TWSM#9

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# 9 issue, April 2012

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08

The cover story is dedicated to "money," from four points of view: Thinking Out of the Box 09 The Meaning of Money

By Jeff Gitterman

• Beyond Success

By John Graves

• Money Manifestations By Valery Satterwhite

• Money Matters 11 Morals and Money By David Gebler

• At the Office By R. Brent Lang

• A Clear Conscience By Roger Steare

• The Name of the Game 13 Stipends Degrowth By Donna Flagg

• Reducing Stipends By Kusum Sahdev

• The Alternative Way By Michael Zwell

• Dealing with Lower Pay

15 Working Beyond Money

By Mark L. Petersen

• Never Forget Your Heart

By Barry Schwartz

• Why We Work

16 Editorials

Summary ➔ ➔

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Order your WorkStyle T-Shirts and the book "Talking".

Spendthrift Vs. Miser

16 By Scott Rick

• Not So Different After All

17 By Kathleen Burns Kingsbury

• The Overspender and the Oversaver

17 By Brad Klontz

• Money Scripts

The

54 Legal By Matthew Seminara

Individual and Corporate Contributions

How Elections Are Influenced in the US 55 Compliance By Nick Kochan

Privacy & Data Protection

The Money Laundering Minefield 56 Change Management By R. Benzi

A Turkish Manager’s New Life

Pinar’s Unabashed Tenaciousness 60 Culture Integration By P. Murphy Integrating M&A Pleasing the In-Laws 62 People By Martha Tintin

Unusual Job A Puzzling Job 64 Joining the Company

By Micole Imperiali Dangerous Jobs Running in the Fast Lane

85 Country Guide Portugal

By Thrasy Petropoulos

• Good Students Still Proving Themselves

98 Urbanization

By Ismael Fernandez Mejia

• The City Isn't The Problem, It's The Answer

100 A Glance on the City

By Frank Friesecke

• A German Approach to Urban Governance with BIDs

102 Africa

By Antony Blake

• Portrait of Honest Workers in Africa

104 Law In Africa

By Sam Nallen Copley

• Lady Justice By Carla De Ycaza

• History of a Woman 110 Moving By Esme Vos Yu

Challenges for Workers and Cities

• Universal Wi-Fi’s Benefits 112 Workplace 112 Environment By Fabrice Leclerc

• Restrictions and Benefits: The EU’s BEST Project Guidelines 114 New Castles

By Nina Rappaport

• The Spectacular Factory 120 Evolving Office Furniture

By Katherine Olson

• Highlights from Milan’s Furniture Fair 2012

By Olukunle Malomo

• Best Workplaces in Nigeria: The First Ranking 33 HR Event Asia

• Corporate Capability Development 34 HR Event Europe

• The Pan-European HR Forum 2012 36 Creative Talks

By Massimo Temporelli

• A Company: An Open or Closed System? 36 HR Event USA

• Beyond 2012, The Talent Challenges Ahead 27 HR Event Turkey

• HR Event Turkey Leadership is a Relationship

By ROSARIO IMPERIALI D'AFFLITTO

EditorialMoney has always influenced work environment and relationships. The Euro zone was in recession in the first quarter of 2012 and the second looks like the same. As a consequence of the economic crisis, the unemployment rate in the Euro zone grew to 10.8% in February 2012 (source: Eurostat) and has gone upward every month since August of last year, thus reaching a new record high for the Euro area. A third of Italians and Portuguese under age 25 are without work and over half of those under 25 in Greece and Spain are jobless. There are no better conditions on the horizon. Most of labor reforms now taking place in the European countries, especially in those where social policy plays a greater role, are mainly centered in admitting layoffs in case of companies’ substantial economic turmoil. Money was invented to improve our barter system – as Valery Satterwhite reminds us in her article, “Money Matters” – but it seems now more able to separate people rather than unite them. Soaring unemployment will bring unit labor costs down to bottom line levels.

The general and well-accepted dogma in recent years has been that, in order to be competitive, you need to keep labor costs down and to be lean. But too much cost-cutting, fewer fulltime workers, and reduced investment in training turns out to be a bad strategy for businesses. A study by Zeynep Ton, an MIT professor, on four low-price retailers which, by contrast, applied an opposite policy, showed that they were more profitable than most of their competitors and that they have generated more sales for employees. It is true that being lean is a good business tactic, but the obsession with cost-cutting can create a negative spiral.

Money, however, can also influence business relationships. Because money does not drive morals, as writer Brent Lang suggests, the “profitable at any price” philosophy tends to find a way around moral boundaries. This is evident not only through corruptive approaches – see our N. 7 issue – but also because financial income can be the outcome of criminal activities. The SWIFT Agreement between the EU and the US, for example, gives US authorities access to European bank data transferred via SWIFT, for terrorist finance-tracking program purposes. Criminal prevention requires more control over people’s activities: each of us becomes a suspect to be monitored. This may raise concerns that protection of personal data for law enforcement matters may end up being inadequate. Similarly, in Europe, the third Money Laundering Directive (2005/60/EC) – the review of which is expected this year – has translated into law the standard policies to combat money laundering. The implementation of this and similar legal instruments – such as those in the field of “law enforcement” – puts individual fundamental rights under pressure.

Rosario Imperiali d'Afflitto Editor in Chief

rosario@theworkstylemagazine.com

Contributors

around the world for Work Style #9

Ann Arbor (USA)

Scott Rick is an Arnold M. & Linda T. Jacob Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. He has a PhD in Behavioral Decision Research. Aston Abbotts (USA)

Kusum Sahdev has over 25 years’ experience of working in the areas of Organization Development, Change Management and Human Resource Management. She has consulted with diverse organizations such as central government, local government, international development organizations, health service, and others.

Athens (GREECE)

Mary Kramer is Regional Manager, Greece and Balkans at SpenglerFox. Barcelona (SPAIN)

Vicente Guallart is an architect founder of Guallart Architects. His most recent and international projects include, among others, The Alborz Gates in Tehran, Fugee Port and Keelung Port.

Cambridge (USA)

Brendan Emmett Quigley is a freelance puzzle maker.

Chicago (USA)

Michael Zwell is a Ph.D. and a Competency and Talent Management expert. He received a B.A. from the University of Chicago with honors in 1970 and a Ph.D. from Yale University. He is the CEO of Zwell International. David Hoyt is a game inventor and puzzle maker, he is soon launching a new game he invtented called Word Winder.

Draper (USA)

Mark L. Petersen began leading Mentors International as President and CEO in 2007. A graduate of Weber State University, he worked in administration at Weber State and Dixie State College, served as the Executive Director of Public Relations and Marketing at DSC, and was appointed by DSC's president to open the new Dolores Dore Eccles Fine Arts Center as Executive Director of Cultural Arts.

Dubai (UAE)

Cedric d’Halluin is Regional Manager, Middle East at SpenglerFox.

Dublin (IRELAND)

Nancy Brown is Global Marketing Development Manager at SpenglerFox.

Easton (USA)

Kathleen Burns Kingsbury is a wealth psychology expert, behavioral change specialist and frequent keynote speaker at financial industry and women’s conferences. Her third book, How to

Give Financial Advice to Women will be published by McGraw-Hill in September 2012.

Fort Lauderdale (USA)

Jordan Zimmerman is founder and chairman of Zimmerman Advertising, the 14th largest full-service agency in the US, with more than 1,100 associates and offices throughout the US, and Omnicom Group’s retail powerhouse.

Gosford (AUSTRALIA)

Judie Durrant is Editorial Coordinator of Lovatts Puzzle Magazines at Lovatts Media Group

Iselin (USA)

Jeff Gitterman is an award winning financial advisor and the CEO of Gitterman & Associates Wealth Management, LLC. His first book, Beyond Success; Redefining the Meaning of Prosperity, is published by AMACOM.

Istanbul (TURKEY)

Hasan Bosnak is Practice Group Lead at Spengler Fox Turkey.

Gökçe Türkel and Karen Sason met in Milan during a packaging master course. When back to Istanbul, Turkey in 2008 they found GK-Istanbul, an innovative design company.

Kampala (UGANDA)

Arne Doornebal is a freelance journalist born in the Netherlands and now living and working in Uganda. He has worked for several publications, radio programs and websites. Before going freelance he worked for The Amsterdam Times, the only English language newspaper in the Netherlands.

Kapaa (USA)

Brad Klontz is a financial psychologist and Director of Research at H&R Block Dollars & Sense, a program that since 2009 has donated nearly $3 million in personal finance curriculums to high schools across the US to help create a financially fit nation. He is also Associate Research Professor, Kansas State University.

Lagos (NIGERIA)

Carasoo is a critic who tells it like it is. Sometimes he’s foul-mouthed, other times he is simply cynical. He is Work Style’s movie reviewer.

London (UK)

John Jerrim is an Economic and Social Research Council Post-doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Education, University of London. He has a first class degree in Economics from the University of Southampton, and an MSc and PhD in Social Statistics.

Nick Kochan is an investigative journalist focused on financial crime.

He wrote The Washing Machine, regarded as the definitive study of money laundering and terrorist financing post 9/11. His most recent book is Corruption: The New Corporate Challenge.

Roger Steare is a world-class expert on corporate integrity, a Corporate Philosopher in Residence and Professor of Organizational Ethics at the Cass Business School in London and a Fellow at crossparty policy think tank, ResPublica. He consults with the SFO and FSA and his opinion is sought out by the BBC, CNBC, the FT and The Times.

Los Angeles (USA)

Bradley Wheeler is an internationally published architectural photographer and writer. His photography and writing have been the featured cover articles of publications around the world. His website CoolNewProjects.com attracts international attention to the projects he features.

Valery Satterwhite is an author, speaker and inner wealth consultant teaches people how to transcend the unique challenges that come with privilege and liberate true and meaningful worth.

Milan (ITALY)

Manuela Mellini is a journalist and cofounder of Verme.

Francesca Morelli worked as Scientific Assistant at the main oncology centers in Milan, at the National Institute for the Study and Treatment of Cancer (INT) and the European Institute of Oncology (IEO). She is interested in scientific writing, setting up partnerships with nonprofits, press offices, and magazines in the areas of health and gender medicine.

Moscow (RUSSIA)

Nicolas Bordry is Country Manager for Russia and CIS at SpenglerFox Newton (USA)

Kari Heistad is the founder and CEO of Culture Coach International, a global consulting firm specializing in helping organizations use diversity and culture to improve the bottom line. The programs presented by Kari and the CCI team range from culture, diversity and generations to corporate identity.

New York (USA)

Carla De Ycaza is an author and Editor in Chief of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Rights Law and a lecturer at New York University. She has been appointed as a Delegate for the 10th Session of Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court.

Randy Joy Epstein, a Certified Public

Accountant who has become the go-to person for businesses seeking to grow or change, is also a consultant, entrepreneur, professional speaker, writer, and the shoulder entrepreneurs lean on to grow their companies.

Donna Flagg is founder of the Krysalis Group. She’s also a speaker, author and blogger for both Psychology Today and The Huffington Post.

Michael Medico is the founder and CEO of E+M Advertising, a New York City direct response agency focusing on brand development and digital offerings. Nina Rappaport directs the project Vertical Urban History, which includes an exhibition, panel discussions, and a book (forthcoming 2013). She is an architectural critic, curator, historian and educator, and publications director at Yale School of Architecture.

Paris (FRANCE)

Sam Nallen Copley completed a master’s degree at Oxford University. He is a staff writer for Global Politics and Cha: An Asian Literary Journal and contributes to Dust, Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, GUP, New Business Ethiopia, the 1847 Press, the Somaliland Sun and Malawi Voice.

Pleasantville (USA)

Will Shortz is the Crosswords Editor at The New York Times.

San Francisco (USA)

Ora Solomon is Vice President, Sales & Operations at Acclaro.

Ora holds an MBA and a BA in Psychology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

San Luis Obispo (USA)

Harold R. Kerbo is a professor of sociology at California Polytechnic State University. He recently published the book, The Persistence of Cambodian Poverty: From the Killing Fields to Today, and has written books and articles on social stratification, comparative societies, economic development and world poverty.

Santiago (CHILE)

Carole Tynan is Country Manager at SpenglerFox Chile.

Sharon (USA)

David Gebler is founder and president of the Skout Group, a global advising group. A sought-after speaker and panelist, he is author of The 3 Power Values: How Commitment, Integrity, and Transparency Clear the Roadblocks to Performance (Jossey-Bass, 2012).

Singapore (SINGAPORE)

Esme Vos Yu is founder of MuniWireless.com, a portal for news and information about citywide

Wi-Fi networks. MuniWireless.com is a publishing company that hosts conferences and seminars and reports on large scale Wi-Fi deployments.

South Croydon (UK)

Dal Shields is UK Operations Manager at Lovatts Publishing.

Stamford (USA)

Patrice Murphy is a senior partner with Schaffer Consulting. She and her colleagues have helped major organizations beat the M&A odds to deliver significant shareholder value.

Stuttgart (GERMANY)

Frank Friesecke is project manager at the STEG Stadtentwicklung GmbH, which acts as consultant and service provider, as well as sponsoring and investing in all urban planning tasks. He is chair of the FIG Working Group 8.1 “Planning Strategy for Urban Development and Regeneration,” which analyzes urban planning.

Surrey (CANADA)

R. Brent Lang, is a Director at the Surrey Foundation and Chair of the Community Impact Fund. At Pacifica Partners, he is an Associate Portfolio Manager. He holds the CIM (Chartered Investment Manager) and FCSI (Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute) designations.

Swarthmore (USA)

Barry Schwartz is a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College and author of The Paradox of Choice, and Practical Wisdom, among other books. Sylmar (USA)

Myles Mellor is a freelance puzzle maker.

Valencia (SPAIN)

Sergio Membrillas is a freelance illustrator. He has been working for clients all over the globe, including Bust Magazine NY, Ling Magazine, and Amelia's Magazine, among many others.

Ventura (USA)

John Graves is the author of The 7% Solution and was Managing Director of The Renaissance Group, an independent RIA.He has spent 26 years advising people how to become better stewardsof their resources.

Warsaw (POLAND)

Tomek Karelus is an illustrator and art director. Tomek attended the Polish National Film School and has since established himself in a diverse career that includes directing films, and creating artwork in a vast array of illustration styles.

Work Style Football Club Winner of the Italian Cup 2011/2012

Illustrations by Paul Davis, London, UK

Thinking Out of the Box The Meaning of Money

Beyond Success

Money has become the ultimate measuring stick for just about everything in our culture. Often when people are asked what money means, they provide a range of replies: freedom, security, opportunity, power. It is rare to ever hear the standard dictionary definition, which is that money is simply a means of exchange, or that money is meant to be the current, or currency, by which productivity flows. As a society perhaps the measure of money as success is our own fault. The good news is that we can reframe the definition of money in our lives and by doing so perhaps reach a deeper level of success and fulfillment. It takes focus and commitment to find, develop and own the particular expression we have to contribute to the world, as individuals and as companies. But when we are able to identify that expression and seek to build our lives and companies around it in a way that offers something to the world, we may find the void filled in the most unexpected of ways. •

Money Manifestations

We’ve changed the meaning of money from bartering to wealth creation. We have faith that the leveraged amount will be available and repayable. We agree to a price for this current account: interest. Interest varies due to risk perception. Risk is another element. You can have more than you own if you are well-respected as a risk taker. Paper that represents faith in your risk-taking skills can be packaged and sold to others, creating a new layer of risk and leverage called leverage of leverage. Europeans call it gearing. Sometimes we call it overburdened. Sometimes we respect those who achieve these feats of legerdemain; sometimes we run them out of time on a rail. Meanings change. We willingly share some of our wealth in the form of taxation, profit, genius or bribery in exchange for safety. This level is protection. Transactions, leverage, risk and protection are all part of faith in the construct of capitalism. •

Money Matters

Money began as a replacement for our barter system. It was much easier to go to the market with paper and coins in your pocket than to lug animals to trade. Money in its essence is energy, but in a materialistic society, a person's value is largely viewed in dollars and cents. Innate talents, gifts and contributions to the world are often discounted. Companies have a purpose beyond generating money: it isn’t what you sell that matters, it is why you sell it. However, companies that have an undisciplined pursuit of money crash and burn as a result of their own hubris. The most noted failure was Enron, but the collapses of WorldCom, Tyco, Swissair, Parmalat and Barings serve as further evidence. Without a greater reason beyond quarterly profits, the activity of productivity is often frenetic and focused solely on short-term goals. There’s a lack of direction and commitment. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield founded Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream with a mission to improve the quality of life locally, nationally and internationally. They vowed to make the finest quality natural ice cream with an ongoing commitment to incorporating natural ingredients and promoting business practices that respect the earth. Their mission holds deep respect for individuals inside and outside the company and for the communities of which they are a part. Money can be used to unite rather than separate people, societies, governments as well as corporations. We can increase net worth without compromising self-worth. •

Jeff Gitterman is an award winning financial advisor and the CEO of Gitterman & Associates Wealth Management, LLC. His first book, Beyond Success; Redefining the Meaning of Prosperity, is published by AMACOM.

John Graves is the author of The 7% Solution and was Managing Director of The Renaissance Group, an independent RIA. He has spent 26 years advising people how to become better stewards of their resources.

Valery Satterwhite is an author, speaker and inner wealth consultant who teaches people how to transcend the unique challenges that come with privilege and liberate true and meaningful worth.

[W airweb.org alphavn.com apple.com barings.com benjerry.com gawmllc.com kiva.org one.laptop.org parmalat.com swiss.com tyco.com

Thinking Out of the Box Morals and Money

At the Office

According to research led by behavioral economist Dan Ariely and others, it seems we all have some inclination toward dishonesty up to the point that our actions impact our self-image as good and honest people. Further research, conducted by Tenbrunsel, et al., found that often we aren’t aware we're acting against our values. We shape our reality in favor of self-serving perceptions that make us feel good. But can money motivate us to act in a positive way? While people need and expect a decent wage, money isn’t the main reason people stay in their jobs or with a company. Research shows that for employees whose jobs require creativity and the ability to analyze and solve problems, traditional forms of compensation and reward are insufficient to keep them motivated. For work that requires trialand-error thinking, with expectations of discovering a novel strategy, intrinsic rewards are the best motivators. Evidence shows that when given the opportunity to exercise originality, stimulate the imagination and engage in new tasks, employees would be willing to forgo pay increases for a more intellectually satisfying job. Leaders who nurture a healthy culture have fewer moral and behavioral worries than those who don't.•

The Name of the Game

A Clear Conscience

What people will do for power or ego is limitless. It’d be easy if money were all we needed. But we need a feeling of contributing to a purpose while providing for ourselves and our loved ones. It’s never too late to re-align with who you are. Elio Madonia, an entrepreneur and founder of the Samaritan Foundation, says his biggest achievements came in his 70s and 80s. Through his nonprofit, he has built over 1,000 homes for the poor, 6 schools and 12 churches in the Dominican Republic. When you see what can be done with your talents, time and capital in the social realm, you’ll never look at the world the same way again. Be as helpful in your community as you can. Use your talent to realize improvements in your own arena or with those who are slipping between society’s cracks. If you can provide support to nonprofits in your city, then they have the ability to help those you may not be capable of helping yourself.•

David Gebler is founder and president of the Skout Group, global advisors helping leaders determine whether and how their organization's culture is costing them money. A sought-after speaker and panelist, he is author of The 3 Power Values: How Commitment, Integrity, and Transparency Clear the Roadblocks to Performance (JosseyBass, 2012).

Notes and coins are a promise to pay the bearer rather than an item of value in their own right. Money is convenient but relies on a promise being honored, and so it ultimately relies on our morality. Problems began with the invention of credit. Failure to pay debt is a moral issue but we’ve stopped thinking of it that way because money has other connotations aside from a promise; it’s treated as a commodity in itself. Huge salaries are no longer linked to the time or effort it takes to earn them, but are an inflated score in an ego contest. We know that arrogance and pride are vices, but somehow we’ve acquiesced to a worldview where status is measured by bank balances rather than virtues like humility and generosity. Consider the words of Henry Ford, one of history’s greatest businessmen “a business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” Too many companies have sociopathic managers fretting about their perceived status in the hierarchy; most of them are male. More women in senior positions may help but we also need to encourage men to stay in touch with values that really matter: courage, loyalty, honesty and love. The world has reached a tipping point: we’re no longer able to trust banknote promises. It’s going to take some serious refocusing on what is important to survive the current crises. Instead of trying to cater to greed, we must make sure that every human being has what he or she needs. • [W business.nd.edu danariely.com ethicability.org ford.com goldmansachs.com pacificapartners.com skoutgroup.com

R. Brent Lang is a Director at the Surrey Foundation and Chair of the Community Impact Fund. At Pacifica Partners, Brent is an Associate Portfolio Manager. He holds the CIM (Chartered Investment Manager and FCSI (Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute) designations.

Roger Steare is a world-class expert on corporate integrity, a Corporate Philosopher in Residence and Professor of Organisational Ethics at the Cass Business

School in London and a Fellow at crossparty policy think tank, ResPublica. He consults with the SFO and FSA and his opinion is sought out by the BBC, CNBC, the FT and The Times.

Thinking Out of the Box Stipends Degrowth

Reducing Stipends

Downsizing is not only a reality, but a necessity when a system has been pushed beyond capacity. Whether global resources, economic infrastructure or organizational wherewithal, overextension inevitably leads to the need to contract. The most common strategy companies employ is job elimination because of how effectively and swiftly a cut in payroll expenses improves the bottom line. What if companies could stabilize growth and improve performance by enculturating employees with an appreciation that less is more? The company would be less vulnerable to economic swings, which in turn would create more security long-term. It sounds simple but in practice is not. Employment is a two-way street; pay cut implications go beyond monetary sacrifice. We depend on work to define who we are, as much as wages inform our perceived value. It is a lot to ask employees to welcome a pay decrease, but there are ways to present it as an initiative vital to the future of everyone involved.•

The Alternative Way

Over the years there has been recognition among decision-makers that reactive downsizing is a short-term quick fix that does not deliver value long-term. Downsizing erodes the goodwill of high performing employees who are often the first ones to leave. Reactive downsizing can result in “survivor syndrome,” made up of negative reactions such as anger, insecurity, perceptions of unfairness, increased workload, trust breakdown, decreased motivation, commitment and morale. Proactive approaches to managing downsizing, involving transformational change with the engagement of employees at all levels can result in enhanced innovation and greater sense of self-efficacy and resilience. To avoid reactive downsizing, organizations are exploring alternative ways to manage the crisis without losing talent. One option is to reduce the salaries of current employees and to trade recognition and experience in exchange for pay, in the case of new entrants to the market. •

Dealing with Lower Pay

In order to maintain workforces and competitiveness, some companies are choosing broad pay cuts over layoffs, while many college grads take internships with little or no pay in hopes of increasing their odds of finding good work in the future. Many are ready to accept lower salaries, but what about those who aren’t? The answer relates to market conditions, not what you think you deserve. If you are an outstanding performer, you will do well in the long run. Accept what the market offers and prove yourself. Companies can help their employees deal with pay cuts in several ways. If employees understand and accept the reasons, they will be better able to live with the reductions; e.g., cutting pay instead of cutting jobs is often viewed as a legitimate reason. What we do and how much we earn greatly affects how we see and feel about ourselves. In reality, our self-worth has nothing to do with how much money we have. It is our job to build our sense of self-worth and to base it on our being rather than just what we do and how much money we make.•

Donna Flagg is founder of the Krysalis Group. She’s also a speaker, author and blogger for both Psychology Today and The Huffington Post.

Kusum Sahdev has over 25 years’ experience of working in the areas of Organization Development, Change Management and Human Resource Management.

Michael Zwell, Ph.D., is a Competency and Talent Management expert. He is the CEO of Zwell International.

Thinking Out of the Box Working Beyond Money

Never Forget Your Heart

The economic downturn of the last few years has caused most business executives to take an inward look, causing much soul-searching regarding cost centers, profit centers and how to adjust marketing for maximum benefit. In this dramatic economic crisis, smart executives have learned a valuable lesson from what I call a “forced tutoring climate”: when you keep your eye on serving your client with the purest intent, assuring all you do is in keeping with this purpose, then the best results will flow. Dr. Arthur Brooks, author of the study Why Giving Matters, interviewed 30,000 US families. In the study he cites that in 2006 Americans gave over $300bn to charity: 3 times more than France, 7 times more than Germany, and 14 times more than Italy. America is the wealthiest nation in the world and the study overwhelmingly shows that companies and individuals who give are more prosperous than those who don’t. There are families of the same religion, education, income, race, and number of children who live in the same town: the giving families are three times wealthier. The same is true of businesses and corporations. Companies who have a cause retain and have happier employees. Prosperity is the outcome of exercising correct principles. Employees and business are energized when lives are improved through superior products and service. When executives lead by this example, employees follow and are inspired by the results of their efforts, focusing on people over profits. Somehow, money seems to follow.•

Mark L. Petersen began leading Mentors International as President and CEO in 2007. A graduate of Weber State University, he worked in administration at Weber State and Dixie State College (DSC), served as the Executive Director of Public Relations and Marketing at DSC, and was appointed by DSC's president to open the new Dolores Dore Eccles Fine Arts Center as Executive Director of Cultural Arts.

Why We Work

The near-total collapse of the economy is a chance to ask basic questions about why we do the things we do, about what gets us out of bed in the morning. The standard view of economists is that people work for pay and that financial incentives make the world go ‘round. 40 years of psychology research has shown this basic assumption to be false. People want work that is meaningful. They want work that makes a difference in other people’s lives and gives them a certain amount of discretion and autonomy. Employers can make these things available to employees for free. Tough economies offer employers opportunities to enrich the lives of their employees without cost. What is the difference between Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Sergey Brin and Larry Page? The big difference is that for these titans of technology the point of their efforts was the technology they were developing. Great wealth was the byproduct of great innovation. We need a revolution in the way we think about work and motivation. We need to pay more attention to work conditions, and less to work compensation. Employers have to embrace this reorientation wholeheartedly. It won’t do to have employers getting rich on the backs of their under compensated employees. The entire organization must emphasize meaning, purpose and service to others more and the bottom line less. A sweeping change like this will obviously not be easy, but the economic crisis we are now all living through may give us the courage to take a chance.•

Barry Schwartz is a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College, in Pennsylvania. He has been there since receiving his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. He is also author of many books such as of The Paradox of Choice, and Practical Wisdom, among other books.

Not So Different After All

By SCOTT RICK

By the numbers, tightwads and spendthrifts are quite different. But tightwads and spendthrifts are more similar than they might seem at first blush. As anticipatory feelings of guilt can prevent us from eating too much cake or behaving unethically, a psychological “pain of paying” can prevent us from spending too much. My research

suggests that people chronically differ in the tendency to experience this pain across a wide range of situations. Tightwads tend to experience too much pain for their own good. They spend less than they would’ve if they considered opportunity costs. Spendthrifts experience too little pain for their own good, as though the brakes on the car don’t work. They end up spending more than they would ideally. A third group of “unconflicted” consumers tends to experience moderate pain and to spend close to their ideal.

Illustration by Goñi Montes, Decatur, USA

Editorials Spendthrift Vs. Miser

By KATHLEEN BURNS KINGSBURY

The Overspender and the Oversaver

On one side there is the miser, also known as the over saver. This person views the world in black and white terms and likes structure. They often have the money belief that "a penny earned is a penny saved" which results in them having trouble spending money on themselves or others. In the extreme cases, saving money and not spending it is an attempt to feel better, as misers can struggle with low self-worth. Their tight control over money can be a mirror for their need to tightly control life and those around them. While the miser has some admirable traits such as sticking to a budget, not spending money he does not have, and being financially conscious, they often are not happy with their relationship with money and find little joy in luxuries. Conversely, there is the spendthrift or the overspender. This person tends to be impulsive and has money beliefs such as "live for the day" or “you can't take it with you.” An overspender may use shopping and material goods to fuel feelings of selfworth, as they too struggle with low self-esteem. The overshopper often feels sad, angry or unhappy inside and purchases external items such as clothes, shoes, electronics, etc. In an attempt to feel better. Unfortunately, over spending does not work in the long run and these individuals are often full of regret and remorse after a shopping binge. More “stuff” just does not translate into internal happiness as they wished. These two money personalities both stem from feelings of low self-worth. However, the behaviors displayed by each are very different. The overspender shops as a way to alter his

or her emotional state, whereas the oversaver has trouble buying the necessities of life due to a fear of losing control over money. Both money personalities are prone to mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders and substance abuse. While financial education and support can be helpful in mitigating these symptoms, often overspenders and oversavers need mental health counseling and treatment to address the underlying issue of low self-worth in order to be more balanced and healthy around money. What is important to remember is we all have a relationship with money and our behaviors including saving and spending happen on a continuum. The goal is to be able to use money as a tool to live and not as a way of self-medicating or feeling better about ourselves. The real question to ask is “how do my saving and spending habits help me in life and how do they hurt me?”

If you, your family or your health are being hurt by overspending or oversaving, there is help out there. Organizations such as MyMentalWealth. com and ShopoholicsNoMore.com are great resources for treatment and referrals.•

Money Scripts

By BRAD KLONTZ

Money scripts are typically unconscious beliefs we have about money that drive our behavior. They’re developed in childhood from our financial flashpoint experiences.

Some money scripts of the miser are: “You can never have enough money. Money will give your life meaning. Self-worth equals net worth.”

The spendthrift’s scripts are: “Money is to be spent, not saved. If you are good, the universe supplies all your needs. You don't deserve money. Rich people are greedy/ shallow/evil.”

Prevention of either extreme is ideal and education is a critical component. Some tips:

• Be honest about your role in your financial situation.

• Identify your flashpoints and money scripts.

• Challenge and change scripts that don’t serve you.

• Seek the service of a financial planner or therapist.

We all have a money personality and it is impacted by our temperament, our parents, our generation, the culture we were raised in and our personal experiences with money.

Meritocracy The Failure of Meritocracy

By JOHN JERRIM

Family Background and Success

To what extent does family background influence the success a person has later in life? This is a question of utmost importance across a number of developed countries, but perhaps nowhere more than the US.

The success of the US throughout the 20th century was built largely on the American Dream, the idea that the social position one obtains depends only upon individual talent and motivation. But can America be considered a meritocracy in the 21st century?

Sadly, recent evidence makes grim reading for the US. To measure the relative opportunities of those born into advantaged and disadvantaged homes, economists have investigated the link between amount of money earned by fathers and amount earned by their sons. If the link is strong, social status tends to be preserved across generations. But children from poor homes struggle to move up the ladder. The graph below illustrates such estimates for the US and a host of other developed countries. If your father doesn’t earn a lot of money, chances are you won’t either. Even more striking is the fact that this seems to be a bigger problem in the US than elsewhere.

Clearly, the US can no longer be considered a meritocracy. But what’s stopping disadvantaged children from getting well-paid jobs? Experts almost unanimously agree that one factor stands out: education. By outperforming less fortunate peers at school, children from affluent backgrounds develop skills that are required for entry into the best universities, impacting their ability to pursue the most sought-after careers. Recent research has shown that this is a bigger problem in the US than other countries. The graph below shows the difference in reading test scores between 15-year-olds from poor and rich homes. Long bars indicate a bigger impact of family background and a less “fair” society. In the US, young people brought up in advantageous circumstances are almost 3 school years ahead of their disadvantaged peers. This link is much stronger than in many other countries and clearly brings into question America’s reign as the “land of opportunity.” •

DIFFERENCE IN READING TEST SCORES BETWEEN CHILDREN FROM ADVANTAGED AND DISADVANTAGED HOMES JERRIM (2012)

The Decline of the American Meritocracy

By HAROLD R. KERBO

For almost two centuries the world has viewed the US as the land of opportunity. But this has sadly turned into more of a myth, reflected in America’s growing inequality, a shrinking middle class and stagnate social mobility compared to other advanced industrial nations. The primary watershed for these changes is centered around 1980 when Reaganomics, or neoliberal political shift, occurred. Before this, income inequality in the US was fairly average compared to other advanced nations. While the bottom 20% of American wage earners received a low 4.7% of the annual national income, the top 20% received about 4%. In Europe, 5-8% of the income was going to the bottom 20% of the population, and 38-40% of the income was going to the top 20%. These figures remain little changed for European countries today. But in the US income inequality has gone up every year since 1980. The top 10% of the population alone received almost 40% of the income. In terms of wealth, just after WWII the top 1% of Americans held 20% of wealth, while by 2004 the top 1% held almost 40%. For the first time, in 2006 a World Bankcommissioned study was able to estimate percentages of wealth held by various segments of the population in many countries around the world. The top 10%

LINK BETWEEN FATHER AND SON INCOME ACROSS A RANGE OF DEVELOPED COUNTRIES BLANDEN (2009)

Edgar Angelone

was born and raised in Argentina. He has steadfastly pursued his own photography vision and has acquired a reputation for his exquisite platinum and gelatin silver traditional black and white prints.

01 Country Road II, Humboldt Bay, California, USA, Gelatin silver print, edition of 35

02 Pier and boat, Point Reyes, California, USA, Gelatin Silver Print

of Americans owned 70% of the wealth in the country.

By the late 1990s, the US middle class (25% above and 25% below median income) had shrunk to 27% since 1980, while the middle class had increased in most of Europe. In Germany, Norway and Sweden, the middle class was growing in size during this time, reaching 40-50% of the population. The US shrinking middle class is largely related to changing occupational structure. Considering the increase in new jobs during the 1960s and 1970s, the net increase of new jobs was highest among those paying middle and higher income wages. From 1992-2006 the net increase was highest for those paying low wages and the next highest for jobs paying the highest wages. The net increase in middle paying jobs was by far the lowest.

As these figures suggest, upward social mobility (the essence of what is meant by a meritocracy) has been falling dramatically. Pre-1980 and perhaps more than a century before, with the exception of the Great Depression, more people had enjoyed upward social mobility than those experiencing downward or no mobility. When measured by income inheritance just after the turn of the 21st century, the inheritance rate for the US was 43% compared to the 20% range for countries such as Finland and Sweden, and 34% for Germany. Only the UK had more intergenerational inheritance of income than the US at 57%.

By the end of the 1920s the US had reached a level of inequality close to what it is today. The Great Depression and Roosevelt’s New Deal policies began to bring down inequality. The continuation of these policies, plus America’s global economic dominance after WWII, continued to keep it down until the economic crisis of the 1970s and then 1980’s Reaganomics. The Obama administration knows the danger of these inequalities and the loss of meritocracy and has made this an issue in the 2012 election.

Is the "American Dream", based on meritocracy, in crisis?

Recognition Employee Desirability

By JENNIFER C. LOFTUS

Moving Beyond the Gold Watch

Employee recognition is one of five total rewards elements that employees receive in exchange for their work. Other rewards – cash compensation, benefits, work/life balance and career advancement & development – provide a foundation necessary for successful talent attraction and retention.

Successful organizations link their HR strategies to their overall organizational strategies. By extension, the organization’s rewards strategy ties directly to the employer’s overarching strategic direction. Effective recognition programs support having the right people in the right jobs at the right time and goal achievement through behaviors that create success. Another reason is the cost of employee turnover. Conservative estimates for the US place the cost at 50% of each exited employee’s annual salary. Consider an organization with 100 employees leaving each year, earning an average of $50,000 annually. $2,500,000 in costs impact the bottom line annually. Each dollar spent to minimize employee dissatisfaction increases profitability and morale.

POWER OF RECOGNITION

Employers acknowledge the power of recognition. Research from Mercer’s 2011-12 Compensation Planning Survey finds that 78% of organizations have nonmonetary recognition awards in place and 61% use spot cash awards. Employers can deliver recognition both informally and formally, short and long term. Using multiple recognition plans to reinforce key behavior delivers the highest return. When designing a program, first determine your goals and desired results. Then determine the behaviors necessary to achieve those goals and the time necessary for employees to make behaviors their own.

REWARDS IN ACTION

Take, for example, a NYC-based service organization with employees across the US, which uses a number of techniques nationally and locally to develop a high performance workplace. In 2011,

the company invested in a new performance management system to enable quarterly communication and feedback between employees and managers. The firm trained its managers in effective feedback methods and ways to reward performance. They also use a quarterly safety incentive to convey the goal of cost-control related to injury statistics. Employees at a location receive a bonus of $50-$100 for each quarter without injuries or workers compensation claims. The firm also has a national program to celebrate top performers. Local leaders can develop programs that celebrate success and demonstrate ideal behavior while providing recognition in ways employees prefer. Managers receive training on providing instant feedback when observing effective behavior in action.

RESULTS OF RECOGNITION PROGRAMS

These programs enable the company to enjoy turnover rates 35% below the industry average and savings on workers compensation premiums. When estimating turnover cost savings of $880,000 per year below industry levels, investments in recognition provide a desirable return, increase in morale and support for the goal of being a choice industry employer. Not sure where to start? Using informal recognition with a small financial investment in each employee, with day-to-day thank yous and feedback from managers, allows your organization to reach a larger segment of your employees. Formal awards provide additional reinforcement as your program develops over time. Combining different rewards creates a return on investment and impact on your strategy unrivaled by the gold watch of yesteryear.•

Illustration by Agata Janus, Warsaw, Poland

Health Back Pain at Work

By FRANCESCA MORELLI

Pain As The Body's Defense

Four of five adults will experience at least one bout of back pain at some time in their lives. It is almost tied with common colds on the list of most frequent ailments.

Heavy lifting, repetitive movements and sitting at a desk all day take a toll on the back. “Pain is the body’s own selfdefense mechanism,” says Dr. Edward Laskowski, specialist in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of the Mayo Clinic. “Pinpointing an injury site so that one pays attention to it, protects it, and prevents further damage.” The body sends a signal from the site of the injury to the brain, which responds by organizing the delivery of appropriate pain-relieving chemicals and tissue repair. Whether it’s dull, achy or sharp, back pain can make it hard to concentrate at work. Even routine office work can place significant demands on the back.

THE RISK FACTORS

Different factors can contribute to back pain. First, force: exerting too much force, such as by lifting or moving heavy objects, can cause injury, especially if you are above the recommended weight for your height because of the significant impact on back muscles. Back pain most commonly affects the lower lumbar region of the spine. “This is normally due to the excessive strain to the muscles, ligaments and small joints of the skeleton,” continues Dr. Laskowski. Often overweight people are also unfit, and have poor muscle tone, which put them at increased risk, beyond having to support a heavier load. Another rule is to avoid repetition. Repeating certain movements can lead to muscle fatigue or injury, particularly if you’re stretching to the limit of your range of motion or using awkward positioning. Furthermore, don’t underestimate posture, which represents another relevant risk factor: slouching exaggerates the back’s natural curves and can lead to muscle fatigue. Last but not

least, stress: Pressure can increase your stress level and lead to muscle tension and tightness, which can contribute to or worsen back pain.

PREVENTION STRATEGIES

It is possible to adopt strategies to prevent back pain. Specialists recommend to include physical activities in the daily routine: for healthy adults, at least 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes a week of vigorous aerobic activity – preferably spread throughout the week – and strength exercise at least twice a week. Maintaining a healthy weight minimizes stress on the back, as mentioned. It is recommended to combine aerobic exercise, such as swimming or walking, with physical activity that strengthens and stretches the back and abdomen. In term of posture, be aware that sitting badly in front of a computer for hours on end is storing up trouble for the back.

WORKSTATION FACTORS

The body can tolerate one position for only a short time before you feel the need to adjust. Workstation factors that can affect the back include desk equipment layout and position. Pay attention to chairs. By law, they must be stable. Using ergonomically correct chairs can help control posture. The basic rule is to plant feet on the floor or on a footrest and support the back by placing a rolled towel or small pillow behind the lower back if the chair doesn’t support the lower back curve. Remove the wallet or phone from your pocket when sitting to prevent pressure on your buttocks or lower back.

“Remember that back pain can plague the workdays," concludes Dr. Laskowski "and free time.”

Examine your environment and address situations that can aggravate the back. Even simple steps to ease back pain are steps in the right direction.•

Illustration by Sergio Membrillas,

Training A Multicultural Approach

By KARI HEISTAD

The Global Training Room

The marketplace has exploded in the past decade. Organizations of all sizes are now operating and selling around the world, while workers are moving from country to country more frequently than ever before.

When properly constructed, the multicultural and multilingual classroom can reap benefits for companies and employees alike that are simply not possible in a single language, single culture classroom.

THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE

Samuel Palmisano, Director of Employee Relations for Amica Mutual Insurance, says “We are finding increasingly that our employees come not only from different regions and cultures within the US but also from other countries. We see this diversifying of our employees as a strength that allows us to provide great service to our customers who come from a large variety of cultures and backgrounds.”

THE IMPACT OF CULTURE

National cultures provide a large framework that many share, but there are also other characteristics which unite large groups. Aida Zeff is director of the Apogee Gateway Program for Apogee Physicians, which helps international medical graduates transition as they move from their native culture to practice in the US. Aida explains, “It is our responsibility as educators to present information in a way that is respectful and relatable regardless of cultural status, language variances or

personal goals. A young Indian physician who is completely unaware of the day-today duties of a doctor in the US, common sports jargon, or the five different terms for 'pork' in America, aspires to be successful both personally as well as professionally in the US. It is our job to create and implement a culturally competent training process that will support her endeavor at the start of her residency program and throughout her medical career.”

EFFECTIVE MULTICULTURAL TRAINING

Culturally competent programs derive benefits including:

1. Higher Rates of Knowledge Absorption & Retention.

2. Higher Return on Investment.

3. Reduced Liability.

Robin Lucier, an HR professional, explains the impact when she worked in a manufacturing facility. “Training is costly and the need for understanding is paramount to the activity. If there is a roomful of people and only a portion of the learners understand the content and purpose then the cost multiplies when the learners are unproductive and unable to perform the tasks being trained on.”

TRAINING DESIGN

The two most important components are the content and how that content is delivered. One organization that takes this into account globally is the International Red Cross. “There is a Red Cross or Red Crescent ‘national society’ in nearly every country,” explains Reda Sadki, who manages the International Red Cross’s online learning platform.“The concept of ‘productive diversity’ helps ensure that our online learning emphasize the fundamental principles we share, while recognizing the dramatically different contexts we work in.”

PREPARATION IS KEY

Knowing the cultural background of participants is a critical factor in the success of a training program. This may also mean that a global rollout of a training program may need to be adapted to take into account local cultures and values while retaining key concepts.

CONTENT

When looking at the content, training professionals must explore how culture may impact the content. For example, if the training is on a specific type of software, the impact might be minimal. However if

Three Tips for Multicultural eLearning

by ORA SOLOMON, ACCLARO

Taking eLearning to a global market? Cultural differences can be trickier than language at times. Some problems can hide in plain sight, obvious to locals but invisible to outsiders. Here are three tips for adapting eLearning products:

1. Determine the implications: Some eLearning relies on multimedia formats where viewers simply press a button to see the next step. Others have trainees take a more active role in their own learning. Increased interactivity presents more challenges, such as quiz formats or feedback. An American-made test may give trainees a thumbs-up to indicate a correct answer. This innocuous signal could offend or lead to mockery in other cultures. Spot such gaffes before the expensive and time-consuming work of multimedia localization, which may involve overdubbing and transcription.

the content to be presented is on leadership styles or customer service, these are concepts that vary greatly in different cultures.

LEARNING STYLES

Having a multicultural classroom means taking into account the preferred learning styles of the participants and if a mixture of styles is required, determining a balance that will address as many as possible.

CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE EXAMPLES

The most effective methods for delivering content in a culturally and linguistically sensitive manner need to be considered. Some key questions:

• Will participants speak up in a large group or are small groups better?

• Can methods like a fishbowl be used or will cultural norms interfere with this being an effective tool?

• Will participants be willing to learn from each other or do they want to learn solely from the instructor?

• How will a group of participants, with their specific cultural values, approach learning?

• Will issues such as gender, hierarchy and religion impact participants’ willingness to interact with each other?

• Can icebreakers help to bridge cultural and language differences among the participants?

LANGUAGE

The impact of language on a training program is first assessed with the question, “Can the trainer and the participant speak the same language?” and if so, "at what level of proficiency?" Once the ability to communicate has been assessed, other ideas to consider are: any additional time needed for translation, the vocabulary being used to describe activities and the complexities of the training methods chosen. Trainers must know that even if it appears that a participant has a good grasp of the language, their understanding of more technical content or terms may be vastly different than the language used in general conversation.

PARTICIPANTS

Who is in the training room can make a huge impact upon the success of the training program. For cultures that place a strong value upon hierarchy, having participants in the same training room as their superiors typically means that they will limit their participation in the group discussions and activities.

CAPITALIZING ON GLOBALISM

Training programs and professionals play critical roles in their organizations’ success. Taking into account the impact that cultures and languages may have on training may seem challenging, but there are many benefits by having a diverse group of participants that are all on the same page and in the same learning environment. The International Red Cross seeks to do just that. “We are hoping to leverage the amazing ‘economy of effort’ we get through online learning, using a common learning platform to deliver multiple learning pathways adapted to each learner’s situation and aspirations,” says Sadki.

Martin Mitchell, Senior Manager for Talent and Diversity at Ocean Spray Cranberries, also supports the value of different cultural backgrounds. “The ability to cross pollinate ideas among employees from different cultures helps us to drive innovation and product development that increases our success worldwide.” In today’s global environment, creating programs that respect the cultures and languages of those participating makes it possible to leverage the impact of culture so that participants gain an effective training program which in turn helps improve the bottom line.•

2. Screen cultural norms: What seems to be common sense in one country can be just the opposite in another. A lack of attention to cultural nuances may completely undermine the effectiveness of your product. Take, for instance, an online training course that teaches drivers that the center lane on a multi-lane highway is the safest. This advice is completely incorrect in Dubai, where the center lane is used only for passing. Save yourself time and money by screening cultural assumptions.

3. Seek out experts: Tap into expert knowledge before translation. Consider the folly of a course in conducting interviews that contradicts local labor laws. Similarly, a course teaching annual reviews should take into account local attitudes toward criticism. In each case, an HR expert with in-country experience could recommend crucial adjustments. Never assume all the content of your eLearning course is universally acceptable or valid. The words may be right, but the meaning may be another matter.

Illustration by GK Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey

Coaching Sports

The Final Whistle

There can be few moments in sports as dramatic as when the final whistle is about to blow, the favorite team is down on the score line… And then the miracle happens.

SPRING INTO ACTION

Manchester United vs. Bayern Munich was just one such a moment and one that has gone down in sporting history. It was the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final on Wednesday, May, 26 1999. The match was played at Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain, to determine the winner of the 1998-99 UEFA Champions League.

For most of the match Manchester had trailed the German giants by a goal... only to spring into action in less. The match is best remembered for Manchester United scoring two last-minute goals in just three minutes of injury time to win 2–1.How? What was the spark lit under them at halftime by legendary coach-manager Sir Alex Ferguson? And why did it take until the last moments of the game for the fire to take hold?

EXPERIENCE AND PERSONALITY

“Football, bloody hell!” was how he summed it up in his distinctive Scottish brogue. But of course it was much, much more than that. “It is a natural thing. The personality of a manager is the most important thing at a football club.” Personality is very important for anyone who leads a unit, whether it be a football team or a business. That personality can inspire the players to be better, to believe and to trust – and these are the qualities we see in the team.

fits in exactly with the philosophy of Ara Parashegian, legendary Miami University football coach, who said: “A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.”

BUSINESS & SPORTS

Pulling the magic out of the hat is what he – and his players, who constitute what is widely regarded as the best soccer team in the world – are paid to do. Many observers see the analogy to business through sports, because watching the strategy of successful coaches, analyzing their methods, their ways of doing things, is something that corporate headhunters, promotional speakers and CEO gurus do all the time. The skills on the pitch, the track, the court and the circuit can translate directly to the boardroom. The Cohen Brown Company in America plays on the link directly. “Professional sports coaching for business is the most effective form of performance coaching for generating behavioral changes and results. It teaches transferable best practices from professional sports coaching that directly apply to coaching in business,” says the management training company.

By ALLAN HALL

A Poem to Win

In 1940, Texas was trying to defend its home turf against another state team that had won 19 straight games. Coach D. X. Bible put up a poem by Edgar Guest called "It Couldn't Be Done," and read it to his team. They went out and won 7-0. There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done

There are thousands to prophesy failure

There are thousands to point out to you, one by one The dangers that wait to assail you. But just buckle in with a bit of a grin Just take off your coat and go to it Just start to sing as you tackle the thing

That 'cannot be done,' and you'll do it.

published a study in 2010 on the correlation between success in sports and success in business. They wrote: “The purpose of the investigation was to compare and contrast sport and business leaders' perceptions regarding what makes for a successful organization.” Twenty sport and business leaders were interviewed and asked about their perceptions of organizational effectiveness in the area of group dynamics including: leadership, group cohesion, and communication.

THE KEY INGREDIENT

“

… AND SOME DIFFERENCES

SEE WHAT THE PLAYERS CAN BE “I was just starting to adjust to losing the game. I had reminded myself to keep my dignity and accept that it wasn't going to be our year. What then happened simply stunned me. But at halftime I had told the team the cup is only six feet away from you at the end of this day. If you lose, you can't even touch it. You see, they wanted it. They just had to be reminded of it." Which

“Sports coaching is different than traditional business coaching because of its strong focus on how-to methodologies. Feedback from clients who have participated confirms that, unlike other coaching programs, sports coaching provides them with the benefit of the how-to's of coaching to achieve measurable performance improvement and results,” says the Cohen Brown Company.

STARTING FROM ORGANIZATION

US business and psychology experts Robert Weinberg and Matthew McDermott

Using qualitative methods, results revealed more similarities than differences, with most sport and business leaders in agreement on the factors relating to organizational success. Specifically, all higher – and lower – order themes were identified by leaders in both areas, the emphasis simply being a matter of degree. Some of the more notable differences included business leaders putting more emphasis on being honest and being a reflective listener, whereas sport leaders emphasize interactions with others and having positive reinforcement in their communications.” And a key ingredient of any sports coach, or any business coach for that matter, is how to coax a winning situation out of a losing one, like Ferguson did in his halftime pep talk over a decade ago. [W asu.edu cohenbrown.com cwsomaha.com fcbarcelona.cat fcbayern.telekom.de miami.muohio.edu manutd.com mentalgamecoach.com

W FOR WINNING

Sports coaching is now not the preserve of a few professionals or the weekend Little Leaguers being shouted at by moms and dads on the sideline. There is a whole cosmos of professional coaching academies across Europe and America, most of them focused on the ‘W’ word: winning. And within that cosmos there is a unanimity that keeping it brief is best.

TRANSFORM A DISPIRITED TEAM INTO A WINNING ONE

In June 1990, the Texas baseball team was down 6-0 and all but out in a pivotal game at the College World Series. University of Texas was facing Arizona State ace Mike Leake, ad worse, they were playing like children. They were staring at the losers' bracket when coach Augie Garrido gathered them before the start of the fourth inning.

Garrido sensed that yelling at his players would only sink their hopes. So he said: “Just think about how much FUN you could have by coming back and winning!” In one Zen-like moment, Garrido transformed his inept and dispirited team into one that went out and won.

JUST FOCUS ON POSITIVES

Bulletpoints and motivational speeches are all well and good, but what’s the solution when a losing streak is upon a team, and the gremlins just won't seem to go away no matter how hard the athletes pull together? Research in The Netherlands showed that most players of all teams, irrespective of their moods on any given day, want to win. It confirms that the focus of coaches when the team is in a rut should not be on losing, but on positives. Mood measures were administered pre- and post- game at four

games (2 won, 2 lost) to Dutch male rugby players. Winning produced a range of pleasant emotional outcomes and reductions in arousal and stress, while losing produced strong unpleasant emotional changes need a reduction in arousal, but no reduction in stress.

AGAINST NEGATIVES

To alleviate the negative aspects of losing, a coping procedure that reduces the emphasis on losing and focuses on future activities that could raise the probability of winning in the next contest should be constructed. Bill Parcells, one of American football’s most successful coaches, came up with a three-rule strategy to reverse a losing streak:

RULE 1 – MAKE IT CLEAR

Make it clear from day one that you’re in charge. “Parcells has found that the coach holding frank one-on-one conversations with every member of the team is essential to success.” He added: "Leaders can do everything right with their teams and still fail if they aren’t able to reach each member as an individual."

RULE 2 – CONFRONTATION

Confrontation is healthy. Parcells says he relishes confrontation because it provides an opportunity to get things straight with people. Confrontation does not mean putting someone down. When criticizing members of the team, he puts it in a positive context. Once he sets that context, he’s not afraid to be blunt about players’ failings.

RULE 3 – TO IDENTIFY GOALS Identify small goals and hit them. He believes that success breeds success. Once a team gets in the habit of losing, confidence dips and success seems unreachable. To break the habit of losing, Parcells focuses on achieving goals within immediate reach that will boost confidence and lead to the ultimate goal: Victory.•

01 Ken Carter coaching the team

02 Samuel L. Jackson in Coach Carter

A

Bill Cole, MS, MA, a leading authority on sports psychology, peak performance, mental toughness and coaching, drew up a ten-point plan for success, which he says applies to life as well as sports:

Copyright of Paramount Pictures

Performance Positive Pressure

The Manager’s Dilemma on Performance

Pressure is often assumed to be a negative influence on performance. But there are ways for managers to leverage pressure to increase productivity and reduce stress.

By PALLE ELLEMANN KNUDSEN

“I’ve learned over the years that when you have really good people, you don’t have to baby them. By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things.”

Steve Jobs

As a manager, your success is dependent on the performance of the people you manage. It is therefore a manager’s key assignment to create an environment where other people can be successful. But how does such an environment look like? What is the right amount of structure, direction and motivation needed to make people perform at their best?

Too much structure and direction will kill creativity and innovation, and too little will mean anarchy and inefficient use of resources. Motivation is a doubleedged sword and essentially we are talking about pressure. What is the pressure the manager and/or others are putting on the employee to perform? Translated into pressure, it has a more negative meaning. We are all aware that too much pressure can lead to stress, yet you often hear that people work best under pressure. You are working with focus and determination when there is a deadline approaching. And often there is pressure, because a task is important for the team or the company. The root and character of the pressure makes a difference, whether it is considered negative or not, pressure or motivation. Additionally, there are limits to how long a length of time a person can deal with pressure. Psychologically and physically, people burn out, when they are exposed to pressure over long time, so it is one of a manager’s main tasks to manage the motivation (pressure) that people experience.

SOURCES OF PRESSURE

First, a manager needs to realize that the pressure for performing comes from different sources and the manager has to take the accumulated pressure into account. Performance management systems are a systematic way of putting pressure

on people to perform, but whether or not you are having a performance management system, the organizational set-up, strategies and goals are designed to put pressure on people to perform.

In a hierarchical organization, managers push the goals and the pressure to achieve them out in the organization and give direction, monitor and coach people on a daily basis to drive performance.

The manager’s role is essential for managing the level of pressure on the individual employee. This is a challenging role, because the manager becomes the personalization of a system – strategies and goals – that puts pressure, on a daily basis, on the employee to deliver X amount of performance.

However, the manager is not the only source of pressure. Colleagues are also adding to the pressure, in particular in team-oriented organizations, where people depend on each other’s performance.

The US-based supermarket chain Whole Foods has institutionalized coworker pressure to the extent that team members vote on new colleagues at the end of a probation period, if the person can continue in the team or not. It takes 2/3 of the votes in favor to stay in the job. And, if you are allowed by your coworkers to stay in the job, you get into the Gainsharing system, which is similar to a profit-sharing model, but focused on controlling labor costs. In the Gainsharing system each team has a labor cost budget based on a percentage of the sales that the team drives. If the team manages to spend less than the budget, the surplus is distributed among the team members every four weeks according to the number of hours worked. The system introduces a strong focus on cost control and encourages people to pitch in with an extra

effort. But it also creates a system, where people have a strong incentive to keep an eye out for “free riders” or low performers in the team. So, instead of having one boss to monitor performance, people at Whole Foods are monitored by the entire team.

STRESS BAROMETER

A number of Danish companies, including Best Workplaces, Irma and ATP, joined forces to develop a so-called “Stress Barometer,” where people self-assess the level of stress every day. The tool has been instrumental for the companies to get an overview of people’s challenge with stress over time. It is also a useful tool for people to develop a better awareness of one’s own issues with stress and be able to bring it out in the open and discuss workload.

A third level of pressure is working in conjunction with the external pressure from managers and colleagues and it comes from within – from personal ambitions, drive and integrity. From a manager’s perspective, the pressure that people put on themselves to perform is difficult to manage, but it is certainly influenced by the external pressure. People setting high performance standards for themselves are typically very sensitive for external pressure, which will add to their own expectations. Ambitious people have a hard time to say no and decline new challenges and assignments from the organization. This is where the accumulated pressure and multiple goals and projects can overwhelm even the best performer and lead to stress.

Author and president of the Energy Project Tony Schwartz suggests that people feel overwhelmed and burned out at work not just because they are working

Everyone reacts differently to pressure and stress: some march ahead despite adversity, some are unable to move forward, and others just wait for a better time to come.

Photo diary

This series comes from a photographic diary that Julien Coquentin has kept every day since he arrived in Montreal in April 2010. As a nighttime nurse, he was able to spend time analyzing the concept of the city in its changing nature: just as our faces change and age over time, so the city constantly changes, dies and is reborn. From these changes, he reveals the "hopeless fragility of the city."

Coquentin's shots express different individual reactions to the odds of performance.

too many hours, but also because they are working too many continuous hours juggling too many things at the same time. He claims that it takes on average 25% longer to do a task, if you don’t focus on that alone. A good manager is close to the employees and manages the balance of pressure against each individual and the number of tasks or projects.

GOAL-DRIVEN PERFORMANCE

Most companies are using goals as the key element of a performance management system. A clearly defined goal is setting direction of where an organization

wants to go and at the same time it can open up for a certain level of autonomy for how to achieve the goal. Using goals as the key or perhaps the only element of performance management can, however, be challenging. First of all, how do you define the right goal from the beginning? It can be difficult to foresee a year ahead and take into account all the factors that may influence results. This is why companies tend to just add another 10%, 15% or 20% to the target from the results from the previous year. But what if people the previous

Series "Le Journal":

01 Block CCCXLIV, 2011

02 Block CDLXIV, 2012-04-30

year made a really extraordinary effort to achieve the goal and the organization is on the bridge of collective stress?

Secondly, a good goal is measurable, which means that many companies tend to focus exclusively on the number goals, like sales or profit, while more qualitative goals like design, quality and customer experience are less highlighted. Focusing only on the end goals of more sales and better profits can lead to lack of employee ownership for the goals and seem like an endless chase of another stretched figure.

SENSE OF PURPOSE

Increasingly, writers are pointing to sense of purpose as a key driver for performance. It has to be meaningful for people to give all they got. Best-selling writer Daniel Pink stresses autonomy, mastery and purpose as the three key drivers for motivation and high performance. People are motivated to perform at their best, when they are in control of what they are doing, get better at doing something that matters, and contribute to something bigger than themselves. The focus on purpose does not make it irrelevant to have goals, but it is putting goals into a context that makes it meaningful and applies a longer perspective than the next quarter or fiscal year the number goals may be oriented towards. “I’ve learned over the years that when you have really good people, you don’t have to baby them. By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things.” - Steve Jobs, Apple. Walther Isaacson shares in his article in the April 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review, “The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs,” an illustrative story about purpose: One day Jobs marched into the cubicle of Larry Kenyon, the engineer who was working on the Macintosh operating system, and complained that it was taking too long to boot up.

Kenyon started to explain why reducing the boot-up time wasn’t possible, but Jobs cut him off. “If it would save a person’s life, could you find a way to shave 10 seconds off the boot time?” he asked. Kenyon allowed that he probably could. Jobs went to a whiteboard and showed that if five million people were using the Mac and it took 10 seconds extra to turn it on every day, that added up to 300 million or so hours a year: the equivalent of at least 100 lifetimes a year. After a few weeks Kenyon had the machine booting up 28 seconds faster.

Steve Jobs at Apple is, without any debate, the prime current example of pushing people to the edge (and beyond) for the sake of the company and creating the outstanding products that Apple has delivered over the years. The crusade to disrupt the industries of telecommunication, music distribution, computers, etc. has been effective, but has certainly also created casualties along the way.

DISRUPTING THE INDUSTRY

Most companies do not have the ambition to disrupt the industry in which they are operating, but all companies can speak to a larger purpose than increasing sales with another 10%. Having a purpose seems more like motivation than pressure, and looking beyond the

next quarter or fiscal year will ease up the short-term pressure and make people take the right long-term decisions. Improving performance should not always be about running faster, but rather about doing things smarter. There are physical boundaries for how fast you can run; even elite athletes are only improving themselves marginally, when they each a certain level. But there are no limits to what you can do when you are doing things smarter. Acknowledging that smarter outperforms faster in the long run, the manager needs to invest in ensuring that people become smarter and that they are encouraged to innovate and challenge working processes and paradigms.

The manager’s dilemma on performance is how to balance long-term investments in doing things smarter with short-term progress and creating a performance management system and culture that allows people to focus and manage the accumulated pressure of being part of a workplace. It is not good enough just giving out a sales target, it takes investments in developing people to doing things smarter and helping people to take ownership in the purpose of the company – help them find meaning in what they do.•

Events Focus on HR

BY OLUKUNLE MALOMO

Best Workplaces in Nigeria: The First Ranking

Congratulations on the outstanding achievement of being selected for Great Place to Work’s inaugural Best Companies to Work for in Nigeria.

Great Place to Work® has been analyzing, understanding, selecting and publishing Best Workplace lists around the world for more than 20 years and we are proud to have the first ever list on the continent of Africa, in Nigeria. We believe that every company can be a great workplace. Great Place to Work® exists to make that happen. We start with a profound respect for organizations considered by their employees to be great workplaces. The leaders of these companies are our heroes, and we stand in awe of what those organizations represent — beacons of hope in what is too often a sea of workplace mediocrity.

We believe change can best be achieved by encouraging organizations to aspire to become their best rather than demanding that they fix what is wrong. That’s why our approach is positive. By focusing on the examples set by great workplaces, we spread the good news that any company anywhere can follow in their footsteps.

From studying Nigeria’s best workplaces, we have learned that trust is the key differentiator. This applies to all organizations regardless of regional culture,

industry, size or age. By raising the level of trust in the workplace, companies everywhere can improve their business results since cooperation and innovation depend on trust.

Out of the potential 225 companies in Nigeria that were nominated for the list, we recognize 10 in this first 2012 Best Workplaces in Nigeria. These 10 companies demonstrate the power of cultural consistency. This is by far more than spreading any particular company’s culture. It is about spreading a culture of success. You respect your employees and create trust-based relationships. You are the heroes because your leadership of great workplaces generate positive businesses based on trust, pride and camaraderie.

Let’s not only celebrate this accomplishment, but also disseminate the message, to create a better society for Nigeria.•

F/M = Number of female employees/ Number of male employees; % F = % of women in management; CV = Number of CVs received in 2011; Q = Quote from an employee about what s/ he loves about the company.

Working in Nigeria: A HR Professional’s Perspective

An interview with Francesca Vittoria Leo, HR Management and Services, Saipem. Saipem is a large, international and one of the best balanced turnkey contractors in the oil and gas industry. I'm engaged as the Personal Management for an operational area of Saipem. I’ve been in Nigeria just two months so far but during this time I’ve been able to enjoy many aspects of work in this country. Working in another country, especially African as in this case, is a unique opportunity to experience the culture and approaches to different people. Moreover, work here has allowed me to improve my English, my approach to many different nationalities and to build a group of people who share project work. What we seek in new resources is certainly a great desire for professional growth and a willingness to travel around the world. Our values are commitment to health & safety, openness, flexibility, integration, innovation, quality, competitiveness, teamwork, humility, internationalization, responsibility, integrity. In the job description on our website, we write: We go where others do not, we give when others falter; we complete what others left uncompleted, we are Saipem's people

HR Event Nigeria

Africa’s Inaugural Great Place to Work® Awards

Great Place to Work recently awarded Nigerian companies top honors. Says CEO Olukunle Malomo, “we have been analyzing, understanding, selecting and publishing Best Workplace lists around the world for more than 20 years and we are proud to have the first ever list on the continent of Africa in Nigeria.”

01 Guinness Nigeria Plc

02 First Bank of Nigeria Plc

03 Guarantee Trust Assurance Plc

04 Accenture Nigeria

05 Fidelity Bank Plc

06 Lagos Business School

07 FITC Nigeria

08 Total Nigeria

09 Access Bank Plc

10 GlaxoSmithKline Nigeria

Great Place to Work® Institute

Nigeria

157A Moshood Olugbani Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria

T +234 0816 961 1046

[W gptwnigeria.com]

1 Guinness Nigeria PLC (Diageo)

[W guinness-nigeria.com]

Guinness Nigeria, a subsidiary of Diageo Plc with three breweries and six divisional sales offices around Nigeria, is not only regarded as an iconic African company, but also as a company that believes in enriching the communities within which it operates, through projects such as the Water of Life initiative which has provided potable water to about 1.5 million people in 22 communities in 14 States of Nigeria, and Guinness Eye Hospitals in Lagos and Onitsha. F/M 211/1213

% F 26%

CV Over 50,000 across levels

Q “Working with Guinness is challenging, fulfilling, satisfying and rewarding. It’s like being on a career fast track. I can boldly say that my career has grown in leaps and bounds since I started working here.”

2 First Bank of Nigeria PLC

[W firstbanknigeria.com]

First Bank of Nigeria Plc, one of the subsidiaries within the FBN Group, with a head office in Lagos, remains one of Africa’s most diversified and leading financial services providers. With a heritage that goes back to 1894, the Bank has consistently met changing market demands through continuous reinvention and innovation, driven by service excellence, modernization and growth. As a full-suite financial services provider, the Bank offers retail, institutional, corporate and public sector banking, agricultural financing, treasury, payments and collections, online banking and various electronic payment schemes.

F/M 3,010/4,958 % F 30%

Q “I love the Bank because it has a very strong brand.”

3 Guaranty Trust Assurance PLC

[W gtassur.com]

Guaranty Trust Assurance PLC is registered by NAICOM as a composite company underwriting all classes of insurance and risk management business while also offering financial advisory, investment and consultancy services. Guaranty Trust Assurance Plc was borne out of the desire to create an insurance company capable of providing world-class risk management solutions to discerning consumers in Nigeria and beyond.

F/M 80/106

% F 27%

CV 2,697 (From January to present)

Q “At GTAssur, our love for teamwork helps us build individual and group relationships creating an environment of unity and bonding. At GTAssur, people are made to feel like family, and not just employees.”

4Accenture Nigeria

[W accenture.com/ng-en]

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 244,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments.

F/M 52/63 % F 27% CV 800

Q “Working at Accenture offers me the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing transformation of the Nigerian economy, helping to improve the way the public service and private sector work and live.”

01

Corporate Capability Development

May 24-25, 2012 Grand Millennium Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

“HR has come a long way since we rebranded from Personnel to Human Resources. Like all professions we continue to question how we can add more value.” says Ian Williams, Program Director at Henley Business School, UK. Here, Mr. Williams provides background for the Modern HR: Corporate Capability Development seminar in Kuala Lumpur, an exciting two-day seminar during which he will explore these themes in more detail. As we enter a new age heralded by exponential increases in data, global power shifts and economic instability, HR can

and should take center-stage. “As colleagues redraft their agendas, so our HR expertise becomes a critical element in winning market share, increasing shareholder value and organizational and people energy. Have you seen a strategy that doesn’t rely on its people to build, develop and execute goals?” Mr. Williams asks. McKinsey developed their now-famous 7 S model illustrating the links with strategy. The 7S model is the basis for discovering, developing and enhancing organizational and people energy. “It may be time to add an eighth S: sustainability. We must

look beyond our immediate need to satisfy profit targets. There’s slow but incessant pressure building to consider environmental and ethical responsibilities. HR has an added function as moral guardian. Who else can be the conscience of the CEO or leader? Who else can level with leadership and tell how it is to our colleagues?” he concludes.

01 Previous event produced by Marcus Evans, the organizer of the Kuala Lumpur event.

HR EVENT ASIA

5 Fidelity Bank PLC

[W fidelitybankplc.com]

Fidelity Bank Plc is one of Nigeria's prominent financial institutions with a mission to make financial services easy and accessible to its customers. In a rapidly evolving industry, Fidelity maintains a steady growth trajectory and continues to rank amongst Nigeria's most capitalized banks, with tier-one capital of nearly $1 billion and over 170 business outlets in all 36 states, major cities and commercial centers in Nigeria. With an expanding global reach, Fidelity Bank continues to enjoy the respect and partnership of many of the leading international financial institutions across the world.

F/M 44%/56%

% F 27%

CV 6,839

Q "The Bank takes time and resources to celebrate its staff and goes the extra mile to participate in its staff’s personal lives."

6 Lagos Business School

[W lbs.edu.ng]

Lagos Business School is a leading institution in Africa dedicated to creating and transmitting business and management knowledge relevant to emerging markets.

Located in Africa’s second largest city, Lagos, LBS delivers executive education at top and middle management levels, aiming to systematically improve the practice of management in the continent. LBS has been ranked every year since 2007 by the Financial Times of London among global providers of executive education.

F/M 77/113

% F 60%

CV Over 500

Q "I love the work environment, in terms of building and architecture, and also the respect for people which is practiced by everyone irrespective of your age, qualification, ethnic background and religion."

The forum provides the ultimate platform for leading EMEA Human Resource directors to come together, network and share their experience and their best practices. The event will be comprised of streamed sessions with in-depth presentations, case studies from experts detailing practical advice and best practices for all human resource professionals. In addition, there will be pre-scheduled one-to-one meetings, maximizing your networking opportunities with all HR solution providers and consultancies, an exhibition to identify the latest technologies to support your HR

7 FITC

(Financial Institute Training Center) Nigeria

[W fitc-ng.com]

FITC was established in 1981 as a special purpose not-for-profit professional services organization, to provide professional services support to the financial services sector and related sectors of the Nigerian economy, and is owned by the Nigerian Bankers’ Committee.

F/M 40%/60%

% F 20% CV 27 (unsolicited)

Q "There is a professional leadership style that is approachable and transparent. As such, there is cordiality and healthy interaction. In terms of work, I am involved in virtually all decisions that have to do with my work and career; I have upgraded work tools as well as continued learning opportunities."

8 Total Nigeria PLC

[W total.com.ng]

Total Nigeria PLc was incorporated with RC 1396 as a private company on June 1, 1956 to market petroleum products in Nigeria. The company has since expanded its business through a network of over 500 retail outlets. Total Nigeria Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is in popular demand in many homes and industrial concerns in the country. The company has well over 450 employees who are recognized in the industry for their expertise and know-how.

F/M 133/332

% F 28%

CV 21,785

Q “I love the four Cornerstone Behaviors highlighted by Total Nigeria Plc.: 1. Boldness, 2. Listening, 3. Mutual Support, 4. Cross-functionality. It’s been carefully selected and truly depicts strengths for an effective work environment.”

function, interactive workshops, as well as specialists’ advice and question-andanswer sessions.

The program expects the participation of many speakers coming from a variety of backgrounds; among them are Stephan Thomas, Global Head of Talent and Development at Google, who will discuss topics of learning and development. Marshall Ayoade, Head of HR, Global Business Services at Vodafone will present a case study on resourcing and talent planning. Clive Bunyan, VP International HR at Symantec will talk about the concept of

“glocalization.” Rui M.C. Ventura, Global HR Director - JLL Hotels & DirectorEMEA Human Resources and Jones Lang LaSalle will provide insight gained from the JLL experience in emerging markets, on outsourcing of facility-based employees. Pieter Haen, President, EAPM - European Association for People Management, will present research findings on trends and developments in the world of international Human Relations.

02 Photo from last year’s Pan European HR Forum. Courtesy of WTG Events

9Access Bank PLC

[W accessbankplc.com]

Access Bank Plc is a leading African financial services group with a vision to be the most respected Bank in Africa by demonstrating leadership in the adoption of best practice. The Bank aims to lead the way in Africa by pioneering new standards in responsible business practices with focus on creating value for our stakeholders.

F/M 1,139/1,986

% F 5.79%

CV 27,745

Q “I am proud to be a part of this organization where the interest of the team is held above that of the individual while showing mutual respect for all employees.”

10 GlaxoSmithKline Nigeria

[W gsk.com/ng]

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria Plc (GSK), an affiliate of GlaxoSmithKline worldwide, was incorporated in Nigeria on June 23, 1971 and commenced business on July 1, 1972, under the name Beecham Limited. The company was quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 1977. In 1982, in order to expand our operations in the country, an ultra-modern drinks factory was established in Agbara Industrial Estate, Ogun State, which has since been expanded to include facilities to manufacture Oral Healthcare (OHC) and wellness products.

Q "One unique thing with this organization is its ethical standards. It is very rare to see an organization of this size adhere strictly to local regulations, and in fact put tougher rules in place and encourage its employees to use whichever is tougher."

Illustrations by Mary-An Hampton, Durban, South Africa

Events Creative Talks

By MASSIMO TEMPORELLI

A Company: An Open or Closed System?

The First two Creative Talks, a series of events brought to you by Work Style: Tuesday, March 27, in the cozy FOA and Associates studio, and on April 17 at the Carmi and Ubertis branding and design studio.

GENERAL SYSTEM THEORY

We refer to a company as a system, but what do we mean? Think about it: everyone has an idea, a different concept, but physics defines a system precisely and uniquely, opposed to the concept of Set. In physics a Set is a group of elements that don’t interact with each other or whose mutual relations are negligible or weak. A System is an array of elements that interact with each other. These definitions highlight the concept of relationship and interaction between elements. The difference is key, especially in terms of studying organizations. A systemic approach in physics, biology and sociology should mainly be based on the analysis of relationships between the elements and,

secondly, on the analysis of individual elements. As Aristotle noted "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts," so even a systemic approach leads us to observe relationships. All of this may sound somewhat philosophical, so to make it real the participants participated in an experiment in which some abnormal and unexpected behaviors were observed. These phenomena are explicable only if observing the interaction between elements in a system.

Experiment #1 SAND & POLENTA

Take a mixture of these two granular materials, perfectly amalgamated, and pour them onto two glass plates. In a pile, the

two elements will magically and against all odds self-separate, creating well-distinguished layers of sand and polenta. The phenomenon of separation of these two granular materials can’t be explained in terms of individual components, but with a careful evaluation of the relationships between these elements and their angle at rest. This led to discussions on systems and the laws that rule a company. Most of our discussion, however, focused on the concept of leadership, seemingly the only relationship identified in the workplace.

Experiment #2

GAS RING VS. MICROWAVE

This experiment aims at analyzing the concept of energy transfer. It shows how

Beyond 2012, The Talent Challenges Ahead

May 21-24, 2012, Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, Florida (US)

This year's Mercer Latin American & Caribbean HR Forum will focus on the many changes wrought by developing new technologies, an aging workforce, and an extraordinary influx of young talent.

Facing factors such as the rapid development of technology, the aging baby boomer population and the influx of millennial labor, employers and employees alike now find themselves confronting uniquely modern challenges. Though economies in Europe and the USA have recently gone from boom to bust, Latin America has emerged as a powerful eco-

nomic force, raising questions about how to attract, manage, and retain talent in the region and beyond.

“Great organizations are made up of great people,” said Michel Deschapelles of Egon Zehnder International, Miami, who will lead the plenary session, in a press release. “And for leaders at all levels within those organizations, the ability to find, hire, integrate and retain great people is an absolutely critical skill – critical to their organization’s success, and critical to their own success.”

Featuring two full days of seminars and

sessions that explore varying aspects of talent-management issues, from wellness and healthcare to women in leadership, human capital and retirement quandaries, the Latin American & Caribbean HR Forum will feature speakers, authors and HR executives that specialize in HR and talent management throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, and the rest of the world.

03 A management seminar during last year's Latin American & Caribbean HR Forum

HR EVENT USA

energy can be transferred to systems in different ways and how efficiency and cost are impacted. The same amount of water (200 cl) contained in two containers is subjected to the same interval of time (1 minute) to a different source of heat that reaches a different temperature. The microwave brings the water from 17.5 °C to 24.5 °C while the camping stove brings it from 17.5 °C to 19 °C, consuming even more energy. Some discussion points included: 1) Source of energy = external environment, or market; and 2) water = company/employees. Noting, however, that the water container remains cold when microwaved, some participants questioned the role of the container. Is it part of the company (the system) or of

Registration Open! We judge companies on five carefully balanced criteria: 1identity, 2emotion, 3architecture, 4environment, 5organization. Nominate your company today: [W theworkstylemagazine.com/award] Winner 2013

the environment? Is it inside or outside the system? The company may be treated as a system, a set of elements. The company is an open system which isn’t isolated, but which can change matter and energy with surroundings. For these reasons, it’s important to be careful when defining one’s company. What are the boundaries and the environment in which it is immersed?

Where does it exchange energy? This is one of the crucial points of the systemic approach: define the system, its boundaries, environment, and the place in which it is immersed.

The Measure of Chaos

If we consider a thermodynamic system (for example, a container full of gas), and the many macroscopic properties that describe this system (pressure temperature, volume, etc.) the concept of entropy emerges. Entropy is defined as a measure of system disorder. In physics, order and disorder are defined in terms of statistics, configuration and probability. To explain what this means, an experiment was carried out using playing cards. The experiment showed that order is a quantity related to the relationship between the

but we are the ones to use those tools, so the power is transferred.

WHAT IS A LEADER?

Esra Sezgin, JR Training and Development Specialist at Eczacibasi Holding, noticed “as we enter business life, my generation, we need space, we want them to show us how to do it, but we want to do it in our own way. So I think that the new leadership is all about creating space for our followers, because they all want to show what they’re capable of.”

Leadership is a Relationship

Work Style held workshops on leadership in Istanbul, Turkey

On February 15 and 16, 2012, Work Style moderated two workshops on leadership and competence as part of a program proposed by MCT in Istanbul, Turkey. The MCT HR Summit hosted approximately 2,500 Human Resources professionals from different industry backgrounds.

Participants discussed leadership, sharing their ideas of what being a leader means. The conversation focused on the role of women in the workplace and on the impact that age and cultural differences have on leadership. Participants were en-

couraged to create drawings and sketches of their ideas, and photographers, illustrators and videographers were onhand to document the experience.

CREATIVITY AND DISCUSSION

Led by Rosario Imperiali, editor in chief of Work Style Magazine and Fabrice Leclerc, Wildkeepers founder, the MCT workshop developed definitions of leaders and leadership. Fabrice suggested that leaders are those who transfer their power to others. For example, Steve Jobs: he certainly created some incredible tools,

Cultural differences were also discussed. According to Hakan Fatih Büyükadalı, Assistant Director in the HR Department at Isbank, cultural differences have an impact on leadership. It seems that in hierarchical workplaces, where there is strong evidence of the difference in roles, subordinates cannot express themselves freely and can’t show their personal identity.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LEADERS

One of the most poignant moments of the workshop occurred when a participant produced an interesting drawing, explaining: “There’s a leader, but there’s no hierarchy. There are no leaders at the top and subordinates at the bottom, they are at the same level altogether.” Summing up the workshop, she concluded, “I got inspiration from a sentence I heard yesterday: ‘Leadership is not a role, it’s not a position. It’s a relationship.’”

04 Photo by Serkan Taycan

HR EVENT TURKEY

elements. In fact, only one element in an empty space would prevent us from judging its state of order or disorder.

Experiment #3 FIVE CARDS

Four groups of cards consisting of five cards (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) of the same suit were dealt to participants. Participants were then asked to hold up the cards and explain to others what order is for them in the set of elements. The result was, as expected, the presentation of the sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (another sorted configuration would be 5, 4, 3, 2,1). It's worth noting that there are 120 possible configurations. After this experiment, the group of participants tried to align their own definitions of order and disorder with those identified by physics and mathematics. The exercise prompted an interesting, wideranging discussion, raising the questions of energy and time. What is the role of time in creating order and disorder?

Experiment #4 TIME IN THE WATER

Every existing thing in the universe has to deal with time. A company, for example, is founded, grows and dies in time. Hence, time plays a fundamental role in the definition of order and disorder. To illustrate this, an experiment was carried out: water was poured into in a container. A drop of red ink was then released in the container. From a system point of view, the situation – the fragments of a second before the drop penetrates the water – is well-defined. The first system, water, is at a temperature of about 18 °C, with a volume of one liter and pressure of 1 atm. We know how to make predictions about this system, such as: when heating the glass, we would expect this system to warm up switching to room temperature, while the volume and pressure would remain constant. The ink drop has its volume, pressure and temperature. We would know how to make predictions about this system too, but as soon as the ink drop falls into water, an uncontrollable phenomenon happens, about which we cannot make predictions, begins. What shape will the system adopt? Which parameters? The elements are disordered; there aren’t privileged relationships any

longer, and as time goes by this trend increases. Faced with this phenomenon, participants discussed the beauty and usefulness of it. What purpose does this system have? At the end of the session, we pointed out that time spontaneously and naturally brings configurations of order to ones of disorder. This doesn’t happen for a specific aim or reason, but because disorder is the most probable configuration. Even if we do not realize it, this concept is part of our cultural DNA. If we look at the same phenomenon backwards (time reversal) in a few seconds we would see the trick: we are accustomed to see and think that processes lead from “order to disorder” and not vice versa. •

The meeting ended with some ideas

A. The company has a system;

B. In the system, entropy can be defined as a measure of disorder;

C. Disorder is a more probable configuration than order;

D. Time brings systems from order to disorder (entropy continues to grow);

E. Ordered systems (ordered companies) tend to become disordered;

F Keeping things in order or reordering a system must come from outside, otherwise the system (if isolated) degrades.

05 Participants (17.04.2012 at Carmi e Ubertis)

06 Demonstration of the concept of growing disorder (17.04.2012)

Mumbai HR Summit 2012

International Convention of Human Resources Professionals

Institute of HRD, will host the Mumbai HR Summit 2012 on May 25-26 at Westin Mumbai Garden City, Mumbai. Over 250 HR professionals are expected to deliberate on the theme of Technology for HRM Effectiveness. The Summit will host presentations by CEOs, senior HR pros, researchers and academics, and present case studies and best practices from leading organizations such as Dell International, TCS, Infosys, CA Technologies, Wipro Reliance Industries Ltd. and Angle Broking.

[W foastudio.it carmieubertis.it theworkstylemagazine.com workstyletalking.com angelbroking.com ca.com dell.com hrsummit.in hrd.in iftdo.net infosys.com ril.com starwoodhotels.com/westin/index.html tcs.com]

HR EVENT ASIA

Attachment & Pride Creativity vs. Money

By RANDY JOY EPSTEIN

Good Creative Ideas Count More Than Money

Money is but a tool used to bring ideas and visions to fruition. In corporate culture, creative ideas spark change and growth. Without an idea and the focus and drive to make it happen, change is not possible.

Here are four powerful case studies where a creative idea drove a business forward with minimal cost.

The Dove Evolution campaign, a hit attracting over $100 million of free media attention and which currently has over 14 million YouTube viewers, was the creation of a NYC entertainment marketing company. The cost? Less than $250,000.

“Only great creativity… can deliver selfsustainable marketing,” explains Tim Piper, co-owner of Piro, which helped produce the Dove video. The premise of the campaign he helped launch was based on the tagline: “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.”

The idea was to show how the beauty industry falsifies reality and celebrates non-achievable standards. In approximately one-minute video clips, viewers are shown the amount of work a model undergoes to look picture-perfect, from hair and makeup to even increasing her neck height for the picture. The before and after shots look nothing alike. The idea is that too often beauty is all about a “makeover.” Dove was trying to sell real beauty, along with their product.

QUANTIFIABLE RESULTS

“Dove Evolution earned over $100,000,000 worth of media attention… all because of a great idea and a highly creative execution,” says Mr. Piper. Money was simply used as a tool for production. As Mr. Piper explains, Piro looks beyond marketing to create a campaign that “isn’t just going to sell product, but is going to provide audiences with real entertainment.” By doing that, Piro ensured Dove’s Evolution Campaign went viral.

A long-established NYC business hired my consulting company to create a stra-

tegic plan for growth. As we were developing the plan, each employee was encouraged to offer creative input and solutions. It is amazing what ideas are possible within any budget when people are asked for creative solutions.

One goal was to improve office productivity. The office manager discovered a solution which would improve employee morale within a tight $500 a month budget. What did she figure out? “I found that an overwhelming majority of employees skipped either breakfast or lunch on a regular or semi-regular basis. I proposed we offer breakfasts and healthy mid-day snacks because it seemed to be a logical solution that would help employee satisfaction and subsequently the quality of their work,” said Caroline Kaplan of Sierra Realty in New York.

The impact on company morale was significant. “Our employees love the change.

It is apparent when they express their dissatisfaction if ever a day goes by where fruit is not laid out or if their favorite cereal has run out” as “most… service themselves (to) plenty of fruit every day.”

In this case, motivation was achieved at much lower cost than monetary rewards. An added bonus was the food drew them together to a common table, promoting teamwork.

SOCIAL MEDIA’S ROLE

Pet owners are of all ages and socio-economic classes. How to reach all those owners became the challenge for a veterinarian practice in Toronto. The solution was to begin posting online clips of medical intervention for pets. As Dr. Morris Samson, founder of the VETS Hospital Network, shared, “The concept of presenting people with live animal CSI surgery is a novel and exciting approach to veterinary medicine. The vet-

erinarians were performing the surgeries anyway. Why not record them, showcasing the sterile environment, the care the doctors take to perform well-orchestrated surgeries, the teamwork of the group and the undeniable care of each animal?”

The clinic wanted to impress on its audience that they were willing to do all for a beloved pet. As viewers logged saw those interventions, the clinic received the exposure it wanted. The cost was virtually nothing. All the clinic did was record interventions in-process. The results were significant. “We discovered these images go viral rapidly and create a huge impact on the community that surrounds us. It has allowed us to solidify the commitment of our current clients while allowing many more prospective clients to view our abilities in an exciting and rapid manner.”

The clinic is also committed to speaking with the community through Twitter. A current client and fan tweets for the clinic, free of charge, connecting to the needs of the community. These practices have in common the creative idea of bringing veterinary know-how to the masses through media, but with an almost-zero dollar budget, creating a community without spending marketing dollars. Even better, explains Dr. Samson, is that through this campaign, “we achieved the added benefit of reaching a wider age range of potential clients by catching up to the most popular means of information sharing of today.”

BUILDING

A PERSONAL BRAND

How did a blogger become an expert, a Forbes/Inc/Huffington Post writer and market research extraordinaire? Through brains, not money.

Geri Stengel is the founder of Ventureneer which provides online education

Hymnal of Dreams

Gowin's ability to connect seemingly unlike objects in a cohesive way invite the viewer to reconsider everyday scenarios in a new way. Creativity grants workers the ability to move forward in an uncommon way, viewing problems from new angles and discovering newfound solutions.

and peer support for social entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and values-driven small business owners.

Ms. Stengel started her company to “help corporations build mutually beneficial relationships with small businesses.” Her “a-ha moment came when… I realized what a great marketing tool small business entrepreneurial knowledge and training would be for corporations that want to attract small business customers.”

“We provide corporations with content that helps small business owners grow their businesses. That interaction raises awareness of the corporation’s brand among small business owners, who become evangelists for the brand.” The result? “I have fielded research to find out what information and tools small businesses need. Our research established Ventureneer's credibility, gave us some solid data about what knowledge small businesses need most. Because of that credibility, I’m now a regular contributor to Inc.com, Forbes.com, and the HuffingtonPost.com, among other places."

“My work has been cited in books and in other people’s blogs. My opinions have been sought by journalists. I am now a thought-leader in social media for small businesses, nonprofits, and for women’s entrepreneurship. Through these websites, I’ve reached hundreds of thousands of small businesses. And large ones. These credentials open doors. People take my calls.”

“In this body of work, titled Hymnal of Dreams, I photograph constructions, characters and narratives based on a history that is both imagined and personally experienced. I often begin with found objects, reconfiguring them in fabricated scenes. As I cut, bind, pile, or suspend these materials, I retain a sense of their original shape and meaning while also creating new forms that reference the southern landscape.”

Photos by Elijah Gowin, from the Hymnal of Dreams series.

01 - Elijah Gowin, Abacus , 2001

02 – Elijah Gowin, Cocoon , 2002

03 – Elijah Gowin, Moonrise , 2001

© Elijah Gowin, courtesy Robert Mann Gallery

“But I’m not a lone voice, just a louder voice. Many people agree, but they just don’t have the reach I do.”

It isn’t money or expensive advertising that creates impact. Money well spent to launch a creative idea which, once executed upon, makes your company’s voice much louder than everyone else’s.•

Brainstorming Tips

How to uncover a creative idea for your business:

01 Go to a quiet, peaceful place.

02 Take a blank piece of paper and a pen with you.

03 Write down the 4 key issues your business is facing.

04 Let your creative ideas flow with solutions to these issues.

05 Envision each solution implemented. See it in your mind’s eye.

06 Write down the solutions to your business issues.

07 Prioritize the steps needed to implement each solution.

08 Act.

Attachment & Pride Testimonials

By JORDAN ZIMMERMAN

Celebrity Endorsements: What Works?

A recent study says celebrity campaigns rarely perform better than non-celebrity-based campaigns. "On average," Mike Mesnick writes, "celebrity ads had a negative 'lift,' while non-celebrity ads did much better... What seems clear is that 'just adding a celebrity' does not help at all."

INNOVATION AND EXPERIMENTATION

The reason we see this trend is that consumers can, and usually do, ignore brand alliances that don't make sense. If celebrity endorsements are just pasted onto brands that don't have a real connection to what consumers already associate with that celebrity, they're not going to deliver positive results. Does that mean that all celebrity campaigns are ineffective?

Of course not.

The question is, what makes for a good alliance?

A brand has a certain DNA: a personality, a history, a collection of colors and images, a pattern of action and communication, and a long list of things the consumer knows upfront that the brand will and won't consider acceptable. If you find a celebrity whose DNA matches up with the brand’s, you've got the potential for a good campaign.

KNOW YOUR BRAND’S DNA

Let me give you three examples of successful campaigns that matched up the right brand DNA with the right celebrity DNA.

A Nascar Star

A leading global provider of office products and services,continues its sponsorship of NASCAR as the sport's Official Office Products Partner in 2012.

01 Tony Stewart for Office Depot Photos by Action Sports Photography

Alberto Oviedo is a photographer from Bogota currently living in New York. He says that his photography was influenced by walking in the streets of Bogota and New York City, Cuban food, his grandfather, California’s deserts, colors in any forms, Miro, Basquiat, people’s journeys. To him, it is the picture that dictates the place.

02 Photo by Alberto Oviedo 01

To Celebrity or Not

by MICHAEL MEDICO

While there are benefits in terms of recognition and awareness in featuring a celebrity in advertising, there are certain negatives that are hard to overcome.

DIRECT RESPONSE. When focusing on direct response, success or failure is judged by the number of potential customers who respond to any given advertisement. Of necessity, using celebrities as spokespersons for direct response advertising is different from mainstream agencies. A majority of the products and services employing a direct response method must focus on

a compelling need for demonstration and or focus to fully describe the product’s benefits and attributes.

TOP CELEBRITY TALENT. Celebrity is necessary in the skincare and beauty arena. Among the many celebrities that have lent their talent to the TV category include Vanessa Williams and Julianne Hough for ProActiv, Naomi Judd for Esteem and Cindy Crawford’s Meaningful Beauty. When these beautiful celebrities tell a targeted audience that a skincare regime is their secret, the public responds.

MAKING A PRODUCT PERFORM. On the flip side, when casting talent for a product like OxiClean, direct response agencies recommended a spokesman like the late Billy Mays or Anthony Sullivan. Sully is the consummate pitchman, having many

successful promotions under his belt, and who understands what it takes to keep the focus on the product. He knows how to make a product perform while engaging viewers in such a way that they want to buy the product.

TRUST AND BELIEF. Another talent that has appeared in many commercial and infomercial projects is Cathy Mitchell. From cooking on one of the earliest infomercial successes, SnakMaster, to today’s campaign for the Minden Anytime Grill, she brings viewers into her kitchen by developing a warm, cozy feeling. Buyers must have the product because Cathy shows how it performs and viewers believe and trust her.

SUCCESS WITHOUT CELEBRITY. The PedEgg, a foot file, is a true success without the use of celebrity. Marketed by TeleBrands beginning in late

2007, it is the most successful product in the company’s history with over 45 million sold to date. What makes it a success? 1. It works exactly as it is demonstrated in the commercial; 2. It retails for only $10 and consumers get a second product as a bonus, 3. The focus was totally on product performance.

BUYERS’ ACTIONS. The time that consumers have to generate an impulse response is limited; therefore direct response ad agencies must entice the buyer to take action. A celebrity spokesperson could inhibit the call to action but should only be used for those products that need to enhance credibility or require corroboration or validation from a recognized source. For anything else, the industry mantra is from infomercial pro Ron Popeil: “Just set it and forget it."

anytimegrill.com cmgworldwide.com meaningfulbeauty.com naomijudd.com oxiclean.com pedegg.com proactiv.com telebrands.com]

The Papa John's "Coin Toss" promotion [W 1045theteam.com/papa-johns-super-bowlcoin-toss-starring-peyton-manning-jerome-bettis-video] had Super Bowl legends Peyton Manning and Jerome Bettis engage playfully to get fans to join the chain's loyalty program. The piece was built around the coin toss before the big game and cast Manning as the referee. The reality that drove our choice of Manning and Bettis is important: both perceived as positive, authentic, honest athletes devoted to excellence. That's not PR doubletalk or ad-industry exaggeration. Consumers saw the NFL players as being in alignment with what they already knew of Papa John's.

Office Depot's "It's Depot Time" spot with auto racer Tony Stewart [W youtube.com/watch?v=2LbKY3qekQA&fea ture=youtube_gdata_player] plays off the powerful association that consumers have with Stewart: speed, connecting that to something a lot of consumers probably didn't know: Stewart is a business owner with limited time, just like them. The message: Office Depot saves time for small business

owners. Ad Age wrote of the campaign, "Early results from Advertising Benchmark Index, which measures ads' effectiveness across all media channels, indicate that the campaign is resonating."

The campaign has delivered great results for Office Depot.

SUCCESSFUL SINGERS AND MEANINGFUL MUSIC

Jennifer Hudson, who campaigns for Weight Watchers, is an instantly recognizable A-list celebrity who is also a satisfied customer, someone who has authenticity and credibility with the brand's target audience. Why? Because she actually did lose weight on Weight Watchers! There’s no borrowed equity here. The diet works and she proved it. If a celebrity of her caliber chooses to use Weight Watchers, it’s certainly an acceptable, smart option for the average person.

Finally, take a look at the hhgregg campaign using the Beatles song "Help." [W youtube.com/watch?v=S_ wYYLHuXWQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player]

Yes, this is licensing, but it's also a celebrity campaign of sorts because the

song, a cry for help, is iconic. It's a sentiment that's easily connected with a specific celebrity brand and it carries a powerful emotional message that crosses multiple generations. Even more important than the song's content, though, is the fact that it captures the core hhgregg brand message: "We help." You can get great prices elsewhere, but you can only get great prices and great help at hhgregg. Andy Reismeyer, director of music licensing for Indianapolis-based CMG Worldwide, told the Indianapolis Business Journal that "Help!” wins attention, interest, and emotional involvement. “That’s just so valuable, especially when you’re selling dishwashers or dryers.”

CONVENIENCE VS. COMPATABILITY

Many celebrity endorsements are marriages of convenience, and, like so many, they don't last long or produce much good feeling. They sputter out because the connection just didn't make any sense from the beginning. But if the marriage actually makes sense because the two partners really are compatible, wonderful things can happen.•

A television commercial and infomercial pitchman

More than 15 years ago scientists came up with a way to harness the power of oxygen to clean better than ever before. That breakthrough was OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover, a cleaning sensation that virtually revolutionized the industry.

03 OxiClean spokesperson Anthony John "Sully" Sullivan

Actress Keira Knightley

for Chanel's Coco Mademoiselle 04 Coco Mademoiselle, 2011, Photo set of the film, photographer Andrew Cooper

Communication Social Media

By LUCA BRUNONI

LinkedIn: Recruiting and Branding

Companies on the lookout for new talent have found out that the usual recruiting methods – posting on job boards, scouring newspaper ads, and sifting through incoming resumes – seldom guarantee making the best catch.

“When we were just posting jobs and hoping for resumes,” says Brad O’Neil, Talent and Mobility at VivaKy Nerve Center, “we never got those qualified resumes back.”

The emergence of professional social networks like LinkedIn, however, has created a new job market and a new process of searching and recruiting that might soon render the classic channels obsolete. “In this day and age,” continues O’Neil, “it is foolish to ignore the social media part in recruitment. It has changed the way we do business.”

Launched in 2003, LinkedIn is a professional network that allows users to build connections through a resume-like profile showcasing their skills and experience. “Its success,” says Marcello Albergoni, Senior Sales Manager, LinkedIn Italy, “stems from offering unprecedented access to sharing information, experiences and job opportunities, by bringing together professionals from around the world. Headhunters use LinkedIn to search for talent, managers to advance their careers and companies to hire.”

As of February 2012, the network boasts a membership number of over 150 million users, spread over 200 countries and territories. It was only a matter of time before employers took notice of this new reality, discovering new and effective recruitment methods, but also fresh ways to strengthen their employment branding. “Many large companies,” adds Albergoni, “use our solutions, which are attractive to companies of any type, size and market sector with a need for recruiting and networking.”

THE WAR FOR TALENT

“LinkedIn offers the recruitment industry a resource that gives them access to millions of professionals with real-time

data at their disposal,” says Albergoni, together with “unique services for the search and selection of personnel such as building a talent pipeline of potential candidates and contacting them confidentially to get feedback on their interest in the position.”

LinkedIn is particularly useful when it comes to niche positions. Instead of “posting and praying,” companies can identify and target specific candidates by filtering their LinkedIn credentials and contact them directly. “Finding the right people with the right capabilities to contribute to our business” says Paula S. Larson (CHRO, Invensys) “is absolutely critical… LinkedIn has expanded our ability to find key talent as quickly as possible.”

Senior-level and niche positions are harder to fill if companies target exclusively candidates that are proactively searching for a job. John Curran, Global Staffing Manager, eBay, explains that niche workers are more often than not passive candidates, who seldom post re-

sumes and visit boards: “Some of these applicants never look for a job… what they do is, they get a phone call.” What they might have, however, is a profile on LinkedIn that mentions a potential interest for new opportunities. “The war for talent is really a challenge,” says Ranga Subramanian, Head of Recruiting and Talent Acquisition, ING Vysya Bank. “Candidates are spoiled for choice. LinkedIn helps us not give up on passive job seekers.”

RECRUITMENT ADS 2.0

Job ads are still an indispensable tool, and LinkedIn allows to create tailormade ads that quickly reach their target audience – meaning people with the right profile for the job. These offers, moreover, tend to go viral thanks to spontaneous forwarding and referencing. “It’s a trusted source, and people are more likely to refer a job in such an environment” says John Zwieg (Staffing Director, Logitech). “We post one job and it goes everywhere.”

Liberty Kifer is a young photographer currently living and working in Montana. She shoots mostly portraits and believes that in many ways, every image she takes is a portrait, whether it be of a person, a place, or a thing. With the Doors series, she seeks to show the inherent uniqueness and character of an old home – not so different from that of a weathered and wise human face. Similarly, doors can be seen as opportunities: to each door corresponds with an opportunity, each differs from the other

Martin Taylor works as a "professional geek" in Silicon Valley, San Francisco by day, but is a photographer, filmmaker and musicmaker by night. More of Martin's work and interests can be found at TheOtherMartinTaylor.com. Road signs are tools that help us find our way on the road. Even in the working world, we rely on certain tools: Linkedin serves as a tool to help companies find the best talent.

01 — 09 — 10

© Photos by Martin Taylor

Ads are also important because they establish a company’s active presence on the network; since the quality of this presence is crucial in the war for talent, companies have quickly learned to use professional networks for establishing and communicating their employment branding.

ACTIVE BRANDING

“Employment branding,” O’Neil says, “means presenting your company in a light that attracts the best and brightest minds in the industry.” On LinkedIn, companies can design on-site official pages called Career Pages that communicate their Employer Value Proposition and give insights on their story, culture, and the job opportunities they offer. “LinkedIn is central to the deployment of our employment brand” says Paul Maxin, Global Resourcing Director, Unilever. “Our Career Page allows us to deploy our messaging and build engagement with communities of people, also thanks to contents that renders differently depending on their profile.” Branding must be kept visible, relevant, and up-to-date. This is all the more true in the high-speed environment of social

networks. “It is important to always be out there and brand,” says Mike Demirjian, Director of Talent Acquisition, Takeda Pharmaceuticals. “Especially with all the technology that’s out there right now… We leveraged on LinkedIn to get the true messaging out about who we are.”

Since Employer Value is linked to the satisfaction of employees, companies seldom forget to include testimonials and video content to their pages. A further step can be taken by branding employees' LinkedIn profiles with the company’s messaging, thus drawing traffic to official pages and ads.

A SOFTER SIDE OF RECRUITMENT

Professional networks are rapidly changing the dynamics of the recruitment process and the way employers and candidates interact. The relationship is shifting from the “hard sell” of the straightforward job ad to a “softer sell” that begins with building awareness within groups of potential future candidates. “We maintain contacts with candidates to keep them warm and to attract them” says Demirjian, “so that

when we are hiring back up again we can reduce the time of fill and increase the quality of hire.” Owen Williams, Director of Executive Recruiting, Macy’s, says his team also sends “warm e-mails and invitation to join LinkedIn groups” to candidates in areas where they forecast future openings. These practices encourage jobs seekers to follow companies’ pages and network with them, in order to be visible when a position opens. It is fundamental to stay in the loop, because companies will turn to their “warmed-up” contacts first, and possibly fill the position without even needing to post an ad for the job.

THIS MOMENT IN RECRUITING

With a new generation of avid Facebookers ready to enter the professional world, the interest in networks such as LinkedIn for purposes of job seeking is inevitably bound to rise. This means more candidates, more companies, more markets, more exclusive content (both in terms of people and job offers), new recruitment strategies, and higher-end branding. In fact, forget about future scenarios. It is happening right now.•

Communication Company TV

By NIGEL PHILLIPS

The Role of Television at Work

If you go to the gym, the chances are you’ll be able to watch television while you work out. People are now increasingly able to watch television while at work. It probably won't be MTV, but rather internal corporate TV, which consists of programs and videos, both recorded and live, produced by or for your company.

This breathtaking revolution in digital technology means most companies are capable of delivering internal communications to disseminate corporate films to their employees and perhaps customers. This internal communication might take the form of staff training, promotional videos or important company announcements.

MANY COUNTRIES, MANY USES

Many multinationals, including banks, motor manufacturers, supermarkets or pharmaceutical companies, use their corporate films to motivate dispersed workforces and deliver key messages from senior management. This should not be a substitute for faceto-face meetings or live events, but rather a useful addition, a top-up of existing internal communications, hopefully a unifying force, bringing various communications strands together. As with all forms of communication, from global advertising campaigns to internal emails, it requires careful planning and clear objectives.

Internal corporate TV lets companies show tangible changes and get behavioural issues over to staff, across all their sites, nationally or internationally. It should come from a careful consideration of internal communication and form part of a consistent branding. As with advertising, some companies produce their work internally, but most

currently outsource to specialists and look for a company with a proven track record in their area of business.

WHAT’S MY KEY MESSAGE?

When it comes to the content, there are many guidelines for companies to deliver, but the simple principles are: “Who is my audience? What are my key messages? What rationale does the audience need to understand behind the messages?” As well as deciding on what suitable content you may already have, you need to decide on what new content to produce, and set a definite timeframe, as well as a budget.

So, when you have your production company in place, as with an advertising agency, you will need to produce a clear brief, so that they can develop the ideas to deliver your message.

You must be prepared to work closely with them, reviewing progress at regular steps. One such company is Phil Slater Associates, based in London and Los Angeles. Formed in the late 1970s, it started off producing corporate promotional and training programs for the marine, oil and gas industries.

It branched out across a broad spectrum of industry and commerce, including complex promotional advertising and corporate communication programs for international hotel groups and leisure facilities across Europe and America.

OUTSOURCING AND IN-HOUSE OPTIONS

However, the days of outsourcing internal corporate messaging may be coming to a close.

Last year, Sean Malone, of VirtualStudio.TV, a specialist UK communication company, based in Cambridge,

returned from a business trip to the States and said he was astonished at the growth of internal communication videos being produced by large corporate companies themselves.

At a communications workshop Malone was running in Seattle, Washington, delegates from one of the world's largest IT companies told him that five years ago, external production companies produced five videos a year for them. They were now producing five videos per day, on their own.

Malone believes this level of creative output will become the norm and proposes several compelling reasons why. It has never been cheaper or quicker to create and distribute video of the highest professional quality. Nobody reads anymore; meaning they do, but not if faced with long, rambling email documents. It is estimated people spend five seconds on an individual email before deciding whether to read it or not. 70% are immediately deleted.

The trend is for short, bite-sized chunks of information. With a video, you can communicate, in a matter of seconds, what might usually take a page of text to explain. This is really useful for complicated instructions and will always be available on-demand in the future.

TYPES OF PROGRAMMING

Staff need to see the programs are for them and about them. For live broadcasts, interactivity can be built in with phone-ins, email or Twitter, but it is also important to get feedback from recorded transmissions. With interactive television, management can get an immediate reaction to their message. Volkswagen (VW) started using interactive television in order to keep in contact with their dealer network in Ger-

apple.com altamareafilm.it halifax.co.uk manutd.com mtv.com slater.uk.com twitter.com virtualstudio.tv volkswagen.com

“If you have more money than brains, you should focus on Outbound Marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on Inbound Marketing.”

Guy Kawasaki, formerly chief evangelist of Apple

01 Studio TV di Deutsche Bank

02 Panasonic AG-AC 130 EJ

Professional camera

03 The spaces allocated to the TV Studio, formerly an Endoscopy room, before Altamarea Film's intervention

04 TV Studio setting proposals by Altamarea Film

many from a production studio near VW’s main plant in Wolfsburg.

They have now rolled it out globally and produce three categories of programs; training, sales and urgent product information (faults, recalls etc.), which are typically broadcast twice in one day, with the exception of sales programs, which are at 10am, when their salespeople are least likely to be seeing customers.

JOURNALISTS ON AIR

VW estimates usually approximately 80% of the dealer network tunes in to the programs, which are presented by a professional television journalist, supported by technical experts, who demonstrate processes and answer questions, of which there are around 600 per program. Any not answered on air are grouped into themes and posted with comments from the experts on the VW intranet.

One such professional presenter is Vicky Locklin. She was a presenter on television for 15 years, but now spends most of her time in the world of business television. She says: “I learned my craft presenting and working as a journalist and now I’m busy on screen presenting for my corporate clients, who

include the Halifax Bank, the NHS and Asda.”

KEEP PRIORITIES FRONT & CENTER

Corporate TV is not an ego-stroking exercise for senior management and your audience should be consulted at all stages of the process, as it is important they feel part of the experience and will hopefully look forward to the communication, rather than having it imposed on them.

Internal television can reduce travel and meeting costs. It can keep your salespeople focused on their goals, and keep your employees, shareholders and customers informed and engaged. Any video content must have perfect production values, if it is not to damage the brand, and so costs dictated internal television was primarily the domain of larger corporations. Corporate television is a natural medium for banks and supermarkets, but some businesses have taken the concept to the next level.

A PRIME EXAMPLE

For £6.00 a month, you can subscribe to MUTV, Manchester United’s official television channel. It has two dedicated studios (at Old Trafford and their Car-

rington training ground) and broadcasts documentaries, archive matches, player profiles and interviews. It has hourly news bulletins, live reserve games and first team games with delayed replays. In short, it is a professional, dedicated, money-making television channel. The club would not reveal how many subscribers its channel has, but media commentators estimate it to be around the half a million mark, meaning it is a profitable commercial venture in its own right. It also ticks all the right boxes regarding corporate communication; it is about the brand, and perfectly reflects the brand.

Other companies could go to these extremes, becoming proper, grown-up broadcasters, but it’s a bit Orwellian and most of them simply do not have that much interesting to say.•

Legal Individual and Corporate Contributions

By MATTHEW SEMINARA

How Elections Are Influenced in the US

CORPORATE ELECTIONEERING

The 2010 United State Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has made it very easy for corporations to give unlimited amounts of money to special interest groups. The Supreme Court ruled that limitations on “corporate electioneering” violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution. It reasoned, “If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizen, for simply engaging in political speech." The Supreme Court opined that “independent corporate political spending cannot be limited.”

POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES

Corporations are now entitled to make unlimited contributions or “independent expenditures” in connection with federal elections by establishing “political action

committees” (PACs). There is no limit on how much any individual or entity may spend on an “independent expenditure,” however, the law does require individuals making “independent expenditures” to report and disclose the sources of the funds they used. PACs pool contributions from individuals and distribute them to candidates, political parties and other PACs. PACs are also entitled to spend money independently on political activities, including advertising and other efforts to support or oppose candidates in federal elections. PACs can accept unlimited cash contributions from corporations and unions.

PRESIDENT OBAMA SPEAKS OUT

President Obama has adamantly opposed the Citizens United decision stating that it “gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington while undermining the influence of average Americans who make small contributions to support their preferred candidates.” President Obama further stated “this ruling strikes at our democracy itself” and “I can't think of anything more devastating to the public interest.” In his 2010 State of the Union Address he said, “The Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign corporations – to spend without limit in our elections.” President Obama further stated, “It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance

2012 is a presidential election year in the US. The election coincides with many US Senate and House of Representative elections for members of the 113th US Congress. Eleven gubernatorial election and many elections at the state level will also take place.

companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”

OPINIONS

To date, the opinions on PACs have been politically split. Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) said: “The Supreme Court took an important step in the direction of restoring the First Amendment rights of these groups by ruling that the Constitution protects their right to express themselves about political candidates and issues up until election day.” On the opposite side of the political party spectrum, Republican Senator John McCain (Arizona) said, "As you know, I think the outside super PACs and others is so disgraceful that I'm ashamed of the United States Supreme Court in their decision on Citizens United."

Clearly, the goal of money that flows through the US political system is power and influence. Corporations and industry groups, labor unions, and individuals spend billions of dollars each year to gain access to the US political system to influence political thinking and help shape the policies of tomorrow. Americans can all agree that campaigns cannot be bought. If Citizens United proves to have provided the impetus for the sale of campaigns, it will, hopefully, not be long before this decision is overturned.•

[W citizensunited.org congress.org fec.gov house.gov mccain.senate.gov mcconnell.senate.gov senate.gov supremecourt.gov]

Illustration by Tomek Karelus, Warsaw, Poland

If an individual decides to contribute to a political candidate for federal office, the Federal Campaign Finance Laws provide the contribution limits. The chart below from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) concisely details the individual contribution limits for the 2012 election year.

By NICK KOCHAN

The Money Laundering Minefield

When you think of money launderers, the immediate image is of men who wear raincoats, carry suitcases stuffed with dirty money and behave furtively. The reality is far different.

The men who approached the managing director of a small firm wore suits, neatly pressed shirts and spoke intelligently. They worked for a Colombian computer assemblymaker but said they would pay their bills with checks issued by a small US legal firm. The MD accepted the arrangement. Checks amounting to $500,000 arrived and cleared successfully.

But the MD later received a call from the FBI and his life was turned upside down. The Colombian company was controlled by a cocaine-growing cartel, related to the infamous Cali cartel, and had been charged with money laundering. There was a suspicious link with a terrorist group, said investigators. The MD had to give evidence at trial.

DEFINING MONEY LAUNDERING

Money laundering is most simply defined as the process of hiding the source of criminal money so that the recipient isn’t suspicious. If achieved, the launderer will be able to enjoy his gains safe in the knowledge that banks or the police will leave him alone.

That was the intention of respectable Vietnamese surgeon Chihn Nguyen, who used his medical credentials to persuade a number of banks to set up a total of 27 accounts and proceeded to put approximately $ 9,000 in cash into each of them. The trigger for a bank to issue a suspicious report on a deposit is $10,000. He thought he was safe but when he started to move money to Vietnam, banks got suspicious. They discovered that when he wasn’t conducting surgery he was running a massive London-based cannabis growing empire. He’s now serving a five-year prison term. Other launderers are attached to politicians who receive cor-

rupt funds. One such politician was Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan, who allegedly took a massive bribe from Abdul Razzaq Yaqub, a Pakistani gold importer. He hired a Swiss lawyer to put the money into a private account using bogus names to disguise ownership. A more suspicious bank would have looked into the companies’ beneficial ownership. This case was first heard in Swiss courts, recently surfacing in the Pakistan media. Yaqub has denied paying the politician.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

One laundering tool is the offshore financial system, whether large havens like Switzerland or smaller ones like Malta or Nairu. In each case the key to laundering is hiding the source of dirty money, whether acquired from drugs, illegal arms, fraud, counterfeiting or theft. The principal is simple; the process can be extremely complicated and needs an accountant’s brain and creativity.

Money laundering is a massive business. The International Monetary Fund estimates the total amount of money laundered globally at between 3-5% of the gross domestic product: no less than $1.5-$2.5 trillion.

BUSINESS OWNERS, TAKE NOTE

Sean Holohan, a fraud and money laundering investigator and head of compliance at Royal Bank of Scotland, warns that companies “should not allow the prospect of often very lucrative business deals, deliberately offered by the money launderer as a carrot, to cloud their judgement, since the consequences are severe."

Ros Wright, former director of the UK's Serious Fraud Office, says “The money launderer is likely to be a sophisticated operator who certainly knows enough to make sure he does not look like a money launderer. Many have financial or legal qualifications which are no different those possessed by legitimate businessmen.” •

Illustration by Doug Cowan, New York, NY, USA

Change Management A Turkish Manager’s New Life

Pinar’s Unabashed Tenaciousness

Pinar Kastancioglu is a strong, determined and dynamic mother of two. She married three times, and worked many 24/7 jobs that were consuming her life. Finally she reached a turning point when realized that she wanted something different for her life and for her children.

Pinar moved 700 km from Istanbul and started an organic farm.

Reaching Pinar is not so simple. I board a plane to Istanbul from Milan; the flight and landing are perfect. In the large airport I meet a noisy and courteous nation.

Istanbul is only a stopover. I travel next to Izmir, a full hour flight. Outside the terminal I meet Mehmet’s friendly smile. He’s my driver and he will take me to the farm. It’s evening already, time for a quick coffee. We take a road to a destination I don’t know; I just know we will cover 200 km and it will take three hours. Mehmet speaks only Turkish, but we communicate with gestures and smiles. Night has fallen, I am tired. I am taken by the natural, almost wild, landscape.

A shiver runs down my spine when we pass through the city of Hydin, the former home of the ancient city of Troy. I can see before my eyes, just like in a movie, the gallant deeds of Hector, Achilles and Ulysses. I close my eyes and dream. Where are we going? How long will it take? It doesn’t matter, I will wait. In the meantime it starts raining and it is cold. We travel across some woods and olive tree groves, lit up by the car’s high-beam headlights. The asphalt of the road has been damaged by bad weather and negligence. White roads, full of pits and puddles. The car climbs up the mountain; the mystery thickens as we finally pull up in a small poorlylit square. I am in Sinekçiler Koånyu, 650 meters above sea level, a lost village on the hills near Nazilli in southwestern Turkey. Stray dogs, cows, bulls and sheep stand in my way. I meet a few

men who smile at me and welcome me with unexpected courtesy. Just in time for a hot tea.

Another few kilometers and I arrive at the guesthouse. My watch says it’s just past midnight. My room is spacious, one of the many rooms in a wooden house in the middle of the forest. It’s raining hard. I am very tired and hungry. It’s piercing cold. I am sleeping in this room tonight, guest of the mysterious Pinar who I haven’t met yet.

In the early morning, I am awoken by a blue tit, tapping at the window glass with his beak. After a hearty breakfast my Turkish guardian angels take me to Ipen Hanim çiftligi. Pinar’s farm is located a half hour away from where spent the night. The wait is immediately rewarded with smiles, hugs and a friendly heartiness that puts me at ease.

Pinar is a strong woman, practical and efficient. She lived in Istanbul and after attending the Faculty of Business Administration at the university, without graduating, started working in a casino. She was certainly talented as in a few years she was promoted to manager. A casino customer, an important man in the Turkish construction industry, asked her to manage the commercial department of his company. Pinar accepted and worked with him for seven years. She worked very hard, achieving much success. She married and had a child. When she was 27, she separated and got divorced, to marry for a second time. At the time, work took up every second of her life. She says “I was working 24/7; I couldn’t even take care of my child, who was, meanwhile, growing up, or live in a relationship with my

She was living in crowded and busy city of Istanbul, where she worked 24/7 with no time to spend time with her family ...now she's never been happier, her farm is like a giant family.

Pinar Kastancioglu

Oh kitty, soft kitty, little ball of fur

Women working the fields

Man and Earth

New life

Farm's fields

08, 09 and

Ipek Hanim products

Typical dish at Ipek Hanim

Turkish tea

Ipek Hanim dippings

Text and Photos by ROBERTO BENZI

Shortly after she made a drastic decision: she left her job and searched for a new life, where she could work, but also have time to spend with her family. She spent a few years in Kusadasi, a beautiful seaside resort near Aydin, with her child and husband; she had time to rest and plan a new future. Yet she divorced a second time and continued on her own. She met a man, who then became her third husband and with whom she had a daughter. He had a mineral water company near Nazilli and Pinar started to work with him. The company, initially small and limited to a local production, grew, and after eight years of activity pushed by Pinar’s enthusiasm, grew even larger. The results were incredible, but Pinar was once again stuck in full-time job just as when she was in Istanbul. Dissatisfied,

dynamic and tenacious, and always searching for a more balanced life, she divorced for the third time and decided to buy a piece of land where she could build a farm and produce organic products. This time, on her own with her two kids.

ws Pinar, why did you choose Ocakly, located at more than 700 km from Istanbul, as the place to build your new farmhouse? pk I was familiar with this place already, because it is very close to the mineral water company where I worked with my third husband. Furthermore, at the time we bought some land that we used to transfer water from the source to the factory. When we divorced we divided the assets, land included; I made some of the lands available for organic farming. Last but not least I already had created good relations with the people and everything seemed much easier.

ws How much did you pay for the land where you built your farm?

pk It was an abandoned piece of land owned by the government. The price was very favorable, more or less the equivalent to $2,000 for a 6,000 square meter piece of land. And it was in 2002.

ws When did you build the structures and how much did you invest?

pk I started building the central part of the house where I live with my two children in 2007. After that we built all other edifices where we now produce and store the food. In total the cost amounted to approximately $50,000.

ws How many people are working with you?

pk I started farming and producing in 2007. We were two people: a lady who still works with me and myself. The first cultivation included tomatoes, hot pep-

Kimberley Pledger14 is a massage therapist from England who used to work in new media as a business developer, but found that her career lacked in meaning. At age 36 she decided to go in for the kill and do something that could really change people’s lives.

What were the main reasons that pushed you to change?

kp I enjoyed the buzz of working in new media and had never particularly wanted to do something worthy in my career, as I'd always been more interested in chasing the dollar. But increasingly, I found my work was meaningless. I had already started a

course in massage as a hobby and as I was quite depressed I took a year off to travel and recuperate. I studied massage in Thailand and when I came back volunteered at the Royal Free Hospital, where an encounter with a patient made me realize massage therapy was something I could do for a living that had some meaning.

What sort of investment did you make?

kp My initial investment was something in the region of £10,000. This included training and set-up costs.

I realized something was lacking.

Diane Milczarek15 is the owner of Garden Lane Soaps and lives in California, US. She had been working in the Human Resources department

husband. How long could I exist in that situation?”

Massage therapy was something I could do for a living that had some meaning.

ws What products do you grow and sell?

pk Many, from vegetables to olives, honey, soaps, oil, eggs, flour, bread, cheese, pasta, soups, walnuts. Our organic products are certified and of high quality. The sowing, picking and conserving processes are almost exclusively hand-made. Checks are strict and I take care of the quality.

ws How did you let people know about you and how do you sell to the public?

pk We started selling to close friends and acquaintances, and then gradually to friends of friends through word of mouth. We don’t invest in advertising, just a website since we sell exclusively over the Internet. We consider ourselves a niche sector and today we count 15,000 customers across Turkey.

ws It appears you are not feeling the crisis that is gnawing at Europe in recent times. What was the rate of your turnover last year?

pk I’d rather not say numbers. We are proceeding with calculations. Anyway, it is going well.

ws Were you able to adapt easily to this simple life in a place so far away from the chaos?

pk It took me a while. The transition

has been gradual, from the metropolis through more human-sized cities like as Kusadasi and Nazilli, and finally here. The few friends I hung out with come and visit me and we have kept very good relationships.

ws So, no regrets?

pk No, no regrets. Here, at İpek Hanım Çiftliği, I'm happy. I can be with my kids, I work well and I am surrounded by a big family.•

of the local school district for 13 years which she loved, yet she felt something was missing. This is when she left her career and started her own soap making boutique.

What were the main reasons that made you decide to change careers?

dm Less staff, more work stress and, unfortunately, less job satisfaction. It seemed like the perfect time for me to think about my future.

What sort of investment did you make?

dm I invested about $6,000 of my own money to get my business started. It has been more rewarding than I could have imagined. I have met so many wonderful and supportive people in the business community. They have shared advice

and shared experiences which have contributed to the success of Garden Lane Soaps. I have had to push through fear and doubt and have come to appreciate that this is common stuff. The growth from the challenge is not only incredibly rewarding but empowering and has brought me a great deal of joy.

I didn’t want to look back when I was 65 or 70 and think that I wasted my life.

Alex Barnett16 is a former lawyer who was hit hard by economic turmoil. He got laid off, turned down a very highpaying job with the government and moved onto standup comedy.

What were the main reasons that made you go through this shift?

ab I was diligently looking for a new

job and not succeeding so I thought that maybe there was something else I could do. I had been performing comedy on and off and I truly enjoyed it, so I thought, “Now is the time to take the leap and do that.” Because I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have any real responsibilities at the time and I didn’t have any debts. I think though that what truly motivated me was the idea that I didn’t want to look back when I was 65 or 70 and think that I wasted my life, and that I had spent my entire adult life in a job I didn’t really care for.

Why did you turn down the highpaying government job?

ab It was a fairly high-ranking position for an attorney working in the Attorney General office in Washington D.C. There were parts of the job that appealed to me, because they were platforms to do things that promote social justice, but there were

a lot of question marks about the job. I was flattered by the offer but it just didn’t feel right.

What sort of investment did you make for this shift?

ab A big one, because I turned down a job offer that was going to pay me reasonably well and provide benefits, and I gave that up to pursue a career that didn’t provide any stable income at the beginning or benefits. There were a lot of investments upfront, like getting a website, getting social media platforms running, getting photos taken, sending out letters and e-mails, buying video cameras and renting cars to go to shows, paying for planes to get to shows that were further away than a car ride. Last but not least all the classes I took were paid for by me.

Istanbul Ankara Izmir 11 12

Turkey

13

Culture Integration Integrating M&A

By PATRICE MURPHY

Pleasing the In-Laws

When corporations tie the knot across international boundaries, the challenge gets even harder. Employees, for example, are further apart, often separated by barriers of language, geography and inconvenient time differences. They may also be surprised by each others’ expectations of organizational life and different ways of making decisions, communicating, modeling leadership, or showing loyalty. With these challenges, misunderstandings can lurk behind the corner.

COMPREHENDING CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

Differences among national cultures have been studied by academics for decades. People living and working in different countries can react to the same situation in very different ways. For example, why behavior that is considered to be decisive leadership in one culture can appear overbearing and insensitive in another. Such differences in interpretation – and the divergent feelings that result – can be fatal to successful post-merger integration. But the opposite is also true. Cross-cultural differences can actually be leveraged as a source of competitive advantage in shaping organizations. For example, back in 2008 HSBC showcased its appreciation of cultural differences in its Different Values global marketing campaign, positioning itself as the worldwide local bank. That year, anyone traveling through a major international airport probably saw a poster with the words “style,” “soldier,” and “survivor” overlaying three identical photos of the back of a gender-neutral shaved head.

The bank’s provocative photo-triptychs continue to explore differences in how people interpret and value objects, be-

haviors and symbols – communicating HSBC’s premise that different values make the world a richer place.

BE AWARE OF POTENTIAL OBSTACLES

To prepare for success, integration leaders can be armed with an awareness of some common traps that afflict international M&A:

•Cultural myopia – Ignoring the important role that national and regional culture can play in shaping corporate culture. US companies can be particularly vulnerable to this mistake, since the language, concepts and assumptions of modern business have been heavily influenced by the teachings of US business schools and the practices of US corporations. Understanding how one’s own business practices are based in various cultural assumptions opens the door to appreciating other points of view and being sufficiently adaptable.

•Leadership styles – Misunderstanding both leadership styles and how people respond to leaders. Differences in “power distance,” as it is called in academic literature, help explain expectations of how a good leader should behave, the willingness to speak up and openly question authority figures, and notions of the right response to autonomy. Leaders who have been immensely successful in one culture can find themselves dismissed or even reviled in other cultures because of low awareness of how leader behaviors will be received.

•Customer misunderstanding – Failing to recognize the insights that local employees can provide about customer needs. Even among global behemoths

like Coca-Cola, there is seldom one consistent approach that works perfectly in every country. Employees are usually the best, first source of advice on how to adapt a firm’s product or service, marketing, distribution or after sale service.

STEPS FOR EASING INTO CHANGE

There are three things leaders can do to ensure success starting on “day one” of the newly-combined organization. First, integration leaders should explicitly address cultural differences in framing an international vision for the new organization. Often, cross-border acquisitions are intended to build a distinctly global capability by allying the acquirer’s strengths in production, marketing or distribution with local expertise in serving key growth markets. In this scenario, local cultural insight is an asset to be respected and valued.

Shaping a culturally-inclusive vision for the combined organization starts with taking the time to listen, learn and understand the cultural differences that will come up. When US-based pharmaceutical company Shering-Plough announced its acquisition of the Dutch company Organon Biosciences, integration planning started six months before the deal close. The first step was a three-day session in Amsterdam, bringing together senior executives from across the two companies with an explicit “listen and learn” agenda. Leaders then began a program of mutual visits to learn about each other’s culture. Within weeks, executives of both companies were sharing a vision for the merged enterprise that emphasized their common, science-based culture, lauded areas of distinct capability and emphasized the desire to knit these to-

You have to feel sorry for the men and women charged with making mergers work. Knowing that the majority of mergers and acquisitions are doomed to never deliver on the promised shareholder benefit, the job of planning and implementing the integration is not for the faint of heart.

gether in a global corporation capable of achieving more than the sum of its parts.

FOCUS ON INTEGRATION PLANNING

An integration leader’s second step should be to bring representatives from different cultural perspectives into the integration planning team. This aligns with the best practice of including representatives of both the acquirer and the acquired on the planning group, as well as spanning the major business units and functions. The pressure to drive integration planning at a rapid pace might make a less diverse team tempting – but you will ultimately be better off having representatives who understand the values, assumptions and taboos of employees in countries outside the main office. Years ago when GE Lighting acquired Tungsram, a previously state-owned company based in Hungary, the cultural differences between the hard-driving Americans and their new colleagues who had lived for years under communism could not have been more stark. GE appointed a Hungarian national from another part of its business to head up the integration planning. Returning after 20 years of exile from Hungary, he understood the language, culture, history and recent travails of his compatriots – and his presence sent a strong signal about the potential for Tungsram employees to succeed within GE.

IDENTIFY A CULTURE-SPANNING LEADER

Finally, it is important to have a senior leader onsite in key locations, able to play a “culture-spanning” role. This person should have sufficient time onsite to get to know the local business issues, leaders, culture, and “hot buttons.” He or she should have the authority to address problems or misunderstandings before they escalate – proactively identifying actions or communications that could be misunderstood or have unintended consequences. With care, the integration of cross-border mergers and acquisitions can be a success that equals or beats the odds.•

Illustration by John Joven, Bogotà, Colombia

“

People Unusual Job

By MARTHA TINTIN

A Puzzling Job

Crosswords puzzles are for a few a full-time job, for many a hobby. A form of entertainment that accompanies solvers in their travels, while they wait for a doctor's appointment or on their commutes to work, puzzles lay there, neatly placed in the last pages of the newspaper. We, however, never stop to think about who’s behind that grid of tiny black and white squares.

14 ACROSS: LEARNING PROCESS

I am the crossword puzzle editor of the New York Times,” says Will Shortz His position is the most prestigious in the puzzle making circle. He’s the only known person on earth to hold a degree in Enigmatology, which he obtained from Indiana University in 1974. (Indiana University is one of the few institutions to allow students to major in any subject they choose. This is done thanks to their Individualized Major Program. This program is based on individual learning and gives students the opportunity to have the distinction of having pursued a personalized course of study.) That said, it is important to mention there’s no real education for someone who wants to pursue a career in crossword puzzle construction. So, how can one learn the tricks? Manuela Mellini, journalist and cofounder of Verme, asserts “the Internet now offers many resources and advice to those who want to take this career,” and adds “puzzle making is a job that has a great connotation of craft, and just like the trades, you learn by practicing it vastly.” According to Judie Durrant, Editorial Coordinator at Lovatts Media Group, there are no specific qualifications to become a crossword compiler, but says “many on our team have some qualification in language-related courses, e.g. degrees in

English, linguistics or journalism.” Dal Shields, UK Operations Manager at Lovatts Publishing, says “the very best way to learn what makes a great puzzle is to solve as many puzzles as possible from a wide variety of compilers, analyzing all the while what factors are adding up to making the challenge entertaining and satisfying from the solver's point of view.” Many people get into it just by making puzzles and sending them in for publication. “It’s very much an open field,” says Shortz. The Internet is an excellent source for learning the basics, plus there are forums where people can learn and share information with other constructors. Another way to get into the field is to know someone, as it’s a very small circle, Shortz says. “There are two main puzzle events in the US. One of them is the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament which I founded and run every year. It hosts over a 1,000 people. Then there’s an organization, the National Puzzlers League, which has a monthly magazine called The Enigma and an annual convention. This is a good way to find other puzzle people, because many puzzle makers and editors attend these events.”

3 DOWN: PERSONALITY AND SKILLS

People who are drawn to puzzle-making are fascinated by how language works. They are likely to be avid readers,

keen crossword solvers and/or Scrabble players with a strong background in grammar, semantics and spelling. “Being a good crossword solver is certainly an advantage in their creation,” says Mellini as does Durrant: “the best way to learn the art of crossword compiling and clueing is to do it.“ According to Brendan Emmett Quigley, a freelance puzzle maker, being observant is also a quality that shouldn’t be understimated, "I am observant, I noticed that in American puzzles there are some rules that constantly apply; the grid looks the same upside down as it does downside up; the smallest number of letters per word is 3 letters.” Shields says that being computer literate is a necessity, “the mechanics of putting a puzzle together involve computers far more than it used to, so a reasonable degree of computer literacy is definitely an asset. Christine and James [Lovatts] started their puzzling career nearly 30 years ago using blank paper, pencils and ruler at their kitchen table, but these days a compiler's best friend is their computer!”

17 ACROSS: DAILY ACTIVITIES

Daily routines vary depending on if you work for a newspaper, a syndicate or are a freelancer. Durrant explains, “our days are very busy with constant deadlines. Compiling puzzles involves lots of research and we’re surrounded by dictionaries and other reference books. All puzzles that have been compiled need to be checked and rechecked for accuracy and repetition and difficulty level.” Quigley, for example, writes on average a puzzle a day and talks online with other puzzle friends for advice on clues. He works from home and only rarely

[W brendanemmettquigley.com crosswordtournament.com cruciverb.com dlhoyt.org ilovecrosswords.com indiana.edu lovatts.com.au lovatts. co.uk mondoverme.com nytimes/wordplaypuzzlers.org rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com themecrosswords.com]

needs a quieter place, as he says “if I have a lot of work that I need to concentrate on, I’ll go to the library, but I don’t really have an office and I can write from anywhere.” David Hoyt is a puzzle maker and game inventor whose day starts very early (on average at 3am) because of the huge workload and because he feels more creative in the morning. He says, “it makes for a long day but it makes for a happy day.” Myles Mellor, another freelance puzzle writer, says “I generally write 4 puzzles every day.

I write different crossword puzzles. I write themed crossword puzzles for websites and magazines, but also for private customers, for example, personalized puzzles for wedding or birthday parties” and adds “then I write for newspapers and those puzzles are more general. I also dedicate time to the marketing aspect of my job, where I try to interest people and get new business.” It’s clear puzzles don’t only end up in newspapers, but can be used for other purposes, including commercial ads. The workday in the life of an editor varies considerably, Shortz works from home and doesn’t have working hours, but he does have deadlines. Some days he focuses on the correspondence. “I get 75 to 100 submissions a week. I look through submissions, decide whether I like the puzzle or not, and respond; everyone gets a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and a comment or more about the puzzle.” Other days he edits puzzles. The difficulty level in the New York Times varies, from easy-medium on Mondays and building up to very hard on Sundays. He says, “I edit the puzzles for accuracy first of all and also for interest and novelty; on average, half of the clues in the New York Times are mine.” Further, he says “I then send the puzzle to test solvers, get the comments and corrections, so that I polish them and send them off to the newspaper.”

23 DOWN: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE SATISFACTION

According to Mellor and Hoyt the main advantages are the independence and

freedom that this job can give you. You can potentially work from anywhere and set your own schedule. Mellini and Quigley feel blessed to be able to do the job they love, which is an enormous advantage. Shortz loves the idea of playing every day, as he says “Playing with words and making puzzles is genuinely fun.” There are a number of disadvantages, of course. First and foremost, only 10 people or so in the US make a living out of puzzle making. The income isn’t huge and for many crossword writing remains a hobby. According to Quigley, another disadvantage is that it is very hard to be creative all the time, with constant deadlines and requests. Shortz agrees, “the deadlines are unrelenting. I get an astonishing amount of mail, so there’s always work to be done.“ Mellini and Hoyt agree that another disadvantage is that it can be a huge, energy-consuming

commitment. In Mellor’s opinion, the disadvantage only resides in the lack of stability, especially in monetary terms, “there’s no fixed income, it varies from month to month, which makes it hard to make plans,” and adds “I used to be an executive, that’s much more stable. I knew how much I’d get, how often; my working hours.” The biggest advantage of all, though, is how rewarding the job is. As Durrant puts it, “customer feedback is very rewarding.”

45

ACROSS: AN OLD BUT GOOD PIECE OF ADVICE

Mellor exclaims, “don’t quit your day job!” Mellini recommends to “focus on the quality.” Shortz and Hoyt advise to learn as much as you can on the subject and allow time to get good at it. Appreciate the times when you don’t succeed, as Hoyt says “it’s not the yesses who made me successful, it’s the no’s. It was how I took ‘no’.” A final piece of advice by Quigley is “solve as many puzzles as you can, because that’s the only way to understand how to get better.”

52 DOWN: THE END OF AN ESSAY

Remember that puzzle making is a battle against the solver, a battle that the constructor knows they have to lose. So be creative and keep challenging solvers to their limits, but make them win! As Quigley says “puzzle making is a battle that the constructor is expected to lose. If I don’t, then it’s a bad puzzle.”•

Illustration by Yihsin Wu, Taipei, Taiwan

Joining the Company Dangerous Jobs

By MICOLE IMPERIALI

Running in the Fast Lane

Dangerous jobs are opportunities that some people have to or want to experience in their lives; it may be for the benefits gained, for significant career advancement or for the many doors a dangerous job can open. But such jobs are certainly not for the fainthearted.

Chris McManus and Franco Lamolinara were engineers working in Nigeria when they were abducted and murdered last May allegedly by an Al Qaeda cell. Working in dangerous countries or in dangerous roles is an option or a necessity for many, but the sacrifices are great. We asked global executive search firm SpenglerFox for some insight.

DANGER, DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE!

Nicolas Bordry, Country Manager for Russia and CIS, says Russia has many dangerous areas, especially because of severe weather, such as in Siberia where the thermostat often hits -50°C. Danger is prevalent in conflict-ridden areas such as Ossetia and near the Chechnyan border. But you don’t have to travel far to find dangerous work situations; for example, Moscow construction sites where companies don’t have high health and safety standards and officials are open to bribery. As far as procedure, Bordry says “companies look for potential candidates inside first, to save extra cost, and if no one is available they’ll then look outside, but that is for any job, not only dangerous [jobs].” In Russia, it is difficult to find foreign candidates because of the language barrier.

Nancy Brown, Marketing Development Manager, says “most companies looking to send employees to dangerous countries work on referrals; they may ask for volunteers, approach those people who are most appropriate within their company to transfer and then also ask for referrals.” Mary Kramer, Regional Manager, Greece and Balkans, hasn’t recruited for such jobs. She says “in the Greece and Balkans market, as well as in the rest of the EU, recruitment for such jobs is hardly a reality.” It is different in the Middle East. Says Cedric d’Halluin, Re-

gional Manager, Middle East, there are two ways for companies to find potential candidates, “there are people who are currently employees of a company and to enhance their career are offered an assignment for 2 or 3 years in a fast growing market but where conditions are dangerous.” This includes, for example, Iraq and Iran. But Egypt is now considered dangerous though it wasn’t a few years ago, as are Nigeria and Mali, where conditions have worsened recently. Also, companies “can work with companies like ours to recruit externally and attract the best people to those markets,” says d’Halluin.

A

BENEFICIAL

for evacuation, or protection and bodyguards. The oil and gas sector is very exposed to that, because professionals often work in very remote locations, far from towns, and the local population lives in a very poor situation next to a camp of expats, and that creates risk.”

MOVE?

D’Halluin says benefits vary. Those who accept assignments are offered more money and faster access to better positions upon returning. “Nobody really wants to move to a dangerous place just for the sake of the adventure. Especially at the senior level, [they] are driven by cash,” says d’Halluin. People in their late 40s and early 50s are good candidates because they have experience. Plus, they may need money to send their kids to college or to help fund retirement. There are other benefits, he says, “for example a European general manager in the pharmaceutical industry based in Pakistan negotiated permanentlybooked flight tickets to Europe. There are some companies specialized in providing security, so if you’re operating in remote areas in dangerous countries they will provide medical assistance, planes

Though salary is a main driver in the US, in Russia the salary doesn’t increase much as companies pay for expertise and not to compensate for dangerous living conditions. Bordry says “companies are sending people to Russia with short-term assignments and that means up to 24 months” and adds “with some extra benefits such as extra holidays and trips, hardship allowance, food and accommodation provided by the company and medical/life insurance.” The South American market offers benefits such as “a bodyguard if the executives work in zones considered to be of medium to high risk” says Carole Tynan, Country Manager at SpenglerFox. According to Hasan Bosnak, Practice Group Lead at SpenglerFox Turkey, compensation is higher than in mature markets. Additionally, workers have better health insurance, covering a range of risks.

WHO’S WILLING?

European HR professionals often complain about lack of mobility. People want international exposure, but when it comes to moving, things change. On the other hand, as d’Halluins says, “people from emerging markets are extremely eager to take opportunities not necessarily existing in their own countries.” Kram-

SpenglerFox, part of Grafton Employment Group, is a globally networked Executive Search and Human Capital Solutions firm. Founded in 2003, SpenglerFox works with some of the world’s most forward-thinking organizations across a completely integrated and wholly-owned network of offices in 17 countries.

er says this is due to three factors; first, Asians or Africans from emerging areas are more familiar with dynamic markets with a wide diversity of wealth, background and ethnicity; second, Asians and Africans accept relocation to dangerous areas as a door for future opportunities in the otherwise-impenetrable Western market; and third, Europeans are less willing to give up a lifestyle, compared to Asians or Africans who are more prepared to leave their families short-term for significant long-term gain. D’Halluin thinks this phenomenon is due to how perception of danger varies between East and West, “ someone from the EU would consider dangerous anything starting from Russia, but if you ask someone from Somalia, pretty much any place on Earth is safer than their own country.” Brown says Americans are unwilling or unmotivated to relocate as they may feel vulnerable as Americans abroad; they have concerns about diseases, living conditions, personal safety and lifestyle; and because most don’t have a passport.

PROFILES WANTED

In Russia, Bordry says, sales and technical staff are most needed. For North American companies, the most-searched profiles are for those able to train others, senior managers, executives and highly skilled workers. Sectors seeking workers are “engineering, security, humanitarian aid/support, and manufacturing,” Brown says. In the Middle East, a range of workers is needed, “when a country needs to be rebuilt, it starts with gas and power stations, airports, roads. So the first to enter the market are cement producers and large multinational engineering companies.” Bosnak agrees, “construction and energy production are key in-

dustries which generally take part in the establishment/reestablishment of the infrastructure in ‘dangerous countries.’” Leadership as well as low and mid level technicians are in demand. These workers must be highly motivated, flexible, adaptable, stress-resistant, creative and highly ethical. Bosnak says “senior executives in sales and production with cross cultural experience in establishing, developing and managing local operations are preferred profiles,” and adds “chemicals, pharmaceuticals, industrial equipment and products and consumer goods are the main industries.” In South America, oil and mining industry workers are most sought after. Tynan explains, “Colombia is also receiving an interesting level of investment from abroad in these industries and this involves searches in international markets.”

PROBLEM ALERT Recruitment can be difficult. Candidates find it hard to convince their families. Organizations must learn what motivates a candidate to accept a job; money is an important driver but not the only one. Often people accept because they think money will be enough, but after a few months, they realize they cannot handle the stress. D’Halluin says “what happens is that professionals accept the assignments for the money, but don’t assess the situation fully. This sometimes is also the company’s fault, as it is good to relocate people, but you also have to make sure that those same people are very clear on what they are signing for.” Another difficulty companies encounter is replacing people once their contracts are up. “Companies will do pretty much everything to have people stay another year or so,” says d’Halluin. Difficulties in Russia are similar, Bordry says, “the first prob-

lem is to find candidates interested to take risks and to be located there. Then the main problem becomes the package, because candidates know that they are in good positions to negotiate with their potential employer and ask for too much; and on the other hand employers refuse to go above certain numbers.” Bosnak says there is a range of problems involved. Security is a major one, as is schooling, social life and language barriers. Companies often turn to Turkish applicants, since, Bosnak says, “many companies try to bypass these problems in recruiting talent from countries with closer cultural backgrounds than people from Western Europe.”•

The cartoon on the two following pages is by Robert Sergel, a cartoonist currently residing in Cambridge, MA, USA. He graduated from college in 2005, and his work has appeared in publications such as New York Press, Noo Journal, Zine Arcade, Free Comics NYC and in The Wellesley Townsman, among others. Comics aside, Robert plays in a band called The Channels. Robert has freely interpreted the stories of managers Ozlem Sevilkan, Vicky Bouzouki, Amy Duvall, René Canales, Yann Quiniou, Keily Dibugnara and Kyriakos Kofinas, all connected to SpenglerFox.

The story is invented and references to reality are purely imagined. The moral of the story is that there is much more to life than working and money. Life is way too short to not consider our own emotional welfare, sanity and well-being, so never forget about your private life and always make room for your interests, hobbies and loved ones.

Cedric d’Halluin is Regional Manager Middle East at SpenglerFox

Carole Tynan is Country Manager at SpenglerFox Chile

Mary Kramer is Regional Manager Greece & Balkans at SpenglerFox

Hasan Bosnak is Industry Practice Lead at SpenglerFox Turkey

Nicolas Bordry is Country Manager Russia and CIS at SpenglerFox

Nancy Brown is Group Marketing Manager at SpenglerFox

Private Eye Design Ideas

Design Guild Marks 2012

The Furniture Makers Company introduced the Design Guild Mark in 2008 to reward excellence in the British design of furniture in volume production in Britain and the best of British furniture designers working abroad. The Design Guild Marks 2012 criteria-outlined excellence in four of the following fields - design, the use of materials, manufacture and function. In this fifth year there were over forty applications, from which the jury selected twenty seven recipients. Judging took place on April 3. The Awards winners were announced shortly afterwards.

3

1Tony Cole, Staverton CL for Logic Office Group (DGM 51)

2Marc Krusin, Krusin Chair Collection for Knoll International (DGM 66)

Leonhard Pfeifer, Eigen Coat Stand for John Lewis. (Mfd by Woodman) (DGM72)

Corin Mellor, Beech Plywood Furniture range for David Mellor (DGM 68)

Zoeftig Design Studio, inFINITE Seating System for Zoeftig (DGM 74)

Private Eye People to Watch and Know

Karen Berger

"My philosophy of life is based on getting to know people as individuals. This is true in both my professional and personal life. If you understand and empathize with people, it makes you a better manager, negotiator, strategist, mother, friend, etc. I really enjoy people."

Karen (1967) is the VP, Transplant Services at Westchester Medical Center, a leading medical facility outside of New York City. “My career has been characterized and blessed by a series of strong female role models, for whom I have a great deal of gratitude,” she says. “I have tried to pass on my good fate by mentoring other young women, three of whom followed me to new positions when I made moves.” Her role is challenging and replete with daily tough decisions.

“Running a hospital is very difficult, but when things go well, you feel really good.” Managing time is a key to maintaining balance. “I try to

relax by spending quality time with my kids and husband on the weekends. It’s quality time, not quantity. As I often do at work, I try to find projects to do with my kids that play to their strengths and creativity.” Karen has two daughters, age 3 and 10, and the eldest wrote a short novel and is now designing

a clothing line. “I don’t have that creative touch, but my way to be creative is to work with people.”

Karen says two things really matter to her: integrity, meaning what she says, saying what she means, and work ethic. “When I had my first child I was on a conference call while I was in

hard labor and I had meetings during the next days, so I’m never really not working.” Her job certainly helps her appreciate life. “I’ve seen people getting second chance at life and others dying of very painful death. This really give you perspective. It taught me humility.” •

Private Eye People to Watch and Know Seung

Jae Baik

Seung Jae Baik left a job in his native Korea to pursue a new life in Belgium. He says, "If you can dream it, you can do it. I really believe that as long as we have imagination and courage, anything can happen. Look at the bright side and go for it. And, think big!”

Seung Jae (1975), born in Seoul, Korea, is Product Research Manager at P&G in Brussels, Belgium. He began his career at AMOREPACIFIC, the largest cosmetics company in South Korea. Yet, though it was an interesting job, he grew tired and decided to earn his PhD in chemical engineering in Leuven, Belgium.“It was not an easy decision, as I had just gotten married and there was no one I knew in Belgium. Also, studying more doesn’t guarantee a brighter future. But I needed some fresh air,” Seung Jae says.

As a hobby he used to do Lego constructions, which his fouryear old son now plays with. For Seung Jae, Legos aren't for

displaying or collecting but to play with, which makes him happy.

He likes working at P&G because there are many things to learn and many new people to meet. “However, I don't forget to see the outside as well, trying to know how the others are doing to keep me awake.” Seung Jae has two young children. He feels great

responsibility as a foreign dad. “My wife and I have to manage all by ourselves. Sometimes I feel sorry for my boys, since they couldn't get as much love as they would have in Korea, especially from their grandparents,” he says. When asked about his motto, Seung Jae responds, “If someone asks me to choose one of the two options - One:

an excellent job with poor colleagues, or two: a poor job with nice colleagues, I would go for the second option as the human relationship lasts much longer and is more difficult to get. I believe that the ultimate achievement and happiness come from the human relationship.”•

Private Eye People to Watch and Know

Tasia Iliopoulou

Tasia (1964), is Head of the Finance Department of Alpha Bank in Athens but she always loved all kinds of sports. Maybe the reason she loves the mountains so much is because her hometown is a 30-minute walk from Immitos Mountain. “I used to go trekking in the Greek mountains nearly every weekend, joining the Athenian Mountain Club. As an active member of the club since then, with organization tasks, you put a lot of energy into the club… You gain a lot of friends, you learn how to behave with other people.” She became responsible for organizing treks and climbs around the world: Kilimanjaro in Africa, Acongaua in Argentina, Elbrus in Caucausus, Broad Peak and Gondogoro - La in the Karakorum, Pakistan, Altai in Mongolia, Mount Whitney in the US, Island Peak in the

Himalayas and, highest of all, Cho-Oyu in Tibet (altitude: 8,201 meters). “What you get from these experiences is so precious: you learn how to deal with unexpected facts that happen during an expedition, how to cooperate with members of your group, how to contact people from

another country other than western civilization, how to face nature, become patient and wait for the good weather to come. How to accept the food you get! How to accept the bad mood of your fellows, accept that you are sometimes not acceptable! How to keep yourself committed to the goal

you have set.” Her dream? As every climber would, she would love to climb the highest mountain in the world: Mt. Everest. “My wish, though, is to be healthy and enjoy every day of my life,” Tasia concludes.•

“When I was little I wanted to become a teacher specialized in sports, but my parents persuaded me that it was not a good idea. I studied economics, but always deep in my heart my desire was to deal with sports.”

Ideas for Free Time

Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley 01

Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebi

A handpainted ceramic lamp that was my mother’s

Frontier Airlines

À Moi Seule by Frédéric Videau

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer Artwork RAM

My Cousin Vinny by Jonathan Lynn

Master of the Game by Sidney Sheldon 03 iPad Virgin Atlantic

Victorian era B&Bs

The Fork in Lyons, Colorado (USA)

Telemark ski boots 04 Sardinia, Italy Ska Brewery

Sofitel Marrakech

La Roseraie in Wemmel, Belgium

A trip to the Maldives South of Morocco Bordeaux Supérieur 02

Oriental Hotel, Lagos Ruth Chris' Steakhouse at Baltimore Harbor, Maryland (USA)

Lexus Crete, Greece 05

British comedies

Scandinavian books iPad Train, train and more train (TGV and Orient Express)

B&Bs in unusual places French restaurants in Lyon, some in Paris A styled mirror Islands (Iceland, Malta, Corsica)

Vin d’Arbois

Betsy Houria Olukunle Stephen

Betsy Winter — Executive Director at American Mountain Guides Association, Houria Grana — CEO at AIMS International Belgium, Olukunle Malomo — Director at Great Place to Work Nigeria, Stephen Bunard — Coach in Communication at Coaching&com.

Private Eye The Movie In Time

In a future where time is literally money and aging stops at 25, the only way to stay alive is to earn, steal, or inherit more time.

In this movie, time is currency and everyone is born with a body clock embedded in their wrist. At age 25, when the frontal lobe of the brain and the body are considered fully matured, that clock starts ticking, and you have one year to live. Either you’re born into time, and have no worries, or you begin working your life away. Will Salas is the story’s hero. He lives in the poorest region, named Dayton. He rarely has more than 24 hours on his body clock, and must work every day at a factory to earn another day.

By Francesca Tonegutti. Time is the only means of exchange in a futuristic city where no one ever ages. It is a place divided, where poor people (mortal) and rich people (immortal) are programmed with a digital timer to live for just 25 years. Everyone lives differently in isolated places. On one hand, many people work all day, or steal to get a handful more hours; on the other hand, some people manage immortality in a greedy way, living in extreme luxury. Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) has been given one century of life as a gift, so he decides to cross the border from his poor neighborhood into a wealthy neighborhood, where he meets a beautiful green-eyed rich girl (Amanda Seyfried). Together they decide to restore justice, hunted by time's avengers, and even find time for love.

Review by Carasoo In fact, there's never time to do anything and taking time from others seems to be one way to have more of your own. When you have too much

04

01 The clock starts ticking!

02 Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried), daughter of the super-wealthy Philippe Weis

03 Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) and Sylvia Weis on the run from the Timekeepers

04 Movie poster. The movie is available on Blu-ray & DVD in March/April 2012. © 2011, 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved

[W intimecasino.com]

Characters Justin Timberlake (Will Salas), Amanda Seyfried (Sylvia Weis), Cillian Murphy (Raymond Leon), Vincent Kartheiser (Philippe Weis), Olivia Wilde (Rachel Salas), Alex Pettyfer (Fortis), Johnny Galecki (Borel), Matt Bomer (Henry Hamilton)

Written and directed by Andrew Niccol Produced by Eric Newman Executive producers Andrew Z. Davis, Kristel Laiblin and Amy Israel.

time, you want to use it. When you have too little, you don't know how to find more. Maybe the problem is not time, but the way we use it. Hermann

Hesse

said that "Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day." You don’t need to rush, just wait: the right time returns on its own and in the meantime you won't waste energy in finding it.

Book Selection: Exciting New Releases

• The HR Answer Book: An Indispensable Guide for Managers and Human Resources

Professionals

Shawn Smith & Rebecca Mazin

• Human Resource Management: Functions, Applications, Skill Development Robert Lussier & John Hendon

• Everything You Know About Business Is Wrong Alastair Dryburgh

• Your HR Goldmine Alan Collins

• Judgement Calls: 12 Stories of Big Decisions and the Teams That Got Them Right Thomas H. Davenport & Brook Manville

• Maximum Willpower: How to Master the New Science of Self-Control Kelly McGonigal

• The Power of Reputation Chris Komisarjevsky

• Recruiting, Interviewing, Selecting & Orienting New Employees Diane Arthur

• Conversations for Creating Star Performers Shawn Kent Hayashi

• The Winning Factor: Inspire Gold-Medal Performance in Your Employees Peter Jensen

• Persuasive Business Proposals: Writing to Win More Customers, Clients, and Contracts Tom Sant

Barbara Mitchell is a HR professional and management consultant. Before co-founding The Millennium Group International much of her HR career was spent with Marriott International. Cornelia Gamlem is president of The GEMS Group. She has served on the National Board of Directors of the Society for HR Management and on the Federal Advisory Board founded by the U.S. Departments of Labor and HHS.

The Big Book of HR

By Barbara Mitchell and Cornelia Gamlem Career Press 320 pp. $19.99

Shirzad Chamine is Chairman of CTI. CTI has trained coaches and managers in most of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as faculty at Stanford and Yale business schools. His background includes PhD studies in neuroscience in addition to a BA in psychology, an MS in electrical engineering, and an MBA from Stanford. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children.

Positive Intelligence

By Shirzad Chamine Greenleaf Book Press 224 pp. $23.95

Scott Snell is the E. Thayer Bigelow Professor of Business Administration at Darden, where he teaches courses in Leadership and Strategic Management. Prior to joining the Darden faculty in 2007, Snell was professor and director of executive education at Cornell University’s Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies and a professor of management in the Smeal College of Business at Pennsylvania State University.

Illustrations by Hanna Melin, London, UK

Principles of Human Resource Management

By Scott Snell and George Bohlander

South-Western College Publishing 864 pp. $232.95

Packed with relevant forms, and tips on rewarding and retaining top employees, deciding when – and whom – to hire, and managing both internal conflicts and rewards, The Big Book of HR is a veritable bible for human resources professionals at companies of any size.

The Big Book of HR

The Complete Guide to Selecting, Engaging, and Retaining the Best Talent

Interview with Barbara Mitchell and Cornelia Gamlem

Authors Barbara Mitchell and Cornelia Gamlem provide a useful handbook for HR professionals that offers easy-to-use templates and advice, tips, and tricks for managing organizations of any size.

twsm What types of forms are included, and what makes them particularly effective?

bm&cg The Big Book of HR provides templates, checklists, and sample forms that can easily be adapted to any organization without starting from scratch. A number of checklists provide guidance to managers and HR professionals on issues such as preventing workplace discrimination and retaliation, and things to consider before taking adverse employment action. There are also guidelines for selecting brokers and service partners, developing a statement of work, and developing interview questions including exit interview questions.

twsm What is the most common challenge faced today, and how does your book address it?

bm&cg There’s nothing more important than having the right people in the right jobs, so attracting and retaining top talent is a huge challenge. A strategic approach to hiring is critical, starting with the organization's strategic objectives and determining if new hires are needed, or if retraining is required for current employees. Then it’s where to find the right people and how to attract them. Once you get them, how do you assimilate them into your culture and help them succeed? How do you engage them? HR professionals must help their organizations do all of these things in a cost-effective manner and navigate the increasingly difficult legal landscape. •

Shawn Smith and Rebecca Mazin

The HR Answer Book: An Indispensable Guide for Managers and Human Resources Professionals

[AMACOM, 272 pp., $24.95]

A comprehensive guide to the many changes HR pros have witnessed in recent years – from the economy and job market to developments in law and technology -- "The HR Answer Book" explores these recent developments and addresses more than 200 questions of concern to every employer.

Robert Lussier and John Hendon

Human Resource Management: Functions, Applications, Skill Development

[Sage Publications, 588 pp., $99.95]

A comprehensive textbook, this manual espouses a three-prong approach, focusing on not only traditional strategies, but also cutting-edge trends and modern challenges facing new talent as they join the human resources workforce. A must-have resource for aspiring HR managers.

[Headline Business Plus, 224 pp., £13.99]

Alastair Dryburgh reveals the fallacy of tried-but-not-necessarily-true axioms and suspect strategies that govern business, from cavemanera assumptions like “Familiarity is security” and a present-day obsession with magical thinking, to incentive schemes that reward poor performance.

Alan Collins

Your HR Goldmine: How to Turn Your Human Resources Know-How Into a Lucrative Second Income & Make A Difference in People's Lives... Without Leaving Your HR Day Job [SuccessinHR.com Publishing, 210 pp., $29.97]

Author Alan Collins reveals the secrets to “cash in” on your existing human resources knowledge. With ease and simplicity, Collins explains the most effective way to capitalize on your expertise and present yourself as the HR guru you know you are – without leaving your day job.

Thomas H. Davenport & Brook Manville

Judgement Calls: 12 Stories of Big Decisions and the Teams That Got Them Right

[Harvard Business Review Press, 288 pp., $30]

Most business decisions are made by a leader teetering high at the top of the corporate ladder. But Davenport and Manville argue that integral decisionmaking should not be left to individuals or closely-knit teams, but instead draw upon collective wisdom of an informed, creative group of employees.

Alastair Dryburgh

Everything You Know About Business Is Wrong

Through working through the obstacles of hundreds of CEOs and their teams, author Shirzad (who is, incidentally, chairman of the world’s largest training firm) has developed three strategies for increasing what he terms PQ, or positive intelligence, designed to fit a modern professional’s work life and turn challenges into growth.

Positive Intelligence

Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Reach Their True Potential And How You Can Achieve Yours

Shirzad Chamine explores the debilitating habits, or “Saboteurs,” and our innate human strengths (termed “the Sage”) at work in individuals and teams, as well as the five “Powers” for helping us reach our full potential.

twsm What practices can HR departments adopt in order to encourage employees?

sc A key question I ask HR managers and pros is, What percentage of the improvements in leadership skills, team cohesiveness or morale attempted through training actually lasts? Most say that the vast majority of the impact fizzles shortly after. The key reason is the destructive force of the Saboteurs.

twsm How can we avoid the destructive force of Saboteurs?

sc My recommendation is focus on building a solid foundation of increasing Positive Intelligence. Have retreats where, beforehand, everyone has read Positive Intelligence and done their Saboteur and PQ assessments. In all my years, I’ve never run a retreat where a team member has looked the others in

Interview with Shirzad Chamine

the eye and said “I don’t have any of these Saboteurs.” People get it. The focus of the conversation shifts from “Let me tell you what’s wrong with you,” to “Help me beat my Saboteurs and I will do the same for you.” This framework changes the nature of the conversation, showing that all of us can learn to reach more of our potential. It is a very empowering, equalizing and forwarding conversation.

twsm What are some examples illustrating the importance of taming Saboteurs and encouraging the Sage?

sc One of the greatest leaders of the century was Nelson Mandela. He was the very embodiment of the Sage. The Sage perspective is that everything that happens to us can be turned into a gift and opportunity. The Sage uses its 5 great powers to do so: If you read his biography closely, you’ll see each of these powers in play. Once imprisoned, he Explored how the “enemy” operated so that he could

understand and exploit what made the system run, rather than bang his head against the wall. He Innovated how to turn the prison into an educational camp for his fellow prisoners. He Navigated using deeply held values and principles. He Activated his strategies objectively without biasing intervention from Saboteurproduced anger, hate, self-pity or fear. Once released, he Empathized not

only with the oppressed, but even with the oppressors. This wouldn’t have been possible if he allowed his Saboteurs to react with sustained anger, hatred, resignation or self-pity. It all started with a Sage perspective that this shall be turned into a gift and opportunity, and sticking to that vision steadfastly through blow after blow.•

Kelly McGonigal

Maximum Willpower: How to Master the New Science of Self-Control [Pan Macmillan, 288 pp., £11.99]

Willpower, argues Stanford professor and author Kelly McGonigal, is not a limited resource: “Self-control is like

a muscle: It gets tired from use, but regular exercise makes it stronger.” Beat procrastination, bad habits, and other serious impediments to success with her science-supported strategies.

Chris Komisarjevsky

The Power of Reputation: Strengthen the Asset That Will Make or Break Your Career

[AMACOM, 210 pp., $22]

A reputation takes time to build but just a moment to ruin. The Power of

Reputation presents an actionable plan for businesspeople seeking to create a reputation for themselves, and their companies – one that not

only builds trust but also communicates professionalism and power.

Diane

Arthur

Recruiting, Interviewing, Selecting & Orienting New Employees

[AMACOM, 384 pp., $49.95]

Book Selection

The leading text for use in university-level human resources classrooms, Scott Snell and George Bohlander's work is a practicable reference guide to understanding the most effective workplace strategies.

Principles of Human Resource Management

18th Edition - International Edition

A leading text for use in university-level human resources classrooms, Scott Snell and George Bohlander's work is a practicable reference guide to understanding the most effective workplace strategies.

twsm What was your goal in writing this text?

ss First, we wanted this book to be for all managers, not just HR managers. The second goal has been to link research and practice. We focus on how research informs practice, the bottom-line implications for what managers can and

should do to develop a world-class workforce.

twsm What changes have you noticed during your career?

ss One of the notable aspects is that it is an evidence-based field; for decades managers have been using data to make decisions. However, over the past decade or so the field has become much more strategic in its focus. The effort to link HR or employment data with outcomes that drive business performance is much more substantial.

twsm What are some exciting developments in the field?

ss One of the clearest trends is the integration of technology. For some time, we’ve seen IT helping to standardize and automate HR practices. Now we see the power of IT in connecting

people, leveraging social networks within organizations and the capacity for knowledge sharing. We’ve already seen a shift to what we might call the transformational impact of technology; that is, how technology changes the very way that HR is conducted. This includes business and employment processes, outsourcing some transactional activities, and the like. It also includes more self-service administration, instantaneous access to data and realtime decision-making. The upshot is that HR education requires a technical component. Those that master these elements will have a leg up. This needs to be combined with strategic elements of the business while recognizing that HR is about the human element. My advice to students and managers alike is to balance the three skillsets: technical, business, and human.•

Visit our online store: workstyleshop.com

Order the book "Talking" “Talking” is a book that discusses how work changes.

The newest edition of Diane Arthur’s guide is jam-packed with the forms, checklists, guidelines, and ready-touse interview questions that HR pros have come to rely on. Her revised and updated fifth edition discusses interviewing, documentation issues, reference check-ins and more.

Shawn Kent Hayashi

Conversations for Creating Star Performers

[McGraw Hill, 256 pp., $18.00]

For HR professionals, conversations

aren’t just ice-breaking or teambuilding tools – the right kind can promote productivity in the workplace. Author Shawn Kent Hayashi’s handbook demonstrates how a simple performance review can pave the way to constructive conversations and coaching.

Peter Jensen

The Winning Factor: Inspire Gold-Medal Performance in Your Employees

[AMACOM, 228 pp., $24.95]

Peter Jensen isn’t a typical career coach. He’s trained Olympic athletes and Fortune 500 executives alike. His five main goals include: managing teams, growing trust, using imagery, overcoming and making the most of road blocks, and embracing challenges.

The main subject of the book is the future identity of work. The general theme has been developed by 135 professionals from different sectors who have actively contributed. The result has been divided into four sections: photography, sketches, text, and five film interpretations (included on the attached DVD).

In the book you will find the description of the locations that hosted the various workshops, a presentation of our partners, the illustration of the T-shirt project as well as some statistical data. The collaborators and the people who took part in the event come from 23 countries throughout Europe and Asia, and the US. The staff is made of the best international professionals. The easy-to-read journalistic style and the clear straightforward topics make this book a very good way to get some clues on how the business world is going to change.

Interview with Scott Snell

Where to Work City Guides

Albuquerque

The city has several peculiarities, significantly expressed by its nicknames. It is called the “Duke City” because of its historical origins, and the “city of balloons” because of the international balloons festival which takes place here every year. The first Spanish explorers arrived in Albuquerque in approximately 1540, but only in 1706 a group of colonists settled here with permissions of King Philip of Spain.

The colony’s Governor, Francisco Cuervo y Valdez, penned a letter to the Duke of Albuquerque back in Spain to report their newly founded villa, named La Villa de Albuquerque in honor of the Duke. Over the centuries the first “r” was dropped, leaving Albuquerque spelled as it is today and leaving the nickname “Duke City”. The city is proud of its origins and, most of all, of its multicultural culture: here you find a real meltingpot among Native Americans, Hispanics and other communities. Today Albuquerque is a city open to the future, in full economic development, investing in research and higher education, at the center of a beautiful natural environment well preserved. Thanks to its sunny weather with almost 310 days of sunshine per year and thanks to the respect of the nature surrounding the city, here inhabitants and tourists can enjoy nearly every kind of outdoor activities all over the year.

Oporto

The second largest city of Portugal, after the capital, is internationally famous for its Porto Wine but it is much more than this. Oporto is one of the oldest European cultural centers, its historical center is an UNESCO’s World Heritage Site since 1996 and the city has been European Culture Capital in 2001. These designations encouraged a renewed development: now it is a city full of life with cultural events all over the year, contemporary buildings of famous architects, museums, theatres, art galleries and so on...

The great vitality of its inhabitants has always supported the economy of the city, taking also benefit by its strategic position close to the Atlantic coast: Oporto has always played an important role in the international trades and nowadays is base to some of the larger Portuguese corporations.

An interesting peculiarity of the city is the way of feasting the patron saint: on June 23, Oporto celebrates São João (Saint John) with a big street party and people walk around the streets with rubber hammers hitting each other on the head.

Blantyre

Blantyre competes for the economical primate with the capital, Lilongwe, and its stature as Malawi's center of commerce and industry began through its role for colonial trade in ivory. Located in the Southern region of the country, it is still an important hub for trades and businesses in Southern Africa and is home to many international firms which based their Malawian headquarters here. Since the country had been a British colony, the city has some common traits with the European culture, but these are mixed with local traditions still important: to maintain, support and spread African arts, in fact, was founded the Blantyre Arts Festival in 2009 and this is one of the most important events in the city. Today the city is improving in safety, education and urban development and to people coming here for leisure and work it offers good services and the opportunity to approach an uncontaminated nature, preserved in the reserve areas surrounding the city where you may observe wild animals and practice outdoor activities.

100 Work Cities

Ask for our previous guides: Turin, São Paulo, Kuala Lumpur, Denver, Ekaterinburg, Marseille, Lagos, Thessaloniki, Bergen and Kyoto.

Portugal Oporto

Malawi Blantyre

The top 100 cities for workers over the next decade are profiled in a project put together by Work Style Company

Illustration by Eelco Van den Berg

Text by Maria C. Cattoni

Where to Work Country Guide Portugal

Good Students Still Proving Themselves

Viana do Castelo

Vila do Conde

Jobs are getting harder and harder to come by in Portugal, but the country is showing rare stoicism in its battle to make its latest bailout work.

The self-styled “good student” of Europe, Portugal last year received its third bailout by an international institution since 1978. A fourth will follow if it is unable to return to the markets by next September, as envisaged by its EU-IMF bailout terms. And with unemployment on the rise and more and more businesses closing across the country, there is a fear that an unpredictable situation will become uncontrollable for its relatively new Social Democrats-led government. And yet to walk the streets of Lisbon and

Figueira da Foz

Braga

Guimaraes

Oporto Paredes

Santa Maria Da Feira

Chaves

Videu

Covilha Pombal

Leiria

Ponte de Lima Aveiro Guarda Cantenhede Coimbra Alcobaca Santarem Torres Vedras

Castelo Branco Ourem

Portugal

Sintra Loures Setubal Sesimbra

Lisboa

Population 10.555.853 inhabitants Country area 92,3 sq km

World's leading producer of cork and the only authentic Porto is produced exclusively in the Douro Valley

Official language is Portuguese, with a recognized regional language called Mirandese

Sevilla

Loulé

Portimao Faro

Where to Work Country Guide Portugal

talk to business managers is to find a different mood than what you might expect. There is fear and uncertainty, yes. But there is also hope (at least among those who still have jobs) that the ills in the Portuguese economy and political system that have it perennially labeled as one of the poor men of Europe can finally be shaken off. Most notably, there has been virtually no social unrest in light of austerity measures that have meant cuts in pensions and public sector pay, and tax rises.

Europe's Good Students

There is stoicism and the belief that by once again being “good students” – a reference to the efforts made in defying expectations and qualifying for euro zone membership – and following the bailout terms to the letter, they have a chance of emerging from the financial crisis stronger. That is not to say that the effects of the crisis are not evident. Youth unemployment has topped 30% (the figure for the entire workforce is above 14%) and there is a definite brain drain of talent

abroad, often to Portuguese-speaking former colonies such as Brazil, Angola and Mozambique, but also elsewhere in the EU.

There has been criticism of the government for going further than required by the EU and IMF creditors. Required to bring the country’s public deficit down from to 5.9% of GDP by the end of 2012, the government recently announced its forecast of slightly more than 4% by the end of the year. In 2010 it peaked at 9.8%, with the result that the country’s benchmark ten-year bonds yield reached an astonishing 14%. Borrowing on the open markets had become impossible.

The Socialist government at the time resigned and – with support from the Social Democrats and third-biggest People’s Party – negotiated a 78 billion Euro bailout ahead of May 2011 elections.

It seemed at the time that the country that was, until 1974, under a near 50year dictatorship, and required to turn to the IMF for bailouts twice before, would once again find itself – both literally and figuratively – on the periphery of Europe.

By THRASY PETROPOULOS

But a degree of perspective is required when judging Portugal. It is different than Ireland and (by a long shot) Greece, the other two bailed-out Euro zone members. A small nation renowned for its spirit of adventure and thirst for discovery, the reversal of the decades-long trend of residents of former colonies moving to Portugal is undoubtedly also an opportunity for some Portuguese businesses to branch out into new territories.

IT consultancy, in particular, is currently exploiting this possibility. Those that manage to sell services abroad are providing a rare successful export as Lisbon-based companies are increasingly looking abroad to overcome a crowded local market.

Order Resurfaces

One such example is Mind Source, whose CEO Francisco Lopes da Fonseca is unapologetic for sounding optimistic, even quietly pleased, that the plug has been pulled on a system too often in the past characterized by patronage and poor business practice.

Siscog is a software company that provides decision support systems for resource planning and management in transportation companies, with special experience in the field of railways.

Founded in 1986, SISCOG uses a combination of Artificial Intelligence and Operational Research technologies, resulting in state of the art optimization software.

01 Eduarda Ferreira, Head of Organizational Development Department at Siscog

02 No barriers at Siscog

“

The managers’ photos were taken by photographer Tugba Karatop for Work Style. Tugba was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1987. She moved to Lisbon to study photography at the Ar.Co Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual. She owns a degree in English and Literature from Istanbul University. While studying she works as a freelance photographer.

I’m socially aware enough to know what people are going through now and how difficult it is, but I also believe we are living the best moments for Portugal,” he says from his bright and youthful office in northern Lisbon. There are three sets of photographs on the wall of the main corridor within the office, showing the staff number swelling over the last five years. And in another room, a TV game console is set up for staff members in need of a bit of downtime.

Four years ago, the consultancy firm had 500,000 Euros of business turnover. In 2009 it rose to 1.1 million; in 2010 to 1.6 million and within the first two months of this year, the firm had already booked 2.5 million Euros’ worth of business. By the end of the year, it estimates its annual turnover will have reached 3.2 million Euros. Bear in mind, also, that IT companies can now charge only around half what they used to.

“We might sink a bit deeper but that will only make us stronger and better,” he says. “I love my country but I have to say that this was necessary. The problems are chiefly extended to those who have not done enough to be beyond those prob

The Portuguese List of Best Workplaces

By Sandrine Lage, Founder, Great Place to Work® Institute Portugal

Founded in 1911, ISEG is a research oriented institution, whose mission is to instruct capable business and economics students and to train the most skilled managers, providing each with cutting edge knowledge in the corresponding areas of interest. ISEG is one of the top prestigious and experienced business and economics schools based in Portugal, one of the three top-ranked providers in these fields of education at undergraduate, graduate and executive training levels.

03 Joao Cantiga Esteves, Economist and Professor at ISEG

Working with our media partner in 1999, we were the first to publish the Great Place to Work list in Europe. Since then things have changed if we look at the Portuguese situation. The institute’s benchmarks throughout Europe indicate amazing consistency. Yet we're talking about great places to work, not the market in general. We're talking about companies that are amazing in their treatment of young people and women, knowing this is clearly not a trend in the local or worldwide market. The economic crisis has taken a toll; there is a trend of young people looking for jobs abroad. But I believe that whenever a candidate invests himself in his work, the greater his chances are of finding a job where he fits and where the company values him. Where I’ve observed this balance, things go well, independent of sector. We’re observing a smooth but interesting trend of people turning their backs on the corporate world and starting a completely new activity on their own and usually within the country. Sooner or later, freelancing will be much more common than it is now. In Portugal, one thing is certain: the general level of professionalism and efficiency in the market is still far from other countries. But we have fantastic exceptions and most can be found in our GPTW list. We’re specifically talking about multinationals and, in terms of IT, you’ll observe that they consistently present better results than their counterparts in other countries. They have an excellent strategy. Our experience shows more straightforwardness and outstanding examples of great workplaces in the north of the country, with companies that began as family businesses with no

guidelines at all. These companies frequently deal with another reality, the industrial one. We must recognize that there is a gap between the service and industrial sectors, yet they often still manage to be great workplaces. We see that employees in firms out of Lisbon value company benefits much more their counterparts in the capital. It feels more genuine, even if it is not always the case.

2011 Best PortugalWorkplaces

01 Cisco SystemsPortugal

Microsoft Portugal 03 Everis Portugal 04 ROFF

Chep

Mind Source

SAS Institute

Maksen

Grupo CH Consulting

Medtronic

BMW Portugal

Roche Farmacêutica Química

Huf Portuguesa

Laboratórios Abbott

Tabaqueira II (PMI)

Janssen-Cilag

Teleperformance Portugal

Johnson’s Wax de Portugal

Diageo Portugal 20 Mercedes-Benz - Financiamento

Special awards • Best workplace for young people: Maksen • Best workplace for women: CHEP

Great Place to Work® Institute Portugal Escritórios Quinta do Jamor 2790-466 Queijas T +351 214 177 419 [W greatplacetowork.pt]

SANDRINE LAGE

“

lems. They expected society to do whatever was necessary to look after them and it's been shown around the world that this just isn't possible. No government or society is capable of paying unlimited healthcare or pensions.”

He points out that companies with nothing to hide should welcome the growing transparency. And also that, in a time of doom and gloom, being positive when soliciting clients makes your company shine.

I don't believe the market is saturated here,” he maintains, “but our goal for 2012 was always that it would be the year of internationalization for the company and we are on track to achieve it.”

The new government is, he says, supporting companies looking to expand abroad, using Portuguese embassies as a reference point and providing letters of trust. “We had to pass a long and exhaustive test indicating our robustness,” he says.

Looking Abroad

As a very recent player in the market –and, therefore, unaffected by the 2003

dot-com burst that decimated so many other IT consultancy firms, Mind Source can afford to be positive.

Perhaps a more important example of the type of company that will survive, and quite possibly prosper, within the crisis comes in the form of ROFF, an System Analysis and Program Development (SAP) firm on the western outskirts of Lisbon.

Founded in 1996, the company came up with a novel way of surviving the 2003 crisis. The board informed senior staff that the numbers were simply not adding up. With around half the 100-person workforce idle, the implications were obvious. The staff convened and suggested a 20% voluntary reduction in salaries, something the company was, under Portuguese law, forbidden to impose itself. Less than a year later, it happened again – with similar consequences. The upshot was an overall 36% cut in initial salaries. Only one person refused. Not only have those salaries returned to, and passed, those levels but the ROFF staff has now increased to around 500. “When the market came back in 2004, we had the resources, solutions and ex-

pertise that no one else had,” recalls Pedro Gil, the marketing manager. “This is what has made ROFF by far the market leader in Portugal, double the size of the nearest competitor. And it has, essentially, been made with Portuguese talent. We have completed projects in 42 countries, most of them since 2006.”

Others Venture Abroad

ROFF has, naturally, been given considerable media attention as an exporter of Portuguese intelligence. Its rate of staff growth over the past five years matches exactly the country's upwards jobless rate curve. Crucially, it has a staff turnover of less than 2% -- in very large part to due to culture of unity started in 2003, now passed down among workers who were not even with the firm at the time. This is not to ignore the reality of people fleeing the country as jobs in struggling firms dry up. According to local daily Correio da Manha, a total of about 149,000 Portuguese emigrated in 2010, mainly for France, Angola, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The Brazilian embassy in Lisbon said the number of

Jordao was founded in Guimarães in 1982 by a small group of professionals with a large experience in the commercial refrigeration industry. Since then the company innovates, designs, develops and produces commercial refrigeration equipment: displays, counters, vertical exhibitors, for the Food Retail and the Horeca channels.

04 Isidro Lobo, CEO of J.Julio Jordao

05 Jordao’s employees give back to the community in a team building session 06 Team building in the woods 07 Jordao’s employees ride for team building

Portuguese with work permits in Brazil alone jumped by 52,000 between 2010 to mid-2011, while Portuguese media report that the number of Portuguese in Angola more than quadrupled in the past few years to over 100,000, four times the number of Angolans living in Portugal

But here lies another attraction of multinationals in Portugal.

“We can offer people an international career,” points out ROFF's human resource's manager, Silvia Gusmao. “We try to integrate younger people here because they want to go abroad. We all have friends who are going abroad because they feel they can't get a job here. You hear about it more and more on the news.”

“But last year surprised us,” interrupted her colleague, Pedro. “We are still managing to grow in Portugal. It is true, though, that we are pushing for international business. Our main aim is to offer near-shoring, in opposition to offshoring in India. We have a SAP development factory, developing customer specific code in Lisbon, a team offering maintenance remotely. And another ap-

proach is to address markets that are not mature, such as in Angola, or not yet settled, as in Scandinavia. More recently we have opened an office in Morocco.” International business accounts for 57% of ROFF's turnover, and considerably more in terms of profit.

The Third Time

Trying to make sense of Portugal's economy is a tricky business. There are those, notably the Socialist Party, who believe the April 2011 bailout was eminently avoidable as it was negotiated only after its government fell due to the now ruling Social Democrat voting down the so called fourth stabilizing plan. Scratching the surface, however, reveals a more complicated picture. Economist Joao Cantiga Estevez, of Lisbon's Superior Institute of Economics and Business, stresses that the previous prime minister Jose Socrates failed to inform the president or opposition parties of the contents of what would have been a fourth stabilizing plan (the first three failed). Once it had been voted down in parliament, he called elections but was still responsible

for negotiating the EU-IMF bailout, albeit with broad support from the other key political parties.

“Portugal is different to other countries,” points out Esteves. “The problem here is simply that there has been too much debt across the board for the last 15 years: public, private, family and banks. We have to de-leverage everything at the same time. And we have been late in doing so, waiting until the middle of 2011 for something to be done.”

Now that something is being done, Esteves is adamant that the government's rigorous belt-tightening approach is absolutely necessary. And he insists that reducing the deficit quicker than the bailout terms require can only be positive.

“There's a will to show the world and the financial markets that, this time, we will fulfill the requirements of the treaty,” he says. “Before this we have always missed our targets and the government believes it's the best way to regain credibility. It does not mean that it will work perfectly but it is an insurance policy. By following the EU-IMF map, we will be able to ask for further help, if we need it.”

Critics of the government maintain that

Maksen was founded in early 2003 with the purpose of providing consulting services in four different areas. Their consulting services are in: business and entrepreneurial strategy; organization, processes efficiency and economic-financial analyses; technology and information systems; and telecommunications network engineering.

08 Antonio Lagartixo, Managing Partner at Maksen

09 Open space at Maksen

10 Dynamics at Maksen

11 Team work at Maksen

the budget deficit may have been brought down, but it did so at the expense of a recently-revised-upwards recession forecast of 3.3% for 2012 and an unemployment rate heading for 15%. Both figures are worse than anticipated in the bailout treaty. Also, the easing of the deficit was achieved as much by shifting bank pension funds into the social security system as by cutting pensions and public sector wages.

But Esteves adds, "as an economist, it would be nice to have a measure that would do everything at once: balance the budget, take care of public and private debt and have growth and job creation. Unfortunately, that's not how it works. We need to have a priority and balancing the budget is clearly number one. And we don't have savings that we can throw into the economy.” He also points out that the impressive growth in disposable income per capita in the country over the past decade has been matched almost exactly by the growth of family debt. “We all want to have more money but it can't come completely out of debt,” he says. “And we've had the IMF here twice before in the past 25 years. It's time to change.”

A Reality Check

“It's pretty clear that we won't be going back to the markets in September next year and that will mean another bailout,” observes Vitor Rodrigues Oliveira, a journalist for RTP Antena 1 radio station. “You can be good students but you can't avoid reality. Being very realistic, will the markets decrease their interest rates on the secondary markets if they see a country in a recession of 3.3 percent?

The government is counting on growth in 2013 but I don't know which kind of figures they are basing this on. It's probably just wishful thinking and trying to create a positive mood that will encourage internal and external investment in the hope that something will change. But it's fragile.”

He also says that the lack of public opposition to the austerity measures is both a positive and a negative.

“There's lots of distress here when people talk about politicians but there's also resignation,” he says as to why the March 22 general strike in Portugal was so poorly attended. By contrast, the Spanish and Italians have become increasing-

ly vociferous against their governments, and the Greeks routinely clash with riot police outside their parliament. “There are mixed feelings: the same person who tells you he hates the troika will also tell you he is relieved that something is being done about the problems. The images coming out of Greece tell us that we are not at that stage yet but that we could get there unless something is done about it.” He also stresses that sociologists often mention the effect of nearly 50 years of dictatorship in Portugal. “We don't have a culture of risk. In some ways it's good, but in others it isn't. And it definitely affects how we see the world,” he says.

Being Selective

That said, any potential resignation should not be confused with a lack of desire to work and, if at all possible, stay put. There are tens of thousands of young Portuguese firing in CVs to local companies in the hope of landing a job. One showcase is Maksen, a consulting, engineering and IT management company, which considers 3,000 applicants annually and offers jobs to just 30 to 40 of

12 Francisco Lopes de Fonseca, CEO of Mind Source

13 Meeting room at Mind Source

Mind Source is part of SetCom Group, with a sphere of experience in the Information Technology, Electronics, After-Sales Services Management and Logistics Market. The SetCom Group provides all the management support for business development of its subsidiaries. The company specializes in integrated projects and outsourcing solutions for technological projects covering Information Systems, Electronic and Telecommunications.

those. The selection process itself takes a year. and involves a filtering system that leaves only those seen as fitting the company culture perfectly.

Maksen is, after all, Portugal's best workplace for young people, as judged by the annual Great Place to Work Institute survey. The average age at the firm, based in central Lisbon, is just 28. Even the company's managing partner and head of marketing, Antonio Lagartixo and Ines Silva Nunes are under 40. Together, they offer an insight into what young Portuguese with an appetite to succeed search for in a job, and of course what Maksen looks for in turn.

“The key to our success is that we are all very similar. It starts in the recruitment process,” explains Lagartixo. “I don't want the smartest or best-evaluated people at universities who don't fit in with our culture. We live our life to the maximum. When we have fun, we have fun. And when we work, we work for the best. It's a way of being. It's not just an age thing, it's an attitude. We are a people company. We don't have patents or products to sell. What we deliver is know-how, brain power. If we don't have the right

people, we will never deliver a unique type of work.”

Lagartixo is fortunate enough to be describing a a healthy, outward-looking company that, as a spin-off from the local branches of Arthur Andersen and Deloitte, went from having 25 people in 2003 to a staff of well over 200. But it also represents an ideal for many young Portuguese.

“We go to universities, invite potential employees to focus groups and group interviews, and keep filtering,” says Nunes.

“When they are recruited they meet their future colleagues to ensure they know what they are getting into. And then we invite them to the annual meeting – two days outdoors, mixing serious work and fun – all before they have signed.”

Lagartixo explains Maksen's three different business units: strategy operations and IT consulting, an engineer and telecom practice and an outsourcing unit. There are offices in Angola and Sao Paolo, Brazil to serve those markets and act as a hub for surrounding countries.

“Around 50-60% of our total annual income is from international consulting ,” he points out. “Although this year

we have grown something like 25-30% in Portugal, but that is due to some tenders that we put in in the past coming through.”

Jobs on Ice

Around Lisbon the story is no different different for job seekers. Positions are hard to come by and when they do so they are heavily oversubscribed. Portugal's key industries of textiles and agriculture have suffered of late – the former due to the economic downturn and the latter due to the long-term consequences of the EU's failing agriculture policy. Added to that, the country is one of the more disparately populated in Europe, with significant populations in the likes of Porto, Coimbra, Aveiro and elsewhere.

Indeed, the provinces have been worse affected than the capital in terms of job losses. Isidoro Lobo, the CEO of retail refrigeration equipment producer Jose Julio Jordao, estimates the unemployment in Guimaraes, where his company is based, some 400km north of Lisbon, to have topped 20% already.

14 15 — 16

As the Portuguese market leader in implementing SAP solutions, ROFF runs consultancy projects in all technological areas of business support. With a staff of 500 and offices in Lisbon, Porto, Covilhã, Paris, Luanda, Stockholm and Casablanca, ROFF was the first SAP partner operating in Portugal to cater for the SME market as well as for large Portuguese and multinational companies. ROFF is a Gold Channel Partner and Services Partner.

14 Pedro Gil and Silvia Gusmao, Marketing Manager and HR Manager at ROFF

15,16 Developing ideas at ROFF

The idea is to take the act of vandalism – the act of destroying in order to create – to the extreme, as modus operandi.

Alexandre Farto AKA Vhils has been writing graffiti and expressing his visual poetry since the early 2000s. He was particularly influenced by the transformations brought on by the intensive urban development which the country underwent in the 1980s and 1990s. As the countryside around Lisbon was taken over by the sprawling suburbs, he saw graffiti as the perfect tool to both explore and express his ideas on the urban environment. Scratching the Surface was started in 2007, it consists of a series of pieces, that have been carved onto the surfaces of walls in chiseled simple contrasts, revealing the rough layers that lie beneath. The fundamental premise behind this series is the act of working with the city as the prime material, using part of the urban environment itself, incorporating it into the piece and making the piece a part of the city at the same time. With this series Vhils is trying to express the notion that behind the monotone brick and concrete surfaces that make up the cities we live in, defining the nature of who we are, lies a human dimension which is dwarfed by the immensity of what they stand for. With this series Vhils has been exploring the notion of creating by means of destruction – a notion he first encountered in his practice of illegal graffiti. The main tool is based on the inverted use of the technique of stenciling – by forming compositions through the removal of different layers of matter to create sharp contrasts, instead of creating by the overlapping of layers. It is in essence an art of removal.

17—18

Art by Vhils. Photo courtesy of Alexandre Farto

As with all large regional operations, the 160-person company is a very significant local employer.

“It's one of the reasons why we consider the welfare of the employees so carefully, not just with the salary but with health insurance and overall well-being,” Lobo says. “Happier workers make for better productivity and, in the end, happier customers.”

That does not change reality, however, and the company has been forced to reduce its staff number from 200 to achieve sustainable figures, even if it is fortunate enough to have 70% of its customer-base abroad.

“Most of these were voluntary redundancies,” Lobo stresses. “And the crisis was perhaps good for us. In 2009, the turnover was 20 million Euros but we had been working at full capacity for five years without stopping to think about what we could improve.”

On The Right Track

But it is in Lisbon that most attention will naturally fall. And the reality is that the daily post at most firms brings raft after raft of CVs. “Until last year it was a battle to get qualified people interested in our projects,” recalls Eduarda Ferreira, head of the organizational development department at SISCOG, a provider of transport solutions based in the capital. “Then came the crisis and we now are being approached daily by computer engineers, mathematicians and other kinds of engineers. The emphasis is on financial control and cost-cutting. We are among the few to be swimming against the stream, but generally the first cost is staff and the younger the worker the easier and cheaper he or she is to lay off. Added to that, companies now need to be self-sufficient, with no support from banks or the government.”

She points out that SISCOG is due to

grow by 10-15% over the next year to 110 workers. Again, the company benefits from having an international presence, having won important tenders in the likes of the UK and Holland, but also with increasing attention turning towards Brazil, China and even the US. “Trying to enter the American market is a huge task,” she points out. “And it's the same in Brazil, even though we share the same language. But it was the same in the age of discoveries. We were a small country with small boats but we had to go somewhere.” “It's crazy,” she says with obvious sorrow. “So many workers are now looking to go to other countries: Brazil, the UK, wherever. There is less money around. Our market has shrunk.”

Is there a solution for the country? After a pause comes the answer: “Quality, not quantity. But, even if you look outside Europe, you still need money to develop your product.”•

One day, my friend Paulo decides to face the revolving sea and invites himself aboard a trawler with no proven sailing skills whatsoever. Hell, I know he can’t even swim! But I also knew he lived in the city long enough to have heard about the unfortunate sinking of fishermen's boats once or twice. That’s just how he is when he gets an idea in his head. In the end, nothing of this matters to him, he confessed that he never thought of danger and argues that war photography must be incredibly worse. No fear, that’s why he understood what those octopuses being trapped and lifted out from the bottom of the continental shelf were trying to say: once outside their habitat, they may arise to their certain deaths, but maybe for just a second, they can have a glimpse of some of the most amazing things man can do, absolute beauty engraved in a perfect landscape. And that’s something worthwhile.

Paulo Alegria (1970) and Raul Pereira (1981) have worked together since 2008. Their work as appeared in some Portuguese publications and they hope to continue their partnership in the future, focusing on how modern life interferes and brings profound changes to ancient traditions.

"

19, 20, 21 Photos by Paulo Alegria "Covo's Men Series

Where to Work Urbanization

By ISMAEL FERNANDEZ MEJIA

The City Isn't The Problem, It's The Answer

This idea has to be understood very clearly if the process of deterioration of our planet may be reversed. Cities are attractors of skills and investment at all levels, and this attraction generates urbanization.

INTENSE URBANIZATION

The rate of urbanization is strongly pressuring cities. In 2010, we surpassed 6 billion inhabitants and the 50/50 ratio on urban/rural population. By 2050 there may be some 3.5 billion people in rural areas and 5.5 billion urbanites.

MODERN DEVELOPMENTS

The city is a living entity that is in constant change. It reflects the social structure that inhabits its environment with its own values, norms, rules and behavior. The urban space is a reflection of the urbanite that lives there. The conversion that urban areas experienced in the past century was generated by the rise of the informational society. Following Manuel Castells’ intelligent arguments, these changes are mainly effects of the transformation in the basic economic structure that cities were and are experiencing due to technological advances. It’s clear that changes in the way technology evolves, society behaves, local authorities act and firms do businesses directly affect the urban realm. Authorities or firms initiate change after society demands a such. The service sector’s rapid growth, geographical redistribution of production factors and what is now called the Knowledge Economy have all generated impact in the city’s shape and function.

KEY CITIES OF CHANGE

Several global examples illustrate these possibilities:

• Bilbao, Spain is one of the most well known examples of renewal. Beginning in the mid 1980's after a major flood, important transformations were proposed by the authorities with strong support of firms. The iconic Guggenheim Museum was built in the heart of the estuary in one of the most derelict areas of the city. This

initial change generated an environment that attracted many firms of the knowledge economy, generating what’s now called the "Guggenheim Effect" in which mainly private firms and corporations, under guidance of a government company called Ria 2000, have participated in the renewal process.

• Barcelona is another example. Founded by the Romans it surpassed several changes to its urban structure because of the urbanization process. The most well known is "Eixample" in the mid 19th century, corresponding to the present reticular structure of the city. Another example is the transformation of the old industrial seafront that began in the late 1980's as part of the work required for the 1992 Olympics. This process is a continuous one, still developing today. At the present there is a specific project of urban renovation in the old industrial area called "22@," an initiative of the local authority, with a major participation of the private sector. The aim is to develop an area of growth devoted knowledge economy firms.

• One of the interesting cases of new or Greenfield projects is the Hyderabad capital of the state of India’s Andhra Pradesh. In the last 20 years the city has emerged as a major global center for information technology, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology industries following the examples of Bangalore and Delhi. The development of a Greenfield project with related technological infrastructure called HITEC City prompted global companies to establish their operations. The city is home to more than 1,300 IT firms and houses the Indian headquarters of Microsoft, Google, CA Technologies, Amazon and Facebook. The Microsoft campus in Hyderabad is the largest research and development facility outside the US. CA Technologies' campus

It provides services, social interchange, economies, creativity, culture and development.

is the company’s largest R&D facility.

• Cambridge, in the UK, there has been an incredible explosion of technology, life sciences and service companies occurring in the city since 1960. In 1970, Trinity College decided to create the Cambridge Science Park, a Greenfield project designed to house firms and individuals of the knowledge economy. The St. John's Innovation Center followed in 1988 to provide accommodation for small and medium entrepreneurial companies. There are now around 1,000 technology and biotechnology companies in the cluster, 1,400 when service providers and support organizations are included.

• The last example is Singapore’s project, one-north, an ongoing 200-hectare business park. Some key projects in one-north include Biopolis, a premier biomedical research hub, and Fusionopolis, a cluster hosting ICT, media, physical sciences and engineering companies. The one-north development was conceptualized in the National Technology Plan 1991, launched officially in 2001 with the goal to create a “global talent hub” and a knowledgebased economy to complement the country’s manufacturing and service economies. Masterplanned by Zaha Hadid and located near educational and research institutes and the Singapore Science Parks, it has easy access to social and recreational facilities. As a “science hub” another aim is to create a socially integrated community where individuals can gather to work, live, , play and learn; it is a project where government and private sectors contribute to provide amenities for residents. It’s clear that within the new economic transformations, the effects in the cities are most important, as they have been since the beginning of time.•

[W adb.org amazon.com bilbaoria2000.org ca.com cambridgesciencepark.co.uk facebook.com google.com guggenheim-bilbao.es ltinfocity.com jtc.gov.sg microsoft.com stjohns.co.uk zaha-hadid.com]

The city is the most important and durable invention of humanity

In the “Camera Obscura” the simple process Abelardo Morell uses--he blacks out all of the windows leaving just a pinhole opening in one of them--produces photographs of astonishing, complex beauty. Due to the nature of refracted light, the world outside

his darkened room is projected, upside-down, onto the interior space within which he works, converting the room into the interior of a camera. Morell then photographs the results with a large-format view camera.

01 Camera Obscura. View of Time Square in Hotel Room 2010

02 Camera Obscura: View of Volta del Canal in Palazzo Room painted Jungle Motif, Venice, Italy, 2008

03 Camera Obscura: View of a landscape outside Florence in room with bookcase, Italy 2009

© Abelardo Morell/Courtesy, Bonni Benrubi Gallery, NYC

Where to Work A Glance on

By FRANK FRIESECKE

A German Approach to Urban Governance with BIDs

WHAT IS A BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT?

A Business Improvement District is a partnership between a municipality, property and business owners that develop and take forward projects and services that make a collective contribution to the stabilization and improvement of their commercial district. BIDs allow the private sector to provide additional and enhanced services to those provided by the municipality. The BID services improve the business environment in the district and usually include security, maintenance of public spaces, removal of litter and graffiti, economic development, public parking improvements, special events and social services.

LEGAL FOUNDATIONS

Since January 2007, a new paragraph in the Federal Building Code in Germany has been in place regarding “Private Initiatives in Urban Development” (§ 171f BauGB). On the basis of this paragraph the 16 Federal States now have the authority to introduce laws enabling private initiatives for area-based urban regeneration and development. A pioneer in Germany, the city of Hamburg established a “Law of Strengthening Retail Districts.” Hamburg uses the legislative model, which means that the Federal State – in this case the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg – makes a resolution by passing a decree-law to implement a Business Improvement District. Subject to the law, a BID is a temporary organization and lasts a predetermined period of time - generally five years, after which time the members vote to retain the BID.

CREATING BIDS

The establishment of an individu-

al BID often comes from the impulse of the business or property owners. These owners need to establish a steering committee that has the ambition to work with the local authority. The committee needs to develop goals, measures and possible financing strategies for the improvement of the business area. The next step includes a revision of the strategy and the first consultation with the local authority. After these steps a decision process begins. In the City of Hamburg, the BID needs the support of 15% of the property owners; whereas the tenants of the districts have no right to vote. The positive vote of the property owners must represent more than 15% of the number of properties situated in the BID area, at the same time their area must represent at least 15% of the total BID area. The allowed maximum negative vote (veto) is one third. There is a great difference to the BIDs in the United Kingdom, for example, where a successful vote must meet two tests: More than 50% of votes cast must be in favor of the BID and the positive vote must represent more than 50% of the rate-able value of the votes cast.

The BID in Hamburg is funded by a tax based on the commercial space (local businesses) and the value of the properties. The tax is a product of the municipal rate fixed by the municipality and the rate-able value of the property (under the terms of the German Valuation Law). After a positive BID vote, a specially founded or even existing task manager is forced to realize the defined BID services under terms of a contract between himself and the municipality. The BID levy is collected and administrated by the municipality

The instrument has become necessary in Germany due to the fact that several cities are not capable of taking over the financial burden of urban development.

but then turned over in its entirety to the task manager. In Hamburg, the BID task manager mostly organizes physical and organizational improvements, e.g., management of the neighborhood, waste management, parking, street lighting, coaching of shopkeepers, marketing campaigns and events.

EFFECTIVENESS OF A BID

In short, BIDs allow the private sector to provide additional and enhanced services that improve the business environment in the district. Further strengths and opportunities are:

• Developing partnerships between the public and private sector, strengthening private initiatives;

• Predictable and reliable funding source for supplemental services and programs;

• Encouraging corporate social responsibility,

• Helping to decrease vacancy rates and to increase the value of the properties, and

• Making the district more competitive with surrounding business areas.

However, some American critics suggest that “BIDs privatize city services and divert dollars from needy neighborhoods” (Houstoun 2003) or result in a “Disneyfication of downtown with uniformed sweepers and friendly safety ambassadors” (Levy 2001). In Germany, the threatening danger lies in the problem that the private sector could undertake more and more the task of regulating services which have to remain under municipal control, especially in times of scarce financial resources of the municipalities. Furthermore, some poor districts are or will not be able to establish a BID, because the shoestring

Over the past years a noticeable increase in involvement by the private sector and by citizens has been observed in urban development in Germany. Public private partnerships (PPP) in the form of urban initiatives such as Business Improvement Districts (BID) are the most common.

the City

01

Copywriter, blogger and founder of «Fast Mood» (Creative Freelance Network), Anthony Marques often barters his keyboard for a camera. Thirsty for images, he slowly wanders, looking for a surprise, a memory, an emotion, to capture urgently. A student in mechanical Engineering, Maxime Bouyon learned to love

property and business owners have no funds for an additional BID tax (with the consequence that the vote in favor of the BID would fail).

IMPLEMENTATION STATUS

As of 2012, ten Business Improvement Districts exist in Hamburg. The first one (BID Sachsentor) in the center of the district of Hamburg-Bergedorf (bid-sachsentor.de) and the second one (BID Neuer Wall) in the exclusive and expensive shopping street Neuer Wall (www.bid-neuerwall.de) in the City Center of Hamburg. Each of these is very different in terms of location, budget and tasks. For instance, BID Sachsentor has a moder-

photography by travelling around the world; Paris, Liverpool, Kuala Lumpur are some of his past playgrounds. Seeking new meetings and experiences, he is about to leave again, armed with his digital companion to capture his next temporary universe. 01 Flowers, Photo by Anthony Marques, 02 To the Sky, Photo by Maxime Bouyon, 03 The Field, Photo by Anthony Marques.

ate budget of 150,000 Euro for three years, while BID Neuer Wall can spend nearly six million Euro over five years. Both budgets are completely privately financed. BID Neuer Wall realized a complete new streetscaping to reflect the exclusiveness of the place and the resident companies; street-cleaning services were enhanced and a private service and a security team was implemented. The BID Sachsentor is concentrating on small-scale marketing and cleaning activities, making the project quite similar to traditional Town Center Management programs.

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

BIDs are not a remedy for all “urban

illnesses” and undesirable urban developments. But, due to the farreaching processes of change, they can play a significant role in the downtown revitalization process. BIDs represent a fundamental basis for future urban planning policy as a contradiction to ongoing suburbanization and economic crisis.

Today, six of 16 Federal States have enabled legislation that allows local governments to form BIDs. The concept has become popular in different types of cities (small, large), economic environments (stable, weak) and level of prosperity (middle-income and high-income neighborhoods).•

Anthony Marques and Maxime Bouyon

Where to Work Africa

Portrait of Honest Workers in Africa

Antony Blake is passionate about photography and combined this with hisnatural curiosity for people and his surroundings for over 20 years. His art has been commissioned, published and enjoyed by many. 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06 Photos by Antony Blake.

Where to Work Law In Africa

By SAM NALLEN COPLEY

Lady Justice

first

Fatou

of human rights and international law as the Court’s public face.

A FRESH START

Throughout its first decade, the ICC faced significant criticism for its singleminded focus on Africa. Many blamed Ocampo, an Argentine lawyer who had previously worked on the infamous Trial of the Juntas in South America and has repeatedly been lambasted for a perceived partisan approach to the law.

After issuing an arrest warrant against the Sudanese President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, British academic Alex de Waal claimed to be “in a state of shock” from the supposedly apolitical Prosecutor’s attempt to institute “regime change.”

Many have subsequently questioned the organization as a whole; Rwanda’s current President, Paul Kagame, claimed the ICC was “put in place only for African countries.”

“I have come to actually believe that this is just my calling,” Fatou Bensouda told the BBC in December 2011. As the first African and the first woman to be elected as Chief Prosecutor for the ICC, Bensouda’s ascendancy has polarized opinion. Born in 1961 in the Gambia, she received legal training both in Nigeria and Malta before entering the ICC’s Prosecutions Division in 2004. "I am working for the victims of Africa, they

are African like me. That's where I get my inspiration and my pride," Bensouda told the media last year, adding, “In this position I am able to give victims the voice they need.” With Bensouda about to take over the reins, many hope this politically uncomfortable era is about to come to an end but not everyone remains so hopeful.

THE RIGHT PERSON

Bensouda grew up in a polygamous family in Banjul. She devoted much of her early career to specifically Gambian affairs. As Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, she was legal advisor to Yahya Jammeh, who has openly stated his desire to “cut off the head” of any homosexual found in his country. Amid countless human rights violation accusations and issues of severe corruption, not even the African Union support Jammeh’s mandate in The Gambia. We shouldn’t hold Bensouda accountable for her President’s crimes, but why she remained so loyal to such a shameless autocrat continues to baffle critics. Despite her questionable past, her nationality, ethnicity and sex, Bensouda does not represent the clean break

In December 2011, Fatou Bensouda of The Gambia

was named the new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Fatou Bensouda has an impressive legal background. She has obtained several degrees from African and European universities. She graduated from the University of IFE in Nigeria with a Bachelor of Laws degree and obtained her Barrister-at-Law from the Nigeria Law School. Bensouda also holds a Master of Laws degree in International Maritime Law and Law of the Sea from the International Maritime Law Institute in Malta and is the first international maritime law expert of The Gambia.

In 2002, a permanent tribunal targeting war criminals was established at The Hague, Netherlands. Ten years on, the International Criminal Court has convicted just one man, a middle-ranking rebel leader who enlisted child soldiers during the Second Congo War. With no jurisdiction in Russia, the US, China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and much of the Middle East and no direct means of arresting suspects, some feel the ICC is nothing more than an

expensive European experiment on a continent ground to the bone from colonial misadventure. The court’s only success came last month with its first conviction against Thomas Lubanga, a former military commander from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Among ongoing trials, Laurent Gbagbo, former President of the Ivory Coast, Jean-Pierre Bemba from the DRC and Hutu Rwandan Callixte Mbarushimana stand out as the most high-profile. At a glance, two traits immediately unify the men above: all are African and all stand accused of crimes against women.

bbc.co.uk icc-cpi.int ecowas.int gambia.gm icc-cpi.int imli.org mynlsp.com oauife.edu.ng un.org unictr.or]

The

female prosecutor of the Court by consensus,

Bensouda will be tasked with addressing grave violations

03 from the ICC’s embryonic phase its critics crave. As Ocampo’s Deputy, she has been an integral cog of the court since 2004, by no means from the sidelines; in November of last year, she appeared publicly in Libya alongside Ocampo to discuss Saif al-Islam’s trial with local authorities in Tripoli. Indeed many have considered Ocampo and Bensouda as a double-act, with Murithi Mutiga stating, “the state parties have settled for the candidate that represented continuity.”

GLASS HALF FULL

But throughout the numerous controversies surrounding the ICC’s conduct, Bensouda has retained her tremendous popularity. Her primary weapon here is the sheer width of her allure.

As Opino Juris’ Kevin Jon Heller has said, “She is, to put it mildly, an incredibly impressive woman: smart, articulate, thoughtful, a welcome change from Moreno-Ocampo, and compassionate."

Indeed, many feel her multifaceted past increases appeal across the board. An additional trait the mainstream media

seem to have missed entirely is her religion. As a Muslim, Bensouda is able to distance herself from the colonial connotations of European Christian intervention and ally herself spiritually with followers of Islam, Africa’s largest religion.

Kevin Jon Heller has noted, “She offers the best of both worlds.” As an African Muslim woman, her appeal among the victims of war crimes and her profound understanding of the continent tick all the right boxes. From The Hague’s perspective, her previous work at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda combined with her years with the ICC render her perfect for the post.

“I am one who has always thought that I have to stand up for the underdog…and this is what drives me.” Bensouda’s ascendancy will mark the start of the second phase of the ICC’s history. Whether the court’s second decade will see it secure more than one conviction, extend its jurisdiction towards the world’s key players and prosecute non-African war criminals will be largely up to her.•

History of a Woman

By CARLA DE YCAZA

Bensouda highlights the importance and role of the Court as an emerging institution designed to combat impunity: “It is a new global institution which can ultimately ensure a single standard is applied in international criminal justice. For hundreds of years conflicts have been fought and resolved through negotiation without legal constraints. The decision to create the ICC has changed that. No more impunity for perpetrators of mass crimes. In the Rome Statute community, leaders who are using massive violence to gain or even to retain power will be held accountable. The world will adhere to one standard for justice when all the countries of the world have joined the ICC. And I believe that ultimately this will happen.”

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Bensouda recounted the way in which she came to work in law: “At a very early age I was witness to gender violence in my surroundings. I realized that it was not being addressed properly because when the person who was subjected to this kind of violence would go to the police, the police wouldn’t intervene, and they would say that it is a civil matter. I remember thinking this is not right, this is not correct. Where would she go? Who can address this? And even after I left school and I went to work at the Law Courts, I used to sit in cases as a clerk, and I always used to think sitting there ‘I

can relate to them.’ This is one of the things driving me, and I made up my mind then that this was what I wanted to do, and I never considered anything else.”

Bensouda worked as General Manager of a leading commercial bank in The Gambia prior to holding various senior positions in law and government from 1987-2000, including positions as Attorney General and Minister of Justice and Chief Legal Advisor to the President and Cabinet of The Republic of The Gambia, among others. Bensouda has also participated in the negotiations on the treaty of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the West African

Parliament and the ECOWAS Tribunal. She has served as a delegate to various United Nations conferences. Elected as Deputy Prosecutor to the International Criminal Court in September 2004, she currently heads the Prosecution Division of the Office of the Prosecutor. Prior to her work at the ICC, Bensouda was the Head of the Legal Advisory Unit at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania.

RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES

As only the second prosecutor of a newly developed court finishing its first decade in operation, Bensouda is faced with numerous risks and opportunities pursuing

work in the international arena to hold perpetrators of mass atrocity accountable for their actions.

“The goal of the Rome Statute of the ICC is to end impunity for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole and to contribute to their prevention. We have seven situations under investigation and so far we have opened fourteen cases related to about twentyseven individuals and more are on the way. My challenge now is to build on what has been accomplished to end impunity, bring justice to victims and to prevent future crimes.”

The Court has recently concluded its first trial and received its first

verdict for the case of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, charged with conscripting and recruiting child soldiers, among other war crimes. "In the first trial of the ICC, Thomas Lubanga has been found guilty of committing crimes against children, the most vulnerable members of society, by using them as soldiers to commit crimes and as sex slaves. These are areas of critical importance for me personally. Sexual violence is one of the main crimes committed against girls and their illegal recruitment is often intended for that purpose even though they also often participate in direct combat. The

guilty verdict sends a clear signal: crimes against children will not be tolerated. Perpetrators will be held accountable and their victims will see justice. But justice must also be done for other persons wanted by the Court for abducting children and turning them into child soldiers and sex slaves; such as Joseph Kony, wanted by the ICC for almost seven years. The Lubanga verdict must spur on the international community to bring all suspected perpetrators to account."

This verdict is a milestone for the ICC and highlights the importance of addressing a large docket of cases with limited resources and often a lack of cooperation among States and individuals. The ICC

has faced criticism regarding its operations due to the fact that the seven case currently before the Court are all African. Many believe this to be an indication of Western bias and have called for cases to be tried domestically, as well as for certain arrest warrants to be ignored.

WHAT IS TO COME

As the field of international justice is growing, Bensouda sits at the forefront of the Court’s work. Supporters and advocates hope that her role as chief prosecutor will address the criticism of the Court targeting African cases and that she will continue to work towards the development

of a culture of accountability. "Africa is taking the lead through its commitment to international justice. African leaders and African activists are building a system of international criminal justice defined by the Rome Statute, and they are doing it to protect victims of massive crimes. They are setting an example in terms of their dedication to accountability and prevention of massive crimes. They are setting one standard applicable to all. They are showing, through their involvement with international justice, that a region that has been so deeply affected by atrocities can and must stand up and take the lead in the fight against impunity."

Moving Challenges for Workers and Cities

By ESME VOS YU

Universal Wi-Fi’s Benefits

public streets become office hallways, cafe tables become desks, and the business world blends a bit more with the personal.

WI-FI FEVER

Municipal Wi-Fi fever hit its peak in the United States in 2007 when Philadelphia launched its citywide Wi-Fi network together with EarthLink, the ISP it hired to deploy and run the network. In the same year, San Francisco selected EarthLink to build out its network. Although many smaller US cities were busy rolling out Wi-Fi networks as well, the size and ambition of the EarthLink projects dwarfed anything anyone had ever envisioned and caused other large cities, notably Houston and Chicago, to issue their own public tenders for citywide Wi-Fi.

WI-FI’S BIGGEST SUPPORTERS

Who was most excited about the arrival of citywide Wi-Fi service in 2007? Not surprisingly, techies and business people who travel frequently -- in other words, a small group of people who carried around Wi-Fi enabled laptops and smartphones such as the Treo (originally developed by Handspring, later acquired by Palm) and the Nokia N95. People who resented the cable-telco duopoly that kept broadband prices high also supported municipal networks. Who opposed these networks? Telecom and cable incumbents who were afraid of competition.

WHERE IS PUBLIC WI-FI TODAY?

Today, municipal Wi-Fi in the United States is a shadow of its former self. One could argue that now is the time to restart large outdoor public Wi-Fi projects for 3 reasons:

1. Enormous demand from iPhone and iPad users, who are fed up with the poor quality and high cost of cellular data connections;

2. The immense popularity of iPads which are also used by government and

private sector workers for their jobs. Most of these iPads are Wi-Fi only; and 3. Significant improvements in outdoor Wi-Fi equipment, which also cost less than the first generation of equipment used in the previous decade. These new Wi-Fi access points provide a better outdoor and indoor Wi-Fi experience for the user because they reduce interference and latency, increase throughput, and allow the network operator to optimize the network for many users.

Not surprisingly, outdoor Wi-Fi deployments are taking place in emerging countries, where municipalities and telecom operators have both the money and the need to meet the growing demand for broadband. In developed countries, free public Wi-Fi continues to grow as well but it is mostly indoor.

THE DEMAND IS GLOBAL

The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) published a report in November 2011 on the state of the global public Wi-Fi hotspot market. The report which includes a survey of 259 service providers and Wi-Fi vendors, reveals that global public Wi-Fi hotspot numbers are set to grow from 1.3 million in 2011 to 5.8 million by 2015, a great increase. The number does not include “community hotspots,” where users share their own Wi-Fi access point with others, which add an additional 4.5 million worldwide. Smartphone connections to Wi-Fi hotspots will soon overtake laptops. Laptops represent less than half (48%) of the connections to hotspots, smartphones account for 36% and tablets 10%.

Another report, published by Mobidia Technology in February 2012, reveals that data usage on smartphones is much higher than has been reported. Mobidia

claims that Wi-Fi data use exceeds cellular by a factor of two to one and that Wi-Fi accounts for 70 percent of smartphone traffic. In Mobidia’s survey of smartphone users, 91 percent says that they use Wi-Fi for data (not voice) and that Wi-Fi is their preferred method of connecting.

INTERESTING SOLUTIONS IN ASIA

At least one operator has admitted what all of us have known for a long time. Wang Jianzhou, CEO of China Mobile said last year that Wi-Fi should be the default data connection because tablets and smartphones are killing cellular networks. He added that cellular networks will never be able to keep up with mobile data demand and that Wi-Fi networks should be rolled out in all public areas. China Mobile plans to deploy one Wi-Fi million hotspots within the next six months, while Japan’s KDDI plans to grow its 10,000 Wi-Fi hotspots to 100,000 by the end of the year. Most of the growth in Wi-Fi networks will take place in wide-area outdoor hotzones (e.g. parks); local-area outdoor hotzones (e.g. popular tourist attractions); and transport hubs (e.g. airports and train stations).

PCCW, the largest mobile operator in Hong Kong, has completed an ambitious commercial trial of its “Next Generation Hotspot” which offloads cellular data traffic to hundreds of PCCW Wi-Fi hotspots all over Hong Kong. Why is this significant? Because the Next Generation Hotspot specifications allow seamless authentication and roaming between 3G and Wi-Fi networks. Seamless roaming and offloading allow the operator to manage its network to improve the user experience and lower costs. Meanwhile, Chongqing Telecom is installing thousands of outdoor Wi-Fi access points in

android.com apple.com chinamobileltd.com earthlink.net kddi.com/english mobidia.com nokia.com pccw.com/eng

Demand for public Wi-Fi continues to increase, as workers the world over increasingly rely on not just laptops but their iPads and smartphones to stay connected while on the go. With universal access,

the city of Chongqing (pop. 31 million, 31,800 square miles) to bring Wi-Fi access to the entire city.

HOPE FOR UNIVERSAL ACCESS

In Asia, one finds more outdoor Wi-Fi deployments because Asian cities, such as Chongqing, are partnering with telecom operators and service providers to create large scale outdoor Wi-Fi hotzones. Recently, the Thai government announced the launch of its “Smart Thailand” initiative which begins with the rollout of 40,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in Bangkok.

THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC WI-FI

Two trends are forcing local governments, telecom operators, and independent service providers to make investments in large scale public Wi-Fi networks:

1. Demand from users of iPhones, iPads and other smartphones for fast, affordable wireless broadband service; and

2. Machine-to-machine communications, smart grid applications (e.g. automated meter reading), traffic and parking control, wireless video surveillance and other government or enterprise applications.

Remembering traditional networks

Telephone Pole and Agave Plant, San Francisco, California by the independent photographer Erik Grow Erik's work concentrates on local landscapes; how they have evolved and what they mean to us. He can usually be found exploring the areas in-between civilization and wilderness.

AN IDEAL OUTCOME

The most favorable outcome would be for cities to cooperate with service providers and operators to roll out large scale outdoor and indoor Wi-Fi networks that are open to existing customers of local carriers and ISPs, and to visitors. I expect growing pressure from smartphone and tablet users to force cities, service providers and telecom operators to cooperate to find a solution to the data crunch.•

Workplace Environment

By FABRICE LECLERC

Restrictions and Benefits: The EU’s BEST Project Guidelines

A sustainable business is a business that doesn’t harm the environment and the easiest way to check it is to measure survey its impact on the water, the air and the soil. Biodiversity, elements of sustainability and the business itself all depend on the balance of these three elements. The most important measure a government can do is to support these initiatives on a financial level and to place the people who are the most innovative in sustainability at the center of the decision power in the EU.

CENTRALIZED WASTE AND OTHER MEASURES

“Centralized” means it should be easy to comply, but the difference is made in sustainability by empowering each individual to act sustainably while giving him or her the knowledge, skills and possibilities to do so. Like the energy issue, the solution isn’t to concentrate the production of energy but the fact that every one of us produces his own local green energy, which is combined into energy grids. So for

waste management, the government has to forbid the production of nonbiodegradable items; for instance plastic packs and nonbiodegradable plastics should now be forbidden by the EU.

PROFITABILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

New companies shouldn’t only profoundly rethink their business models but why they do business: to become local and global activists, to change minds, by creating/supporting nonprofits and to be self-reliant. The most important element leading to performance and success is the level of energy at which new entrepreneurs start. Starting with a vision to make money is the “ground zero” of business, the poorest level. This is why often people who have made lots of money are unhappy. They have confused financial returns with what really matters, not aligning their spiritual journey with their materialistic journey. Monsanto Company is one of the extreme and fanatic examples. The EU should reward new activists as they inspire others, not only in business.

EXPERT OPINON: DOWNSIDES

Steve Apfelbaum is an international ecologist and founder of Applied Ecological Services, an ecological restoration company. He writes: some reasons for why EU businesses are loath, slow, or nonresponsive to environmental regulations and what needs to be done: 1) Demand for supply chain compliance with environmental regulations is operating primarily at the larger multinational corporate levels in the EU, but hasn’t filtered down to smaller companies. 2) Compliance won’t filter down to smaller and medium companies until clear links between increasing demand for their products can be demonstrated, where products incorporate or abide by environmental regulations. The primary reasons, from personal experience working in the EU, that many companies don't comply are as follows: There is minimum enforcement (compared to the US), which supports a laissez faire attitude. Increasing product competition but reducing demand is experienced by many firms. Most companies entrench

The BEST Project Guidelines for Sustainable and Responsible Business streamline environmental regulations so that businesses have financial and administrative room to grow. EU companies face multitudinous challenges: they must comply with national and EU permits, monitoring, reporting and inspections.

Business models can only be strong if we protect life.

and reduce their investment in innovation under these market conditions. If these companies viewed regulations as a driver of innovation, and if this was linked to potentially increased business and profitability, then businesses would step up. There is no compelling vision on how compliance helps achieve the previous point. There is no compelling overall esprit de corp vision that has been tangibly linked to why EU members should and can work together. As product and service demand is low, establishing a process to support incremental compliance will likely be necessary to get companies engaged. For building a culture of compliance, good sector-by-sector examples of it and its benefits are essential. In reviewing the practices, it isn't clear how they relate to ways to create competitive advantages between competitors within a market sector, to introduce competition which will move others within each sector to comply with regulations to be able to succeed.

EXPERT OPINION: ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Shelly Lipton is cofounder of the marketing firm GrownUpMarketing and principal and board member of Second Chance Toys. She writes: The Commission’s work with member states to foster social entrepreneurial spirit, particularly among younger generations, will play a critical

role in creating a responsible business environment. In the US, social responsibility is in the DNA of our younger generations. The charitable organization that my daughter created, Second Chance Toys, which rescues plastic toys from the landfill, recycles them and redistributes them to children in need, is an example of this mindset. With a focus on managing for sustainability in business schools across Europe, we’ll continue to see the same sort of thinking emerge. Impediments to running a sustainable EU business are the same as anywhere else: costs, lack of awareness of the benefits and of knowledge of how to execute and a focus on more immediate day-to-day pressures. Historically government initiatives towards corporate social responsibility aimed at larger businesses, with limited awards for responsible business practices. The BEST guidelines offer a realistic set of initiatives to foster and promote more responsible business, which Europe can use to improve its competitive vantage point in the global marketplace.

EXPERT OPINION: EXPANSION

Shel Horowitz is author of Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet, and of the internationally syndicated column, Green and Profitable. He writes:

Untitled (01, 02)

Peter Haynes is currently working as a digital designer on a variety of projects including Wandering Bears and Self Publish, Be Happy.

Peter series’, NL, features images created during the photographer’s three months in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where he spent evenings and weekends exploring the strangely flat city by bike with a small 35mm camera. NL, he says, “is a series of my own exploration in a new place.”

First, streamlining bureaucracy is a good thing, as long as it doesn't compromise the mission. Second, businesses that comply with the much tighter European standards have a huge marketing advantage in the US that they are mostly not taking advantage of. This continues to surprise me, as it could provide a significant edge in the states. Thus, if the US market is part of a company's plan, the expense and hassle of compliance with EU standards could be well worth it. And if they're only planning to market in Europe, obviously they have to comply, or not be in the game. •

Photos by Peter Haynes

“There is no business to be done on a dead planet.”

By Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia founder.

Workplace New Castles

By NINA RAPPAPORT

The Spectacular Factory

Today’s most notable factories are testaments to the brands they’ve helped build. From flashy auto production facilities in Germany to sleek manufacturing plants in Kuwait, the “spectacular” modern factory is proving to be just as representative of a company’s brand as it is productive.

Throughout architectural history, the factory has been a place of design innovation for engineers and architects, a typology that provided freedom to explore new materials of glass and steel and spatial organization of production flow. Today, factory architecture has come to reflect the speed of capitalism and the new economy. The factory as such has evolved into a place for branding opportunities, just as the corporate headquarters has become where the production becomes an event and the factory a place showcase.

A TOURIST ATTRACTION

Following the tradition of tourism pilgrimages to engineering feats of the early 20th century, the factory has become a tourist attraction. Many industry leaders have realized that they can forge a relationship between their consumers and their products if they expose how things are made. Breaking

from the norm of hiding the dirty work of assembly lines, or locating the plant in an industrial zone away from residential developments, production itself has become the visible locus of sales. Guy Debord’s idea of the “spectacle” informs one of three categories of contemporary urban factory design that I’ve identified in my project Vertical Urban Factory; the second being the “sustainable”; and the third, the “flexible,” which dominates the urban landscape today. In particular, the automotive industry has embraced the “spectacle” in its production with showroom factories for the likes of BMW, Mercedes, Maserati, Ferrari and VW, which integrate production into design, displaying the once-foreboding mechanization as transformed to mesmerizing robotics that mimic human motion.

CAR TRADITION

Greeting a newly-minted car at the fac-

tory has been a tradition at many European manufacturers. Noise and confusion has given way to quiet, clean rooms and computer-operated machines, a cathedral of commerce to attract capital, and watch capital being produced. Taken to its ultimate at VW in Dresden, you can toast your car’s completion with a glass of champagne in a pristine, “transparent factory” designed by German architect Gunter Henn. The three-story factory features a glass curtain wall system and a series of separate spherical volumes that punctuate the rectilinear production spaces. A designated tramline delivers heavy auto parts to the assembly, so that work begins at the basement level, proceeding upward as the car is completed and shifted to the 15-story cylindrical glass storage tower. Watching the white-suited technicians guide the cars off the “assembly line,” consumers are seduced and entertained. The highly

Morphosis Looks Into the Future to Design for the Present

By BRADLEY WHEELER

A prominent Los Angeles- and New York City-based architecture firm, Morphosis, won the ENI EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION BUSINESS CENTER COMPETITION. The new project, rooted in transparency and sustainability, will be completed by 2015, in time for the Universal Expo in Milan.

Thriving, high-energy Milan is the perfect backdrop for the awe-inspiring architecture, Eni Exploration & Production Business Center, that will be constructed for one of Europe’s leading energy companies by a leading American architecture firm.

The design proper is the fruit of an international competition with 50 architectural firms participating from around the world. The top ten finalists were recently presented to the public in an exhibit entitled “Un Nuovo Segno,” or, “A New Signal.” The winner of the competition was the globally recognized firm Morphosis Architects, led by 2005 Pritzker Prize recipient architect and design director Thom Mayne, along with Nemesi & Partners, Setec TPI, Setec Batiment and Pasodoble.

ENI + MORPHOSIS COMBINED

Founded in 1972 with offices in Los Angeles and New York, Morphosis is the parent company of a group of companies, composed of Setec TPI (structures designer), Setec Batiment (plants designer), Pasodoble (landscape architect), and Nemesi Partners, (architectural design partner). The design brief was to create a sustainable, green and transparent

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Contribute at the Work Style project:

“From Castle to Headquarters.”

choreographed assembly process, displayed through the glass façade, not only shows off craftsmanship, but is a source of civic pride as it’s integrated into the heart of the city.

BMW Leipzig is known for its economic boost to the city, where they held an architecture competition to design the spine linking various production modules to the offices, R&D and communal areas. Zaha Hadid won the commis-

sion, creating a zigzag zipper between sheds, inserting the assembly line on tracks above the workspace so that the process is a spectacle. Machinists and executives enter the building together through a formal entrance, obliterating the normal company hierarchy. The engineer, R&D and worker are adjacent to production daily, inspiring creativity and pride. Visitors are exposed to the factory as it is; production isn’t halted

01 A cubist approach to factory design at the Breathing Factory, a Takashi Yamaguchi & Associates project, 2009.

02 The colorful and contemporary exterior of the Inotera headquarters and factory, designed by Tec Architects, Taipei, Taiwan, 2004. Photo by Hisao Suzuki.

03 Clean, imposing lines at the Vasheron Constantin headquarters and factory, created by Bernard Tschumi Architects, in Plan-les Quates, Switzerland, 2004. Photo by Christian Richters.

04 The prominent steely exterior of the Vitra Campus, a factory designed by Nicholas Grimshaw Architects, 1986. Courtesy of Vitra.

architecture that would be emblematic of Eni’s core values and vision of social and environmental sustainability, and in harmony with its existing facilities in their company town of Metanopoli.

The construction area is in the ex-industrial complex, the first Eni facility to be built in San Donato Milanese, situated between Viale De Gasperi to the northwest, Via Ravenna on the northeast, Via Correggio on the southeast, and Via Vannucchi on the southwest. The Center will have an area of 65,000m2 including 60,000m2 for offices and 5,000m2 for services, with a capacity of 3,500 people.

THE THREE CONCEPTS

In architectural terms, the winning project brings together three concepts: the piazza, which is the symbolic and functional heart of the new headquarters and an indication of the centrality of people and the

community; democracy and integration, in the shift from the overall architecture to the landscape architecture with the loss of self-referential towers and the creation of an essentially horizontal and democratic architecture; research and innovation for a new sustainability through a metamorphic architecture exemplified as a fluid and dynamic continuum symbolic of the transformation of material into energy.

The massing is a futuristic ensemble of anamorphic shapes reminiscent of Picasso-esque cubistic profiles found in nature (think birds, fish and large mammals) when viewed from different angles (from both above and below). The viewer can enjoy the “trunks,” “tails,” “wings,” and “fins” that molecularly combine together to delineate connected entities whose solids and voids at once create form and frame views of nearby composition as well as distant terminus points. These subliminal images of familiar shapes unwittingly suggest a kinder and gentler Morphosis architecture, one that

tecarchitecture.com mercedes-benz.com leftish.net sanaa.co.jp tschumi.com vacheron-constantin.com verticalurbanfactory.org]

05 View from Hidden Island in lower courtyard.

Credit: Morphosis Architects.

06 View from restaurant in upper courtyard.

07, 08 An aerial view from Via Ravenna.

Credit: Morphosis Architects.

as they peer down into the robotic assembly line. Furniture and product design industries have embraced factory designs as an essential brand component. Vitra in Weil am Rhein is an example as their “museum of architecture,” comprised of factories designed in the late 1980s by Alvaro Siza, Zaha Hadid, Nicholas Grimshaw and SANAA (soon to be finished), allows for designers and customers to recognize a holistic vision of the company and brand. The physical relationship between administration, development and manufacturing allows for designs to be tweaked as they are prototyped and tested throughout the process.

THE TICKING INDUSTRY

09 Inside the elaborate but elegant VW Transparent Factory, created by Henn Architects, in Dresden, Germany, 2001. Courtesy of Henn Architects. 10 An outside shot of the VW Transparent Factory, created by Henn Architects, in Dresden, Germany, 2001. Courtesy of Henn Architects. 11 An all-encompassing aerial view of the BMW Factory addition, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, in Leipzig, Germany, 2005. 12 A nighttime exterior shot of the illuminated BMW Factory addition in Leipzig, Germany. 10

Watch companies are other candidates for the spectacle. In 2004 architect Bernard Tschumi designed the headquarters and factory for Vacheron near Geneva with a glass and steel skin wrapping the two functions smoothly functioning as the assembly line. The administration volume rises five stories with a curtain wall façade at the northern entrance. As the curvilinear skin rolls off the administration volume it continues over the more horizontal shed-like manufacturing space curving at the ends to unite the whole. Plenty of light illuminates the workspaces for the precision work of the craftsmen. In the

urban landscape the spectacle attracts daily attention while providing prominence to a place. Takashi Yamaguchi and Associates designed the Breathing Factory in Osaka for high-tech manufacturing and medical equipment testing. The architects cloaked the building in an aluminum louvered system to both disguise and offer access to the necessary piping on the outside of the building while letting sunlight enter the

work spaces. Directed by randomized mathematical rules, the louvers reflect the sky, clouds, and the street so that the facades are never monotonous. Indoor courtyards on the upper floors of the building offer a place for relaxation with glass screens that allow the outside in. The design was an experiment in atmospheric impact reducing the potential of an intimidating volume on the neighborhood.

fits nicely into the lush and well-manicured landscape of the entire parklike complex.

Tying the various structures of the campus into a cohesive whole is the curvilinear roof-scape of joined elements. The unpredictable change in elevation and erratic degrees of inclination suggest the beauty, speed and control of a rollercoaster (Russian mountain). In addition, the continuous roof membrane secondarily brings to mind another large and iconographic northern Italian complex — the ex-Fiat manufacturing building and test track known as the Lingotto building located in the district of the same name, on the outskirts of Turin. Although the 1923 facility looks nothing like the 2012 Eni Exploration & Production Business Center Competition winner, the intellectual comparison between the smooth crowning and contoured Mobius strip-like element atop both buildings is not to be overlooked.

THE RACETRACK ANALOGY

The racetrack analogy cannot be one of mere coincidence due to the new Eni headquarters’ proximity to one of the world’s cathedrals of motor sport, the “Autodromo Nazionale di Monza.” The current version of the 90-year-old “circuito” runs for 5.8 kilometers (3.6 miles) through the thickly forested woodlands of the “Parco di Monza,” the national park of Monza, located outside Milan and not far from the future Eni complex. The track’s elegant meandering through the green of the park and Eni’s continued support of both two- and four-wheel motor racing make for a metaphorical connection to the Morphosis project’s form and siting. Comparing this newest endeavor to some of their previous efforts, the fluid massing is lighter and much less corpulent, when contrasted to their Caltrans Building in downtown Los Angeles or their San Francisco Federal Building campaign. In all of these cases, however, the economy of scale and

[W batiment.setec.fr dot.ca.gov/dist07/aboutus/building en.expo2015.org eni.com fiat.com morphosis.com nemesistudio.it

MEANWHILE IN KUWAIT CITY…

L.E.FT architects designed a printing plant in Kuwait City in 2010. Following the company’s bottom-up management style, the stock room and press floor are located in the basement, the post-press, on the ground, level, and the pre-press with management and design on the first floor (rather than on the top, as is often the case). A production department is tucked into the basement mezzanine, sandwiched between the press and the post-press so there is constant interaction. A meeting room with stepped seats and an open stairway snake through the space as a shortcut between management and production. Inspired by 19th century factories, L.E.FT uses the roof, typically cluttered with mechanical equipment, as a natural light source. To achieve this, equipment is instead stacked vertically along the rear and east façades, which are set back according to zoning code. A sawtooth roof with north-oriented monitors brings light into the top-floor offices and the ground-level post-press spaces. This “generic” and exaggerated rooftop synthesizes internal program and external site conditions, resulting in a new iconic design.

... AND AT INOTERA IN TAIPEI

High-tech silicon wafers manufacturing is combined with spectacular design at the Inotera Headquarters and Factory in Taipei by Swiss/LA firm Tec Architecture with local Taipei firm Fei & Cheng Associates. The façade of the 29,000-square-foot, 14-story office wing is wrapped with pieces of translucent low-E glass. Tinted in numerous colors and printed with drawings of tree branches and streams the fragmentation creates an effect of sunlight in nature in a visual metaphor. The high-tech production of this glass and automated sorting, parallels the integrated process of chip manufacturing. The 20,000 sq.

meter fabrication wing, the largest built in the world at the time, is sheathed in a variegated composition of opaque blue glazed tiles, similar to traditional ceramic tiles of the region, breaking down the building’s large scale. The spectacle of these factories contribute to the return of production in cities with a renewed focus on their reinsertion into the city fabric, which could also combine manufacturing and retail, job training and working, and engaging the city with new vibrancy and vitality.•

relatively slender floor plates are recognizable design moves characteristic of the bi-coastal (Los Angeles- and New York City-based) firm. The slim footprint allows natural light to penetrate more deeply into the interior of the project, and for the total area to be distributed more evenly throughout the site acreage, thereby exposing more square meters to the green of the exterior. This strategy is preferable to agglomerating the area requirements into one larger form that would have created a monolithic “mega” building, void of natural light and certainly deficient in creative opportunity.

PAYING HOMAGE TO PRECEDENT

This architecture pays homage to some precedents that may or may not seem obvious upon first blush. For example, some stretches of the opera recall a touch of Oscar Niemeyer, for its clean lines and bold yet simple shapes. (If one squints, aspects of the Brazilian maestro’s New York City

United Nations building come to the fore.) A perhaps esoteric homage of the San Donato Milanese project is to the Florence, Italy-based Superstudio (1966-1978) founded by Adolfo Natalini and Cristiano Toraldo di Francia. Their collaboration celebrated unconventional thinking and left an indelible “imprimatur” on contemporary architectural thought particularly through images of their larger scale work. The Eni creation is most certainly influenced, albeit perhaps subconsciously, by concepts that harken back to the Florentine équipe.

The Eni project is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2015 Universal Expo in Milan.

On the left: view of Chambord Castle, Loir-etCher Department, France.

Workplace Evolving Office Furniture

By KATHERINE OLSON

Highlights from Milan’s Furniture Fair 2012

For all its overflowing aperitifs, sartorial spunk and immaculatelyclothed crowds, Fashion Week’s starved glamour simply cannot compete with the event embodiment of Milan’s heart: the Salone Internazionale del Mobile.

Office offerings at this year’s Salone are of particular interest. Companies worldwide are shrinking their headquarters (Nokia Siemens’ newest hub, for example, holds just 700 seats for 1,000 employees), revamping their offices, and changing the way the world views office space. International firms, from historic innovators like Herman Miller to modern favorites, are designing accordingly.

DEMOGRAPHICS AND TECH, MEET DESIGN

Rapid technological growth and an equally-breakneck pace of changing workplace demographics means that designers have singular opportunities and challenges when creating furniture and interior design for the office. Mark Catchlove, director of the Insight Group for the Herman Miller design firm, analyzes workplace design trends on a daily basis. He stresses the pitfalls of designers’ incorporating technology, rather than simply fortifying it: “Now, technology supports the way we want to work, whereas in the past it very much drove the way we had to work and how we designed for the office. If you look at a photo from 10 years ago, desks were huge, if for no other reason than to accommodate the PC, the calculator, the printer. That’s what drove it.”

Given the prevalence of iPads, the ease of WiFi access, and round-theclock deadlines, office space is morphing from its traditional blueprint of four corner offices padded by underlings’ cubes, into something flexible, even inspiring. Breakout, or collaborative spaces, are increasingly popular, says Catchlove, as is the concept of “Bring Your Own Technology.” “People got their

mobile phone, their laptop, their tablet device. They can now ask themselves, where can they go to do their job today?” Fifty-percent of the space Herman Miller now designs for is transitioning to accommodate nontraditional, collaboration-centric desks, such as the RESOLVE desk system (see photo), which is based on a 120-degree angle and has corners where employees can arrange – and rearrange – furniture, such as a small table or sofa, depending on their meetings and needs. “Very few great ideas happen at a desk anymore. It’s always unplanned. The desk might simply be where you crystallize that creativity, make it happen, formalize it,” explains Catchlove.

ACCOMMODATING MOVEMENT IS KEY

This ability to move freely is integral to the work experience. Joakim Lassen of Montana Design has seen the implications of movement on our modern, deadline-driven office: “The needs are changing fast. Today you need a flexible working environment; height-adjustable working desks and minimum of storage space on wheels, allowing for ready use by different employees. Modern companies are dynamic and require that their employees move around for the next working team and project assignment.” Montana Design debuted its new color range for its popular storage system as well as Verner Panton’s TIVOLI CHAIR. Catchlove cites the Herman Miller SETU, a chair designed for brief meetings and sessions for employees who are “touching down for an hour or two,” as another example. Featuring automatic adjustments, without unnecessary bells and whistles, Catch-

01 The Montana Design Tivoli chair is produced with a frame of stainless, polished steel. The chair features a seat is woven with strings of polyurethane, reinforced with a nylon core. The Tivoli chair is hand-woven and each chair uses 85 meters of string. It takes a professional weaver approx. 1½ hours to make one chair.

21st-design.com apple.com bof.co.uk cosmit.it hermanmiller.com ikea.com kare-design.com/de/start montana.dk/en

03 KARE Office Collection’s clear brilliant white surfaces and the reduced shapes create openness, concentration and lucidity. The materials include lacquered hollow core board, and chrome-plated metal parts.

love says it supports the new philosophy of “smaller workstations, simpler products.”

SPOTLIGHT ON THE WORKER

Not all workers are able to split their time between the traditional office and the great outdoors. KARE Design founder and CEO Jürgen Reiter designs for those workers who spend the larger part of their days inside traditional, but changing, offices. “We service specific target-groups of industries and interior designers and decorators which have recognized, that ‘work time’ is lifetime. We all spend the majority of our lifetime at our offices. Life quality and, last but not least, lifestyle does not end at the door of our private homes. The result: companies offer life quality and lifestyle at the workstations with design-oriented workspaces and an individualized environment.” KARE, which exhibited at the Salone, is known for its colorful, modern aesthetic.

INDIVIDUALITY AND THE INTERGENERATIONAL OFFICE

Client development manager of design firm BOF Jane Wheeler says, “There is a need to accommodate different age groups with different needs and expec-

tations. Aged 25 and under, there is tendency to think ‘email is for old people.’ This age group, who have grown up using Facebook, YouTube, blogs and Twitter expect to use the same tools at work.” Fifty-somethings, who weren’t reared on social media but now find themselves reliant on it, have an equally powerful impact the way designers incorporate technology into their office space. “There is a growing contingent of 50+ year-olds, making up 1 in 3 of the workforce. With the erosion of pension provision, most are not prepared for retirement and will need to carry on working,” explains Wheeler. “The challenge for workplace design will be to create environments enabling these different age groups to learn from each other and work together in positive and productive ways.”

One way designers are working to encourage brainstorming and interaction between these two age groups is by developing multifunctional furniture that facilitates – and, in some cases, provokes – conversation. The Herman Miller design, SWOOP, is a series of chairs and sofas that you can link together and move around. “We’re seeing workplaces being designed to encourage certain behavior,” says Catchlove. “More

collaboration, more sharing of ideas, more interaction, more opportunity for serendipitous encounters.”

A SPACE THAT FEELS LIKE HOME Other firms, such as Germany-based COR, are developing modular furniture, to be used in homes and offices alike. (Soon, one might be indistinguishable from the other). Wheeler concurs: “Loose furniture such as soft seating and breakout elements are no longer confined to reception areas and instead feature strongly throughout the building... People are just as likely to stage a presentation seated on sofas as they are from a boardroom.”

The designers at 21stLIVINGART understand this intrinsically. The firm debuted JOHN, what Valentina Brustio, 21stLIVINGART’s marketing manager, calls “a chair with a young soul,” and META, a multi-purpose, indoor-outdoor bookshelf, two pieces created by designer Mario Mazzer, at this year’s Salone. Explains Brustio, “Today, an efficient worker cannot simply be active, or only reactive: proactivity is the key feature for a good start. This means that we can never ‘switch off,’ we must stay connected with the world around us even when we are physically out of the

02 For this think tank designed by KARE, the client requested a "natural" environment with flexible and solid wood furniture, round shapes and a harmonious atmosphere. The furniture is from KARE Collection "Authentico," and features solid sheesham wood from sustainable forestry.

office.” JOHN features a small shelf on the seat back, appropriate for storing objects or working on a small laptop or tablet. It’s one example of what Brustio calls a “smart” object.

“Smart objects,” she explains, “are objects with identity, which have the ability to interact somehow with the surrounding environment and with the user.” The META, on the other hand, is as reflective as it is practical. “Its shape movement reflects our frenzy, the holes are an expression of our open minded thinking, the colors inspire freshness and vitality,” says Brustio. Neither is typical of the traditional office, and perhaps that is the point: to blur the line

between work and play, and to inspire the worker.

SIMPLE SOLUTIONS, GRAND EVOLUTION

If we’ve learned anything from Apple’s technology or IKEA’s philosophy, it is that the effortless design often has

the most resounding impact. The seemingly simple objects that premiered as part of this year’s Salone – a chair that functions as a desk, a desk that converts into a meeting center – pose a complex question: Is business transforming design, or, perhaps, is design revolutionizing business? •

04 Trusses carry power and data independent of the Herman Miller Resolve workspace below so workstations can be light, open, and easy to plan and reconfigure.

05 Ample but well-concealed storage space allows organization to flourish easily.

06 Display screens in Bubbletack fabric allow for accessible vertical storage of work materials and display of personal items throughout the Resolve system.

07 The Herman Miller SETU chair’s kinematic spine bends and flexes to support every move. Setu's finely tuned elastomeric fabric provides superior suspension and conforms to your contours.

08 The Herman Miller Resolve system is a human-centered system. Its smart structure creates open, inviting, space-efficient workstations where people feel comfortable and connected.