Best vintages

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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!!

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”, 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.”

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) 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)

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. • 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.

Attachment and pride Determined to succeed

By BAHAR PURALIGIL

TURKEY’S THIRD LARGEST CITY, “the Pearl of the Aegean” where you may witness the traces of many ancient civilizations along with a modern city scape, has been a very strategic spot of commerce for centuries and now the city has even greater expectations thanks to the bypassed Expo!

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-

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01 Izmir Pasaport Shore 02 Izmir Bay

03 Cesme - popular summer place close to Izmir ©Gökce Sönmez 04 Wine producing village - Sirince ©Gökce Sönmez 05 Cesme Ilica Beach ©Gökce Sönmez 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

06 07 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 former 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.

06 Wine producing village - Sirince ©Gökce Sönmez 07 Izmir Mayor- Aziz Kocaoglu 08 Sailing in Izmir Bay

09 Izmir Konak Square 10 Izmir- Karsiyaka 11 Izmir- Konak

12 Cesme Boyalik Beach ©Gökce Sönmez

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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

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Attachment and pride Determined to succeed

13 Izmir - Ephesus, the amphitheatre 14-15 Izmir, Cesme - touristic Alacati that is also world famous for wind surfing ©Gökce Sönmez 16 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.

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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 • Number of Bars and Night Clubs: 80

By SUTANTO SOEHODHO

Moving Public transport

InTELLIGEnT PUBLIC TRAnSPORTATIOn Chair of Transport Research Group, University of Indonesia, and Deputy Governor of Jakarta for Trade, Industry and Transportation.

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 basic 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. Throughout 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.

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 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.

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 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 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. •

By AUBREY C. DANIELS

Recognition Employee of the Month

EOM AnD MOST OTHER FORMS OF RECOGnITIOn AnD REWARD Selecting an employee for special recognition every month, quarter, or year is the most common form of workplace recognition.

The 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.

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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.

Book Twsm Selection

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-

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-

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! 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 In the middle of a and people skills. global recession and Bullying, panic atinternational financial tacks, extreme imcrisis, Dr. Alan Goldman’s patience, physical new book, Transforming and emotional Toxic Leaders, should abuse, obsessive be of serious interest. A and compulsive number of practical cases behavior, disorlead the reader to apply ganization and suggestions to avoid to confusion, and an become a Toxic Leader. inability to productively collaborate in executive 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-

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Are there more toxic lead-

ers 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.