip, even though they were only two years old at the time.

Try to slow down and stop sometimes, and let your child show you the way into his or her world. Wait for them to pick up a flower – they’re picking it to give it to you anyway, to show you how much they love you. In a busy day or within a carefully planned program, there’s no place for such little things.

What next?

If you got inspired by our text, want to help your children to discover their talents and prepare them for future life, sign up for one of our courses (www.janmuhlfeit.com). As part of the ‘Unlocking a Child’/Student’s potential’, with access to the latest psychological knowledge, parents can learn how to effectively lead children in the right direction, so that they can not only be successful, but also live happy and content lives.

The recent best seller: ‘Unlock Children’s Potential’ (Albatros, 2018), written by Jan Mühlfeit and Kateřina Novotná, is also constructed around successful courses for children, students, and parents. Due to the high interest in these workshops, an online course for parents, teachers or trainers, who are actively working with children (www. odemykanidetskehopotencialu.cz) is now available.

By Jan Mühlfeit and Kateřina Novotná české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

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Diversity is powerful and helps companies a lot Jana Tikalová is an experienced coach and consultant. She has devoted more than 20 years to diversity and inclusion. Recently, she also became a lecturer of European Leadership and Academic Institute (ELAI), where she teaches these topics. In this interview, she explains why companies that care about diversity achieve better results.

You reported in media that, according to available statistics and studies, diverse teams perform 35% better than homogeneous ones, in terms of financial results it is up to 41%. Why is it like this?

Two heads are better than one. The more they differ the better. Diverse teams bring more innovation than homogeneous ones. This creates more imaginative products and services for existing and new customers and users. The company then competes better on the market.

That is the power of diversity.

A good example is the Scandic Hotel, which has decided to have some of its hotels fully wheelchair accessible. In addition, they have employed people with disabilities who became a huge added value in the team. Thanks to them, the hotel staff have greater empathy and understanding of the needs of clients with disabilities and are professionally and authentically trained. The clientele of the hotel has grown considerably and there has been an increase in interest from companies using barrierfree conference facilities.

What does diverse team actually mean? Is it somehow determined what percentage of women, African-American people, etc. is included in such a team? How do you recognize that the team is optimal in terms of diversity?

Diversity is all around us and the size of the company or team doesn't matter. Every one of us is unique. What is the optimal composition of the diverse team is difficult to determine. We do not usually deal with clients' demographics, but we concentrate on how to be an attractive employer for different people and talents, how to increase employee retention and engagement.

Recruiters and management providing right marketing, education and enlightenment help significantly to beat the fear of the unknown and prejudice, to understand that intergenerational communication and collaboration can be of mutual benefit and great business benefit.

Diversity certainly has its pitfalls.

Yes, conflicts, communication barriers, and sometimes discrimination can arise in diverse teams. And the company must be prepared for that. It should set up preventive measures such as conducting its employees through a workshop on diversity, inclusion and unconscious prejudice or prepare management for inclusive leadership.

At the same time, I advise clients to set the right rate, it means not to overwhelm, not to spam by pro-diversity materials, and not to focus solely on selected communities. This directly contradicts inclusion and also fosters intolerance and even more prejudice in some people.

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You say diversity is important to businesses, but it needs to go hand in hand with inclusion to help them achieve better results. What does inclusion in this context mean and why is it so important?

It is absolutely crucial to realize that mere diversity will not produce better financial results. We all have some prejudices and concerns about the unknown, and this very often affects our decisionmaking, teamwork, communication, etc. It is quite natural to have prejudice, but it is necessary to work with it. The employer should create a corporate culture where employees understand the power of diversity and view it as a benefit, not as an obstacle. And they will feel that they are part of the company no matter who they are.

In practice, such an inclusive corporate culture increases employee engagement and teamwork, reduces uncertainty and stress, and retains its talent.

Here's an example - a gay person does not feel the need to hide his identity because his colleagues have accepted his sexual orientation and he has not encountered prejudicial comments or insults in the workplace. He feels comfortably displaying a photo with his partner on his desk and, at a corporate event where partners are invited, he will bring his significant other.

How to build such a diverse team in the Czech Republic? Which basic steps would you recommend to management?

Above all do not forget that fish stinks from the head. This means that management´s support is absolutely crucial. There are many companies in the Czech Republic that are aware of the power of diversity and understand the links with inclusion. However, the problem is a lack of capacity and expertise. In practice, someone within the company, usually HR, is responsible for corporate diversity as another task. And the company does not regard the topic as a strategic long-term project in line with the business.

There are already companies in the Czech Republic that have positions focused on diversity and inclusion. But they are woefully few. I recommend continuous support from management, creating a strategic long-term plan, and developing the capacity of people with know-how and the requisite budget for further development. These are the basic steps.

In the Czech environment, the concept of diversity is understood too narrowly, rather as something that is trendy, but not as the basis of a business. Is it because we are still lagging behind developed countries in a number of aspects and will it take us longer, or does the Czech mentality just not want to accept it?

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

Jana Tikalová

She is a coach and consultant who helps companies to implement diversity and inclusion into their business strategy and also to create an inclusive corporate culture.

She worked as a senior HR and Training Manager for LaGardere Aelia at the airport at the time of CSA's acquisition. She also worked for Škoda Auto as a Master Trainer for key market importer managers.

Jana is mentoring several platforms for women and startups in the Czech Republic, such as the British Chamber of Commerce, Femme Palette or Odyssey, and is also a member of the International Coaching Platform for the Council of Europe and the European Commission.

The US and Western European countries are ahead because they have begun to address the topic earlier and now have positions in the company from junior employees to CDOs (Chief Diversity Officer). Teams of people are intensively devoted to the topic. They often have an ERG, which is the Employee Resource Group, an internal resource - human sources of ideas and also a budget for projects for inclusive corporate workplaces. They've also gone through hard times and failed steps to learn from them. In our country, there are only a handful of companies that have the capacity of people with such expertise.

The vast majority of companies do not perceive diversity as a part of the business. I hope this approach will change as soon as possible. My personal mission for the owners is to understand that we are not talking about the discovery of America, but about understanding the needs and otherness of employees, regardless of whether it is an African-American, father or mother having a child in alternate care or an employee who simultaneously takes care of his children and dying parent.

By Martin Zika, ELAI

We were several times before the crash, but we never gave up He has managed to build a company that, during its eight years of existence, has been at the forefront of the industry and today helps the largest global players with customer care. Vít Horký, the new ELAI lecturer, told us in an interview what was behind the outstanding success of Brand Embassy, ​​how modern technologies influence customer care and what the participants of his workshop can look forward to.

What are the main success factors of your business?

I think there are a few aspects. First and foremost, a strong vision of what we want to achieve. In our case, it is an effort to change the world in the field of customer care so that people can make better use of their potential. Secondly, the fact that we were able to create a great team.

Certainly a big and growing market has helped us because without it great colleagues probably wouldn't have come despite the best vision we had. Customer care is a bit of a “fossil” industry, I don't know anyone who enjoys calling the customer line. This market is undergoing significant changes from how we used it in the early days of Brand Embassy.

Anything else?

Another important factor is our corporate culture. We learn and improve through mistakes.

I assume that our team members make mistakes, I do too. What is important is that we can talk about them, identify them, and that is why we do not make the same mistake twice.

And one more thing I would mention, during our eight-year history, we were on the verge of bankruptcy four times, the last time only a year before we sold the company very successfully – sometimes the line between total fall and success is very narrow. Many people advised us in these situations to stop the work. But we did not give up, and the success came.

Last year you published a book entitled Customer Care in the Transhuman Time. It discusses how modern technology, artificial intelligence, etc. will affect customer service. What was your crucial point?

First of all, technology will start to replace the human factor to a large extent in the coming years. Worldwide, over 15 million people work in call centres, and most of them are at risk of losing or changing their jobs. Respectively this is already happening and the trend will continue and accelerate. People still prefer to talk to a person than to a computer. This indicates what makes a person irreplaceable. First of all, it is their emotional intelligence, the ability to empathize with and understand the needs of the other. And secondly, it is the ability to solve problems comprehensively. Focusing on this, people working in customer care will increase their value in the labour market.

What does that mean in practice?

10 to 15 years ago, people were calling customer lines for simple matters, such as when they needed to find out when a store was open. This has changed, information of this type is usually found on the web, and we are increasingly calling these lines for complex problems.

These are unique technical difficulties that arise by combining multiple aspects at once.

This is because we use increasingly complex equipment and services. And the person can choose the optimal solution better than a computer in these cases. Sometimes the best option is not a technically perfect solution, but a customer who does not tear out all the hair on their head while waiting.

Among other things, in the book, you say that many customers and also specialists in technology positions have not yet noticed that artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc. is changing this sector, the customer service today. What does this mean?

Artificial intelligence is practically all around us today, we just don't pay much attention.

Examples include aircraft landing maneuvers, image searches over the Internet, Google translators, etc. And the more we use artificial intelligence and its tasks will increasingly include a machine learning factor, the more it will continually improve and at the same time, the pressure on humans and its (in)substitutability will increase significantly.

As I said, that is why people need to start realizing their unique abilities and focus on them. I am thinking of emotional intelligence, creativity, agility or flexibility. And also the fact that we often enjoy what we do. This is certainly not the case for everyday monotonous eight-hour work.

Your ELAI seminar will focus on new trends in customer care. What would you like the participants to take away?

The main goal is to help them understand the emerging trends of customer care, also to learn how to select and use trends that are right for them and their businesses and how digital customer care can benefit their businesses. We will deal with this in view of two main things: both how to save and how to fundamentally increase customer satisfaction.

You have worked and lived abroad, specifically in London and California. And you said that you gradually found out how satisfied one can live with his wife and three sons in the Czech Republic. So why did the Czech Republic win for you?

Our country is amazing. Where else you can be absolutely calm and safe and live in a beautiful environment where the journey from town to the mountains takes barely an hour? We can go out, do sports, and live in Prague, where there is plenty of greenery, where we do not choke with greenhouse gases or car exhausts.

Today, there are also a number of technology companies that use high-quality engineers and

Vít Horký

Founder and CEO of technology company Brand Embassy with customers in more than 30 countries around the world, which he recently sold to IsraeliAmerican company NICE. At the age of 17, he founded an advertising agency that, after successfully selling it, became part of the global media group Publicis. He has consulted the strategy of customer care and digital transformation in more than a hundred companies belonging to Global 2000, the ranking of the two thousand largest and most powerful companies in the world. In 2018 he published the book “Customer Care in the Transhuman Time” about the future of customer care. programmers from a number of Czech technical universities. These companies operate not only locally, but worldwide. It's great to use the amazing potential we have here.

It looks as you are missing nothing from abroad where you worked.

I am, perhaps, missing the amazing sunny climate and scenery in California. Where else you can work on a laptop on the beach while watching dolphins and whales? In Silicon Valley, the founder of a technology start-up has everything he needs - access to capital, talented people and a huge number of problems to solve, which is great.

And London? Every day is unique there because you constantly come into contact with cultures of almost the whole world. As a result, you find that no problem is simple, that every culture or religion can have a slightly different perspective.

This is terribly important and I quite miss it in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic and especially Prague is an amazing place to live, but from the entrepreneur's point of view, it is a bit difficult: we are doing well so we do not have to solve fundamental problems.

By Martin Zika, ELAI

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culture event

P hoto : C hris L ettner

Trial by Theatre – Reports on Czech Drama

by Barbara Day, published by Karolinum Press Launch 13. 12. 2019 Trial by Theatre – Reflections on Czech Drama is the first volume in the Karolinum’s series to be published in English. It sets the story of Czech theatre in its political and social contexts, highlighting the important role it plays in affirming Czech identity and its influence on public events, up to and including the Velvet Revolution and the playwright president Václav Havel. Guests at the atmospheric Franz Kafka Centre on the auspicious date of Friday 13 December included the well-known writer Ivan Klíma with his wife and daughter (author of the runaway success for children, The Adventures of Mr Wellington), the Keeper of the Patočka Archive Ivan Chvatík, the popular theatre director Lida Engelová, the theatre publisher Jan Dvořák, and Eva Anderová, Director of the Franz Kafka Centre. The compere was the broadcaster David Vaughan (author of two books on the Munich betrayal) and the buffet was provided by Café Millème.

From left: Robert Michael Baugh, Editor, Karolinum Press, David Vaughan, Broadcaster, Český rozhlas, and Barbara Day, Writer

From left: Lucie Paříková, Franz Kafka Centre and Eva Anderová, Director, Franz Kafka Centre

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From left: Mr. Robert Michael Baugh and Tomáš Míka, Translator

culture event

From left: Jitka Sloupová, Theatre Critic and Zuzana Geislerová, Actress

From left: Jakub Heřmánek, Film Maker, Johana Heřmánková, Philosopher, and Jan Kovařovič, Architect

From left: Tomáš Míka, Translator and Vladimír Urbánek, Editor, Acta Comeniana

Mrs. Jitka Janečková and Mr. Vladimír Janeček

Nigel Brown, Headmaster, English College in Prague

From left: Michael March, Prague Writers’ Festival and Robert Michael Baugh, Editor, Karolinum Press

Hana Bergmannová-Klímová, Artist & Author (Dobrodružství pana Wellingtona) with her husband

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ČSÚZ

Social Meetings of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute in the Strahov Monastery

In cooperation with Czech & Slovak Leaders

Discussion with the abbot of the Strahov Monastery Daniel Petr Janáček (sitting) was introduced by Jaromír Šlápota, chairman of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute

In 2019, several events organized by the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute were connected with the Strahov Monastery in Prague. At the end of September, members and friends of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute were given the opportunity to learn more about the order of premonstratensions and the history of one of Prague's most valuable cultural monuments.

Daniel Peter Janáček, elected at the end of June 2018 the seventy-first abbot of the Strahov Monastery, accepted the invitation to a friendly discussion. As his personal motto, he chose the tenth verse of the eighth chapter of the Old Testament book Nehemiash, which reads "Gaudium Domini fortitudo nostra" meaning "the joy of the Lord will be your auspices". At the beginning of the discussion, he explained why. We're all looking for the essential thing in life, a kind of the centre, something above us. Christianity, Judaism seeks the liberation of man.

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

ČSÚZ

Vice-chairman of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute PhDr. Libuše Benešová handed over to J. Šlápota a Silver Lion medal and a Thank You Certificate from the Institute

J. Šlápota was awarded Diploma by the mayor of the Komenský School Association in Vienna Ing. Karel Hanzl

Jaromír Šlápota with a bouquet from the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute

In November, the summer refectory of the Strahov Monastery became the venue for a meeting of several hundred members and friends of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute to celebrate the 0 8 th birthday of the chairman of the Institute, Jaromír Šlápota. His past and current collaborators, political, economic and cultural-life personalities and representatives of the embassies came.

On behalf of the Managing Board and all the members of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute, vice-chairman PhDr. Libuše Benešová thanked him for saving the Institute and caring for it after 1989, and she handed him a bouquet of 80 red roses with 27 bows in tricolour colours. The number of roses corresponded to eighty years of life and the number of bows to 27 years during which J. Šlápota is at the head of the Institute, to which during that time he was able to return seriousness and original significance.

Foreign guests also thanked the chairman of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute. The mayor of the Komenský School Association

in Vienna presented him with an award from the Komenský School Association a diploma "for years of friendship and for working for Czech, compatriot's foreign countries". Jaromír Vrabec, the headmaster of the Czech school in Croatia, thanked J. Šlápota for supporting compatriots in Croatia. "In the second half of the 1990s, when the country was recovering from a protracted war, Jaromír Šlápota and the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute appeared and offered cooperation. If it wasn't for this, the Czech minority in Croatia would not be so active and so consolidated today," he said literally. The pleasant atmosphere of the meeting was enhanced by the virtuoso

musical performance of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute member Felix Slováček.

Jaromír Šlápota stressed in his speech that if the compatriots themselves did nothing, the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute could not help them. He then thanked those members of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute and the sponsors, thanks to which the Institute was able to carry out its projects for compatriots, whether the construction of a school playground or the equipment of computer classes and libraries, and he thanked also the representatives of the embassies who helped in doing so.

Hebr

In the refectory of the Strahov Monastery, several hundred members and friends of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute met on November 13th

Ex-Ministers of Finance Ing. Ivan Kočárník (centre) and Ing. Jan Klak, member of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute

The headmaster of the Czech school in Croatia's Končenice, Jaromír Vrabec (left) and member of the Managing Board of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute Petar Petkov Stanchev, Ph.D.

JUDr. Josef Bartončík (2nd from right), with sons JUDr. Michael (left) and Mgr. Josef

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Are you rejecting your feminine traits?

I recently found myself sitting in an auditorium, listening to a panel discussion, nodding vehemently and smiling under my breath! There were three women on the panel, three lovely, very experienced ladies who made it all the way to the top. They have gone through all the joys and pains of life in top management. Listening to their stories of struggle, failures and successes, I was reminded of my own journey and I also thought of all the young, ambitious women I meet every day. Women who are still at the beginning of their managerial career and who are so often overwhelmed by self-doubt and consider their ‘femaleness’ a major hindrance in their career progression. If only they sat here with me hearing these ladies, maybe they would have realised that the very qualities and traits they see as weaknesses could become their ultimate advantage!

So, what about you? Have you ever considered your ‘femaleness’ as a weakness? If so, make yourself comfortable, get a cup of anti-aging green tea and let’s talk! First, let me share with you a few comments I hear so often from my clients.

Lady A, age 40, Finance Director (Real Estate): “Our first board meeting left me in shock, what I witnessed was nothing less than a game of egos, a fight for power and dominance. At first, I felt intimidated and unsure of how to behave. And then I made my decision. If I am to be taken seriously, I have to play the game. So, that’s what I do! I fight, I push for things, I play hard. I want them to know that I am as good as them, that my opinions count, that I can figure things out without their help! I’ve been doing this for a year now and I am exhausted.

I often come back home in the evening with tears pouring down my face…

Lady B, age 43, Project Manager (Automotive), travelling extensively, coordinating work of hundreds of blue-collar employees at different sites. “I am usually the first female manager they’ve ever had. The look in their eyes when I speak and hearing how they talk about me behind my back says it all. I can’t be a softie. I have to be tough otherwise, I stand no chance with them. I love my job but I am not sure I can cope

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with this much longer.” Lady B has been seeing a psychologist for the past 5 years.

insomnia, hormonal imbalances, relationship struggles.

Lady C, Head of IT: “It’s obvious, I am the one in charge and so I need to be strong for them, for my team! I have to hold it and push on through, no matter what! How I really feel about the issue is no-one’s business. Every morning I put on an ‘everything-is-under-control’ mask and everything IS under control or at least it looks so. If I openly shared my emotions and frustrations with them, I would lose their respect!”

Does it really have to be this way?

I have tons of similar stories and they all have a similar underlying theme.

Operating from our masculine side These ladies for very legitimate reasons decided very early on in their career that if they want to be taken seriously, they have to lead from their masculine side and push their ‘femaleness’ aside for fear of being perceived as weak. They decided to fight with the same weapons they see in their male counterparts: rivalry, power, logic, force, analysis.

These ladies operate from and thrive on their masculine energy and truth be told, they reach a certain level of success. But at what cost? Burnout, depression, feelings of not being authentic,

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This is one of the aspects we work on with the ladies as part of the SHELeads Program, and it’s a true pleasure! We help them reconnect with their feminine side and start appreciating those traits and qualities that they have learnt to suppress for fear of being rejected. If a woman learns to lead from her core feminine essence, she can be very successful. What’s more, she can feel more energised, fulfilled and authentic in her role.

What are those qualities and how can we leverage them in business?

Relationship intelligence There’s a lot of them but I’d love to focus on the most important. And for that, I will borrow a concept I have heard from someone I greatly admire, the well-known psychotherapist Esther Perel. RELATIONSHIP INTELLIGENCE. That’s what I believe is at the core of our female power. Sensing, accepting, approaching, remaining present, inputting and nourishing are all an essential part of it.

We know from gender studies, that whilst on average men tend to be more interested in objects, women tend to be more interested in PEOPLE. Relationships are what we women tend to focus on and where we take our energy from in difficult moments.

Whether this is due to nature or nurture, we’ll leave aside for the moment. The tendency is for women to care about having good, harmonious relationships with the people around them.

Having good relationships give us a great sense of satisfaction and fulfilment, it contributes to our psychological wellbeing. When we don’t have them, ‘Houston, we have a problem!’. Relationships are so important to us that they can become our biggest stressors. It’s because our self-respect and appreciation are largely based on the success of our relationships.

For men, the biggest stressors tend to be performance rather than people problems. Male selfrespect and appreciation are based to a great extent in their ability to perform and achieve.

If we women stay in touch with our female essence, cultivate our relationship intelligence and bring it to our leadership, incredible things can happen!

Girl power at work An IT Project Manager shared with me recently that a year after she joined her team (she’s currently the only woman on the team), the customer satisfaction ratings have gone up for her customer portfolio and so did the revenues from up and cross-selling activities. “The customers tell us that they feel listened to, appreciated and that their needs are taken into account. Evidently, that’s not just thanks to my work but that was exactly my mission when I joined the team and that’s where I believe I bring a lot of value.”

UNDERSTANDING OTHERS’ FEELINGS AND TAPPING INTO PEOPLE’S NEEDS I think this is a nice example to illustrate my point.

When we’re in touch with our feminine essence, it’s easy for us women to connect with others, to recognise how they feel and understand their needs. It’s as if we had special sensors on. Think about this. When we’re in a meeting, we know exactly what is going on. We take in and process cues and signals from all five senses; what’s being said, how it’s being said and how people feel about it. Things that men often don’t even notice. You don’t need to believe me, just spend a week observing boys and girls and women and men, and you are likely to find that women tend to sense a lot more of what is going on around them throughout the day, and they retain that sensorial information more than men.

ENCOURAGING COLLABORATION AND EMBRACING CO-CREATION Whilst our lovely male counterparts are more focused on pursuing the goals, we see and feel and intuitively perceive, nothing escapes our attention. Because of our ability to read others, P hoto :

archive

we can immediately detect when something is not right, we can spot the blue elephant in the room. And then, provided that we are competent communicators (which is often the stumbling block!), we bring the issue to people’s attention. We invite people to talk, we give people the chance to express their opinions, to make proposals, we take others into account in our decision making. If you have a tricky situation at work and need people to start collaborating and co-creating, get an emotionally mature woman on the team! Women tend to look for a win-win because relationships are so important to us.

Gallup's findings suggest that, compared with men, women are generally more inclined to focus on groups or teams and gather collective voices. Women tend to be more sensitive and intuitive about what is going on with the people around them. Men, on the other hand, are more prone to gather external data and internalize their decision-making. Rather than naturally asking for feedback from others, men tend to look for answers from within.

Source: Gallup Workplace Research 2016 SEEING THE BIG PICTURE Because of our sixth sense and ability to take it all in (both the said and the unsaid), we see how everything fits together. We like to consider all perspectives and collect information, input and opinions from everyone before making a final decision. Whilst a woman would think: “Let’s think about this and how it may affect over here and here…”, a man would rather focus on the action: “What are we going to do, how and when?”

It’s everything but weak!

Indeed, your femininity is everything but weak!

It’s incredibly valuable for our organisations and for society as a whole! But most importantly, something beautiful happens when you tap into your female-self, it’s deeply nourishing, energising and satisfying. Being the one operating from my masculine side and seeing literally zero value in the feminine for years, it took a major crisis for me to realise this. Since then, my whole life has changed. It’s not perfect, but it feels SO good!

Remember, the feminine is everything but weak!

Sure, you have to know how to use your masculine side if you want to be a great manager.

But, if you tap into your female power, you’ll get energised by your work, rather than exhausted and burnt out. Treasure it, cultivate it and let it be the force to transform your world and the world around you!

My best, Alena

By Alena Huberova Trainer I Speaker I Founder of SHELeads Helping Women Become Inspiring Leaders, Powerful & Feminine www.alenahuberova.com alena@alenahuberova.com české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

ABOUT ALENA HUBEROVA

LEADING ENGAGED TEAMS Think about how female nourishing traits are so often looked down on in business. They are invaluable for recognising and cultivating the potential in people! If we are well in-tune with our feminine essence, we can provide understanding, encouragement and support so that the person can grow, like a mother to its child. We take time to truly listen, understand, and work with our team members to overcome obstacles, we encourage them but let them find their own answers. All this leads to people being more engaged in their work and making a contribution to the success of their team. With employee engagement being a major challenge for so many organisations, it seems to me that some serious nourishment is long overdue.

Compared with men, women may naturally be better at cultivating relationships, perhaps helping to explain why — as managers — they lead more-engaged teams. They also may be more intuitive about the emotions of those around them and invested in those people’s success.

Women get and give energy through collaboration and bring great value to organizations because of their team orientation. Female managers themselves tend to be more engaged than male managers. They seem to have a more emotional commitment to an organization.

Source: Gallup Workplace Research 2016

Fifteen years in the corporate arena with roles in marketing, sales and communication, living in 5 different countries across Europe and Asia. Today Alena works with individual and corporate clients on developing their communication, public speaking and influencing skills. Since 2017, she has focused on working with female executives. SHELeads is her signature online training program designed to help women shine with their uniqueness, powerfully influence people and become inspiring leaders who never lose sight of who they are, Powerful & Feminine.

Alena’s achievements include speaking at the TEDx UNYP 2017 conference, winning the second place in the 2018 Czech National Championship of Public Speaking, and coaching X.GLU, a team from the Czech Technical University to win the world title at the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017 in Seattle, USA (in collaboration with Presenation.com).

Alena is regularly asked to speak at industry events and conferences. She is a contributor to various magazines and newspapers. You can read her articles and follow her blog at: AlenaHuberova.com

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H ow T o M ake S trategic D ecisions

in

T imes

of

U ncertainty

and

C omplexity ?

Make sure to use innovative methods!

Learn more about "See-Through" model Jiří Berger is a visionary entrepreneur, founder, and investor of innovative and creative projects with

strong and successful track record. During 25 years in business, he has built several successful projects on three continents that organically grew to global sales of approx. $20M.

Jiří Polák started his carrier by lecturing computer science at the Czech Technical University and he also spent one year as a research fellow in UK. His master and doctoral thesis dealt with Artificial Intelligence.

Later he was a partner in Deloitte, working in Central and Eastern Europe and the US. After leaving Deloitte in 2007, he was an advisor to several government ministers. For more than 20 years he has been part of management of the Czech Association of CIOs (CACIO). Currently, he is a business advisor and founder of ESPS (Entreprise Strategic Problem Solving) start-up.

The interview with Jiří Polák and Jiří Berger is discussing a new method for strategic problem solving and decision making as well as their start-up, which will ensure the application is accessible to everyone. Using the very current coronavirus outbreak, the benefits of the method are examined.

Note: Most of these answers were provided by Jiří Polák, when Jiří Berger added information, it is mentioned.

It is interesting to interview you during these times when we experience more uncertainty and volatility than ever. Your start-up is trying to simplify strategic decision making.

How did you come up with the idea?

Our new method is based on our experience with providing complex analysis and solutions for large corporate clients. However, our previous tools and methods were designed for analysts and consulting professionals.

Now we target a much wider group of CEOs, top managers and other leaders who could benefit from acquiring new professional skills with regards to strategic decision making and problem-solving.

Uncertainty and complexity are the characteristics of today’s world. You challenge the traditional notion of the long, detailed analysis process and disrupt the traditional consulting approach.

Yes, we all are aware of the fact that leaders solve business problems on a daily bases.

However, in order to reach any outcome for

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problems corporations are facing, you must undergo a time consuming and stressful process. On top of that, you often end up with wrong or unsatisfactory results.

There were a number of methods developed by companies like Toyota, IBM or McKinsey to help with strategic and operational problemsolving. Many times, analytical methods for process analysis were also used during the search for the right solution. These would include flowcharts, logical trees, and PowerPoint processes. All of them bring a great value of visualisation using pictures like diagrams, flowcharts or logical trees. Such graphics help to understand the visualised issues or analysis.

Our selling point for leaders is in saving 90­­ percent of resources, particularly time when solving problems. We bring a method and diagrams that are understandable in five minutes. And we promise to define the business problems and its structures in an hour.

For our example let’s consider a government facing the coronavirus outbreak problem.

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What are the real problems? First, the health system should be able to cope with all infected, and especially protect all elderly.

Second, the number of deaths should be minimised. The third comes as a consequence of the first - preventing the number of infected by isolation of ill and infected and minimising contacts among the healthy.

This will suppress the amount of demand on the intensive care units by, for example, half.

This was a five-minute definition of the problem and how the government could solve it. After the introductory five minutes, we start to challenge all participants by asking more questions and we spend an hour defining the problems, their expected strategical and operational results. This will ensure the follow up of all possible problem related issues and consequences. By then we get to the core.

It is interesting that you used the coronavirus case as an example. It seems that this analysis took some governments more than a month. Spending a couple of evenings trying to produce face masks for my family, I feel that something is missing.

The previous definition was somehow quite idealistic, implicitly counting with “unlimited resources”. However, the Government would probably define its problems (and expected results) differently taking into account the limitation of resources. For the government, the biggest issue will be the non-functioning and/or the health-care system being unable to cope. It would mean first to protect medical doctors and hospital staff then managing the number of people ill with the coronavirus with

treatment to the level of the health system capacity.

We prepared the possible problem structure with limited resources as we present above.

In the diagrams, there could have been more varied perspectives on the situation, but we tried to keep it small and simple. For example, there could have been the perspective of the infected, the police, army or the public services’ employees.

I feel your diagrams help readers to understand the current provisions much better than the many press conferences that plague our family evenings. How did you come up with your “See Through” method? And what are its sources?

I would prefer to mention how we adopted or rejected some of the well-known ones. We agree with all methods using the “feedback (cybernetic)” introduced in the early fifties.

Well-known methods using this cybernetic problem solutions use a loop: Plan, Do, Control.

However, we would argue that “learn” should be added before plan; we see the loop rather like Define, Execute, Measure & Feedback, and then Learn. After concluding one loop we are ready to define problems and results for the next execution – repeating the cycle Define, Execute, Measure, Learn, should be seen as a continuous implementation of strategic goals. This strategy of defining and solving problems is the cornerstone of our method and our application. This application would use AI algorithms to help leaders to define the structure and priorities of the problems and their solutions.

Now, turning to Jiří Berger, how can you make this more user friendly? No one likes charts anymore, we often want to solve everything on our mobile.

Yes, we are aware of the fact that today’s leaders and particularly the upcoming generation are ready to use applications. We help them with AI algorithms to come with appropriate questions and cross-test their consistency. We should also stress - our application will soon be available anytime anywhere on any device.

These times disrupt the traditional way we used to work. Long meetings are history,

hopefully. You keep mentioning that one hour is enough time for the strategic problem definition. Is this possible to implement within corporations or state institutions?

We strongly lobby for one-hour sessions. And we also even more strongly strive to forget any existing solutions, any similar problems discussed before. True open-minded leaders should ask themselves questions like Why, What, Who, When, Why Not - this is the only thing we need to change. We love Einstein’s words: “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute solving it.”

We expect full concentration, the full focus of all participants of the strategic problemsolving meeting. We anticipate that leaders are tired of 100 pages analysis, PowerPoint pictures of existing processes, many times repeated arguments again and again.

I understand the need and urgency for defining the problem well from the beginning. Why are business problems so difficult to define?

Most definitions are not clean, most definitions are not getting behind the curtain of ballast, most managers and leaders live in certain silos, they have their solution in mind before the problem is examined – we call this managerial ‘bias’. This leads to many questions having to be answered and repeated, and responses tested by another set of the Five W questions.

A better definition/answer will come only after we are able to specify the problem’s structure.

Like we saw in our coronavirus diagram – ‘testing all suspects’ is part of ‘keep all infected isolated’. We can look at it as a precaution, however from the problem’s (to solve) perspective first we need to solve the testing, then we can truly isolate all of the infected (both ill and infection carriers).

There is a certain advantage to reading the problem, e. g. problem “Testing all suspects” could be read also as a solution – we have to test all suspects. We summarize it by saying: when we have a problem definition, we also have an understanding of the expected results specification, so we write shortly “we have problem/result definition”. Having the problem

or solution structure we can prioritise them, e. g. in our example we can decide that “Isolate all infected or possibly infected” has the highest priority. As we do not know all possibly infected for sure we can decide we isolate everybody as much as we can (and in meantime, we work on increasing testing capacity to be able better identify all possibly infected).

Having structure and priorities will facilitate taking the right decisions at the right time – or better said: the leader can come up with decisions that are not intuitive, but scientifically supported.

Jiří Berger adds: In our application, there will be a graphical user interface (GUI) where one could play with all of the words and sentences spoken during the ‘collecting all ideas, notes, comments, facts’ meeting stage. This would bring new – not expected relations among ideas needed to define the problem and its structure.

Crises are great for starting to do things differently. Let us challenge our readers to start problem-solving not concentrating on analysis, but on outcome. Also, the advantage of diagrams is that they are easy to understand without any explanation. But how would the application support a leader to define their problems effectively?

Jiří Berger: Part of our method is to break the everyday stereotypes. This is the key reason why we say – you must not analyse today’s situations, forget your silo view, forget how you did the previous decision. We came across many situations when analysis meant paralysis. We do not underestimate analyses, but it should come only after the expected result is approved and different ways are to be compared and discussed. Therefore, our method starts with synthesis, with designing the result by defining the problem deeply.

Analyses come after setting the goals, at the point of decision as to how to implement the solution, which way to reach the goal would be most effective.

Jiří Polák: We have patented algorithms to lead the user, i.e. a leader with many questions and cross-checks of his/her answers (presented in diagrams) against previous answers and also against the previous context to keep consistency. This is the role of the application algorithms.

Let us finish on a happy ending. You have an offer for our readers…

We are more than happy to organize workshops or individual sessions with those who are interested to learn more and be ready to use our method and application. We will be even happier to meet professionals who would be interested to join our team to make this success in the global arena.

Linda Štucbartová

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P hoto : A uthor ’ s

archives

BEETHOVEN 250 years since the birth of a musical genius

Ludwig van Beethoven was a complex being, gifted with unusual genius. What makes him even more extraordinary is the fact that although he was deaf he was driven by an insatiable need to create music.

He left behind works which transcend their era and keep on enchanting, amazing and moving us all at the same time.

Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, on 16 or 17 December 1770.

He had a wretched childhood. His parents had seven children, only three of whom survived into adulthood. Ludwig adored his mother Maria, but was terribly afraid of his father Johann, who was uncompromising, frequently drunk and, despite not being greatly talented at music, gave music lessons to children from aristocratic families. As a young child,

Ludwig was endlessly amused by turning the iron handles of window blinds, listening with fascination to the scraping sound produced. His father soon discovered the young boy’s musical talent and began to cultivate it, likely also in the hope it could make him some money.

In 1787 at the age of seventeen, Beethoven made his first trip to Vienna, which soon became his adopted city. He was immediately captivated by the artistic life of what was then the capital of European culture, and after playing the piano in front of Mozart, Mozart told him: The world will one day remember you.

Beethoven’s stay in Vienna was unfortunately shortened by family drama. First he had to return to Bonn to be by the bedside of his dying mother, then shortly afterwards his youngest sister died. When his father lost his job, Beethoven was left to support his family. Following his father’s death in 1792, Beethoven returned to Vienna, this time to settle.

At just 28 years of age, when Beethoven was beginning to write his first symphony, the first symptoms of deafness began to appear. He tried all the procedures available at the time to treat it, with no results. From a hard-working and sensible young man, he became a crude and often violent man who could nevertheless express love and generosity. He helped, for example, in the acquisition of funds for the last living son of Johann Sebastian Bach, who was living in poverty. On another occasion, he gifted his new compositions to a charity concert for the Ursulines. Initially he was still able to hear a little, but in the final ten years of his life, he was completely deaf.

He nevertheless continued to conduct rehearsals and play the piano until 1814.

It is said that Beethoven could “hear” music through feeling its vibrations.

Despite his dark nature, Beethoven found

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it easy to make friends. He studied piano playing with the composer Franz Joseph Haydn and, although their teacherstudent relationship broke down, the men remained good friends. The young Beethoven also had the opportunity to meet Mozart’s “rival” Antonio Salieri – who legends say poisoned Mozart – in Vienna.

Salieri welcomed Beethoven with great honour, and in return Beethoven dedicated three of his violin sonatas to him.

Over the years, Beethoven increasingly immersed himself in his music. He began to neglect his personal hygiene, being satisfied with merely pouring a bucket of water over his head rather than bothering with washing and bathing. During one of his favourite solitary walks in the countryside, he was even arrested by a policeman who thought he was a tramp.

Piled up in his apartment were stacks of documents, which nobody was allowed to touch. He had four pianos, all without legs so he could feel their vibrations better.

He often worked only in his underwear, sometimes even naked, and he could become so preoccupied with composing that he would not even notice when one of his friends came to visit him.

The anecdotes about his moodswings are legendary: throwing overly-hot food at a waiter, or sweeping a candle that someone had placed on the piano onto the ground in the middle of a concert. It is said that his frenzied behaviour was a response to the fear that he might lose the ability to perceive sound and music at any moment. He was therefore devoured

by a desire to always create more, afraid he might not manage to inscribe everything that came to his mind in time. Despite his crude manner, he was generally respected and admired for the music he produced, and it was no surprise that his compositions often moved people to tears. His temperament and unrivalled talent were naturally appealing to women. Although he never married, he dedicated some amazing pieces to the women in his life, such as the Moonlight Sonata and Für Elise.

Beethoven lived during a period of turbulence. Europe was plunged into a crisis in which all aspects of human life would undergo massive change. It was an era of upheaval, not just in the way of thinking, but also in art, science and the social structures. Artists throughout history have utilised their talents to promote positions on various social issues. Beethoven, who lived during the period of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, at a time of deep social transformation and political upheaval, expressed his stances through music. In 1804 he wrote his Third Symphony, known as the Heroic Symphony.

He initially dedicated it to First Consul of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, in whom he saw everything that was noble and glorious – a young, courageous man who could reach the very pinnacle of his bravery, talent and ingenuity and free Europe from tyranny, rising up against the oppressors, a personification of the motto of the French Revolution: “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!” But when Beethoven found out that Napoleon had declared himself Emperor in May 1804, he tore out the title page in a rage and declared: “So he is no more than a common mortal! Now he too will tread under foot all the rights of man in order to indulge only his ambition.” When he had calmed down, Beethoven gave his work a new name, and thus the symphony is no longer dedicated to a “great man” but rather to the “memory” of a great hero. The original manuscript is today the property of the House of Lobkowicz, having been re-dedicated to Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian, a generous patron to Beethoven, and it is kept in the collection at the castle in Nelahovezes, Czech Republic. Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, was also based on living history.

The story takes place in Spain, where a nobleman is unjustly imprisoned for threatening to reveal the crimes of a corrupt politician.

Beethoven’s violin concerto, the only one he wrote for the instrument, is longer and more complex than any that had been composed before it. In terms of its symphonic expression, it surpasses all of its predecessors. The piece is still considered today to be the most remarkable concerto

in terms of all instruments together. As was common at the time, Beethoven composed it for a person, specifically the virtuoso Franz Clement. The lyrical wealth of the piece reflects all the subtelty of Clement’s playing. The third movement is a frantic rondo, into which the main theme is interspersed, interrupted by new elements. And the main theme declares a celebration of joy which Beethoven’s next work would return to.

During this era of great musicians, the aristocracy gradually came to appreciate music, and even to play some instruments.

However, they considered composers and musicians to be their servants, and treated them as such. Beethoven was very progressive and independent, and rebelled against the status quo. “It is good to meet aristocrats, but only if they respect you.” When the nobility were having fun at a Beethoven concert, he would stop and call out, “I refuse to play for ignoramuses!”

Following a stay with his brother, Beethoven returned to Vienna in November 1826 in an open sleigh. He got pneumonia on

the way and never fully recovered. In the late afternoon of 26 March 1827, the sky darkened, and a flash of lightning lit up his room followed by a massive thunder peal.

Beethoven opened his eyes, rose up and shook his fist at the heavens. He then fell down dead. He was 57 years old.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s funeral was the last manifestation of the high esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries.

More than twenty thousand people attented his funeral on 29 March, forming a huge honorary cortege which the soldiers present were unable to direct.

Nine priests blessed the mortal remains of the great composer. He is buried in a grave whose location is marked with the symbol of a simple truncated pyramid, on which just one name is engraved: Beethoven.

His remains lie next to the grave of Austrian composer Franz Schubert at the Vienna Central Cemetery.

Beethoven’s final words were: “I shall hear in heaven.”

Ing. arch. Iva Drebitko

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S econd W omen E ntrepreneurial M ission

to I srael

Second Women

P hoto : B arbara H ucková

Entrepreneurial Mission to Israel

Group Guided Tour Baha 'i Gardens in Haifa

The Second Women Entrepreneurial Mission from the Czech Republic to Israel took place from 8 November to 14 November 2019. A group of thirteen female managers and entrepreneurs from the private, academic and business sectors flew to Israel with the objective of learning, gaining inspiration and establishing relevant contacts in the country known as the “Start-Up Nation”. The Mission was led by a Member of the Czech-Israeli Mutual Chamber of Commerce (ČISOK), Linda Štucbartová; also involved in its organisation were the travel agency OK Tours, ČISOK and both countries’ embassies. The Mission’s focus was subdivided into the categories of science, new technology and the current geopolitical situation in the Middle East. The programme included guided tours of two key research centres – Technion in Haifa and the Shimon Peres Centre in Tel Aviv, as well as visits to notable players in the Israeli start-up ecosystem – from incubators and accelerators to corporations. Over five days, the women visited the MindUp digital health incubator, the Carmel 6000 social programme focused on developing new technology and operating as part of the Hilma Foundation, OrCam, mentioned as the #1 Israeli invention of the decade, the Israeli “unicorn” MobilEye, and IBM. The Mission ended with a tour of the Boeing hangars at IAI – Israeli Aerospace Industries.

The entrepreneurial Mission began in Haifa. Representatives from academia particularly appreciated the visit to Technion and its presentation. “The tour of the visitor centre at Technion left a deep impression on me. It was wonderful and inspiring, yet also instructive. They’ve got something to be proud of. The university campus is very practical, against a delightful backdrop. That’s how I’d like to spend my student days,” says Hana Večeřová, Head of Economics at Tomas Bata University in Zlín.

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Michal Rosen Zvi, Director, Health Informatics, IBM Research Haifa Labs demonstrated practical examples of artificial intelligence’s application in the health sector, used either for a diseases’ prediction or for diagnostics.

When in Tel Aviv started, the guided tour of Shimon Peres Centre for Peace and Innovation, proved a great place to begin. The Centre showcases recent technical innovations and milestones of Israeli R&D development and pays tribute not only to the founding father of Israel as the Start-Up Nation but also to other women and men who contributed to this vision (see the article link to the Czech & Slovak Leaders Magazine). As 2019 marked the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus, the stroll along the White City was the natural way how to get familiar with the city.

On Tuesday morning, a “Code Red” situation was declared in southern Israel and the centre of Tel Aviv, meaning the possibility of rocket attacks. On the Mission agenda was the traditional visit to the Czech Embassy in Tel Aviv, and during a personal meeting with the Ambassador, Martin Stropnický, participants received not just a political briefing, but also a security briefing. Veronika Stropnická presented her activity linked to running the Czech school in Israel and on a planned documentary series about Israel. Delana Mikolášová, Czech Diplomat for Science, Research and Innovation, introduced current projects and calls for tenders which advance Czech-Israeli scientific co-operation.

The Tuesday afternoon agenda was held in the hotel for security reasons. The participants appreciated Vít Lichtenstein’s flexibility in resolving the situation through remote connection, allowing the presentation of the activities of ŠKODA AUTO Digilab Israel. Anna Moshe, Senior Partner for Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer Baratz law office, began her talk on the Israeli ecosystem, as well as on investment and co-operation between start-ups, research institutions and centres, by proclaiming that we now have the opportunity to find out why Israel is so successful in regard to start-ups and technology. Tuesday evening was

Czech-Israeli Cooperation; meeting with Assaf Dovrat and Zvyia Baron

provided visits to a total of 12 different companies and institutions and 14 expert presentations and meetings with 26 Israeli counterparts. Apart from one participant, who attended the Mission for a second time, all the other managers and entrepreneurs were visiting Israel for the first time, and they also appreciated the cultural aspect of the Mission, visiting four sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List – the Baha’i Gardens in Haifa, the historic port of Akko, the Bauhaus architecture of Tel Aviv and the historic centre of Jerusalem.

What can be said in conclusion? The third Mission in 2020, besides visits of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, will also include a visit to a natural wonder in the south of Israel – the Negev Desert.

dedicated to current issues in Czech-Israeli co-operation, with David Hercky, Assaf Dovrat, Irie Meltzer and Zvyia Baron, representing Israel.

On Wednesday, the security situation in central Israel was calm and the programme could continue according to plan in Jerusalem. Meeting Merav Israeli-Amarant and graduates of the Carmel 6000 programme, sponsored by the Hilma Foundation, was seen by many as the most inspiring with regards to the potential of the synergy brought by an NGO and technology. “The idea of bringing young people in civil service into CSR projects, including providing them with training, is fantastic.

A wonderful example of merging start-up culture and CSR together.” – Dita Pasquier, Business Financing Tribe Leader, Komerční banka.

This was followed by a visit to companies that are linked by a vision but are each a separate leader in their field. Veronika Stropnická also took part in these visits. Irie Meltzer of OrCam demonstrated a working modern aid for the partially sighted – OrCam MyEye, which has already been available on the Czech market and being reimbursed up to 90% by health insurances. Afterwards, a MobilEye representative, Mickey Ayalon, introduced the Group Meeting Carmel 6000 Mobil Eye system which minimises the risk of a traffic accident with another vehicle, cyclist or pedestrian. Mickey also discussed how it was tested in Prague and Ostrava, and how all the data in the system can be exploited to build so-called smart cities. In Jerusalem, the ladies had the opportunity to meet former Israeli Army Spokeswoman, Avital Leibovich, who is currently holding the position of Director of the American Jewish Committee.

Women got a unique perspective on the Middle East affairs and realized that whatever happens in Israel has much wider geopolitical consequences. Avital’s perspective was very much appreciated, as it presented the real complexity of the current issues in a contrary to media presentation in Europe. Evening afternoon and early night walking guided tour in historical centre of Jerusalem unveiled the beauty of the city, the magic of history and the complexity of religions.

The trip concluded with a unique visit to Israeli Aerospace Industries and its aviation research centre, where experience could be exchanged on the topic of innovation through spin-ins and spin-offs with Head of the Innovation Lab Hangar Zvyia Baron and her colleagues. In summary, the second entrepreneurial Mission to Israel

This year’s Mission could not have taken place without significant support and sponsorship from all the speakers mentioned. I would like to further thank in particular, Ambassador of Israel to the Czech Republic Daniel Meron and his Deputy Irit Amitai, Ambassador for the Czech Republic in Israel Martin Stropnický and his wife, Diplomat for Science, Research and Innovation Delana Mikolášová, executive managers of the Israel-Czech Chamber of Commerce and Industry, David Hercky and Assaf Dovrat, and their Czech counterparts, President Pavel Smutný and Ondřej Bočkay.

And a reference to end with: “I’ve experienced six unforgettable days in the company of exceptional women in various branches of business, science and the non-profit sector.

That alone would be enough to ensure the days were enjoyable and useful.

But on top of that, I was in Israel for the first time and had the opportunity to see a number of cities and towns, including major sights. But what was most valuable was the programme, broadly conceived so that each of us could find information and experiences of use to our own field, and full of incredible people. People who were extremely knowledgeable and willing to answer all our questions and openly speak about their own stories, too.

There were six days full of inspiration, food for thought, meeting worthy people and gathering experiences.

Thanks for everything!” – Markéta Franke, Behavee Co-founder.

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Interview with Tomáš Klvaňa

On Media, Career Shifts and Extending Your Runway A visionary public policy expert or an experienced private sphere executive consultant? A businessman, a journalist, a teacher or an entrepreneur? All of the above. I am pleased to introduce you to Tomáš Klvaňa.

Tomáš is known to his international corporate clients as a senior international management consultant and a leadership coach. He has worked with pharmaceutical, finance as well as defense companies. To his students, he is a visiting professor at the Stern School of Business at the New York University in Prague.

He was a Shorenstein Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and he holds a PhD. from the University of Minnesota.

In the Czech Republic, he is known for being a former spokesman and a policy adviser for Václav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, and Special Czech Government Envoy for Communications of the Missile Defense Program, a US-Czech-Polish project which brought him to work with the US Congress, Pentagon, State Department, and the White House.

In the world of think-tanks, he is known as a co-founder of the Aspen Institute Prague and a member of its International Advisory Board.

To Czech readers, he is known as an author of three books. His first book, a fiction called “Marina” was published in 2011. Two books discussing current trends in politics and society had spectacular timing; the second book called “The Trump Phenomenon – White Men’s Last Rebellion” was published just shortly before Donald Trump won the US election in November 2016 and his last book “Perhaps Even a Dictator Will Show Up. Why Are We Losing Freedom and Nobody Cares” was published in 2017, before the Czech presidential elections.

Spoiler alert…Tomáš Klvaňa has admitted himself that he does not know how to write books with happy endings.

How do you interview someone whom you regard as a colleague and a senior esteemed professional? Tomáš made it easy. Not only did he send his impressive CV but also his corporate and individual executive coaching offer. Reading through his authors and researchers gave me a clue about how his approach, knowledge, and experience exceed the boundaries of conventional thinking in the Czech Republic. Although we both are Czech patriots, we decided to make the interview in English, considering the primary target group of the Czech and Slovak Leaders Magazine readers.

Tomáš, your professional bio corresponds to the future trend that people will change their career course more frequently. You have managed at least three big shifts and still have many career years ahead. If you were to introduce yourself as of 2020, who are you?

That is a very good question. I divide my time between business, teaching, and media.

I regard my commentaries for the Czech TV and the Czech Radio being a part of my academic involvement. Timewise, I spend most of the time on business consulting of companies mostly abroad. But again, there is a link to my academic involvement. I teach for the Stern School of Business program the subject called “Organizational Communication and Strategic Stakeholder Engagement” which mirrors the scope of my consulting work that I started already in 2004.

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In the Czech Republic, you are known as the spokesman of President Václav Klaus and then being the Special Envoy for the Missile Defense Program. To use a parallel, besides shifting from a public sphere to a private one, you also moved from the spotlight more to the shadow. Media with flashlights are said to be addictive. Don’t you miss it?

I will challenge your question as I do not think that business is in shadow. I concentrate on the companies positioning vis à vis their stakeholders. Companies have to be smart about how they shape their public persona.

And all these actions happen in public. If you are asking me about my engagement in politics, that is over. As to media, I do commentaries for Czech TV and Czech Radio. In fact, media has not been my main area of engagement for more than 10 years. However, I agree with you about

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media being addictive. On the other hand, we can see a very sad trend all over the world of media becoming poorer and poorer. Poorer not only in terms of money but also of quality.

This is even more true in the Czech Republic when compared to larger language areas, such as the German or English ones. Media limited to the Czech market will never be able to grow significantly, advertisement revenues have gone down, readership likewise. 18 years ago, when I was the deputy-editor of Hospodářské noviny (Economic Daily Newspaper), our daily circulation was about 80 000 copies and our international section consisted of 18 journalists, including foreign correspondents abroad.

Today, they sell 30 000 copies and four people cover international events from Prague, as there is no budget for travelling. Most media outlets cannot afford any expertise which results in a decline in quality.

Let me ask you about your second shift, the one from influencing the strategy of the state to influencing corporate strategies. I am aware of the fact that many corporations are more powerful than nation-states. However, can you compare and contrast your current role with your mission to establish the Missile Defense Program in the Czech Republic, which was geopolitically influencing not only the Central and Eastern European region but also the trans-Atlantic alliance as a whole?

I remember my radar mission very fondly, although it was really difficult, and we did not manage to make the case successful. The radar was already unpopular when I started to work on the issue and remained that way when my contract expired. However, it was a great experience, and great learning. I felt the radar was a case that needed to be done. If there was a similar case today, I would jump right on. Therefore, I do not consider it a failure, but I know that a lot of people do. I am not going to argue about that. I realized already in 2007, that the wave of the populism, that currently engulfs politics everywhere, had begun. People were not honoring facts, they just were creating own reality and so public debate ended up being rather unhealthy. With the global financial crisis of 2007-2008, the trend had spread to Western Europe and later also to the US. Maybe unconsciously, I started to shift to business and consulting. I realized that it is in the business sphere that real things impacting our lives are happening. Entrepreneurship, creativity and the general way that business relates to our

P hoto :

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society are the issues that will change our lives.

I found the business sphere very satisfying, full of creative and positive people. Unfortunately, I cannot make the same statement about politics.

One could interpret your change from media and politics to business as a manifest of another frequent phenomenon today, which is a mid-career crisis. However, in your case, it was rather a return to your roots.

I can see a certain connecting thread in all my activities. I studied journalism and being the student generation of the Velvet Revolution, I started the student broadcasting and publishing

the Students’ Newspaper back then. In the United States, I studied communication theory in international relations. All of these topics are connected to the importance of information in the public sphere. As the clichÊ says, we live in the information age and knowledge economy, which links my journalism, academic career and public policy experience. I find my current business consulting and coaching very fulfilling.

As I work with many clients in South-East Asia, I see that region as a very promising, being on the rise but also facing many challenging issues.

This only confirms my notion about things truly happening in the business sphere.

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INTERVIEW

with

T omáš K lvaňa

From left: Jiří Lábus, Actor, Dominik Feri, Politician, Tomáš Klvaňa, and Ivan Pilip, Politician

The third shift in your career is connected to global issues and entrepreneurship. When I reviewed your list of authors and experts, I must admit that six out of seven are not very well known in the Czech Republic.

I do not work in the Czech Republic, except for some large international companies.

Apart from the US, I have developed my expertise in London, Hamburg and Brussels.

The most interesting findings with regard to coaching and leadership are now happening in neuroscience, cognitive psychology and adult development. Based on real insights, as people get older, they can acquire new skills and become better performers. This fact was not known 30 years ago. That connects theoretical insight to how companies work in practice. Together with Michael Netzley from Singapore, we co-founded a start-up called Extend My Runway. We aim to help executives to prolong their active professional lives beyond the age of 65 or 70 years of age.

We connect psychology and neuroscience.

We work closely with the University of Texas which has a leading neuroscience department concentrating on brain health, we follow the findings of nutritionists and physical fitness experts. We consult companies that are facing multi-tier generation teams. In Europe, we talk about four generations in the workplace. Soon, we will have five generational teams. People live longer, they are more healthy, they can work until a later age. South Korea and Japan are examples of aging generations, without significant immigration and so they are facing a lack of suitable work-force. It is estimated that in Singapore, in 2030, there will be 1 000 000 highlevel jobs vacant and no employees available.

Extended retirement represents a solution.

However, in Asia, due to cultural limitations, it is not easy to work in these multigenerational

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teams. All this being said about Asia, will eventually happen here, in Central and Eastern Europe. Currently, in the Czech Republic, the age diversity is not as pronounced, due to the historical circumstances. The oldest people in international companies are now in their late fifties, the founder generation that came after the fall of communism. But we do have here the cultural and national diversity. Some of the formulas that apply to generational diversity, particularly with regards to psychology and emotional intelligence, apply also to cultural and national diversity.

And now the issue of millennials is coming to the forefront. Millennials behave very similarly across cultures. What you find in Asia is not very much different from what you find here or in the US. Millennials, being the first global generation, have become also the most polarizing generation so far. What is your opinion?

I am more positive about them, but I understand why many people of my generation are impatient with them (laugh). You need to talk to them and relate to them differently. I see that people in the Czech Republic or the Czech staffed companies tend to complain about them, as not being willing to work long hours or as wanting career growth really fast, but they have to understand the millennials’ perspective.

And let us also admit that they are our children, so if we are not happy, it is also our problem.

I enjoy that millennials are active, self-confident and open to discussion. They do expect feedback, while we were told to listen and even “shut-up”.

The next generation is the Z generation.

It is too early to make any substantial observations, however, you claim that

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the youngest generation deserves our attention and we should listen to them.

A couple of years ago, I wrote about a sandwich theory in an article for Asian Management Insights. If companies want to become truly influential, they should talk to two groups of stakeholders. These are senior experts on one side and young people, on the other side. Young people have time to search for information about companies and thus the young ones play an important role in shaping companies’ public profiles and corporate brands. The Z generation is much more activist than millennials. You can see their concern and ability to mobilize around global issues, climate change being an example.

Based on our conversation, I think that you are an example of a perpetual visionary who is well ahead of time. Both books you published were quite visionary and discussing topics that now seem to be a mainstream agenda or discourse.

I do hope that with my business, concentrating on age diversity, leadership, and strategic communication, I am answering the relevant needs as of today. The book 100 Year Life, published by Lynda Gratton in 2016, talks about us rethinking our careers. We will have several engagements, instead of life-long employment and we will have to look at our career like an investment portfolio. We will concentrate on several things that will interest us and we will find them meaningful. Like with investment, one never knows which one is going to be the most important. As the nature of the business changes, so will we. The electronic age rewards those who move first.

Linda Štucbartová české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

I remember receiving my university diploma upon graduating from the prestigious Institute of International Studies in Geneva shortly after the 11th of September 2001, and having the feeling that not only the school, but the discipline itself, had betrayed me. I then observed the economic crisis in the years 2007-2008 within the scope of my work in a medium-sized, family-owned company, the type of business most affected by the crisis. The fact that the crisis gave rise to new economic sectors and services will not rid me of the memories of feeling panic, which I experienced at the time with regard to a feeling of responsibility for employees, the company and my family. And the current crisis? I'm looking forward to Covid-19 becoming Co-Win 2020.

And because a good theory can prove to be the most practical thing in life, below we set out five stances that will not only help us better deal with today's reality, but also confirm the well-known saying “in every crisis lies an opportunity“. The Harvard Business Review identified resilience as a key ability to manage dynamic and unforeseeable changes. Resilience is characterised as the ability to not only survive, but prosper during unexpected, changing conditions, and potentially adverse situations.

1. Although we're all waiting for life after Covid-19, we all already suspect that the world will be different. Let's come to terms with the fact that today's world is simply VUCA. The term VUCA is an acronym that the US Army has been using since the 1990s. VUCA is an abbreviation for a world which is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.

The events of recent months and days have given us the opportunity to literally experience all of these acronyms. We have experienced changes that not only take place faster, but also have a global impact. Events are developing in an unexpected manner, with no way to determine cause and consequence. And the only constant is the fact that there will be more changes and so-called disruptive developments.

2. Strengthen your ability to adapt, and gain new skills.

In connection with pressure on the psyche, the AQ, or adoption quotient, is gradually coming to the fore. Almost a decade before the current crisis, adaptability was identified as a new competitive advantage in a study by the Harvard Business Review. In the future, employers will prioritise the recruitment of leaders/individuals/workers who are able to adapt to new conditions, and increase their adaptability in work. That will help such people stay high on the career ladder, even in a digitally accelerating world. Take some time to think about how you can strengthen your adaptability. If until now you haven‘t been good friends with the latest technology, use the opportunity to learn new skills. There is now time not only to complete interesting online courses, but also to try out new tools, whether for working from home or meeting friends remotely. Prestigious foreign universities have made available free online educational courses, large technology companies are competing to offer shared platforms, and many community organisations that until now were accustomed to holding personal meetings have moved to the online world. We have noticed not only online meetings by religious communities, but also home-managed productions by musical groups and theatre ensembles.

3. Strengthen your critical thinking and strategic decision-making.

It will help you to deal with uncertainty more easily. It's becoming more and more difficult to foresee events, or predict how a situation will develop. The new dynamic of changes often brings about situations where our plans may become irrelevant as soon as they're made. The strategic thinking tools used in the previous period stop functioning. It is not possible to predict the behaviour of markets, customers, the competition, or even states and multinational aggregates. The strengthening of critical and strategic thinking can serve to effectively solve problems. It's important to learn to perceive things in their context, from a systemic perspective. That can help us predict future developments, and correctly determine priorities for our decision-making. It's the complete opposite of fragmentation and reactive thinking, which is stimulated by permanent changes. We present one of the strategic decision-making tools, the “See Through“ method, in this edition.

4. Work effectively with information.

Thanks to globalisation and technology (internet, mobile phones, social networks), we live in a world where there is an overabundance of information, but we're already well aware that quantity does not always mean quality. Not only is the pace of change accelerating – everything seems to be connected to everything else. There are many and various links, and simple connections cannot be determined. Our modern world is more complex than ever. Chaos, confusion, contradictory information.

Problems, and the consequences of these problems, are multilayered and harder to understand. The various layers overlap, which makes it impossible to obtain an overview of how things are related. Decisions take place quickly, and it is almost impossible to choose one correct way.

You don't have to read all the latest information about the COVID-19 disease; focus on quality sources and relevant authorities in the field. It's not without reason that we're once again turning to listen to scientific authorities instead of politicians who express themselves superficially.

Monitor data and facts, not drama and sensations.

5. Look forward to Co-Win 2020. Use your creativity, and think about what new services or products you can offer. Quarantine, and the maintenance of physical distance, does not have to mean total isolation and an end to international collaboration. On the contrary, today the sectors of science and research, in particular, show us how we can only manage the new global challenges with strengthened collaboration.

We can already see how the crisis is beginning to be reflected in a positive way in education and the entertainment industry, and how it has contributed to flexibility and the development of remote work. Try to replace the word “competitiveness“ with “collaborativeness“.

I'll say goodbye to you by paraphrasing my favourite journalist and publicist, Jindřich Šídlo, who is the author of the programme Happy Monday: “Now you have enough tips to survive not until next week, but until the next edition“. And also an appeal: stay in contact with one another, and write to us to let us know what's helping you deal with current world events. My other favourite saying is the well-known English phrase: Sharing is Caring...

Linda Štucbartová and Marcela Janíčková, @visualcoach.cz

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Enjoy Your Journey Wishing You Responsible and Conscious Travels “Live with no excuses and travel with no regrets” said Oscar Wilde.

My last vacation took me and my family to Vietnam. Even before I realized that this was already the 50th country on my list to visit, I was pondering how to make our family travelling more responsible.

On one hand, a few “social bubble Facebook friends” have already denounced travelling completely, justifying their decisions with both CO2 emissions and the notoriously well-known results that overtourism has brought to some of “the most attractive places,” such as Venice, Dubrovnik or Barcelona, or even the Czech town, a jewel of Southern Bohemia, Český Krumlov. On the other hand, travelling has been always a source of inspiration, joy and relaxation both for me and my family.

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Still, remembering the humiliating way my parents had to ask for permission to travel during communism, or the thrill and consequent bullying that even crossing between the two neighboring friendly Czechoslovak-East German borders entailed, I regard the freedom to travel as one of the most important freedoms the Velvet Revolution brought. What is the appropriate way to enhance our travelling, to bring it to a higher level of awareness and consciousness? The fact our travels took place during the Chanukah festival of lights and subsequently Christmas time, holiday periods associated with introspection and good deeds, gave us all a special reason to be more reflective about both actions and impact.

I like to consider myself a pracademic, a practical academic, as I believe that there is nothing more useful than a good theory.

I started with research. Being jet lagged after landing in Vietnam gave me a couple

of early mornings to read articles about responsible, sustainable and ethical travelling for inspiration. Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries – making up about 10 percent of GDP, according to World Tourism Organization, a United Nations specialized agency, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Its “Global Code of Ethics for Tourism” (CGET) is a comprehensive set of principles designed to guide key-players in tourism development. Addressed to governments, the travel industry, communities and tourists alike, it aims to help maximize the sector’s benefits while minimizing its potentially negative impact on the environment, cultural heritage and societies across the globe.” Personally, as it is the case with most UN documents, it is far from amusing to read it (even on the subject as enlightening as travelling) and contains only little advice for individual travelers. The document was adopted in 1999. As the situation has not improved but rather deteriorated since, it

only proves that all big ideas and schemes need to be accompanied by individual acts.

One can find many rules on responsible travelling on the internet, ranging from six to 36. Some rules are just variations of others, some rules made sense, others did not, and some I found not to be applicable for Vietnam.

As to the emissions, often the media issues pull attention away from the real ones.

What do you think is the number 1 cause of pollution of human-made emissions?

Definitely not air transport. I was quite relieved to find out that the air transport accounts for 2.4% of CO2 emissions worldwide human-caused by source. The first being electricity and heating (41.5%), followed by industry (18.9%) and road transport (18.1%).

As I do not take transatlantic flights every week, not even every month nor quarter, I can probably do much more for the planet by lowering the heating at home (this is still work in progress, after more than 30 degrees of temperature difference, a room temperature cooler than 22 degrees has become unbearable) or by taking public transport (already done, as it is quite easy to pride yourself as a public transportation user when you live in Prague, where public transportation is one of the cheapest and most efficient in the world). Instead, tourists should be far more concerned about the real pollution, in terms of not leaving garbage in nature (in fact anywhere), a sensible use of plastic bottles (when applicable) and energies (do not leave the lights and AC on, same as you would do at your home).

From words to acts, what rules did we apply in Vietnam and how did it enhance our vacation? As my children had a Chanukah school project to make a good deed during the eight-day festival, we aimed to fulfill everyday with at least one special act of kindness or awareness. Now, I am sharing with you our journey within a broader context of Eight Rules for Responsible Travelers.

Day 1

Support individuals (and make sure to take photos appropriately) Money donation to a severely handicapped man was our first act of kindness. Even though most rules for tourists claim, “Say no to beggars”, I realized there must be some flexibility. We learned that the Vietnamese government, despite being a socialist one, does not provide enough support for handicapped people. While no money to begging children should be a rule, in this case buying food or clothes or giving money to those who have no means to provide for themselves seemed appropriate. No documenting picture was taken – responsible snapping, making sure you take pictures with people’s permission and you do not take pictures of embarrassing moments, should be a part of travelling etiquette.

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Day 2

Support local sellers, performers and providers (and do not try to bargain all the time) When strolling and taking pictures in the center of Saigon (Ho Chi Min City), we were approached by a coconut street seller. At first, he did not try to sell, but he warned us against using mobiles on the street and reminded us of keeping handbags closed and worn on the shoulder not facing the heavy scooter traffic that is known for grabbing mobiles or purses from wandering tourists.

Then he offered his cold fresh coconuts. Of course, these were overprized to local standards, not to ours. As the seller offered to my son to carry the basket, allowed us to take a picture and then helped us with the directions, we actually did not mind paying the price, as we considered it more experience than commodity. (photo)

Day 3

Support women Supporting women has been both my passion and profession for a long time. On the third day I realized what I have witnessed during my career. It is mostly men who are more proactive, either in visibility, or addressing strangers.

When we finally met a woman fan seller, we made sure we got several sets to have enough presents. We bargained only a little and compensated by the number of fans bought.

Bargaining is often the rule of the game but consider whether it is worth it. What can be the bargained true deal equaling to less than a cost of one coffee for us can in reality make the difference for locals distinguishing between “an ordinary day” and “a very successful day” for those who provide for families. It was December 24, Christmas Day, not a special day for most Vietnamese, but hopefully a better day for that particular woman seller and her family.

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Day 4

Give local causes your voice Thanks to my friend, who is currently serving as high diplomat in Ho Chi Min City, we got an opportunity to visit the Franciscan Monastery. The Monastery, founded in 1840, currently houses more than 200 nun sisters, including elderly ones who have been serving the congregation for their whole life.

For the last ten years, the order was under the constant threat of demolition of their premises from foreign real estate developers in the area. In fact, many religious places have recently disappeared in Vietnam, paving the way for new skyscrapers with shopping malls, offices and luxury apartments. Thanks to the continuous support from Western embassies and other religious and non-governmental organizations, the decision to demolish the Monastery was reversed. The current developer came up with a plan to incorporate the Monastery grounds into the new project. Hopefully, he will keep the promise. If not, I believe that sufficient level of foreign awareness and pressure was reached to help the nuns generate support and attention in case the problems re-occur. Instead of preaching about responsible real-estate development (by the way, I cannot think of a place where this is happening), if possible, visit a specific venue that might profit from the visibility. Singing Christmas carols with nuns, having a guided tour at their premises, and receiving not only refreshment but also a gift made us feel welcome like the highestlevel government delegation. In return, we left money for future development of the dormitories, as currently more than 60 nuns sleep together in one hall. However, it was not the money but our presence and interest that showed we care and made them care. To us, it was one of the most touching and meaningful moments of our visit. (photo)

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

Day 5

Say no to animal abuse, avoid plastic, “extras” and “specials” Travelling to Mekong delta brought us not only lush greenery, extraordinary tastes of local fruits and products, but also true sadness with regards to the pollution due to plastic trash that was simply everywhere.

Without preaching, we simply tried to avoid gifts already packed in plastic being packed in another plastic bag. My children were sadly looking at the beautiful mangrove coves and canals affected and kept suggesting potential solutions to this problem.

Remembering the Einstein quote, “we cannot solve problems with the same level of thinking that created them,” I challenged them to come up with innovative solutions but also re-consider our consumer way of living. While refilling bottles is not an easily applicable idea in Vietnam, for the rest of the trip, we tried to avoid unnecessary packaging or using one-night toiletries, slippers etc. As for the animal abuse, we chose a walk under the noon sun, instead of taking a horse ride, as the horses looked truly unfit and unkept. We challenge everyone to think twice when offered a donkey, a camel, or an elephant ride; a picture taken with a monkey, a tiger or a cobra; and resist also real bargains on snake or crocodile leather products. Apart from your bad karma or conscience, you might face an additional penalty upon arrival when returning back to the EU customs area. (photo)

Day 6

Support ecotourism Visiting the Tra Su bird sanctuary made us not only appreciate the rowboat rides through caujupt and gum trees, we enjoyed observing many kinds of birds, including white and ghost storks, seeing lotus flowers

and also climbing the view tower to admire the vastness of the true Mekong delta wild nature (with no trash!). Contrasted to our visit of busy islands near My Tho and the floating markets at Chau Doc, this place was truly an oasis of peace. We were pleased to see that the government decided to spend more money to provide new tourist paths, so people can spend more time there and to experience a walk in the jungle forest.

Also, it is an opportunity to attract the tourism to locations not yet discovered by the crowds. (photo)

Day 7

Learn about history (even the difficult moments) Who wants to voluntarily learn about war tragedies during a vacation? Yet, we felt that it is a must, not only in Vietnam. Even now the aftermath of the war can be seen.

For more than three decades, four armies expended untold energy and resources bombarding wide areas of Vietnam. Based on American estimates, at the end of war, unexploded ordnance equaled to 150 000 tons. Since 1975, more than 40,000 Vietnamese have been killed or wounded by the leftover ordnance; in the 21st century the casualties still reach 400 people per year. We also learned about ecocide, caused by the notoriously infamous Agent Orange, loaded with dioxin that was used over 16% of South Vietnam to destroy the Viet Congs’ natural cover and leading to about four million of direct victims of dioxin poisoning.

My children quickly learned how privileged they are to grow up in one of the safest places on the planet. And even though history is written by the winners, humanity always suffers a loss.

Having a local guide, an experienced and well-educated university graduate, proved

to be a key success to the visit of Cu Chi tunnels, that have become a synonym to the Viet Cong soldiers resistance and hiding spots. 250 kilometers of an underground connected tunnel system, often having 3 underground floors, enough to fit an adolescent (made for soldiers about 1,40 meters and about 40 kilograms) made us wonder about guerilla war, resilience but above all about the danger of ideology and the danger of hawkish solutions that supported war machinery on both sides. (photo)

Day 8

Give feedback and set higher-standards After intensive travelling, we decided to spend a couple of days at Mui Ne, a fishing village located on the east coast of Saigon.

By now, you have already gotten an idea about the intensity of the program for two families travelling together, in total seven people, with slightly differing schedule and requests. The local travel agent did the maximum, after one recommended foreign travel agent refused to provide service from the beginning, citing overbooking and the high number of tourists coming for the end of year busy period. Only once we were not satisfied with the quality of the accommodation, only once we did not get the promised service (a nuisance if you get up at four for a sunrise tour and no pick-up arrives).

Laughing about it now, one major disappointment came during my massage – the masseuse was talking on the phone most of the time. Typically, first world problems… however, your standard mind-set is that you actually do not want any problems during vacations, right? In contrast to other tourists whom we have seen yelling, rolling eyes at local staff and making various angry or frus-

trated gestures (by the way a total sign of loss of face which is a disgrace in Asian culture), we tried to give constructive feedback because we cared. We politely communicated our expectations and asked for a solution. And we got it. Being aware of Vietnam being a more and more attractive destination, we want other tourists to have an even better experience than we had. We will certainly return back to travel the North. And if you do not have Vietnam on your bucket list, make sure it is there. The country, the people, the nature, the food (and so on) is just amazing. If Asia is not your destination, please consider setting some personal rules to be a more mindful traveler. I am sure that it will be as positive to you as it was for me and my family. Have a wonderful (not only travels) in 2020!

By Linda Štucbartová

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In cooperation with Czech & Slovak Leaders

Lions Club Prague Bohemia Ambassador CHARITY EVENT

Christmas party of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador

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From left: Mgr. Věra Kubíková, Teacher and Miroslava Procházková, Owner, Avanti Floors, President of LC Praha Ladies

From left: Ing. Antonín Mika, Director, Foreign Trade Company Lammex and Prof. MUDr. Václav Mandys, CSc., Institute of Pathology

From left: Doc. MUDr. Eva Mandysová, Cardiologist, Ing. Antonín Mika, Director, Foreign Trade Company Lammex, and MUDr. Libuše Novotná, Dentist

From left: JUDr. René Hudzovič, Lawyer, former Governor of LCI D122 Czech Republic and Slovak Republic and JUDr. PhDr. Oldřich Choděra, Lawyer, former Governor of LCI D122 Czech Republic and Slovak Republic

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From left: Ing. Jan Kalaš, Entrepreneur, former Governor LCI D122 Czech Republic and Slovak Republic, JUDr. Svatava Němcová, Lawyer, and Prof. MUDr. Václav Mandys, CSc., Institute of Pathology

From left: Ing. Lukáš Pichrt, Economist with his wife and Ing. Květoslav Němec, Entrepreneur

Čestmír Koželuha, Entrepreneur, 1st Vice Governer of LCI D122 Czech Republic and Slovak Republic with his wife

From left: Oldřich Hořák, Entrepreneur, Ing. Ladislav Vaško, Commercial Director, Ing. František Chaloupecký, Member of the Board, Confederation of Industry of the CR

Ing. Milan Horáček, Businessman, Zone Chairperson of LCI Czech Republic and Slovak Republic, and Jana Kovářová, Teacher

Čestmír Koželuha, Entrepreneur, 1st Vice Governer of LCI D122 Czech Republic and Slovak Republic

From left: Mgr. Jan Haur, IT Administrator, Secretary of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador and Ing. František Novotný, President of Association SDSS, President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador

Mgr. Jan Haur, IT Administrator, Secretary of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador, and Ing. František Chaloupecký, Member of the Board, Confederation of Industry of the CR

Ing. Lukáš Pichrt, Economist with his wife

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From left: Ing. František Novotný, President of Association SDSS and President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador and JUDr. Cyril Svoboda, Ph.D., Czech politician, Professor, CEVRO Institute, former Minister of Foreign Affairs

In cooperation with Czech & Slovak Leaders

Lions Club Prague Bohemia Ambassador Guest of Honor: JUDr. Cyril Svoboda, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Topic: W HAT THREATENS THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND HOW TO DIPLOMATICALLY DEAL WITH THAT

From left: Ing. Antonín Mika, Director, Foreign Trade Company Lammex and Ing. František Novotný, President of Association SDSS and President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador

From left: Ing. Antonín Mika, Director, Foreign Trade Company Lammex, Ing. Anton Gerák, CSc., Commercial Director, and Ing. Rudolf Kočí, Entrepreneur

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Ing. Ladislav Bouček, CSc., Entrepreneur, former Governor of LCI D122 Czech Republic and Slovak Republic

Prof. RNDr. Petr Hodek, CSc., Professor at Charles University, Prague, Faculty of Science

discussion event

Public Policy Debate with Zdeněk Tůma On February 26th, 2020, H.E. Mr. Antonios Theocharous, Ambassador of the Republic of Cyprus, hosted the event organized

by The Prague Society for International Cooperation and the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in the Czech Republic.

The guest of honour, Mr. Zdeněk Tůma, former Governor of the Czech National Bank and the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ČSOB, a.s., held a presentation on the Czech Economy in a Global Economy Context.

VIP guests, members of the Prague Society, businessmen, diplomats, Ambassadors of Greece, Egypt, Bulgaria, Latvia and Moldova enjoyed a lively discussion with Mr. Tůma on the actual global economic situation and its impacts on the Czech economy.

The discussion was followed by the reception and an informal discussion of the guests who appreciated the hospitality of H.E. Mr. Antonios Theocharous.

From left: Micheal Stimson, Vice President of the Prague Society, Director GIDE Financial Modelling, Eva Anderová, Vice President for PR, UNYP and Honorary Consul of the Republic of Zambia in the Czech Republic, H.E. Mr Antonios Theocharous, Ambassador of Cyprus, Zdeněk Tůma, former Governor of the Czech National Bank, Chairman of Supervisory Board of CSOB, and H.E. Mr Said Hindam, Ambassador of Egypt

From left: H.E. Mr Antonios Theocharous, Ambassador of Cyprus, Zdeněk Tůma, former Governor of the Czech National Bank, Chairman of Supervisory Board of CSOB

Mrs Weseloh and Prof Marc Ellenbogen, President of the Prague Society

H.E. Mr Vitalie Russu, Ambassador of Moldova and Anahit Karapetyan, First Secretary, Embassy of Armenia

Eva Anderová, Vice President for PR, UNYP and Honorary Consul of the Republic of Zambia in Czech Republic and H.E. Mr Efthymios Efthymiades, Ambassador of Greece

From left: Mrs. Weseloh, Thorsten Kalinowski, Greek Embassy and member of Prague Society and H.E. Mr Efthymios Efthymiades, Ambassador of Greece

Honorable guests

Zdeněk Tůma, former Governor of the Czech National Bank, Chairman of Supervisory Board of CSOB, a.s.

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T hink N othing

James A. Cusumano, PhD Chairman, Chateau Mcely s.r.o.; Prague, Czech Republic

Universal Truth Dialogue II: Your Path is the Way1,2

“The right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege.”

Oprah Winfrey

In Dialogue I,3 we met 16-year old Peter, who, during a hike in the woods behind his home in the village of Nebusice, a suburb of Prague, encountered Boda, a strange, but likeable mystic, who claims to be from Mesopotamia.

Peter is mystified, yet captivated, by this charming man and his powers. He is unaware that Boda is an Avatar – a divine teacher in bodily form (Figure 1).

Peter is a bright and inquisitive student, who loves science and math and hopes to attend Harvard. He’s not your typical myopically-focused science geek, but is a bit of philosopher, who ponders the great questions – How did the universe come into existence? Why am I here? Where did I come from? What’s my purpose? He enjoys hiking the forest to think about these questions, hoping for answers.

During one of his hikes, he was moved by some “force” to take a steep, overgrown path, which appeared to have not been taken by anyone for a very long time – "The road less travelled and it made all the difference.”

When we left Peter, Boda was telling him of the great power of ‘being’ and not always focusing on ‘doing.’ “After all,” said Boda, “You are a human being and not a human doing.”

To demonstrate this point, he taught Peter a simple meditation and asked him to go

home and try to solve a math problem that he had previously been unable to solve. After no success, he was to do the mediation to quiet his mind to a state of ‘being’ and afterwards try the problem once again.

After dinner, Peter went to his room and opened his advanced calculus book, the math course he had just completed during the second semester of his junior year at the International School of Prague in Nebusice.

He had earned an A. The problems at the end of each chapter were conveniently divided into three categories – green, blue and black. Green problems were not exactly easy, but certainly solvable by capable diligent students taking the course. The blue ones were difficult. Every now and then Peter was able to solve a few of them. But the black

ones were a different story. They were very difficult – seemingly impossible and were never assigned by his teacher for any of the exercises or exams.

Peter turned to the back of chapter 11, entitled Vector Analysis and arbitrarily chose the third problem in the black section. He tried to solve it for about thirty minutes when it became apparent, he had no idea for a strategy to get to the answer provided in the answers section at the end of the book.

He dimmed the light in his room and sat lotus style on the floor next to his bed and began to follow the instructions for meditation provided by Boda. Ten minutes later, he was in another world, the world of spirit, flooded with endorphins and feeling effects not unlike a “runner’s high”. (Figure 2) After 30 minutes, he slowly emerged from his meditation. Peter

Figure 1: Peter was intrigued with Boda, a mystical, humorous man with what appeared to him to be magical powers

References: 1. EDITOR’S COMMENT–This is the second article in a new series by the author, based on his forthcoming book, “The Dialogue – A Journey to Universal Truth,” a conversation between a bright young boy and an Avatar, concerning the most challenging questions of all times. 2. The author may be reached at Jim@ChateauMcely.Com. 3. CZECH & SLOVAK LEADERS Magazine, Volume III, 2019.

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Figure 2: An effective meditation practice can not only reduce stress and increase your state of wellbeing, but can also release feelings not unlike a “runner’s high”.

felt rested, calm and very much at peace – sensations he hadn’t recalled feeling for a long time. He thought, I should be doing this meditation thing every day. Then awareness took over – okay, now for that math problem.

He reread problem number three and focused on the specific question it asked. Suddenly, and for no reason he could fathom, it seemed that one of the theorems he had read in the text might be applicable to solving this problem. He rapidly paged back to it, studied the theorem and in a flash had an idea using it to set up a calculation strategy that might head in the right direction. He followed through and in less than ten minutes he had an answer. He turned to the answers section in the back of the book. His result was perfectly correct. How in the world?

That evening, Peter barely slept. He couldn’t wait to meet with Boda in the morning to tell him what had happened. Not only did he solve problem number three, but he chose to try problem number five in the black section to be sure what happened wasn’t just a fluke.

The same result – he could not solve it, but in less than ten minutes after a second crack at meditation, he had the correct answer. This wasn’t just too good to be true. It was amazing!

In the morning Peter left for the forest at 7:30 a.m. to meet with Boda. It was pouring rain. Even with his hoodie rain parka, he was getting soaked. He sloshed up the mountain as quickly as he could, his boots slipping precariously through the mud and the minirivulets rushing circuitously down the path.

He nearly fell several times, but he managed to keep his balance and was determined to make his way to the top.

Finally, he was there but Boda was not.

Because of the rain, he was probably staying dry in one of the hunting blinds, but which one? There were two to the right on top of the hill and one to the left. He decided on the left. It was closer.

When he got to the blind he called out from below.

Peter “Boda, are you up there?” No answer. He turned and was just about to leave for the other two blinds when he heard in a very high-pitched voice.

Boda “Yes, I’m here. I was napping. Glad you woke me up. Come on up the ladder and out of this rain.”

Peter rapidly ascended the blind and jumped in under the roof for shelter from the downpour. He breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Boda “My goodness Peter, you’re soaked.”

Peter “Yeah, well it was quite a wet trek getting up here. But boy, do I have some interesting news for you!”

Boda “Really? Well that’s wonderful, but first, please relax for a few minutes. I have a thermos of masala tea and two cups. Let me pour you some so you can warm up a bit.”

Boda poured a full cup of tea for both Peter and him. Peter drank his quickly, perhaps to warm his innards, but more probably because he was anxious to finish and tell Boda what had happened the evening before.

Boda Continuing to sip on his tea, “So, Peter, tell me why all the excitement?” Of course, Boda knew the answer.

Peter “Well, I did exactly what you asked me to do last evening with the difficult math problem and I solved it in no time at all. In fact, I did it twice – two impossible problems – solved in less than ten minutes for each one. It was amazing!”

Boda “I realize you think it was amazing, but it certainly is not to me.”

Peter “I don’t understand. These were two incredibly difficult problems. I could never have solved them at my level of training, even though I’m pretty darn good in math. Could that meditation thing make that much of a difference?”

Boda “Finish your tea, Peter and then we’ll talk about what happened."

Peter gulped down the rest of his steaming tea. He couldn’t wait to hear what Boda had to say. He again asked Boda.

Peter “Could meditation really make that much of a difference in my ability to solve a difficult math problem?”

Boda “Actually, it made all the difference. As you say, you have excellent skills in mathematics; otherwise, you wouldn’t be taking such an advanced course in high school. But, in order to solve challenging problems, even clever people need a glimpse of creative insight, something that connects pieces of what they already know, in a way that is not obvious. Like someone once said, ‘Looking at the same thing as everyone else, but thinking something different.’ Albert Einstein was a genius at this. His thought experiments often provided the insight he needed to choose a path that would lead to the answer he was looking for.”

Peter “Is that how he developed the theory of relativity?”

Boda “In part, yes. Since he’s one of your heroes, you may have read that in his research, he imagined what a ray of light would look like if he was on a train moving at close to the speed of light and in the same direction that the ray was moving. The real question is, ‘where did his idea to think like that come from?’”

Peter “Where did it come from?"

Boda “Einstein was a very contemplative, I would say, ‘meditative,’ man. It was those moments of contemplations and meditations – just being – that enabled him to connect his astute capabilities in physics and mathematics with a strategy or path to get to the correct answer and develop a theory that would hold up under scientific scrutiny – just like you did last evening – you connected your sharp capabilities in mathematics with the right path – a mathematician would say a ‘strategy’ – to get the correct answer to those two difficult problems. Said another way, to get the right answer to a challenging problem, it’s important to ask the right questions.”

Peter “I don’t get it. Why should meditation do something as powerful as that?”

Boda “Ah – now that’s the right question!”

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Figure 3: The Akashic Record is an infinite and eternal record of every word, thought and event that has ever happened or will happen in the future. It exists in an ethereal plane separate from but connected to our three-dimensional world

The rain stopped and the sun started to peek from behind the clouds. Boda and Peter decided to walk along the ridge for a while.

Because they were at the high point of the mountain, it was drier and less muddy than the descending paths. Peter removed his rain parka so that his shirt and jeans could dry. To avoid splashing mud on the bottom of his tunic, Boda hiked it up about twenty centimeters and fixed it there by tightening his rope belt. They walked slowly across the ridge, gazing periodically into the verdant valley below.

Boda “So, Peter, I will answer your question. What I am going to tell you is true, tested and reliably correct. It’s been known for eons, but because of its ancient history and simplicity, most people have regarded it as a fable or a myth. However, there are some who have put what I will tell you into practice and it has made all the difference in their lives.”

Peter Pushing away any pessimism and trying to be optimistic. “Great! I’m all ears.”

Boda “We need to go back in time, more than three thousand years, to the Indian continent. At that time there were a handful of wisdom seekers, spiritualists, you might say, who had lots of time on their hands because they weren’t distracted by the chaos and noise that you face in your day-to-day modern world. They were interested in the answers to many of those ‘big’ questions that concern you. Some of them spent long periods of time in meditation contemplating those questions.

This enabled them to significantly raise their level of consciousness. Something happened when they got to a certain high level.”

Peter “Like what?”

Boda “They began to get creative insights as you did last evening. They found that the longer and deeper they meditated–simply ‘being’– the more they could extract answers and novel concepts or ideas that would never have occurred to them.”

Peter “I can relate to that. For both problems I solved last evening, immediately after meditation, I

somehow had a thought about a theorem I hadn’t ever considered before and probably would not have done so without the meditation. In both cases, that was the magic bullet that led to the solution.”

Boda “It wasn’t magic, Peter. That, I can assure you.”

Peter “So then, what happened?”

Boda “Well, to go back to those wisdom seekers.

They found that all people come into this world with a conscious awareness which they called Personal Consciousness. And for reasons they didn’t understand at the time, accessibility or connectivity to Personal Consciousness varies from person to person.

For those few seekers with high accessibility, even a modest level of meditation enabled them to readily and successfully address or solve difficult problems. For those with less accessibility, it required more time and deeper meditation”.

Peter Not sure he was buying this. “This was three thousand years ago–come on, really?”

Boda “Yes, really. But here’s the thing. Those few seekers with very high accessibility – meaning a high level of consciousness – made a profound discovery. They determined by actual experiments with meditation that there exists in another dimension, a nonmaterial plane which contains a record of every thought, word, deed or event that has ever occurred or will occur in the future. For example, they could predict future events with near-perfect accuracy. They called it the Akashic Record (Figure 3). Today, some philosophers and scientists refer to it as the Akashic Field.4 Akasha is a Sanskrit word which means the ‘fifth element’ – beyond the primary four of alchemy – air, fire, water, and earth. Loosely speaking, the Akashic Record can be considered the Mind of Cosmic Consciousness, some might say, as Einstein once did, the ‘mind of God’.5 I’ll come back to Cosmic Consciousness in a future discussion.”

Peter “That’s crazy, Boda! Is it true? Do you really believe it?”

Boda “Yes, it’s true and yes, I not only believe it, I know it! In fact, whether you believe it or not, that’s what enabled you to solve those two math problems. You tuned into the Akashic Record. It contains an infinite level of knowledge and wisdom and if you are able to connect to it, even to a modest degree, you have the ability to deal intelligently and successfully with very difficult issues.”

Peter “If that’s correct, I think I’m going to start a daily meditation practice. Next year, I have my Scholastic Aptitude Test, a requirement

for college entry, and I am required to write essays for all my college prospects, especially Harvard. What you’re telling me might be just what I need.”

Boda “I know, for a fact, it would help. But believe me, as we will discuss at another time, it can do more than that, much more. However, for now, I can tell you this. To tap deeper into the Akashic Record for access to greater knowledge and wisdom requires deeper meditation, or perhaps more accurately, higher levels of consciousness. You’re obviously good at the process, but to go deeper you will have to practice.”

“In this practice, you first must have an earnest intention as to what you seek. The ancient wisdom seekers said to do this you should clear your mind of all thoughts for eleven seconds. Don’t ask about the number eleven; that’s another story and not necessary for now. Next you must put your attention on a specific point, for example, a mantra. This you must do for eleven times eleven or 121 seconds, about two minutes. This will increase your level of awareness or mindfulness. Then comes the hard part – you must focus on a single point with no thoughts for eleven times eleven times eleven seconds, or about twenty minutes. At that point you are truly in deep mediation and your consciousness will move to a state where there is no space or time. It will have entered the realm of the great nothingness, where nothing exists but infinite possibilities and potential. From here you can choose the one you wish to manifest into your life.”

Peter “Wow – that sounds incredibly complicated and difficult but seeing what I was able to do with a couple of difficult math problems, I am willing to give it a try and work at it.

But for now, I have another question. What about the consciousness aspect of what you mentioned? Can you tell me more?”

Boda “Yes, a great question, but that’s also for another day.”

With that Peter headed across the mountain and downhill to his home. He had lots to think about.

–To be continued.

Sat, Chit, Ananda!

Enjoy your journey, make a difference!

References: 4. One of the best and clearest descriptions of the Akashic Field is presented by modern day philosopher and scientist, Irvin Laszlo in his book, Science and the Akashic Field, Inner Traditions, Rochester, Vermont, 2007. 5. Einstein said, “I want to know the mind of God. Everything else is just details.”

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

PragArtworks

culture event

launches Pop-Up Exhibition in Palmovka, turning old factory into contemporary art gallery Group of the Artists

Prague, 20 November 2019 –PragArtworks introduces its fifth pop-up exhibition in Palmovka, which will present the work of 52 contemporary artists from the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, the Netherlands and France. The exhibition, “Velvet Edition”, will be open to the public from 21 November 2019 on Thursday and Friday, then Monday and Tuesday, from 11am to 5pm.

Artworks by more than 50 contemporary artists, including 10 up-and-coming ‘New Masters’ from the Czech Republic art schools, will be displayed in the unique space of a former Horák and Hlava factory, which is now a technical and cultural historic building renovated as part of the real estate project Immofinanz Palmovka.

“We are really grateful for the opportunity to present all these artworks in such a unique space that has never been used before. Our aim is to bring contemporary art closer to the general public and present it in such non-traditional and innovative ways,” says Louise Beer, founder of PragArtworks Gallery and organizer of the pop-up exhibition in Palmovka.

The theme of the pop-up exhibition relates to the 30th anniversary of the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution.

The exhibition will feature paintings, glass artwork and sculptures from artists such as Leny Aardse, Vladimír Bachorík, Anna Neborová, Rasmus Hirthe, Vacláv Bláha, Pavel Roučka, Ivan Ouhel, Šarka Radová, Kateřina Štenclová and many others. This show is curated by Czech/German/Canadian Marek Schovanek.

The pop-up exhibition is part of PragArtworks’ mission to support young artists and introduce contemporary art to everyone who is interested and enjoys finding new ways of artistic experience.

“Everyone can enjoy this exhibition – you don’t have to be an expert to appreciate or enjoy contemporary art, but if you are an art collector – you will be thrilled. Everyone is welcome,” says Louise Beer.

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culture event

From left: Lukáš Kozdera, Director of Marketing, Immofinanz, Louise Beer, Founder and Owner, PragArtworks, and Tomáš Stárek, Country Manager, Immofinanz

Eva Šuhajek, Artist and Louise Beer, Founder and Owner, PragArtworks

Gerhard Bubnik, Lawyer, Bubnik & Bubnik and Louise Beer, Founder and Owner, PragArtworks

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Rene Beauchamp, Consultant, Hotelier and Louise Beer, Founder and Owner, PragArtworks

Natálie Roučková, Artist in front of her artwork

Pavel Roučka, Artist in front of his artwork

Pedja Djaković, Artist in front of his artwork

culture event

From left: H. E. Ayesha P. Rekhi, Ambassador of Canada with her father on the left, Louise Beer, Founder and Owner, PragArtworks, and Cameron Stauch, husband of Mrs. Rekhi

From left: Lukáš Kozdera, Director of Marketing, Immofinanz, Louise Beer, Founder and Owner, PragArtworks and Alena Onishenko, Director of Sales, PragArtworks

The Exhibition Space

From left: Magdalena Souček, Country Manager, Ernst & Young, Louise Beer, Founder and Owner, PragArtworks, and Kateřina Vecery, CEO, SIMPLY YOU Design

From left: Marek Schovánek, Curator and Artist, Louise Beer, Founder and Owner, PragArtworks, and Martin Fryč, Art Blogger

From left: Louise Beer, Founder and Owner, PragArtworks and Jonathan Wilkinson, CEO, Discovery Group with his wife Grace Wilkinson

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culture event

Discover Sweden Exhibition of Swedish interior design, art and photography.

Discover Sweden EXHIBITION OPENING took place at Czech Centres Gallery in Rytířská 31, on 28th of November, 2019.

From left: H.E. Viktoria Li, Ambassador, Embassy of Sweden, Ondřej Černý, General Director, Czech Centres, and Irena Janáčková, Manager of the Exhibition Discover Sweden Part of the Installation

Swedish painter and Music Band Strulgattu & Meierkord, from left: Richard Andersson, Magnus Haglunds and Henrik Meierkord during the Opening of the Exhibition Discover Sweden. Their concerts welcomed visitors in Prague’s clubs Akropolis and Klub Železná in the Czech Center Gallery

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

culture event

From left: Benke Aikell, your Publisher and Mr. Fredrik Janáček, Opening of the Exhibition Discover Sweden

From left: Therése Sarnback, Photographer and Artist, H.E. Viktoria Li, Ambassador, Embassy of Sweden H.E. Viktoria Li, Ambassador, Embassy of Sweden

Ondřej Černý, General Director, Czech Centres

Irena Janáčková, Manager of the Exhibition Discover Sweden

Henrik Meierkord playing violoncello during the Opening of the Exhibition Discover Sweden

From left: Petra Přibylová, Head of the Section Marketing, Communication and IT, Czech Centres, Martin Slavík, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Sandra Karácsony, Design and Architecture Specialist, Czech Centres, and Jana Polívková, Head of CCN, Head of the Section CCN, Curatorial Trips, Residencies, Czech Centres

From left: Michael Absalonsen, Architect by STRATEGISK ARKITEKTUR Studio from Stockholm and Artist and Mrs. Simona Vojtíšková visiting the Opening of the Exhibition Discover Sweden

From left: One of the guests with Daniela Šantrochová, Production Manager of the Opening of the Exhibition Discover Sweden

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culture event

© A drian Š etlík

OPENING CEREMONY OF THE JOACHIM ELZMANN EXHIBITION – PRALINKY MIRO GALLERY, ST. ROCHUS CHURCH, PRAGUE, 28. 2. 2020

From left: Joachim Elzmann, Artist; Miro Smolák, Director of the MIRO Gallery during his opening speech; and Petr Štěpán, Art Historian

From left: JUDr. Rudolf Tomašovič, former President of the Supreme Court Chamber Prague; Zuzana Warderová, Consul of Slovakia in the Czech Republic; and Pavel Číčel, Presbyter of the Evangelical Church

From left: Halina Nowack, Curator, Michael Haas Gallery Berlin; Joachim Elzmann, Artist; Petr Štěpán, Art Historian; and Kristýna Bednářová, KRISTYJAN Chocolatiers Štěpán Rusňák, Captain of the Presidential Cruises Prague with his partner

From left: PharmDr. Jana Doleželová; Mgr. David Trunda, CEO, Biznet Clinic, and Jiří Kolbaba, Traveller and Photographer

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From left: Anna Kristýna Sion, Designer, Branch Manager, Imprint Jewellery; René Sion, CEO, Dallmayr Café Czech Republic; and Benke Aikell, your Publisher

culture event

From left: Dimitris Tzamouranis, Greek Artist living in Berlin; Jakob Mattner, German Artist and Philosopher; and Anna Maidler, Art Historian

From left: PhDr. Ivana Ryčlová, Ph.D., Literary Historian and Translator and Dorota Kunstová, Lawyer

From left: Ing. Roland Leisztner, Entrepreneur; Ing. Helena Leisztner, Artist; and Victoria Sion, Chief Editor of the Statuss Magazine

From left: Benke Aikell, Your Publisher and Benjamín Szakál, Parliament of the Czech Republic

Štěpán Mikoláš, Art Collector and Art Dealer and Blanka Adensamová, Art Glass Sculpturer Noemi Guerrero Benešová, Sinologist and Jiří Weiss, Czech-Israeli Mutual Chamber of Commerce

JUDr. Michal Donath, Lawyer and Kristýna Bednářová, KRISTYJAN Chocolatiers

MUDr. Adriana Španíková with her friend

JUDr. Pavel Mihola, Lawyer, with his girlfriend

Benke Aikell, your Publisher and James Rubinstein

From left: Vladimír Eliáš, Art Collector and Ing. Tibor Altrichter, Entrepreneur

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INTERVIEW WITH MEP RADKA MAXOVÁ,

MEMBER OF THE EMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT F oto : R adka M axová A rchiv

SOCIAL POLICY IS CLOSE TO MY HEART Radka Maxová

graduated from the Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology of the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague. Since 2018 she has been studying a Ph.D. programme at Charles University, Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen - Department of Social and Medical Assessment. She started working as a teacher at the Integrated Secondary School in Chrudim, later she worked as a manager in the food and cosmetics industry. From 2013–2019 she was a Member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. During her first mandate, she was chairing the Permanent Commission for Family, Equal Opportunities and National Minorities, and in the second term she was chairing the Social Policy Committee. She was elected Member of the European Parliament in July 2019.

She is a Member of the Employment Committee and substitute in the Education and Culture Committee in the European Parliament.

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Before becoming a Member of the European Parliament you were a Member of the Czech Parliament. How do you build on your previous activities?

In the European Parliament, I mostly follow up on my activities in the Chamber of Deputies. Since the beginning of my political career I have been involved in social policy and focused on supporting people with disabilities.

Stories of people that I have met in my life led me to address this issue as Chair of the Social Committee in the lower Chamber of the Czech Parliament. I am therefore pleased to be able to continue working on this issue at EU level. Being a Member of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee enables me to draw from my experience and bring some concrete national issues to the European Parliament. In the Employment Committee I want to focus on the quality of care for people with disabilities and fight against discrimination. One activity has already been concretized as I was nominated to an expert network to make sure the rights of people with disabilities are respected.

Furthermore, I want to focus on monitoring the Accessibility Act application in the Czech Republic and share best practices with other Member States.

Do you have any concrete proposal that you would like to put forward?

As I have already mentioned, I am very committed to improving the quality of life of people with disabilities. Social policy is close to my heart and I am pleased to be able to address this issue in the European Parliament, which gives the solution a European dimension.

I will endeavour to propose a single European Disability Card. Such a card would ensure that a disabled citizen from the Czech Republic can receive and enjoy the benefits anywhere in Europe. This led me to another idea: that we should work on a single European social security number. I can imagine that this is a topic on which both trade unions and employers would agree. These are the topics that make good sense of my work in the European Parliament, as this area cannot be influenced on national level.

What are other topics that the Employment Committee should focus on?

A very hot topic that we must address is the ageing of the population. The Member States must work together to find a model that will help us solve, for example, the increase in mental illnesses associated with aging population.

Specifically, I am referring to dementia. We must ensure that the care for these people is of good quality and, in particular, does not deprive them of their rights. Another relevant topic, associated with technological transformation, is the social protection of online platform workers. This sector is growing at a rapid pace and is associated with an increasing volume of workers who often do not have social security. This means that when they are sick or even unemployed they do not have the right to enjoy social benefits. The new Commission will be dedicated to protecting them, and for us this means that we can expect this topic at the Committee level.

The new European Commission will focus on gender balance. Is it something you support?

Gender balance is a complex topic. I am dedicated to supporting women through a concrete project to involve women in politics.

I support women not to be afraid of political affairs. Overall, it's about finding a balance between professional and family life. Women need to be understood and supported by their peers. In the Employment Committee, I draw on good experience from colleagues in other countries. It's about good examples, best practice and networking. I believe that the contribution of women to politics as good role models can change the culture of our environment in general. I must praise Ursula von der Leyen for succeeding to strike gender balance in her College of Commissioners. For Czechs, that is still something to catch up with. Under the new Commission´s mandate, we may also see the opening of an anti-discrimination directive that was proposed by the Commission in 2008.

The directive should implement the principle of equal treatment outside the labour market, irrespective of age, disability, sexual orientation or religious belief. However, as unanimity is required in the Council, the draft has remained blocked at that stage since then. Helena Dalli, Commissioner for the EU Gender Strategy and the fight against discrimination, announced during her hearing she would do her utmost to unblock this essential file, by meeting with ministers to convince them to move forward.

The question is whether we should go ahead with this proposal or make a new one.

You are also dealing with LGBT rights.

What are your priorities in this area?

I was the main author of the amendment to the Czech Civil Code, which would allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt children. Unfortunately, the proposal got stuck in the Chamber of Deputies, as the first reading has been suspended for more than a year now.

I understand that this is a complex topic, but we should move forward and allow these couples to live like others. Perhaps society is not ready yet, but a discussion on this topic is more than necessary. We must not fall asleep. I hear from multinational companies that there is a need not to discriminate against these people and secure their rights. I have also signed letters of condemnation to countries that strongly discriminate this group. My engagement in this sense will continue also in the European Parliament as I am a Member of an inter-parliamentary group dedicated to this topic.

On which proposals did the Employment Committee work in 2019?

We have inherited two very controversial proposals from the previous Parliament, namely the coordination of social security systems and the so-called mobility package, in particular its part on the posting of road transport workers. In addition, we are addressing labour market protectionist measures such as obstacles to posting of workers, where some Member States require the use of an A1 form and strictly

penalize its absence. In the Committee, I would like to point out the unnecessary administration or obstacles to mobility in the internal market. My goal is to make it easier for workers to move across the EU. The Czech Republic has a labour shortage which it has to tackle by employing third countries’ nationals. Flexible mobility in the EU labour market is therefore very important to me.

Ursula von der Leyen vowed to put forward a proposal that could guarantee a fair minimum wage in the first one hundred days of her presidency. What is your view on that?

I understand President von der Leyen's efforts to introduce a fair minimum wage. At the same time, I believe that wage policy should remain the responsibility of the Member States that have mechanisms in place to determine minimum wages. Tripartite plays an important role in this regard. The European Commission is not clear on how to grasp this area yet, but at the same time we have heard resistance from some EU Member States against this proposal.

For example, the Nordic states object to the percentage of a certain minimum wage. The success will therefore depend on the solutions presented by the Commission.

You are also a substitute in the Committee on Culture and Education. Which priorities would you like to focus on?

I would certainly like to focus on lifelong learning, technical education and new skills in the digital agenda. Europe provides financial support for lifelong learning and apprenticeships through Erasmus+ or ESF+ programmes, providing a range of opportunities for the Czechs.

I will engage in promoting the programmes to the Czech public and will inform people on how to use them. I think it’s positive that the support to education has become a priority for Europe, which can be deduced from the volume of funds that are targeting this area. Last but not least, I would like to promote digital and media literacy.

What surprised you positively in the European Parliament?

Undoubtedly, it is the working style. Everything has its own order – its plan, including the timing of speaking slots during the plenary meetings. It allows me to plan my time for meetings and work effectively. The Committee's work is much about bilateral negotiations with colleagues and stakeholders, but also within the political group. There are various people within the group, with different views on environmental issues and migration. This requires deep discussion; at the same time it is enriching. I was also surprised by mutual respect and decent behaviour. We can still learn from each other.

Thank you for the interview!

Alena Mastantuono české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

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EU

Š EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy

debate

Ever closer, never single:

High level lunch on obstacles in the Internal Market

From left: Milan ChromĂ­k, Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic, Leonid Guz, VOKA West Flanders, Martynas Barysas, BusinessEurope, and Marcel Kolaja, European Parliament

Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the European Union together with EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy and CEBRE organised a high-level lunch debate focused on the obstacles in the Internal Market.

Representatives of the European Commission, Member States, the European Parliament, private sector as well as trade unions and research institutes were assessing the current state of the Single Market based on surveys conducted among businesses earlier this year. The surveys show that companies are still facing significant obstacles in the Internal Market that hamper their activities in the EU, one of the most burdensome being the rules related to posting of workers. Complicated administrative procedures, differing national rules for services and products, lack of accessible information and its insufficient clarity or discrimination against foreign enterprises were also mentioned. Participants of the event therefore agreed that all policies, be it at EU or national level, should have a supportive role to achieve a functioning Single Market.

Participants of the event

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

Participants of the event

EU

© MeetaBuild and Czech Centre Brussels

debate

Czech gaming industry shown in Belgium

Czech delegation consisting of video games industry representatives participated in the Meet & Build 19 festival in Charleroi.

The visit started on Friday 22nd November in Brussels, as the delegation visited the European Parliament for a workshop called “Challenges and opportunities for the European gaming sector” hosted by MEP Martina Dlabajová, where the participants could discuss EU legislation related to gaming with European Commission representatives. During the Meet & Build event on 23rd November in Charleroi, Czech developers spoke about all aspects of video games production, shared their know-how, extended their professional networks during B2B meetings and also presented their games, some of which the participants of the festival could try themselves in the demo room dedicated especially to Czech games.

Presentation of Beat Games Studio

Czech demo room

Participants of the event

CEBRE founders met Czech MEPs to discuss digital agenda

© Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic

On Friday 29th November another traditional meeting of CEBRE founders with Czech MEPs took place in the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. This time, the main topic of the meeting was digital agenda and upcoming initiatives of the new European Commission of the President Ursula von der Leyen. The discussion focused mainly on topics like taxation of digital companies, development of artificial intelligence, Digital Services Act or e-Privacy regulation. Participants of the meeting agreed that digital agenda will be one of the cornerstones of the Commission’s work. They also underlined that proper impact assessments are crucial before any legislative proposals are tabled and that immediate regulation is not always the best solution.

From left: Vladimír Dlouhý, President of the Czech Chamber of Commerce, Milena Jabůrková, Vice-President of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic, Jan Wiesner, President of the Confederation of Employers’ and Entrepreneurs’ Associations of the Czech Republic, and Dagmar Kuchtová, Director General of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic

From left: Marcel Kolaja, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Dita Charanzová, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Martina Dlabajová, Member of the European Parliament, and Radka Maxová, Member of the European Parliament

Participants of the meeting

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EU

matters business

Did you know that?

New portal to check due diligence Due Diligence Ready! is an online portal providing guidance on how to check the sources of material such as metals and minerals entering supply chains. Platform will help business to improve their due diligence capacity of minerals’ sourcing, facilitate compliance with the EU’s Regulation on Responsible Sourcing of Minerals by providing guidance on the responsible sourcing of metals and minerals and by improving value chain´s transparency. This portal helps to ensure that use of raw materials respects human rights.

How to help regions with industrial transition?

A report presented by the Commission and OECD sums up recommendations to help EU countries and regions with industrial transition. Institutions are providing businesses with concrete solutions to overcome obstacles to industrial transition.

Main priorities to focus on that the report highlights are: preparation for the jobs of tomorrow, broadening and diffusing innovation, promoting entrepreneurship and private sector engagement, transitioning towards a climate-neutral economy and promotion of inclusive growth.

Parliament announces climate emergency In a resolution agreed at the end of November, the European Parliament supported the EU’s commitment of becoming a climate-neutral economy by 2050 and raising its emission reduction targets from 32.5% to 55% by 2030. At the same time the Parliament declared a climate and environmental emergency. MEPs stated that Member States should focus also on air and water transportation because emissions in these areas are not being sufficiently reduced. Also, EU should aim to limit global warming under 1.5 °C. Record support of euro According to recent Eurobarometer survey, a record number of Europeans supported the single currency as 3 out of 4 citizens considered the euro good for the European Union. This outcome concludes the highest support of euro since its introduction in 2002. In addition, 65% of citizens of the euro area consider euro being beneficial for their own country, which is also the highest number reported. Advantages pointed out by EU citizens mention the ease of doing business across boarders and making traveling easier and less costly.

Security is key for 5G networks The Council adopted conclusions on the importance of 5G networks for the European economy and stressed the need to mitigate the security threats associated with the construction of these networks. One of the most important tasks will be to ensure long-term security in the context of 5G networks, from selecting a network component manufacturer to secure and reliable network operation. According to the Council, it is important to take into account non-technical factors, including the risk profile of suppliers, when selecting suppliers, and to cooperate only with reliable partners in the construction process.

Let´s talk numbers!

EU budget for 2020 approved The European Parliament has formally approved the EU 2020 budget at the end of November. Parliament has succeeded in increasing the climate budget by EUR 500 million, for

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research projects by EUR 302 million, for investment in infrastructure by EUR 133 million, and the Erasmus+ program by EUR 50 million. Total commitments amount to EUR 168.7 billion, 1.5% more than in 2019 budget. Payments will reach EUR 153.6 billion, 3.4% more than in 2019.

More consumers care about environmental impact of shopping Consumers are more aware of their environmental footprint, recently published Consumer Conditions Scoreboard shows. Almost 60% of consumers consider the environmental impact when shopping. Scoreboard also shows that over 70% of consumers do trust retailers in respecting consumer’s rights. The number of consumers who shop online was around 60%, with significant differences between countries.

While 84% of Danes buy online, Romanians and Bulgarians shop online the least (20%).

First MFF 2021-2027 proposal disappointing The Finnish Presidency presented its preliminary proposal for the next multiannual financial framework 2021-2027. Although the Commission has already presented a general framework proposal 19 months ago and the European Parliament has adopted its opinion on this proposal, the current proposal for the first time contains concrete figures. The Finnish Presidency proposes a budget of EUR 1 087 billion, which is 1.07% of GNI. However, according to the Parliament, with such a budget, it will be impossible to meet all the commitments made by the new Commission, especially in the transition to a low-emission economy. The Commission’s initial proposal was 1.11% of GNI, which is in itself a reduction compared to the 2014-2020 budget, which was 1.16% of GNI. Parliament therefore asks the Council to reconsider this proposal.

Industrial producer prices slightly increased in October According to the European Statistical Office – Eurostat, the industrial producer prices increased by 0.1% in both the euro area and the EU28 in October compared to September 2019. In month-on-month terms, prices grew the most in Belgium (+2.3%), the Netherlands (+0.9%), Denmark and Spain (both countries +0.5%), with Greece (-2.0%), Estonia (-0.7%) and Latvia (-0.6%) seeing biggest decreases.

Prices in the Czech Republic decreased by 0.3% in that period. Compared to October 2018, industrial producer prices fell by 1.9% in the euro area and 1.6% in the whole EU. Autumn economic forecast shows slower GDP growth expected The European Commission released its autumn economic forecast for 2019, stating that it expects euro area GDP growth of 1.1% this year and 1.2% in 2020 and 2021. The estimate has been reduced compared to the summer economic forecast by 0.1% this year and 0.2% the following year. For the EU28, the Commission expects GDP growth of 1.4% between 2019 and 2021. The estimate was also reduced by 0.2% compared to the summer forecast. The Commission adds that GDP growth is expected for the seventh consecutive year.

In the world!

EU-Singapore trade agreement concluded The EU trade agreement with Singapore, the

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS I/2020

EU’s largest trading partner in the South East Asia region, came into force at the end of November. Thanks to the agreement, Singapore will remove any remaining customs duties on European goods going to the Singapore market, make the market for services available to European companies in areas such as telecommunications, engineering, IT, etc., and remove regulatory barriers to entry, for example by recognizing testing procedures for European cars and electrical equipment. The agreement also includes the protection of European geographical indications.

WTO Appellate Body ends to function On the 11th of December, the WTO Appellate Body has ceased its activities, which means that the parties will not be able to effectively use dispute settlement mechanism. Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan regretted this development and said that the EU continues to support the multilateral international trading system. The EU also proposed to introduce an interim system to replace the appellate body.

The Commission announced to present a proposal for this system soon.

More Europeans feel the benefits of foreign trade The European Commission released the results of a Eurobarometer survey on foreign trade, which shows that 60% of Europeans are directly profiting from EU foreign trade. In 2009, only 44% of respondents thought so. In addition, 71% of Europeans believe that the EU can defend its trade interests more effectively under the common trade policy than it did in the negotiation of agreements alone. The priorities mentioned by respondents in relation to foreign trade include the creation of new jobs and the promotion of European environmental and health standards. Three quarters also agreed that there was a need for functional international trade rules.

EU agreed with China to protect geographical indications The European Commission negotiated an agreement with China to guarantee that 100 European geographical indications will be protected on the Chinese market against unauthorized use and imitation. Similarly, the EU has guaranteed to protect 100 Chinese GIs on its territory. These are used for regional or country-specific food products such as Greek feta cheese, French champagne, Parma ham, etc.

The agreement should enter into force by the end of 2020. Two Czech products are on the list, namely České Budějovice beer and Žatec hops.

EU opens case against Indonesia regarding steel production The European Union brought a dispute within the World Trade Organization (WTO) concerning restrictions on the Indonesian steel production market. These restrictions unfairly limit European companies’ access to raw materials necessary for steel production, especially nickel, iron ore, chromium and others. In addition, the EU does not like Indonesian subsidies for domestic producers for the use of local goods, which is against WTO rules.

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