TWSM#5

Work Style

A worldwide observatory on work style changes

08 Six authors “for Statistics” Ben Gilad, Joseph Koletar, Aron Goldhirsch, Hans Rosling, Kent Johnson, Galit Shmuéli 19 Being Zen in Business by Allan Hall 27 Understanding Us Copyright Law by Matthew Seminara 29 Investing in culture, the way forward by Gabriel James Byrne 30 The DNA of the CEO by Elena Mazzuoli 33 The longevity of historical brands by Sara Peverelli 41 Striving for recognition by Magda Danysz 44 Working Parents: What do your Children Think by Jérôme Ballarin 79 Paris, still shines by Cristina Milani

Colophon

# 5 issue, October 2010

International publisher

Pe Partecipazioni editoriali

Via GB Pioda 5, POBox, 6901 Lugano, Switzerland

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Italian publisher

Gds Brand Consultancy

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Printing

Italgrafica

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Us Address

The Work Style Magazine 578 Broadway, Suite 150 New York, NY, 10025

Summary

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 Ugne Baltrusaityte, Roberto Benzi, Filippo De Bortoli, Luca Brunoni, Allan Hall, Rosario Imperiali, Nigel Phillips, Sara Peverelli, Blake Esterday, Matthew Seminara

Authors’ illustrator Alessandro Baronciani

Cover illustration James Bennett, Pipersville, USA

Advertising International

Roberta Donati

E roberta@theworkstylemagazine.com

T 0041 91 9101000

Italy Publicitas International

Marzia Solinas

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T 0039 02 55194385

Subscriptions

To subscribe to the magazine please visit: theworkstylemagazine.com

To flip through the magazine please visit: theworkstylemagazine.com/flip/5/default.asp

To ask for previous issues please contact: welcome@theworkstylemagazine.com

8

Statistics

08 Statistics versus Competitive Intelligence

How to make decisions using superior CI

A new approch to real business decisions based on competitive intelligence.

10 Statistics in Data Protection Making your company stronger How to protect people: the real key component of a company.

12 Statistics in Medicine Taking risks in medicine What does it mean for a doctor to give or to decide not to give a treatment.

14 Statistics Animated Bringing statistics to life How Gapminder started thinking out of the box introducing statistics animation.

16

Statistics point of view Statistics: Math o Myth? How statistic data could be misunderstood; different evaluations from different experts.

18

Sustainability indicators

Measuring sustainability inside the company

Alessandro Zollo present rewords®, an innovative methodology to company sustainability analysis.

The Work Cities Guide Denver USA.

19 News from the past Being Zen in business

Starting from the book “Zen in the art or Archery”, an interesting analysis on new ways of doing business.

20

Integrate Technology

Effective workplace communication

The evolution of technology contributed to change people work habits.

22

Corporate Canteen Canteens befriends wellbeing

A correct nutrition together with healty food, are the way forward for canteens.

26

Company Compliance

From theory to practice

Advices for companies on how to protect their data transfer.

27

Copyright Understanding Us copyright law

The conservation of intellectual property rights for an American employee.

29

The ROI of the knowledge Investing in culture, the way forward

The importance to supply culture, an important brick to build country’s identity

36

Design Values Strengthen your design

From the “voice “ of different companies we investigate the evolution of the relationship between companies and designers. 38

Unusual jobs

When your work is your passion How to become a mountain and a safari guide. Two jobs, to life choices.

41

Women Gallerists

Striving for recognition

48

The Value of a Good Integration

Excellent integration: the rules The importance of candidates personality together with a good CV are the right mix to get a job.

77 Denver

The economical queen of the Us

The Work Cities Guide is now heading to Denver.

79 France

Paris, still shines

How the best French companies got through the crisis.

83 Marseille City Guide

30

Inside the CFO

The DNA of the CFO

A recent report from Deloitte, highlights how the role of CFO has changed.

32 Historical Companies

The longevity of historical brands

A research to understand which are the key factors who determinate brands longevity.

An overview of the world of women gallerist, a profession on the rise. 44

Family and work

Working parents: what do your children think Survey among working parents, to understand their children point of view.

54

To be cool

54 Design ideas International Design Excellence Award (IDEA).

55 Fashion in the world

The business side of style Portraits of Claudia Valdiva Valladares, Stefano Colombo, Naomi Simson.

86 Waste Management

Does clean mean rich?

A trip between different cities’ waste management, to find the best solution. 91

Cultural Sponsorship

Financeloves the art

Following CS around the world, we investigate how an international company promotes art.

92 Always in motion

Living on-the-go

71 Istanbul

The city between two worlds

A trip in the city where East and West meet.

A portrait of people who spend hours in traffic or on a train while going to work. 94 Book selection

Exciting new releases and interviews with the authors. 98

Our choices

Editorial

By MIRKO NESURINI

Our fifth issue comes out on 20.10.2010 exactly on the International Statistics Day. Our idea is to capsize the concept of The chicken novel. Statistics is a peculiar subject. It shows everything, but not what we would really like to see, just like Churchill’s idea of bikinis. Statistics is a subject that works with percentage. The average is always the same. The chicken sums are easily calculated: if you could have a chicken per year, and you ate one over two years, statistically you ate half a chicken per year. But in reality you could have eaten that chicken during one year and ate none during the next one. Half of the World’s population banquets, the other half dies of hunger, half of the World is on sale, the other half buys. In the same way when we say that the 10% of the working population is unemployed, probably it really means that 30-50 years old are actually working, while 20–30 years olds don’t have a job, this is a huge problem.

Our ambition for a better world is to go for half a chicken each, instead of two chickens for those who are privileged and none for those who aren’t. Many are considering statistics, Benjamin Gilad, Joseph A. Koletar, Aron Goldhirsch and Hans Rosling, and also Galit Shmueli, Kent Johnson in 2 very amusing articles. The cities in which we work, are a crucial topic of our magazine, that finds substance in the launch of the 100workcities. com web – site, an important research project conducted by Filippo De Bortoli in order to identify liveability themes in metropolises in the next decade. Allan Hall, took up philosophy in his wonderful piece. Starting from the book Zen in the Art of Archery he investigated new training approaches based on patience and perseverance.

This issue contains many articles that are curious, intense, rich in their content (an example is the research conducted by INSEAD on measuring sustainability inside a company which relates to enteprises’ environmental performances), and we believe wholesome.

Mirko Nesurini Chairman mirko@theworkstylemagazine.com

Note: Authors’ names are given in full in the first article, while an abbreviation is used thereafter. The remaining pieces are by members of the Editorial Board.

Aachen

Hermann Bühlbecker

Hermann Bühlbecker, owner of the Lambertz group, one of Germany’s oldest brands (since 1688).

Älmhult

Lars Dafnäs

IKEA’s Design Manager.

Bellingham

Jason

D. Martin

Professional Mountain Guide and the Operations Manager at the American Alpine Institute.

Bellinzona

Aron Goldhirsch, M.D. Physician-in-Chief of the Division of Research at the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland.

Bergamo

Giovanni Colombo Marketing manager of the International group of Dussmann service Italy.

Bolivia

Joseph A. Koletar

Published author. He is a Certified Fraud Examiner with a Doctorate in Public Administration.

Boulder Betsy Novak

Executive Director of the American Mountain Guides Association.

Cambridge

Benjamin

Gilad, PhD

President of the leading global training institution in competitive intelligence, The Fuld-Gilad-Herring Academy of CI.

Contributors

Contributors around the world for The Work Style Magazine.

College Park

Galit Shmuéli

Associate Professor of Statistics Department of Decision, Operations & Information Technologies at Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland.

Cologne

Julia Furelaud

Spokesman of the Trecentenarian company, Farina 1709.

Conwy

Martin Chester

Director of Training at Plas y Brenin National Mountain Centre and Publicity Officer for the British Mountain Guides.

Copenhagen

Christian Grosen Rasmussen Design Manager of Republic of Fritz Hansen.

Kasper Salto

Designer of the Ice™ Series, Little Friend™ and NAP™ for Republic of Fritz Hansen. He has received several design awards.

Hamburg

Andrée Sfeir Semler

Founder –Director Galerie Sfeir Semler Hamburg/Beirut.

Irvine

Kent Johnson

Associate Professor-Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of California.

Istanbul

Ural Öcal, Gokce Turkel, Karen Sason Illustrators of Gk Instanbul Tasarim.

Johannesburg

Grant Hine

Chief Executive Officer (MD) of FGASA.

Lausanne

Stephanie Vincent-Geslin

Doctor in sociology from the University of Paris-Descartes. She is nowadays working as a scientific collaborator in the Urban Sociology Laboratory at EPFL in Lausanne.

Lima

Luis Francisco Gonzales Watson Professional Photographer.

London

Paul Davis

Illustrator who works in Creative Review, Time Out, Graphics International, Print (US) and many others. His recent works were exhibited in Tokyo, New York, Paris and London.

Hanna Melin Freelance Illustrator and Artist.

Kathmandu

Ram Prasad Ghimire Executive Director of Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel management (NATHM).

Milan

Edoardo Venturini Strategies, Marketing, Communications & Client Relations Manager for Sodexo Italy.

Alessandro Zollo

CEO Rewords. He served as research manager on the Italian Centre for Social Responsibility (I-CSR) and as a consultant for Accenture and Ernst and Young Financial Business Advisors.

Nelspruit

Cornè Schalkwyk

Marketing and Sales Manager EcoTraining.

New York City

Gabriel James Byrne

Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, and audiobook narrator. In March 2010 he has been named Ireland’s first Cultural Ambassador.

Senem Oezdogan Graphic Designer and Illustrator.

Novara

Francesca Crespi Owner of the italian textile firm Crespi 1797 and president of Italian sector of The Henokiens.

Ølgod

Claus Ditlev Jensen Collection & Visuals Director of BoConcept.

Paris

Jérôme Ballarin Parenthood Observatory’s President, High Council on Family and HR valley’s President.

Laurent Cousin Marketing Offer, Research & Development manager of Sodexo.

Magda Danysz Gallery founder of the Galerie Magda Danysz, based in Paris and Shanghai.

Gérard Lipovich Spokesman of the Interational Association of Family and Bicentenary Companies, the Henokiens.

Sandrine Martin Comics Designer.

Pipersville

James Bennett

Member of the Executive Board of Directors at the Society of Illustrators, he is also active in the Illustrators Partnership of America.

Rotterdam

Eelco Van Den Berg

Illustrator, Painter, Graffiti writer and DJ.

Marc De Kuyper

Vice President Marketing and Sales USA at De Kuyper Royal Distillers and representative member of the International Family Business Network.

Stockholm

Hans Rosling

Professor of Global Health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute. Co-founder of Gapminder.org.

Sydney

Cybele Malinowski

Principal Photographer at Blue Murder Studios.

Taipei City

Yishin Wu

One of the worldwide best Illustrator in Taiwan.

Windham Center

David Johnson Freelance Illustrator.

Zurich

Toni J. Krein

Head of the Cultural Sponsorship Department at Credit Suisse.

At Work Style we care about the environment, so we print our magazine on 100% recycled paper

Thinking out of the box Statistics versus Competitive Intelligence

How to make decisions using superior CI

In an issue devoted to statistics, this piece will probably stand out as sacrilege. In stark contrast to the excessive use of number crunching at various managerial levels, and the excessive weigh executives place on the predictive qualities of quantitative data, competitive intelligence is qualitative and predictive. Numbers to executives are like magic to the Middle Age man. They believe in them. They base decisions on them even when the methodology behind them is shaky. They worship the divine market share figure, though at times it reflects nothing more than data agencies’ peculiar definition of product segments. Business schools add to the rituals by placing great emphasis on financial models for decisions. Taken together, one would think real business decisions are all about statistics. They are not.

Real decisions, especially strategic ones, are based on competitive intelligence, which is the art and science of assessing strategic risks and opportunities the enterprise faces in its environment. These risks and opportunities are available to competitors as well, so decisions must always tie strategy to an evaluation of the firm’s distinct positioning vis-à-vis with its rivals. And here lies the secret of using superior intelligence for (superior) decisions: instead of piling up mindless detailed statistics and data on competitors, decision makers should look at competitive intelligence to distill strategic differentiators from unyielding amount of the white noise inundating them. Superior strategy always emanates from true understanding of what your company unique positioning is, and how this strategic distinction can be sharpened and defended against competitive development in your market. Seen this way, competitive intelligence is very different from the more common competitor information compiled by companies and consultants by the tonnage. Instead, it is the source of insights for one’s next strategic moves. Filtering white noise for nuggets of insights

Benjamin Gilad

The author of 4 books on competitive intelligence, including the latest Business War Games (Career press, 2009), Benjamin Gilad is a former Israeli Police Intelligence officer, a former Associate Professor of Strategy at Rutgers University’s School of Management in NJ, and the co-founder and President of the leading global training institution in competitive intelligence, The Fuld-Gilad-Herring Academy of CI.

on strategic risks and opportunities requires perspective on both industry and strategy. It is not just data or number-crunching or even “facts”. Perspective can arise from years of experience, or an innate entrepreneurial inclination to see through the rabble of data, but quite often it is just a matter of rigorous training in analyzing and predicting industry evolution and the forces that shape customers’ preferences (i.e., what makes one competitive? Would it stay that way tomorrow?). The result is that some managers have superior skills at interpreting the risks and opportunities in their environment, and others seem more oblivious. Darwinian principles in meritocratic environments suggest that those that possess competitive intelligence rise to the top. Those that don’t, or stop using superior competitive intelligence once they have reached a power position, will probably see their glory wane. The good news is that quite often it is just a matter of applying the right assessment frameworks to understand the dynamics of one’s market. The bad news is that many managers, trapped in mindless meetings and endless paperwork, neglect this crucial aspect of their job. The secret to superior decisions is at times as simple as the following: lift your gaze from your navel on occasions, and rethink some basic assumptions about what makes you different.

•

pp. 8, 10, 12 and 14: Illustrations by Paul Davis, London, UK

Thinking out of the box Statistics in Data Protection

Making your company stronger

Today’s organisations are exposed to different kind of risks, such as cyber-attacks, plundering of intellectual property, stealth competition from grey and black markets, unconscionable acts of executive greed and corruption, identity theft, fraud, and terrorist threats. For protection, many businesses turn to powerful information technology, stateof-the-art security systems, and zero tolerance policies. However companies cannot be perfect. Even the CIA and the FBI had spies in them, and they have rigorous security procedures. A company should strive to be better than most of their peers/ competitors. Those seeking to steal or do harm usually look for the easiest target. If I have a burglar alarm, outdoor lights, and a guard dog and you, my neighbor, do not, which one is the burglar going to hit? These people may be crooks, but they are not idiots.

Currently the priority is the human dimension; people not machines are the key component of a good protection strategy. People, together with money and intellectual property are important things to protect. It is essential and possible to show everyone that security and integrity are everyone’s responsibility. Even if you have specialized risk and security units you cannot have the attitude that “it’s not my job.” It is a question of balance between your main job, but also being aware and informed about risk.

Protecting intellectual property is a major challenge. It is a multi-billion dollar problem in the US alone and requires special measures.

We have industry statistics that show fraud accounts for about 6% of revenue for any organization, be it public, private, government, or not-for-profit. Intellectual property is

a particular concern, because once it is stolen it is still there. If I steal your car, it is gone when you look for it. If I steal your intellecutal property they are still there. You do not know they have been stolen until much later.

In the current world data management and data protection are crucial. So the issue is not to ignore data, some of it is quite useful, the issue is, rather, to focus upon a strategy that will identify that which is critical, from that which is merely nice to have or perhaps even interesting, but not critical.

Joseph KoletarA.

He is the author of Rethinking Risk: How Companies Sabotage Themselves and What They Must Do Differently. He has over twelve years’ experience as an Executive Director, Principal, and Director in the Fraud and Investigations practices of Ernst & Young LLP and Deloitte & Touché LLP. Before entering the private sector, he served for twenty-five years as a Special Agent and Senior Executive in the FBI. He is a Certified Fraud Examiner with a Doctorate in Public Administration.

Physical property is certainly important, but data is much easier to steal, move, and sell. I can carry a million dollars worth of data on a disk or a million dollars worth of TV sets in a truck. Which is easier? Poor data management practices are just a form of intellectual property. Again, you cannot be perfect, but you can be better. The number one defense in civil actions involving loss of data is that you (the victim) did not treat as important when you had it in your control.

In summary, this is a complicated area, and involves matters such as the Economic Espionage Act of 1996, a Federal law which makes various forms of data misuse a crime. Also, many states now place what is called “an affirmative responsibility” on companies who hold data on others, be it medical information, financial information, etc. For example, if you have a million customers and learn the data on a hundred has been lost you may well have to notify all million and offer them remedies. Tough standard. Data security can be improved, but this could be the topic for a future article.

Thinking out of the box Statistics in Medicine

Taking risks in medicine

The process of decision making in medicine is complex and involves knowledge of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, their relevance, safety, benefits and costs.

Discovery of drugs from initial development until their commercial availability is a long and complicated process. The appropriate dose must be determined and the schedule, route of administration, tolerability, toxic patterns, safety and especially treatment efficacy before assessing whether, on average, the tested treatment is better than the current standard. Trials are, therefore, not designed to define the best treatment for an individual patient, but rather to evaluate which therapy is better when applied to a defined population of patients.

Any therapeutic procedure may be associated with risks, some of which are predictable because they were identified in pre-registration trials, while others are rare and appear only in unusual circumstances. Three examples of serious drug side effects are presented.

The first case is a drug with an unexpected risk encountered during its use. Thalidomide, a mild pain killer and sedative, introduced into the market in the fifties, caused severe birth defects in children whose mothers took the drug during pregnancy. It is estimated that from 1957 to 1961 about 20.000 children were born with phocomelia, an otherwise rare malformation with limbs which resemble flippers. These thalidomide-related events led to the tightening of regulations for the approval of medications by national and international authorities. Currently, the drug is an accepted therapy for some auto-immune diseases, such as multiple myeloma and amyloidosis with well-established precautions for its use.

Another example of delayed knowledge of side effects is rofecoxib (Vioxx®). It was a very popular anti-inflammatory drug used primarily for arthritis and was prescribed to about 80 million people. The drug was withdrawn in 2004 due to increased cardiac events (myocardial infarctions) and strokes. The polemic about its use was related to the suspicion that the manufacturer knew about

the risks well before this information was in the public domain. The rofecoxib story also led to some stringent changes for clinical research regulations for drug approval.

Diagnostic procedures are less regulated for their safe use than drugs. This has led to grotesque stories related to exposure of patients to significant risks. The July 1st, 2010 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine had a report of a 59-year old school teacher who, two weeks following a CT scan, experienced fatigue, malaise, hair loss, impaired memory and confusion. A review of the CT scan revealed that she had received a radiation dose to her brain which was 100-fold the dose of an average CT scan and three times the daily radiation dose of treatment for a brain tumor. The patient filed a lawsuit against the CT manufacturer and the State.

Aron Goldhirsch

Dr. Goldhirsch is a medical oncologist and clinical trials research scientist. A strong commitment to international cooperation and to the conduct of clinical trials led to his chairing the Scientific Committee of the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG) and becoming Vice-Chair of the Breast International Group (BIG). He is recipient of several international prizes and recognitions among which a PhD Honoris Causa from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is editor or co-editor of 10 books, and serves on the editorial board of several oncology and breast cancer research journals.

Physicians are usually trained to consider the safety profiles and the efficacy of prescribed diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, but in many circumstances some of the risks are considered to be acceptable. In clinical research a signed informed consent provides a written document of patient information. However, for patients treated with drugs outside the framework of a clinical trial, information regarding potential side effects is often not detailed beyond the manufacturer’s insert. Standards for dissemination of information for routine diagnostic procedures are even less well regulated and should be made more explicit.

Thinking out of the box Statistics Animated

Bringing statistics to life

Gapminder was born in 1998-99 since the technology was available at that time. We have found a new understanding of data analysis. Your understanding changes over time. In our website, data become alive becoming more understandable. The main aim for Gapminder is to animate data and use them in videoclips or in TV shows just as meteorologists have done with the weather television forecasts. Our system is very useful, especially in a period in which the principle of data sharing in research has acquired a lot of importance. In the traditional research each researcher connects its information, creates a database and writes an article about it. Researchers share their articles but not the data. However even if they work thanks to tax money, their articles are published only on commercial scientific journals that are only available to those who pay for a subscription. So it is very complicated for someone who is not going to University or is unable to pay to get the publication. To guarantee the data accessibility to everyone, the journal articles should be free on the internet too. Researchers must be paid when they publish an article and then it should be free and available on the Internet to everyone. This is to demonstrate that if used in the right way, the Internet could help to store huge amounts of data at a very low cost.

The easy access to data analysis, is currently getting more important in different aspects of life.

In politics, for example, during the Swedish elections, every major newspaper started to employ a journalist to check the data for accuracy in order to find out if what was said was true or not. Many newspapers and media were doing a good job by visualizing and animating data like unemployment rates, average waiting time in hospitals or benefits for retired people, but not at the root team level.

For instance, an example which surprises me is how can the government budget not be available in an understandable way. In other words, data showing how

much each country spends on military, school, roads and health is not available in a way that every voter can understand. These are the type of information we are trying to make available to the public. I have been successful in my lectures, but we have not yet been successful to put these tools in the hands of the people who have an internet connection.

Hans Rosling

Is a Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Discovered Konzo, a new epidemic paralytic disease, when serving as a doctor in Mozambique in 197981. Two decades of research in rural Africa tracing the causes to toxic ill-processed cassava roots, hunger and poverty.

Co-founded Gapminder that unveils the beauty of statistics by turning boring numbers into enjoyable animations that make sense of the world.

Showing data on the Internet, can also help to decrease the amount of misinterpretations, because everyone can go back to the provider to check it. So, if you do not want an organization to interpret the world for you, if you do not want one group of specialists to interpret the world for you, it is necessary to deal with the problem of data analysis. People have to realize that newspapers also rely on interpreting data in a way. Actually, the best way to live together with data analysis, is to have a limit for misinterpretation and modification, starting to debate for a more democratic process of analysis.

In conclusion, we need to push international organizations such as UN, IMF and OECD to share their data. We are going through a big financial crisis, maybe making stats available to companies, voluntary organizations and universities in a more understandable way could be beneficial. This has happened at national level and it has to move to an international level. Tax funded data should be free and available to the masses.

20.10.2010 World will celebrate the first World Statistics Day to promote the many achievements of official statistics premised on the core values of service, professionalism and integrity. The WSD serves as a tool to further support the work of statisticians across different settings, cultures, and domains. On World Statistics Day, activities at national level will highlight the role of official statistics and the many achievements of the national statistical system. International, regional and sub-regional organizations will complement national activities with

additional events. The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon explains, “today marks the first observance of WSD, proclaimed to recognize the importance of statistics in shaping our Societies. However, as in so many other areas, developing countries often find themselves at a disadvantage. On this first WSD I encourage the international community to work with the United Nations to enable all countries to meet their statistical needs. Let us all acknowledge the crucial role of statistics in fulfilling our global mission of development and peace.”

Illustration by Goni Montes, Decatur, USA

Thinking out of the box Statistics Point of View

By K OHNSON By GALIT SHMUÉLI

Statistics: Math or Myth?

Answering a Question with the Wrong Statistics

Simon and Cathay are chefs at two restaurants in town. They recently discovered the recipe for a delicate pastry that is made just before serving. If the pastry is not made correctly, it falls flat and cannot be served. Simon and Cathay decided to have a friendly competition to see who is more skilled at making these pastries. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, they both offered a special that contains the pastry; whoever had the largest percentage of pastries turn out well would win a bottle of single-malt scotch. On Tuesday night, Simon and Cathay met after work to compare their evening’s records; that night, 20% of Simon’s pastries were successful, but only 10% of Cathay’s were. They both thought they could do better, so they practiced during the night. On Wednesday night, 95% of Simon’s pastries turned out well, but only 80% of Cathay’s did. Upon seeing this, Simon victoriously grabbed the scotch and poured a drink. But before he could toast his victory, Cathay quietly showed him something she’d written on some paper. They studied the figures. Eventually, Simon let out a big laugh, graciously handed Cathay the scotch, and declared her to be the contest true winner! On average, Simon was better at pastry-making on Tuesday night, and he was again on Wednesday night. Yet Cathay was better on average on Tuesday and Wednesday nights taken together. How could this happen? If this strikes you as bizarre, you are not alone. However, cases such as this one, which are known as a “Simpson’s Paradox”, can occur quite easily. To see what happened, we must look at the absolute numbers that produced the percentages, not the percentages themselves. Since the contest concerned the best overall average, Cathay tallied up all her trials and all of her successes over both days. Thus, these two facts were what mattered most for their overall scores in the contest. When we consider a statistic, we are viewing a summary that will hopefully allow us to draw relevant and appropriate conclusions. But summaries always involve some loss of information. That is, a statistic provides an accurate report of one aspect of what may be a very complex situation. Asking a statistic to say something about some other aspects of the situation can be a risky business. (kj)

Workplace Statistics: Who’s Asking?

Managers prefer “hard data” over gut feelings for decision making. Computing the right statistic from a set of data and interpreting its meaning requires figuring out the exact question that we are trying to answer. A critical aspect of the question is: who is asking? Is it the employer, the employee, or perhaps a government agency? In each case, a different number might be needed. Let me illustrate this point by considering employer initiated drug screening. Drug testing used by companies for screening potential and current employees are controversial for various ethical and legal considerations. One such issue is the false-positive rate of the tests. A falsepositive result means that the tested person incorrectly tests positively. In drug screening, this would mean that a non-user is tested positively for drug use. Various factors affect the inaccuracy of urine drug tests. According to the European Workplace Drug Testing Society “an analytical positive result may be due to medication or to dietary causes.” False positive results can clearly carry a hefty price. Therefore, a key piece of information that both employers and employees need from the testing agency is the false positive rate of the test. Public information on false positive rates of standard urinalysis drug testing is not readily available. While some sources report a rate of 1%-2.5%, others claim “at least 10 percent, and possibly as much as 30 percent”. But what exactly is a false positive rate? How is it computed? There appears to be confusion regarding how to compute it. An employee taking the test wants to know: “Given that I am not using drugs, what is the chance that I will test positive?” In contrast, an employer might want to know: “Given all the positive test results in my company, what percent is incorrect?” for evaluating costs and other resources related to follow-up testing, rehabilitation plans and compensation. While the employee and employer’s questions seem similar, they in fact differ significantly. The employee knows whether he or she uses drugs, but their test result is unknown when they are asking this question. In the employer’s case, the test results are known, but the employees’ drug usage is unknown. (gs)

Principle and values Sustainability Indicators

By ALESSANDRO ZOLLO

THE EVALUATION OF INTANGIBLE ASSETS or social and environmental performances has always been a fascinating field of study for scholars and practitioners.

Measuring sustainability inside the company

In recent years there have been basically two different methodologies for this purpose: auditing/accounting measures and classifying/rating for sustainable investors. Most people and scholars are concerned with these indexes because they cannot predict crisis as they don’t really know the company. From the BP environmental crisis to the financial cracks, analysts feel that there is something missing in this kind of measures as we know that, for instance, BP was rated in the top five list of the DJSI till January 2010. So some business analysts think that we have to change perspective and try to really understand the companies processes to evaluate them. This is one of the output of the RESPONSE project which analysed 19 multinational companies to identify the real factors that determine high or low social and environmental performance. At this stage the pyramid is overturned, analysts should be interested in the evaluation of stakeholders instead of accepting what companies say.

Taking as reference the RESPONSE output two consulting and research organisations: VerA (relations and strategies for the responsible company) and Great Place to Work Institute® Italy with the academic support of Professor Maurizio Zollo, create

a completely different methodology called rewords®

THE REWORDS® MODEL:

FILLING THE GAP rewords® (responsible workplace developing sustainability) is built to rewrite the paradigm of the evaluation based on declared data, adding to them the analysis of real perceptions of stakeholders and stressing the internal ones who are the real boost in the realisation of sustainable practices. Evaluation of strategies and processes is based on a deep audit on sustainability and organisation practices, measuring how they are deployed into the business processes. Perceptions are measured on both internal and external stakeholders through surveys to middle and top managers and interviews to external stakeholders. An important part of the model is the integration of the Great Place to Work® questionnaire and methodology to measuring of organisation’s climate. Another innovation is the measure of internal and external gaps. Through some key questions, in fact, rewords® evaluates the connection between what managers think of their company and what external stakeholders understand and needs from the organisation. The model also take personal behaviours into consideration through interviews to top man-

agement. Finally all analysis are evaluated by two NGOs in free ex ante and ex post fairness opinions which express their opinion on the method and results achieved.

FATER THE FIRST COMPANY ExPERIMENTING REWORDS®

In February 2010 Fater, a join ventures by Angelini group and Procter and Gamble, in its process of revision of the business model, decides to join the test of this new sustainability measuring model. Fater understood the capacity of rewords® to measure all aspects of sustainability in a deeper way than other methods already developed. Fater gave all the documentations needed to the analysts, invited 180 top and middle managers to answer the sustainability survey, selected 340 employees to answer the climate survey and informed 11 stakeholders that they will be interview by rewords® experts, finally the 7 top manager were interviewed by a psychologist. In July 2010 the evaluation was complete and Fater had the opportunity to benchmark its performance and understand strengths and weaknesses of its sustainable processes. Rewords® confirms Fater’s innovation capacity, excellent strategy, favourable climate, showed by employees satisfaction and the high environmental standards pursued in these recent years.

RESPONSE Understanding and responding to society demands on corporate responsibility, is an academic study cofunded by European Commission and managed by INSEAD, Bocconi University, Copenhagen Business School and Leon Kozminsky Academy

By ALLAN HALL

STARTING FROM THE BOOK Zen in the Art of Archery we have investigated training opportunities, based on patience and perseverance, that people adopted to create new opportunities.

Being Zen in business

Zen and business may seem to be polar opposites; who can attain the perfect balance between body and mind in a vortex of crushing economic news, curtailed expenses, dwindling contracts and a day with too few hours in it? Where are the prospects, the opportunities, the nations of the future instead of the industrial wastelands of the past? And what has Zen got to do with any of this anyway?

ZEN IN THE ART OF ARCHERY

Zen as a concept in commerce came to the west in 1948 with the publication of Zen in the art of Archery by Professor Eugen Herrigel. It tells of the author‘s six year quest to learn archery in the hands of Japanese Zen masters. But it is neither a book about Zen nor about archery. It is more a guide to Zen-Bud-

01

Coaching

News from the Past

dhist principles and learning, perfect for practitioners and non-practitioners alike, to attain the patience and calmness to succeed in any and all walks of life. Zen in the Art of Archery has a relevance to today‘s chaotic business world as the financial crisis forces tectonic shifts in thinking, planning, and thereby instigates a quest for calmness in the face of staggering challenges.

ZEN IS A TRENDY APPROACH

A quick search on the Internet will throw up numerous linkages between Zen and business; Mike Leidig, clearly, is not alone out there. There is even a book called Zen of Business Administration by Marc Lesser that advises people to inject Zen into all their commercial dealings. Paul Burton, a 34year-old wellness market analyst who in July moved from the USA to Germany, says that while cash is tight, the quest for health and healthy living is still a booming business. He said “I advise clients to move into energy drinks, invest in spas, nutrients and wrinkle

creams, to name but a few. Identifying trends early on, playing the long game with them, that‘s what you have to do. I don’t know if it is Zen-like but softly-softly, and with some doggedness, usually catches the monkey for me! ”

A PHILOSOPHER PR MANAGER

Mike Leidig, the 44-year-old owner of the Central European News and PR agency based in the Austrian capital Vienna, is a man who respects and understands this quest. The old business model of supplying photographs and stories to the world’s press first began to be squeezed three years ago when media organisations began to concentrate more on the Internet side of publishing. Rates for news were slashed as the economic meltdown hit the media world hard. It meant British-born Mike had to look further a-field for profits. He said “I actually try to have a Zen outlook on life anyway and so instead of getting angry and frustrated, I went away and meditated and then I spent several days alone working out a new business model. What works and what doesn‘t? Well, newspapers are dying but the Internet is expanding. So I started up several online newspapers. I had to think out of the box and spent time meditating, two hours a day in order to do it. Gradually the business built up. I think this Zenapproach - slowly, calmly, rationallyis the only way to go in a world where there are fewer and fewer possibilities of get-rich-quick schemes.” •

Tim Berry writes on his website dedicated to business planning that it and Zen are not mutually exclusive. “I respect Zen,“ he says. “Maybe it’s the coolness factor, so, reflecting on Zen and Business Planning, I suggest four key points:

1. Accept change as constant. The value of the plan isn’t mindless implementation in a guessed-at future. The value of the plan is the planning process, the management of change it creates. Planning enhances vision and understanding of past, present, and future.

2. Use planning to remain mindful of which direction you want to move. Towards which horizon. Stay mindful of your own definition of success.

3. Understand how, as you move through business time, where you are is always different from where you thought you’d be. You do that by leaving tracks (the plan) which you can use to trace changed assumptions (plan vs. actual).

4. Correct your course as your assumptions change, remaining mindful of long-term direction and short-term necessity.

Reference book: Herrigel, E. (1953) “Zen in the Art of Archery”, Pantheon Books, USA.”

Screen shot taken from the movie Avatar, directed by James Cameron.

Communication Integrate Technology

01

TECHNOLOGY HAS CHANGED THE WAY WE BEHAVE. It is not unusual to see a mother pushing a pram across the road whilst texting and the ability to stay in permanent contact places communications at the centre of our existence and blurs our life and work identities.

Effective workplace communication

Despite the maelstrom of social networks, emails, texts and Twitter, people are increasingly lonely and look to their technology for solutions. Many people drive and most walk, with a mobile clamped to their ear, leading to a complete lack of awareness and consideration of others.

Nicholas Carr, who wrote the article, “Is Google making us stupid?” has just published a book called The Shallows, in which he considers how various human inventions have influenced our essential modes of thought. Compared to the advent of the book, which encouraged us to be contemplative, the internet’s ‘cacophony of stimuli’, has given rise to ‘cursory reading and superficial learning’. Experience rewires our brain’s circuits (neuroplasticity) and Carr writes “if, knowing what we know today about the brain’s plasticity, you were to set out to invent a medium that would rewire our mental circuits as quickly and thoroughly as possible, you would probably end up designing something that looks and works a lot like the internet.” If technology can change the ways

we behave and interact and even alter the shape of our brains, it must surely have a revolutionary effect on the ways we communicate at work.

GALLUP SURVEY

According to a Gallup poll, 69% of employees are not engaged while they are at work, which leads to lower levels of productivity. The best way to increase employee engagement is with effective internal communications. Human Resources are increasingly being asked to lead and deliver internal communications and they need to produce and apply effective communications’ plans.

COMMUNICATION 2009/2010 ROI STUDY

In its snappily-titled report, Effective Communication 2009/2010 ROI Study, the global professional services company, Watson Wyatt, claims “courage, innovation and discipline help drive company performance, especially in tough economic times. Effective internal communications can keep employees engaged in the business and help companies retain key talent, provide consistent value to cus-

01 Emerging Boy 2009

Chromogenic print, © Mona Kuhn, Courtesy of the artist and Flowers Galleries

02 Virgin Forest 2009

Chromogenic print, © Mona Kuhn, Courtesy of the artist and Flowers Galleries

The Brazilian photographer, Mona Kuhn, after 20 years of absence, went back to her native country and with a captivating new book Native, she tried to represent her adult exploration of her origins. By contrasting the vitality of the dense Brazilian countryside with the sparse interior of an abandoned apartment, Kuhn establishes her own fantasy of time and place.

Mona Kuhn (1969), of German descent, was born in São Paulo, Brazil. The photographer states that her work for the book Native started as a personal journey, “metaphorically, I was thinking of a bird that flies back into the forest, searching for its childhood nest”.

Photographed in the rainforest and surrounding city area, Mona Kuhn’s images seem to suggest that just a return to nature, to the origin and to spontaneous relationships could be the solution to the loneliness created by technology.

By NIGEL PHILLIPS

tomers and deliver superior financial performance to shareholders.”

The survey says that companies that are effective communicators, “have the courage to talk about what employees want to hear, can redefine the employment deal based on changing business conditions and have the discipline to plan effectively and measure their progress.”

Wyatt defines courage as “telling it like it is”, saying shielding employees from bad news is treating them like children and that if you tell them what they need to know they will reward you with solid performance. Innovation needs to be constant and employees should be encouraged to rethink processes, streamline tasks, implement productivity measures and think creatively.

TROUBLED TIMES REQUIRE ACCOUNTABILITY, WHICH NEEDS DISCIPLINE

Companies need to set direction and measure how they are doing. Plans need to be communicated, rather than just giving direction without context. A firm communication plan, supported by updates on intranets, blogs, emails and tweets, lets employees know how the company is performing. Chris Bradford is an HR consultant who believes HR should be a value-adding advisory service to a business and consequently is likely to take the lead or share responsibility for internal communications. Bradford says “internal and external communications must be joined up and consistent. Some organisations make big promises to external customers, but treat their staff as second-class citizens. Your people are your shortest route to market and personal recommendation is the most effective way of selling your product or service.” She says that if communication is going to be taken seriously, it must be honest and authentic; over-engineered messages and spin make people cynical and distrustful; “people at all levels have an innate bullshit detector.” “Communication must be two-way; in all relationships we resent being told and not being asked. Feedback via sur-

veys is a key way of finding out what your staff really thinks, but listening is not enough; you need to act on the feedback, which creates a virtuous circle, reinforcing credibility and trust.”

SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACT

Rachel Allen is head of operations at London Overground Rail Operations and writes about the role of technology and social media in the management of internal communications. She says “social media is here and even if you don’t yet have a strategy in place, and even better, linked to your external communications, your employees are already using collaboration sites in their personal lives. This impacts internal communication as people are used to communicating in this way and expect to be able to do the same at work.” New media, like traditional media, do not suit every person or organisation, but when used properly, blogs and social networks can pull employees into a commu-

nity and give them access to people at all levels all the time. Horizontal networks can be a very efficient way to find true expertise, often in unexpected places, but whether a company’s communications are horizontal or vertical, those responsible need to be aware of how employees are interacting and ensure internal communication maximises the desire to share information.

Allen says “i think social media’s role in internal communication should be kept simple, it should improve interaction between employees at all levels. I think it needs to be demystified and viewed as another tool in our toolbox to help employees communicate with each other and the outside world.” Unlike in the real world, where technology dangerously prevents people from travelling in a straight line, unexpected changes in direction should be encouraged in the workplace, harnessing the best of any available technology.

By GIORGIO TEDESCHI

HOW DO PEOPLE EAT IN CORPORATE CANTEENS? In the past year we have seen a progressive reorganization of the restaurant industry, which has always adopted the duty to promote correct nutrition, together with food.

Canteens befriends wellbeing

THE EVOLUTION OF THE CORPORATE CANTEEN

Correct nutrition is fundamental for good health and wellness. Knowing what this means is key for achieving a balanced diet. A large proportion of the working population eats at least one meal outside the home daily. This shift, more recent in Italy than in other countries, has led to a progressive reorganization of the restaurant industry, where part of the work includes ensuring that employees are apprised of how to eat healthy.

The world of work is undergoing constant evolution. We notice a change in the way people work, in their rhythms, timetables, as well as in the composi-

tion of the workforce, in their expectations and habits. These changes are also reflected in the catering sector that serves them their mid-day meals.

SAVINGS IN THE CORPORATE CANTEEN

While some observers feel that company canteens waste considerable amounts of food, both Laurent Cousin and Edoardo Venturini, of Sodexo France and Italy respectively, disagree. By planning ahead and collaborating upstream with their vendors, all levels of the value chain can optimize usage levels. Both the companies and the foodservice providers are alive to the need to maintain costs. Suggests Giovanni Co-

lombo, from the Italian outpost of Dussmann Service, Germany’s largest private multi-service provider, which boasts almost 54.000 employees and subsidiaries in 24 countries. In Italy, the range of waste of cooked food in corporate canteens is slightly less than 10%. He does acknwoledge, though, that the proportion varies from canteen to canteen.

Knowing about employees’ habits, likes and dislikes allows foodservice providers to custom-tailor menus. This, together with recently-introduced “cooking on request” option, helps significantly to reduce waste. Any leftovers are donated to food banks run by charity organizations. Thus waste is eliminated almost entirely.

Similarly, by grouping deliveries, leveraging purchasing power and, where possible, centralizing procure-

Corporate spending for canteens

Generally speaking, we can say that the worldwide average price for a lunch in a company canteen is somewhat less than 10 Euro, with considerable differences between countries. Indeed, while in Italy the average cost of a meal ranges from about 3.50€ to 6€, in China we can find offers for 90 cents, or in the opposite side, in the USA meals can range up to $9. In France the average subsidy in corporate services has, over the last twenty years, dropped from between 75% and 80% to a little less than 50%. In some cases, employees get no subsidy at all. We find further examples of what we might call a “zero subsidy” in Moscow, this in some modern business centres.

Local Food and Seasonal dishes

Organic and locally-produced food are finding their way into company canteens.Seasonal food by focusing on seasonal foods, suppliers bring fresher, tastier and, arguably, more nutritious food to their customers. The use of seasonal food ensures people eat different dishes throughout the year. More, seasonal food means energy saving in terms of transport, along with lower CO2 emissions. Seasonal food costs less than non-seasonal, which has probably been airlifted in from a long distance.

Buying seasonal, locally-grown, food means supporting the local economy. Last but not least, eating seasonally means reconnecting with nature’s cycles.

Leading international suppliers

• Aramark [W aramark.com]

• Compass [W compass-group.com]

• Elior [W elior.com]

• Dussmann [W dussmann.com]

• Sodexo [W sodexo.com]

• Sysco [W sysco.com]

• Taylor Int. Services [W taylors-international.com]

ment at global level, the foodservice companies aim for maximum efficiency at the other end of the value chain.

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT

The most important trends in foodservice revolve around responsible practices for health, nutrition and sustainable development. As Mr. Cousin states, “people are more and more environment-conscious. They want to contribute to lowering their carbon footprint. They are concerned about protecting endangered species. Traceability and fair trade are not just slogans.” In the USA, an increasing number of consumers now expect their food to come from the state where they live, while actions to promote local and seasonal products are numerous. Customers are expecting responsible offers that help to pro-

tect the environment and contribute to global social welfare. Nowadays, continues Cousin, “having lunch at a corporate canteen is turning into something more than just having a nice, decent-priced meal. Indeed, it is also an opportunity to contribute to a better planet.” Asking customers to use the appropriate recycling bins when they clear away at the end of their meals has been welcomed from many quarters. It is seen as a way for people to take charge of the recycling effort. In the Netherlands for example, Sodexo’s introduction of selective sorting in restaurants many years ago, has been proved to increase consumers’ adoption of recycling.

TARGETING

Venturini, states“clearly, before proposing a service it is important to know who your final customers are.

By taking into account the needs and the expectations of your clients, you will improve the quality of their lives and, in the long term, this will provide a return in terms of productivity.” As part of their strategy, Sodexo Italy has conducted a study that has identified six types of final clients. That are labeled as: the creative, the guaranteur, the conservative, the practical, the effective, and the free spirit. Each group has been offered a solution in terms of menus, timing, and layout of canteen space. Indeed, it seems that the new trends in food consumption around the world are “less about variety, such as having the choice between dozens of starters, entrees and desserts, and more about different ways of eating, such as fast, take away, or full sit-down meal,” says Cousin.

•

Wellness and nutrition

Menus in corporate dining rooms are designed to be healthy and balanced. To meet these needs, foodservice providers worldwide also offer educational programmes. In the UK, for example, Sodexo’s Healthwise offers consultancy and operational management for health, fitness and well-being in the workplace. With a similar objective, Sodexo Australia has implemented Smartfuel. This includes personal nutritional coaching. In Italy, the programme known as Pleasurable and Healthy? Yes, indeed! offers many initiatives to help transform the lunchbreak into an educational experience. Posters and place-mats feature advice on healthy lifestyle choices and eating habits.

The main objective of foodservice providers indeed seems to be “not only to advise and contribute to encourage healthier eating habits in the workplace by means of programs in the corporate canteen, but also to change people’s behaviours in a deeper way,” states Mr. Venturini. In this fashion, the company is trying to widen its influence beyond direct action in order to promote healthier eating habits within the population at large.

01 —02 — 03 A “BeTraditional” set up of a corporate canteen in Madrid 04 A Sodexò restaurant in Helsinki

A Sodexò corporate canteen in Boston

Data transfer Company Compliance

By ROSARIO IMPERIALI

delegation of power can be an effective shield against top managers’ personal responsibility.

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

From theory to practice

Compliance with legal requirements often receives a formalistic response from the corporate sector rather than being translated by companies into effective compliance programs. Mere formalism increases bureaucracy, and is not beneficial to legal fulfillment. This is why, globally, we are witnessing the national legislators’ progressive move from the former declination of abstract legal principles in their acts, towards a new pragmatic approach, where the concern for an effective behavioral change of corporate operations is key.

ExAMPLES

If Manufacturing Ltd. did not provide its workers with proper information and training on the safety measures available on the work site, it would not ensure a safe work environment. It could not be deemed in compliance with the law. Similarly, consider if Defresh Inc., a renowned US public company, despite the obligations provided for by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), did not implement an internal compliance management system made of quality control, auditing, independence standards, inspections and investigations on malpractices followed by disciplinary proceedings where justified. The company would violate the law because that internal management system provided for by SOX, is designed to prevent corporate and criminal fraud.

Finally, imagine that Znet Inc. had charged its service administrator with specific duties regard-

ing data security without an adequate budget. The company – in such a case - would not be in compliance with the legal obligation (EU directive 95/46) compelling “data controllers” to implement adequate measures in order «to ensure an appropriate level of security».

DELEGATION OF POWER

It is frequently adopted as a risk mitigation tool, top management usually delegates power to middle managers in specific areas - technical or operational - in order to avoid personal legal responsibility. It is seldom taken into account, however, that delegation of power is not an expedient for law elusion. Only when supported by specific competence, adequate budget, autonomous decision power and freedom from improper influence or interference from top management,

Compliance programs aimed at implementing a management system integrated with the company operational life are not new. The group of those who have adhered to voluntary models of international standards organizations is already large. Their scope is the creation of accountability systems that go above and beyond the minimum legal requirements in specific areas.

ACCOUNTABILITY TO GO FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Indeed, to depart from ‘theory’ and reach ‘practice’ or ‘effectiveness’, ‘accountability’ seems the solution. As put forward by Art. 29 Data protection Working party, ‘accountability’ shows “how responsibility is exercised and making this verifiable. Responsibility and accountability are two sides of the same coin and both essential elements of good governance. Only when responsibility is demonstrated as working effectively in practice can sufficient trust be developed.” Not only must responsibilities be expressly assigned but legal compliance must also become part of the shared values and practices of the organization. To accomplish this task, legal requirements must be translated into real practice. Corporate policies and procedures need to ensure that the principles and obligations set out in the law are complied with.

01

Finally, the ability of companies to demonstrate compliance to external stakeholders as well as to supervisory authorities, upon request, shall ultimately be a recognition of their correct behavior and supporting evidence of reliability and trustworthiness before the whole marketplace. •

HOW DO BUSINESSES MANAGE THEIR DATA TRANSFER? Legal requirements are in place but too often receive a formalistic acknowledgement.

Illustration by David Johnson, Windham Center, USA

By MATTHEW SEMINARA

SINCE OUR UNIQUE

PASSIONS

ARE ALWAYS EMBEDDED IN OUR WORK AND OUR STYLE, understanding copyright law in the U.S. allows us to master our intellectual property rights as employees in America as well as internationally.

Understanding Us copyright law

COPYRIGHT PROTECTION

Under U.S. copyright law, copyright protection attaches the minute the work is fixed. Unlike other areas of U.S. intellectual property, there is no need to take any other affirmative step to protect the work. In the U.S., if you sit down with a blank piece of paper and write an article for The Work Style Magazine, as soon as your pen leaves the paper, you have copyright protection in the work. It is necessary, however, to have federal copyright registration in order to sue someone for infringing your copyright in the U.S.

LENGTH OF PROTECTION

In general, if the work was created after January 1, 1978, the copyright in a work lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years after the author’s death. If you are dealing with a joint work, the term of copyright is for the life of the last surviving author plus 70 years after the death of the last surviving author. For works made for hire, the copyright lasts for 95 years from publication, or 120 from creation, whichever comes first.

WORKS MADE FOR HIRE

U.S. copyright law’s work made for hire doctrine provides that the employer and not the employee/author is the author of a work prepared by an employee within the scope of her employment. Because the employer is considered the author of the work, the employer owns the copyright in the work! What can the employee do to avoid this predicament?

At the time of employment, the employee can artfully negotiate her employment agreement. At its most basic level, the employment agreement must define and maintain the employee’s rights in any intellectual property created while employed at the company! Of course, this will be quite daunting considering the current state of our global economy. The employee could also try to negotiate an agreement whereby employer and employee jointly share ownership in any intellectual property created by the employee while employed by the company. Such an agreement would

allow the employee to at least retain some rights in the work while sharing in any profits. Finally, if the employer is unwilling to grant the employee any rights in the work produced within the scope of employment, the employee could argue for an increase in pay or responsibility. Unfortunately, considering the current state of our economy, employers again have the edge!

CAN STYLE, FABRIC AND FASHION BE COPYRIGHTED?

Now that we have down the basics of copyright law in the U.S., can style, fabric and fashion be protected by copyright? As always, the lawyerly answer is: it depends! And it depends on whether the work as a whole is a useful article. The useful article doctrine provides that there will only be protection for design features if they can be identified separately and exist independently of their utilitarian aspects. Because clothing, in general, is considered “inherently functional,” it is not given copyright protection in the U.S. However, under the useful article doctrine, the separable aesthetic and non-utilitarian aspects of the clothing or fabric is provided copyright protection in the U.S. One famous example of the useful article doctrine is a second circuit case, Kieselstein-Cord v. Accessories by Pear, Inc. (1980). In this case, an artist created a jeweled belt buckle and the issue was whether there was copyright protection for the jeweled belt buckle. Clearly, a belt buckle is utilitarian – it keeps your pants up! The court concluded, however, that the belt buckle was copyrightable material because it thought that the aesthetic aspects of the belt buckle were conceptually separate from its utilitarian function. In other words, the court thought that some people would look at that belt buckle and not even see the belt buckle but rather see an abstract work of art – a piece of jeweled sculpture.

Illustration by Senem Oezdogan, New York, USA

Pioneer a brighter future

When you join Novozymes, you begin a career adventure at a different kind of company. You’ll lead the way to create a brighter future – for yourself and everyone else – challenging conventions and status quo along the way.

You’ll be supported by your colleagues who share the same goals and ambitions as you. Together, we’re always thinking about what’s next, and working to make it a reality today.

Join Novozymes and pioneer a brighter future. Novozymes.com/careers

Novozymes is the world leader in bioinnovation. Together with customers across a broad array of industries we create tomorrow’s industrial biosolutions, improving our customers’ business and the use of our planet’s resources. Read more at www.novozymes.com.

Performance The ROI of the Knowledge

By GABRIEL JAMES BYRNE

Investing in culture, the way forward

to its social responsibility. Described in this way, culture would seem to be an essential element for every developed country. Yet it is not. Often, for budgetary reasons, funds are shifted in favour of other areas, and culture goes without. However, a country full of culture is rich.

A SHARED SENTIMENT

Culture is a distinctive element of a country, as are its landscape and industry. When we talk of culture, we immediately think of arts and entertainment, as well as museums and specific initiatives promoted by the public and private sectors. Culture is an intangible asset. For instance, in 2009, Spain earned $53.2billion from tourism-related activities, while France made $48.7 billion. Last year, Brooklyn earned $20billion from cultural tourism -- from people who visited because they had seen Brooklyn in a film, documentary, television programme, or a magazine.

CULTURE IDENTITY

More people travel to see and experience the culture of ancient Rome, be-

cause they have an awareness of that culture: its cultural identity, in other words. Cultural identity is formed by artists such as movie stars, filmmakers, authors, composers, painters, but also via jokes, cults and other aspects. Art is international, and the great artists are timeless. Therefore, people seek artists like Mozart and Shakespeare. People need to be trained to appreciate culture. This training comes at all levels, from primary school to college and university, in arts and sciences. An indicator of a nation’s good governance is the extent of its cultural programs.

CULTURES AND COMPANIES

For companies, culture is a sign of good management that shows commitment

Many companies, believe in the importance of investing in culture, here are some examples..

Akbank Akbank Art Center is a prestigious institution that supports the most prominent contemporary art activities in Turkey and has hosted many highly acclaimed events in visual arts, music, theatre and dance.

Prada 01 Foundation, every year hosts 2 exhibitions accompanied by specific publications. In addition, company is building a museum to present their collection of contemporary art which is expected to

be open in 2012. Moreover, company is contributing to arts worldwide.

The Bank of America 02 art collection is one of the largest held by an American corporation

The Bank has been lending its art collection as pre-packaged exhibitions to US museums free of charge since 2008, via its “Art in our communities” programme.

Siemens 03 supports projects and artists that advance con-

temporary and experimental art forms. The Siemens Art program engages collaborative projects in the visual and performing arts, music, contemporary culture and internal cultural communications.

Vodafone 04 In addition to sponsoring major events such as Biennale of Venice also contributes local events such as opening an art school in Gijòn, Spain to promote art amongst young people with some type of disability.

I approached then the economic subject because I used the term “rich”, thinking about culture as a promoter of wealth for a country. The element that I want to show clearly in this article is the “sense of culture.” A state is rich when it “feels the culture” - What does that resemble? Perhaps it resembles what one might call “civic sense”. Culture is also a shared sentiment. When culture is shared, it becomes a pleasure for many, including businesses. Companies, that are lucky enough to settle and operate in countries where culture is a shared and defended value, function better than others. This is because people who enjoy culture, work better. For this reason, these companies must contribute, and invest in culture. • [W akbank.com bankofamerica.com cultureireland.gov.ie illy.com siemens.com vodafone.com]

CULTURE CONTRIBUTES to create a country’s identity, increase its popularity in the World and -- as a consequence-- its tourism industry.

Illy caffè 05 started to contribute to the arts by means of its collections of designers cups entitled Arts and Crafts, the first having been launched in 1992.

Performance Inside the CFO

THE ROLE OF THE CFO HAS MUTATED into a job that puts roots in a higher number of daily enterprise situations. How the CFOs of the future will be leaders in driving and implementing the strategies emerging from the economic downturn?

The DNA of the CFO

STEERING PERFORMANCE IN THE WAKE OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

CFOs AT THE FOREFRONT “Leaders keep their eyes on the horizon, not just on the bottom line.” (Werren G. Bennis) And that is what is required of CFOs in the heat of the global crisis, according to a recent report from Deloitte on the Recession. This report highlights how CFOs will have to address two distinct challenges. They must manage their short-term credit, cash and performance needs – despite receding pricing power. At the same time, they must position and utilize assets with an eye toward post-recession growth. Even if executive search firms report that companies’ precise requirements depend on how the crisis is affecting them, one thing has become clear: the CFOs of the future will be leaders in driving and implementing the strategies stemming from the economic turmoil.

THE ERNST&YOUNG SURVEY Confirm of this comes in a new report from Ernst & Young titled “The DNA of the CFO”. Based around a survey of 699 CFOs in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia, the report challenges the assumption that all Chief Financial Officers aspire to be Chief Executive Officers. Infact, it finds that 73% would like to remain in their role. The majority of respondents confirm their leading strategic contribution is

01 The earliest counting device was the human hand. As larger quantities were counted, various natural items like twigs were used to help count. Those who traded goods not only needed a way to count items they bought and sold, but also to calculate their cost. Until numbers were invented, counting devices, such as the abacus, were used to make everyday calculations.

in providing insight and analysis to support the CEO and the senior management team.

In addition, over 60% of CFOs have seen a rise in their standing within the organization during the past three years. This is largely because the financial crisis has led to unprecedented demand for the unique perspective and discipline proper to senior finance professionals. The CFO role is thus broadening far beyond its technical heartland. It is now evolv-

“It’s increasingly the case that finance directors, because of their skills, are put in charge of areas like IT, property and logistics”

Ian Dyson CFO of Marks & Spencer

ing into a role geared to guiding the business going forward.

Moreover, almost two-thirds of those interviewed said they are often asked to act as the public face of their company on all financial matters and performance. A similar proportion agreed that, since the financial crisis, the CFO’s key priority is to build trust with stakeholders such as investors, analysts and the media. But this is exactly where CFOs see a need to improve their skills. Indeed, our experi

“The people who are best positioned to help form the strategy of the business are people who are in the finance area”

Vodafone

Andy Halford CFO of

twsm What precise contribution does a CFO make to strategy?

lc And what about traditional core

responsibilities, such as attention to cash, and cost management. Core competencies such as cash management, cost reduction, fundraising effectiveness and efficiency of finance, still remain core competencies for CFOs. I think that what you’ve seen in many organizations is a clearer strategic direction be-

ence in writing this article attests to how difficult it is having a talk with them sometimes.

CFO EUROPEAN SUMMIT

Shaping solid relationships with stakeholders (both internal and external) is one of the areas where CFOs are expected to focus their attention. This view is confirmed by the annual CFO European summit in London. At the last meeting, emphasis was laid on the challenges CFOs are called to face, and the priorities they consequently need to set.

CFOs need to shift resources and capital to faster-growing markets, rather than seeing developed markets as core and emerging markets as destinations for incremental investments.

M&As might seem appealing, but companies should consider the fit of company cultures, so as to avoid destroying those special characteristics that created the asset’s value in the first place.

Cash management needs to come to the fore, both as a discipline and in financial reporting; investors are paying much greater attention to the balance sheet as a way to assess financial health.

In their relationship with investment banks, CFOs should consider the relevance of an independent view and whether the same institutions that are providing brokerage services should

By ELENA MAZZUOLI

ing created. When companies are growing, it’s quite easy to find investments and try to make good return on investments. But, in tough financial markets, you really need to make sure that all business decisions are really grounded on sound financial criteria. Here is where CFOs play a key role.

recovery is a challenge for CFOs. How do they address this issue?

lc Because of the uncertainties of these days, people can’t be really sure to understand when things happen: if it is a trend, or a real change. Building strong financial foundations gives them the possibility to weather the storm if things don’t happen in accordance with plans, or trends aren’t identified. Companies are going through efficiency programs, cost reduction programs, outsourcing, off-shoring – just to cite some - looking for that margin management that ensures they have strong foundations to build on if growth is there. And, if it is not, to manage through until growth finally happens.

•

also be providing capital. Risk management should not only be considered a function that protects the organisation, but also as a means to create added value for the business. The aim should be for business units to behave automatically in a riskaware manner. Companies do not need more rules. They need a return to ethics.

“It’s still really important that people have good, old-fashioned basic finance. We’ve seen what can happen if you don’t”

Robin J. Stalker CFO of Adidas

twsm Is this why CFOs are increasingly gaining operational responsibilities for functions such as IT or property?

lc In larger organizations, what you often see now is that, aside from the CFO, there’s a very strong Number Two finance person. This enables the CFO by title to have more responsibility for areas such as IT or risk management or looking at meetings, doing the rules of the CDO in business development, corporate development, as well as the finance. And often you will have those functions, such as IT, reporting to the individual CFO.

twsm When talking about recovery, different scenarios are likely. Reading the signals and discerning the shape and structure of the

twsm The role of CFOs has evidently evolved since the financial crisis. Is the pattern the same both in big and medium-small sized enterprises?

lc The issues pertaining to any business are the same. But, depending on the size of the company, they are higher or lower priorities. In larger organizations, this often means looking at off- shoring, outsourcing, share service centres, whereas small-medium sized companies are looking more on automation and better controls. Financial transformation is an issue they face, but the response depends on the size of the company. Capital management for larger organizations means, for example, that CFOs are spending their time going to the market, with bonds, fund raising, while mediumsized company are more likely to make sure they have backing facilities in place, so as to secure the next years.

“Your up-and-coming, aspiring CFO needs to get themselves around a bit and get themselves on some interesting strategic projects”

Evelyn Bourke CFO of Friends Provident

[W adidas.com deloitte.com ey.com friendsprovident.co.uk markandspencer.com vodafone.com]

Quotation from “DNA of the CFO

report”

Les Clifford, Chairman of the Ernst & Young CFO Program in the UK and Ireland

Principles and values Historical Companies

By SARA PEVERELLI

DURING THE PAST YEARS A MASSIVE NUMBER OF NEW BRANDS HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED IN TO THE MARKET. Some of them have excelled in the field for over one hundred years or, in some cases, even three hundred. Others disappeared in the blink of an eye. Which key factors determine longevity?

The longevity of historical brands

COMPANIES

The longevity of a corporate business is determined by the consolidation of its brand throughout the years. Indeed, once the firm has enhanced its position within the market and has gained strong notoriety, the management of the brand becomes a strategic element in the growing process of the firm. Historical brands are most of the time family companies that, over the decades, were able to maintain their

sense of business across generations, as a key factor of continuity. Firms that last over time have had an extraordinary ability to regenerate while passing through adversity and troubles. Furthermore, as Mr. Marc De Kuyper, USA Vice President marketing & sales of related brand and member of the famous International Family Business Network, suggests, another important pillar of a family historical business over the last generations has been the focus on the niche markets. “There, where the giant companies are not able to quickly adapt to the niche opportunities, the most directly managed business family can”

1

Key-factor:

Ability De Kuyper

De Kuyper is a family business distillery founded in Rotterdam by Johannes de Kuyper in 1695. During the 11 generations of its life, it has spread to more than 100 countries and nowadays is considered as the brand N.1 in the Range of liqueur Worldwide, with 1 bottle sold every second and a range of 38 flavours to choose from. This success is due to the ability to innovate efficiently and to focus on a short time to the market. According to Marc De Kuyper, their philosophy of “an effective and distinctive innovation, which is possible only in company with a good and positive corporate culture, allows all employees (from all working levels) to express their idea and to be heard for a positive growth of the firm”. Indeed, De Kuyper has above average investment in the development and careers of its employees and it is quite common that people develop across departments or across specific skills. The key of the success of the brand seems to be a mixed management of the company, with strict rules for the family and corporate governance. They contract an external CEO for a period of time of 5/7 years between every generation, to limit the composition of their board of directors to the family members and to engage external companies for the selection of the family members. In this way they manage to protect the company against error-driven mistakes in management.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORICAL BRANDS

The common philosophy at the heart of historical companies is the value of the concept of the family company, as a real alternative to multinationals. They are considered a separate entity (different from SME’s or privately

2 Key-factor: Brand power Farina 1709

The Farina company was founded in 1709 and is now still run by the eighth generation of family members. Over three hundred years ago, John Maria Farina, an Italian migrant, created a perfume which he named Eau de Cologne so as to honour his new home town. The family makes it a point to nowadays still produce the same fragrance according to the traditional methods that they have jealously saved. One could therefore say that there have hardly been any changes undertaken. The important historical dimension of Eau de Cologne renders it a milestone for the modern perfume industry. “The uniqueness and novelty the perfume offers are the values on which the company is still run” states Julia Furelaud, spokesperson of Farina 1709. These values made Eau de Cologne an exclusive perfume that after three hundred years is still in the market and can be found just in selected retailers.

The Tercentenarians’ Club iso ne of the most Executive ‘Britain’s Club’. Its membership is confined to businesses that are at least 300 years old and have also maintained a connection with the families of their founders throughout that time. Nowadays, the number of compagnie belonging to the Club has increased and the Club now boasts some foreign associates.

The Tercentenarians’ Club has no constitution, no annual subscription and membership is by invitation only.

owned businesses), governed by different management policies. Their strong point is the focus on continuity. Most of the private enterprises aim for short-term results. Adapting the company to these results means changing management strategies, organization and staff policy. Historical business companies instead have a long-term vision, make long- term investments and choose loyal shareholders that are not interested in short-term profits. According to Gérard Lipovitch, spokesman of the Henokiens, the managers of these companies are looking for growth with stability. Indeed, they have the moral commit-

The current members of the Club are: Berry Bros & Rudd 1699, John Brooke & Sons Holdings Ltd 1541, R Durtnell & Sons Ltd 1591, Folkes Group Plc 1697, Fortnum & Mason 1707, Peter Freebody & Co Ltd ~1707, C Hoare & Co 1672, James Lock & Co 1642, Shepherd Neame (1698), Toye, Kenning & Spencer 1685, Whitechapel Bell Foundry 1570

ment of preserving what has been created by their ancestors, and this view is shared both by the family involved in the management and by those who are not directly included.

THE ABILITY TO BE SURROUNDED BY COMPETENT HUMAN RESOURCES

In ancient family companies, like those belonging to the Henokines or to the Trecentenarian’s Club, managers have a total commitment to the management of the firm, they spend most of their time and energy on the company and they try to convey this spirit to their staff. Human Resources staff are very qualified people who

3 Key-factor:

Etichal code

Crespi 1797

Seven generations of direct descent have followed Benigno Crespi, who founded over 200 years ago one of the most famous companies in the Italian textile industry, Crespi 1797. The longevity of the company, according to Francesca Crespi, is the result of their excellence in natural fabrics, gained throughout the centuries by their know-how and high technology; the ability to always choose the best quality raw materials and working with a careful, loyal and qualified service for their customers which includes the best fashion designers in the world. Another key element for their success is the bond with their territory, the history created through time with passion. Crespi 1797, has based its success on a strong code of ethical values, such as the value of work, considered as an expression and strengthening of human growth; the respect for the environment, that has recently allowed them to gain a certification of zero emission electricity for clean energy; and one for people, which stands out also because of their attention to human resources.

4 Key-factor: Conduction Sambonet

Sambonet Paderno is the Italian firm leader in the production of design tableware and kitchen accessories. Created at the end of the 28th Century by the talented goldsmith and silversmith Giuseppe Sambonet and officially founded by his son in 1856, Sambonet was acquired in 1997 by the Paderno Group. During the years, thanks to its attention to R&D, design, quality, innovation and creativity, Sambonet has grown and enlarged its market worldwide. Its longevity is due to its vocation to reach and maintain the high quality of the Made in Italy Design, to its investment in reaching partnerships with qualified human resources and international designers, and to the ability to innovate through the passing of time. These values allowed Sambonet Paderno to be, after two decades, a group leader in its field and to gain several international awards for excellence in the management of the firm and for the quality of the Design.

The Henokièns is an association of family and bicentenary companies. The membership criteria are: company longevity – a minimum age of 200 years –permanence – the family must be owner of the company or the majority share holder - one member of the founder must still manage the company or be a member of the board – and the company must be in good financial health. In addition, being modern is a final requirement.

The current members of the Association are: Friedr. Schwarze 1664, Möller Group 1730, J.D. Neuhaus 1745, D’Ieteren 1805,

try to make the best of this team spirit to contribute to the innovation of the brand by proposing new ideas that help the company always go a step forward. Furthermore, most of the historical brand companies have a longterm relationship with their employees and also with their clients, because, as Mr. Lipovitch suggests, “this type of link makes the business less fragile” Henokiens companies try to reduce at the minimum the staff turnover in order to maximize the proficiency of their commercial relationship, to give a certain continuity to the production and to outperform other companies over the decades.

Banque J.P. Hottinguer & Cie 1786, Baronnie de Coussergues 1321, Delamare Bios 1690, Maison Gradis- Société Française pour le commerce avec l’autremer 1685, Hugel & Fils 1575, Louis Latour 1797, Editions Hery Lemoine 1772, Mellerio dits Meller 1615, Revol 1789, Jean Roze 1470, Thiercelin 1809, Viellard Migeon & Cie 1679, William Clark and Sons 1700, Amarelli 1731, Augustea 1629, Barovier & Toso 1450 , Beretta 1526, Cartiera Mantovana 1615, Stabilimento Colbachini 1745, Confetti Mario Pelino 1783, Crespi 1797, Ditta Bortolo Nardini 1789, Garbellotto 1775, Gruppo Falck 1792, Lanificio G.B. Conte 1757, Monzino 1750, Piacenza 1733, Akafuku 1707, Gekkeikan 1637, Hoshi 717, Okaya 1669, Toraya (…), De Kuyper 1690, Eeghen 1632, Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie 1796, Pictet & Cie 1805

NAVIGATING BETWEEN MODERNISM AND TRADITION

Throughout the centuries family businesses have considered tradition as an important asset for their existence, but they have also had the ability to reinvent their products and to adapt their behaviour to the passing of time. “Some historical values, such as: mutual respect, humanity and an ethical approach in the management of the business lead them to move in a moving world and to be still deeply rooted in the economic realities of the present”, states Mr. Lipovitch. This ancestral know-how, transmitted from the past in the form of an understanding

of their business and the skills acquired during the years, enable them to innovate, diversify their products and avoid serious mistakes, by distinguishing between the good ideas that can be developed and the ones which have no chance of success, even if they seem attractive. Navigating between modernism and tradition, between know-how transmitted from the past and innovation or diversification are the most relevant guiding principles transmitted by their descendents and which allow companies not to rest on their laurels but to always try to do better than their previous generation.

01 View of the Dutch distillery De Kuyper

Blue bar of the De Kuyper company

Rosoli-Flacon used by Farina 1709 to export its perfumes since the 18th century.

The Italian textil company, Crespi 1797

Francesca Crespi, Owner of Crespi 1797

Offices of Sambonet in Novara 07 Cutlery produced by Sambonet 08 Old van of the British tre-centenarian building company, Durtnell & Sons

5 Key-factor: Challenge Durtnell & Sons

Durtnell & Sons Limited is Britain’s oldest building company, starting from 1591. Through the years it has earned an enviable reputation for quality work, fine craftsmanship and business integrity. Its longevity is both a family affair, related to the willingness of several generations that have followed one after the other to continue the family business, and a question of values. Indeed, Durtnell has always put loyalty and integrity at the base of its business, and as a result it has attracted many individuals who, by their hard work and talent, has contributed significantly to its progress.

6 Key-factor: Tradition Lambertz

The name Lambertz since 1688 has stood for tradition, reliability and extraordinary quality. Lambertz has developed from a small niche supplier to now becoming one of the leading German manufacturers of long-life bakery products. The key of the success according to the slogan of the brand is “maintain tradition and live innovation”. Indeed, the company has always managed to keep up with the times and adapt to the consumer’s needs and wishes. This combination helped to keep regular customers, as they can rely on the quality, and to gain new groups of buyers by launching innovative up-to-date products. What makes the success of Lambertz so special is that they have grown without any traditional advertising. A customer-tailored product range and sophisticated marketing strategies, as well as diversified corporate activities and extensive PR work, form the basis of the brand’s longevity.

09 Lambertz Printe Cookies box

10 Hermann Bühlbecker, owner of the Lambertz group

Culture Integration Design Values

By CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN

success of the Panton Chair, to the current and excellent examples of BoConcept and Ikea, up to Fritz Hansen case history from the “voice”of Christian Rasmussen and Kasper Salto.

Strengthen your design

THE ExCITING HISTORY OF PANTON CHAIR

During the 1950s, Verner Panton was working on a chair constructed from a single piece of material. Even though the notion of a stackable cantilevered one-piece chair continued to fascinate the innovative designer, the chair made of three-dimensionally molded plywood, had a high price that made it marketable only in limited numbers.

Believing in the project, Panton continued working on a prototype, all the while seeking a manufacturer who might also believe in the project and who was prepared to bear the financial risks involved.

In 1963, Panton came into contact with the Basel-based company Vitra. Willi and Rolf Fehlbaum responded enthusiastically to Panton’s design which, by then, had almost maturedinto its final form. In 1967, Vitra de-

cided to risk producing the chair. It was expensive, but sold well. However, with time, it became apparent that the plastic in which the chair was made was susceptible to breakage. In the late-1970s, Vitra discontinued production.

However, Panton was not defeated, and continued to experiment with new forms of plastic. Eventually, a reliable approach was found, and the WK Group showed interest and commissioned the Horn company to resume production in 1983. The Panton Chair has since become established as a design classic, and has been manufactured and retailed by Vitra since 1990.

Close cooperation between Panton and Vitra yielded the fourth, and final, authorized version.

Experts are still undecided whether the chair was, above all, an industrial design project - where the work of

the designer is just one aspect of a risky and costly investment exercise - or that Panton alone pursued the realization of his chair idea with enormous and unwavering persistence.

Black or white, today the objectives are the same; a company tends to have a clear strategy and established values that designers have to follow.

Testimonials of two international furniture companies, where the designer’s ideas and the company’s values have found a winning balance.

1 BoConcept

BoConcept, a furniture retailer that started in Denmark and currently has 340 stores in 50 countries worldwide “has very close co-operation with a few selected designers who have a strong understanding of its concept. These include many new up-and-coming designers from around the world who bring new creative input and ideas to us,” explains Claus Ditlev Jensen, Collection & Visuals Director at BoConcept. He adds that they choose their designers, following “BoConcept’s design philosophy of simplicity, functionality and worldwide appeal.” Undoubtedly it is very important that a designer shares, “our open mind and natural interest in the latest lifestyle and designs trends.” Sometimes, designers bring their own creative ideas to BoConcept. But, concludes Jensen, in many cases, “we give them a detailed brief on a specific piece. No matter the process, all the designs are evaluated by our in-house collection managers to ensure that the designs are not only unique but also at the right quality and price.”

INVESTIGATING HOW THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMPANIES AND DESIGNERS has evolved over the years. From the ambiguous

and KASPER SALTO

FROM THE COMPANY’S PERSPECTIVE

These days, companies must establish good relations with their designers, as Christian Rasmussen, Head of Design at Republic of Fritz Hansen, explains. “In the past, the designers often created a coherent product line and visual identity in the company by themselves. Today, companies that are used to work with designers, have a well-defined strategy, and the collaboration between them and the external designers is more of a 50/50.” Speaking of his personal experience, Rasmussen explained that Fritz Hansen “has a clear design strategy that can’t be altered. Our designers are welcome to interpret, and challenge, but they can never change our values.” He continues, “they have a free pass to express their creativity within the borders of the company’s scheme. Limits are often very positive, and make the creativity of a designer bloom. If everything is

01 BeConcept Carmo

sofa Designed by Anders Nørgaard

02 Panton Chair

Design Verner Panton, Photo H. Hansen© Vitra

03 NAP chair in milk white with seat cushion without armrest. Designed by Kasper Salto for Fritz Hansen

04 Little Friend 2005

Small table - fixed or adjustable height, for laptop or other use. Top is black synthetic laminate (2006). Designed by Kasper Salto for Fritz Hansen

possible, a designer can often get paralyzed.” For this reason, the choice of a good designer is becoming increasingly important. Rasmussen continues “designers must be innovative, and have good communication skills. It’s crucial that they can identify with Fritz Hansen and our design values, and that they understand them 100%.” In order to choose the people that best represent the company’s values, says Rasmussen, “we spend a lot of time visiting designers. Indeed, it’s crucial to have an idea of their work processes, their strengths and weaknesses, to better understand how we might unfold their creative potential in the best possible way. We also invest a lot of energies in explaining about our design values and the overall strategy of the company.”

THE DESIGNER’S OPINION

Kasper Salto, a well-known Danish designer, who has worked with Fritz

2 IKEA

At IKEA’s headquarters in Älmhult, Småland (Sweden), are twelve in-house and seventy freelance designers, who work to create design products that will strengthen the IKEA identity. Lars Dafnäs, IKEA’s Design Manager, states that “being a designer at IKEA is not a one-man show, but it is team work, where the designer is a very important player.” Working for a company like IKEA means being able to embody its fundamental values: “Simplicity, Honesty, Clarity, Humanity.” IKEA’s products reflect the company’s identity, so its designers are required to take inspiration from “Swedish nature and perspective from the Smålandish heritage.” They are encouraged to use natural and blond materials with love and care to present solutions for the future, eschewing conventional, status-led thinking. Dafnäs tells us that IKEA’s designers follow a range of design directions in line with the company’s priorities and styles. On occasion, though, the company may decide to realize special projects to surprise their customers.

05 Stockholm cushion by IKEA. Cotton velvet with extra lustre and softness; nice and soft against the skin. Easy to clean; removable and washable cushion cover.

Designed by Åsa Gray

04

Hansen for over 12 years, agrees. Kasper argues that working with companies that are used to work with designers allows both the company and the designer to better understand each other, and thereby to develop things in collaboration. He specifies that, “the best products come out of the mix between good research, analysis, and then good product development.” Kasper explains that the best way to maintain good relations with his clients is “to work with them in the best possible manner.” Usually, when he starts working with a new company, it is important to mix the company’s ideas with his own creativity. This makes it profitable for all concerned. He concludes, “sometimes I come to the manufacturer with an idea, and sometimes the brief comes from the manufacturer. Indeed, if the company has great ideas, I am the first to be thankful.”

People Unusual Jobs

By PAOLA BETTINELLI

WORKING DOESN’T ALWAYS MEAN SEATING AT A DESK EIGHT HOURS A DAY. Some jobs allow people to cultivate their passions. One example: mountain guides. These mix their love for nature and sport with an unconventional job that requires years of specialization, physical ability and technical skills.

When your work is your passion

MOUNTAIN GUIDE

A mountain guide is an adventure tourism guide that has developed a specific series of skills which he or she employs to lead people into high mountain environments, and back again, in a safe and enjoyable fashion.

“Becoming a certified guide means earning the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations (IFMGA) certification,” explains Jason D. Martin, Operations Manager of the American Alpine Institute (AAI).

“The IFMGA qualification is an international standard for professional mountain guides accepted by 25 countries across the globe” confirms Betsy Novak, who is Executive Director of the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA ).

The successful candidate has completed three courses in three disciplines: rock, alpine and ski. “Ironically,” proceeds Martin of AAI, “only a small percentage of mountain guides are certified. This is because certification takes years, and a lot of money, to obtain.”

Being accepted onto a training program is difficult in itself. Applicants need at least one if not two years’ professional, as well as many years of personal, experience. Benjamin Gorelick, Expedition Director of the Mountaineering Training School, tells us that, “In the USA, the training program itself will take an average of between five and six years to complete, and will cost approximately 24.000 Euros. This does not include extras, such as the expenses for compulsory personal and professional trips that form part of the certification process.”

That said, states Ben Gorelick, “the IFMGA doesn’t provide certification for less technical activities such as backpacking, or trekking or top-roping or rock climbing.” Moreover, “The IFMGA is stronger in some countries than others. In Europe, all technical guides must be certified, while very few American companies require IFMGA certification. For example, in all of Alaska, there are only two IFMGA certified guides.”

A MOUNTAIN GUIDE’S CHARACTERISTICS

To be a good guide, a person “needs to be physically strong and technically competent,” continues Ben Gorelick. Betsy Novak of AMGA simply describes a guide as “strong and smart” Martin Chester, Director of Training of Plas y Brenin in Wales, which is also the British National Mountain Centre, states that that being a good guide means “being as passionate about people as you are about the mountains.” Meanwhile, on the mountain, “Everything you do is risk management,” says Ben Gorelick, “There are many hazards. Guides must be able to manage to minimize the dangers their clients -and they -- are exposed to.”

A CAREER AS A MOUTAIN GUIDE?

Urban living makes many people yearn for the chance to experience life on a more elemental and simple level. As a consequence, activities such as mountaineering and rock climbing have become increasingly popular. Today, a fully-certified IFMGA guide can expect to earn between 200 and 400 Euros a day, but Ben Gorelick underlines:

“This varies from country to country, and from company to company.”

Martin Chester, explains that a guide’s salary depends on various factors, “Guides have two work seasons: ski-ing from December to April, and mountaineering from June to September.” A guide might be employed by a company or be self-employed. As in other fields, the latter option, especially if the guide has his or her own guiding service, could be more profitable.

Finally, stresses Betsy Novak, to calculate an annual salary it is important to understand that, “What one guide makes is determined not only by their certification level, but also by the level of their personal experience.”

SAFARI GUIDE

Grant Hine, CEO (MD) of the Field Guide Association of South Africa (FGASA), defines a safari guide as, “the link between the natural and the cultural surroundings and the clients,” someone, in other words, who leads people in natural surroundings, and adds value to their experience by interpreting the natural environment.

These days, there are many different types of guides who specialise in different environments, the best-known being those we might call Terrestrial Nature Guides (such as Field Guides and Trail Guides) and Marine Guides. In South Africa, the Field Guide Association of South Africa (FEGSA) certification is the most common. This also

Illustrations by Yihsin Wu, Taipei City, Taiwan

aai.cc amga.com

Trekking guide or a “Nepalese Sherpa”?

Ram Prasad Ghimire, Executive Director of Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM) in Katmandu, Nepal, explains that, “In Nepal, a trekking guide has to hold a valid license issued by the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation.” Some schools, like NATHM, organize trekking guide training both on their own initiative, and upon request from the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal. Ram adds that the expression “Nepalese sherpa” or “Himalayan sherpa” is not synonymous with “trekking guide”. As Nigma Sherpa, a 30-year-old Nepalese Sherpa from Dolakha, explains “The word Sherpa is composed of two words ‘Shar’ and ‘Pa’. Shar means east and Pa means people in sherpa language. So Sherpa means people who live in the estern mountain region of Nepal. In the past most of the Sherpa people lived in the mountain region but nowadays they live in different part of the country because of their job, business, study etc. To become a sherpa, it is necessary to speak sherpa language and be familiar with sherpa culture and tradition.”

A sherpa

Should be Healthy

Educated and Respectable

Sherpa means Strong healthy ethnic group who were really Remote People Around Himalayas

Person Around the world

constitutes “the basis for many different careers in the this industry,” adds Corne Schalkwyk, Marketing and Sales Manager of Eco Training, which is based in Nelspruit in northeastern South Africa.“To obtain certification a candidate has to pass a theory exam as well as the practical guiding assessment. Having registered with the South African Department of Tourism, he or she can work as a nature, or safari, guide,” says Grant Hine, a field guide with many years’ experience. Also if “various countries can have their own certification criteria [...] usually connected with local tourism laws [...] it is possibile that neighbouring regions will recognise each other’s guiding qualifications [...] lately also in the UK, vacancy advertisements requiring a FEGSA certification were seen” explains Dylan Panos, Head Instructor for Bhejane Training, which is based in Northern Kwa-Zulu Natal.

A professional Field Guide course, costs between 10.000 and 14.000 Euros and, depending on the school, might last from six to 12 months. As Corne Schalkwyk, from Eco Training, explains, “the professional one-year course is definitely the most popular due to its links with the industry and employment opportunities.” Usually, the courses include both theory and practical, on-the-job, training. Dylan Panos states that, in his academy, “the training may also be divided into morn-

ecotraining.co.za fgasa.co.za mountaineeringtrainingschool.com nathm.edu.np pyb.co.uk]

ing and, sometimes, evening practical training sessions, such as bush walks and game drives. Moreover, if the student qualifies, he or she can be placed at a local lodge or reserve, in order to gain some experience in a real working environment.” Nowadays in Southern Africa there are around 45 training providers offering guide training.

WHAT ABOUT THE FUTURE?

“Tourism is a very entrepeneurial industry, which basically means that your earnings will often be a reflection of your level of dedication, enthusiasm and passion for wildlife and people. Working at a lodge or reserve offers limited possibilities, but most guides that are serious about a career in guiding eventually find themselves working freelance as specialist guides, or set up their own businesses,” advises Dylan Panos. Moreover, after a career as a guide proper, a person can change his or her work direction, using the field guide basic qualification as the basis for many careers in the industry. These might include wildlife filmmaking, or writing about the environment. Corne Schalkwyk gives us some examples of careers undertaken by past students at EcoTraining: directors of environmental TV programs, authors, filmmakers and internationally-renowned guides. All jobs that are not only well-paid, but also offer the chance to continue to cultivate a passion.

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People Women Gallerists

By MAGDA DANYSZ

IT HAS TAKEN A LONG TIME FOR WOMEN TO BECOME RECOGNIZED AS LEADERS IN THE ART WORLD There are many examples of women gallerists in history who profoundly impacted the business with their accomplishments.

Striving for recognition

Does being a woman make a difference in the arts field? In the twentieth century, women have accomplished a lot in the arts.

It is quite a recent phenomenon that women have taken positions in the art world as heads of museums or gallery owners.

WOMEN GALLERISTS ON THE SCENE

In the twentieth century, many galleries founded by women played a key role in the international art scene, enabling the emergence and recognition of new artists and new trends. In the footsteps of Berthe Weill, a pioneer who opened a gallery in Paris in 1901, women gallerists have been discoverers of talent, reaching to the unexplored, passionate and exciting; and have allowed a whole new generation to be known and recognized.

A glance at the Gallery workplace with Andrée Sfeir-Semler

What is the concept behind managing an art gallery or museum? I manage a commercial gallery and our aim is to represent an artist by first discovering him or her, promoting and showing their work, contacting museums, taking care of costs, and selling the pieces. We organize exhibition shows in a huge space every 6 weeks or 2 months. Why are there many women gallerists? Actually, most of the leading galleries of the world are run by men. For example when you look at New York, there are a few prominent women gallerists, but the majority of galleries/museums

A MUSEUM DIRECTOR

CAN BE A FEMALE JOB

It is mainly from the 1980s that some women began to enter the elitist club of museum directors. Now they are directing dozens of art centers and museums. But let’s remember that the Guggenheim museum in Venice and the Whitney museum in New York were initiated by women.

GERTRUDE AND PEGGY, ExAMPLES OF SUCCESS IN ART Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum’s namesake and founder, was herself a well-regarded sculptor as well as a serious art collector. As a patron of the arts, in 1929 she offered to donate her work to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As the Met declined the gift, in 1931 she decided to open her own museum exclusively for American Art. In the modern-Medici world of 20th-century art

are owned and managed by men. If you look at the broader art scene, you can find many smaller galleries managed by women. The one exception to this rule is Madrid, where most of the important galleries are run by women. What kind of personal and professional “path” has led women gallerists to this job position? If you look not only at the art world, but also at the general structure of society, the highest jobs still go to men. Women in art galleries and museums normally have assisting roles, but not at the top management level. I have a PhD in Art History, which is of course a requirement for the field, but I use Business a lot more. For a woman, it

patronage and art collecting, Peggy Guggenheim was a unique character. She collected art like nobody else, picking up items that didn’t sell, and works for which there was, as yet, no market, just because she loved them. She discovered Jackson Pollock when he was a humble carpenter in Solomon Guggenheim’s museum, and gave him his first exhibition in 1950 at the Museo Correr in Venice. Now her collection is amongst the most renowned around the world.

WOMEN OPEN GALLERIES

As recognition came for women, others also decided to get involved by opening art galleries. And though some might think that there are a lot of women, let’s not forget that it was not always the case. More than a specific education path, it is their passion and determination that led them to take the risk of promoting normally unknown artists and help them build their careers. For a long time women gallerists were not respected as some people saw them as bored housewives. Leo Castelli’s first

is very challenging to reach the top. How do women gallerists organize their work day? It is all about business. We talk about how business comes first and culture second. You have to have the skills and know which artists to promote. Once you pick them, you need to know how to finance them by selling their work. The idyllic portrait of the “starving artist” is obviously not the goal. What relationship do you have with new media? When I started my gallery in 1985, I only worked by phone. Now everything is done with new media, our website and email. A website is one of the best forms of promotion and I read around 200-300 emails per day for communication.

Corporate Arts Collections

Contemporary art and machines

The BMW Group’s cultural programme sponsors more than 100 events worldwide and has been a key element of corporate communication for almost 40 years. The company guarantees absolute creative freedom in all cultural activities it is connected to.

Visual Art of the Twentieth Century Bayer’s commitment to the visual arts goes back more than 100 years. The company now owns more than 5.500 thwentieth-century paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures. It offers works from its “Artothek” to employees on loan.

wife Ileana Sonnabend was one of these formidable dealers of 20th century art. She ran a contemporary art gallery in Paris during the early 1960s after the couple divorced and was a true discoverer of emerging talent. In the 1970s, she opened another contemporary art gallery in New York, the Sonnabend Gallery. In Paris, Denise René was a key example of determination. She started working in 1945 and her gallery still exists. And as Daniel Abadie puts it in his book “Form and Movement in 20th Century Art”, “Denise René took the idea that art must invent new paths in order to exist as her guiding principle.”

GALLERY ACTIVITIES

In truth, the job is not about holidays, cocktails and endless art talks. Days are exciting yet long, and whether one is a man or a woman, there is more to learn about moving crates

and artworks, installing or drilling holes in the walls, than preparing a perfect cocktail. In fact, there is no usual day. During a show preparation it is all about running around and logistics. Then as the show starts, it is also about communicating your passion to the art collectors who come and eventually convincing them of the presented artists’ quality. Then the day is not over as the gallerist has to promote the artists in other places, from art fairs to museums and art centers. And this is even more work when you decide, as I did in 2009, to expand and open a second (or third for some) gallery in another place in the world. The job is multi-faceted, and that is the exciting part of it. Recognition is real when it comes from peers, regardless of their gender. Several women artists had their work recognized, such as when the photographer Lee Miller did a cover for

Life magazine, or more recently when Sophie Calle and Annette Messager represented France at the Venice Biennale. However, note that at the Festival de Cannes in more than sixty editions, only one woman has won the Palme d’Or.

NEW MEDIA

With the rise of new media, women artists also know how to take their chances and use all the tools to convey their messages. German filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger, makes unconventional videos with stunning visual richness and playful accents. Since the 70s, she has built plural and poetic work, leading her audience into extraordinary and enchanting worlds. Others such as the Guerrilla Girls raise a question. In a widely shown poster they ask: “Do women have to be naked to get into U.S. museums?”. In 1989, when the Guerrilla Girls did

The new Florence Nightingale Museum Opens in May 2010

The Florence Nightingale Museum re-opens on May 12, the birth date of the Lady of the Lamp. Situated in the grounds of St Thomas’ Hospital on the site where Florence established her very first Nightingale Training School for Nurses, the Museum tells her story via three pavilions, focusing on her Victorian childhood, the Crimean War and her later years as an ardent campaigner for health reform. The Museum also celebrates the profession of nursing and explores Florence’s legacy to today’s nursing practice. The Museum features an

unparalleled collection of Nightingalia, with highlights including the writing slate Florence used as a child; the medicine chest she took to the Crimean war; a rare Register of Nurses which lists the women who served under her in the military hospitals in Turkey and the Crimean; and her pet little Owl Athena who travelled everywhere in her pocket.

The highly visual and engaging interpretation features interactive and touchscreen exhibits, films, a creative programme of free arts activities for children, and regular contemporary art exhibitions which will see artists respond to different aspects of Florence’s life and legacy. Visitors even use a

[W bayer.com bmw.com credit-suisse.com db.com florence-nightingale.co.uk guggenheim.org hugoboss.com illy.com life.com

Classical Modernism and Contemporary Art The Deutsche Bank Collection is one of the largest corporate collections worldwide, with more than 56.000 works of art. The collection is in 911 of the bank’s buildings and on loan in 28 museums and cultural institutions.

A world-class collection of contemporary art UBS With a collection of paintings, photographs, drawings, sculptures and video art from 1950 onwards, UBS is recognized as having one the world’s most important art collections of contemporary art.

Fashion and Contemporary Arts

The international Hugo Boss arts programme concentrates on contemporary arts. Nowadays it sponsors exhibitions in more than 20 museums worldwide and with the Guggenheim they have established a contemporary art award.

the first version of their poster, less than 5% of the works in the Modern and Contemporary Sections of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art were by women, but 85% of the nudes were female. In the fall of 2004 we went back and recounted. SURPRISE. Not much had changed. In fact, there were a few less women artists than fifteen years before! Needless to say, women have a long way to go to be recognized.

01 Ernst Wilhelm Nay, 1902–68, Red in the Center (1955), Oil on Canvas. 100 x 160 cm, Acquired by Bayer in 1980 02 Magda Danysz – Paris, étage, courtesy galerie Magda Danysz 03 Shanghai, exposition Zhang Dali. Courtesy of Magda Danysz

pair of stethoscopes to hear the audio tour.

Caroline Worthington, director, of Florence Nightingale Museum says “this is a special year for Florence and the new Museum is a very fitting tribute to someone who has contributed so much to modern day nursing. Florence has inspired so many men and women to join a profession which we all rely on and it is fascinating to see that the issues she tackled such as hospital hygiene, caring for soldiers and the training of nurses are still hugely relevant today. We are excited about welcoming a wide range of audiences to discover more about this iconic Briton.”

A commitment to art in the everyday world In Crédit Suisse art is quite important, both in terms of sponsorship and of Art Collection. Established in 1975, the collection now comprises 5.000 artworks and it is investing a lot in improving its collection with new young talent.

02

• 03

Arts insurances Zurich in the last few years has gathered a great art collection in order to embellish its workplaces. Furthermore Zurich sponsors some important cultural institutions: the Art Basel and an annual award: The Zurich Art Prize.

Aesthetics and flavour: two inseparable concepts Illy is partner of the most important international art fair worldwide.In 1992 Illy created the first collection of cups trying to combine the aesthetic of the cup together with the taste and flavour of coffee.

Arts collections, exhibitions, international arts fairs but also literature, music, theatres and creative thinking. In the next issue we will focus on these to understand which are the latest trends in this sector and which are the best practices for working with arts.

“Arts reflects who we are - as a society, as an individuals, and as an institution. It can remind us of our collective heritage. Our hint at our future. The same goes for us- UBS.” This is the thinking that has lead UBS to invest a lot on their Art Collection and on becoming sponsor of several international arts museums. Also the BMW Group has a strong interest in all forms of cultural expression, both globally and locally. For its own employees as well as for a wide cross-section of the interested public. They think that “by cooperating with and supporting artists as well as those involved in culture in a broader sense, the BMW Group’s Communication division wishes to set thematically challenging and convincing accents.” The philosofical concept of the kalokagathia links indissoluble taste and flavour to beauty: what is good is also nice and vice versa. To follow this ideal Illy has contributed to the circulation of contemporary art and to the support of young artists and international arts fairs, for fifteen years.

magda-gallery.com metmuseum.org sfeir-semler.com whitney.org zurich.com]

Working parents: what do your children think

By JERôME BALLARIN

Barack Obama has said “I’ve been a lawyer, a teacher, a senator, and now I’m the president of the United States and I can say that the hardest job […] is to be Sasha and Malia’s father.” And he is, of course, correct. Being a parent is a demanding task. The stress, job strain, and deadlines encroach on time that should be dedicated to one’s children. Reconciling the two takes effort.

Generally, when both parents work, they have less time for their children, and it is normal that these feel neglected. A sullen child just gets more withdrawn if parents, tired by their work, just say “yes” to everything. Curious children are disappointed if their parents do not have the energy to engage in intellectual or artistic discussions after a hard day at the office. The care of young children has become increasingly problematic, largely because of the growing numbers of mothers working outside the home. The family map has been redesigned, but children need their parents, or at least one of them, to help them grow.

WHAT DO CHILDREN ExPECT FROM THEIR PARENTS?

The Paris-based Parenthood Observatory conducted a study among 500 14-17 year-olds, the objective being to better understand the way they considered their parents’ work.

The three key findings were: • a large majority of teenagers was able to name and describe their par-

ents’ professional activity; • most of them regularly discussed their work with their parents, and they seemed satisfied with the degree of time spent on this subject. That said, 71% stated that the amount of time spent talking about work with their parents was about right. This might be taken to mean that teenagers want to shield themselves from the professional world, since it seems stressful;

• more than two thirds of the respondents believed that their parents’ jobs were stressful, tiring, and difficult. Only a few felt their parents had jobs that were gratifying.

WHAT’S THE RESULT?

It might be said that the younger generations see only the gloomier side of the professional world. They associate work with financial scandals, the fear of being fired, or stress.

That said, these young people will be entering the professional world in less than three years. Their outlook must be taken seriously. It would appear that they want to avoid worries,

The Parenthood Observatory was launched on April 2008 and aims at enhancing dialogue between the key actors of both professional and personal lives.

Parenthood Observatory’s three main objectives are to:

• Promote the Corporate Parenthood Charter

• Organize workshops for companies who want to share their company policies and practices on balancing their employees’ work/family time

• Assess the changes within companies regarding the support they provide to employees with children

Four major fields in which companies can act to become family friendly:

1. Services to support employees with children

2. Financial support

3. Work organisation

4. HR and managerial support

CHILDREN ALWAYS ExPECT SOMETHING FROM THEIR PARENTS. What about working parents? Sometimes just a few pointers are enough to build and maintain a good relationship in families where both parents work.

Loretta Lux (1969) is a fine art photographer known for her surreal portraits of young children. Lux was trained as a painter, and after graduating at Akademie der Bildenden Künste, she started her career as a photographer in 1999. In 2005 she received the Infinity Award for Art, from New York’s International Centre of Photography, her subjects are children that are sometimes gives odd but symbolic props - a fish, a loaf of bread - then photographed under even, shadowless light. The results are faces and bodies which have pale complexions and the visual resonance of porcelain. Then she sometimes slightly manipulates the scale of the heads, hands or torso, and places the child’s image into a plain backdrop which she may have painted herself. The result can suggest Victorian portraiture. But Lux will float the child in space against a featureless background. The children become dissociated from time and, by virtue of the technique, from the context. They float, slightly surreal, in a nowhere world.

01 Portrait of Antonia 2007

© Loretta Lux, Courtesy of the Artist, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York and Torch Gallery, Amsterdam

02 John, 2008

© Loretta Lux, Courtesy of the Artist, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York and Torch Gallery, Amsterdam

03 Elusions (2004-2005) Obione ©galerie Magda Danysz

04 Elusions (2004-2005) Falaise ©galerie Magda Danysz

05 Nocturnus or The Lost Boys (2006-2007)Esquives, Obione ©galerie Magda Danysz

spend more time with their parents, and enjoy their company.

According to a Sofres survey conducted in June 2008 on 4.400 French youths aged 15 and over, the 99% said that family was important in life. The 50% thinks it’s synonymous with love, and according to the 43% with happiness.

WHIC ADVICE CAN BE GIVEN TO WORKING PARENTS TO HELP THEM BUILDING AND MAINTAINING A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR CHILDREN?

WHAT CAN PARENTS DO?

How can working parents ask for part-time or tele-commuting work so as to reconcile professional and family commitments? How can employees ask their superior to limit the number of meetings scheduled late in the day? How can parents grow professionally without abandoning their children to a nanny?

First, they have to dare to formulate their request, and mobilize all their courage. They have to be careful to make a request tactfully. It’s preferable to ask, for instance, what the compa-

ny has done to reconcile professional and family life. Avoid a question like: “Can I go home earlier, like 6 o’clock, every day? I have to get my children from the nursery school.” The perfect time would be at the annual interview. That is the time to ask for a change in working time, and to convince one’s supervisor that it is feasible and would not impact negatively on the quality of work. Finally, take advantage of informal occasions with the boss, so as to make him or her aware of one’s family constraints. This person might have the same problems, and will feel empathy. A coffee or lunch break is the ideal time for such a chat.

THE PRINCIPAL ADVICE TO GIVE TO PARENTS WOULD BE “TIME MANAGEMENT”

Working parents, it’s time to hunt down and get rid of time-wasting activities! This consists in organizing your time. First, it is important to prioritize those activities that take longest, filling the gaps with shorter, easier tasks. The objective here is to plan your time, so you are not overwhelmed by lots of minor

activities that build up tension. Another approach would be to make a To-Do list. This enables you to put on paper everything you have in mind, so you do not forget anything. Overall, it keeps you focused on a limited number of tasks, so you do not feel stifled. For someone who works in different spheres, it enables you to manage more missions, keep focused, and does not oblige you to keep everything in your head. If you refine this tool, you could do a daily To-Do list, writing down things that must be done by the end of the day. On the right of this list, for example you could write family things, such as buying a gift for your daughter’s birthday, calling the plumber, or phoning the bank. The To-Do list can go with you all day. You must remember to look at it regularly to remind yourself of the day’s or the week’s priority items. When this list becomes overwhelming, because of the sheer volume of tasks to be achieved, start a new one, transcribing the unfinished tasks, and throw the old list away. Put together, key actions like these, help working parents lead balanced lives. •

• creating an environment that is favourable to working parents, especially expectant mothers

By signing the Corporate Parenthood Charter (which has already been signed by 150 French companies, representing one million French employees) companies proclaim their willingness to implement the following concrete actions aimed at promoting parenthood:

• to bring about change in attitudes to parenthood within the company

• making Human Resources officers and all other managers aware of the importance of taking the issue of parenthood into consideration

• informing staff members of their commitment to the Parenthood Observatory

• providing employees with the means to balance their professional and personal lives

• offering flexible working conditions to expectant mothers

• respecting the principle of non-discrimination in the careers of employees with children

• preventing and eliminating any practices that discriminate against employees with children from our Human Resource processes

• encouraging management practices and behaviour that enhance the professional development of employees with children

Mireille Loup (1969) is a Swiss contemporary photographer, who actually lives and works in Arles, France. She belongs to this new generation of photographers who captured starkly from reality, without any frills or special effects. The pictures in these pages belong to two different project: ‘Elusions’ (2004-2005) and ‘Nocturnus or The Lost Boys’ (2006-2007).

Elusions is a photographic work related to a novel of the same title, that deals with victimology of Childhood. Behind the innocence of childhood, Mireille

Loup invites the viewer to apprehend the terrors to which the child can be confronted, and for whom the only resource is the elusion.‘Elusions’ proposes the mental world of a child, staging through “setting in landscapes.” The whole works as an ode to liberty and suggests a breakaway. ‘Nocturnus or The lost boys’ invites us into children’s fantasies, in the world of fairy tales. Each image is a fairy tale scene and the whole series can be read as a journey of initiation in three parts, from the city to the wild, always in a nocturnal atmosphere.

Joining the company The Value of a Good Integration

By MARTHA TINTIN

Excellent integration: the rules

WHY A NEW APPOINTMENT WORKS

Creating a perfect match between an executive and a company depends on various factors. These might include, over and above a clear understanding of objectives and responsibilities, the appropriate professional experience and a cultural fit. The executive must have the values and the motivation that chime with the culture of the company he or she is joining. “It is fundamental that the executive has the abilities and necessary competences in order to be appointed in a position that perfectly fits the organizational culture.” Says Roxana Lequerica, Partner, Signium Colombia.

“

If employers want managers to hit the ground running, they need to ensure a very thorough orientation plan. This would include an understanding of the business and all product lines, an introduction to all relevant colleagues, and some training on the values, culture and vision of the company,” affirms Asad Haider, Managing Partner, Signium Middle East and Pakistan, who goes on to add“companies that have gone one step further and assigned a mentor or “buddy” to the employee, have found it works wonders to help the employee understand how we do things around here” and hence help the person integrate and start to be productive in the shortest time possible.”

In the USA, successful candidates have experience in facing challenges that will confront them in their new role. “Examples might be profitably growing a business sector, mergers and acquisition expertise, introducing and rolling out a new product line, or rebuilding a specific func-

tion such as the supply chain,” says Glenn Anderson, Senior Managing Director, Signium Cleveland, OH, USA.

WHY A NEW APPOINTMENT DOESN’T WORK

For Ignacio Bao, Chairman of Signium International and President, of Signium Spain, matters are clear “a proper handling of the above factors lead to a successful integration, while a mishandling in some cases might irrevocably damage the relationship between executive and organization.” Chemistry is also an important component. Explains Glenn Anderson, “I had a placement several years ago who went from working at a large multi-billion global business top-down, command culture, to a smaller mid-size company with a flat organization and a team approach. The candidate ultimately worked out, but it took him a few months to adapt to the new environment.”

Anderson goes on “if the candidate is moving to a smaller business, he or she must understand the dynamics of aligning with a closely-held company, the need to wear several hats, and the need to get engaged more broadly in the business plan and operations.”

For Lequerica, “every new job forces us to reinvent ourselves. Another obstacle we face, is to think that we

Data Twsm Mantra Hire people:

still belong to the old organization, the old job with the same habits, and many times a new environment requires other perspectives of ourselves. To shorten the adaptation time and to improve the percentages of success, opportunities are not paid attention to in the organizational world,” she says.

The new appointee needs to listen closely. Says Haider“the manager has to make more of an effort to understand, listen attentively and understand the new team that he will be working with. The sooner he can do this, the faster he will integrate and be accepted by the rest of the team.”

ASSESSMENT PROCESSES

Assessment exercises provide the chance to determine current levels of competence as well to predict potential. “The interviews allow us, consultants, to have an integral knowledge of the executive’s personal and professional characteristics and his/her capacity to develop in a specific role,” comments Lequerica.

Bao elucidates “once the personal evaluation of a candidate has been completed, and both consultant and client feel that the candidate is a good fit, the search consultant begins the process of a 360 degree reference check, being sure to speak with superiors, peers and subordinates from the most

• first with the right mind-set, and second with the right tool-set

• who have a demonstrated record of life-long learning and its application

• who love to stay with others and take part in social activities

• who are passionate, and see negativity as an opportunity

• who have an optimistic mood and are excited about managing their own career

• who relive negative experiences as a learning and growth tool rather than a personal failure

THE SAME MANAGER MAY BE PERFECT FOR ONE COMPANY AND TOTALLY WRONG FOR ANOTHER. The quality of a résumé is as important as personal ability in a specific context.

recent positions. However, the most important thing is to help corroborate or demystify weaknesses that emerged during the interview and evaluation process by checking references of the most recent and relevant position to the one the candidate is being considered for.” Bao goes on“these processes are universally applicable to all professional sectors at a managerial level.” Glenn Anderson adds“in some cases, criminal background checks and, in some cases, credit checks will also be required.”

“Once finalist candidates are identified, it is appropriate to introduce psychometric testing into the process” adds Allan Marks, Joint Managing Director, Signium Sydney, Australia. “This level of assessment will help provide insight and direction for further evaluation either in subsequent interviews or through the reference checking process to ensure a ‘best fit candidate’.”

Assessment centers are sometimes used. Haider clarifies“assessment centers are possibly the best indicators of whether someone will be a good cultural fit or not. [This] approach is best used when hiring a large number of positions e.g customer service agents, cabin crew, sales staff, there must be a sizeable group for it to be effective.”

THE CREDIBILITY OF THESE PROCESSES

A good assessment exercise often provides interesting elements to those making hiring decisions. While achieving a 100% perfect fit is clearly impossible, such an exercise can go some way towards indicating how the candidate would perform in the

post, and how he or she might develop.

For Lequerica, the credibility of these processes is the credibility of the consultant himself. “The ability to understand the skills and traits necessary to fill a particular professional role, as well as a well-developed ‘sixth sense’ regarding the human aspect, is generally something learned by the search consultant over time,” she says. Moreover, Marks adds ”A consultant with a proven track record of placement and strong industry knowledge demonstrates the effectiveness of the search process utilized.” Haider, meanwhile, has no doubts. “It has been demonstrated that just interviews are an inefficient method of predicting success in the job. It may be concluded that rather than heavily relying on any one method, the best selection would consist of a variety of approaches i.e., tests, structured interviews and background and work history references as well as track record.”

WHO MANAGES THESE PROCESSES?

Usually the processes are carried out in-house, using the latest technology tools. “Typically, these tools are online tests of managing styles, which give accurate, reliable and in-depth information”, says Lequerica. “However, some clients use their own tools, or external consultants, in order to validate what we come up with,” she adds. “For example, we have an individual who is certified to oversee and interpret a specific assessment tool that is given to all finalist candidates presented to our clients” explains Anderson, “if the client wishes

to augment this with additional testing, they may do so.”

“Both internal and external need to co-operate and manage the whole process of assessment and interviews in a seamless manner,” comments Haider.

Hiring the right person means taking the necessary time and using all the tools available in the decision-making process. Making the wrong choice can lead to all manner of regrettable situations. These might include reduced employee morale, inappropriate behaviour, lost customers and opportunities, time and money wasted in training and development. Making the wrong choice may also expose the company to legal action.

Signium International

is a global executive search consulting firm, which provides top quality consulting services to national and multinational companies that need to recruit, grow and retain the best leadership talent in their individual markets.

Signium International has 44 offices in the main cities of 28 countries, and a team of 150 consultants serving the major markets of the world.

Ignacio Bao Chairman of Signium International and President of Signium Spain Madrid, Spain

Asad Haider Managing Partner Middle East and Pakistan

Allan Marks Joint Managing Director Sydney, Australia

Glenn Anderson Senior Managing Director Cleveland, OH, USA

Roxana Lequerica Partner Bogota, Colombia

Strip cartoon written and illustrated by Sandrine Martin, Paris, FR

Movers and shakers THE CHARACTERS IN THE STRIP CARTOON have been placed in their new position by Signium, a global executive search firm.

To be cool Design ideas

Industrial Designers Society of America

IDSA is the world’s oldest, largest, member-driven society for product design, industrial design, interaction design, human factors, ergonomics, design research, design management, universal design and related design fields. IDSA organizes the renowned International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) competition annually. [W idsa.org]

[Bronze]

OxO Good Grips Office Tools for Staples is a line of office products designed to make everyday work tasks easier and more efficient.

Designers Anthony Di Bitonto, Agnete Enga, Anton Ljunggren, Przemeslaw Godycki, Jonathan Cedar, Vincent Faivre d`Arcier, Kirsten Climer and Mike Schumann of Smart Design; and Michael Patel Delevante of OXO for Staples, Inc. [W smartdesignworldwide.com]

[Gold]

Very - a friendly, highly sustainable seating family, born out of global design and science-led comfort.

Designers Michael Welsh and Nicolai CzumajBront of Haworth Design Studio, and Simon Desanta of Simon Desanta Industrial Design (Germany) for Haworth Inc. [W haworth.com]

[Silver]

[Gold]

LIM is a multi-purpose, multi-task LED light with elemental structure and multiple reconfigurations.

Designers Pablo Pardo of Pablo Designs and Ralph Reddig of Haworth, Inc. [W haworth.com]

NeatDesk is a high-speed scanning device and digital filing and organization system that enables people to scan receipts, business cards and documents separately or all at once transforming disparate info into an organised, useable format. Designers Eter Michaelian, Allen Zadeh, Eric Freitag, Joern Vicari, Mark Prommel and Vincent Faivre d`Arcier of Smart Design, and Harris Romanoff, Kevin Garton, Les Spero and Rafi Spero of The Neat Company [W smartdesignworldwide.com]

To be cool Fashion in the world The Business side of style

Lima, Milan, Sydney

Photo credits • Luis Francisco Gonzales Watson, Lima • Roberto Benzi, Milan • Cybele Malinowski, Sydney

Lima Perù

Claudia Valdivia Valladares

Milan Italy Stefano Colombo Sydney Australia Naomi Simson

Claudia Valdivia Valladares is the CFO and Human Resources Director at Interseguro, a major insurance company in Perù.

Claudia is fond of her job because it gives her the opportunity to combine two things she loves: working with people and finance.

Finance is part of the DNA that runs in her family, her father is a famous CPA, nationally recognized as one of the intellectual leaders of this profession, and her brother is a partner of one of the most highly respected

audit companies. Being connected to other people has always been a constant feature in Claudia’s life. At first she started giving private lessons, then she took a big step forward in her career when she became an academic teacher at the University of the Pacific. Now she is a lecturer at various HR conferences.When she is not working, she enjoys dining out with her husband Jose in one of the new restaurants in Lima, or planning her next holiday trip to one of her favorite cities: New York or Madrid. However without any doubt, her priority is her three years old son. They enjoy playing at the park, visiting the zoo or going to the beach. Spending time with him is her main hobby.

Advice from Demetra Dossi for ‘Claudia’s Style’. The colors of the season are undeniably camel, purple and cobalt blue. They are three sober, chic and extremely versatile textures. For Claudia I chose a series of clothes and accessories that showcase the winter trends like Kenzo’s sunglasses and the Bally’s Charles Youssef shoes.

01 Bow Wow Kartell shoes realized in collaboration with Moschino* (85€)

02 Bally shoes, Charles Youssef model (795€)

03 Kenzo sunglasses (253€) 04 Daks dress (305€) 05 Capobianco blu leather jacket (price on request) 06 Via Uno bag (price on request)

07 Isabella Rossellini bag by Bulgari (starting from 1.250€ to 1.900€) 08 Killah boots (69€)

Lugano, 1971 “Mrs Colombo, Mrs Colombo…Stefano is climbing again..”

Milan, 2011

Habits seem not to scratch Swiss manager Stefano Colombo, that has a history with climbing. Mr Colombo started his career in a small company located in the surroundings of Lugano, and today he is responsible for the Italian market of the Swiss energy colossus, Alpiq. Stefano is an expert skier. He began skiing when he was a child and he used to spend his winter holidays skiing. In the summer time Stefano enjoyed walking up and down the mountains and the alpine lakes. Last year Stefano undertook his last adventure: a trekking trip in Nepal at 20.000 feet, and the year before he went on an ‘heliski’ week in Canada, through the Rocky Mountains. His family runs a renowned textile company located in the centre of Lugano, that was founded in 1867 by his grandfather. Mr Colombo unusually carries with him an extra wardrobe in the trunk of his car, which highlights the typical behaviour of someone who doesn’t have a home and enjoys travelling around the World very much. Stefano is member of the historical Lugano’s Rotary club. According to him, Rotary is a good meeting point for people to share their knowledge, professional backgrounds and experiences Stefano loves climbing, even if he is an engineer with his feet firmly put on the ground. He’s pragmatic. He cares for the environment and for sustainable development. He’s an exceptional creative individual who manages a business that is slowly moving towards more respectful operations for our planet.

Stefano Colombo

Advice from Demetra Dossi for ‘Stefano’s Style’. Less is more when it comes to the minimalist men fashion trend for the fall 2010. Streamlined silhouettes and tailoring, solid, monochromatic shades of white, grey and black and clean lines have taken up residence door this season. For Stefano I chose a series of minimalist clothes and some items that don’t go unnoticed.

01 Levi’s sunglasses (108€) 02 Alberto Guardiani shoes (199€) 03 Aguille scarf, Tribeca model by Peuterey (85€) 04 Bulgari parfume (60€) 05 Samsung I800-Omnia (399€) 06 Aguille jacket, Tremont model by Peuterey (550€) 07 Elvstrom sweater (85€) 08 Capobianco sweater (price on request)

Naomi Simson is the founder and Chief Experience Officer of RedBalloon, Australia & New Zealand’s Leading Experience Gifts Retailer. One of Australia’s outstanding female entrepreneurs, the key to her personal success lies in her ability to shift her values to the company. Naomi has seen the results when “everyone does what they say they are going to do” and she has transferred this attitude to her business, by encouraging her team to have the freedom to organize their own work and play to their strengths. She is supportive, innovative, funny and courageous. Her belief, and one of RedBalloon’s values, is ‘being a little dog with a big dog attitude’. It means being courageous, moving nimbly, and taking risks. In the last few years both, her and her business, have received major accolades. The most important: in 2008 she won the Innovation category at the Telstra Business Women of the Year Awards, and in the same year, her leadership and managerial skills were acknowledged at the Australia HR Awards. We asked Naomi for three adjectives to describe herself. She answered: “I am a positive, enthusiastic and effervescent person.” She loves her job and constantly seeks new inspiration to innovate throughout the business. Where does she get this drive from? “I think I was born like this…every morning I get out of bed and cannot wait to go to work, I am excited and I am interested, I think having a big game to play means that I am always stimulated”.

Apart from work, Naomi has three big passions: her family, painting using vivid colours and staying fit. She started painting when she was a teenager, and with the same passion she had when she was young, Naomi likes exploring the world of paint. She reaches a meditative state experiencing the texture, the color and the smell of paint on large canvases.

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Advice from Demetra Dossi for the ‘Naomi’s Style’. Leopard spots, snakeskin and tiger stripes. Designers took a walk on the wild side for the fall/winter 2010. For Naomi I opted for some animal prints accessories like the Trussardi’s limited edition bag, to match with Frou Frou dresses and the new Chanel nail polishes.

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By UMUT KARA

The city between two worlds

Istanbul

Istanbul is my city, and is the “place” where the ancient culture, built through 3,000 years of history and three empires (Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman) blends with modernity. Geographically, Istanbul is the Asian city nearest to Europe and the European city nearest to Asia. The two continents are separated by the Bosphorus Strait, so Istanbul is bounded by two seas, the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.

ECONOMY

Apart from being the largest city and former political capital of the country, Istanbul has always been the centre of Turkey’s economic life because of its

location: a junction between international land and sea trade routes. Istanbul employs approximately 20% of Turkey’s industrial labour and contributes to 38% Turkey’s industrial workspace.

As a result, Istanbul is the world’s 34th largest economy, generating a GDP of €133bn.

The city and its surroundings produce cotton, fruit, olive oil, silk, and tobacco. Among the city’s major industrial products are: food processing, textile production, oil products, rubber, metal ware, leather, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electronics, glass, machinery, automotive, transport vehicles, paper and paper products, and alcoholic drinks. Today, the city generates 55% of Tur

In Istanbul women have the right to vote and to be elected in municipal elections since 1930. Thanks to Atatürk, the founder of the Republic, who believed in the necessity of complete equality between women and men, all political rights considered to be the foundation of citizenship rights were recognized for women in Turkey very early on, compared to many other countries.

Europe

The road to Europe

The EU welcomed the recent ‘yes’ in the Turkish referendum on constitutional amendments, and President Barack Obama congratulated Mr Erdogan and acknowledged the vibrancy of Turkish democracy Moreover, the passage of the reform package should help expedite Turkey’s EU entry negotiations. Among other things, this reform makes the military accountable to civilian courts, and gives the right to appoint judges to parliament. The amendments will enable Mr Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) to organise the high courts on lines conforming to the European Union’s entry criteria. What must have hurt the army most was the lifting of immunity for those involved in the 1980 coup. Time will tell whether or not those who view the reform as Mr Erdogan’s attempt to gradually strip Turkey of its secular character are correct.

Istanbul Turkey

Modern City Old City

Istanbul has become the 5th largest city proper in the world and also the second largest metropolitan area in Europe by population.

Istanbul is a immense city 15 million habitants

Black Sea Sea of Marmara

The original Constantinople was surrounded by seven hills, all located in the area within the Walls of Constantinople a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city.

OLD COSTANTINOPLE IS A VIBRANT, COSMOPOLITAN AND A RISING CITY. A unique city which provides a world of modern life without forgetting its tradition. This new business centre of the Millennium has now more things to offer.

Family Business success story

Tufan Abaci’s father started Turkey’s first company that deals with water treatment and filtration of water and pools in 1967. Tufan joined the company in 1977, when he was at university, studying to be

key’s trade and 45% of the country’s wholesale trade, generating 21.2% of Turkey’s GNP. Istanbul contributes to 40% of all taxes collected in Turkey, and produces 27.5% of Turkey’s national product.

TRANSPORTATION

All major cities in the world are faced, to a greater or lesser degree, with transportation problems that they are trying to solve. Some 90% of the transportation in Istanbul is made up of highway traffic that has severely negative effects on the geography, topography, natural, and - especially - the historical features of the city. Turkey’s Ministry of Transportation reports that there are nearly 64.000 km of highway and nearly 11.000 km of railway throughout the nation, 2.300 km of which are electrified. Seaports are connected to railways, so that combined transportation options are available. One of the largest projects in the Turkish transportation sector has been the Ankara-Istanbul high-speed train project by Turkish Railways, which was inaugurated on March 13, 2009. Another project, consolidating Turkey’s role in transporta-

a chemical engineer. In 1989, he founded his own business. While, from the late-1980s and thanks to Turgut Ozal (Prime Minister from 1983 to 1989 and President from 1989 to 1993) who improved relations with the western world, Tufan company’s imports -- over a

tion and logistics, is the Baku (Azerbaijan)- Tbilisi (Georgia)- Kars (Turkey) railway project, which is already under construction, and is planned to connect Turkey to China via Central Asia. Turkey has 34 airports, as well as numerous seaports. These give Turkey the ability to transport 1.5 million tons of consumer goods by air, and almost 250 million tons by sea per year. Although logistics services are relatively new in Turkey, due to its unique location, the country is expected to become a logistics center in the near future. The Turkish logistics sector consists of 200 transport commissioners, 600 road transport companies having their own fleets, 300 customs consultants, and 20 inland distributors. In total, nearly 1,500 companies operating in Turkey are certified for international transportation

ENERGY

Because of its geographical position, Turkey has an increasingly important role as an “energy corridor” between the major oil and natural gas producing countries in the Middle East, Caspian Sea and the Western energy markets. More than about 70% of energy con-

ten-year period -- increased from five to 500 products, staff grew from 2 to 45, and turnover grew from €500.000 to €50mn. His wife joined the company in 1998. Eventually, they decided to sell the company. Tufan started another business in the drinking-water

sumption in the country is met by imported energy sources, and the share of imports grows each year. Turkey’s principal energy resources come from water, especially in the Eastern part of the country, and from lignite. Turkey has no major oil and gas reserves. Almost all oil, natural gas and high quality coal are imported. On the other hand, the country has large renewable energy potential. In Turkey, where there is no nuclear power, electricity generated from thermal, hydro, eolic and geothermal power plants.

HEALTH POLICY

Turkey has a very complex health care system because of the existence of different plans and departments involved in this sector. Today, health care has improved compared to the past but has still not reached the expected quality, especially in most of the state hospitals. The annual growth rate of GNP in Turkey is between 5% and 6 %, but health expenditure is only between 3% and 5% of GNP. The social security system is composed of three different major organizations. The Social Insurance Institution (SSK) covers the insurance of

sector, and they sell chemicals for water treatment to the municipalities including Istanbul, and Ankara. They also supply chemicals for waste treatment to power plants, steel plants, as well as sugar plants.

Life Style Tufan Choices

The Beyoglu and Sultanahmet areas, are favorite places for dining and night life, while Nisantasi area is the most popular shopping district.

☺Cost of renting

This is an analysis of the average of some residential property prices in Istanbul that was prepared using a total of 24.755 examples.

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employees of the private sector. It provides health services for work injuries and professional job diseases, medical care, sickness, disability, and maternity. Meanwhile, Pension Fund for Civil Servants (Emekli Sandigi) covers the insurance and pensions of civil servants. Finally, Social Security Institution for the Self-employed (Bag-Kur) covers the self-employed outside the coverage of the Social Insurance (SSK) Law. In addition, the Green Card System was established in 1992, and is directly funded by the Government for people earning less than a minimum level of income. By means of this scheme, they are provided with a special card giving free access to outpatient and inpatient care at all state, and some university, hospitals. Inpatient medical drug expenses are covered, but not outpatient drugs. However, private health insurance is well developed in Turkey. Many people pay their premium to these private companies in order to get better quality health service. Private pension funds were started a couple of years ago, and are growing very fast. These private funds are usually offered by private banks.

•

Rental prices for apartments in Istanbul range from 5-6 Euro per square meter in Acibadem to 11-12 in Bebek.

☺Military service is compulsory for male citizens. If a citizen continues to his education in a superior institution, service duty is deferred automatically. For instance, if you have finished your bachelor degree, you would have to enrol for a master programme. If you have completed a master program, you would need to enrol for PhD.

☺In Istanbul, humans and animals -- especially cats -- have a peaceful coexistence. The special status of stray cats in Turkey partly derives from Muslim ideas about tolerance, and an urban elite with Western-style ideas about animal rights. A popular saying goes: “If you’ve killed a cat, you need to build a mosque to be forgiven by God.”

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Dining

[W changa-istanbul.com] [W sunsetgrillbar.com] Turkish Food [W hacibabarest.com] [W pandeli.com.tr]

Kebab

[W beyti.com] [W hamdi.com.tr]

Fish [W rumelihisariiskele.com] [W tarihikarakoybalikcisi.com] Great View [W 360istanbul.com] [W istanbulyi.com] Barr [W ottoistanbul.com] Night life [W babylon.com.tr] [W mojomusic.org] Modern art [W galerinevistanbul.com] [W galerinon.com]

Shopping for travellers [W grandbazaaristanbul.org] Design shopping [W autoban212.com] [W elacindoruknazanpak.com]

01— 02 Tufan Abaci, photos by Gülnur Sözmen 03 Cat, by the artist Zerrin Cebeci

Illustration by gk-istanbul.com, Istanbul, TR

Sunset grill & bar restaurant

Opened in 1994, Sunset had a Californian theme, at a time when most competitors were decorated in a French-style. The solution developed at Sunset is to offer fine and selected cuisine, and to eschew group tourism. The owner took advantage of the crisis by featuring Hiroki Takemura, a world-class chef from London, where he headed up the team at Nobu restaurant. He had previously been the founding chef of Zuma. The secret of

Sunset’s success is mainly due to the great location, with amazing views all along the Bosphorus, 3.000 years of history visibly available, and beautiful mosques and other public buildings. “To be successful here, you still need to have certain local qualities. Guests, for example, are called by name. It’s more about traditional hospitality values than menus. As we say here, food and barbers don’t change,” the owner Bariç Tansever tells us. At Sunset, the average cost for a three-course dinner per person is about 60€, excluding wine.

Ingredients for:

Lamb

Wants to become a real turkish cook?

Test your skills with Sunset’s recommended dish:

Grilled loin of lamb with smoked aubergine stuffed with red pepper, swiss chard mushrooms “dolma” and a mustard-grain sauce.

• 250 gr. loin of lamb, 20 gr. wild mushrooms, 10 gr. goat cheese, 4 leaves Swiss chard, 20 gr. butter, 1 piece smoked red pepper, 20 gr. salt and pepper, Smoked aubergine

• 1 tablespoon flour, 1 aubergine, 1 glass of milk, 20 gr. butter, 50 gr. cheese, 3 gr. salt and pepper

Mustard sauce

• 1 teaspoon mustard, 1 teaspoon butter, 1 teaspoon meat stock, mix all and heat until the butter melts.

Preparation Roast the aubergine on a charcoal grill and peel. Melt the butter, add the flour. Mix well, add the milk and cheese, season with salt and pepper. Keep mixing,

6 key-words for working in Turkey

and finally add the eggplant mix and remove from heat. To serve Sauté the wild mushrooms and goat cheese in butter, and wrap in Swiss chard leaves. Grill the loin of lamb. Put the swiss chard “dolma” on the plate, place the lamb on it. Stuff the red pepper with smoked aubergine and place it next to the lamb, serve with mustard sauce.

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Emotionality.

Akile Özkaya, HR Manager at Accenture, explained that, in Turkey people are emotional. Sometimes, even in business life, decisions are taken on an emotional basis. For instance, the promotion of a colleague can sometimes be interpreted as a message to leave the company by employees who believe that they deserved to be promoted. Smiling is very important in daily life also. People believe sharing problems and smiling at each other is a tool to cope with problems. The assumption here is that “you have a problem. I have it too. So this is no big deal”. This sometimes makes the problem easier to bear.

collateral. Therefore, if you cannot pay, banks seize the house, sell it -- usually at a “lower than market” price, in order to sell it quickly. If the total amount of the debt is more than the proceeds of the house sale, you have to make up for the difference. The system is very much geared to the lender. Another example, the market value of the house is irrelevant. It does not reduce your debt. This refers only to the money that you borrowed, and the interest rate.

2

The

Banking System. Seyda Saribiyik, Corporate Sales Manager at the City Group and Aybek Ersari Private Banking Branch manager, told us that even though Turkey’s banks are a lot older, the current system is less than 20 years old. However, in these 20 years everything has changed, and developed very rapidly. There is a disadvantage regarding to the mortgage system, in terms of interest rate and time. Mortgages are usually only between ten and fifteen years, and the banks take the house as

3 Work. Can Emrah Yilmaz, Marketing&Sales Manager, at Greeneks, told us that working in Istanbul is not much different from working in Paris or London. But, compared to London or Paris, the salary range is a little lower. However, life, real estate and household expenses are cheaper. Working hours are similar to USA, because people really work hard, and have a great sense of responsibility. They prefer to stay late to finish what they started. Hasan Yildiran, who is an Associate in the Birsel Law Office, added that companies cannot terminate your contract without paying two months’ salary for each year of work as compensation. The reasons for terminating a contract are: bad interaction with other colleagues, bad

[W Essential Istanbul Web Sites abacisucevre.com accenture.com bddk.gov.tr btk.gov.tr citigroup.com eternal-child.com greeneks.com.tr ibb.gov.tr ito.org.tr istanbul2010.org →

performance, and crisis. Employees can file a lawsuit against the employer for wrongful dismissal. The courts can reinstate the employee, if the wrongful dismissal is proven. In your first year of work, you do not have vacation, except for national and religious holidays. After that, up to a certain age -- such as 50 -you are entitled to fifteen days’ annual vacation. After 50, this increases to 20 or even 30 days. However, these are minimums; all depends on the employer. Foreign people, of different religions, are entitled to have their religious holidays too, such as Christmas. Burak Altikulac, cofounder of the Eternal Child fashion apparel company, explained that most of the largest companies in Turkey are family-owned. The present (third) generation, has been transforming those companies into commercial concerns. Hasan Yildiran also clarified that, to attract Foreign Direct Investment in Turkey, there are various taxfree policies, for set periods. He added that it is easy to hire foreign employees. The only necessity is to present a few framework papers to get a work permit. The procedure takes about six months. Aybek Ersari added that banks have many foreign investors due to the very stable system and Turkey’s very com

Photos by Bahadir Tanriöver, Istanbul, TR

petitive interest rates compared to those of other developing markets.“It is easy for foreigners in Turkey to open a bank account or to use financial products,” she says.

4 Hiring & Unemployment.

Turkish production quality and other modern management issues, such as diversity and ethics, are higher or better than in some other countries. In some industries, such as fashion, it is not easy to find qualified people in Istanbul because until 5 years ago Turkey was only known as a producer. “We cannot ignore the unemployment rate, which is 12.7 %,” says Kartal Tolga, HR Director at LeGrand. Seyda Saribiyik adds that, ten to fifteen years ago, it was very common to hire people with experience in the industry, but now “we prefer to hire new graduates because we prefer to train them from the start. Almost every major bank has its own culture. Therefore companies prefer to develop their employees according to that culture, hiring the new generation with fresh minds,” she adds. For Tolga, after the crisis, the retain management has became more important than ever before. Companies and HRs focus on young potential talents because they

are the future. Actual legal minimum salary 760,5TL./Month gross (395 Euro/ month gross), the work week is 45 hours, while social charges come in at between 20% and 35%.

5 Training. Can Emrah, Burak Altikulac, as well as Okan Attila, who works for one of Turkey’s three GSM telecoms operators, told us that, in Turkey, there are tens of thousands of certain type of engineers but no employment opportunities for them. “For instance, we have lots of universities offering Genetics degrees, but really there is not much private sector investment in that area,” explains Can Emrah. It seems that there is a need for coordination. “For instance, many car manufacturers are looking for blue-collar workers with certain skills, but cannot find them” states Altikulac. On the corporate side, Kartal Tolga, HR Director at LeGrand, told us that -- generally -- international companies have subsidiaries whose global HR policies are coherent with group values, so it is almost the same in Turkey. “Usually, we provide key competencies courses, and we have planned the other years training plan by the four main areas such as leadership, managerial, individual and functional competencies improvement

requirements. For instance, innovation and also the retain management will be more important in the future and because of that, HR and line managers need to work together during times of major organizational change to identify people whose retention is critical,” he states. Some other companies prefer to train their employees on site as revealed to us by Siyabend Suvari, Managing Director at Purple Concerts.“Of course there is a selection, involving an interview process, but that is mostly about personality, energy, experience and the ability to work well with the others,” he explains.

6 Government help. “Because the textile industry is very important in Turkey, the organization called ITKIP supports companies attending trade shows”, says Burak Altikulac. He explained that, if you meet the evaluation criteria, and if your project is accepted, ITKIP will finance several aspects of the expenses involved.“The government also helps with exports. For instance, if you want to open a shop in New York, they give you incentives and they also cover up to 50% of your advertising expenses for foreign marketing campaigns,” he adds. → ise.org istanbulguide.com istanbulview.com legrand.com.tr kultur.gov.tr mfa.gov.tr oib.gov.tr purpleconcerts.eu ssk.gov.tr sunsetgrillbar.com

Work Cities Denver

By BLAKE ESTERDAY

THE WORK CITIES GUIDE IS NOW TRAVELLING TO DENVER, ONE OF THE MOST PROFITABLE CENTERS IN THE US. In addition to that, Denver is also a good city where to live. It is full of cultural, culinary and sporting attractions. Due to its proximity to the Rocky Mountains, the city is a cosy touristic resort for both the summer and winter seasons.

The economical queen of the Us

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of Colorado. Denver is also known as the “Mile-High City” because it is located one mile above sea level. Its history is interesting. Local miners named their settlement after Kansas Territorial Governor James Denver, in hope of getting favours that would improve their living conditions. However, the city has changed a lot since then. Metro Denver’s utility rates are consistently among the lowest of any major U.S. city. Denver ranks in the top 10 for being one of the “Healthiest Cities in America”. The Denver Museum of Nature & Science was rated one of the top family attractions in the nation while the Denver Public Library ranks in the top 10. In 2008, Denver ranked No. 7 on the “100 Best Places to Live and Launch a Business” list by Fortune.

ECONOMY

The economy and population have been growing rapidly recently. Denver has one of the nation’s strongest metropolitan economies. Denver’s position near the mineral-rich Rocky Mountains encouraged mining and energy companies to spring up in the area. Energy and mining are still important in Denver’s economy today. In 2010 Denver became the nation’s third-strongest economy out of 366 metro areas, based primarily on two decades’ worth of jobs and income

data. In addition to that, over the past two decades, Metro Denver has successfully diversified its economy with industries from aerospace to energy. The state is faring better than the nation with the second-best economic outlook according to the 2010 ALECLaffer State Economic Competitiveness Index.

LIFE QUALITY

Denver ranks first among the nation’s most desirable places to live, according to a 2008 poll by the Pew Research Centre. A 2009 poll by Harris Interactive showed Denver ranks with San Francisco as the nation’s secondfavourite place to live. Metro Denver cities are consistently recognized for their good quality of life, affordability, cultural facilities, and highly educated workforce. In 2009, Forbes named Boulder among the 10 “Best Cities for Recession Recovery”. Also in 2009, Loveland ranked seventh on a list of 10 “Best Places to Live” by U.S. News & World Report.

LEISURE AND ENVIRONMENT

Rocky Mountains: The mountainous area of Colorado is six times the size of Switzerland. In the Rocky Mountains, there are more than 350 miles of trails that meander through valleys of wildflowers, thundering waterfalls, high alpine lakes and craggy, snowcapped peaks. In Winter, the hiking trails turn into exciting skiing slopes.

FOOD AND CURIOSITY

BEER Denver brews more beer than any other city with 80 different beers brewed daily. There are many pubs and breweries to visit and tour throughout the city. The Denver Beer Fest and the Great American Beer Festival are held every fall in September. STEAK Denver has always been known for great steak housesrib eyes, sirloins, flanks, strips, porterhouses, t-bones and tenderloins. The city also offers diners a chance to sample authentic Western cuisine (big game, elk, bison) in unique, Wild West settings.

[W alec.org denverartmuseum.org denverlibrary.org dmns.org greatamericanbeerfestival.com nps.gov]

Illustrations by Eelco Van Den Berg, Rotterdam, NL

By CRISTINA MILANI

Paris, still shines

Economy in France. France is among the countries in the euro area which has fared the best out of the crisis, despite having a high public fiscal deficit (-8.2% of GDP in 2010), and will call for a significant reorganization of the system in 2011.

This deficit has been caused particularly by the highly structured social system, protecting the unemployed who continue to receive a salary.

“In 2010-2011, private consumption will grow thanks to the slow improvement of employment and social buffers that support the purchasing power. The GDP will grow 1.3% in 2010 and 1.6% in 2011”, says François Letondu, Department of Economic Studies of Societe Generale.

A strong recovery in business investment will not occur before the end of 2010. France will have a comparatively strong 2010 - 2011, with a 6,5% in

2010 and 5,25% in 2011 growth, due especially to the strong recovery in emerging markets.

The weakness of the euro against the dollar since the start of the year is expected to continue throughout this year, and it will allow French companies to take part in this rebound with increased exports by 6.7% and 4.3% in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

The industry still has significant excess production capacity to meet this increased demand in the short term.

“Non-financial companies have started to invest again only very gradually during 2010 ”says Frédéric Duponchel Chairman and General manager of Accuracy. In the last 15 years, the number of exporting companies in France has fallen from 100.000 to 90.000, and regularly losing portions of the market. The government ran for cover, drawing up strategies for companies such as the tax credit

Yann Arthus-Bertrand is a French photographer. During a working trip in Africa he understood that he had to tell the facts through images rather than words. He also discovered the beauty of the world seen from above when he became a hot air balloon pilot and began experimenting aerial photography. In the 90s he embarked upon his most ambitious project: creating an image bank of the earth seen from above. Yann’s aim was to create a record of the world’s environment for present and future generations. In 1999, his work, The Earth from Above was published and translated in 24 languages. In 2003 he launched Six Billion Others Cameramen travel the world to meet and interview people as a mean to portray the planet under a humanistic angle. Look at Yann’s work in the following pages.

Culture in Paris, France’s capital

• 374 cinema screens

• 730 film shot per year

• 3.432 days of film shooting

• 30 million cinema-goers each year

• 134 museums

• 143 theatres

• 242 floodlit sites (hotels, churches, statues, fountains, national buildings)

• 55 municipal libraries

research or the business tax. “In 2008 we created a specialized agency ‘Ubifrance’ to accompany the SME exporting in 44 countries. The result was excellent, then between 2008 and 2010 the activity was duplicated,” affirms Christine Lagarde, Minister of economy in France.

But in terms of employment, there has been a 10% increase, especially among young people and those over 50. Recent research sponsored by APEC shows that 52% of the companies surveyed in the search ‘Barometer Apec’ have recruited at least one manager in the second quarter of 2010, five points higher than last year. For Eric Verhaeghe, President of Apec, “This result reflects a marked improvement in business senti-

ment, especially in two key sectors of the labor market framework: Information Technology and Engineering, Recherche & Development.” Conversely, the construction sector continues to suffer and recruitment in 3 out of 4 companies is stable or falling.

INVESTMENTS

With a particularly attractive economy, France since the beginning of the economic crisis has maintained its place as among the first countries receiving foreign direct investment. The Unctad (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) ranked France second behind the United States in 2008, and ranked third behind China in 2009. This past year, Ide (International Development Enterprises) have declined by 39% worldwide and 41% in developed countries. France was less affected by the decline in 2009 than its main European neighbours (UK: - 93%, Germany: - 41%, France: - 35%).

THE WINNING SECTORS

The niche markets such as treatment and prevention are those that have

Le Gendarme de Saint-tropez by Jean Girault, was the first comedy movie of a series of six films which followed the exploits of an officious and incompetent police chief, played by Louis de Funès. The film series capitalises on one thing the French people love doing, which is to make fun of authoritarian figures, the police in particular. The serie was hugely popular in France, thanks to the performances of Louis de Funès and his gendarme Cruchot. De Funès’ unforgettable desperate attempts to round up a group of nudists involving an hilarious spoof police academy training exercise is one of the best parody of the French gendarmerie.

less suffered the crisis less. But “there are areas such as medical research, aerospace, military (eg where there have been fewer cuts in an important market),” as Edouard Frignet, Associate of W. Gore & Associates, states. “The leading sectors today are those that focus on health, environment and energy saving and innovation” adds Mr. Frignet. During the last two years, the niche companies have been able to withstand the crisis period also thanks to the relocation of the production to Asia.

QUALITY OF LIFE

The public system in France provides quality access to a range of free services, particularly in education and health. France ranked first in the international ranking of quality of life and health care proposed by ‘International Living’.

This index is based on variables related to cost of living, environment, culture and leisure, degree of political freedom, quality of health, infrastructures, risk and security and climate. The unequal distribution of income is significantly lower in France than in Germany, the United Kingdom or the United States. During the last twenty years, income inequality increased in most Oecd countries, while it decreased in France and Spain. The analysis of social protection expenditure - covering disability, families, children, housing, social exclusion, old age, sickness and health care, welfare benefits, unemployment benefits - highlights the size of the aid and measures in France.The financing of these expenditures by the public sector is particularly high in France: 80% of health expenditures and more than 90% of education spending.

POINTS OF ExCELLENCE

According to the Ministry of Economy, (with Industry and Employment) in 2008, domestic spending Research & Development (Gerd), amounted to 42.8 billion USD (Ppp), making France 5th in the world behind the United States, Japan, China and Germany. With over 11.000 km of high

Arthus-Bertrand

A. Policeman Gilbert Trouilh

France is one of the most industrialized and technological countries of the world but, despite his modernity, tradition are still very strong in the country. The typical characters meet in the films of Romer are indeed still alive in the everyday life of Paris. The pictures (A-B) in the page are part of a portrait series of Yann Berthrand, titled ‘The French’, which show us modern people who seems to come out from the national imaginary.

ways and more than 31.000 km of railway lines, France has a particularly dense network of transport infrastructure. It is the first European country to have a network of high speed trains, linking the country to major European capitals. The terrestrial network is complemented by an extensive air network: 65 airports with over 15,000 passenger movements per year, 6 of which are international.

Lastly, with 96 million metric tons of cargo, the port of Marseille is the fourth largest port in Europe for the transport of goods, after Rotterdam (Netherlands), Antwerp (Belgium) and Hamburg (Germany).

France is the second European producer of primary energy derived from renewable energy (13%), behind Germany (16.5%), and before the United Kingdom and Italy (about 12%). Thus, the production of electricity and heat contributes the low 15% of CO2 emissions in France, against 45% in Germany. In France, the transport sector occupies the 1st place in emissions (with 35% of CO2 emissions). •

01 French vineyard

02 Sphere where experiments of nuclear fusion are carried out. Photo: H. Raguet / CEA

03 Power lines. Photo: A. Da Silva / Vinci

04 Paint shop on the assembly line at Citroën

Photo: Citroën

05 Abbey of Senanque in Provence

01

02

03 B. Butcher at Montfort l’Amaury Chantal et Pier Ogel © Yann Arthus-Bertrand 05

6 Billion Others is a project that has been lunched in 2006 by Yann ArthusBertrand, with Sybille d’Orgeval and Baptiste Rouget-Luchaire 5.000 interviews were filmed in 75 countries by 6 directors who went in search of the Others. From a Mali fisherman to a Chinese shopkeeper, from a French performer to a Mexican farmer, all answered the same questions about their fears, dreams, ordeals, hopes: What does family mean to you? What where your dreams as a child? What does progress mean for you? What is your earliest memory? What does love mean to you?

1 Challenge lives

in Tel Aviv, Israel. My parents were doctors and had ben sent away. I was raised by my grandparents. Until I was 5 it was heaven on Earth. Then at that age I came to Paris, I only spoke a few words of French. In my relationship with my parents, I said:”Sir Dad, Madam Mum.” I thought that these were their names. They said:”Stop doing that. We say daddy and mommy. Daddy and Mommy are first names. That’s it.” One day, I was walking with my mother in Paris, Rue Reamur as I remember. I looked at her, like a child who’d learned to love and be loved, and said, “Mum, why don’t you love me?” My mother answered, “You’re my daughter, therefore I love you, but I didn’t want you.” And in front of that revelation, in front of her courage, in front of that truth, it was over: I was made.

Outlanders settled in France, suggest to change society through seven concepts: challenge, happiness, family, dreams, progress, remembrance and love.

2 Happiness lives

in Madagascar. In my life, I always seem to be dissatisfied and I consider my life incomplete. The result is that: I always look for the best. If I have a franc, I want ten.

If I have ten francs, I want a hundred. If I have a hundred francs, I want a thousand.

If I have a bicycle, I want a motorcycle if I have a bike, I want a car.

3 Family lives in Mali.

For me, family is a tribe of people related by blood, just like the branches of a tree.

If I am at the Desert Festival today is to be part of my era. If your children and those close to you evolve in an era, you must do the same.

4 Dreams

is a Burkinabé asylum seeker living in Melilla, Spain. When I was a child my biggest dream was to be in Europe. Today I thank God I made it. Now it’s up to me to do..everything.

5 Progress lives

in Mali. When I see people thinking about going to the moon, while we are already having problems even to have 100 francs to eat, I think they are going far, they go really far. We see what lies beyond, to try to find solutions, because if you stop you can see people eating in the garbage that is something we could not find a solutions. Meanwhile, there are others who are thinking about going to Mars or Neptune or I do not know where else. There are some things for us which are more urgent.

6 Remembrance

Castillo Hernandez Mizraim, lives in Mexico. I remember a bed, and I remember being in the arms of my mother, I do not remember much of her face, but I remember her body very well, her chest, arms, the white colour of her skin, her smell, I remember it well. I think this is the first memory I have of the whole World, I think so. My mother.

7

1 3

2

5 6 7

Love lives in France.

Love is fun, laughter, madness, availability to do and say anything without fear, without nothing ... That’s love.

www.6milliardsdautres.org

Before the crisis, we used to think about the success of companies in concrete terms. In order for a ‘good’ company to stand out from the crowd, the determining factor could have been the name recognition, the innovation, the price leadership or any number of other attributes. Today, are these the elements that still dictate the success of a company? Or has the crisis created an opportunity to bring out other, perhaps intangible, factors? We wanted to check the current situation in France which, like other nations in the world, has continued to suffer from the consequences of these past two years of economic uncertainty. We discovered five new dimensions, which companies aim for to get a better connection to the market.

WELLBEING Stress management or “wellbeing care” as Jean-Charles Castellano, Head of HR at Ricard affirms, is one of the issues that companies emphasize more. For example Camille Desmarres, RHR at Novo Nordisk France, tells us that health in their company focuses on three aspects: addiction to smoking, practice of sport and healthy eating. “We also care about the use of biodegradable material,” she adds. Yves Grandmontagne, Human Resources Director at Microsoft, states that his company avoids checking mail during the weekend. As well, he states that their meetings are not organized before 9:30. “We organize sports sessions in all our meetings in which general management also participates in. It is a good way to relax” affirms Fabien Mulliez, Communication Director at Décathlon. Companies use also ‘fun at work’ as a tool to motivate employees to generate more revenue. “We give our employees the possibility to spend a week vacation at our holiday resort for 50 euros a week all inclusive for the whole family”, says Castellano. PepsiCo France offers its employees cycles

A journey to the discovery of excellence France’s successful companies

Great Place to Work® Institute helps organizations create cultures where trust flourishes.

Next apointments

• Gptw® Institute France Award: Thursday, March 17, 2011.

• Gptw® Institute European Award in Paris Thursday, May 26, 2011 (award) and Friday, May 27, 2011 (Conference)

of seminars on various topics such as singing, theater, and writing. “We have great hopes of ensuring a good balance between the private and professional lives of our employees,” says Delphine Dupuis, DHR at PepsiCo France.

PROxIMITY

Strict hierarchy belongs to the past. Today, managers seek to have continuous contact with their own internal stakeholders. Companies become neighborhoods and departments become families. Frédéric Duponchel, Chairman and General Manager of Accuracy, explains that one of their “10 commandments” is “share contacts, share knowledge, share engagements - and this is only possible thanks to a good relationship between people.” Edouard Frignet W&Gore associates says, “Our hierarchy is flat, leaders are created and naturally recognized by members of the group.” In FedEx and National Instruments, it is important to become aware of the difficulties of others and encourage cooperation. There is the opportunity to visit the other Departments and share information. “Much importance is given to internal mobility. Often a shop general manager has started as being responsible of a department. This allows you to acquire a good understanding of different situations, and individuals feel free to express themselves because they feel understood,”says Mulliez. While in Carglass, the mobility doesn’t have limitations due to the type of diploma.

CELEBRATION

Private events celebrating the employees as well as the successes of the team help to increase motivation and the sense of belonging to the group. All companies surveyed undertake different formulas of celebration. Whether it’s a cocktail every two weeks as at Accuracy, the employee of the week as in National Instruments, or the courier of the year at FedEx, there are many diverse forms of celebration. “We have a hymn to optimism, so every year we make a worldwide survey to check the satisfaction rate, so you can possibly intervene and make improvements,” affirms Frignet.

Contacts

Great Place to Work® Institute France Tour Areva - 1, place Jean Millier 92084 La Défense Cedex

T +33 1 47 96 46 40

F +33 1 47 96 46 88

EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION

Employees are involved in the decision making process, rather than simply acting on orders. And this is part of a process of empowerment in the workplace: team members are encouraged to make decisions for themselves in line with guidelines and frameworks established in self-managed teams. This key motivational tool is also referred to as ‘employee involvement’.

“Through seminars we collect the opinions of employees, such as the vision of the company in 5 years, the presentation of the services to the customers, etc.” says Duponchel of Accuracy. In other cases, managers act as a stimulus for the head office. “We have a ‘Think Tank’ team composed of eight managers whose role is to stimulate ideas and shake the steering committee,” says Dupuis of PepsiCo France. In some cases, employees are the ones who decide the structure of the work spaces: “We are renovating the offices and employees can choose how to structure space in order to work better,” affirms Marc Montiel, General Manager of NetApp. In these companies, all the employees (with no limit on roles) are ambassadors of the corporate culture. “We give a diploma to those who embody the values of the company,” says Montiel of NetApp. Castellano (Ricard) adds that “each employee carries the values of the company and has the responsibility to share them with colleagues.”

TIME DEDICATED

Dedicating time to employees means sharing decisions, increasing their skills and then allowing them to make decisions, reveals Mulliez (Décathlon). “Once a month, each employee meets with his supervisor with the aim to analyze the working period that just ended; and if necessary make some corrections. Every decision never falls down on others only from above. It is important that everyone takes the time to explain the reasons behind decisions to his internal employee,” he adds. Alexis Fyros, Head of HR at FedEx Express explains, “devoting time also means offering the tools to allow one to manage the teams. On our site there are over 50 training

2010 Best Workplaces in France -500 Employees

1 PepsiCo France

2 W.L Gore & Associés

3 Accuracy

4 Biogen Idec France SAS

5 NetApp France

6 Kimberly-Clark SAS

7 Norsys

8 Financière de l’échiquier 9 Novo Nordisk France

10 SSL Healthcare France SAS 11 i3, an Ingenix Company 12 Médiaperformances

13 Davidson

14 National Instruments France

15 Vermilion Rep s.a + 500 employees

1 Microsoft France

2 Leroy Merlin France

3 McDonald’s France

4 FedEx Express 5 Carglass 6 Ricard

7 Décathlon

8 Alma Consulting Group

9 Groupe Volkswagen France s.a 10 Abbott France

modules that each employee can choose to attend during working hours. These different modules allow him to evolve within the company.” In these cases, the training comes from traditional areas. “Our training leads to reflect on the attitude towards work, it is a work on emotions, our business is above all contact with customers so we can not be cold and detached,” says Paul Olivier Raymond Lacroze, Head of HR at Carglass.

These actions create results such as greater agility in the market, increased proximity to consumers, high levels of individual motivation, the development of competences and the higher responsibility of single employees. Essentially, an excellent work environment contributes to generating happiness among employees. Can we deduce that positive emotions are the major drivers in these companies? We know that emotions have a collective existence. What this means for managers is that their actions can influence the internal emotional health of a company.

Patrick Dumoulin

Great Place to Work® France, point of view

Our conclusions are confirmed by Patrick Dumoulin, Managing director of Gptw France: “In our assessment of Best Workplaces, often we see that companies are successful in terms of turnover and also in happy employees. Surely, in companies where employees trust their management, are proud of their work and participate in creating a convivial atmosphere, there is also greater identification in the mission and objectives, thus supporting the achievement of business results. A company which values its employees, in turn makes the employees proud of their company, increasing its ‘good reputation’. That is the reason why companies such as PepsiCo, Decathlon, Microsoft, Accuracy, and Ricard attract talent. When companies value their employees, turnover is very low, giving the opportunity for the company to retain and develop them. Moreover, a good reputation is also positive for shareholders and investors. They know that by putting their money in such enterprises, they have every chance to make it grow.”We can then close by saying that in recessionary times, productivity improves by having a positive workplace that employees enjoy coming to each day.

France HR people portrait

In times of crisis the motto of

Napoleon “Separate to live, unite to fight” is certainly true. In this context, the French companies surveyed are focusing on actions grouped into three main dimensions:

1. Organizational dimensions

• The actions to face the actual market

2. Relationship dimension

• The relationship between manager and employee

3. Emotional dimension

• The personal values and commitment

We define the manner in which these managers strive to bring the goodness of their intentions forward as “relational communication”. Hierarchy disappears in favour of a greater proximity between people, communication is not just information but a preferred instrument which becomes transparent and pragmatic, and the work context becomes a community “neighbourhood” where cooperation and solidarity become weapons to manage the quality of service both internally and externally.

The winning behavioural profile that guides these managers is very different from what we usually see or believe:

by providing opportunities to learn through formal and informal methods.

• They create team building by inspiring and fostering team commitment, spirit, pride, and trust; and facilitate cooperation and motivate team members to accomplish group goals.

The psychological profile that we found in these managers has these features:

• A strong empathy and the ability to understand the needs of others as well as the difficulties.

• A strong enthusiasm towards the proposed actions.

• A desire to create an environment where friendliness, mutual support and welfare of the individual are key elements.

01 Yves Grandmontagne Head of HR Microsoft France

02 Frédéric Duponchel Chairman and General Manager of Accuracy

03 Team Accuracy

04 Paul Olivier Raynmond Lacroze Head of HR Carglass.

05 Alexis Fyros Head of HR - FedEx

06 Delphine Dupuis Head of HRPepsiCo France

07 Marc Montiel General Manager NetApp

• These managers have the ability to lead people toward meeting the organization’s vision, mission, and goals and create an inclusive workplace that fosters the development of others, facilitates cooperation and teamwork, and supports constructive resolution of conflicts.

• They put their efforts toward building a workplace where diversity and individual differences are valued and leveraged to achieve the vision and mission of the organization.

• They value others by developing the ability of people to perform and contribute to the organization; by providing ongoing feedback and

The cases we reported in this special about France confirm the current news, which claims the end of the era of strong leaders who are never in doubt and immune to criticism. Today, we talk more and more about “soft” managers. This does not mean “weak”, but rather describes managers who go beyond the technical skills developed, focusing also on how “to be with themselves and others”. The modern human resource manager has become a consultant with refined technical skills but also personal qualities which allow him to become a strategic partner in the business of

the company, and hence its success. In this new perspective, the motto could be “make people happy, let them work better”.

10 commandments of Accuracy

01 Keep on developing and recruiting the best people. 02 Multiply commercial actions, external communication, brand promotion. 03 Break the walls between service lines, avoid working in silos. 04 Share contacts, share knowledge, share engagements! 05 Promote the Out of the box spirit. 06 Keep high standards. 07 Focus on excellence, quality, client dedication. 08 Stick to the Accuracy values and foundations. 09 Keep on thinking and acting as Entrepreneurs. 10 Have fun!

[W accuracy.com carglass.fr decathlon.com fedex.com microsoft.com netapp.com ni.com novonordisk.com pepsico.com ricard.fr wlgore.com

A Glance on the City Waste Management

WHEN “GREEN IDEOLOGY” MEETS BIG MONEY: the eco-business of urban waste management brings many solutions to municipal administration (and good profits for the companies that are investing)

Does clean mean rich?

THE GEOGRAPHY OF WASTE North clean, South dirty: just a stereotype or the basis of some kind of truth? Looking at some of the most respected sources for economic and social analysis, the above statement looks to be true. In 2007, Forbes ranked the world’s 25 cleanest cities. And, indeed, only two of them (Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand) turned out to be below the Equator. In the 2010 edition of its Quality of Life survey, Mercer added a special ranking for the most eco-friendly cities, taking as the main criteria waste collection, drinkable water disposal, sewers, air pollution and traffic. The general outcome is an interesting widening of the Australian and New Zealand presence in the top 25 (with five Australian cities joining the two from New Zealand). Here too, with the exception of Singapore, all the rest were in the Northern hemisphere. Is it just a question of rich versus poor? Could be. For the 25 cleanest cities are located in just thirteen countries. And it is not by chance that these thirteen countries are among those that enjoy the highest purchasing power, as per the World Bank’s World Development Indicator database. To be clean, a city has to address many problems that otherwise lead to unsanitary conditions, urban degradation, poor health, and so on. It is a vicious circle: the less gets done, the worse it gets.

WHAT DOES CLEAN MEAN?

First of all, being “clean” means organizing what is done with waste. Secondly, to have a clean city you must work on its transportation infrastructures (roads, rail, air, subways) and their impact upon the general conditions of the urban environment. Logistics infrastructure is also critical in terms of efficiency. That means saving money and fuel, which in turn means reducing pollution and improving air and ground cleanliness and quality. Brought together, clean energy generation, waste control, recycling, and infrastructure organization, constitute a huge challenge for government at all levels.

RESPONSES TO CITIZEN NEEDS FOR CLEANLINESS

To be able to address citizens’ dayto-day need for cleanliness in a longterm fashion, there is a need for big money, a specialized skill-set, not to mention strong political commitment. Landfill sites are being closed or filled up in most major urban areas. The combined action of recycling, on the one hand, and turning waste into energy, on the other, look to be the only long-range answer. However, this takes hard and effective civic discipline, as well as links to a system that turns a profit. Waste treatment plants need huge investments.

The Little people in the city little-people.blogspot.com is a street art project by Slinkachu, a 28-years old designer and photographer who

places tiny hand painted figures in unlikely urban settings, photographs them and leaves them

passers

immortalize everyday events by using miniature people “who play with the idea of being dwarfed by the city”

to

refuse

reveal his real name. Slinkachu

for

bay to find. The pictures of Slinkachu

03 04

Images from “Little people in the city: The street art of Slinkachu” (2008), published by BoxTree, UK

01 — 02 Bin day, Lewisham, London (2007)

03 — 04 One day he will notice me, Notting Hill, London (2007)

By FILIPPO DE BORTOLI

Such investments can only be private, especially in this ongoing season of economic stagnation, where Public Administration budgets are being cut all the time.

NEW YORK’S SOLUTION TO WASTE MANAGEMENT

In absence of a better solution, to find the $1.2 billion necessary to cover waste management in New York City - a matter of 11 tons of garbage a day -- this summer, Mayor Bloomberg came up with the “Pay-per-throw” initiative. This was linked to the emergency decision to reduce waste collection from twice to once a week. The results are starting to show: with some of the 56 million rats that populate NYC’s subways emerging from the underground tunnels. Something similar to Bloomberg’s proposal had already been discussed in the UK. In 2007, Parliament debated whether to give city councils the power to discontinue charging households a fixed amount for waste collection, and asking them to pay in proportion to the amount thrown away. Garbage collection as utility. This measure aims at making people more aware of the amount of packaging they purchase, of paper they don’t recycle, and food they throw away. This sort of “environmental motivation” would have helped the UK achieve its targets for

reducing the number of landfills, while providing an impetus to producers and retailers to behave more responsibly. The discussion never made any headway, however. Indeed, European municipalities often used to control local companies that provide waste management paid for by local taxes. Milan, which is served by AMSA (a2a group) and Berlin (cleaned by BSR) being examples. However, increased urbanization and growth of the major centres has led many administrations to look for private sector solutions, these companies in many cases being backed up by major financial concerns.

THE FINANCIAL POWER OF ECOLOGY

From a certain point of view, cleaning a city is where “green ideology” comes into contact with financial power: where what is “public” by definition, needs “private” investment to make it work. Indeed, most of the world’s major cities and metropolitan areas are becoming more and more hunting grounds for large comporations that have transformed environmental services into billion-dollar businesses. Veolia, Sita, Urbaser, Covanta, Waste Management, and Keppel Seghers are names little known to the millions of people who are served daily by these companies. Just a glance to the figures shows what

• Waste can be considered either a huge or a trifling problem depending on the perspective you look at them. The Londoner designer and photographer Slinkachu, show us the city of London seen with the eyes of miniature people. These witty Little people in the city seems to suggest that everyone can do something to better manage waste indeed, it is from the small that everyone can contribute to transform the city in a better place to live in.

A Glance on the City Waste Management

we are talking about. Urbaser has 32,000 employees serving 50 million people in 200 municipalities, and at 168 waste treatment disposal facilities, spreading from Madrid throughout the world, and turned over 1.3 billion Euros in 2007. Waste Management is based in Texas and operates mainly in

European Week for Waste Reduction

In 2010, the Week will take place from the 20th to the 28th November 2010

North America. Its 45,000 employees serve 20 million residential, industrial, commercial and municipal customers. The company had $11.7 billions revenues in 2008. Veolia boasts 336,000 employees in 72 countries, as well as 1.2 billion Euros turnover and 36 billion Euros revenues in 2008.

VEOLIA’S BUSINESS IN THE UK

More than 20.000 of Veolia’s employees are located in Great Britain, most of them focusing on London’s environmental services. Veolia offers the kind of services that the British need so as to make their capital sustainable by the time of the 2012 Olympics, as pledged by the Commission for a Sustainable London. Despite the initial effort and good will, the “sustainable legacy” proposed by the Commission appears to be an objective that is too hard to achieve. Along with the renewables projects -- the wind turbine initiative was abandoned in June this year -- waste management is the big problem. Considering the 40% additional urban waste that the Olympics will generate just in terms of organic and food waste, the idea of a new composting plant in East London is an important goal, but is little more than wishful thinking. Even the completed design for a new gasification plant (by Cyclamax), part of a Sustainable Industries Park intended to convert East London’s residential and commercial waste into heat and power, will not go on line before the end of 2012. Whose fault is it? Is it London’s? A capital where “organic” labels and “eco-fashion” products are seen in profusion, along with very detailed indications for how to dispose of packaging on every item, cannot manage to recycle more than 20% of its urban solid waste. Is it Veolia Environment UK’s that it is not able to translate into reality its own Waste Manifesto, expressly devised for the British scenario? This Manifesto stresses the need to “throw out the old thinking”, claiming prime position in supporting the UK Government for a “more efficient and responsible management of waste” as the key market driver toward sus-

[W amsa.it bsr.de covantaholding.com cyclamax.co.uk data.worldbank.org forbes.com keppelseghers.com mercer.com sitauv.com

This week is addressed to European public authorities that have competence in the field of waste prevention. It also involves the “Project Developers” interested in carrying out awareness raising actions on the subject of waste prevention and to all citizens

interested in projects of waste reduction habits that they can take up in everyday life. So, the main objects of the week are to promote sustainable waste reduction actions across Europe to raise awareness about waste reduction strategies and about the

tainable development. Sustainability seems to be the magic spell designed to enchant any kind of audience, especially those composed of members of the public administration.

A CLEANER FUTURE BY KEPPEL SEGHERS

In June 2009, Keppel Seghers officially opened Singapore’s new waste-toenergy plant, promising “solutions for a cleaner future!”. Its plans include plants from Belgium to Qatar, and Sweden, via the UK, Germany, China, and Korea.

COVANTA’S CLEANER WORLD

Operating mainly in North America Covanta, the New Jersey-based specialist in deriving energy from waste solutions, claims “energy for a cleaner world” as its tagline. The company makes a point of having reached the “250” milestone: more than 250 million tons of waste turned into energy, thereby offsetting 250 million tons of greenhouse gases since it began operations in 1986. But new plants, new technologies and new investments also mean new economic activity, and new efforts to creating new jobs. As in the case of the $900 million, along with 1.000 new construction jobs generated when Covanta realises the ‘Gold River Power Project’, a clean and renewable energy solution that will serve Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, converting up to 750,000 tons of post-recycled municipal solid waste into 100MW of clean, renewable energy every year. The technology used in new generation wasteto-energy plants in the last ten years (light years from the early incinerator plants), is one achievement made possible by critical amounts of investment. And that is a non-return condition necessary to our contemporary urbanized life, opening greater opportunities in advanced technological solutions and all that this means from a professional point of view.

AWARENESS AND CIVIC COMMITMENT: THE REAL KEY TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM

The direction taken by the Chinese

policies of the European Union and its Member States on this subject, making people aware about waste reduction strategies and encourage changes in the behaviour of Europeans citizens in term of consumption and production. [W ewwr.eu]

Government (with its unique kind of “social capitalism”) measures the path that needs to be taken with deeper knowledge from local and national Governments and, more importantly, from public opinion. Indeed, over and above technology and investment, personal behaviours and civic

commitment are crucial in order to reduce the amount of waste. And this attitude is probably the most relevant for paving the way for a consolidate solution, it was stressed in the past edition of the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR).

Zody’s unparalleled ergonomic details make users more comfortable, while its strong ecological stance helps everyone sleep better at night. Find out more about Zody and all of Haworth’s adaptable, sustainable workspace solutions today.

Want to get the Zody information visit our websites. www.haworth-europe.com | www.haworth.com | www.haworth-asia.com

Zody - Do something good for both environments.

Work Cities Cultural Sponsorship

By LUCA BRUNONI

NOWADAYS IT IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE USUAL FOR ENTERPRISES TO SUPPORT CULTURE IN EVERY FORM, not only in their cities but also in locations where their business has interests. In the article we analyse how Credit Suisse is promoting the arts in London, New York City and Singapore.

Finance loves the art

PICASSO IN LONDON

In February 2009, Londoners strolling by the National Gallery Museum at night were surprised to see the façade covered with floor-to-roof Picasso paintings. It wasn’t the last stunt of an eccentric graffiti artist, of course, but a light show set up by the Museum to celebrate its first exhibition dedicated to the Spanish painter. Both the light show and the exhibition were made possible thanks to the collaboration of Credit Suisse, who has been the Gallery’s main partner since 2008. The fact that a Swiss bank stands side to side with one of England’s top museums might appear fairly surprising to some, but not to those aware that CS’s main offices for Europe, Middle-East and Africa are located in London. Toni J. Krein, Head of Corporate Cultural Sponsorship at CS, states that the bank, has taken to heart the idea of “increasing its cultural sponsorship commitments around the globe.”

NEW YORK CITY IN MUSIC

In the Big Apple, CS has recently renewed its partnership with the USA’s oldest symphony orchestra, the New York Philarmonic. Paul Calello, CEO of Cs’s Investment Bank and New York Philharmonic Board Member, said that the goal of the sponsorship is to “sustain the orchestra’s important achievements as an American treasure that is highly regarded around the world” and “as a vital institution in New York City.”

SINGAPORE IN ART

In Singapore, where Cs has its offices, the bank has created a long term partnership and commitment with the Singapore Art Museum. François Mon-

net, CS’s Head of Private Banking Southeast Asia and Australasia, stated that the Bank whishes to be able “to play a role in helping to stage impressive and exciting shows that will stimulate the cultural environment of Singapore.”

A NEW ATTITUDE

Today, more and more companies are

“benefit from the latter’s excellent reputation”, but will also be able “to offer clients access to high-caliber concert performances and exhibitions.”

At the same time, this kind of support is essential for culture operators, who face tremendous costs as they strive to constantly increase the quality of their presentations. Award-winning actor Alec Baldwin, host of the New York Philharmonic’s national radio broadcasts, is persuaded thereof, and stated that “to have this kind of corporate underwriting … is so important. Finding corporate underwriting for arts endeavors, that are as substantial as the New York Philharmonic and the mission of the New York Philharmonic, is expensive.” Expensive, indeed, especially since the cultural milieu is always looking to better its events and infrastructures, and

taking important steps to promote culture not only in their native cities and regions, but also in the cities where their business interests are located. Besides providing image-boosting visibility and appreciation, sponsorship tightens the connection with the city, and helps rooting the company in its reality and evolution. Toni J. Krein is convinced that “local investments help to contribute toward the success of the business by strengthening brand recognition, positioning the brand, and cultivating relationships with current and prospective clients. Sponsorship also underlines the importance of corporate responsibility.” Moreover, Krein believes that companies, through partnership with cultural operators, will not only

[W credit-suisse.com nationalgallery.org.uk nyphil.org singaporeartmuseum.sg]

to constantly keep culture up to speed with trends and technology. Cultural sponsorship is a great opportunity for companies to gain visibility and appreciation, together with many other advantages. However, it is also a way of giving back to the cities where they are located or in which they work, and of playing a role in their socio-cultural development; moreover, the result of sponsorship will be a richer panorama of cultural highlights, which will in turn generate tourist interest and promote the image of the region. At the end of the day, the process allows companies to ground themselves into the framework of their cities, creating a mutual, symbiotic relationship which will benefit both. •

National Gallery. London

Moving Always in Motion

EVERY MORNING AND EVENING, THEY CROWD REGIONAL TRAINS AND ROADS. With more than two hours a day “spend travelling to and from work”, the number of long-distance commuters is increasing. Back to a mobile lifestyle.

Living on-the-go

LONG-DISTANCE COMMUTING:

LIVING

BY THE CLOCK

Long-distance commuters leave home early and often get home late following work and travel. Between trains, careers and family, their everyday lives run on a tight schedule. Therefore, travel time is used for a variety of activities in order to save time elsewhere. Which is one of the reasons why long-distance commuters’ prefer public transit even if it means even more travel time than by car. It is common to see different means of transport converted into ‘offices on wheels’. Travel by train is suited to work on a laptop or reading work documents. The car allows individuals to make the phone calls they do not have time to make at the office.

“My forty-five minutes commute is useful because I can read. I often work on the train. I have my laptop and use it to email or do research.” (Gaetan, France)

WHY COMMUTE?

Long-distance commuting seems to be the result of trade-offs between residential location, career and oth-

er forms of mobility such as residential relocation or weekly commuting, which involves having a second home near one’s work place. Daily commuting is preferable to the weekly kind for personal and familyrelated reasons. For commuters, living together is an ideal of family life, which is why Peter (France) prefers to spend almost four hours a day in transit so that he can see his children in the evening, rather than living close to his work during the week and not seeing them grow up. In spite of long commutes to and from work, most of those surveyed preferred to come home in the evenings to see their relatives: children, spouses or ageing parents.

“

I’m single but I’ve got to take care of my parents. So I built a house there, close to them.” (Emmanuel, Belgium) Commuting from a strategic midway point is a way of reconciling the problem two people having geographically distant workplaces. Commuting makes it possible for the partners to keep their respective jobs, all the while living together, while pursuing their respective careers.

Long-distance commuting is preferable to moving when job security is low. Commuting also makes it possible for people to avoid losing their job due to family relocation. There are also cases where commuting is preferable to relocation, especially when one has a strong attachment to one’s home. Long-distance commuters have a sensitive and aesthetic attachment to where they live: “I live in a place called ‘the door to the Ardennes’… We really love it – we’re in the country, close to the woods. We leave our house and in two minutes we’re in the woods taking a walk, mountain biking or horseback rid-

London’s solution: the Congestion Charge Scheme

London suffers from the worst traffic congestion in the UK; its record is also among the worst in Europe. The Congestion Charge, introduced in Central London on 2003, is designed to encourage motorists to use other modes of transport and has helped London become the only major city in the

world to see a shift from private car use to public transport, walking and cycling. It has cut traffic levels and provided better transport services and safer roads. The primary aim has been to cut traffic levels and congestion in London. Traffic entering the original charging zone has remained stable at 27% lower than pre-charging conditions in 2002. This means that nearly 80,000 fewer cars (a 43% reduction) enter the original charging zone each day.

By law, for the first 10 years of its operation, all net revenue earned from Congestion Charging has to be invested in improving transport in London, such as bus network improvements, road safety measures and better walking and cycling facilities.

By STÉPHANIE VINCENT-GESLIN

02 03 04

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ing.” (Valerie, Belgium)

Such commuters are also attached to social and family networks and the various activities in which they participate near their place of residence : “Political commitment is dear to my heart, and more and more… I am finding I have a certain degree of ambition: in three years I would like to run for deputy in the cantonal elections…So that’s why I prefer to stay here.” (Paloma, Switzerland). Finally, in two of the three countries we studied, Switzerland and Belgium, attachment to residential location also had a linguistic dimension. The language barrier that divides the country is also an important factor in terms of relocation.

Paradoxically, long-distance commuters (who also showed strong attachment to their place of residence) chose to be mobile on a daily basis in order to remain rooted. In a way, these persons are not seeking a mobile lifestyle. Indeed, they are seeking stability and geographical proximity to their family and social networks.

01 City Bus, city of Winterthur, Switzerland © BusPhotoWinterthur.

02 Passenger on the bus in Zürich Switzerland © VZO

03 Electronic ticket

04 A bus in the region of Zürich, Switzerland © VBG

Travelling responsibly

Land transport affects everyone. Besides supporting economic growth, land transport plays an important social role in providing access to amenities and opportunities for the community. To better understand this statement, we interviewed a number of people around the world, to understand what constitutes best practice in a public transport company.

Economic benefits

The Swiss city of Zurich, thanks to the efficient ZVV, was placed among the top cities in international studies on the quality of living. It is exactly this standard of living that persuades a lot of people and companies to move to this region, boosting its economic growth. Erich Wenzinger, spokesman, Department of Economic Affairs, Canton of Zurich, states that “public transportation is one of the backbones that ensure the positive economic effects of city growth.”

In Germany, Gisela Becker, press officer of HVV in Hamburg, adds that also in her city, “the efficient public transport system is the flagship for the City and for our metropolitan region and its economic system. It raises the attractiveness for business companies and their location at Hamburg.” If we move to the other side of the World, in San Francisco, we see the same: “a sustainable transit system makes it easier to do business in the city, attracts tourists and casual visitors more frequently, all with the goal of bolstering our city’s economy,” tells us Paul Rose, Media relations Manager SFMTA San Francisco. In the

same way, in Asia, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) of Singapore, has understood the importance of investing in efficient public transport, so its aim is to “invest in their quality and invest in services to enhance the total journey experience of commuters and make public transport a more attractive option.”

Environment protection

A city with effective public transport experiences significantly less pollution and noise than one consistent individual transport. The volume of road traffic is eased too. So “a tight network of public transportation, protects the environment and raises the quality of life in a city or region” says Mr. Wenzinger. To promote a most clean city, another good choice could be providing “more effective modes of transit (bike, ped, transit, taxi, etc). This would make more people get out of their cars to use these other modes. modes. This provides a more sustainable, and a less congested, city” said Mr. Rose. Together with a policy of encouraging people to use alternative means, and to take care of the environment, some cities, such as Hong Kong, continue to innovate and test the applicability of new technologies. For example, to better manage electricity consumption, in 2009, MTR rail network, installed environmentallyfriendly and energy-efficient LED lights on three trains in a trial. The LED system consumed 40% less electricity, offering improved reliability and brighter light.

Book selection

New Releases

Interviews

• Dr. Dennis Reina and Dr. Michelle Reina (Rebuilding Trust in the Workplace) are pioneering thought leaders in the field of workplace trust and cofounders of the Reina Trust Building Institute.

• John Putzier (The Everything HR Kit) is president of FirStep, Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in improving workplace performance.

• David Baker (The Everything HR Kit) is Managing Director and CEO of Human Capital Advisors, LLC, a consulting firm that specializes in implementing turnkey HR solutions.

• Aryanne Oade (Managing Workplace Bullying) is a Chartered Psychologist and the owner of an established and successful coaching and development business. Aryanne regularly works with senior level clients on the complex interpersonal issues surrounding building and retaining influence at work.

Books

• Shift Peter Arnell

• The Whuffie Factor Tara Hunt

• The Leadership Secrets of Genghis Khan John Man

• Next Generation Leadership Sherry Penney & Patricia Neilson

• The New HR Analytics Jac Fitz-enz, Ph.D

• The ASTD Leadership Handbooks Elaine Biech

• Doing What Matters James M. Kilts

• Coolfarming Peter Gloor

• Seven Strategy Questions Robert L. Simons

Boundary Spanning Leadership Chris Ernst and Donna Chrobot-Mason

• Persuasion James Borg

London, UK

Rebuilding Trust in the Workplace

twsm What are the seven steps that you recommend to restore confidence in a workplace?

dr-mr 1. Observe and acknowledge what has happened, 2. Allow feelings to surface, 3. Get and give support, 4. Reframe the experience, 5. Take responsibility, 6. Forgive yourself and others, 7. Let go and move on.

twsm What does “trust” mean?

dr-mr Trust is a transaction. It is reciprocal in nature and it is created incrementally, over time. In our work, we also address three types of Transactional Trust®: 1) Contractual trust sets the course for agreements, including shaping roles and responsibilities. 2) Communication trust establishes how information flows between people, and how individuals connect and converse with one another. 3) Competence trust allows people to develop, and put into action, their knowledge and abilities.

twsm What are the conditions that lead to a reduction in trust?

And that generate trust?

dr-mr Conditions that lead to broken trust or betrayal occur on a continuum from unintentional to intentional, and from minor to major. Unintentional betrayals are the by-products of careless or selfserving actions that hurt others. Intentional betrayals are self-serving actions committed with the purpose of the same result.

Minor betrayals may be “minor” but, even so, they are decidedly significant.

twsm Why?

dr-mr Because minor betrayals are much more pervasive. Major betrayals impact people more dramatically, often at their deepest core. In the workplace, major betrayals are frequently associated with enduring mismanagement of major changes-reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, layoffs, and more. In the area of interpersonal relationships, however, major betrayals often occur through single, hurtful acts.

twsm Forgiveness is a concept that suffers from a liturgy absent in different cultures, such as in Eastern cultures, where it does not exist. Forgiveness is considered to be a Catholic concept and, therefore, how does forgiveness drive your theory?

dr-mr Forgiveness is an essential element found in many cultures, religions, and liturgies. Central to our seven-step process are courage and compassion. Forgiveness is the sixth step. Before forgiveness can take place, however, people need to work through the earlier steps: observing and acknowledging what happened; allowing feelings to surface; getting and giving support; reframing the experience; and taking responsibility.

S. and Michelle L. Reina Rebuilding Trust in the Workplace

Seven Steps to Renew Confidence, Commitment, and Energy [W ReinaTrustBuilding.com]

Peter Arnell Shift

How to Reinvent Your Business, Your Career, and Your Personal Brand

Broadway Books, pp 208, $23.00

This is a book about how each of us can tranform our lives based on strategies and tactics. Arnell has applied throughout his career. In a world obsessed with the quick fix, the overnight success, shift offers a way by which we can make major changes in our personal life or career that can be indefinitely sustained.

John Man

Tara Hunt

The Whuffies Factor

Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business

Crown Business, pp 312, $25.00

Tara Hunt walks people through flushing out problems, appropriate times to use whuffie, and really getting to the core of your message. Hunt has established an entirely new way for business success through both the how-to of tapping into the burgeoning world of online communities and a distinctive and contrarian point of view about the best way to do it.

The

Leadership Secrets of Genghis Khan

Bantam UK, pp 224, $24.95 In Leadership Secrets of Genghis Khan, John Man re-examines the life of Genghis Khan to discover the qualities, characteristics and strategies that made him the great leader that he was. The answers are sometimes surprising. Genghis was far from just the tyrant that history records, but rather a leader of exceptional vision and modernity. And many of the secrets of his success are as valuable and applicable in today’s competitive business world as they were in rallying the Mongol hordes.

Sherry Penney & Patricia Neilson Next Generation Leadership

Insights from emerging leaders

Palgrave, pp 224, £ 42.50 In ”Next Generation Leadership”, the authors bring together the stories and ideas of the future from a survey of nearly 300 emerging leaders to get their points of view and thoughts about how organizations need to change in order to develop effective leaders of tomorrow.

Dennis

Book Twsm Selection

The Everything Hr Kir

twsm Today the market is full of manuals about HR. Each manual has its own suggestion related to Human Resource initiatives. Which are the news proposed by your toolkit?

jp-db The book contains both strategic and operational tools, techniques and templates covering the entire HR function, while most other HR books are narrower in focus. Some of the “creative” content in the kit includes a “Why Work Here?” statement, plus “Bird Dog Bonuses” for virtually anyone who refers a hire, plus an “out-of-the-box” employee handbook to “Wow!” the new hire, and more importantly to instill values.

twsm You seem to have a pragmatic approach, based on a well structured process. How important is intuition in the HR selection process?

jp-db Intuition has little or no place in the hiring process. Obviously, if the person is a total misfit, your intuition would say, don’t hire; but just going with your gut is deadly. Most interviewers who think they can rely on their intuition fall victim to the common errors of “Halo Effect” (where something positive or of appeal to the interviewer overshadows other knock-out factors), “Horns Effect” (the opposite of the Halo Effect) and the “Just Like Me” Syndrome (s/he’s like me, so I like him or her).

twsm Some people say that companies are used to always select the same kind of personality, since every selector has his precise ideas. Sometimes they same to be very similar structured. How can a company employ different personalities that are able to get along?

jp-dbThis is why we advocate “behavioral” interviewing, screening, profiling and selection. Traditionally, many organizations did hire people with very similar personality profiles so they would “get along” with the “team.” It wasn’t even a scientific process. They just knew who they liked and who they didn’t. They had harmony, but no creativity or innovation. Progressive and enlightened organizations understand that creativity and innovation are borne from diversity and even creative conflict. Once you develop such an organization, you must also develop your people to understand how to maximize their differences; i.e. to depersonalize conflict and to foster diverse perspectives. This has always been one of the virtues of “creative” organizations such as advertising agencies, design firms, etc.

Jac Fitz-enz, Ph.D

The New HR Analithic Predicting the Economic Value of Your Company’s Human Capital Investments Amacom, pp 342, $29.95

The book features “how-to-do-it research essays” from thirty top HR experts and a complete set of tactics for working out the model and making it work for any company. With The New HR Analytics, the acclaimed HR metrics trailblazer ushers in a promising new era of managing people with a solid, objective sense of their worth.

James M Kilts Doing What Matters

How to Get Results That Make a DifferenceThe revolutionary Old School Approach Crown, pp 318, $ 27.50 This book is the key to winning in a warp-speed world where the need for revolutionary speed and decisiveness increases by the day. The author illustrates his ideas with colorful stories, such as “that little red razor.” Jim Kilts focus on both business fundamentals and personal attributes provides the “complete package,” showing how to get results that make a difference.

Elaine Biech

The ASTD Leadership Handbooks

Berret- Koehler, pp 500, $129.95

This book is a compilation of insights, ideas, and tools that will enable individuals, teams, and organizations to fully develop their leadership capabilities. Chapters are written from a practical perspective, enabling readers to immediately put the wisdom and experience of the authors to use in their own lives and organizations. The book also includes three dozen tools to help you apply the concepts. This handbook sets itself apart in a crowded field by emphasizing leadership development and providing practical approaches to address this crucial need.

Peter

Gloor

Coolfarming

Turn Your Great Idea into the Next Big Thing Amacom, pp 240, $29.95 This book provides entrepreneurs and business leaders with a practical, step-bystep process that will allow them to cultivate the kind of swarm creativity that generates hot new trends. . .and then push them over the tipping point to commercial success. It gives readers invaluable insight on how they can determine what “cool” means for their target group, and what attributes the “next big thing” should possess.

The Everithing Hr Kit

John Putzier and David Baker

A Complete Guide to Attracting, Retaining, and Motivating HighPerformance Employees

Robert L. Simons

Seven Strategy

Questions A Simple Approach for Better Execution Harvard Business School Press, pp 224, € 22.99

This book is a concise guide, in which Bob Simons, walks executives through seven key questions. In his book, Simons shows executives the questions they must ask themselves and their senior managers in order to tighten and implement the strategy already in place, and what to expect based on the answers they give.

Chris Ernst and Donna Chrobot-Mason Boundary Spanning Leadership

Six Practices for Solving Problems, Driving Innovation, and Transforming Organizations McGraw–Hill Professional, pp 288, $35.00 This book will help its readers transform borders from flashpoints for conflict and limitation into the frontiers of break-

through ideas and solutions, and ways to reinvent your organization.

Managing Workplace Bullying

twsm Why has workplace bullying become such a hot topic recently?

ao Incidents of workplace bullying are on the increase. More and more people witness, observe or are subject to bullying behaviour in the workplace. The quality and range of written information available on the subject has increased accordingly.

twsm Why do some people bully their colleagues?

ao Their intrapersonal choice to use punishing and penalising behaviour against a colleague is an internally derived choice, one which often comes from a place of jealousy, envy, fear and very low levels of empathy with the people they target. I believe that just about anyone could become the target of a workplace bully at some point in their working lives but that not everyone will be capable of using bullying behaviour against someone else. Bullies use excessive aggression against the colleague(s) and workplace contacts they target and then find ways of justifying this punitive approach to themselves thereafter.

twsm Why do some workplace bullies get away with it for so long?

ao Workplace bullying is often allowed to thrive for so long because it is not seen clearly enough for what it is by those

Aryanne Oade Managing Workplace Bullying

How to identify, respond to and manage bullying behaviour in the workplace

Book Twsm Selection

James Borg Persuasion

The art of influencing people Prentice Hall, pp 304, CHF 36.90 The new book by work psychologist and businessman James Borg, provides the tools for those looking to master the power of persuasion – the ultimate way to achieve success in work and life. According to James, it pays to be persuasive. Persuasion is not about mystical powers however, it outlines the tricks we can all use to take control of our lives and influence those around us. From senior managers to start ups in business, this book outlines the necessary skills to achieve that competitive edge.

who witness it, those who work alongside the person being targeted and those who are responsible for managing the colleague using bullying behaviour. Consider the senior manager who realises that two of her team leaders regularly employ bullying methods. Lacking the skills or courage to tackle them, she suggests that the two people being targeted attend an assertiveness course but doesn’t tackle the bully.

twsm What is the psychological profile of a workplace bully?

ao In many cases the person using bullying behaviour is attempting to deflect their own fears and shortcomings onto someone blameless and castigate that person in their stead. By turning their inner issues outward in a campaign against a colleague or workplace contact the bully doesn’t address the real issue in their own inner life and can cause serious psychological and emotional injuries to those they target. In almost every case, a workplace bully fails to develop the leadership, management and people-handling skills they need to perform effectively in their role while simultaneously taking punitive action against colleagues and contacts who are not blameworthy.

To Be Cool Our Choices

Book

Inception, it will do your head in, but it’s great 03

Small Giants by Bo Burlingham

My Ipad, only had it a month, and I’m in Love

Air New Zealand - their Business class is great

Hyatt Hotel Park Hyatt - Sydney or Melbourne - they are so beautiful

The Malaya at the King Street Wharf in Sydney

Last month i gave my husband a week at the ‘Golden Door’

Any of the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland 07

Saint Clair Wairau Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2009, Marlborough New Zealand 04

Shrek Forever After

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga 05

Birdy, folding bike by Riese & Müller Lufthansa

Alpine Spa Hotel Haus Hirt, Bad Gastein, Austria

Mikla, Istanbul Kalmia latifolia Spiekeroog, North Sea

Rashômon (1950), Directed by Akira Kurosawa 01

Exploiting Chaos by Jeremy Gutsche 2010

An old map of Zaire, Africa, where I was born 08

Jet Blue Hotel Chateau Marmont, Los Angeles

Loose Cannons (Mine Vaganti) 2010 02

Six Suspects by Vikas Swarup My Iphone Lufthansa La Mamounia, Marrakech

Indochine - New York ... Time Cuixmala, Mexico

Hot Water

Wine Haut Brion, Clarendelle (1935)

Open Colonna, Rome

Jimmy Choo sandals

A week in Dobbiaco, wandering on the mountains 06 Graticciaia, Agricola

Bronwyn Pott — Chief Executive Officer of Swaab Attorneys in Sidney (Australia), Frank Hauser — Managing Director of the Great Place to Work® Institute Germany, Nadine Johnson — Owner of the PR Agency Nadine Johnson & Associates Inc. in New York City, Ugo Patroni Griffi Professor in Corporate, Intellectual property, Commercial International, Business and Investment Law ad Lawyer in Bari (Italy) to select ‘our choices’.

Bronwyn PottFrank Hauser Nadine JohnsonUgo Patroni Griffi