The third industrial revolution: the new energy initiatives by Jeremy Rifkin 10 • Strategies: retention of the new generation by Elena Sassi 12 • Psycho-rumination: emotional consequences of losing a job by Mario Antonio Reda 16 • Meritocracy: the bonus system by Nigel Phillips 18 • Principles and Values: CSR is a must for companies by Pina Draskovich 26 • Economic relaunch: Parag Khanna talks about the new tigers 30 • Hong Kong: focus on the old tiger, a glance on HK, how to succeed in HK by Fabian Uzaraga 33 • The journey of Olympic Games passing through Rio, Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo by Luca Brunoni 46 • Everything you want to know about best red wines by Paolo Ruozzo 78 • Moving: provoking the shift towards public transportation by Sutanto Soehodho 87
The Work Style
Summary
# 2 issue, November 2009
International publisher
Pe Partecipazioni editorali
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W www.theworkstylemagazine.com
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Italian publisher
Gds Brand consultancy
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Printing Italgrafica
Via Verbano 146, 28100 Novara, Italy
Periodical magazine registered at the Milan’s Court
Chairman Mirko Nesurini
Editor in Chief Giorgio Tedeschi
Editor Paola Bettinelli
Foreign Editors Pina Draskovich, Fabian Uzaraga
Section Editors Matteo Bianchi, Filippo De Bortoli, Nigel Phillips, Bahar Puraligil, Valentina Rigoldi, Elena Sassi, Maddalena Scarpellini
Graphic Designer Carlo Sansone
Advertising Raquel Mendez, Paolo Ruozzo, Barbara Schwoegler
Subscriptions Roberta Donati
To subscribe to the magazine please visit: www.theworkstylemagazine.com
Cover illustration Yihsin Wu
Authors’ illustrator Alessandro Baronciani
10
Thinking out of the box Distributed Capitalism
Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends.
12 Strategies
Rejuvenated business
An article about the importance of retention of the new generation for every business today, on the basis of an international research by CRF.
15 How to effectively retain Generation Y?
16 Editorial Psycho-rumination
Mario Antonio Reda is a psychiatrist, a full time professor at Clinical Psychology and the director of Neurology and Neurosurgery department in University of Siena.
18
Meritocracy
Communism for the rich
Nigel Phillip discusses the bonus culture,”communism for the rich”, depending on real facts of the crisis.
20 Workplace Fabulous ideas
A quality workplace is fundamental not only for better productivity but also for better exchange of ideas.
23 Environmental quality
24 Art Invest in beauty
We collect for love, for fad, for gaining prestige to our position in the society and for permanence in time, infact after death since art remains as symbolic value.
25 Two legendary stories 26
Principles and value
CSR is on reputation index
Pina Diraskovich talks about Corporate Social Responsibility and Reputation Index, with points of view and real examples of ‘active’ companies around the world.
27 From the companies
28 Some real examples of CSR activities
30 Economic relaunch Sleeping tigers
An interview with Parag Khanna regarding the new powers of the world.
Economic relaunch
HK: the tiger is still clowing
Fabian Uzaraga reports on how the old tiger, Hong Kong is standing against the crisis. 35
Economic relaunch
Work in the city of HK
A glance on the city, with tips about living Hong Kong. 38
Country guide
Successful companies in HK
An article, nearly a guide on how to succeed in Hong Kong, with the real time success stories of leading companies. 43
A glance on the city Medium size is better Filippo De Bortoli points out the development of middle sized cities around the world. 46
Events Olympics, work in progress 49
Leadership Leader rational
How the concept of the leadership is changing during crisis period.
51
Change management Take benefit out of the crisis
Palle Edelmann and Robert Levering advise on how to respond to the crisis. 53 Legal The bonus termination 54
Performance Master and commander
They are used to giving orders and receiving them, thinking quickly and logically in life-or-death situations, nurturing respect among both underlings and superiors and leaving their egos parked at the door until the job gets done. 56
Joining the company How to prepare yourself 58
Appointments
Movers and shakers
by “AIMS International, an Executive Search Consultancy and Recruiting Consultant Agency.
62
To be cool
The business side of the style 78 Trends Producers and experts
An article on wines by Paolo Ruozzo, with the selections and prospectives of both the producers and the experts around the world. 80 Product prospectives 81 Best vintages 82
Attachment and pride Victory despite defeat
An article about Turkey’s third largest city, Izmir, and how the touch of EXPO 2015 gives greater hopes despite the defeat against Milan.
Moving
Urban intelligence
An article about intelligent transportation by Sutanto Soehodho.
Recognition The failure of Eom
Our selection
Moving out of the box
Management training and development in China
Editorial
By MIRKO NESURININote: The articles are signed. The authors are mentioned by Name and Surname in the first article and then by the acronym. The remaining articles have been written by Editorial Board members.
Amsterdam
Patray Lui
Interaction designer and illustrator.
Chandigarh
Anupama Arya
Award for Excellence - Women Entrepreneur of the Year 200708” by Software Technology Parks of India.
Chicago
John W. Poracky
In THE PAST YEAR, RELATIOnS BETWEEn COMPAnIES AnD THEIR EMPLOYEES HAVE CHAnGED RADICALLY We have gone from a situation of a relaxed atmosphere to one of great tension with prospects for the future still uncertain. Our magazine is an observatory on the changing styles of conduct and, as the mirror image, perception of the business by the workers. For us, this is an interesting time to consolidate the reputation of the head through the dialogue with our authors around the world. This magazine is a platform for the exchange of opinions, ideas and plans for the future world of work. In the following pages, I point out the research conducted by CRF on the Young Generation, and what we wanted is to go deeper with the interviews focused on the ability of companies to give “space” to the young ones and keep them within the company. The editorial, opening the second part of the magazine is written by Mario Reda, an Italian psychotherapist who, with other colleagues, wrote the “theory of knowledge organization.” Reda deals with the psychological aspect of change. Then we have a long article on Hong Kong, opening with an interview of Parag Khanna, the author of the revelation book “The Three Empires.” Khanna reports, already on the cover, which the successful countries are that offer the best work opportunities, for the coming years. We publish a unique contribution for The Work Style Magazine by Jeremy Rifkin who addresses the issue of “network connections” as a factor for change introduced by Obama and one by Robert Levering and Palle Edelmann on change management. We believe that working is also an environmental issue. Therefore, in this issue we launch a series of guides on the middle sized cities, conducted by Filippo de Bortoli and implemented by Valentina Rigoldi. Inside the magazine an article is devoted to Izmir, a Turkish Middle Sized City that wants to succeed. Finally, another issue that is important to us, the sensitivity to the environment, is being touched upon with an article by Sutanto Soehodho from Indonesia, who talks about intelligent transportation. If we all use environment-friendly transports to go to work, the world would take a huge benefit out of it.
Mirko Nesurini Chairmanmirko@theworkstylemagazine.com
Atlanta
Aubrey C. Daniels 30 years of experience on working with organizations to apply the science of human behavior in their workplace. Daniels is the author of four best-selling books.
Barcelona
Alejandro Mingarro Illustrator for a multidisciplinary Brosmind studio.
Bucharest
Andrei B. Tarnea President of EUNIC (European Union National Institutes For Culture) Brussels for 2009-2010.
Mihaela Perianu Managing Partner and founder of the AIMS company in Romania.
Buenos Aires
Juan Martín Uncina Vice President of Human Resources of TGS since 2004.
Julio Bresso General Coordinator CSR of Mapfre Argentina.
Cambridge
Malcolm Warner Member of the International Business research group and the Human Resources & Organisations teaching group
Senior Partner with M. Wood Company and Member of AIMS Board of Directors.
Copenhagen
Palle Ellemann
Head of Great Place to Work® Institute Europe.
Decatur, Georgia
Goni Montes
Scientific illustrator. towards editorial and advertising.
Dublin Michele Ryan
HR Director for McDonald’s Restaurants of Ireland.
Ennevelin
Sylvain Breuzard
CEO of Norsys which he founded in 1994.
Hong Kong
Philip Bowring. Columnist for the International Herald Tribune and the South China Morning Post. — Dennis Fung. Photographer, founder of DF Photowork. — Christopher Hammerbeck. Executive Director of The British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. — Charles ng. Associate Director-General of Investment Promotion at InvestHK.— Robert Schuddeboom. ConsulGeneral of the Kingdom of The Netherlands in Hong Kong and Macao
Izmir
Rebii Akdurak. Head of Makotrans, international
Contributors around the world for The Work Style Magazine.
business of transportation. — Alex Baltazzi. President of Eagean Association of Travel Agencies. — Deniz Barcin Chairman of Barcin Spor, the biggest sporting goods retail chain in Turkey. — Ekrem Demirtas. President of Izmir Chamber of Commerce, chairman for Dodas Natural Gas Distribution —. Alim Ahmet Senocak. Deputy managing director and CEO of Klimasan. — Omer Yungul. Head of Vestel, one of the world’s largest producers of software and satellite services. — Ahmet Onder. Head of Renk Hali, a carpet manufacturing and exporting company founded in 1909. — Deniz Ozkardes. Currently a board member of Viltur and Mövenpick Hotel Izmir.— Ali Pehlivanoglu. Chairman of Pehlivanoglu the biggest local market chain in Turkey — Tunc Soyer. Former General secretary for Expo 2015 executive council. — Hilmi Ugurtas. Chairman of Izmir Atatürk Industrial Zone.
Jonathan Sergison
Partner of Sergison Bates Architects.
Julian Lewis
Director and co founder of East architeture and Design.
Madrid
Carlos F. Ordas
Senior Consultant of Stemper University Degree in Psychology.
Peter Walmsley
Head of HR at HR Access Solutions, experienced in change management and training.
Modica, Sicily
Simone Aprile
Photographer in Lab House, he is working in Sicily and Milan.
n ToshihiroagoyaIzuhara
Responsible for Environmental Communication in Brother.
n ew York City
Matthew S. Seminara
Attorney practicing in the areas of corporate, real estate and labor and employment law.
n euchâtel
Luca Brunoni
Lawyer, has a Master in Sport and Business Law from the University of Neuchâtel.
n Christianeu-Isenburg
Gall
Jakarta
Sutanto Soehodho
Chair of Transport Research Group, University of Indonesia.
London nigel Dancey
Senior partner of Foster +Partners since 2004. He joined the company in 1990.
Executive Director at AirPlus International. He managed international projects in change management.
Paris
Claire Sillam
HRD at Coca-Cola France, previously worked for Bain & Company and Accenture.
Philadelphia
Jeremy Rifkin
Is the author of a wold-wide bestseller book, and the Chairperson of the Third Industrial Revolution Global CEO Business Roundtable.
Phoenix
Alan Goldman
Professor in the Arizona State University.
Rotterdam
Eelco van den Berg
Illustrator, painter, graffiti writer and dj.
San Francisco
nick DiGiacomo
Co founder of vanno.com, a social media-based company reputation index.
Robert Levering
Co founder of the Great Place to Work® Institute.
Kevin ng
Editorial and advertising photographer.
Sao Paulo
Bernt Entschev
Author of the book “Executives, Lettuces & Strawberries.”
Shanghai
Roy Muscarella
General Manager at Global Cable Systems Group. He is recognized for team building, motivating people and managing cultural change.
Siena
Mario Antonio Reda
Previous President of the Italian Society of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.
Sofia
Maria Shishkova
Managing partner of AIMS for Bulgaria & Macedonia.
Stockholm
Danijela Dobric
One of the worldwide best illustrators 2009.
Taiwan
Yihsin Wu
One of the most important illustrators in Taiwan.
Tel Aviv
Amit Israeli
Photographer, he works as a portrait and fashion photographer.
Toronto
David Stank
Vice-president, public affairs at TNS Canadian Facts.
Warsaw
Jerzy Potocki
Managing Partner at AIMS Int. Poland.
Washington
Parag Khanna
Author of the international bestseller The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order.
Thinking out of the box The third industrial
revolution
Distributed Capitalism
Unfortunately, the Obama administration’s plan is 20th Century top-down business thinking that limits the vast economic potential of marrying the distributed ICT revolution with a distributed renewable energy revolution. We now have the technological possibility to produce our own energy-solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, hydro, tidal-in our homes, offices and factories and share it with each other in a distributed fashion across a continental inter-grid just like we now produce our own information on our personal computers and share it across the Internet.
We are on the cusp of a Third Industrial Revolution that will bring us into a new era of Distributed Capitalism. By drawing together four coequal industrial pillars – renewable energy, engineering and construction, hydrogen storage and a distributed electrical grid and plug-in vehicles – this Third Industrial Revolution promises to change our relationship to energy as significantly as the first and second industrial revolutions in the 19th and 20th centuries.
To meet President Obama’s goal of truly productive investment in job creation and future growth, a comprehensive energy plan must go beyond siloed projects conceived under a 20th-century infrastructure model. It must instead connect industry segments in profound new ways to address three of the greatest challenges of our time: economic growth, energy independence, and climate change.
The first pillar – renewable energy – may be the best understood. City and state governments are mandating more aggressive use of renew-
ables, and major corporations have invested heavily in high-profile projects from wind, solar and hydro to less conventional modes such as geothermal, garbage, agricultural and forestry waste, and tidal. We have no doubt that new federal incentives will further accelerate development of green energy technologies.
The federal role is less clear regarding the incorporation of these green technologies into new infrastructure projects. The building industries – the second pillar – must do more than reduce the carbon footprint of specific properties, and begin to feed the greater North American power grid from a surplus of energy generated onsite from green sources.
As federal agencies disburse funds to renovate old buildings and construct new ones, they should consider the potential that many buildings have to serve as “power plants.” A future
is within our grasp in which millions of schools, hospitals, homes, offices, stores, and factories can collect, generate and share energy.
The first positive power buildings are already operating in Europe. A solar plant on the roof of the GM Factory building in Aragon, Spain is producing enough surplus electricity to power 4,600 homes in the surrounding community. A similar retrofit, conceived as part of the bailout of the auto industry in Detroit, could not only put idled workers to productive use, but also provide a competitive edge in the form of cheap power in perpetuity.
Of course, the sun doesn’t always shine, nor does the wind always blow. The third pillar of our 21st Century industrial revolution will be a new system of energy storage. Hydrogen is the universal medium that “stores” all forms of intermittent renewable energy to assure that a stable, reliable sup-
01 Jeremy Rifkin is president of the Foundation on Economic Trends and the author of seventeen bestselling books on the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment.
02 Center of Excellence for Windenergy in Germany The picture shows the Repowering Project Braderup in the northwest of Schleswig-Holstein
03 Barack Obama and Secretary Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy, distinguished scientist and cowinner of the Nobel Prize for Physics (1997). Energy headquarters in Washington, D.C. on February 5th, 2009.
04 A 30 MWE parabolic trough power plant located at Kramer Junction, California, in the Mojave desert.
ply is available for power generation and, equally important, for transport. Our spaceships have been powered by high-tech hydrogen fuel cells for more than 30 years. Thirty-eight states already have hydrogen and fuel-cell initiatives under way. We need to convert the existing fossil-fuels storage infrastructure into a hydrogen storage infrastructure for a 21st century economy.
Perhaps most of all, we must go beyond proposed “smart grids” that merely meter and adjust usage, and fundamentally reimagine the power grid as a peer-to-peer network. The design principles are identical to those behind the Internet. Just as teenagers produce and share information today, they should be able to produce and share their own green electricity tomorrow. Their electric plug-in and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, in turn, will serve as portable power plants that can sell electricity back to the main grid.
Indeed, the scale of the challenge can only be met if millions of businesses and homeowners become local energy players. Again, the IT revolution of-
fers a model. Second generation grid
IT allows businesses to connect thousands of desktop computers, creating far more distributed computing power than even the most powerful centralized computers. Similarly, millions of local producers of renewable energy, with access to intelligent utility networks, can potentially produce and share far more distributed green power and help the US reach the goal of decarbonizing the electricity supply by 2050. Distributed smart grids are just now being introduced by utility and IT companies in various parts of the United States. CenterPoint utility in Houston, Excel in Boulder, Southern Cal Edison, as well as IBM, General Electric, and Siemens are all currently introducing distributed, smart grid systems.
The wholesale remaking of the nation’s infrastructure and the retooling of industries is going to require a massive retraining of workers on a scale matching the mobilization for WWII.
The new high-tech workforce will need to be skilled in renewable energy technologies, green engineering and construction, IT and embedded
computing, nano-technology, sustainable chemistry, fuel cell development, digital power grid management, hybrid electric and hydrogen powered transport, and hundreds of other technical fields. Entrepreneurs and managers will need to be educated in distributed business models and sustainable low carbon logistics and supply chain management.
As the new infrastructure takes shape, other sectors and industries will come into the fold, just as they did with the IT and Internet revolutions, with a comparable economic multiplier effect. This will sustain growth well into the second half of the century.
The European Parliament has already endorsed the Third Industrial Revolution while the European Commission has begun to collaborate with American and European companies in pursuit of the new 21st Century economy. This presents the Obama administration with an unprecedented opportunity to bring together the best and brightest on both sides of the Atlantic to advance our shared economic, energy and environmental priorities.
The question that President Obama’s administration needs to ask is where it wants the US economy to be in 20 years from now- in the sunset infrastructure of the second industrial revolution, or in the sunrise infrastructure of the Third Industrial Revolution? •
Strategies Young generation at work
STRATEGIES The importance of the retention of the new generation has become a fundamental issue in business today. Using international research conducted by the CRF Institute as a starting point we interviewed Young and Old managers from around the world to get their opinions on the requirements, the values and the perceptions of the Y generation compared to those of their ‘forefathers’.
Rejuvenated business
There are different reasons why retention of young professionals is crucial for many employers: Demographic developments are shaping of workforce of today and tomorrow. The young professionals constitute the core of tomorrow’s workforce. Generation Y runs the risk of being a demotivated generation. They thought they were the hope of the future, but the current economic and financial crisis often makes them the first victim. Keeping these employees on board and in a positive state of mind is a challenge for many employers.
The CRF Institute conducted research on the relative importance of retention around Europe in 2009-2010. This research was conducted in June, 2009 in 6 countries: Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Spain.
The outcomes of similar research in 2008 indicated that the #1 priority was Recruitment & staffing. In 2009 engagement and retention have gained importance in comparison to 2008. Half of the surveyed employers indicated that engagement is their top priority, and one third focused primarily on retention. Recruitment moved from the first to a distant third priority. If we analyze the results we notice that
often retention and engagement are used to describe the process and reasons why employees choose to remain working in the organization. There is however a difference between these two processes.
Engagement occurs when employees face choices, they will act in a way that furthers their organisation’s interests. An engaged employee is a person who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about, his or her work. Employee engagement is possible when “the employee’s identity and the identity of the organisation merge.”
Employee Retention involves taking measures to encourage employees to remain within the organization for the maximum period of time. Retaining employees is a process that is instrumental. Employees can be retained effectively when the employer can offer them an interesting mix of functional content, remuneration and potential for development. It concerns a deal closed between two – preferably equal – partners.
One of the starting points of the survey was the specific characteristics of the generation Y.
Gen Y – Who are they ?
Generation Y is the generation born between 1977 and 1990. In general they are:
• technology savvy used to continuous information access, overload and feedback
• used to social networking, different perception of privacy, aware of the risks of social networking
• and they grew up in a post 9/11 world, with sense of insecurity and vulnerability
When it comes to their optimal work environment, Gen Y employees set their priorities differently:
• they want to live first, and work second
• they value working in the community
• flexibility and balance are the key
• work has to be combined or alternated with fun and travel
• and they need a diverse work setting
(Mis)conceptions about Gen Y ?
It shows in daily worklife and in literature on generation Y that the generations at work differ from each other in:
• their mentality
• their way of working
• their world view
• their self-image
• their sense of accomplishment
• and their ambition
The “olds” share the misconceptions. The implications vary for each business sector and for each job content.
Nicolò Cartiglia CMS run field manager, CERN, Geneva, underlines that “The division “old and young” is very clear: the “young” know how to do the work and we “old” know what work needs to be done. As a senior, I spend all my time reading and meeting people to be sure we don’t have holes in our organization and there is a constant flux of money and manpower.”
Peter Walmsley Head of Human Resources HR Access Solutions said “The key factor is speed at which young employees now want to develop and progress within an organisation. They are less willing to be patient than perhaps their parents were and if they cannot get what they want in the organisation they will move quickly to another company. The concept of loyalty to the company is different as well and the younger generation may be seen to have less loyalty and more desire to get what they want right now.”
The characteristics of young people today appear to have a positive connotation, in fact, Roy Muscarella Global Cable Systems Group General Manager at Amphenol Corporation based in China maintains the use of constantly smarter technology and the different upbringing methods are the basic roots of the differences. On the very positive side, GenY kids learnt, thanks to the impressive growth of even the toys they have been playing with, that it is possible to always create something new and different. Adding to this the demand for multitasking and speed from the videogames themselves as well as the parallel multiple inputs from the TV shows screen they looked at, we have individuals whose way of thinking is very fast and multitasked without affecting performance.
The “young“
Roberta Della Bona PR Alexander McQueen London points out “Appreciation, it works more than money bonuses. The more the company shows interest in your work the more motivated you are the better results you provide.” Whilst Efe Barcin, a young Turkish entrepreneur, highlights “Misconceptions occur when people don’t have an aim in their live. Younger generations have problems with who they want to become. So when they have a lot of options they feel like they can try all of them. This creates a lack of work-ethic and lack of loyalty to the company they work for. But in older generation, people were engaged with the company, they were willing to sacrifice their social lives for the company if needed. But younger generations care about the end of their work-time and what to do next. Only the ones with the aim in their lives will become successful.”
Young people are more open to change and have developed a concept of flexibility. Nicolas Hoffbeck, a young banker, states “Lack of loyalty misconception may come from the perceived ease to change jobs and more opportunities, as we are world citizens.”
Gilles Ourvoie, founder of pmi.factory. com points out how “The new generations have been by far more exposed to foreign cultures. They have a better capacity to adapt and to conduct cooperative assignment in multi-cultural environments. In the same time, young generations are suffering from high unemployment. Young generations understand more and more that education is only one aspect of the working patterns. The term meritocracy itself has probably to be re-defined, covering other capabilities than the ability to pass an exam. The development of social networks and professional community of interest shows to what extent young adults are pro-actively working on this.”
express their desire to learn and to create a constructive exchange of ideas with ‘old’ managers but without renouncing their social lives.
signature for good. The ability to read and write is a fundamental human right and the most important asset for children. It is essential for the dev elopment of the individual and of society, helping pave the way for a successful and self-determined life.
Deeply committed to the culture of writing, Montblanc is cooperating with UNICEF for the third time. Since 2004 more than US$1 million has been raised to support UNICEF education programmes worldwide. Part of the proceeds from this Meisterstück special edition will again be donated to UNICEF and its literacy projects, with a minimum amount of US$1.5 million being guaranteed by Montblanc.
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Strategies Young generation at work
How to effectively retain Generation Y?
Stimulation, involvement, organised training together with the freedom to experiment seem to be the keys of obtaining the loyalty of this group of employees.
Christian Gall Executive Director Core International Markets in AirPlus International France explains how “Group belonging is important to them, so organisation of team events, dinners, games, challenges and group activities is important to engage and motivate them. Also they seem to be keen on finding a meaning to their work commitment and they want to see the vision of the company in the medium term explained in simple terms (no buzzwords like “strategic intent”, but for instance does the company want to focus on size or quality?).”
Bozzalla Matteo, a young expert in financial management in Ersel, Turin, states that one of the key elements is continuous, targeted training together with activities organised by the company to improve relationship skills. And adds “Motivation is also achieved through a working environment that allows Y generation to have access directly to top executives first to share our ideas and our projects. We can discuss the worthiness of plans and have the chance to carry it out with a dedicated team.” Activities organised to encourage socialisation are always
popular among young people.
Renata Spada HR Director Sales, Central Support & Corporate Projects SNA Europe told us that “at Corporate level activities are not planned world wide, but, as we are a company present in 25 countries, each country develops full programme of social activities designed to satisfy the requirements of the employees of the various branches.” Spada also emphasises that the motivation of young managers cannot be disregarded and they should have both the freedom and the possibility to experiment new ideas also through diversification.
Internal surveys are also carried out regularly in order to conform, as far as possible, to the needs of the young market. Peter Walmsley tells us “The average age of our employees in Tunisia is 29 and this is where we have the most concentration of younger people. We have recognised the desire for the younger people to accelerate through their careers at a quicker pace and want more responsibility at an earlier phase in their career. As a result we have developed a development programme whereby they can receive additional skills and development throughout their first two years with us and receive rapid career advancement based on performance. We also provide a salary increment every 6 months so we can build up a sense of both achievement and reward which are key motivating factors for this group. We also provide opportunities for advancement through providing opportunities for people to visit other countries on work exchanges or assignments. We have also recently completed an Employee Opinion Survey across all of our 13 coun-
tries which has given us a good insight into the views of all our employees. We have built action plans as part of this process and many of those actions relate to areas where our employees can be more actively involved in the future of the company.”
Virem Olivier, a young manager in the Spanish branch of HrAccess explains “HRAccess is a “young company” that is extremely sensitive and engaged towards employees, “teleworking” for example. Company is expecting to reach the 20% “flexible” work ratio, which means in average 1 day per week working at home for each employee. There are many other good examples (“casual day”, “breakfasts”...) but I think those are good ones to show how companies today are offering “free” time and “flexible” work.”
So knowing who they are, knowing what the (mis)conceptions about this generation are, we can determine how to effectively retain employees from Generation Y. First of all: accept who they are. Every generation is seen as less responsible than the previous one, and this changes gradually over time.
Secondly, Generation Y will change the workplace. The best thing to do is to enable them to do this in a responsible, controlled way.
And finally, have direct management in place that genuinely cares for young people.
Everyone reacts in a different way towards the loss of a job. The 4 main types of the reactions are:
Lifestyle controlled: it is an attempt to personal security
Lifestyle detached: it is destiny and it would happen sooner or later Lifestyle contextualized: it is an activation of shame normative lifestyle: it arises doubts about what happened and he takes full responsibility of failure
How to regulate emotions in case of a job loss
• Rumination to understand what happened and making a dialog with yourself
• Making an emotional narrative about what happened
• Being open to other people (disclosure) and social sharing
Editorial Emotional consequences
By MARIO ANTONIO REDATHE EMOTIOnAL COnSEQUEnCES OF LOSInG A JOB Losing a job, could put a person’s ability to balance the emotional status into risk, and this ability processes with the regulation of the “negative” emotions caused by experienced situations. But how does the regulation of this emotion work? First of all it is important to understand what the feeling is and to establish a dialogue with ourselves; this is called “rumination” through which we think over the motives of our discomfort.
Psycho-rumination
These motives are, in this case, always linked to the precarious working situation or to the job that is going to be lost. But the attribute towards past or future circumstances differ for each person. We speak with ourselves through the personal meanings and on the basis of making a narrative process by which we try to regulate the emotion. This is the first condition that characterizes humanbeings to be endowed with languages and it replaces the “fight or fly” behaviour or indeed helps us to have command over the instinctive side of our brains.
Imagine what could happen with this emotional narrative, enabling us to find a relative safety through a confirmation of our identity, and to go ahead for finding solutions that help us to maintain our internal coherence.
At this point there are two other important attitudes that have been objectives of recent studies: disclosure and social sharing. When we say disclosure, we mean the ability to talk about the incidents causing unwanted situations in detail, which in this case is the loss of job. Only, people with high disclosure can regulate their intensive negative emotions.
Social sharing is another important element that consists of having people close to you with whom you could speak and who could help you out about the situation.
In difficult situations, the possibility to ask for help from family or friends, is the base of social sharing and it creates the chance to get advise for replanning the research of new jobs.
Having difficulty in disclosure or in social sharing, could increase the stress and the psychosomatic illness of the
person, that are caused by losing a job.
There are a lot of examples of people with illnesses like having tumors, dermatitis, infectious or viral diseases, that came out after a job loss, because they have weaker immune systems. Especially people with low disclosure have weaker immune systems compared to people with high disclosure.
The different meaning that everyone attributes to their jobs or to losing their jobs, depends on his own personality or “cognitive organization” that each of us develop during the evolutionary process, from birth until the end of adolescence. The most frequent organizations of personal meanings that we could find in our social contest are:
COnTROLLED LIFESTYLE
This type of an organization is characterized by people who developed anxious reciprocity. For them, it is important to have control over the situation also at work. What is also fundamental for these people is the physical presence of a protective figure from whom they are afraid to be separeted. The loss of a job is percieved as an attempt to their personal wellness. The meaning attributed to this situation is that they speculate to be in a conspiracy with themselves, that they could not realize what have happened in time, and that they were not able to control the situation. The sense of weakness arises in the person’s anxiety, in his worries for his health and in his searching process for the protective figure. These are situations that could be overcame by sharing problems with other people, talking about the emotions caused by the loss and consequently regaining more flexibility for the future choices of life.
An employer with this type of a phobic organization, tries to have control over everyone within the company. He thinks that “noone is irreplaceable” and tries to employ only the people who he can have control over and in whom he can trust, meanwhile he definitely pushes away the ones who do not fit to his requirements.
DETACHED LIFESTYLE
These people have solitary personalities. They are used to fall down and stand up back on their own, without the help of anyone else and consequently this causes for them to have a fake trust in themselves. The meaning they attribute to a job loss is the “destiny”. Because of having a negative relation with themselves, they accuse themselves for whatever happens in their lives. They feel mistrust and think that noone could help them. The recovery can happen only with a renovation of their own, without asking help from anyone. The risk though, is that they quit the excessive effort and have a depressive syndrome with a negative vision of themselves and of the world and indeed they can experience delirium fault or the idea of committing suicide. The loss of job for these people may be a motivation to find a new, original and personalized project only if they get help from close friends, even though they do not ask for it.
COnTExTUALIzED LIFESTYLE
These people have ambiguous personalities, caused by a global insecurity that is retrievable only by showing an approved social image. The security is gained by the positive opinions of oth-
Meritocracy Business as usual? The recession; a year on…
By NIGEL PHILLIPS
Communism for the rich
Bonus in Latin means good, but the system of bonuses was held to be responsible for everything rotten in banking and, in return for being saved by their governments and taxpayers, banks were expected to herald in a new era of meritocracy.
Of course people expect to be paid fairly for their efforts and there is no intrinsic problem with offering ex- tra incentives for exceptional results, but Goldman Sachs received $13bn from the US government to prevent its demise and a certain degree of austerity was expected.
The bank now faces less competition for business and can borrow at incredibly low interest rates. In return for the help it received, Goldman Sachs is planning to reward its staff with bonuses of $17bn, to howls of outrage. It is not just in banking.
Rod Bailey, CEO of ExecutiveSurf, the global internet headhunting company, says: “There is less competition in general. It is basic supply and demand. There has been a huge loss of jobs, but those who remain can demand to be paid even more than before, much to general chagrin.”
A Deutsche Bank analyst told us that he believes the recession has effectively come to an end. He says that firms cut into their businesses fast and deep. Trimming the fat, combined with a unified global approach to financial stimulus, means crisis has been averted for now.
The situation is probably still overcast, but brightening, but the current tail-end result is the problem of galloping un-
employment, with Germany, Italy and the UK hovering around the 8% mark and France and the US, both over 10% and climbing.
The shadier aspects of banking were meant to have been stamped out by governments and businesses, but the bonus culture appears to be alive and well. Professor Willem Buiter, of the London School of Economics, calls it “communism for the rich.”
When times are good the spoils are shared among the few; when things go wrong, we all share the misery. If we are now operating in a system that is meant to be meritocratic, it would seem some people are more equal than others.
ExecutiveSurf canvassed HR professionals for their views on the new order of meritocracy. We asked whether they felt that bonuses are now more closely linked to the reality of performance than they were 12 months ago.
Alessandro Tosi, strategy director of ExecutiveSurf, based in Milan, said that many financial institutions
have increased their base salary levels, to compensate for the lack of bonuses, but that one-off payments have also been given instead of bonuses, which only serves to muddy the already murky waters.
The public is baying for blood and UK newspapers daily publish examples of public sector workers receiving bonuses and counting on the righteous outrage of their reading public. Bonus has become a dirty word, conjuring up images of venality and hypocrisy.
Hans Lodewijks, of Holland, said he thought bonuses are currently more realistic, particularly in sales, where the bonus is frequently fixed as a means to facilitate the transfer of staff globally.
He added that, in The Netherlands, stock option plans are no longer seen as a viable job benefit, because of the state of the stock market and that company cars are also offered less frequently, while companies are also cutting back on staff training and entertainment.
Governments are trying to be seen to stamp out the bonus culture and stock options may well become the means for business and banks to circumvent these popular limitations.
Bailey says that the pecking order of what people expect in their executive package may have changed slightly. “A cash bonus, share options, a company car, a decent pension, health insurance, relocation, all are desirable, but stock options may currently be temporarily less popular.”
Bailey has seen three recessions and he says: “Whenever there is a recession people complain about their stock options, but once the market picks up, they will be bragging about them again. I really don’t think we have learned anything; here we go again on our jolly old cycle.”
When Lehman Brothers went bust, their local champagne bar shut up shop immediately, but restaurants in the City of London are now stocking up on champagne as banking bonuses return, much to the disgust of expensedrinking journalists.
It is human nature for people to attempt to profit themselves and business reveals greed, red in tooth and claw on an organised scale, using the talents it has at its disposal to profit and thrive.
Gerrie Knoetze is the owner of City restaurant, Vivat Bacchus, and in the past year he has watched the sales of champagne with interest. “A year ago it was politically incorrect to be seen celebrating with champagne; it was off-limits.”
He said: “Since the beginning of the year, we have seen sales double of champagne at £50 a bottle. The fact that people are drinking champagne tells me people are smiling again; you don’t drink champagne with a frown.”
This may well be the case, but people who are worried for their future, or have lost their job, certainly do not see re-runs of the 80’s overt consumption boom an edifying sight. Membership of private members’ clubs are booming globally, as the select few enjoy themselves, seemingly at society’s expense.
The fortune of champagne bars and clubs, seems to be reflecting business in general. As one business closes, another succeeds in a less cluttered environment, catering for an even more elite customer.
The banking crisis was meant to be the cue for governments and business to clean out the Augean stables, but normality seems to have been resumed, with fat cats gorging at the trough once again (if I may mix my metaphors).
Bankers, politicians and paedophiles are the current targets for public hatred and distrust; journalists can breathe easily again.
Plus ca change…
ers, so the loss of a job causes shame for them. Living on the judgement of the other people, they feel unsuccessful as they have disappointment of expectations and a sense of emptiness caused by the loss of social approvation of the other people. In case someone asks them about their jobs, it is possible that they develop a syndrome of social anxiety. Overcoming of the loss of job for them, can be possible only by understanding that failure in work does not mean that they fail as a person too. The unsuccess could be overcame by searching for new objectives that are more suitable both for themselves and for their social images. For an employer with these features, it is important for him to surround himself with collegues who agree with him most of the time.
nORMATIVE LIFESTYLE
These people are the ones with ambivalent personalities. They consider themselves positively only if they can pursue social and moral rules, control their feelings, and maintain a rational behaviour. They pursuit perfectionism at the edges: everything is either black or white for them. The loss of a job causes negative feelings, arises doubts and makes them think that they are either guilty or the victims of a universal conspiracy. The swinging between the two extreme edges can bring arrest or obsessive “rumination”. A recovery in this situation, can consist in considering the complexity that has caused this situation and moderating the strict vision; by placing some ‘grays’ in between blacks and whites. An employer with this kind of an obsessive organization manages the relations with his employees in a rational and legal way, and is attentive to the rights of everyone.
In all of these situations, it would be useful to organize a psychotherapy group, in which every person who has lost a job, could speak about their discomforts. Through social sharing and disclosure it could be possible to experience recovery for everyone. • •
Workplace Exchange ideas
By VALENTINA RIGOLDIA QUALITY WORKPLACE is fundamental not only for better productivity but also for better exchange of ideas. Work and wellbeing: the interior space and the quality of the surroundings.
Fabulous ideas
In his book “Labour, work and architecture” (2002), talking about a Swedish car plant in the late 1970s, the architectural critic Kenneth Frampton says: “A feeling of almost deliberate isolation, in the physical and psychological sense, pervades the entire structure and site […] This is distressing when one realizes that this is the landscape in which some 600 men regularly spend the best part of their working day”.
Nowadays the belief that the collective wellbeing in a workplace creates a virtuous circle in the whole company is wide spread among architects and employers.
In 2008, London-based studio Foster + Partners completed the project for the new stylish headquarter of Ernst & Young – The Netherlands in Amsterdam, the so-called “Vivaldi Tower”, which can be considered, as an example of this philosophy.
We asked Reinhard Joecks, a Partner of the studio, to describe us the building from the architects’point of view.
What was the main reason to have such a stylish office instead of a regular one?
For over forty years we have explored the possibilities for open and flexible working environments in which communication can flourish.
“Vivaldi Tower” is the Dutch headquarters for the global professional services firm Ernst & Young. As such, it is an expression of their ethos. So, as well as being stylish, the sustainable aspects of the building were equally vital. Moreover as the first building within the new Zuidas district, the tower was conceived as a
landmark on the route into Amsterdam, thanks to its distinctive silver diagrid façade.
How does a workplace affect on its employees? As architects, we believe that the quality of our surroundings has a profound effect on the quality of our lives. For employees at Vivaldi Tower, there are a wide range of facilities close to hand: the adjacent pavilion building contains a ground floor bar and a restaurant with views of the water-court, along with conference facilities and a fitness centre. In the tower itself, an informal ‘living room’ with armchairs and views of the landscaped setting occupies part of the ground floor and there is a library at the top. While the living room is single height, the entrance area is a grand triple-height atrium that reflects the geometry of the diagrid façade. The building has a highly progressive environmental strategy and, as a result, is ten per cent more efficient than the target Dutch environmental standards. The water-court, accessed by a shaded walkway, is an attractive setting for the offices, yet also plays a role in the environmental approach. It is an ecological pond, naturally cleaned by a planted biotope of reeds, water lilies and grasses – 65% of rainwater is retained on site and the run-off feeds into the Amsterdam canal system to control water levels following peak rainfall.
Mirjam Prins, Sr. Service Manager at Ernst & Young – The Netherlands, and Marco Noort, Sr. Facility Manager who was personally involved in the process, described us the peculiarity
and the facilities of the new headquarter and the feeling of working in such a brand-new building.
“We call the building ‘The Cross Tower’ because of the shape it has in its architecture. Among our 18 branch offices in Holland this is the most wanted as it offers a 5 star hotel comfort, which has also a very good influence on our clients. It is a very open building which generates wellness and a very good atmosphere for us. Besides the openness, the building offers privacy for everyone as well, with our separated offices. It is usually very crowded here, with all the employees, the clients and the visitors, yet you almost never feel that crowd thanks to the brilliant architecture of the building, that it is definitely very spacious ”.
According to Prins and Noort the new facilities, such as the coffee bar, are noteworthy: “ The furniture, the chairs, the tables, and even the wallpapers are so diligently picked, that it feels like home more than an office cafeteria; we call it ‘the living room’, as you can grab your coffee and spend time with your colleagues and enjoy the cosy environment ”. Talking about other facilities they said: “ We have a gym within our building, not only for personal training but also for group classes. We have high standard meeting rooms that can compete with 5 star hotels in Amsterdam due to the spectaculare views on the 21st and 22nd floors and the outstanding catering facilities. These offer our staff the possibility to invite their clients to the office and to be attentive to their guests best way they could ”.
01 - 02
03 Sussex Road School rooftop classroom with view
04 East exhibition showing images and models found in the office
05 Bermondsey Square Working and resting
06 - 07 Tower Palace © Nigel Young, Foster + Partners
08 Hearst Tower’s © Nigel Young, Foster + Partners
09 Hearst Tower’s © Chuck Choi
10 - 11 Boulogne Billacourt © Nigel Young, Foster + Partners
12 - 13 Swiss Re Headquarter © Nigel Young, Foster+Partners
[VR]
Workplace Exchange ideas
Dancey Lewis
nigel Dancey
Foster + Partners
Nigel joined Foster + Partners in 1990 and became senior partner in 2004. His experience spans a wide range of projects alla round the world – from education buildings to towers, urban masterplans to hotels, resorts and cultural buildings. He has been awarded an Honorary Senior Fellowship by the Design Futures Council and became an executive director of the practice and a member of design board in 2007.
Julian Lewis East
Julian is a director and cofounder of East, and has experience of leading on and delivering a wide range of architectural and urban projects. Julian is Urban Design Advisor to the London Development Agency, is on the LDA Architecture and Urban Design Panel, and is a member of the Newham Council Design Advisor Panel.
Jonathan Sergison Sergison Bates Architects
In 1996 he established Sergison Bates Architects with Stephen Bates. They have received numerous awards, including the Heinrich Tessenow Gold Medal in Architecture and the Erich Schelling Medal for Architecture in 2006 and two RIBA Awards in 2009.
Environmental quality
has a key role concerning workers’ physical and psychological wellbeing. What does it mean for an architect to create a workplace that generates wellness?
“From corporate headquarters to university research centres, buildings should generate a sense of community by providing informal spaces for interaction and the open exchange of ideas. Through a number of projects, we have shown how the design process can question our assumptions about buildings and can reconcile needs which are often in conflict. That may mean dissolving social and physical barriers between user groups or finding ways to bring different functions together. Every project is unique and so are the needs and aspirations of each client”. “Solutions often focus on increasing spatial flexibility, optimising space utilisation and improving communication and collaboration opportunities”. nigel Dancey, Foster + Partners
“London is perceived by many to be a stressful place to work: busy trains, traffic jams, no lunch break and late evenings. Working environments are seldom places to enjoy or linger. In our office we work best when we are able to make space available for changing needs whether it is to clear a table for a model, organise drawings on a wall or sit in a circle to discuss ideas. A site specific approach has led us to design not only internal, but also external spaces that provide new opportunities which may range from a seat next to a river with shelter to a multiuse space for market traders to sell goods adjacent to business people. Indeed we see increasing
need to design the public realm to accommodate working needs”.
Julian Lewis, East
“The direct correlation between productivity and employees’ sense of wellbeing has been recognised for a long time. Many spend more time at work than at home and the need to personalise a place of work must be considered in design. Employees should not be far from sun light and interiors should retain a relationship with the surrounding city. Too often I am bemused by the kind of general office detritus that is on display, when the designer has insisted on floor-to-ceiling glazing for reasons of architectural purity. It is invariably the interstitial, programmatically less determined spaces that prove to be the most popular among employees: the landing of a staircase, the lift, or the location of a vending machine or photocopier are usually informal meeting places. The encounters they promote do not directly increase productivity but engender a sense of community, which is beneficial to both employers and employees. The tension between function and spaces, that can come out unintentionally, should be carefully judged, for they determine a good working environment. An office should be designed with a more than tight net-to-gross ratio in mind: we should be careful of the size of the lifts or of the sequence of spaces between aisles and desks to support both flexibility and a sense of belonging”.
Jonathan Sergison, Sergison Bates architects
Art ‘Industrial’ sensitivity
By MATTEO BIANCHIWE COLLECT FOR LOVE, for fad, for gaining prestige to our position in the society and for permanence in time, infact after death since art remains as symbolic value. People collect for vanity as well, but in a generous way because private collections could be open to the public. And usually people collect also as a way of investing their money, for giving a sense – visible and tangible - to their resources.
Invest in beauty
The relation between art and money encourage some briefly consideration regarding the motive of a relationship without time arouse from collecting. The child memories regarding the collection of shells, cards, stamps and other objects are in which we find intimate satisfaction. The trend of collecting reflects our desire and is related with the poetry inherent of human needs existing in all of us since we were children. The passage of time and the variety of the contest, modify the spirit of the collector who continue to express himself in a subjective way and try to fit himself to the circumstances.
Companies’ Collections
Around 1900s, a lot of important art collections started to develop, encouraged by upper class with economic resources and with sensitivity to the social matters of the world and the work that characterized their business. For example there was an industrialist family living near Zurich. Their passion and their competence supported by considerable financial assets, result in with a wonderful collection, especially of French art pieces from the nineteenth century, that today can be seen in the museum houses. In Winterthur there are the foundations of Oskar Reinhart and of Hahnloser: in the first one there are the masterpieces of Chardin, Daumier, Courbet, Ceyanne, and Van Gogh, while the second one hosts the work of arts of Nabis, Bonnard and Vallotton, of which Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser were friends, collectors and they both had the art education.
The Langmatt museum in Baden is
Peachs, carafe and figure, 1900 ca., oil on canvas, 60 x 73 cm. Baden, Museum Langmatt, Stiftung Langmatt Sidney und Jenny Brown
the testimony about the trust between the Parisian merchant Ambroise Vollard and Sidney and Jenny Brown, the owners of Brown Boveri. Their passion for art has started in 1896 in Paris during their honeymoon. Sidney and Jenny Brown, through the Swiss painter Carl Montag, got in touch
with Ambroise Vollard from whom they bought a “still life” of Cézanne in the 1908. The following year they bought the first painting of Renoir and the masterpieces of Gauguin and Pissarro. Today the atmosphere of the Langmattt Museum intimately reflects the good taste of collectors.
Swimmers, 1895/1896, oil on canvas, 28,5 x 51 cm. Baden, Museum Langmatt, Stiftung Langmatt Sidney und Jenny Brown
Eric Brown, Charles E.L. Brown, Sidney Brown, Walter Boveri and others in front of a turbo-generator, in a Baden factory near Zurich, in 1901. (Archiv Museum Langmatt, Stiftung Langmatt Sidney und Jenny Brown, Baden).
01
02
01 Luigi Rossi, The Wheat, 1910, ©Pagine d’Arte 2009
02 Luigi Rossi, First Daylight, 1900-1905, ©Pagine d’Arte 2009
03 Luigi Rossi, Portrait, 1916, ©Pagine d’Arte 2009
04 Luigi Rossi, Ivy, 1900, ©Pagine d’Arte 2009
The paintings of Luigi Rossi you see on the magazine, today belong to the museum house of the artist which is close to Lugano (CH).
Two legendary stories
CALOUSTE SARKIS GULBEnKIAn ARMEnIA - LISBOnIn 1969 with the heritage of the oilman and merchant Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian from Armenia, a foundation in Lisbon is instituted, which had great importance for the development of Portugal during the hostile times for the democracy education. Gulbenkian had collected a lot of things: pictures, sculptures, oriental ceramics and pieces of ancient Egypt, elements of decorative arts, French mobiles, textures, jewels, and ancient books. The collections are being displayed in the two museums of contemporary and ancient art in Lisbon, while the foundations are assuring the cultural formation and the scientific research also with the collaboration of the offices in London and Paris.
SOUTH
GIOVAnnI BERnASCOnI
OF SWITzERLAnD - ARGEnTInA
Giovanni Bernasconi moved from Ticino to Argentina in 1855, where he crafted leather and he accumulated a fortune with the fabrication of shoes and luggages in a short time. With his sons Juan and Felix, he started a commercial business with Europe. Meanwhile, he gave her daughter Maria, the care of Villa Argentina in Mendrisio where there is a big collecion of Italian paintings belonging to the nineteenth century, and in where there used to be the work of Luigi Rossi that today is a missing piece. The Bernasconi family supported a lot of artists and they also opened a school of arts and crafts in Buenos Aires which is still open today.
•
Pictures of Luigi Rossi (1853-1923), L’edera (the Ivy), painted by Luigi Rossi around 1900, is a liberty style painting, and is on the opening page of the book dedicated to the artist, which is issued by Pagine d’Arte.
The painting is exposed in the house of the artist which now is a museum. Previously, it was in Bernasconi’s collection, and was sold in 1987 in an important public sale in Christie’s in London. Luigi Rossi (1853-1923) was a realist and symbolist painter, and was the illustrator for the books of Alphonse Daudet and Pierre Loti.
The museum house dedicated to the artist hosts paintings of portraits, landscapes and illustrations. In a wide section of the museum can be found, the letters of Anker, Hodler, Welti, Puccini and of symbolistic italian writer Gian Pietro Lucini, who was inspired by Luigi Rossi’s paintings for his art of poetry.
langmatt.ch museu.gulbenkian.pt winterthur.org]
Principles and value Corporate social responsibility
By PINA DRASKOVICHIS CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPOnSIBILITY just a fashionable term, or a serious practice implemented by the companies? How can an activity of corporate social responsibility affect the reputation of the business?
CSR is on reputation index
There are a thousand ways to measure reputation that are seriously structured and ongoing. Nicholas DiGiacomo, Co-founder of vanno.com (Usa) says “Reputation is by definition a social evaluation. As such, measuring company reputation requires more than just summing up the facts, reports, and news articles about corporate deeds and misdeeds.” The measurement must also consider how those facts, reports and articles are interpreted by individual consumers, business people and citizens, and how the resultant opinions move through social networks. The method to Measure Company Reputation, used by DiGiacomo (The Vanno Reputation Index) is based on the use of the Social Media. It’s the result of a Web-based social evaluation that captures and quantifies user insights into how companies treat their customers, employees, communities, the environment and the society in general, in track of a total of 25 aspects of reputation, in 6 broad groupings:
• Community Involvement
• Customer Satisfaction
• Employee Satisfaction
• Environment
• Patriotism
• Social Responsibility
David Stark, the Public Affairs manager of TNS, a company based in Toronto (Ontario), reveals, “Good corporate citizenship reflected by ethical labour, environmental and social practices cannot be ignored by companies looking to differentiate themselves in a competitive market.” Furthermore, Richard W. Jenkins Corporate Director, Public Opinion Research of TNS,
adds, “A key factor in the success of a business over the long term is the trust that is built between the company and the consumers.” The prospect of both Stack and Jenkins is that in Canada, about half of the citizens (49 per cent) say that they are very likely to refuse to buy a product from a company that they hear negative news about.
The “TNS reputation survey” found out that, among the factors that go into building trust, a company’s reputation is almost as important as the other factors like having more tangible product and service characteristics, such as price, value and customer service.
“Companies are increasingly going to be held accountable not only for the quality and price of their products and services, but also for the corporate citizenship and environmental stewardship of their business as a whole, as these are key components of a company’s reputation,” says Jenkins. The survey points to the emergence of a new consumer attitude around corporate accountability and corporate social responsibility that may transform the market. The suggestions presented in the survey by TNS are reflected in the market where the last six months, one-third of Canadians say that they have recommended a green product to someone they know and 28 per cent have refused to purchase a product from a company that they believe has a poor reputation.
CSR: An InDEx OF REPUTABLE COMPAnIES Makhiba Mollo, Associate of JSE (SouthAfrica) implies that during the relaunch in recent years, South Africa has seen a growth in company awareness of corporate social responsibil-
ity. Businesses increasingly recognise three bottom line practices;
• environment
• society
• economy with governance as the foundation in the way they conduct themselves and report on their achievements. Increasingly, sustainability practices have evolved from being high level strategies to practical, measurable and quantifiable actions.
In May 2004 the JSE established the socially responsible investment index. The criteria included in the review are drawn from those that are recognized as having global standards, such as the Global Reporting Initiative. However the criterias are also taking into account the transformational status of South Africa. Governance criterias are also drawn from those in the JSE’s Listing Requirements. Other factors showing us how important being included in the index is for companies are:
• Company reference to inclusion in press releases, annual reports etc
• Reliance by some award rating tools on the SRI index as the universe for sustainability selection
• Comments made in the media by successful participants of the index review process annually
Mollo concludes saying “Whether propelled by investor demand, shareholder activism or consumer interest, takeup of the review process over the years affirms that corporate social responsibility is important for companies. It has also influenced the behavior of many companies, enhancing their sustainability focus and improving their public reporting as companies strive to be included in the SRI Index.” •
From the companies
To better sizing the issue, we have heard some points of view of companies in different countries as every one of them have a “Fil Rouge”, each boasts an excellent business climate, determined by the Great Place to Work Institute® as the Best Places to Work.
To each we posed three questions to reflect their opinions on the subject, and here we have them reported.
WHAT IS CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPOnSIBILITY?
Corporate social responsibility is a voluntary and a strategic commitment, a way to achieve, (from an ethical and transparent attempt) the business objectives; the fulfillment of our duty and of the law, promoting sustainable growth and human development, and deepening the relationships of equity with our stakeholders, actively assuming the leading role as a responsible company, a way to meet the present and future needs of the Society.
• PERU The company Belcorp, believe social responsibility to be a philosophy rather than a strategy; Daniella Barbieri, Belcorp CSR Manager says “In my country, the implementation of CSR is still at an early stage. Many companies still think of corporate social responsibility exclusively as the work they do with their community. But there are also other companies that have understood the concept correctly and are currently managing stakeholder expectations”.
• JAPAn In Japan, a variety of corporate social responsibilities are consid-
ered to be important. Among them the Brother Group, think the following issues of CSR is important for their sector, especially for the manufacturing industy. Toshihiro Izuhara (in Brother Industries, since 1986), who is responsible for Environmental Communication, Social Contribution and transmission of CSR and the environment, lists the main topics on which his company works as “Responsibilities to our customers, responsibilities to our employees, responsibilities to the environment, with a particular focus on a) Energy saving in products; b) Reduction in CO2 emissions during production; and c) Biodiversity conservation as the host country of COP10.”
• IRELAnD Michele Ryan is the HR Director for McDonald’s Restaurants of Ireland. Michele states that “corporate social responsibility is the core element of how to do business”. In Ireland, corporate social responsibility covers a wide range of initiatives of many companies, including of course Mc Donalds, “One of them is how we work with our people. We want to make sure they are fully embraced and respected, and this can be regarded by our multicultural or disabled employees”.
• FRAnCE The corporate social responsibility is a major stake in France. A lot of companies get gradually involved in sustainable development. In France, corporate social responsibility refers to companies’ citizenship: companies are more and more expected to respect their employees and obviously, not to relocate their activities. If a French company lays off its employees and relocates in Asia, it will be blamed for being irresponsible. Carine Evano, Communication Manager of Nature & Découvertes (France), informs us that nowadays the concept is that environ-
mental stakes are added to social ones. French consumers declare to take into account the environmental and social criterias while purchasing.
“Therefore, Nature & Découvertes aims at giving better information about its social and environmental responsibility to customers and also sharing practices which reconcile the economic performance, the human development and the conservation of natural resources.” Carine says.
The key terms that describe Lyreco’s (France) corporate social responability B2B distribution office supplies, from the point of view of Thibault Lamiaux, who has been working for Lyreco France since 1999, and who is the Human Resources Director since 2006, are “Respecting legal rules, people and of course, encouraging diversity, supporting those that are the most “frail” and creating a pleasant and efficient working environment”.
• ARGEnTInA Juan Martín Uncina, Vice President of Human Resources of TGS, and Daniel Perrone, Vice President of Regulatory & Public Affairs of TGS (The major companies in Argentina that undertake corporate social responsibility) both depart from the concept that the “commitment to contribute to sustainable development, with the participation of main stakeholders or special interest groups, with the aim to improve the quality of life of the society as a whole”.
Another Argentine manager, Julio Bresso who is the General Coordinator of all the issues related to corporate social responsibility in Mapfre Argentina, states “In Argentina there is not a single definition for corporate social responsibility, in fact it is still in debate whether it should be named as; Corporate, Citizenship or Social Responsibility”. •
Principles and value CSR
Belcorp I think it is a must if the company is hoping for a long-term and sustainable success.
Brother We believe that it is indispensable for companies to fulfill corporate social responsibility in order to pursue sustainable growth and profitearning activities.
McDonalds Yes it definitely is. Being socially responsible is very critical for a company to build a brand trust.
nature I think it is a must if the company is hoping for a long-term and sustainable success.
Lyreco The most important thing for Lyreco is women and men who compose it. Being socially responsible is the key element that ensures they feel happy and motivated every single day.
Tgs A CSR implies to perform every aspect of the Company activities with an upright and ethical attitude. A CSR is the way to conduct business.
Mapfre I think that identifying with a socially responsible company means seeing the whole company from that perspective, it means thinking the company and its links with stakeholders from that viewpoint.
Some real examples of CSR activities
EMPLOYEES & BEAUTY COnSULTAnTS
Daniella Barbieri, from Belcorp, has identified their key stakeholders and she has prioritized the work with two of them: employees and beauty consultants. For the employees, “We are committed to creating a respectful and supportive environment for our employees, and we are launching our Ethic Code”, “Also we are concerned with keeping a balance between work life and the personal life, so we create a program called ‘Your Belcorp Time’ in which we offer some free time to our employees; for example on their birthdays or on a regular day to have a family afternoon”. The Beauty consultant program has been activated by Belcorp Foundation in 2003 and is called ‘Great Women’: a three-day retreat in which 2000 women each year begin a journey of self-discovery and build self-confidence. In additon to that, they have a Scholarship Program which Daniella presents as “an opportunity for 800 young and teenage girls throughout the region, having scholarships to private schools, thereby getting the chance for a better life and better opportunities for their future”.
CUSTOMERS, EMPLOYEES, BUSInESS PARTnERS, LOCAL COMMUnITIES
AnD THE EnVIROnMEnT Brother’s interest in CSR is designed to customers, employees, business partners, local communities and the envi-
ronment. Toshihiro Izuhara states, “One of the activities that we address in every aspect of our business activities ranging from design and development, manufacturing to services is ‘reducing product return and servicing (return ratio against the average volume of shipments par month)’. In particular, we conduct analysis on inquiries from customers collected at call centers in sales facilities around the world, and utilize them for preventing imaginable quality issues during the process of the product development and for enhancing customer support. Our manufacturing facilities, such as the one in China, also strive to establish a system to “produce no defects.”
BUILDInG A BRAnD TRUST
Michele Ryan, with her HR team, has achieved several prestigious awards and accolades for McDonald’s including; Top 50 Companies in Ireland for the last 5 years, O2 Ability Award, Diversity Award, CIPD HR Excellence Award for Innovation and has won a number of McDonald’s Global awards for best practice in HR. Michele is an expert with much experience. She focuses on the objectives to be achieved as, “building a brand trust, building an employee pride and supporting our business to do the best. And every corporate social responsibility project has business measures as well, such as increasing sales”.
Is corporate social responsibility a must for a company to be successful?[PD]
BIODIVERSITY
The 15-year old Nature & Découvertes Foundation is a major player in biodiversity field in France. This Foundation “supports the exceptional work of small and large associations which, on the field, act in favour of biodiversity”, says Carine Evano. A second foundation created in 2008 by Nature & Découvertes “The Lemarchand foundation for the balance between Earth and People” Financed by the members of the Nature & Découvertes family founder, supports French and African projects and networks of intergenerational solidarity which reconciles man with nature: organic farming, agroforestry, food and health. Concrete results in terms of diversity. Thibault Lamiaux affirms “we guarantee through strict processes and audits of those, equal treatment for every single individual (regardless of sex, age, handicap, skin color, sexual orientation …) in the daily lives of our employees: hiring processes, access to training, internal promotion, pay increases etc”. Externally of the company Lyreco supports humanitarian projects. The principal is called “Lyreco for education.” and it has created its own structure to raise funds that will be donated to a different NGO every year (In 2009 € 150,000).
CORPORATE VOLUnTEERS PROGRAM
The program was born in 2002 and went through two implementation stages. Initially, it consisted of a team of volunteers pursuing a specific outlined project. “Currently, it involves a project contest, which allows the assessment of proposals submitted by the volunteers jointly with social community organizations” says Juan Martín Uncina “Between the years 2005 and 2008, 29 projects were selected and over 160 volunteers of the whole area where the Company operates its license were engaged in this program. Over these years we have given our support to more than 3,000 direct beneficiaries”.
SUPPORTInG AMBITIOUS PROJECTS OF THE THIRD SECTOR
“We work a lot on issues related to education, supporting ambitious projects of the third sector organizations or being ourselves with our team of employee, volunteers forming groups with serious difficulties entering the labor and social markets or generating projects that go from lectures to acting plays, from book publishing to activities associated with caring for the environment” says Julio Bresso from Mapfre Argentina.
Belcorp CSR projects can contribute to a better world; a world where we are all aware of our responsibility to society and where relationships are based on respect and trust and therefore become the foundations of development and growth.
Brother One vital goal of any business entity is “to keep enjoying a long, successful future” .
McDonalds We have a children`s charity called “Ronald`s McDonald”. It is a “home away from home” program, for families who have sick children staying in hospitals. Our coffee is “rain forrest alliance”
nature Our main objective is to get a positive impact and to contribute to the protection of biodiversity
Lyreco We want to be proud of our actions or the actions of our employees. We want to be not only a business company but a responsible company too, listening to its environment and expectations of society.
Tgs Being a socially responsible company goes far beyond providing quality products and services and generating profit and employment.
Mapfre We seek to contribute actively to have a better society? If society improves, no doubt it benefits us all. In this matter it is essential not to think only in the short term, and putting special emphasis on education
belcorp.biz brother.com jse.co.za lyreco.com mapfre.com.ar mcdonalds.ie natureetdecouvertes.com tnsglobal.com tgs.com.ar vanno.com
Company’s objective to do a corporate social responsibility.
Illustrations by Yihsin Wu, Taipei, Taiwan
Economic relaunch Hong Kong
By PARAG KHANNA
Sleeping tigers
Twsm interviews with Khanna, about the phenomenon of the “Four Asian Tigers” that he describes as being tranquillized lately and almost to be supplanted by the new potential powers of the world.
Regarding to the success of the “Four Asian Tigers” in terms of exceptionally high growth rates and rapid industrialization during the 80’s, we would like to know, in your opinion, how did they make this happen? Do you think the “Tigers” are sleeping now?
It’s well known that export growth was a major part of the success story for the Asian tigers.
It is interesting that people are criticising export growth model and and say that China needs to learn to be more consumption oriented. And yet ironically they say that US needs to become an export oriented economy because it is still consumer oriented. And also when people speak about African growth they criticise commodities exports, that it dangerous for Africa. That is also nonsense. Most countries in the world do not have the luxury of choosing what resources they have avaliable to them and what they will export. There is very little room for manoeuvre and the lower runs of the global economy. The asian tigers right now are not in any way sleeping, they are “tranquillized”. They have been weakened a little bit because exports are down to US and to the western powers. But it is also clear that emerging market demand is picking up quite a bit which will be very good for these countries. They are towards exports to each other; to China, to India, to the Middle East and to Latin America very
strongly. I do believe that there will be sufficient export diversification for the Asian Tigers. They will be fine irrespect to what happens to the US, especially because of their currency reserves.
Despite the current economic situation are there any countries that are following the steps of the “Tigers” and that are able to keep on growing? If yes, what do you think about these countries? Some of the new export power houses in the world are Brazil and India.
You see tremendous amount of new manufacturing coming out of both Brazil and India; you see reprocessing facilities, manufacturing growing very strongly. India is trying to manufacture in all kinds of areas; now they are doing well in automobile. Vietnam is the third major example I can give; the very successful “new tiger” in a way. Vietnam has enormous growth rates and people call it “little China”, they are tremendously successful. If you talk to people in the United Nations they only have one answer; Vietnam.
What kind of long/short term prospectives would you think of for these countries?
These countries have much higher risk profiles than they deserve because many of the analysts do not go travel in those countries enough. They see statistics pointing worrying directions and they immediately fear political unrested destabilization I have much more faith in Brazil, Vietnam and India than most of the analysts do.
When you go spend time in these countries, meet leaders, you appreciate their competence.and see that they are not second tier in their intelligence.
This book is a combination of historical analysis, political theory, and eye-witness reports, and is flashing a beam of light on the battle of the world’s new empires. America is becoming the second world but Europe for me is the first world. We have learned that social democracy in European style is the best way to maintain certain amount of social stability. Europe never wants to be like America when it comes to social policy issues, and the Chinese admire that. Obama represents the desire to create a Europe.
European Union is a fantastic transactional network. It is no accident that the prime minister of Australia has said that they need an Asian “union”, and that Brazil says that now they need a “union” of South American Nations (USAN). America, Canada and Mexico are still NAFTA, but what comes after NAFTA is North American Union (NAU). People are aware that Europe works well. And I am sure how excitingly every region is thinking that way but noone is even close to a Europe: we have a long way to go.”
little secrets
Economic relaunch Hong Kong
By FABIAN UZARAGATHE CURREnT SITUATIOn Hong Kong is a small, open, trade-dependent economy which saw its GDP growth rate drop from 9.5% in 2007 to 3.8% in 2008. Hong Kong University’s APEC Study Centre expects a contraction of 3.1% in 2009 while the Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecasts Hong Kong to grow at 3% over 2010,
HK: the tiger is still clowing
Twsm sought commentary from a range of perspectives on Hong Kong’s current and future economic prospects.
ECOnOMIC SECTORS MOST AFFECTED BY GLOBAL DOWnTURn
Hong Kong continues to play a key role in the re-export of goods from China’s Pearl River Delta to North American, Japanese and Western European consumers. Long-time economic commentator and International Herald Tribune columnist, Philip Bowring, points out that amongst the territory’s four ‘pillar industries’, trading and logistics has been pummeled with continued weakness in global consumption. For the months June to August 2009, for instance, Hong Kong’s total merchandise trade contracted by 14% from its equivalent period in 2008. Another flow-on effect, observes Christopher Hammerbeck, CEO of Hong Kong’s British Chamber, has been a downturn in producer and professional services linked to trade and logistics, including shipping and container handling. The Government’ modest counter-cyclical budget deficit, equivalent to 2.4% of GDP, is aimed at cushioning domestic job losses with unemployment peaking at 5.8% in September 2009, from its low of 3.4% in June 2008.
AREAS
LIKELY TO RECOVER QUICKEST
While financial services have felt the shocks of last year’s global turmoil, Charles Ng, Associate Director General of the Government’s InvestHK, notes that the lack of debt overhang and the SAR’s proximity to China has spurred recent buoyancy in the trading of Hong Kong and mainland-listed shares. He also keenly highlights initiatives to further develop the territory as a centre for offshore
RMB exchange, citing the recent issuing, in Hong Kong, of Chinese Government RMB-denominated bonds. Recently, HSBC - now amongst the world’s largest banking groups - announced the relocation of its London-based CEO, Michael Geoghegan, back to Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s tourism sector, with nearly two-thirds of its inbound visitor arrivals comprising mainland Chinese has been largely insulated from global downturn. Visitor numbers were more impacted by stringent border-control efforts to limit the potential spread of the H1N1 virus during the first half of 2009. From January to August 2009, total tourist numbers declined by 3.4% from the same period in 2008. By contrast, the Tourism Board recently reported a 15% annual increase, over 2008, in the number of mainland visitors during China’s eight-day October ‘Golden Week’ holidays.
HOnG KOnG In THREE YEARS TIME
In addition to leveraging its transparent common-law system to expand a repertoire of financial, professional and technology-related services, Robert Schuddeboom, Consul General of The Netherlands, also points to the imminent commencement of key transport infrastructure projects across and beyond Hong Kong. Announced by the SAR’s Chief Executive in 2007, these planned investments include strategic extensions to Hong Kong’s MTR subway system, a high-speed rail-link to the neighboring cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou, as well as a planned bridge across the Pearl River Delta to Macao and its neighboring city of Zhuhai.
PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE
With the cost of the Chief Executive’s
infrastructure projects expected to run into hundreds of HK$ billions, Philip Bowering is circumspect, regarding the benefits to Hong Kong from being so rapidly and more fully integrated into China’s Pearl River Delta. These investment sums can be better channelled towards systematically addressing those local sources of Hong Kong’s air pollution problems, including its coal-fired power stations, road and marine transport systems, he reasons.
Air quality is often cited as one factor hampering Hong Kong’s attractiveness as a place to live amongst global managerial and professional talents otherwise drawn to Asia’s growing global financial clout. Striving to maintain its clear lead amongst Asia and China’s emerging metropolises by adopting the best of the globe’s practices, whether legal, financial, accounting, health, urban planning, building and other standards, would better maximize Hong Kong’s future economic prospects, argues Bowring.
COnCLUSIOn
So despite the economic downturn during the last year its seems that the projects planned for maximizing the Hong Kong economy are all very promising. In fact, the unemployment rates in Hong Kong slightly decreased in August – October 2009. The government commented that the labour market will continue to improve along with the economic recovery.
Therefore it seems that Hong Kong will keep on clowing, thanks to the transport infrastructure projects, the investments adressing air pollution problems and the adoption of the optimum practices of the world to all the issues that the old tiger is facing now. •
Economic relaunch A glance on Hong Kong
Work in the city of HK
As a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China, modern-day Hong Kong continues to be ranked No.1, year after year, on the New York Times/Heritage Foundation’s ‘Index of Economic Freedom’, and the No.3 economy on the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ index for 2009. Its airport is ranked Asia’s No.1 for international traffic with the 2008 passenger throughput being sevenfold the size of the territory’s resident population of 6.9 million.
Hong Kong rigorously adopts global accounting and financial standards, strictly enforces intellectual property rights, and champions a transparent bureaucracy with its own permanent and powerful Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). Hong Kong’s ‘Basic Law’ de-facto constitution guarantees the use of English-language British-style common law adjudication until 2047. Telecommunication networks that are amongst the most globally competitive complement this softinfrastructure of professional expertise. “I can talk to my father in Sydney or my sister in London from my mobile phone any time I think of them – at call rates far lower than from back home,” says Kerry Mackenzie, an Australian who has taught English Literature at one of Hong Kong’s top high schools for the last three years. “Hong Kong is one of those places from where the rest of the world is just a local phone call away,” she adds.
OFFSHORE FInAnCIAL HUB Hong Kong continues to be Asia’s premier offshore financial centre funneling the lion’s share of global foreign
Summary of Hong Kong’s Attributes
+ Strategic business location – to China and rest of Asia
+ Low Taxation
+ World class transport and telecommunications infrastructure
+ British Common Law system
+ Transparent Government
+ Ease of starting up and doing business
+ Free Flow of Information
+ International Lifestyle
- Air quality
investment into China, and the largest gateway through which Chinese manufactured goods are re-exported for global consumption. As a hub for two-way merchandise trade, Hong Kong has long-established itself as a shoppers paradise for international tourists, and has also become the number one destination for mainland Chinese visitors seeking reliable assurance in their purchases of genuine branded luxury goods sourced from Western Europe, North America or Japan. Hong Kong’s allure for expatriates goes beyond the financial, trade or strategic business advantages of their employing firms. Its British colonial legacy also includes continued investments in roads and rail that makes every corner of urban Hong Kong very accessible by efficient public and private transport.
- High accommodation cost
- Cost of children’s education
Sean Dix, an architect who originally hailed from the United States. Quality affordable healthcare is delivered by medical and health professionals, many of whom were trained abroad in English-speaking countries.
The universal use of photo and fingerprinted identification cards in Hong Kong also has the added benefit of effective law and order maintenance and high levels of personal safety.
“If you are a resident you also have access to health care free of charge”, says
A culture mix. HK is a city where people can find all kinds of cuisine ... of course the chinase cuisine is fantastic: Where to dine: Causeway Bay Cheena - Rosedale on the Park, Cheers, Forum. Lan Kwai Fong Super Star, Yung Kee, Chilli Fagara.Tsim Sha Tsui Chuk Yuen, Peking Garden, Heichinrou. Kowloon City Regal, Kung Wo Tong, Ho Choi.
“We feel totally safe in any part of the city that we go to”, says Michela Azzolini, a native of Bologna, Italy, who has been in Hong Kong for a year. “When my teenage boys go out, I would feel far more relaxed than I would be back in Italy,” she added.
HARBOUR SIDE RECREATIOn Hong Kong’s dense commercial and residential settlements along a thin strip of shoreline on the picturesque Victoria Harbor and the Kowloon Peninsula, creates a high-rise waterfront profile which - apart from Manhattan’s - is the most globally recognized. For many expatriates, leisure can gravitate towards boating in protected waters, hiking or
FOUnDED In THE MID-19TH CEnTURY on what was described as a ‘barren rock’ at the mouth of the Pearl River Delta, the British fashioned Hong Kong as a low-tax free-trade port from where European merchants did business with Imperial Chinacycling along hundreds of kilometers of trails snaking through Hong Kong’s signature hill sides.
Apart from business opportunities, 30 years of China’s ‘open door’ policy has also expanded the leisure and recreational options for Hong Kong’s residents. The product hypermarkets, spas, leisure centres, and nightlife of adjacent Shenzhen are within easy commuter rail or bus access. The latter is the closest metropolis on the mainland with over 8 million people and a mere 30 kilometers north of Hong Kong Island. While even closer from Kowloon or the New Territories, Shenzhen even boasts a year-round covered alpine indoor ski-slope.
For leisure further afield, Macao, Asia’s Las Vegas with its 28 casinos, is within an hour’s fast-ferry ride from Hong Kong while Manila, the Philippines’ capital city, is just over an hour by air.
the finance sector who, four years ago, worked in London prior to settling in Hong Kong.
CHILDREn’S EDUCATIOn
The relative proximity of the Philippines also means that a disproportionate number of expatriate households employ full-time live-in domestic helpers to perform household chores and assist with the care of young children. Some 112,000 Filipino and up to 87,000 Indonesian female domestic helpers comprise 60 percent of Hong Kong’ non-Chinese residents and dwarf the other 14 percent that are of South/West Asian ethnicity (Indian, Nepali or Pakistani), or the 36,000 (11%) who the Government’s Census Department describes collectively as ‘White’.
With 90 percent of Hong Kong’s population speaking the Cantonese dialect of Chinese as their first language, and the use of Chinese as the principal medium of instruction in Hong Kong’s schools, expatriates may need to do some homework in planning the education of school-age children. Increasing demand for their children’s
“For weekend getaways, Bangkok, Shanghai and Beijing are within Hong Kong’s three-hour flight radius, while Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul can be reached within four hours of flying,” says Mike Smith, an equities trader in [W for expatriates: justlanded.com/english/Hong-Kong/Hong-Kong-Guide -
Board: discoverhongkong.com]
English-language proficiency from local Chinese parents has translated into highly competitive placements in the minority of elite local Government run or direct subsidy schools that use English as a medium of instruction. Another outcome are waiting lists for places in the small number of Government-subsidized English Schools Foundation (ESF) institutions that broadly uses the UK curriculum and were established to cater for Hong Kong’s non-Chinese speaking minorities. There is also a small number of fully independent but relatively high-cost private international schools that teach the International Baccalaureate and or specific home country curricula, including those for Australia, the United States, the UK, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Korea and Singapore.
HOME REnTAL AnD AIR QUALITY
The high cost of residential property, including rentals puts Hong Kong as the 5th most expensive city globally and the 3rd most expensive city in Asia in the Mercer Consulting 2009
Cost of Living Survey report. In the last year cost pressures on accommodation has abated with the general global economic downturn. However, more recent economic buoyancy on the mainland has brought in cashed-up Chinese investors bidding up the price for topend luxury apartments. Thus, accommodation allowances should be prime consideration for expatriates considering locating to Hong Kong.
Finally, Hong Kong, the Pearl River Delta, and China’s high dependence on coal to power economic hyper-growth has also raised issues of air quality affecting Hong Kong’s quality of life.
To many expatriates, however, Hong Kong’s downsides are more than made up for with its upsides.
“Working in Hong Kong is an ongoing challenge at the professional, personal and spiritual level. Living in Hong Kong means being able to see the spark, a mindset that thinks about the future and the opportunities it can offer. Essentially it is the city of opportunities.
For me, Hong Kong is my home. I do not consider myself an expatriate but an immigrant,” adds Dix.
01 Commercial area of Wan Chai.
02 Queen’s Road, the first road in Hong Kong built by the Government of Hong Kong between 1841 and 1843, spanning across Victoria City from Shek Tong Tsui to Wan Chai.
03 Chinese Junk, fishing is an important part of the history of HK that still exists despite modernity.
04-05 The busy Hennessy Road connects Yee Wo Street on the east in Causeway Bay, and Queensway on the western end in Wan Chai.The road is named after John Pope Hennessy, the Governor of Hong Kong between 1877 and 1882.
06 Temple Street known for its night market and the busiest flea market at night in the territory.
07 Ladies Market is located at Tung Choi Street between Boundary Street and Dundas Street, off the popular Nathan Road in Mongkok.
08 View from the Peak Tower. Perching on The Peak at 396 metres above sea level, it is one of the most stylish architectural icons in Hong Kong. With an avant-garde design representing the epitome of modern architecture.
09 Man Mo Temple is a very traditional temple situated at the corner of Hollywood Road and Ladder Street on Hong Kong Island. The Temple is dedicated to two deities; the Military deity, (the god of war) and the Civil deity (a 3rd century BC statesman).
10 One of the many antiques shops located in Chater Rd, Hollywood Rd and Canton Rd in Central HK. Where it is possible to find a wide range of antiques from ancient chinese paintings or sculptures in jade or ivory to watches or hats with the effigy of Mao Tse Tung.
11 The peak tram to Victoria Peak, Hong Kong’s number one tourist attraction. Opened in 1888 for the exclusive use of the British Governor and Peak residents, this historic service remains to this day as the steepest funicular railway in the world.
12 One of the thousand street restaurants in HK where food is pretty nice and the price is reasonable.
WORKInG SUCCESS in Hong Kong is not only a matter of financial issues; but there is also an emphasis on family and generational continuity as an expression of success. Moreover, not to be outdated by the never sleeping Hong Kong, success comes along with being switched on, full of energy and motivated at all times.
Successful companies in HK
BOYDEn
Continued changes in recruitment trends in Asia
Demand for executive skills will continue gravitating towards talented locals who have educational and career exposure abroad, and a good command of English and (Mandarin) Chinese.
“While business success in Hong Kong, like most other places, is defined by the financial bottom line, there is also an emphasis here on family and generational continuity as an expression of that success,” outlined Brian Renwick, Hong Kong Managing Partner of the global executive search firm Boyden.
And how has the recent economic downturn impacted on the nature of recruitment in Greater China in general, and Hong Kong in particular? According to Renwick, who has practiced HR at the most senior levels in Hong Kong for the past two and a half decades, new recruitment is clearly down though not as adversely affected as other business locations across Europe and North America.
“Emerging family-owned businesses wanting to further standardise their HR processes, combined with our HR consulting capability has enabled Boyden to ride out the downturn, particularly in executive search, during the last year,” he added. Within Hong Kong, moreover, the anticipated start of the Government’s key-transport cross-border rail and road infrastructure investments by 2010 is expected to generate demand for professionals in engineering project related fields.
With signs of economic recovery, Renwick sees the continuation of a recruitment trend that has long been
underway in Asia during the last decade amongst multinationals.
“Unless you have a direct cross-posting from another part of the same company at the most senior level, the days of the pampered Western expatriate are long gone,” says Renwick.
“For instance, with the economic rebound in China, demand for executive skills among multinational companies have and will gravitate towards talented Chinese mainlanders, experienced Mandarin-speaking Hong Kongers, Singaporeans or Malaysians who have educational and career exposure abroad, and a good command of English,” he concludes.
01 Terracotta Army, Xian, China
02 HK garden
03 HK noonday Gun
04 Conrad Hotel Brasserie
05 External of Conrad Hotel
06 Giovanni Viterale, Resident Manager of Conrad Hotel
07 to 09 Ferrero advertising for Asia 02
COnRAD HOTELS
Consistently high standards with a personalised touch
“
To be successful in Hong Kong you have to be switched on, full of energy, and motivated. Hong Kong is a place that never sleeps, a place that keeps moving forward and when you stop, Hong Kong can be overwhelming. It is not a place that dwells on the past, but one that always looks to the future. It is a place where the only limits are your ambitions and ability,” says Giovanni Viterale, Resident Manager of the Conrad Hotel in Hong Kong.
The luxury Conrad brand of the global Hilton hotel chain differentiates itself on quality of service, where clients are greeted with the highest of professional standards, but with a personalised touch. This, according to Viterale, requires a consistency of service that can only be delivered by personnel who are long-term, are loyal to the brand, and have the aptitude for anticipating and fulfilling the needs of the Conrad Hotel’s return and regular guests.
“When we recruit, we go to great lengths to find people with the right attitude, an open mind and willing-
ness to learn new skills, and the drive to take on different responsibilities. Management’s job, including those of our HR Department, is to give them the training and the tools to excel and extend that already innate passion for service,” adds Viterale.
The result of this culture of excellence is the lowest staff turnover of any hotel in Hong Kong, and during the inevitable economic cycles, there is little impact on staff numbers or tends in recruitment.
“When there is a downturn in guest numbers, we look after our staff and prepare them for more responsibilities into the future. In turn, they look after the hotel when we are very busy and will go that extra distance to make sure that new guests return and become regular patrons,” he adds.
FERRERO
Iron determination to protect its intellectual property
The protection of intellectual property, meticulous management of the brand and employee commitment for
the long-term are key elements to Ferrero’s continued marketing into Asia. Organically growing the company, cultivating a corporate culture that emphasises product excellence, innovation and freshness, and investment in R&D are key elements to business success for Ferrero, the Italian manufacturer of chocolate and other confectionary products. Listed in 2009 by the Reputation Institute as the world’s most reputable company, Sergio Boscarol, Regional Human Resources Manager of Ferrero Asia Limited in Hong Kong, proudly points out that unlike its competitors, the Torinoheadquartered company has grown to its current size without having to undertake acquisitions or merge with competitors.
“Any professional joining us would do so knowing that he or she is joining a multinational with a very distinctive business approach and company culture. When I hire, I always take great care in explaining that being part of Ferrero should be a long-term choice. Making each and every Ferrero employee proud to work for the company, is our best assurance of future success”, adds Boscarol.
Ferrero does not manufacture in Asia and does not plan to do so, as it continues to protect its intellectual property with iron determination. The careful management of its brand together with a lead in product innovation over its competitors are key elements to Ferrero’s continued marketing into Asia. Nonetheless, Boscarol notes that Ferrero’s recruitment priorities in Asia will be no different than those of its European base.
“We look for people who can function and contribute in a product and people-oriented company as opposed to a process-oriented, organisation-driven one. Ferrero is all about the management of a small number of high-quality brands which we constantly seek to fine-tune and improve. We look for people who are able to think relentlessly on how to do things better, and by extension better than our competitors,” concludes Boscarol.
LAn KWAI FOnG GROUP
Fun, identification with the client and a strong creative mindset
The Lan Kwai Fong brand attracts those who have a creative and entrepreneurial mindset, and who are able to celebrate adventure and fun in life.
Country guide Hong Kong
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12
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10 Uhi Hui, founder & Ceo of PR People Consultancy
11 Ferragamo shop in Central, HK
12 Alessandro Paparelli, Regional Human Resources Director Asia/Pacific for Salvatore Ferragamo
13 Cheongsha Waterfront Masterplan
14 International Exhibition & Convention Centre, Shijiazhuang
15 Coastal City Shopping Centre, Shenzen
16 Stephen Jones, Asia Regional Managing Principal, for studio Woods Bagot
“
To be successful in Hong Kong often simply means financial performance, but in our company we strive for something else – Fun. In all facets, from restaurants and bars, to luxury tropical residences and commercial developments, we look at what our customers want, and deliver the best and most fun experience possible through our creativity and innovation.” This is the view of Terrence Loo, Director, Marketing and Sales of the Lan Kwai Fong Group, a Hong-Kong based company which was founded by prominent Canadian-German, and now naturalised Chinese citizen, Allan Zeman. Lan Kwai Fong clusters a diverse range of bars, restaurants and other entertainment venues to fashion what is arguably one of Asia’s most enticing night-life districts within the heart of Central, Hong Kong.
With the group expanding to re-create its magic on mainland China, including its new flagship project in the central-west mega-city of Chengdu, the philosophy behind Lan Kwai Fong’s success remains unchanged. Loo notes that when it comes to HR, the company seeks out people who embody the fun and pizza that Lan Kwai Fong’s diverse patrons, whether overseas visitors, the city’s expatriate community,
mainland Chinese tourists or local Hong Kongers, want to be a part of. “We look for staff-members who have the same social frame of mind as our clients,” he emphasises. Another key factor underpinning LKF’s success is the active Lan Kwai Fong Association, which empowers the area’s diverse business and community stakeholders to cooperate in creating a year-round party atmosphere through key calendar events which are jointly organised, marketed, managed and sponsored.
“Whether in Hong Kong or the mainland, the Lan Kwai Fong brand attracts those who have a creative and entrepreneurial mindset, forever on the lookout for the unique experiences that the wider world has to offer. Equally important is the brand’s respect for, and celebration of, those cultural elements that are uniquely local,” adds Loo.
PR PEOPLE COnSULTAnCY
Flexibility and openness to address the changes in the world.
The industry of public relations is increasingly in need of versatile and talented profiles with the ability to prepare and present strategies at an optimum level. Being able to keep pace with the constantly changing environment is the key to succes in Hong Kong, where the east meets the west.
“It requires an open-mind with strong passion and commitment to clients and a capacity to empower quality staff in public relations consultancy” says Uhi Hui, founder and CEO of PR People Consultancy.
To grow in the field of PR, managers must pay particular attention to the following points:
• Believe in and focus on people’s potential
• Train up leaders who can inspire and lead
• Motivate and nurture the team
• Create a good working environment
• Grow/train/support the team
“PR is a people-oriented industry, in which the costs and risks are mostly related to people, and networking is an important part of the strategy to build awareness”, adds Uhi Hui. Furthermore she states, “We saw an opportunity in this crisis”. Indeed, there is an increasing number of foreign companies that need PR consultancy while penetrating into the China market. Moreover, there is an increasing demand for PR of also major Chinese companies that are all of a sudden in need of understanding and investing into the domestic and foreign markets.
SALVATORE FERRAGAMO
Impeccable levels of service
Ferragamo seeks people who have a broad cross-functional understanding of the retail business, who bring added-value at every business phase and who deliver impeccable levels of service.
Through its Hong Kong regional headquarters which manages distribution and retail across Asia and Oceania outside of Japan, the Florence-headquartered Salvatore Ferragamo is the world’s third largest luxury goods company. It plans to continue its expansion into Asia where, in China alone, eight new stores will open next year.
“Ferragamo still prides itself in being a brand entirely designed and produced in Italy, but this doesn’t mean that creativity is confined to a few offices and artisan labs in Tuscany. A global luxury brand can succeed only if creativity extends from its design and production process and becomes part of its management culture, at every functional level and geographical location,” says Alessandro Paparelli Regional Human Resources Director Asia/Pacific.
“
This means that Ferragamo’s Asian teams are no exception whether they market in Taipei or look after customers in our Mumbai store. We count on their creativity in maintaining our brand’s reputation and delivering a memorable service to our customers,” he notes.
In the immediately foreseeable future, Paparelli notes that both luxury and non-luxury US retailers will be planning their entrance and presence in Asia to compensate for shrinking domestic markets while many (European) luxury brands are back with even more new store openings.
“The talents that we want to bring aboard in Asia are those people who have a broad cross-functional understanding of the retail business, an obsession for bringing added-value in every phase of the business, and a focus on maintaining impeccable levels of service,” Paparelli adds.
Realism and extolling of sustainability
Hong Kong has culture of entrepreneurialism and a maturing business realism that is moving away from the celebration of excess towards the extolling of sustainability.
“Hong Kong is an extremely dynamic hub that efficiently connects people, services and products to the rest of Asia, and business success can also be measured in terms of reach into this region of immense opportunities,” says Stephen Jones, the Hong-Kong based Asia Regional Managing Principal for global design studio Woods Bagot.
“Hong Kong also has a culture of entrepreneurialism and a ‘can do’ attitude that propels the ambitious in ways I have not seen anywhere else. There is no ‘tall poppy’ syndrome here and Hong Kong celebrates its success stories,” he adds.
Hong Kong has a diverse cosmopolitan professional community of skills and experiences from around the globe that supports cross-cultural, social and generational cooperation in daily life and in business. With 15 years of professional experience in Asia, Australia, the Middle East and Europe, Jones also observes that for some, Hong Kong has a social mi-
lieu where the balancing of business, friends, family, and self can be quite demanding.
So how is Hong Kong as a professional service hub faring in the midst of the current economic downturn?
According to Jones, while architecture and design has been impacted along with the rest of the economy, confidence is certainly returning with clear signs that China has rebounded back into healthy economic growth. And how, might this regained momentum be reflected in architecture and design as a profession in Hong Kong and Greater China?
“
For a city such as Hong Kong where image is so important, the jolt to business and professional confidence also brought with it a maturing business realism that is moving away from the celebration of excess towards the extolling of sustainability, ” reflects Jones.
“
The market in Asia is on the lookout for new ideas in energy-saving and other means to lessen our collective impact on the environment. Businesses that have these goals as central to their drive to innovate will be the new rising stars of the region, ” he concludes.
[W boyden.com conradhotels1.hilton.com ferragamo.com ferrero.it lkfe.com pr-people.com woodsbagot.com]
A glance on the city City for people
By FILIPPO DE BORTOLI
A PRIzEFOR MERIT still not have been realized, may be it is only a wish, a hope, an act of trust. Regarding this, we could summarize the decision to award the Nobel Prize to the President of United States, Barack Obama as one of the most discussed issues for the last part of 2009
Medium size is better
Not to make any judgements on the subject, but there is one fact that appears from this situation: the power attributes to the free will of individuals, yet much better if it is supported by the diplomatic, economic and military powers of an empire as it is the case in the United States. People are the actual starting point of the change which Thomas Friedman names as “globalization 3.0.”
During the first two stages of globalization the states, the government and therefore the multinational companies were protagonists of the change that our world has been going through. A world that by now is flat (referring to the expression of Friedman). “The playing field is being leveled” stated Nandan Nilekani in 2004, who is the CEO of Infosys, one of the most important centers of production and management of ICT services with a headquarter in Bangalore. Such companies together with a university system based on meritocracy and financed by those companies, have made India – or it is better to say some cities of India- the leader in services of digitalized work flow, which is an outsource for Europe and the United States. What the Us is for Obama the texture of a city is for each person with a good will and awareness of their skills. However, compared to World Cities that are already widely well known and are explored destinations of personal and professional course, more occasions come from the cities that are turmoil, “medium size cities” in terms of both economics and urban. Cities where usually top level progress and contradiction stand together, get animated by a dynamic development. Developing cities of developing states: is a common case seen in the world today.
The more interesting fact is that Parag Khanna (pag 31), who describes the portion of the World, examinates the “Second World” as standing in between the first and the third worlds. 30 states are identified by OCSE as “First World” and the 48 states catalogued as less developed countries by the World Bank are identified as “the third- or even the fourth.” “At least hundred nations - and the major of the worldwide population - is in the middle of this two categories, without a certain prospective for the future” as explained by Khanna in his book “The Second World. Empires and Influence in the New Global Order.” There will not be a decrease in development of the “second world” and in fact it is growing and currently include almost all the emerging markets”. From Chile to Malaysia, Egypt to Georgia, Maghreb to Venezuela, this nation spin around “attraction spots” established from capitals or from other big cities. These are spots that are worthy a simple but effective principle: “it’s more rewarding being a bigger fish in a smaller pond”. This principle is the one that the cities of the first world have benefited from.
01 Barcelona, Foundation Tapis ©Spanish tourism Office
02 Barcelona, Stadium Olimpico ©Spanish tourism Office
03 Terrace in Barcelona, ©Spanish tourism Office [W cushwake.com fifa.com infosys.com maktoob.com psut.edu.jo spanair.com weforum.org]
BARCELOnA
Barcelona is a sensational and paradigmatic example, as it lost its role as the fabric producer in the Spanish and the European markets, yet during the last twenty years the capital of Catalunya has reinvented itself becoming the cradle of Spanish fashion. Desigual, Mango, Custo Barcelona, have been found here, the launch pad for knowing itself in the world, starting from a city that wasn’t among “milieu” world of preta-porter and without putting in competition against Milan, Paris or New York. Innovative ability to experiment new forms, intelligence developement and government support for young talents, make the right ingredients to position a
04 Tokyo, a view of the city with the Tower ©Japan Convention Services, Inc./
© JNTO
05 London, 2012 olympic-village
06 Madrid Panederia House, Plaza Mayor
©Spanish tourism Office
07 Cyclists in the Argus Cycle Race near Cape Town © South African Tourism
brand at an international level. And now there is the power to launch a new sector fair (The Brandery) that is a personal challenge for the mayor Jordi Hereu, who aims to make it “a point of reference for the international commerce in the modern fashion sector”. The development of Barcelona is proved also by some other big and small signals: from the recovery of SpanAir with 24 global destinations, to the daily choice of cleaning the sidewalks of the chewin gums, from the discussions about the “Corrida” to the debate about the mantenance of deep historical roots in a country full of contradictions vividly “painted” by Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett, author of the famous detective novel series which take place in the streets of Barcelona.
AMMAn
Pointed towards the future is the road of Amman, that it is proposing itself as an area of reference for the “connectivity” and ICT. In 1999 started the investe-
Starting with a Turin Guide, twsm readers will enjoy an insert of “middle sized city” guides with every issue from now on. The guide will cover detailed information on various topics about the cities such as; architecture, public transportation, shopping, education, hospitals, cost of living, taxes, cost of house rentals, foreign presence, restaurants, night life, culture events, museums and so on. It will be a manual for both visitors and foreign habitants and perhaps an introductary on small sized cities boosting them to come into prominence.
ment that in 10 years has carried on Giordania at a connectivity rate of 26%, the highest of the region. Money invested in universities (for example the Princess Sumaya University of Technology) and incubators of start up, has made the panorama so attractive that Yahoo this summer took over maktoob.com, the biggest community online of Arabian language, with his headquarter in Amman. And regarding connectivity, for the last year Amman has been giving hospitality to the edition of the World Economic Forum dedicated to the Middle East Countries.
CAPE TOWn AnD RIO DE JAnEIROOn different fronts, there are two other player cities in the game: Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro. What they have in common is that both of them are chosen as sites for important international appointments: Cape Town for the World Football Cup 2010 and Rio de Janeiro for the Olympic Games 2016 (pag 46).
Both of the cities believe in the entertaiment economy, in tourism and so in the different factors that charactherize them: art, culture, music, sports, food, and spare time activities.
BERLIn
It is the “soft power” for a metropolis already developed but is still continuing to grow as Berlin, who took advantage of the World Football Cup 2006 for promoting the “brand Germany”. Taking the Berlin case as an example, Cape Town is working on taking advantage of the World Football Cup 2010 to fuel South African economy and push back the economic crisis. “The impetus of expenditure and investment in infrastructure for 2010 – points out Cape Town Executive Mayor, Dan Plato- could not have come at a better time to counteract the effects of the economic slump. While not every individual or suburb of Cape Town will benefit directly from the World Cup, improved facilities, services and infrastructure will benefit all indirectly”. The quality of life is one of the most important points that the cities are developing. That will come along with the connectivity and the digitalization of the country, the services related to art, culture, restaurant industry and tourism, the incidence of the livable factors of a city which are among the most important factors to increase the urban economy – which also means the opportunities of work.
The best cities in which to locate a business today
by Elaine Rossal, Associate European Research Group of Cushman & Wakefield.
As companies continue to consolidate and restructure their operations, being in the most efficient location can have an overriding impact on the immediate success of their business in achieving its business objectives. Whilst it is difficult to make generalizations as to where the optimum business locations across Europe currently are, Cushman & Wakefield undertake an annual survey of Europe’s major business cities, European Cities Monitor, that is conducted since 1990. The survey ranks 34 of Europe’s largest cities against a number of criterias considered best for business and includes an overall ranking of which city is the best overall business city. The interviewees are Senior Managers or Board Directors, with responsibility for location. All interviews are conducted by telephone usually in June/July by mother tongue interviewers. From this research Cushman & Wakefield produces the overall ranking of which city is considered by the sample to be the ‘best city in which to locate a business today’. The survey highlights the fact that there are a number of key location factors that make a city a great business location and human resources issues are critical to any business success. The workforce is the main investment and the cities that are perceived as having the best qualified staff are able to attract headquarter functions of larger corporates and usually have a successful track record of attracting multi-national corporations. This can help increase the reputation of a city and can encourage a transfer of workers and attract further talent. Costs associated with wages and benefits are important decision criterias for most industries and despite EU convergence of the cost of labour
08 London, Acquatica centre after Olympic Games 2012
09 Berlin, ICE 1 (InterCity Express) and the Trias building © Lehnartz GbR Lehnartz, Klaus und Dirk
10 Barcelona, Contemporary Museum ©Spanish tourism Office
11 Madrid, a train in the station ©Spanish tourism Office
12 Amman
13 Berlin, Hackesche Hˆfe complex ©Kiedrowski, Rainer
14 Berlin, Potsdamer Platz ©Santoni Gianluca (Owner: Deutsche Zentrale f¸r Tourismus e.V.)
15 Cape Town, Waterfront ©South African Tourism
16 Berlin, main station and river Spree ©Keute Jochen
17 Madrid, El Escorial ©Spanish tourism Office
still varies considerably in member countries, and variations in compulsory social security contributions can make the differentiation more marked. Labour costs are determined by a number of factors, including the demand and supply of labour, flexibility of the labour market, the cost and standards of living in a city, benefits and taxation. In a globalised world, language competences increasingly become the competitive edge of companies, of individuals and of local entities. When asked to comment upon languages spoken in the European Cities Monitor, the assessment does not reflect just the learning of languages, but the ability of the working population to speak a variety of languages well. Those cities that are perceived to provide a multilingual workforce offer a mix of mother tongue speakers and those who speak the native language fluently as a second language.
The top 3 cities in the European Cities Monitor have consistently been London, Paris and Frankfurt but below this top three, a number of cities have seen a gradual improvement in particular Barcelona, Madrid, Munich and Berlin. The survey highlights the fact that there is a wide spread of cities that perform well on specific location factors and these cities are increasingly in competition with each other to attract inward investment and to carve out a reputation for specific business types
The full report and podcast can be downloaded at: europeancitiesmonitor.eu
Events Create new jobs
By LUCA BRUNONI
Olympics, work in progress
The president Lula celebrated Rio’s victory over American (Chicago), Spanish (Madrid) and Japanese (Tokyo), “rivals”, insisting that it was time for new continents to host the Games, and labelling the opportunity as an “unparalleled” one for his country.
Lula’s joy and expectations are not misplaced: besides casting one of the
pics, “and employment can rapidly be positively affected.”
After the election day’s celebrations are over, the hosting region has a time lapse of seven years in order to realize all necessary infrastructures and installations. This includes the renewal or building from scratch of the sport venues, the setting up of a transport system which will be
The Brazilians will certainly have to take this large-scale renovation process to the highest level. According to Adriano Pires , director of the Rio-based Brazilian Infrastructure Center, “Rio de Janeiro needs to dramatically improve its infrastructure for an event of this magnitude. You name it - public transportation, subway, water and sewer, electricity.”
world’s brightest spotlights on the host region, the mega-event triggers enormous investments which studies have determined as being “the equivalent of a sweeping economic stimulation program which affects all sectors of the economy before, during and after the games.” (From Voillat/ Stritt, Short-Term Effects of a Mega Sport Event: The Case of Sion 2006, in The Economic Impact of Sport Events, Neuchâtel 1999, p. 63.)
“The economical impact of the Games is undeniable” says Denis Oswald , chairperson of the IOC’s (International Olympic Committee) Coordination Commission for the 2012 Summer Olym-
able to respond to the tremendous solicitation occasioned by the event, as well as creating a full functional Olympic Village capable of accommodating more than 15,000 people. Job creation is a direct consequence of those investments. England’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown , while visiting the Olympic Park in East London, proclaimed that not less than 30,000 people will have worked there before the flaming torch arrives in the capital, and recognized the Games as being a significant “job creator and growth generator.”
In this sense, the Games also constitute an exquisitely unique opportunity for a region to realize ambitious – and otherwise unthinkable – projects of rehabilitation and urbanization. One can witness the power of the event as an agent of material change, for example, by strolling on Barcelona’s seaside in the “Puerto Olympic” area, which owes its splendour to the 1992 Summer Games. London’s East End is currently undergoing a similar mammoth lifting procedure – an astonishingly ambitious project boasting a brand new public transports net
COnFESSIOnOF A
WInnER “I confess to you if I die right now my life would have been worth it” said Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula after the proclamation of Rio de Janeiro as the city of choice for the2016 Summer Olympics. Rio de Janeiro Lagoon surraunding-football square Sweetmeat booth handicraft fair Leisure at the beach
London Olympics spot icons
which promises to breath life into a long-time struggling and partly decaying area.
In addition to the massive building and renovating, the host region must also actively pursue several other objectives, such as environmental issues and safety.
As whole parts of the city literally mutate while preparing for the arriv-
referees, judges, members of the press and medias, etc. And that, of course, is without counting the visitors.” Facing this invasion, the city’s transport system, hotels, restaurants, shops, medias, and press will have to function at full regime and will have a heightened need for skilled workforce. The employment effect of the event does not dissolve once
liament and Minister for the Olympics, declared “as a direct result of the London 2012 Games the Olympic Park site has the potential to deliver 9,000-10,000 permanent jobs.”
A survey connected to Sion’s (Switzerland) candidature for the 2006 Winter Olympics concluded that the event could generate a yearly 2% increment of the region’s total
When? Before During Event After
• Main sectors concerned
• Conception/Planning • Construction • Rehabilitation • Organising Committee (600 employees for London 2012, 3000 for Athens 2004)
• Service Industry • Restoration and catering • Transports • Tourism • Retail trade • Media & Press Security
• Employment in all new/enlarged businesses and infrastructures, public and private • Employment generated by “Soft Legacy”: ex environment, maintenance, etc.
al of the games, many private businesses are incited to indulge in similar investments – hotels, restaurants and shops are renewed, new ones see the light of day, others yet may need to hire additional personnel in order to be able to handle the enormous Olympic crowd.
In fact, after all the handwork is done and the medals start shining, the need for personnel shifts towards the services sector. “During the Games” says Oswald, “cities must be ready to accommodate, nourish and move around up to 500,000 people between athletes, their entourage,
the curtain is drawn – several of the jobs created are permanent and remain as part of the “legacy” that the ever-popular games are known to consign forever to the hosting city. “Considering all sectors confused” says Oswald, “the percentage of permanent jobs over those which have been generated could be as high as 15-20%.”
It is certainly true, for example, that the new installations and infrastructures – public as well as private – will need full-time personnel to keep them functioning. Tessa Jowell , Member of the British Par-
employment (Ibidem, p. 74.). The official website of Beijing 2008 flaunts that “Cumulatively, the Games will have resulted in the creation of 1.8 million new jobs across all sectors.” (http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/official/ ioc/n214536689.shtml) Although these last figures have to be taken with a pinch of salt, they constitute yet another indicator which reinforces the Olympic Games’ well-earned status of important economical stimulator which affects all sectors, employment included.
No wonder Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid are still crying bitter tears.
Jagger, sectionals seating system with backrests and armrests in different heights design: Rodolfo Dordoni
Minotti S.p.A. 20036 MEDA (MI) ITALIA via Indipendenza, 152 Tel. +39 0362 343499 www.minotti.com - info@minotti.it
By GIORGIO TEDESCHI
DURInG HARD TIMES leadership is the glue that holds a company together. With the start of the economic downturn in 2008, leadership came into an even greater value and making adjustments to the leadership traits is now an integral part of the plan.
Leader rational
Andrei Tarnea (Executive Director of Aspen Institute Romania) indicates, “If there will be a lasting effect of the crisis, that could be the type of leader that people will look for guidance and will follow.”
For today’s leaders, surviving during the crisis necessiates more than cutting costs. Sylvain Breuzard (CEO of Norsys Groupe France) defines the crisis as “A sudden revelation of the weakness of a company which is to succeed during hard times and high competition” . Furthermore he adds, “…it is from that vision that we decided to strengthen our core principles of management. Meeting the benefits of customers continue to be an emphasis on consistency of employee skills, rather than a focus on turnover costs: All budgets that directly affect the employees were retained, for example 84% of employees have received training of 5 days on average, and 8 friendly events have been proposed.”
Arya Anupuma (Managing Director of Mobera Systems Pvt. India) makes a clear distinction between an ideal leader and an incompetent one, “Leadership that promotes short term incentives for top line growth without showing due respect to the well-being and interests of shareholders or of the institiution is simply not acceptable…There is a need for governance that balances the appetite for growth and the risk taking abilities of the organization and that matches clear and quick understanding of macro-level economic events with the speed and quality of decision making.”
Both Claire Sillam (HRD at Coca-Cola France) and Mr. Breuzard agree that strenghtening the internal communication, being clear about the challenges that the company is currently facing, in other words, transparency of the leader are key factors during crisis. Right along
with these, the new leader has to develop solutions for survival with flexibility, and involve employees in the process by asking them to submit ideas which would encourage them to become a part of the solution. To be an enthusiastic leader, who is optimistic in solving problems, is crucial to keep the talents and the right skills within the company, and to build trust.
Ms. Sillam describes the ideal leader of the time as, “A good leader should drive the organization by taking thoughtful decisions and at the same time by reducing time frames to gain agility to survive and to face competition. He should adjust the business priorities with a high sense of strategy and a visionary focus on the competitive environment.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Tarnea highlights some other competence areas for today’s leaders, and he indicates that a track record of credibility and high moral grounds, the responsibility of the corporate sector, the quality of the overal international financial regulations and the transparency of the way businesses and governments work together are very important elements for today’s leaders’ guidebook. He also indicates that, given the significant impact that the current economic crisis had on the general way organizations interact with the government, a real connection between the two is seen for the first time. And what is required from them is that business leaders become more ethical and governments become more interested and competent in business and economy. So we can say that after a long lasting cycle of growth that now has been lost, the crisis actually brought people down to earth from the belief that the governments and the organizations are eventually not connected. In fact, he adds, “the
HE CHECKLIST OF TODAY’S LEADERS
1 Strengthen core principles of management and internal communication
2 Respect the well-being and interests of the institution and the shareholders
3 Emphasize on consistency of employee skills
4 Have clear and quick understanding of macro-level economic events
5 Have speed and quality in decision making
6 Be flexible, transparent and ethical
7 Involve employees in the process: encourage them to be part of the solution
8 Be positive in face in solving problems
9 Reduce time frames to gain agility to survive
10 Have a track record of credibility and high moral grounds
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By ROBERT LEVERING and PALLE EDELMANN
Take benefit out of the crisis
The global economic crisis has hit practically all companies – some way or the other. This dramatic change in the market conditions and in particular the paralysis of the financial market has led to a situation, where most companies have been forced to take a deep look inward and adjust the organization for survival.
This reality of life has also hit those companies we know as the Best Workplaces – customer demand has changed, the credit markets have frozen and assets have evaporated from one day to the other. What’s notable, however, is how some of these companies have responded to this crisis.
Worthington Cylinders is one of the Best Workplaces in Austria. The company produces high pressure steel cylinders. By the beginning of 2009 orders had dropped by 70% and the production practically stopped. There was no doubt that in order to survive the company would have to downsize – lay off people. When the management of the company realized that there were no other options than layoffs, they made themselves a challenge: they wanted to carry out the downsizing process and improve the survey scores in the Trust Index© (the employee survey).
Worthington Cylinders was forced to lay off 15% of the employees, but did so in a very transparent and collaborative process. After this process, an employee survey was carried out and the company had indeed improved the results – the employees respond-
ed even more positively to the survey than earlier, where it was already recognized as one of the Best Workplaces in Austria!
The Bolivian branch of the global courier DHL also faced a significantly slowdown in the market and the management asked the employees to help them cut costs by 10%, so that layoffs could be avoided. The initiative was launched as a competition with a positive tone and the employees came back with suggestions that altogether represented a 30% reduction of costs! DHL Bolivia was recognized as the second Best Workplace in Latin America in 2009.
These stories are just a few examples of how the Best Workplaces have responded to the global economic crisis. Yes, downsizing and cutting costs are sometimes necessary, but great workplaces tend to see and take advantage of the opportunity to build stronger cultures in difficult times. It takes courageous leaders, a positive attitude and collaboration across the entire organization to come out stronger in the other end. It is easy to throw a party and pay out extra bonuses, when things go well, but real leaders and strong corporate cultures are shaped or strengthened by adversity.
History will tell us, if the Best Workplaces also through this crisis will outperform the market as they have done consistently for the past ten years. But I will bet that Worthington Cylinders and DHL Bolivia will be doing better than before the crisis.
illusion that business can continue to grow whatever governments do is gone and this will increase the stability based on a growth-based model- this is challenged by a return to value-based leadership replacing to a certain extent performance based one.” The time of crisis might be considered as a period when we slow down to take a deeper look at our organizations and figure out which parts of the puzzle we have been missing so far Ms. Anupama implies, “The crisis is an opportunity for all enterprises and institutions to take stock of their true ability to lead in such circumstances, to understand what they value as core business, and to validate if their partnerships and execution frameworks are in alignment with the core.”
When the world is experiencing such a sudden maneuver, it is in the leaders’ hands to make a smooth transition with as less damages as possible for their organizations. This is a battle in which the most effective counterblast is having the guidance of a great leader who is able to build contingency plans, who has the ability to develop a global vision for risks, who keeps cool in ambiquity and taps into the opportunities that come with the downturn, who understands, assesses and builds the capacity of his team, and meanwhile who builds an absolute trust within the organization. The new leader is the one to hold everybody together even at hardest times, and blaze the path to success for his team.
Fringe benefit originates in the 70´s, when American multinational companies started off the relocations of their managers within different countries.
Firms used to adopt this system to make their managers´ stay through money incentives. It is about small incentives that on the one hand make employees´ lives easier and on the other hand provide huge advantages to the company; indeed workers become more productive and committed to their company. But what are the benefits about? They are forms of “natural“ payments that come in addition to the primary payments distributed in terms of money. They consist of
goods and services that workers can use free of charge and for this they represent more favorable conditions regarding who he addresses at the market in order to acquire them. Not to forget that these compensations in nature are quantified according to the normal value as from art. the 9 of the Dpr. N. 917/86. However the legislator has introduced specific rules of determination of the value about the business cars, the loans in money, the manufactured ones granted
leasehold, use and services of rail shipment. But especially the “fringe benefits” represent something much less variable than the stock and price is more attractive in terms of taxation. The simplicity to understand them is precisely the main focus of these tax incentives. But this gift from heaven is about to end! This castle has crumbled to the ground and all around the world everyone has realized that the time to change the rules of the game has come. From Pittsburgh, Pennsylva-
By,nia, indeed news came about the executives bonuses: world leaders meeting at the G20 have charted a new cardinal principle under which the bank bosses should be targeted to long-term achievements, and on the short term results. The development of the economic system in the United States in recent decades was based on the system of “pay for performance”. In other words, the manager receive a low wage but with additional incentives based on the results achieved. The
Angela Russo, lawyer in Rome, Italy
By MATTHEW SEMINARA
The bonus termination
Goldman Sachs, a Wall Street giant, may end up paying more than $20 billion in bonuses to its top financial employees in 2009, less than a year after U.S. taxpayer dollars helped the company return to financial stability. Financial companies in 2008, which many perceive as the year of the greatest financial shock since the Great Depression, saw bonuses at an estimated $18.4 billion. Sadly, fiscal irresponsibility is rearing its ugly head, yet again. As Federal Appeals Court Judge Richard Posner stated in 2008, “executive pay is out of control and the marketplace cannot be trusted to rein it in.” Thus, in minor and brief peroration, it is essential that the U.S. government, banks, financial firms, lawyers, and international community pay close attention to the old “business as usual,” “too big to fail” mentality that has plagued the financial marketplace for far too long. First, the Obama administration must stay true to its word and seek to halt any bonuses that defy rationality. Hopefully, AIG will remain the exception to this principle and the administration will not be too quick to admit that it could not stop another
standards come always from the United States, where development of the economy has been based on the system of “pay for performance”. In simple terms, the manager is paid a small fixed wage but that also varies according to the results: and consistent with this approach, the tax penalizes the fixed salaries over a million dollars, making them non-deductible for businesses, and promotes the incentives variables (bonus money from the stock options). This mechanism favoringshort-term results to the detriment of capital strength has led to distortions in both the banking sector and in the life of companies. Even with some caution, it is the companies themselves that make the changes.
An indicative research on a group of 30 something companies including Benetton, Enel, Eni, Ferrero, Fiat, Generali, Mediaset, Mediobanca, Unicredit and the result? 60% of companies have decided to change the way their bosses are rewarded.
The first results will be seen over
the course of the next meetings. If Alessando Profumo will not be able to secure any incentive, against the 5 million he got last year, over the next year many other Profumos will join in. Companies are going to become stricter than they have been in the past, not only because the results have not hit the targets, but also because the public opinion, investors and politicians alike will not accept that manager who have failed to perform can possibly be rewarded with high bonuses.
•
probably should not be receiving a bonus that exceeds the gross national product of many third world nations. Excuse me for being cynical. With staggering losses, a multi-billion dollar bailout, and so many jobs and pensions completely lost, the time for corporate accountability and fiscal responsibility has never been greater. The global marketplace will certainly be watching and hoping with bated breath that U.S. taxpayer money isn’t just wasted away yet again, and that for once corporate responsibility on Wall Street reigns true. After all, bonuses are meant to reward success and profitability.
How do they think the system can be changed?
t ws m — #2.09
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a film directed by Peter Weir in 2003 and starring Russell Crowe as Captain Jack Aubrey. It takes place in 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars, a time when Europe has fallen to Napoleon, and only the Royal Navy stands in his way to victory. It is the story of a British frigate, HMS Surprise,
and a much larger French warship, the Acheron, stalking each other off of the coast of South America. Captain Jack Aubrey, ‘Lucky Jack’ as his crew referres to him, is well regarded by his men, who trust him implicitly, despite his first devastating battle and his personal vendetta against the French captain. The director builds the story
in a way that we get to know the men locked aboard a small ship and how they interact with each other everyday. The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, and won in two categories, Best Cinematography and Sound Effects Editing. It is also notable for being on the list of most expensive films of all times.
01 - 04 Master and CommanderMaster and commander
Little wonder, then, that former military officers are among the most sought-after candidates for managerial positions around the world.
Orion International, America’s largest placement firm for former officers looking to build a second career in business, said major Fortune 500 companies are beginning to put military men at the top of the hiring roster.
“Orion has seen over a 50 percent increase in company hiring of military officers over last year,” stated Orion Vice President of Sales Tim Isacco “We see companies complementing their leadership development programmes by hiring exiting military personnel as future leaders for their organization. We have noticed a greater demand and increased participation in our hiring events because of the skill sets that military officers and enlisted technicians bring to companies´ workforces.”
Last year Ulrich Zwygart , 54, became the poster boy of soldiersturned-suits when the Swiss general was signed up by Deutsche Bank - Germany’s biggest – to head up a department in London teaching ‘global development and learning.’
The jokes were soon piling up like unpaid invoices at Enron; Deutsche was about to become a ‘boot camp’ for executives who would be swapping their Hugo Boss designer suits for battledress and expense account dinners for MRE – meals ready to eat – rations.
Amusing, but not the reality, even if the former officer still clings to the argot of
the barracks when in the boardroom. “ I was a career soldier at the pinnacle of my career and happy to accept this mad challenge for a new one, ” he said. “ I do not count the hours in the day as I am used to that in the military. ” The slogan back then was; “The work depends on the needs of the squad.” Today, the squad is Deutsche Bank.
“I think the three most important things for success in life are work, modesty and luck. I think my military training has given me the ability to learn from errors quickly, to communicate well and to listen to others.”
“Openness, modesty and exemplary behaviour are all trademarks of a successful military career and I try to carry these on in the world of commerce.”
In the army, of course, the word of a general was law and unquestioned. But it doesn’t quite work like that in Civvy Street – and the headhunters for ex-military staff don’t expect to put Colonel Blimps with unbending iron discipline in positions of power.
Mr. Zwygart was a tank commander, a trainer of officers and the author of several books about military leadership. It is because of these skills that he, and those like, are head-hunted – not for any ability to bark out orders for automatons to blindly follow.
In his book ‘How do you decide?’ he concentrates on logical thought, analysing such battles as Hannibal’s against Rome and putting them into the context of business decisions. One senior manager for Deutsche Bank who has attended seminars
held by Mr. Zwygart said on condition of anonymity; “He is in no way a stereotypical soldier, nor a stereotypical businessman.”
“ou sense immediately that he is used to looking at situations with a keen eye and making decisions based on the facts – not the ego of the chairman, or the CFO or the head of personnel. He has a common sense approach and you sense that his aura is saying; ‘I don’t necessarily expect you to like me – but I expect you to respect me’. And people do.
He once said that in the army everyone is part of a team and we at the bank are now his team and in the team we are all equal. In civilian life, of course, we have dealt with many managers who have personal favourites, often creating tensions in managerial teams. He doesn’t. “Nothing undermines a leader more than office politics and back biting”, he said, and it is true. He also said that in the army his men knew that as a commanding officer he could either do all the tasks they could do, or at least will be very familiar with them. He has certainly immersed himself in the intricacies of international banking since he came to us.”
Mr. Zwygart, like so many former military officers, imparts the message that in the army he had to be constantly “thinking ahead and thinking independently. A good leader stays one step ahead at all time and is constantly studying his competition and ways he can improve” •
AS THE WHOLE WORLD IS CHAnGInG, it is no surprise there has been a fundamental transformation in the process of finding a job. The constant and ever quickening change of the world necessitates that the talent, skills and performance are adapted to the demands of the new order.
How to prepare yourself
The strategy of finding a job depends on the situation; did the candidate lose a job or was the job change selfdriven? In either case, there are crucial paths that lead the candidates through the process. Mihaela Perianu (AIMS Romania) indicates, “Now is the time we should invest more in our personal branding and in building on our reputation”. A critical first step in the process is to set objectives and highlight them in a properly prepared CV. This CV can then be sent to companies for positions whose requirements overlap with the candidate’s experience and expectations. Jerzy Potocki (AIMS Poland), emphasizes that it is very important to have a proper CV, in which people usually are not being clear enough about their professional objectives. Furthermore, Maria Shishkova (AIMS Bulgaria & Macedonia) recommends, “…customize your cover letter and the CV according to the employer and highlight the relevant experience and motivation required by the potential employer.” She also points out that deeper market analysis will bring more unusual opportunities especially when working with an experienced search professional. John W. Poracky (AIMS USA) states that it is crucial for the candidates to be proactive in their approach to finding a job. Also according to Bernt Entschev (AIMS Brasil), the candidate should be alert to the market’s movements and tendencies, and be connected to the HR consultancies’ movements and general job announcements. If the candidate has prepared his CV properly, is very alert and proactive in the process and is being assisted by a professional search agent, she/he could still be forgetting one very important point - network-
ing. Networking is considered as the key to landing a job and the Brazilian statistics show that 30% of the positions are filled through networking. Mihaela Perianu points out candidates should use more channels to market themselves. Alongside partnering with executive search companies, candidates should also be active in business networking. They should attend business events to make their candidacy known to a wider network of people. Even though times have been more challenging during the global economic crisis, Carlos F. Ordas (AIMS Spain) suggests candidates utilizing this time to identify and know our own deficiencies. He states this is a precious gift for self-knowledge to carefully examine out strong and weak points, and set forth realistic plans for further training. Any candidate searching for a job is on the right course with a combination of good skills, strong networking and the proper assistance of a headhunter, However, they do need to be proactive in their approach and be alert to the market’s movements.
KEY IMPORTAnT FEATURES
In FInDInG A JOB
There have always been ideal characteristics required for being leaders including a blend of strategic thinking, outstanding operational focus, readiness for change, honesty, transparency, solid team-building skills and good crisis management. Carlos F. Ordas classifies the features as the objectively valued ones such as age, education, spoken languages and experience, and as the ones to be evaluated like the continuum intelligence and personality. He implies that headhunters and recruiters work in assess-
ing personal traits as the differentiating factors. An essential feature that pulls the candidate ahead of the competition is an upward trajectory proving the person’s ability to grow professionally. Bernt Entschev and John W. Poracky both agree that the CV of the candidate must focus on listing their responsibilities, actions taken and the business results or, in other words, the measurable accomplishments. John W. Poracky indicates, “abstract accomplishments are important as well, but the measurable ones still ‘shine’ and stand out in a special way through the contractor’s eyes”. Compared to the past, required characteristics of today’s leader differ in some ways. Jerzy Potocki points out these characteristics as being more flexible, being able to provide service efficiency even during cost control, and being able to work with smaller teams and yet getting better results. Maria Shishkova agrees by emphasizing, “creative and innovative thinking combined with the possibility
How to Be a “Highly Sought After Manager” in 11 steps:
1 Set your objectives
2 Have a proper CV
3 Make a deep market analysis
4 Be proactive in your approach
5 Be connected to the HR consultancies’ movements
6 Have a strong network and spread out the word around
7 Consider the crisis as a chance to know your deficiencies
8 Be flexible and a team worker
9 Be creative and innovative
10 Be good at cost control
11 Be the manager for both good and bad times
to achieve profitable results within less than generous budgets would be a difficult combination to find but would be a strong differentiator and motivator for almost any employer.”
SIGnIFICAnT FEATURES OF An IDEAL MAnAGER EACH COUnTRY SEEKS OUT
Besides the universal characteristics of an ideal manager, there are also significant requirements for each country’s unique business methods. For John W. Poracky, the characteristics they seek in recruiting senior level talent include; having a measurable track record, being able to acquire new skills, using your skills to add value for the business, being a team player, and having a high level of integrity. Similarly, Bernt Entschev emphasizes, “The ability to lead people and work with them is very important in every organization, but in a country with such cultural diversity, it becomes totally indispensable. Meanwhile, there must be flexibility to deal about surround-
ings’ changes and uncertainties.” Jerzy Potocki agrees that today a manager most importantly needs to be more flexible compared to the past; and as most of the Polish managers are asked to cover the entire European region, they need to be flexible with different cultures, different management types, and different countries. This goes hand in hand with having very good language skills. In Romania, the circumstances are more challenging though. As the country experienced a transition from communism to democracy, in the past 20 years they had a huge economic growth. Mihaela Perianu recapitulates the situation in Romania, “…business people did not have to refine their working habits and the business etiquette. Money was easy to be made in this country. All in all, what we had in the past 20 years of democracy, is managers for good times, managers that did not have to struggle too much in terms of refining their mission, vision and strategy of business…
consequently they developed management abilities for good times only.” So obviously, Romania lacks for managers for bad times.
Evidently, to be distinguished among the competitive atmosphere, today’s managers have to confront more requirements compared to the past. And it is their advantage to get assistance of a headhunting agency who understands the overlapping demands of managers and companies around the world.
Chicago Bucharest
Warsaw Sofia
Curitiba
Madrid
John W. Poracky USA Mihaela Perianu Romania
Movers and shakers
Alumil Georgy Chotrev
Georgy Chotrev is the Commercial Director of Alumil in Bulgaria. Until recently, he held the position of Commercial Director of KAI Group and was responsible for the development and execution of the company’s overall marketing strategy for the domestic and export markets. He has nearly 15 years of multifunctional local and international experience in corporate sales management having held the position of Country Manager at Procter & Gamble Bosnia and Herzegovina, various senior positions at country distributors of Kraft Foods International, MARS, Danone, GE, BAT, Cosmopolitan Cosmetics, the position of Director of Vermont, the official importer and distributor of Peugeot vehicles for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and the Total Quality and Process Management Director and Corporate Sales Director positions at Bulgarian Telecommunications Company.
Jacek Stryczynski is Country Manager in Poland & Slovakia of Lionbridge, global leader in translation, localization & testing services. Offices in both countries are key components of the company delivery platform for global and local projects execution. He previously worked as Business Development Executive in EDS-Poland, pursuing local and global deals in IT and business process outsourcing services for clients in various industries. During his career he has managed the IT projects in public administration. His professional career started with scientific research in astronomy at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun. He holds a degree in M.Sc. in Astronomy. Jacek is married and has two daughters.
Lionbridge Jacek StryczynskiDekra Spain, a worldwide leading German company devoted to Vehicle Technical Inspection and Automotive Services, has appointed Joan Maties (42) as Managing Director, aiming to expand the business and establish a wider range of expert services in Spain.With a 20-year experience, and speaking English, French, Italian, German and Portuguese, since 2004 Maties has served as General Manager for Spain, Portugal and Morocco at IPQ, an Italian company for the Certification of Electrical products, as well as of Quality and Environmental Systems. Previously, he was a Manager of Bureau Veritas Spain for 4 years.
Dan Emery was recently named general manager of Creta Farms U.S.A., a revolutionary deli products division of Creta Farms Greece. With 25 years experience in the food industry including 15 years as VP of Marketing/Sales at Pilgrim’s Pride, Emery helped Pilgrim’s Pride become the second largest poultry producer in the world. Previously he has served as a marketing board member for NCC and NTF as well as being a noted international keynote speaker.
Wadsack Trust Company Madlena Borisova
Paulo Guilherme Hirata is the CFO at Air Products Brasil since October 2009. Previously, he had worked for Avaya Brasil as a controller, for Iqara Energy&Iqara NGV as a finance administrative superintendent, for BG Group as the regional business assurance manager for South America and after for Andes&Australia regions. He holds a background of solid experience managing the Finance, Controllership, Planning and Administrative departments, working in global companies in Oil & Gas and Telecommunications industries, besides auditing services.
Madlena Borisova has joined recently Wadsack Trust Company, as Executive Director of the subsidiary in Sofia. Prior to her employment with Wadsack Trust Company she stayed ahead of the finance division as a Chief Accountant of Cosmo Bulgaria Mobile JSC (Globul – the second GSM operator). Madlena Borisova has a Master degree in Management and Accounting from the University of National and World Economy, Sofia and is an ACCA member. Prior to Cosmo Bulgaria Mobile, Madlena Borisova had been appointed to a managerial position ahead of industrial producing company Techno Gas AG, subsidiary of SOL GRUP.
Fabio Romano is the marketing director of Jaguar Italy since september 2008. He has previous experience in the automotive sector, as he used to be the brand manager for Mazda Motor Italy and then for Daimler Chrysler group. After, he joined the Nissan Europe group where he was involved in the start up of the Switzerland-based European Headquarter of Nissan’s luxury brand “Infiniti”, and he was responsible for product marketing. He is currently committed to consolidate the new “beautiful fast cars” positioning and appeal to a wider and younger customer group in the luxury segment.
CH2M Hill, the American infrastructure multinational consultancy, have appointed Rebecca McClymont to CLM the Olympic Delivery Partner as HR Business Partner.
Prior to her appointment, Rebecca worked for Research International part of the WPP Group as HR Manager. Before joining Research International, Rebecca held a number of senior HR positions within BT. Rebecca’s duties within CLM include delivering an HR service to the various parts of the organisation across all areas of HR management. This includes providing an effective resourcing and recruitment activity together with CH2M Hill’s resourcing department.
Dekra Spain Joan Maties
Eatable Cup. The name of the creator is Enrique Luis Sardi, a South American designer based in Milan. Enrique realized the Eatable Cup in 2003 in cooperation with the Lavazza Training Center. The idea of an eatable cup connects with the concept of art, ecology, innovation and design as a revolutionary project. The idea was born thinking about the “italian coffee culture”, observing people during breakfast time. For people from all over the word, coffee-time is one of the most
important and relaxing moments of the day, indeed it is a ritual, and the eatable cup makes this ritual even more enjoyable. The cup has now replaced the protagonist role of the coffee for break time. The ingredients of the eatable cup, pastry and icing sugar, when combined together, give the cup the ability to enhance the taste of coffee and an isolation effect.
Cartamela.
Recycled bag.
Name of owner is Michael Wong who has been designing and manufacturing bags for the last 20 years in Hong Kong. He uses recycled paper, aluminum, plastic and other materials sourced from all over Hong Kong. He also makes bags from recycled newspapers and the recycling business has been going on for 2 years. All the designs are his and there are about 30 types of bags of various sizes on offer.
Manufacturing takes place in a factory in Hong Kong employing some 30 people. In addition to recycled bags, the shop also sources and sells more conventional bags, including export samples from Italy.
The idea to produce Cartamela (Applepaper) was born as a consequence of an important problem of the italian region of Trentino Alto Adige. Each year, the industrial production of the apples generated tons of particular kinds of waste that are not reclyced and had a heavy ecological impact. In 2005, after a year of studies and tests, Cartiera di Galliera realized Cartamela, which was produced and officialy introduced to the market in 2006. Cartamela is a special type of paper made using apple pulp as an ingredient together with traditional cellulose. It is ecologic and is suitable for multiple uses, also for food packaging. Manufacturing takes place in a factory close to Padova. After only 3 years, Cartiera di Galliera has created different types of high quality papers of various grammages and today is producing 2 different types of Cartamela: Premium Line, a valuable and fine paper, Packaging Line, suitable for different kinds of applications. Cartamela is 100% recyclable and it is absolutely without chlorine and heavy metals.
Matt Bradley is the founder and CEO of the social search engine SideStripe, and he loves the idea of people getting involved in others’ search for knowledge online. Creating applications, spending time with his family, and surfing are the three things that Matt Bradley can be found doing in his spare time. Creating software is much a part of who he is both while at work and while away from work; as most entrepreneurs have the urge to create, he is no exception. He also tries and sets aside family time with his wife and 11 months son who he describes as his best creation to date. They go camping or for walks in the park, or sometimes just sit at home on the floor and play together. Surfing is a passion for him since his first trial 15 years ago. He finds the idea of paddling into a wave three to four times his size as intimidating - but also very exciting. Surfing big waves has taught him a few lessons as well - when to go, and when to hold back (a lesson that has equally been mirrored in his work life). His goal is to keep a balance and whether in work or play, push himself past the limits- not for glory or recognition, but for the experience and his own piece of mind.
Matt Bradley
01 men’s sweater, Guess (199 ¤). 02 men’s piggot jacket, Historic Research (425 ¤). 03 men’s watch, Patek Philippe Chronometro Gondolo Gold (20.870 ¤+iva). 04 men’s boots, Santoni (435 ¤). 05 women’s portfolio, Marc Jacobs (135 ¤). 06 women’s coat, Herno (740 ¤) 07 women’s casual hat, Cervi (150 ¤). 08 women’s shoes, Camper (175 ¤). 09 women’s jeans, G Star (129,90 ¤). 10 women’s boots, Maxmara (329 ¤ Italian price). 11 Around the world vintage shop, NY.
To be cool Twsm advice
12 helmet, Davida (375 ¤). 13 P 120 Combat Fighter, Confederate, ©Randal Crow (48.000 ¤). 14 men’s gloves, Dunhill (85 ¤). 15 men’s watch, T Touch Expert Pilot, Tissot (675 ¤ + iva). 16 men’s jacket, Peuterey (520 ¤). 17 men’s shoes, Allen Edmonds (220 ¤).18 men’s spectacles, Ermenegildo Zegna (159 ¤). 19 women’s belt, Maxmara (139 ¤ italian price). 20 women’s sweater, Brunello Cucinelli (1.640 ¤). 21 women’s bag, Chanel (1.490 ¤). 22 women’s shoes, Giuseppe Zanotti (495 ¤). 23 yellow gold pendant, Dinh Van (3.500 ¤)
24 Los Angeles Prada shop ©Phil Meech.
Monika Schmutz Kirgoz
Monika is the deputy Ambassador of Switzerland in Israel, where she lives with her husband who is a university professor and with her two sons. Monika has studied political science at the University of Lausanne, specialising in development economy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and has lived and worked for one year in Malang, Indonesia, before joining the Swiss Diplomatic Service 14 years ago. “Tel Aviv is a great place, the human relationships are informal and enriching as people have a high standard of education and an amazing intellectual curiosity”.
Monika likes her life in Israel; she lives in the Arab neighbourhood of Jaffa, next to the beach where she runs every morning. Sometimes after an intense day at the Embassy, she walks along the beach back home for 6 kilometres. “The life in Israel is – if you let aside the conflict – easy going”, says her husband Yildirim, who likes being Turkish, as Turkey is most of the times highly appreciated by Israel. A downside?
The eldest son loves Italian football and misses occasionally the mythical football player Totti, as the previous diplomatic destination of the family used to be Rome.
Loh
Christine Loh is currently the CEO of Civic Exchange, a Hong Kong think tank which she co-founded in 2000. She likes beautiful things that enlarge the experience of the human condition and she appreciates Planet Earth. Curiosity and the need to get to the bottom of the ‘why’ of things is her personal passion, honed through rich experiences as a law student, a businesswoman, a politician, a radio host for a public affairs show, a competitor in sports, an actor on stage, an art collector, and even an impresario for art events. She believes that work and play are interconnected and hates the idea of working on something that she does not personally care for. This was a prime reason for her leaving the corporate world. “I wanted to work on public issues which have both a private and public dimension. For instance, a polluted environment impacts on all of us personally, while cleaning it up also requires action in the public domain. It is this connectedness that gets me up every morning to work hard during the day - and more than often, into the night” she says.
Christine
Protection of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour is another passion that drives Loh in her efforts in raising community awareness of, and appreciation for, Hong Kong’s natural treasures. To spend her spare time, she points out the Western Districts that has narrow old streets, emporiums and tiny shops chock-full of traditional Chinese dry foodstuffs, artefacts and medicinal herbs. She also enjoys the old-school Hong Kong cafes, the ‘cha chaan tengs’ where Cantonese cooks fuse Chinese and western ingredients into sometimes idiosyncratic culinary treats. Her favorite is the organic “Life Café” along the famed Hong Kong Escalator in Soho.
new jobs Arianna
Occhipinti is 27 years old. Like all the elegant girls of her age, she does not renounce to her Burberry bag resting on the fender of her tractor in her farm in Vittoria, near Ragusa, Sicily. Arianna is a winemaker, she has rediscovered an old country house of VII century, which has been restored with the European community funds. 4 years later, she started producing 40k bottles of wine within her company, which are now being sold worldwide.
WHEn YOU ASK to some wine – makers which has been the best vintage of the new millennium until 2008 the anwers will be different among them. In SW Europe probably 2004, 2006 and 2007 were the best vintages, in Greece we had an exceptional 2005, in Germany besides 1999 and 2006 were two great years.
Producers and experts
More difficult is to have a “fair vintage statistic” for South Africa, Argentina or Australia since there the wine-makers are striving continuosly and successfully to make better and better wines so that “the last vintage is always the best!”. However, in this variegated picture by countries, 2009 represents for sure a converging point all over the world: probably the best vintage of the new millennium! Generally speaking, we had a cold and long winter that delayed a bit the flowering of the vineyards. Then a quite wet spring enabled the vines to quickly resque their delay. Thanks to this faster ripeness, a more homogeneous quality of the grapes has been reached. The summer was agreable till June and dry and warm in July/August: the proper conditions for the perfect maturity of the tannins and for a good balance of sugar-Ph. Expectations are really very high, bearing in mind that in wine the general rules are less applicable than elsewhere!! There is a wise proverb among the wine lovers that says: “there are not great wines but only great bottles of wines”. Sometimes a blazoned wine can be a disappointment meanwhile an unknown wine can offer a very special sensation and a special harmony. Each bottle has a different story and the vintage is only one of the magic component for a special wine. Another important component for achieving a great wine is the perfect understanding of the place or as the Franch name: the
terroir. All the producers that twsm is here presenting have shown the ability to put the best possible picture of their own landscape and climate in a bottle, trying to capture it for the longest time possible. That is nothing else
but passion and expertise: drinking these wines is something completely different that simply taste a good beverage!. It is a glass of life and of poetry where you taste the history of a vintage, the passion of people, the beauty of a landscape, its climate, the flavour in the air and the quite silence of the barrels where all this magic is blended in a sip of harmony.
Evangelos Gerovassiliou, owner of Domaine Gerovassiliou, Thessaloniki, Grecia
Meyer-näkel family, owners of weingut Meyer-Näkel, Dernau, Germany
Sophia Bergqûist, owner of Quinta de la Rosa, Pinha, Portugal
Jesus Barquin, wine’s expert
Peter Barry, managing director of Jim Barry Wines, Clare, Australia •
Product prospectives
Making a short query to major rising wine producers all around the world about the future perspective of wine we discovered 3 main drivers of development. The first and foremost important one is the tremendous effort that everyone is putting on the vineyards. French producers have been by far the pioneer in strengthening the link between the vineyards and its terroir. But today this perspective is followed almost all over the world. As stated by The Sadie Family, South Africa: “our aim is to put the best possible picture of our landscape and climate in a bottle; and to try and capture it for the longest time possible, so that every time we open such a bottle with a vintage declared on a label, that we may travel back, that we may reflect on that place in time captured in a glass, as well as where we were at that time. For us this is pretty much what wine is about; what the enjoyment of wine is about”. Other producers are convinced that the excellence lies in the perfect bond among landscape, climate, grapes and wines.
Here are some other remarkable witness statements:
•ACHAVAL FERRER, ARGEnTInA, (producer of Finca Bella Vista wine. This wine is composed of 75% Malbelc and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon.
It offers kinky nose of wood smoke, scorched earth, wild blueberry, black raspberry an on the palate it is elegant.) “Achaval Ferrer portfolio will remain the same as nowadays.With Malbec Mendoza, we still want to represent the insignia variety from Argentina, showing an intense fruit and balance. With Fincas, our development of terroir is still essential. We will be still looking for extreme quality.”
•WEInGUT MEYER, GERMAnY, (producer of Spatburgunder wine. This is 100% Pinot Noir, characterised itself with aroma of black cherries, wild blackberries , ripe raspberries and blueberries. This intense fruit is underlined by a soft roasted aroma and violets). “We always work on our quality and our aim is to show the typical character of the slate soil in our wines and to create mineral, fruit driven Pinot Noir full of character with an elegant tannin structure.”
•GEROVASSILIOU, GREECE, (producer of Avaton wine. This wine is a combination of the three Greek indigenous varieties of Limnio 40%, Mavroudi 30% and Mavrotragano 30%. This wine contains blackberry fruit, shows spice and depth, finishes dry and is totally individual).“In terms of future plans Domaine Gerovassiliou is a family-run estate that aims to make authentic, unique wines that bring out the true characteristics of the region they originate from, wines
that reveal the characteristics of the soil, the climate and the unique indigenous grape varieties”. A second driver of development for the future of the wine is universally given by the search for excellence in vinification and ageing.
•RAMOS PInTO, PORTUGAL, (producer of Duas Quintas wine. It is a blend of Port varieties Tinta Roriz and Touriga Nacional. The grapes of this wine are grown in a hot, dry climate allowing for deep maturation. This wine is a unique, strong, fruity and complex wine). “Having in mind the investments we are doing in the vineyards (80 new had been planted), in a new vinification centre of Douro wine and in a new technical team, our objective is to constantly keep improving the quality of the wines. As our mission states: we aim to be recognized as one of the best red wine producers in the Douro. A reference not only in Portugal but world wide.”
•SADIE FAMILY, SOUTH AFRICA, (producer of Columella wine. This wine is a blend of Syrah and 20% of Mourvedre wine with a black fruit appearance combined with some nutty, almond flavour). “In the last year we have spent a lot of time trying to get a better understanding of the process of ageing in wines and the effect of the vessel one would choose for the journey of every single wine: a new or old barrel, a concrete tank or big-
01 Sogrape Vinhos vineyard (Portugal)
02 Sadie family vineyard (South Africa)
03 Barrique of Argiolas wine (Italy)
04 Quinta de la Rosa vineyard (Portugal)
05 Chateau Ksara vineyard (Lebanon)
06 Villa Argiano in Italy
ger oak casks. Even the shape of this vessel will have a dramatic effect on the ageing of a wine and on its stability and characteristics; and therefore, its ability to convey terroir. Last but not least, the third direction of development in the wine sector is all about the eco-compatiblity and the respect for the natural exploitation. A particular example is given by an italian producer in Sardinia.
•ARGIOLAS, ITALY, (producer of Turriga wine; this wine is a combination of Cannonau 85%, Bovale and Malvesia 10% and Carignano 5%. This wine is intense ruby red, rich and complex bouquet, very well balanced). “At present, our production is about 2 million bottles per year, in the near future we have no plans to increase the production. We are currently investing in research and various projects: the anti-oxidant properties of grapes, clean energy using photovoltaic panels and the collection of rainwater.”
[W accornerovini.it achaval-ferrer.com altavistawines.com annegra.com argiano.net argiolas.it bodegascanopy.com bonnydoonvineyard.com chateaukefraya.com cornulus.ch cortijolosaguilares.com daumas-gassac.com domaine-ponsot.com friedrichbecker.de gerovassiliou.gr
THE BEST OF THE LAST YEARS BY COUnTRY. Taking a glance at the world and looking for the best vintage of the years 2000, it is difficult to have a single answer. This is another evidence of the richness of the wine-world! The useful indication below, directly spoken out by the producers will drive your curiosity in a successful tasting experience!!
Best vintages
Argentina. Bodega AltaVista “the best vintages in Mendoza in the last decade were ‘02, ‘05 and ‘09”. Achaval Ferrer “outstanding years for our Wines: Finca Mirador 2006, Bella Vista 2007, Quimera ‘07, Altamira ‘03, Altamira ‘04, Altamira ‘05” Australia. Jim Barry winery “when talking about red wines, the choice of the best vintage of the last years is a difficult one. Maybe ‘02 was the best year for red wines”. California. Bonny Doon winery “ ‘07 was clearly the most interesting vintage in recent memory for red wine. The grapes arrived with very good balance, extremely clean, a moderate crop requiring very little intervention”. France. Domaine Daumas-Gassac “…the red ‘08 is a delicious, magic vintage wine blending in itself 4 major virtues: strenght, finesse, great taste and elegance….”. Germany. Weingut Meyer-Näkel “ ‘99, ‘06, and perhaps ‘09 were the best vintages”. Greece. Domaine Gerovassiliou: “in terms of the best vintage over the last years ‘05 was exceptional”. Italy. Accornero winery “the best vintage over the last few years has been surely the one of this year”, Tenuta Argiano “in short so far, ‘09 is a fantastic year, one of the best since ‘04 and ‘06”,
01 Le Cigare Volant, 2005, Bonny Doon vineyard (California - USA)
02 Mas de Daumas Gassac, 2008, Domaine Daumas Gassac (France)
03 Solms Astor Langarm, 2007, Solms Delta vineyard (South Africa)
04 Dominio de Atauta, 2002, Bodegas Dominio de Atauta (Spain)
Argiolas winery “2009 has been a very good harvest. Over the last few years the harvests have all gone well , both in terms of quality and quantity. According to the experts the best harvests in the last 15 years were ‘97, ‘04 and ‘08 and ‘09”. Lebanon. Chateau Ksara “the ‘02 was an exceptional vintage followed by the ‘07”, Chateau Kefraya ”the ‘06 was the excepional vintage of the last years”. Portugal. Sogrape Vinhos winery “the best harvest in the past few years is without a doubt ‘07 – and that is the reason why almost every Porto Wine producer declared Vintage Porto from that year. However, ‘07 was also an excellent year for the still red wines of the Douro region”, Ramos Pinto “‘07 has been the best vintage”. Quinta De La Rosa vineyard “ ‘07 is the best vintage we have had both in terms of port and wines. There is excellent concentration of fruit balanced with good freshness and acidity in the wines”. Spain. Anima Negra, winery “we are extremely satisfied with ‘06”. South Africa. The Sadie Family “the last vintage has been the best ever”, Solms Delta “it depends on the wine. For Langarm ‘07, for Hiervandaan ‘06 and for Africana ‘05.”
•
Trends Twsm Selection
Advice from worldwide wine experts
• Jesus Barquin: Pinot Noir 2007 wine produced by Cortijo Los Aguilares (Andalucía), La Viña Escondida 2007 produced by Bodegas Canopy (Spain) and Barbaresco Riserva Asili 2004 wine produced by Produttori di Barbaresco (Italy).
• Louis Guiterrez: Mengoba Mencía de Espanillo 2007 wine produced by Bodegas Mengoba (Spain), Goliardo Espadeiro 2007 wine produced by Bodegas Forjas del Salnes(Spain) and La Viña Escondida 2007 wine produced by Bodegas Canopy (Spain).
• Wolfgang Fassbender: The 2008 St. Magdalener Ansitz Waldgries made from Weingut Ansity Waldgries (Italy), the 2007 Cornalin Antica of Domaine Cornulus (Swiss) of the swiss wine region Valais, and The 2007 Lemberger Großes Gewächs produced by Weingut Graf Adelmann (Germany).
• Frank Kaemmer: 2007 Shaw + Smith Shiraz produced by Shaw + Shiraz winery (Australia), 2007 Friedrich Becker Pinot Noir produced by Weingut Friedrich Becker (Germany), and 2007 Clos de la Roche produced by Domaine Ponsot (France) It was totally overwhelmed. Laurent Ponsot triumphs despite the tricky conditions of this vintage.
05 Mengoba Mencia de Espanillo, 2007, Bodeas Mengoba (Spain)
06 Avaton, 2002, Domaine Gerovassiliou (Greece)
07 Brunello di Montalcino, 2006, Argiano vineyard (Italy)
08 Columella, 2007, Sadie Family vineyard (South Africa)
• Giles MacDonogh: Weingut Bernhard Huber (Germany) produced the 2004 Hecklingler Schloßberg Spätburgunder, Weingut Rudolf Fürst, (Germany) produced the 2007 Bürgstadter Centgrafenberg Spätburgunder and Weingut Kreuzberg (Germany) produced the 2005 Ahrweiler Silberberg Spätburgunder.
• David Schildknecht: 2007 Spätburugnder trocken S wine produced by Weingut Keller (Germany), 2007 Blaufränkisch Burgenland wine produced by Weingut Moric (Germany), and 2005 Le Cas produced by Mas Conscience (France), is a profusion of ripe blue- and blackberries tinged with ginger and herbs; rich, with dark, almost mysterious suggestions of toasted nuts, peat, salt, and stone.
graf-adelmann.com jimbarry.com keller-wein.de ksara.com.lb mengoba.com meyer-naekel.de moric.at produttoridelbarbaresco.com quintadelarosa.com ramospinto.pt shawandsmith.com sograpevinhos.eu solms-delta.co.za thesadiefamily.com waldgries.it weingut-huber.com weingut-kreuzberg.de weingut-rudolf-fuerst.de ]
Attachment and pride Determined to succeed
By BAHAR PURALIGIL
Victory despite defeat
Izmir is a major commercial and industrial center of Turkey, located on the west coast by the Aegean Sea.
The city has been blessed with a key strategic position, with a glamorous ancient heritage, and with enchanting scenic beauties.
As the capital of the Aegean Region, Izmir is a very important center for manufacturing and trade. The international sea port is the most important commerce spot in Turkey and today, the port delights 70 thousand businessmen of Izmir by 15 million tons of load and unload every year.
Its rank land surrounding the city, 19 industrial estates, 2 free zones and 7 universities and noteworthy high quality labor force make it impossible for the city to be in disgrace with foreign investment and international trade.
The city owes its experience in international commerce to its Levantine population which has been living in Izmir for more than 400 years. The Levantine families have been pioneering improvements in arts and literature as well as in reaching a high quality in business, outspreading Aegean products to overseas markets, enhancing the banking and maritime businesses. The multicultural texture bring in sophistication, modernism, liberalism and secularism to the citizens of Izmir where people from different cultures and religions have been coexisting side by side peacefully for hundreds of years. Izmir people enjoy the perfect peace and high living standards the city is offering, with great pride of being citizens of the most openminded city of Turkey.
Despite the fact that Izmir covers
1/4 of total import and export in Turkey, the city surprisingly has a very slow growth rate and has limited opportunities for employment which causes a brain drain mostly to Istanbul.
History
• City dates back 8.500 years
• The traces of Lydian, Persian, Hellenic, Greco-Persian, Seleukos, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman empires, give the city a multicultural texture
• Legend is that the city was founded by the Amazons who fought their way to the Aegean shores and the ancient city “Symrna” was named after the Amazon queen.
WHAT CAUSES THE SLOWDOWn In IzMIR AnD HOW LEADInG LOCAL BUSInESSMEn EVALUATE THE CURREnT SITUATIOn: Rebii Akdurak, CEO of Mako Trans LTD and the president of Izmir Italian Chamber of Commerce indicates, “Commerce in Izmir is stuck within a narrow frame depending on over slowness and care in decision or action of businessmen.”
According to Ali Pehlivanoglu, the CEO of the biggest local market chains PEHLIVANOGLU, the politics also have portion in this slowdown; “Lately, growth in Izmir has witnessed a slowdown due to adverse political views of the city and the inclination of businessmen towards only in advance success guaranteed areas.“
Istanbul is a city offering faster breakthrough in business compared to Izmir for sure. Yet, what Izmir offers is a priority for many; peace of mind and high quality living standards. The regular workers in the city all agree that Istanbul would be a better choice in terms of job opportunities, yet Izmir is a city that is much easier and enjoyable to live in, despite the standing-still business life.
However, too much peace of mind
roughens the “work style” of Izmir, where most businessmen settle for what they have instead of taking risks for bigger investments.
Ahmet Önder, the owner and CEO of Renk Halı emphasizes,” the gracious living has been a disadvantage for Izmir in terms of business. People are more likely to settle for less instead of taking risks and having more, as if they have been purified of their ambitions, and this could be a consequence of the ‘relaxed life’ that Izmir is offering.”
LACK OF GOVERnMEnT SUPPORT FOR THE STROnGEST FORTRESS OF THE MAIn
OPPOSITIOn PARTY?
Also lack of government support and private investment place boundaries in front of a more rapid growth for Izmir.
Ahmet Senocak, the CEO of Klimasan, defines the Izmir citizens as “ ..bound up in their freedom and rebel against the government; so most of the time not demanding enough.” and he also states “Izmir is far above average in terms of conception and consequently very critical against the government. What we need is to create niche projects for development of the city and demand government support even if we are on the opposi-
tion side in terms of political views.”
To make up for the deficient government support, local businessmen should take a giant step forward and be more insistent on their demand. However, first they need wider visions and more willingness to take risks, followed by generating groundbreaking projects in benefit of the development of Izmir. Consequently, they will have stronger arguments proving that the investment’s rate of return will be high.
Hilmi Ugurtas, the president of the executive board of Izmir Atatürk Organised Industrial Region suggests, “The local administration and businessmen should build stronger relationships with the government, and make pressure for bigger budget allocations to Izmir.”
Also Rebii Akdurak supports the idea that,” The city faces lack of private investment but it comes along with government support. So what we need first is that the government allocates more budget on development of Izmir and we should definitely not wait for them to take action, but iterate our demand until we get what we want.”
THE TWO HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CITY: THE PORT AnD THE CULTIVABLE LAnD
Even though the port hosts a satisfying amount of trade, it is a common mind that expanding the port capacity is necessary for bigger business opportunities.
Together with the port, another highlight in Izmir is the rank lands surrounding the city and offering a great productive potential. In fact one of the biggest prospectives for Izmir is that the city will become an epicenter for agricultural production.
Ömer Yüngül, the CEO of Vestel Group states, “Izmir has the potential to become a center core for agricultural production of Turkey with its rank land and high quality labor force, if we can hopefully improve the sector.”
TOURISM IS A PROSPECTIVE SUCCESS FOR IzMIR
Besides the big potential in agriculture, another anticipated success for Izmir will be in tourism and service sectors. As a 8500 years old city, Izmir has a lot to offer to its visitors; a big historical heritage like the Agora, the Ephesus, the House of Virgin Mary,
Attachment and pride Determined to succeed
Expo Projects:
• expanding the metro line (+100km)
• construction of newly designed large exhibition area in Inciraltı
• opera house
• convention center
• thermal water projects
• expose the historical texture of the city
• projects for delevoping the city in arts
• social responsibility projects- for adaptation of rural areas to the
• city life
and beautiful places nearby for summer vacations such as Cesme, Kusadasi, Foca, and the wine producing little village Sirince. Concurrently, the healing thermal water known for its curing power, offers an extensive medical treatment which is likely to have a big contribution to the city’s reputation in tourism.
Alex Baltazzi, the president of the Aegean Travel Agencies Associations, and the owner of Karavan Travel, indicates, “Izmir has a great potential in tourism, yet still has a lot of deficiencies. And all the projects to improve tourism should be realized by the guidance of experts of the sector.”
The city center hosts a very few number of big hotels, and according to Deniz Özkardes, Executive Board Member of Mövenpick Hotel Izmir, “Izmir definitely needs at least 10 more big hotels so we attract more foreign tourists. The occupancy rate of our hotel has been increasing up to 90% lately, and we owe this increase to our valid method of management. The city has a great potential to become a tourism center yet we need bigger investments and rational tactics.”
What the Chairman of the Executive Board of Izmir Chamber of Commerce, Ekrem Demirtas, indicates is very promising for tourism in Izmir, “ we are planning to supply the deficiency in tourism by a big project about the port. The plan is to turn
the port into a ‘home port’ which means that Izmir will no longer be an 8-hour stop for the cruise tours, but will be the starting and ending point. Consequently, the tourists will come here and stay in the city 1 day before the tour starts, and also 1 day after it ends. So they will witness that Izmir is a city worth experiencing.”
According to Deniz Barçın, the CEO of BARÇIN SPOR, the biggest sports stores chain in Turkey, “If we had an Izmir soccer team playing in the first league, it would create great advantage for the tourism sector, but unfortunately we do not. When we put our effort to use our potential, we succeed for sure. For example, Izmir was very successful in hosting the Universiade 2005 and I think it was the foreshadowing indicator that we would do great in the candidacy process for EXPO 2015 as well. ”
THE CAnDIDACY FOR ExPO 2015 BLESSED THE CITY
The necessities to gather speed in business is being expressed in clear terms by leading names of private sector as; increasing the number of corporate enterprises, taking more risks and investing more money in Izmir, widening the narrow visions of local entrepreneurs, and having richer publicity abroad to attract both foreign investors and tourists.
Tunç Soyer, the Mayor of Seferihisar District of Izmir and the for-
mer General secretary for the Izmir EXPO commity implies “Izmir must be a city offering greater business opportunities. As we are the bridge of intercultural dialogue between the east and the west, we need to come out of our shells and keep in mind that as a 4 million populated family, we share equal responsibilities to develop this city. There is not only one party to rely on, but the state, the government, the local administrations, the non-governmental organizations, businessmen and the citizens must work all together side by side to reach our common goals.”
To defeat all the deficiencies Izmir is facing now, and turning the city into a global health, tourism and trade center, EXPO 2015 would be the greatest opportunity that the city could grab. EXPO would come along with an estimated $15 billion of investment during the six-months of the exhibition. The idea of the candidacy was pioneered by the Chairman of the Executive Board of Izmir Chamber of Commerce, Ekrem Demirtas. Candidacy to EXPO was a part of the 15 years-plan designed by a team of 30 experts aiming to make Izmir a “global brand” by hosting international events. As one of the world’s most considerable, effective and longest events, EXPO would be a huge step forward for Izmir both to become a global brand and to meet the needs of the city.
07
08 Sailing in Izmir Bay
09 Izmir Konak Square
10 Izmir- Karsiyaka 11 Izmir- Konak
12 Cesme Boyalik Beach ©Gökce Sönmez
So Izmir stood as a candidate city to host the EXPO 2015 with the theme “New Routes to a Better World/ Health for All”, but lost the battle against Milan.
nO
CITY HAS EVER WOn THE ExPO
On ITS FIRST TIME OF CAnDIDACY
In EXPO history, there is no city that stood up for candidacy for the first time and won. So It was no surprise that Izmir will not host EXPO. However, the city accomplished an unexpectedly great success during the candidacy process, and was a very challenging competitor for Milan. According to the authorities and local businessmen who worked very hard together, all agree that EXPO is a tactical battle, you just need to know how to make your moves, and Izmir had everything else except the experience.
Besides the requisition of Izmir itself to be the candidate city, according to Hilmi Ugurtas, “..the weather, the scenic beauties, the historical heritage, cultured, modern and democratic people of Izmir were also taken into consideration when selecting which city to stand as candidate with. Izmir was already experienced with international events since the city hosts Turkey’s first international fair.”
EXPO was nearly the first time for Turkey to witness all the authorities working together in collaboration. It would change the texture of the city immensely and Izmir would have a government support more than ever. However, there is nobody who can claim that it was a waste of time and money, since EXPO had numerous contributions for the development of the city even with
Izmir, Cesme - touristic Alacati that is also world famous for wind surfing ©Gökce Sönmez
Izmir - Ionian poet Homer’s Den
the candidacy process.
Rebii Akdurak, Tunç Soyer and Ekrem Demirtas all agree that the candidacy for EXPO, has been a great publicity for both Izmir and Turkey abroad, a great experience for hosting international events, and a great example of how powerful we can get when we combine our efforts to reach a common goal.
During the candidacy, a lot of projects were planned such as; creating a large exhibition area, a high-speed train connection between major cities, and further developing the existing metro system and the recently improved airport.
Even though Izmir will not be hosting EXPO 2015, most of the projects will be realized in time. We can say that EXPO has been an opportunity to highlight the deficiencies of the city and for the authorities to build up projects to make up for them.
ExPO 2015: A BIG MOVE TO SUCCEED In ExPO 2020
Tunç Soyer underlines “ with EXPO, we gained great experience and publicity. If we do not stand up as a candidate for the following EXPO, that will be the real loss because now we have trained, experienced people ready to make a stronger move and I believe that we will have even a greater chance to win this time.”
The common desire of the authorities, the local businessmen, regular workers and citizens is that Izmir will be a candidate to host the EXPO 2020, and will be fully prepared beforehand thanks to the EXPO 2015 experience.
The proud citizens of Izmir are ready to put all their effort to make their precious, dynamic, lively, cosmopolite, modern, liberal and “sui generis” city a global brand. Meanwhile, they are more than welcoming everybody who wants to have some peace of mind and enjoy the beautiful Pearl of the Aegean; Izmir.
renkhali.com seferihisar.bel.tr vestel.com.tr] •
Key figures
• total population: 3.739.353 by 01.08
• number of districts: 21
• area: 12,000 km²
• annual income per capita: Izmir ranks 6th in Turkey with $3215 62% of the labour force is employed, 4% are entrepreneurs and 16.7% are self-employed transportation:
• public buses - 200+ lines
• train - 3 lines
• maritime lines - 8 piers and 24 ships
• Metro- 1 line of 11.6km with 10 stops
• Number of Fish Restaurants: 113
• Number of Kebap Restaurants: 231
13 14 15 16 [W barcin.com cciizmir.org iaosb.org.tr izto.org.trkaravantravel.com klimasan.com makotrans.com moevenpick-hotels.com
Moving Public transport
By SUTANTO SOEHODHO
Urban intelligence
Sustainable development is a pattern of using the natural resources that meet human needs in a way that the environment is preserved; so these resources can meet the needs of future generations as well.
In order to maintain the sufficiency of the natural resources and keep the environment as uncorrupted as possible, they need to be used at a rate which they can be replenished naturally. Public transportation is an effective way to be more “environment friendly” as a 2002 study by the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute noted that “private vehicles emit about 95 percent more carbon monoxide, 92 percent more volatile organic compounds and about twice as much carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide than public vehicles for every passenger mile traveled”. For twsm, Sutanto Soehodho, the Chair of Transport Research Group, University of Indonesia and the Deputy Governor of Jakarta for Trade, Industry and Transportation, evaluates the current usage level of public transportation and specifies ways to create attractive transit systems that will shift people from automobiles to public transport vehicles.
DECLInE OF PUBLIC TRAnSPORTATIOn
There have been records on decline of public transit use in many cities in the world, especially cities in developing countries. Such decline may be caused by poor service or emergence of more promising private modes. City to city may have different approach to their urban transport plan, but in some cases we may see that there is some kind of lack of leadership in urban transport development itself. Poor design and inconsistencies of land-use planning is not uncommonly destructing the ba-
sic concept of mobility and accessibility of transportation for urban systems. These urban sprawls eventually coerce trip makers to make their own choice of travelling, and again their choice becomes individual choice on the ground of their socio-economic background. There are some cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Min, Jakarta, and others grow even with adverse phenomenon like explosive use of two-wheelers or motorbikes. This phenomenon may come up like best solution for disaggregate traffic, but at aggregate level it creates some disadvantages like traffic accidents and environmental issues. In cities, in developed countries, like North America patronage of public transport is also different from state to state wherein urban transport policy plays important role to determine use of public transport. Through-
out many cities’ experiences in public transportation it is obvious that not only sound planning and operation schemes would give rise to use of public transportation but also strong political will of local government as well as central government will. Leadership in undertaking such political will is then another issue for city or urban planners to convince city mayors, governors or other city or country leaders to pursue. This leadership issue is not overshooting when sustainable urban transport is to be secured since transport issues are complex and intervening other social and economic sectors and even environment. Strong political will of New Delhi government to enforce use of gas instead of gasoline for public transport has imposed developing city like Delhi as city with clean air. Strong political will of Bogota city mayor urged the development of BRT has made dramatic change of public transport use and city life style.
A CASE OF URBAn PUBLIC TRAnSPORT IMPORTAnCE
To comprehend further role of public transportation, a case can be made when we look at urban mobility of any city. For last two decades Jakarta has experienced poor urban transport performance due to lack of public trans-
Moving Public transport
port performance and road infrastructure development. Growth of vehicles is 10% per annum while road infrastructure only grows 0.01% per annum, so there is imbalance between transport demand and supply. Composition of vehicle population is 98% of private and 2% of public, this figure is contrast when split of trip makers is overviewed. With more than 17 million trips per day, about 56% of those trips are captive to public transport, and the rest captive to private vehicles.
automobile, whereas the investment in transit enhancement and development is relatively much lower. On one hand, there is no need to promote transit service in a free market situation; on the other hand, transit has the cheapest land transportation, and it can relieve some traffic congestion, as well as help preserve the environment. In order to create intelligent public transport or transit system, acceptance and viability of the systems should answer two different perspectives, namely passenger and the agency or operator.
PASSEnGER’S PERSPECTIVE
As we look at the transit market and its chance to capture ridership then indeed we consider the viability of transit market. There are three cases when passengers will use transit service: 1) when there is no alternative so it is captive situation, 2) when service offers more comfort than automobile, and 3) when service offered is acceptable.
OPERATOR’S PERSPECTIVE
How operators look at the acceptance or viability of transit system is mainly related to their revenue, cost and profit.
times). Operator: it may comprise of road, vehicle and agency agent with different activities in operation. Road agent may reside physically, as part of the road infrastructure (e.g., traffic light control), or virtually, as part of multistakeholder software system.
It is expected that if MSTS could be materialized in operation and undertaken through optimal operation planning, then MSTS becomes the future intelligent public transport able to compete with its private vehicle counterpart.
FAILURE In DEVELOPInG
InTELLIGEnT PUBLIC TRAnSPORT
InTELLIGEnT MAnnERS
In OPERATIOn PLAnnInG
There is no other way of increasing patronage of public transport unless we can make it safe, comfortable and affordable in such a way it becomes more competitive to its private vehicle counterpart. Common transit-operation planning process would cover four activities; route network design, timetable setting, vehicle scheduling, and crew scheduling.
TRAnSIT ACCEPTAnCE PERSPECTIVES
Any kind of transit service should have standards. Relaxation of standards level sometimes has to be made to answer different class of ridership in such a way so it may reach wider acceptance among stakeholders. The decline in transit ridership is the impact of two main factors: 1) poor level-of-service, and 2) better competitors. For example in Jakarta, more investment is given to new arterial roads, bridges, toll roads to serve
OPERATInG MULTI-STAKEHOLDER TRAnSIT SYSTEM (MSTS)
So far we have been discussing public transit operation in the context of user and operator perspectives. As we realize that transit operation is multi-facet, and indeed multi-stakeholders too, it is important to materialize the concept of multi-stakeholder transit system in operation. One of the challenges to develop intelligent public transport is how to materialize the multi-stakeholder concept. Regulator: it can be the authority (local or central government) which is responsible for monitoring system performance according to the determined or decided indicators in a way to maintain user’s satisfaction. User: it can be captive or variable passenger agent that plans the trip according to passenger preferences, and based on real-time information available from road segment agents (deciding travel time), and vehicle agents (deciding routes and dwell
Transport sector in many cities and countries has been cursed as notorious sector for its energy inefficiency and air pollution due to its emission. This sector consumes oil energy which is nonrenewable even more as compared to other oil consuming sector like industrial sector in many cities and countries. These adverse impacts may, in some extent, keep expanding in the light of the fact that most cities and countries in the world have become more industrialized. The fundamental question then, now are we going to stick with our private vehicles or shift to public transport? But surely we still believe that modal choice in transport system is the ultimate independency of trip makers. So there is no other way of rescuing the earth from extensive use of non-renewable fossil energy and greater emission of transport sector unless we are able to build intelligent public transport, or even to materialize the MSTS. •
Recognition Employee of the Month
By AUBREY C DANIELSThe failure of Eom
As far as I can determine, the purpose of the practice, which I will refer to as Employee of the Month (EOM) is to motivate employees to do their best. I can state categorically that it doesn’t. Managers and supervisors apparently assume that those who don’t get the recognition will be motivated to try to earn the recognition the next month. That assumption also is dead wrong. As a matter of fact, EOM violates every known principle of effective positive reinforcement. A few of the many problems with EOM:
• Reinforcement is competitive.
• Recognition is infrequent.
• In most organizations, recognition is not earned.
• Recognition is not reinforcing If this practice is not effective, what can explain its popularity? It’s actually easy to understand how EOM became an imbedded recognition strategy. EOM is easy to administer, requiring only a few minutes each month to decide who will get the recognition; the person receiving it is usually excited about it, and the rewards are certainly inexpensive, requiring only a photo, a designated parking space, and possibly even a free meal or two. By the way, more elaborate and expensive awards don’t increase the effectiveness; they only increase the cost. Although EOM usually is started with the best of intentions, the way the program is structured and administered assures that it will fail.
To be clear, Employee of the Month fails all of the four criteria for effective positive reinforcement.
• EOM is not personal
• EOM is not immediate
• EOM is not contingent
• EOM is not frequent Employee of the Month fails on every criterion that behavior analysis tells us is
necessary to cause people to want to do their best in the workplace every day.
WHAT TO DO InSTEAD
What I recommend, instead, is a Get To Know Your Fellow Employee program. Publish bios of every employee. Place the bios at some easily accessible spot on the internal computer system, on the Web, or put them in a book, a Company Facebook if you will. Employees will discover many things that they have in common with other employees and this will likely increase employee interactions that facilitate teamwork and cooperation. It may even lead to additional friendships in the workplace; something that the Gallop survey (1999) thinks is an important indicator of effective management. In addition, as people accomplish things at work, at home, or in the community that deserve some notice, put them in a newsletter or some other publication–a Did You Know? section, for example. Ultimately, Employee of the Month carries too much negative baggage to warrant any management time and expense. So why do anything at all? You should do it because recognition and reward are valuable in a management culture of daily positive reinforcement. If you don’t have a positive reinforcement culture then recognition and reward are unlikely to have the desired impact and are a waste of time and money. A positive reinforcement culture is one where everyone knows the rules for effective reinforcement and practices them every day. Positive reinforcement is not just something for managers to do. It is something that everyone needs to do. It is just as effective to provide positive reinforcement for your boss as it is for the boss to reinforce you.
In ORDER TO MAKE RECOGnITIOn AnD REWARD EFFECTIVE YOU SHOULD:
• Create a positive reinforcement culture.
• Teach all employees about positive reinforcement as a scientific concept.
• Don’t limit the number of employees who can be recognized and rewarded.
• Set criteria such that everyone who exceeds is recognized and rewarded.
• Avoid recognition and rewards where the adjectives, first, top, best, and most improved are used.
• Set the awards in such a way that you will be happiest when all employees earn them at the same time.
InTERESTInG THAT in the endorsements on the back cover, the reader will find the testimonials of premier global “toxic leadership” experts including the renowned Manfred Kets de Vries of INSEAD Global Leadership Centre in Paris; and Barbara Kellerman of the Harvard University’s - Harvard Kennedy School, USA.
Toxic leaders
The author alerts us that ignored or undetected bad leadership is extremely costly and damaging for businesses, partners, clients and customers. He shows how bad behavior and destructive decision making turn “toxic” when they spread throughout organisations and supply chains and “infect” the entire company. The costly results of toxic leadership include: massive turnover; falling pro-
thor offers the “positive downsizing” of a rival CEO at North Country Solutions, another engineering company down the road. Rather than traumatizing employees, CEO Lane Blake transforms a potentially toxic downsizing into a supportive and culture building affair!
In the middle of a global recession and international financial crisis, Dr. Alan Goldman’s new book, Transforming Toxic Leaders, should be of serious interest. A number of practical cases lead the reader to apply suggestions to avoid to become a Toxic Leader.
Another way that a leader turns “toxic” is when he brings his “pre-existing” troubled mental and emotional state into the workplace and it negatively impacts strategy, decisions and people skills. Bullying, panic attacks, extreme impatience, physical and emotional abuse, obsessive and compulsive behavior, disorganization and confusion, and an inability to productively collaborate in executive
ductivity and morale; plunging motivation; grievances and lawsuits; acts of sabotage; chronic absenteeism and lateness; stress and anxiety induced illnesses; injuries on the job and a hostile, abusive, suspicious and undermining workplace.
Goldman tells seldom heard stories of seemingly successful leaders who turn toxic and illustrates how the abrupt and mean spirited terminations of employees by the Bentley Pacific CEO turned him into a toxic leader. Companywide fear, trauma and grievances follow. What is the alternative?
In contrast to the toxic Bentley Pacific, “downsizing from hell”, the au-
teams are but a few of the troubling behaviors observed in leaders who turn toxic due to pre-existing conditions.
Throughout Transforming Toxic Leaders, the consultant is summoned fairly late in the game. Human resources, upper echelon leaders, employees and followers do not respond to bad leader behavior until they are forced to! The massive exit of engineers from SkyWaves in the form of transfer requests and the plunging productivity finally alerted the new HR director to the fact that something was terribly wrong. Once the consultant was retained he quickly learned that physi-
Are there more toxic leaders than in the past? “Overall there appears to be more toxic leaders than in the past in part due to the fact that our movement into flatter, decentralized and empowerment oriented organisations has vastly increased the number of “leaders.” Moreover, the movement toward globalization, cross cultural workforces, and e-communications has all dramatically contributed toward not only new leadership prospects but also to the propensity for toxic leader and employee behavior. While there is no denying that employees are vulnerable to bad leaders, it is also true that no leader is fully immune from the potential wrath of an employee who wants to report bad behavior or belittle his leader online – since this may not be an in person, face-to-face option. In addition, crossing borders opens the doors for toxic leader behavior due to ethnocentrism, rigidity, and a failure to blend somewhat different approaches to management, teams and appraisal” Finally, a unique feature of Goldman’s approach is a clear and succinct blueprint for transforming toxic leaders. The author provides one hundred and twenty-five toxic leader behaviors and policies and offers a detoxification strategy for every single item cited. In total, HR directors, managers and CEOs are provided with a hands on, practical, resourceful and thoroughly innovative cataloguing of 125 detoxification strategies based on the cases in the book. Each detoxification strategy is both theoretically sound and pragmatically oriented and provides prototypes for practicing leaders to apply the principles in their own organisations.
Twsm makes the book selections among the most recent publications of books on business with a focus on Hr and management, by relying on book reviews and by distinguishing the ones that can be considered as guides for organisations and managers. From talent management to how to attract and retain talents, consequences of toxic leaders to the central characteristics of successful managers, new leadership feautres to loyalty issues, from lessons that will lead through crisis to the importance of taking lessons out of failures and even much more can be found within our selections. We provide a list of books that today’s managers must have in store. For any other related book suggestions to be presented within the twsm book selection, please send an e-mail with the title, the author and the publishing house to welcome@theworkstylemagazine.com
cal and emotional abuse among the engineers had been swept aside and not dealt with for approximately six years! What were the results? Leadership was “toxic” by virtue of ignoring, denying and trivializing abusive behavior. Moreover, toxic leadership had unwittingly created and sustained a dysfunctional culture that allowed bullying to metastasize throughout the company. In other cases presented in the book Goldman describes destructive leaders who are adored and applauded by a majority of their followers. Such “yes men” followers are mostly concerned with “what’s in it for me” and not jeopardizing their performance evaluations. Followers who do not report bad leader behavior are also concerned that any negative reports on their part might serve to threaten their prospects for advancement in the company.
Ironically, Transforming Toxic Leaders also illustrates how toxic leadership is not all negative and can in fact be a positive force within an organisation’s life. In the case of Dr. Ivan Lorimer, head cardiac surgeon for Eisenhower Heart Institute, he exhibited narcissistic traits, symptoms of an intermittent explosive disorder and obsessive compulsive tendencies that made him difficult for his surgical team to deal with. But it also drove him to command excellence from his staff and for his patients. As an elite mitral valve surgeon and leader of his institute’s cardiology division, Dr. Lorimer was an extraordinary perfectionist in part driven by his narcissistic and obsessive compulsive traits.
Our selection
Steve Kerr, Dean A. Shepherd, From Lemons to Lemonade: Squeeze Every Last Drop of Success Out of Your Mistakes, Wharton School Publishing 207 pp. ¤ 15,14
We all fail. And we all want to learn from our failures. But learning from failure doesn’t happen automatically. It requires very specific emotional and rational skills. We can learn those skills from this book. Drawing on leading-edge research with hundreds of failing and successful entrepreneurs, Dr. Dean A. Shepherd offers powerful strategies for managing the emotions generated by failure so failure becomes less devastating, learning happens faster, and you grow as much as possible from the experience.
Kenichi Ohmae, next Global Stage: The: Challenges and Opportunities in Our Borderless World, Wharton School Publishing 212 pp. ¤ 28,32
In The Next Global Stage, Kenichi Ohmae reveals the postglobalized world and shows what it’ll take to succeed there, as a company, a nation, and as an individual. This book doesn’t just explain what’s already happened: it offers a roadmap for action in the world that’s beginning to emerge.
Book Twsm Selection
Cornelia Dean, Am I Making Myself Clear?
A Scientist’s Guide to Talking to the Public, Harvard University Press 274pp. ¤ 16,14
Am I Making Myself Clear? shows scientists how to speak to the public, handle the media, and describe their work to a lay audience on paper, online, and over the airwaves. It is a book that will improve the tone and content of debate over critical issues and will serve the interests of science and society.
William A. Schiemann, Reinventing Talent Management: How to Maximize Performance in the new Marketplace, John Wiley & Sons 272 pp ¤ 23,97
Reinventing Talent Management will demonstrate the need to adopt fresh thinking to managing talent in organisations of every size and type. The conclusions are based on an examination of the new talent marketplace and the role it plays in shaping organisational growth and survival . It is possible to find throughout the book many recommended actions and best practice ideas.
Moving out of the box
In today’s world that is featured by information overload, speed and technology in all activities, the building of a constructive and efficient decision process is a cornerstone to become more efficacious and productive both in the profession and the private life. Twsm has interviewed Jana Kemp on this topic, on occasion of her recent book “Moving out of the box”.
twsm In which way have the new tools (web, e-mail etc..) changed the decision process?
jk Now many people get over-loaded by the volume of information available and can find themselves unable to make a decision at all. On the positive side, communication technologies do help people to gather information and keep in contact to manage post-decision implementation. Decision making processes are constructive when a clear
twsm Collaboration, Consensus, Cooperation, Command and Control: the words for “moving out the of the box”?
decision is made (whether it is a “yes” or a “no” decision); when people know exactly what they are to do as a result of the decision; and when people are committed to completing the actions needed to implement the decision
jk Collaboration – to work together willingly and share information freely so that decisions can be made. Consensus – to come to consensus means that a general agreement has been reached, without having taken a vote. Cooperation – to work together on a common effort or for a common benefit. Decisions may be reached by consensus or by taking a vote. Command and Control – This form of decision making can happen in two ways. First, a vote can be taken and the majority of the group’s vote is the resulting decision. Second, one person or an authorized team, can make a decision and direct others as to what action to take. In Moving Out of the Box, my primary point is that there is a time for making decisions by consensus and a time for making command and control decisions. For instance, when commitment to participate is needed by a large group of people, when time is available for generating solutions, and when a group or team is willing to share information, then making a decision by consensus can work. When time is limited or when a decision is needed urgently, then a command and control decision is the right one. I strongly believe that in this millennium, our business and government
Alan Weiss; nancy MacKay, The Talent Advantage: How to Attract and Retain the Best and the Brightest, John Wiley & Sons 203pp. ¤ 20,06
In today’s business world, traditional battles about market share, inexpensive labor, and time-tomarket are being superseded by a more fundamental and essential need: the quest for talent. This won’t be a mere battle, but an all out war, as organizations reach across traditional geopolitical and cultural borders to attract and retain the best and the brightest. In their work with hundreds of managers in particular and thousands of executives in general, the authors have discovered that the manager is the point person for this talent search. Extraordinary management is the key to the decisions, structures, processes, “and personal example” that attracts, secures, nurtures, and retains talent.
leaders need to be masters of both consensus and command and control decision making approaches. Employees expect to participate in making decisions. And employees expect to see leaders in charge and making decisions when a situation demands it.
twsm A checklist for Making Decisions Easier?
jk 1. Determine who must be included in making the decision. Who has the right knowledge? Who has the right authority to make the decision? Who will have the authority to implement the decision? Make sure the right people are invited to the decision table. 2.Gather relevant information about the costs, resources needed, staffing needs, available equipment and supplies, and all data
that needs to be considered when making the decision. Be sure to share it with the people involved in making the decision. Agree not to keep information hidden from others. Good decisions are made when relevant information can be accessed. 4.Use the mindsets to invite people into the decision-making conversation. Everyone has a valuable and relevant idea or life experience to share in the decision making process.
5.When time is short, use a command and control decision and take a vote or have one person make the decision. 6.When a reasonable amount of time is available before the decision must be made, and when involving others in the decision making is important, use a consensus approach to making the decision”.
Todd L. Pittinsky,
Crossing the Divide: Intergroup Leadership in a World of Difference (Leadership for the Common Good), Harvard Business School Press Book 288 pp. $ 35,00
Bringing groups together is a central and unrelenting task of leadership. CEOs must nudge their executives to rise above divisional turf battles, mayors try to cope with gangs in conflict, and leaders of many countries face the realities of sectarian violence. Crossing the Divide introduces cutting-edge research and insight into these age-old problems.
Edited by Todd Pittinsky of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, this collection of essays brings together two powerful scholarly disciplines: intergroup relations and leadership. What emerges is a new mandate for leaders to reassess what have been regarded as some very successful tactics for building group cohesion. Leaders can no longer just “rally the troops.” Instead they must employ more positive means to span boundaries, affirm identity, cultivate trust, and collaborate productively. In this multidisciplinary volume, highly regarded business scholars, social psychologists, policy experts, and interfaith activists provide not only theoretical frameworks around these ideas, but practical tools and specific case studies as well. Examples from around the world and from every sector - corporate, political, and social - bring to life the art and practice of intergroup leadership in the twenty-first century.
Timothy Keiningham, Lerzan Aksoy, Why Loyalty Matters: The Groundbreaking Approach to Rediscovering Happiness, Meaning and Lasting Fulfillment in Your Life and Work, Benbella Books 246 pp , ¤ 20,06
Loyalty-and its many ramifications-is the subject of the book, Why Loyalty Matters In. The authors offer readers a
fresh way to view happiness and find more fulfillment in all facets of life.
If you are a business owner or manager and want to improve your company in countless ways, show employees you deserve their loyalty. Beyond the workplace, however, loyalty is essential to maintaining stable family and personal relationships, high-functioning communities, and even governments.
The authors demonstrate how loyalty is being undermined all around us-by market pressures, fragmented families and communities, and even technology-and point out the negative consequences of this trend. But they also provide solutions-practical ways to build more loyal connections with others in your personal and professional relationships, and reap significant benefits.
Bill George, Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis, Jossey-Bass 160 pp, $19,95
From business giant Bill George, the acclaimed author of Wall Street Journal’s bestseller True North, comes the just-intime guide for anyone in a leadership position facing today’s unprecedented economic challenges. The former CEO of Medtronic draws from his own in-the-trenches experience and lessons from leaders (representing an array of companies) who have weathered tough economic storms. With straight talk and clear directions, George shows leaders specifically what they must do to become strong leaders and survive any crisis. His seven lessons include: Face Reality, Starting with Yourself; Never Waste a Good Crisis; and Be Aggressive: This is Your Best Chance to Win in the Market. Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis is a survival kit for anyone in a leadership position.
Shawn Smith JD, Rebecca Mazin, HR Answer Book, The: An Indispensable Guide for Managers and Human Resources Professionals, Amacom, 235 pp. $24,95
The HR Answer Book addresses 200 questions that every
employer needs to deal with, from recruiting and hiring to discipline and termination, compensation and benefits to training and employee relations. Accessible and concise, this on-the-job companion offers expert guidance on all types of ”people” issues, enabling managers and human resources professionals to: save time, money, and trouble; increase employee productivity, satisfaction, and retention; attract and hire the best candidates while avoiding the inferior ones ; handle tough issues like sexual harassment, Internet and email usage, performance problems, and more -- fairly, sensitively, and legally. The HR Answer Book is an easy-touse problem solver that can be read cover-to-cover or as a quick reference in specific situations. An appendix of tools, templates, and lists of additional resources completes this excellent and valuable guide.
Adrian Robert Gostick, Chester Elton
The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance, Free Press 235 pp. ¤ 18,49
Revealing the groundbreaking results of one of the most in-depth management studies ever undertaken, The Carrot Principle shows definitively that the central characteristic of the most successful managers is that they provide their employees with frequent and effective recognition. With independent results from HealthStream Research, and analysis by bestselling leadership experts Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, this breakthrough study of 200,000 people over ten years found dramatically greater business results when managers offered constructive praise and meaningful rewards in ways that powerfully motivated employees to excel. These managers lead with carrots, not sticks, and in doing so achieve higher:productivity, engagement, retention. In a new chapter, Gostick and Elton report on the results of an extensive study, conducted by leading research authority Towers Perrin, that confirms the extraordinary effectiveness of the Carrot Principle approach all around the globe.
Roger Connor, Tom Smith, How Did That Happen? Holding People Accountable for Results the Positive, Principled Way, Penguin 272 pp. $ 26,95
Connors and Smith have spent decades implementing their approach to creating greater accountability in some of the world’s most admired companies. Through hundreds of successful client applications, they have proven that organizational accountability can be the single most important factor in ensuring a company’s success. Now, they present the Accountability Sequence, a systematic and sensible approach that includes two essential components: The Outer Ring, which reveals how to establih expectations and positive accountability connections with everyone in the Expectations Chain. The Inner Ring, which shows how to manage unmet expectations when people fail to deliver and thereby reverse the misfortune of missed results.
Using case studies, practical models, and self-assessments, the authors make it possible for anyone to install accountability as a central part of their daily work, their team’s efforts, or an overall corporate culture-and, in turn, increase profits and generate better results.
Management Training and Development in China
Prof Keith Goodall has just published his new book “Management Training and Development in China” (Routledge). On this occasion twsm has interviewed Prof Goodall, grasping the experience of an academic professor and consultant with a professional experience in Europe and China. The idea is to understand analogies and differences in management training and development between the emerging China and the rest of the world. Goodall investigates the growth of management training and consultancy companies, and analyses the perceived quality and utility of management training from the perspective of senior Chinese and expatriate managers. It summarises the current trends in management training and development in China, and outlines the likely course of future developments. Overall, this book is a comprehensive account of management training and development in China, and is an important resource in an area that has hitherto seen little substantive research. twsm Which is the main difference between management in China and in the rest of the world?
kg It’s difficult to generalise because of the huge variety of types and sizes of business in China and the large differences in business cultures within Europe. Certainly the first word a foreign manager learns in China is probably ‘guanxi’ or ‘relationships’. Whereas American managers, say, will typically negotiate a legal contract and then strengthen relationships as business goes well, Chinese managers often want to develop a relationship first and then sign a contract. Of course, Italian managers will also recognise the primary
importance of relationships. Another difference between Chinese management and many other countries is the degree of attention paid to ‘face’ in formal relationships. A foreign manager who gives direct, public criticism of his staff might well be seen as unduly aggressive and rude. The foreign manager may, in turn, feel that more open and direct conversations would be helpful. A final difference that many foreign managers notice is the high degree of ‘power distance’ in traditional Chinese manager-subordinate relations. When I ask Chinese managers how a good subordinate is traditionally expected to behave the word that most often comes back is ‘obedient’. American managers expect much more ‘proactive’ behaviour from their subordinates.
twsm Is there something that Europe can learn from China?
kg The importance of balancing respect for tradition with fast-paced change.
twsm How can China, USA and Europe improve the organisation through team work?
kg By not over-emphasising the importance of teams. They can, of course, be useful in certain situations but are often over-used and can be inefficient. Managers need to evaluate the nature of the task carefully before turning to a team.
twsm Human Resource Department: it is still a key function. Why and how do you think HR can be useful to overcome the crisis?
kg I don’t think HR is necessarily a key function in all organisations (after all HP didn’t have an HR department until they had around 250 employees). However, in the crisis many HR managers have understood that it is a great time to go shopping for talent and that they should be as concerned with retaining key staff as with downsizing.
