Reghin through new glasses

Having spent this winter vacation in Reghin after living for a long time in another place, I've been able to see my hometown through different glasses than that of a resident. What I saw really impressed me and it made me wonder why I didn't notice these things before. The conclusion is that it isn't such a bad town to live in as I thought before.

Why?

Let's analyze it according to the already established criteria for evaluating a town.
- Transportation - within an hour drive to an international airport which connects you via Budapest (the capital of Hungary and not of Romania) to the entire Europe
- Free time activities - more than I imagined. Cultural activities: theater and cinemas within one hour drive; opera within one and half hour drive. Spas and wellness centers - within thirty minutes drive. Outdoor activities - mostly hiking, skiing - within one hour drive.
- Clubs and bars - this is still a minus for the town, as there is a very limited offer.
- Safety - as most small towns, it is very safe, also during the night.
- Education opportunities - elementary school in three languages: Romanian, German, Hungarian existent in town. High schools with the most common specialization - in town and within an hour drive. University - a limited choice within an hour drive and a very good university center within one hour and a half drive.
- Utilities - such as hairdresser, solarium - wide offer in town. Fast moving consumer goods shops - in town and bigger shopping centers within an hour drive.

However, what is missing are the people with the same education level and life aspirations.

So, what I wonder is: how does a town develop - it is the "right" creative people who should come first or the "right" amenities to attract them?

Apparently for Reghin, one of the problems seems to be how to market the town so that people get an accurate image of what it nowadays offers and shadow the old impressions of an isolated place.

Christmas modernity

Father: So, here's the Christmas tree. It is pretty uniform...

Daughter: Please bring it in after you refine its height.

Father: But what about the artificial tree that I bought last year? It's in the garage. It looks like a real one and it doesn't even leave any leafs. 

Daughter: ....I see...and what about the typical Christmas tree smell?...

Father: But you see, because of the temperature, the real one will soon dry and its leafs will start falling. 

Daughter:..I understand...ok, bring the one from the garage. I'll try to make it look real. However, what do we do then with the real one? 

Dana (a co-worker) is just arriving. 

Father: Dana, do you already have a Christmas tree? 

Dana: No, I don't. 

Father: Would you like to have this tree? Look how nice it is. It will be perfect for your apartment. 

Dana:  Thank you, sir. Do you mind if I come to pick up the tree only tomorrow?

This snapshot shows how modernity is seen in Romania. Artificial trees replace the strong scent of the Christmas tree, the smell of home made cookies are replaced by the series produced cookies bought in the hypermarket. 

Why did the old traditional values go? 

The generations that are now between 40-50 years old have been raised during the communism, when traditions and values were suppressed, religion was banned and larger group gatherings interdicted. 

Now, when they start affording the goods they didn't find or could buy before, they are rushing to internalize them in their homes. 

Question: Why did you buy that curtain? I once asked my mom. It doesn't really fit to the style of our house.

Answer: The lady from the shop told me that these curtains are the trendiest of all. 

Examples such as the ones above show how Romanian middle class people from mid and small size towns think. Even though one might argue that it is not representative for the entire land, it is the kind of thinking that I often deal with when talking to 40-50 year old. 

That's why I miss the Christmas feeling, the Christmas cooking activities and the Christmas cookies smell, the wine, the carols...and I actively try to influence people to revive it. 

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

...with the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you "Be of good cheer"...

...with the fuel price dropping and everyone shopping...

But why is this the most wonderful time of the year? Depending on whom one asks this question, the reasons might be:
- we have a new government which promises us to finally build the first highway to connect us to Hungary
- US carmakers can already celebrate Christmas with the $17.4 bio. emergency loans received from the government
- oil price is at 25% of its value 6 months ago
- Fed decreased interest rate to 0% in an attempt to boost the economy from recession

Even though outlooks look grim, we push the "PAUSE" button for the next two weeks and enjoy Christmas season. 

But what is left of the original Christmas spirit and what do we actually celebrate nowadays?
If we look around, we notice that the Christmas spirit has been downgraded to selfish and materialistic concerns about: where do we go on holiday? how much meat, pastry and drinks should we buy? are there enough presents under the tree?That is, we have lost any connection with what we are really celebrating.We know who's responsible for this, but is it really that bad?

Let's try to look at this through different glasses and appreciate the fact that the winter holiday season allows us to spend more time with our family, to disconnect our brains from the daily activities and just enjoy the free time. However, what is even more problematic is that we allow ourselves free time only so rarely and that we spend most of lives challenging ourselves. The desire for self improvement is indeed positive, but let's not forget that we should allow our minds and bodies a rest more frequently than 2 times a year. 

With this, I wish you a happy Christmas and take care.

Quality of Life vs. Quality of Living

While visiting the no.1. ranked city in the world on quality of living, I was thinking: Zurich is not even that special. Why should it be so high ranked?

Definitely, if I start looking at the factors which are taken into consideration for this classification, namely:

- internal stability, crime, law enforcement

- public services and transport

- banking services

- schools 

- recreation 

- housing 

- natural environment

...then it might be understandable the outcome. 

However, if a city is ranked number 1 in the quality of living does it mean that it has the same place when ranked to quality of life?

or in other words....

Would you prefer to live in a city with a high quality of living or in one with a high quality of life?

Had I been asked this question, I would definitely pick the second one, with the high quality of life. Why?

It's quite simple. Quality of life is a subjective measure and if I imagine been given the chance to live in a high ranked city on quality of living, but where I have no friends, I would feel miserable and I wouldn't care less that I can feel safe there, or that I have a high variety of recreation activities. What are they good for if I don't have anybody to go with to enjoy that high quality of living?

To sum up, I realized that I would prefer to be in a city where I have friends, even if it's dirtier, noisier, more dangerous and poorer in facilities than in a glamorous, safe, full fetched city all by myself.

That is, I'd rather stay in a 3* hotel which has a homey atmosphere than in a 5* all inclusive impersonal hotel. 

What would you choose?

BRIC - A shortcut to remember

Newspapers are full with information regarding automotive companies who open or will in the near future open a production capacity in Russia. 

Ford, Toyota...they already set ground in Russia. Now, it's GM's turn to begin producing their cars in Russia. Fiat, Hyundai, Nissan and Suzuki announce to follow the trend.

The paradox is that even though automotive companies struggle now with decreasing turnovers and profits, they still invest in factories in Russia. How come?

Markets in developed countries are already very saturated and market shares are rather stable. 

BRIC countries (Brasil, Russia, India, China) are the among the developing economies that play an increasing role in the world's economy. 

Especially in times of crisis, when developed countries are in recession, these countries continue their ascending trend. 

Russia and China  are countries with huge market potential as the economic growth leads to an increasing proportion of the middle class who affords to buy cars and new technology products. 

So why Russia and not China?

Although the regulations on foreign companies access in China have become less stringent, automotive companies still need a lot of authorizations and licenses and undergo shareholding restrictions (49%) if they want to open up a production capacity in the mainland. 

In contrast, Russia's laws are a bit more lax in this regard and allow wholly owned foreign businesses. Still, companies have to fight the red tape and long processing times or need to develop good ties with the local officials in order speed up processes.

Despite this, foreign companies take the risk because Russia will be one of the "promised lands" for the automotive business in the next years. 

But why open up a production factory and not use imports?

The most important reasons behind their thinking are:

- lower labor costs

- access to cheap resources (all kinds of metals)

- speed of distribution

- avoid taxes on imports

To sum up, while automotive companies standstill or even shut down some production capacities in developed countries, they open up new production facilities in Russia, as well as in other BRIC countries. The latter will be their main distribution markets in the future and everybody wants to gain a foothold in their markets to be able to capture a share of the huge market potential. 

Mobile phones - lifestyle or necessity?

"Romanians change mobile phones as they change socks"

According to a recent market study, one out of three Romanians change their mobile phones every 6 months. 

If we compare this with the Americans' buying behavior, they change their mobile phones every 3 years.

Irrational behavior I would say if we think that the average monthly income is EUR 470. However, as for everything, there IS AN EXPLANATION.

For Romanians, mobile phones are fashion and lifestyle objects. Mobile phones are used as artifacts of a certain life quality or social status that people aim to have. So it happens that even though some don't afford it, Romanians feel the need to own the latest technology, the most fashionable mobile phone and to show off with it. 

Post-communist Romania is a materialistic society. In this Romania, material objects such as a German car brand, a Nokia or Samsung mobile phone, play an essential role for one's image in the society. 

This behavior is somehow explainable by the political history. In communist times, all people were almost uniform in what they owned. Now when they have a wide variety of goods on the market and they have the possibility to buy them, they try to differentiate from another by owning sometimes extravagant material goods. 

However, I believe that Romania as EU member will change. Its citizen will learn from their EU peers that showing off doesn't bring too much long-term. Thus, they will prioritize their investment and will put more emphasis on: their homes, cultural and sport activities and health / wellness. They will understand that one doesn't show its quality of life by the car he/she drives, or the phone he/she speaks on, 

BUT

by the cosiness of one's house, by the overall image, especially the appeal of healthy and fit person, who feels good in its body and who enjoys a rich cultural life. 

Who's still profitable in times of crisis?

The last two months trained us to put up with bad news every day. We get up in the morning and open the newspaper with one idea in mind: 

which bank went bust this time? 

whom does the government rescue today?

or 

who is is taking over whom?

However, even in such difficult times there are some companies that have not only kept their profitability level, but increased it. 

So, who are they? What are their strategies so that we can transfer them to other industries?

One industry is the oil industry. Companies such as: Exxon Mobile, Royal Dutch Shell have announced increasing profits in the third quarter. 

The key question is: why?

Recall the situation on the market a few months ago, when the oil prices rocketed to $147 / barrel. At that point in time, these companies didn't suffer as they had oil reserves for a few months time. On the contrary... they used the market conditions to transfer the increase in price to the end consumers. As such, they registered increasing turnover, while keeping the same cost level. 

And now? 

Now, the price of the barrel has plummeted to $64, thus these companies can secure their oil reserves for a few months time at low prices. Thus, they won't be affected short term by the expected price increase to $100 / barrel. 

So, are they the winners?

For now, they are the winners. However, the effect of the crisis will be visible in their income statements in a few months time, because of the lower fuel prices and because of the consumers' tendency to drive less and choose more fuel efficient cars.

That is, this strategy is not sustainable in the long-run. That's why we see oil companies diversify in related fields such as regenerable energies, which is definitely  a high potential market in the future.

Finally, the oil industry is not the only one who doesn't suffer in times of crisis. Other industries are: pharma, tabbacco and consumer staples, known in the investors' world as "defensive industries". 

Helping China deal with the environmental issues

China is at crossroads. Environmental expectations are rising among its citizens along with the impatience and magnitude of environmental damage. World attention is focused on China as a result of its rapid economic growth and emergence on the global stage. 

Yet, increasingly the image of China is as the world’s factory with pollution blanketing the landscape, urban areas clogged with cars, skies filled with emissions and rivers too polluted to sustain life or productive use. While this is a caricature, it contains many elements from reality that shouldn’t be ignored. 

What can Chinese authorities do to address environmental issues?

- introduce tax incentives for recycling industrial land and thereby preserving agricultural land 

- condition local official's promotion to achievement of environmental targets

- introduce systems of road pricing that reflects congestion costs and environmental damage

- appoint more and better trained staff within the authorities who are responsible for implementing the environmental regulations

Furthermore, the top down approach of dealing with environmental issues must be complemented by a bottom-up approach in which every company feels itself responsible for its effects on the environment.

How can EU help China in the environmental challenge?

- EU could assist China in reforms, could transfer cutting-edge technologies and develop demonstration project. 

- enlist international NGOs to help with education and enforcement policies. Such measures would involve steering citizens and industries towards more energy-efficient and less environmentally damaging behaviour.

- Persuade multinational corporations (MNCs) to use their economic leverage to ensure that their Chinese partners adopt the best environmental practices is another alternative. 

Furthermore, the prices of energy have been kept low to reflect merely the production costs. China could use EU’s approach of “user should pay” and extend reforms that make energy price align to the supply and demand and reflect externalities. 

In line with the same reasoning “user should pay”, cars should be subject to safety inspections that include passing emissions tests on a regular basis. Policies that ban bicycles from some cities should be reversed, cycle tracks built and cycling, plus public transport, encouraged.

What can Chinese companies learn from EU companies approach to promote ecological awareness?

Chinese and foreign owned companies in China should be aware that:

- Corporate social responsibility can be a HR strategy for retaining the talents. This will become increasingly important as more and more young employees - especially those that are well educated and highly skilled - are looking at ethical issues.

- Corporate social responsibility has a positive effect on the bottom line and promotes team spirit. Organising staff outings to plant trees is one example of the kinds of activities that can help the environment while raising environmental awareness among employees and building team spirit. However, day to day activities such as paper recycling, limited use of air conditioning, turning off computer when they are not used have a more significant and longer impact.

- Along with demonstrating a commitment to corporate social responsibility and cutting costs, adopting an environmentally friendly policy can also be good for business. It can attract new customers while building community and investor confidence and expanding market share. Another key advantage is reduced overheads and operating costs in such areas as energy consumption, the production of waste and conservation of resources.

Finally, only the Chinese themselves can solve China’s environmental problems. The international community can help by persuasion, and where the environmental problems generated by China spread beyond its borders diplomatic pressure can legitimately be applied. But, the main role of the industrially developed countries will be to assist China through providing technology both commercially and through aid programmes.

Management consulting - in or out?

During one year, I have been gathering for and against impressions about working in management consulting, Now, I finally have a more round picture of this topic.

The main reasons for going into consulting are:

- If you don’t know for sure which industry you would prefer, consulting is a good option as it allows you to get a grisp of different industries in a short period of time .
- Type of activity – is very diverse, not in terms of the type of work that you’re actually doing, but rather in terms of areas/ topics / problems that you analyze.
- People – team work is the norm in consulting. If you like to argue for your ideas, to learn from others then that could be one place for you to be. Furthermore, consultants are known for being very analytical people, who tackle every problem in a structured way. They are also highly motivated to succeed and are willing to invest long hours in order to achieve this.
- Finally, it a springboard into middle management positions in external companies.

However, when you decide whether you should go into that direction, you should be aware of the following aspects:

- The activity is project-based, so basically you work in concentrated time frames. This means that you have to dedicate long hours to your job.
- Travel – is extensive. Expect to leave early on Mondays to different destinations and visit hotels, but not the countries. Do not expect to be home during the week. Friday is usually “office day”, which means that you return to your home office.
- Consulting is an intensive period in your life in which you have limited time for other activities. However, this is highly dependent on the office and country in which you are based.
- From consulting you acquire general industry knowledge, but not company specific. You have to be aware that if after such an experience you choose to join an external company, you won’t be offered top management positions, but rather middle management jobs. There is also the option of opening up your own business. In this case, consulting know how helps in developing and evaluating a business opportunity, as well as in leading teams, motivating people and understanding what are the key areas of each business.

Thus, it would be wise to evaluate your alternatives wisely:
do you want to be in a very active environment with extensive learning, work with very motivated and highly competitive people, but have no life outside it

OR

do you prefer to grow within an industrial company and have a more balanced lifestlye, but not as high results in terms of learning intensity and financial benefits?

It is still going down....

In the last three months I have witnessed the widening of the first financial crisis that I could follow on the news and understand its extent. Despite the fact that I see what are the reasons behind it, I am still stunned when I look at the evolution of shares since the beginning of this year. That it, in average shares have fallen with 70% since January 2008.

What is even worse is that we have been warned by economists that this is not the bottom of the crisis, although for us normal people it seems to be bad enough. Apparently it will become even worse, as the financial crisis extends to other industries and to the entire economy.

I will stop at the latter part of the previous statement as I find that this is where it hurts us. The scarcity in loans and credits allowance that exists nowadays has a direct negative impact on the businesses, that are stopped from growing through the use of long-term credit lines for diversification purposes. What is more, businesses are affected short-term also through the cut of the short-term credits. These ensured a balanced working capital and thus smooth transactions between producers and their customers.

There is even more to this. As firms cannot grow anymore and global demand for all products contracts (see the demand trend for crude oil, whose price fell to 40% of its value this spring), production level decrease. This leads to a decreased employee capacity, which will be met through:
- switching some of the full-time positions to part-time work
- temporary and permanent layoffs

From here you now the way: unemployment -> temporary increasing need for social security -> higher budget deficits + decrease in economic growth -> need for external financing -> increasing role of IMF, European Central Bank -> increasing importance of the state again

All in all, the future doesn't look bright.....it seems grim and this raises my concerns about the conditions of launching into my professional career. For sure it's not the best time for entering the labour market, but there's little room for me to choose.

Winter and the tourism industry

After a sad, rainy autumn, winter has finally come to Switzerland. And it's not only me who is happy that at least now I can clearly define what season it is...Happier than me are the hotel managers who, despite the financial crisis, have their hotels fully booked for the Christmas - New Year time frame.

So, how can this be explained?

I have two arguments for this:

1) Most of the bookings for the Christmas- New Year timeframe were made well in advance, that is in July - August, when the crisis didn't seem so grim. Added to this, I have a secondary cultural explanation for this behavior. As most of the tourists are Germanic, which have an increase need for planning in advance, they wanted to make sure that they have secured well in advance every detail of their winter holiday.

2) The impact of the crisis on the individual people comes with a delay of a few months - this means that the demand for vacations will decrease for spring and summer holidays which are to be booked now or until December.

How come this delay?

It is part of a vicious circle, which starts with the scarcity of money and loans, which negatively affect the growth needs of the businesses. What is more, as people decrease their spending and increase savings in the expectation of bad times, the demand for products and thus the industrial production decreases. This leads to a decrease in the business activity, in shrinking capacity and temporary layoffs.

To conclude, the tourism business will notice the effects of the crisis and recessionary period starting with the end of this year.

Copenhagen - the smallest creative European capital

My first visit to Scandinavia started with Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. It is known to be the smallest capital in Europe.
Although I haven’t spent too much time in Copenhagen so that I know it very well, four days were enough for me to create an impression about the creative potential of the city.

Thus, I can now say that Copenhagen is one of the most creative cities in Europe, much more creative than the cities in the German space I would say. Why?
As I walked through the inner city, I recognized all the characteristics that Richard Florida was talking about when describing a creative city. That is:

- It has a good transportation system which promotes the use of ecological transportation means (bicycles and Christiania bicycles).


- It is open to gay and lesbian communities.

- It allows everyone to behave naturally and to show off their personalities.


- It offers enough leisure and entertainment activities catered to all tastes: opera, theaters, but also lots of coffee shops, bars, clubs.































Besides this, you can see singers and artists performing on the streets.

Micro-urban events are part of Copenhagen daily landscape. In the picture below you can see a Lego event, where the inhabitants had the opportunity to show their creativity using Lego stones (no direct advertising was attached to this event).


















- Different parts of the town cater different social classes and ages – there are areas, which are more family friendly (quiet and close to the beach); other areas (next to the S-train south west line) which offer modern housing conditions at an affordable price; and student areas or for others with a similar budget.

However, there are also some negative things that I noticed in Copenhagen, like:

- Youngsters (teenagers) and people in their 20-ies – use to excessively drink during the weekend and then stroll through the city at night. For the ones like me not used to this landscape, it was a bit shocking, to say at least.

- Christiania Quarter – is a city within a city located in Christianhavn Quarter. At the first sight it looks like a ghetto. The inhabitants of this community are people who refuse to integrate in the Danish community. This small quarter benefits of tax exemption, but no real business is run there. The community members have their own workshops, art shops, or whatever they have thought of doing to sustain themselves. While a few years ago, this place was not visited by external people, the police interviewned and now this part of the town can be crossed, at least during the day.



All in all, Copenhagen left me with the desire to return to this place some other time and enjoy more of what it has to offer. It is a very alive city so to say and this can energize its inhabitants.

Lund - What do you need to have an exciting life in a small city?

When one usually thinks of small towns, especially in Romania, first characteristics that come to mind are: boring, uninteresting, limits oneself development, etc.

However, today I was impressed to visit the town of Lund and see what high quality of life people living there have. Lund is an university town situated in southern Sweden, about one hour by train from Copenhagen..

So what makes life so exciting in Lund?

1) Infrastructure – transportation system is very extensive and the town is bicycle friendly. The town is very well connected by railway and highway to bigger centers like Copenhagen (1h distance), Malmö (15min), Götheborg and Stockholm.

2) People - Lund is one of the oldest social sciences university in Europe, dating back from the 17th century. Thus you can see a lot of young people on the streets, which makes the town alive.

3) Social capital – there is an opera, a theater, an arts’ center, a football stadium, lots, lots of green public places.

Furthermore, the town has a lot of associations, including sports associations like: kajak association and a kayak school.
There is a special lively atmosphere that the town has even on Sundays, a day of the week when many other cities are practically dead.

I would like to extend the third point, about the social capital as I find it very interesting how the town succeeded to attract and keep the creative class there. From my daytrip impressions I can conclude that:

- the arts center provides a meeting place for young and old inhabitants of the town. On Sundays it transforms itself into a self-service restaurant and the place is roaming of young people, families with small children running around as well as eldery people with a young spirit.

- the numerous caffees and restaurants all over the inner city allow everyone to have an intelligent conversation in an enjoyable atmosphere while tasting different national food specialities. This high variety of places impressed me in such a small town. However, we need to be aware that the town is in Sweden, a country which is more foreign friendly than many other EU countries.

- the town has incredible many green areas and parks and is crossed by several water canals. The latter allows young and old to practice all sorts of water sports, especially kajak , rowing and swimming.

There would be so much to analyse at this town and learn from its features. However, I feel that in this case the local government has played a critical role in understanding the needs of the inhabitants and being aware that they need to keep the creative class in order to foster a sustainable economic growth. Furthermore, local government is conscious of the competition that it faces with neighbouring towns like Malmö or Copenhagen.

Sustainability of the third way

Yesterday I was talking about how German women give up their careers entirely in order to have a family and about the predominance of the men in the German business landscape.

In the last two days I've faced a totally different model, usually called in economics "the third way". Namely it is the economic model of the Scandinavian countries. This model is characterized by solidarity, an extensive social system financed through a high income taxation on level.

So is it efficient?

At the first view it seems to be as streets are clean, transportation system is very developed. What is more, what I found interesting here is the high proportion of young mothers with children. That is with 25 women already have 2 kids. Even if at the first sight this has made a strong impression on me, I found three explanations for this phenomenon.

1) The extensive social system that I was previously talking about supports young people to have children early in their adult lives.

2) There is a different mentality that I've encountered in these countries. People get together and form a couple and then a family early in their lives, but in 60% of cases these relationships end.

3) The labor market is flexible enough to offer different possibilities to work through: part time and flexible time working, teleworking or other forms of working from home.

All these encourage couples to have a family soon enough as, contrary to Romania, they don't have think of the financial challenges. The state has sufficient resources to support them in such cases.

What other explanations do you see to be plausible?

Reading a culture by its airplane passengers

Never before had I made a connection between the passengers that one meets on a route and cultural particularities. However, this time it was too obvious not to notice.

While flying from Zurich to Copenhagen via Düsseldorf, I couldn’t helped notice that 90% of the passengers in the plane were 30+ German males, all wearing a business casual outfit. Taking by their looks, they were all on business trips and not as tourists. And so I wondered: where are all the working women? Germany is a country with a proportional number of men and women, so why this phenomenon?

Then I remembered what I discussed with some German colleagues not too long ago. Apparently Germany is one of the men dominated countries in the EU. That is, 50% of women over 30 in Germany stay at home or have part time jobs. Furthermore, some of my German colleagues recall that they’ve always had their mom at home around and so did their friends.

However, I expect that with time the mentality has changed and now women consider having a family and a job. But, surprise.... Yesterday I talked to a female German colleague in her 20-ies, who told me some things which surprised me to say the least. She shared her view with me on this family and career issues. Apparently she doesn’t want a career in investment banking, or in other challenging businesses.

What is more, she would prefer to have a routine job and plenty of time than a challenging job but less time. This is not valid for the future 30+, but also for now. Moreover, she doesn’t imagine having a family with children and not being the entire day home with them. In other words, she intends not to work anymore when she has children.

If I compare this to the other countries, namely to Eastern European countries and Romania in particular, things are quite different. Romanian females have both a career and children and can still make it. The main reason for this situation is financial, but now it has become more a lifestyle.

All in all, it’s quite interesting to compare cultures on dimensions which are less obvious for outsiders.

The Centenary

Dear all,

Today we won't debate anything, but we'll set ouselves in a weekend mood. However, so that our brains don't get too bored, look at the insights centenaries give about life.

I was positively impressed to see this photo exhibition on the hallway at the University of St Gallen (HSG). It sends me the impression that HSG has still kept a hidden human side although it doesn't really show it too often.

Still, I hope this feeling is true and not my other hunch, which says that the university is doing this only for PR, brand image purposes so that it shows in the media as a multilateral oriented university.

Regulations for bicycles in Switzerland

I have been waiting for a long time to happen and it finally did: the police stopped me while I was biking today. Strange, isn't it?

In Romania it would be strange because there bicycles are de facto not considered to exist on the streets although there are some cyclists on streets. Police is Romania is probably too concerned with managing the automobile traffic and does not get involved in how bicycles circulate.

So what does this mean for the cyclists?

Basically, they can go whatever, however they want on the streets as long as they don't get hit. Furthermore, they needn't have any lamps or other protection elements. They can even get drunk and still hop on the bike and cycle to get home. However, don't think that this has only advantages.

So what are the disadvantages?

First, you are in danger when you find yourself on the street between the cars because they see you only as an obstacle and not as an equal participant in the traffic.
Second, if there are no rules to follow, the cyclists can adventure in dangerous maneuvers that put their lives in danger.
Third, you don't have any special parking places for your bike. this means that it can easily be stolen or hit if somebody thinks it stands in his/her way while parked.

But how is it in Switzerland?
I'll mention only those facts that I usually come across.

1) Every bicycle that runs on the streets needs to hold a vignette, similar to the ones for the cars. In this case, this is an insurance, like a car insurance.

2) It is forbidden to cycle if you drank. Should the police stop you, you risk losing your driving licence. Yes, your driving license although all you drove was a bike.

3) The police can stop you like any traffic participant and ask you for your documents. The reason why they stopped me today was to check if I had all the lamps. If something misses, then you risk being fined.

4) Cars usually pay great attention to the cyclists and give them priority. It somehow makes you feel good when you make a Porsche stop in front of you to allow you to cross the street. :-)

Coming back to more serious reasons, all this attention given to cyclists as well as the special dedicated bike routes promote the use of bikes for within town circulation, making the air more breathable and reducing noise.
For the cyclists it brings some significant advantages: rapidity especially in traffic jams and use of bike both as a sport and as a utility vehicle.

What do financial markets and relationships have in common?

"Once confidence is destroyed, it's not easily restored" says Angel...

This statement is usually used in the context of a relationship when one of the partners loses trust in the other because of an incident. However, in this case, the sentence refers to the financial markets. So, what is it all about? Who is the actor in the financial market that cannot be trusted and who is the other party?

According to academics, the injection of governmental money that is offered to the banks in distress is not enough to counteract the descending trend of stocks on the market. This happens because banks are afraid that they do not hold enough information about the other players in the industry, so they have limited willingness to lend money to fellow banks.

To use the relationship metaphor again, let's imagine that one of the partners does something immoral, which makes the other one to lose confidence. After such an event it takes significant time and efforts from both sides for the trust to be reinforced again. Furthermore, the next time you will be even more careful knowing what it can happen. As the saying goes " after you got burned with soup, you will blow even in yoghurt".

Back to the financial markets. What does this mean? Basically, as long as banks don't start trusting one another and start to lend money to each other (credits), we risk not to have enough liquidity on the market. This can happen despite all the bad asset purchases made by the governments and despite all the insurances which governments now give to the financial players.

So, is it accurate to compare the relationships among banks with interpersonal relationships?

Probably the complexity of both lies in different aspects, but they seem to have some things in common, namely the need for:

- trust / confidence
- open communication and information exchange
- long term benefit orientation

Let's talk again about rural development...again

Yesterday I visited...again...the beautiful town of Appenzeller. For the ones who know the place, I know that you are already jealous for not being able to re-see it again (sic). For the ones who haven't visited it, pay attention and continue reading. :-)

So, how can you make money if you're living in a town which is known only for keeping its traditional way of living?

1) Take herbs from the area, mix them and sell them as Appenzeller Tea.
2) Do you have any fruits in your garden: strawberries, grapes, plums...whatever grows in your country. Then you should make spirits (all sorts of schnaps, alcoholic drinks) out of them, put them a local brand name and sell them in souvenir shops.
3) If you have anything else to sell which is locally produced, then pack them ecologically, traditionally and sell them at a premium price.

In every small town or village that is on a main road or has a touristic attraction spot such ideas can be used as a source of additional revenue.


And here are some examples to inspire you:

Säntis Trip

After a month of daily raining and pale light the entire day, today we were lucky enough to have a sunny day with a clear, blue, autumn sky. Needless to say that I had to take advantage of this unique day I would say and go on a trip. And what can be a more appropriate activity than climbing up the Säntis on such a clear weather?

For the ones not yet initiated in the Appenzeller Region, Säntis is the highest peak in Eastern Switzerland, with an altitude of about 2500 m. As you can see from the pictures bellow, it has worth the effort to get there because the view was absolutely fantastic and left me breathless.

The Säntis peak is situated in the Region Appenzeller, which offers one of the most authentic Swiss landscapes and where you can still see how the inhabitants live according to the traditional, local customs.
Appenzeller is the land of the mauve Milka cows, of snow-white sheep, of crystal blue lakes and fresh green grass.

Enjoy the pictures!

It's time for critical life questions

While catching up with several high-school and university colleagues, I've discovered that we share the same concern at the moment:
What to do with our lives?


After being done or almost done with our studies, it's high time for our next big decisions in life:
"where will I work? in which industry? what do I enjoy doing? where do I want to live? what's more important to me?"
become daily questions that make our minds twist and turn.

So, how do I approach it? I've started asking people I know, mostly colleagues from Romania, about what they want in life, how they perceive the Romanian business environment and career opportunities there, and if they have ever considered to work outside Romania.

The answers were congruent no matter what they studied. The conclusions of my small scale survey are:

- Romania is a place of lots of business opportunities. As an entrepreneur you can make money whatever your business is specialized in. As an employee, the more challenging career opportunities in terms of tasks and learning perspectives are to be found in multinational companies.

- The ones surveyed all shared the wish of working sometimes in the future outside Romania, even if not on a permanent basis.

- Neither of them knows for sure what they want to do for a job and they see their first job as "scanning the industries to look for what I like". As long as you're enjoying the activity that you're doing, it's enough for now. You needn't have to stay in your first job forever.

When I asked them on what criteria they choose the location to live in, some patterns were evident:

- choosing to be where the most interesting accessible career opportunities were
- choosing to stay in the same city as where they have studied because they have most of their friends there
- choosing to be close to the family

When being asked why they plan to go and work outside Romania, opinions were also congruent:

- outside I can have a better quality of life - free time opportunities, housing, transportation system
- the mentality of people is different - waiting for someone to help you vs. making your way
- i want to work in a diverse and international environment - enjoy diversity of people, food, traditions
- i want to be able to use foreign languages at my work


Although this didn't really help me in making my decisions, it was a nice feeling to see that I'm not the only one who is going through this tough time now. We should have faith that things will turn out to our best and try to find the answers to ONE question only at a time.

Strategic positioning in the mobile handset sector

Let's start by recalling some important dates:

- 2008, July, the 9th.: the new LG Secret (LG-KF750) touch-screen phone is launched
- 2008, July, the 11th.: new iPhone 3G is revealed by Steve Jobs
- 2008, September, the 23rd. : T-Mobile G1 (Google phone with the Android OS) is released
- 2008, October 2nd.: Nokia 5800Xpress (Tube) came up on the market

Nokia finally released yesterday its first touch-screen mobile phone, at a two years' distance from the pioneer Apple. This has been one of the last novelties for this year coming from the leading mobile phone producers.
The purpose of this post is not to explain you the technical capabilities of these smart-phones, neither to compare them on a point by point basis. What I want to do is to make you aware of the changes in the strategic positioning of these companies.

I will try to position the four mobile handset producers on three dimensions:
1) technological novelty
2) price (comparison on the price on www.electromaticinc.net)
3) fun dimension

So let's take them in chronological order.

<The LG secret is the latest LG mobile phone with a touch-screen, which brings with it a 5mp integated camera. However, it doesn't have WiFi. The price is 400$ without a contract. Analyzed on the three dimensions, it is positioned high in the fun dimension and medium priced, with medium level of novelty.



The second generation of iPhone, the 3G brings with it a new, smoother design, and is technologically more advanced than the previous iPhone version. It includes: 3G technology, GPS, Wifi and a 2mp camera. It is being advertised as a "gorgeous phone" (Steve Jobs). If we place it on the three dimensions, it is high on all dimensions.

The T-Mobile G1 costs about 500$ without a contract, has WiFi, GPS and TV-out and a 5mp camera included. Plus, it works on the new Android operating platform. However, design-wise it is not so "sexy", nor as fun as the iPhone. The advantage is that it allows music download from all Internet platforms, unlike the iPhone who supports only the iTunes. Thus, we position it high on the technological dimension, high on price.

Lastly, the Nokia 5800 Xpress has bluetooth, a 3.2.mp camera and an improved sound surround included. It operates on a new Symbian platform which is supposed to be more user-friendly. Its Nokia Music program should be a response to the HTC G1 phone and to the iPhone. It is priced at about 400$. On the three dimensions, I would position it low on technology, medium on price and medium on the fun dimension.

To conclude:
- Apple has succeeded to maintain its strategic position despite its diversification strategy in the mobile phone sector. Apple stands for innovation, user-friendliness and fun at a premium price.
- LG keeps its position as a producer of handsets with rich media characteristics at a medium price.
- T-Mobile G1 aims to directly compete with the iPhone, although it lacks some of the "sexy touches" that the iPhone has. This strategic positioning is confirmed also on price dimension.
- Nokia - maintains its position as a mainstream phone producer, whose phones are characterized by reliability and viability. Price-wise, it is premium priced as compared to normal phones, but a little under-priced when compared to smart phones.

All in all, Nokia seems to be safe for know as it has a high brand recognition, high customer fidelity and a good distribution network. However, Apple's decision to lower iPhone's price makes me wonder where it wants to position itself in the long run. Provided that it keeps the same prices and widens its distribution network to include other network carriers than AT&T and Orange, it could become Nokia's direct competitor on the smart-phone segment.

Finally, let's not forget about Research inMotion, who produce the BlackBerries. For the moment, they are safe as they are on a niche segment, directly targeting big corporations. However safe they might feel because of their existing customer base and close contact with their buyers, they should take into consideration to upgrade their technology. Otherwise, the G1 and its next versions might become a threat.

Switzerland closes itself again

Do you remember my post about the the free movement of persons in Switzerland? If you don't, let me shortly remind you. Switzerland has signed several treaties with the EU which are aimed to enhance the businesses between the two parties. One of these treaties is related to the free movement of persons. Switzerland is supposed to prolong the treaty in December, when it will also include on their lists the two newest EU members: Romania and Bulgaria.

Today however, representatives from three parties have gathered enough signatures so that they can now propose in the Parliament a Referendum against this treaty. Probably the proposal won't pass through. Anyway, even the idea that members of three parties have considered taking this action is unbelievable.

In the world economy where Switzerland is one of the countries that benefits the most from the globalization (think of all the multinational companies headquartered in CH), it chooses to initiate such actions that makes it more difficult for the people to settle in the country. In the same line of reasoning, Switzerland needs to understand that it should keep itself open if it doesn't want to bear the consequences of companies leaving it because of its inflexible regulations.

Below you have the opinion of a tabloid newspaper about the free persons movement issue.
For the ones unfamiliar with this story, there is a long rivality between the Swiss and the Germans that is visible even at my university. Why? Germans are accused of coming to Switzerland for studies and then choosing not to leave the country anymore. Furthermore, due to the educational regulations, only 25% of the students may be of foreign citizenship at public universities. This makes to select only the best German students, who after graduation get the jobs of the Swiss. And so goes the story.

Let's talk about OLMA

For the ones who haven't been through St. Gallen, I will introduce you to a very popular event that marks the town two weeks long every October.
It's called Olma Messe/ Olma Exhibition. You're probably imagining now pictures hanging on the wall or Greek and Roman sculptures.
You'll be surprised to find out that Olma it's not at all about art in its classical sense.
OLMA stands for "Schweizer Messe für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung", that is Swiss Exhibition for Agriculture and Nutrition. The farmers come to exhibit their animals and present their products (usually cheese and wine).
When I found out about this exhibition, I was quite amazed. Why? I didn't expect to see in a country such as developed as Switzerland such an "animals show".

This event still puzzles me and I wonder how come the agriculture plays such an important role, even though it doesn't bring a great value added to the GDP. However, the same is valid for France, too, where the farmers benefit from a comprehensive protection from the government, being largely subsidized.


But in Switzerland, the country of banks and pharma, why is agriculture important?

I have three hypothesis for this question:
1) It's a matter of national pride to have your own products which you market internally and in the EU markets. It's not only a matter of country pride, but also the Swiss consumers attach a premium value to a product to which they personally know the region of provenience.
2) This subsidization can also be looked at as the result of the "distributive function" of the government. By this I mean the distribution of the funds from the "haves" to the "have not-s". In this case, the transfer of money from the banks' and other multinationals headquartered in Switzerland, to the farmers who live in harsher living conditions.
3) This support can also be considered as a reward for the fact that farmers, by taking care of their assigned properties, contribute to maintaining the beauty of the Swiss landscape.

So, how can this help? What are the learnings for other countries, and especially Romania, from the story?

Let's take three take-aways:

1) We (Romanians) should start and brand our national products with more pride. As lots of Romanian consumer goods products and especially food is still traditionally cultivated, we should promote this particularity. We should, furthermore, try to market our products outside our country with more pride and actively participate at exhibitions. The premium price will follow as the brand will progressively become established.

2) We should try and promote the farmers' traditional way of life in Romania in our country image strategy. There are only few countries left in the EU (only Bulgaria), where this customary way of living is still alive.

3) We should be nationalists like other countries are (France, Switzerland, Austria) and choose our national food products if they provide a similar quality. That's how each of us can support the farmers' way of life, which further has a direct positive impact on Romania as a touristic attraction. Furthermore, this also helps maintain our country's identity.

Financial crisis seriously affecting Europe

Looking back in the last six months at the evolution of the investment banking sector, and particularly the leader banks, we come up with the series: 5-4-2-0. Although I acknowledge that the transformation of Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan in banks under FED supervision is only a strategic move in order to be able to raise the finances they need easier than before, it's still a shock when I think "the pride of Wall Street is practically inexistent now". That is because to me Wall Street stands for "high-risk, high gain". However, the Wall Street Primadonas will have to limit their gains to moderate sums if they don't wanna risk being trapped in another "bankruptcy snowball".

And now, it's not only US that's in trouble...Europe comes along. It was actually high time for the crisis to reverse on our shores. Otherwise, it would have been atypical to everything that I have studied at the university. We look at the UK, known for its "no involvement policy", who nationalizes 2 banks in less than a year. We go more East, and find Hypo Real Estate Bank from Germany seeking governmental loan and Fortis, who's playing tennis with its ABN AMRO branches bought only last year.

From the Fortis and Wachovia's stories, I conclude that when you're in trouble, raising the needed finance is the sole purpose. What else can I understand from the fact that Fortis is thinking about selling ABN AMRO branches just one year after having acquired them? And now all I know about M&A seems to be contradicted by reality. Scared of bankruptcy, banks don't think about organizational issues, PMI costs, nor about their employee morale anymore. Quick money raise is their sole religion. However, the impact of all those M&A will show up on medium term, after the crisis is over, on the profitability of the involved banks. As a consequence, the current liquidity and solvency issues will be replaced by profitability issues.

But in the end, who is thinking about what saving money for the future if now you're starving?

Parkstrasse vs. Spitalului Str.

While I was biking today through the museum quarter in St. Gallen, suddenly a question popped up in my mind: how was that street that I was just biking on different from a secondary street in an 70.000 inhabitants Romanian town. And so I started to compare and contrast two similar streets in different towns.

I mainly looked at the following elements:

1) Houses - in St.Gallen - built in the first half of the 20th century, height: usually P+2 or P+3. We have that in Romania, too. So what is so special? The special atmosphere that they diffuse comes from the fact that they don't show off in your way, they rise there like discrete strangers who don't want to interfere in your way. Usually, they are partly masked by trees or bushes, which separates them from the rushing pedestrian or cyclist. There's no flashy pink, crazy green, or dark blue house to hypnotize you with their color.

2) Streets - it is designed to limit your speed to theoretically 30 km/h. Practically, no one drives with more than 15 km/h. Why? The street provides in both direction parking spaces for the residents. Blue and white lines indicate the teritorry meant for parking. As everyone there is conscious enough to respect the regulations and the others around him, everyone respects those drawings and no cars don't come up in your way because they are wrongly parked.

Furthermore, in order to reduce speed, traffic circles have been built every now and then and they are also a green area with trees and flowers. What is even more interesting about the secondary streets in the living areas of St Gallen is that the road and the pedestrian road is not clearly defined in some areas. There are some fragments of let's call them "third spaces" which both cars and pedestrians use. This is again not a breakthrough concept one could say. That's true, but the beauty is in how they (the Swiss which I don't usually praise) have succeeded to combine all these ubiquitous elements into a relaxing atmosphere.

3) People - not too numerous are walking on the street quietly. If you look at them, they politely return your look, but you don't feel at any moment that they are interfering in your life or that they judge your appearance. This is something which is quite different from Romania, where people tend to compare and judge each other by their clothing. I see this only as a transition phase for Romanian, too, which is mainly caused by their "materialism orientation". This "orientation" makes them judge people in a superficial way according to their: phones, cars and clothes. In Switzerland, it is the character that matters most and you don't usually pay attention to the material aspects.

To sum up, what I tried to do was to compare two streets in middle class residential areas in two countries. I compared and contrasted houses, streets and people. My overall impression is that what distinguishes streets here is that they allow each one: driver, cyclist or pedestrian to circulate without interfering in each other's way.

------
I'm still looking for some pictures make it visually more clear what I mean.

Who's your city?

Mega Regions in Europe

The latest book by Richard Florida "Who's your city?" from which the map was extracted, builds up on his previous research about the particularities that a city should have in order to attract the creative class. Although his theory brings nothing new to me, this book has something which I found to be interesting.

Florida proposes three questions that help one find out who his/her city is. The questions sound like this:

1) How do you like the place you’re living now? Is it somewhere you really want to be? Does it give you energy? When you walk out onto the street—or the country lane—in the morning, does it fill you with inspiration, or stress? Does it allow you to be the person you really want to be? Are you achieving your personal goals? Is it a place you would recommend to your relatives and friends?

2) Have you thought about moving? If so, what are the top three places on your radar screen? What do you like about them? Specifically, what do you think they offer you? How would your life be different in these places?

3) Have you ever sat down and compared where you’re living now to those places? Honestly, have you given this a fraction of the thought and energy you’ve given to your job and career prospects, or if you’re single, to your dating life?

When I looked at the first question, I realized that I've already answered to it for some time already. That is, in my case whenever somebody asks me why I liked Vienna, my answer went on like this: it's the place that makes me feel active, which makes me feel that the city belongs to me and I am invited to use all its amenities that it has to offer , it's the city where I feel free and respected, and where I can combine both a good quality of living while maintaining a connection with the CE Europe.

Furthermore, I realized that I tend to promote Vienna to anybody who asks me about this city, about whether she/he should choose it over other cities.

Thus, I am now more certain that Vienna is a place for me to be....but who knows, maybe I will discover other cities where I will feel at least as good as I enjoyed Vienna.

So, do you know who your city is?

And a link to a test called "place finder". You can try it for fun, although I don't believe in it. The three questions seem much more insightful than the questionnaire.
Place finder

Switzerland is getting ready for war

One of the informations that I've kept in my memory from the history classes is that Switzerland has always been a neutral country in times of war. That's one of the explanations for seeing wealthy people choose to invest their savings in the Swiss banks. Anyway, we're not going to talk about banks of finance today because we've already had too much of this topic in the last weeks. What we're going to discuss today is Switzerland's military politics.

Just as the title said, Switzerland is getting ready for war. "How come, when and with whom?" you might ask. Guess what, this is what I'm wondering, too. I've been living in Switzerland for a year now and one of the things which really stoke me when I got here is the emphasis they put on their military forces. Should you find yourself in the train station on Fridays evenings, you will be able to admire numerous young men dressed in military uniforms. What is more, for all the ones who pursue a military training, there a special places reserved at the university.

However, it's not only soldiers that you can see walking around all over Switzerland. If you choose to travel by car, you'll have a high chance to see some of their military transportation vehicles driving in rows.

But Swiss are still not happy enough with their military equipment, so they are deciding today in the Parliament the exact amount of money that they spend for buying new equipment.
What do they want to buy?
We're talking here about 220 transportation vehicles and the upgrading of 33 of their existing F/A18 combat planes. For all this, they've reserved 917 Mio. Francs from the budget.

All being said, it's no wonder that they make me think of war. But again, probably it's just me who finds this a bit odd, as Swiss people are already used to it and the ones who are not "lucky enough" to be accepted to llive in Switzerland, they don't really see what's happening.

Rural areas - attractive spots for the creative class?

Yesterday, I've watched on ARD (a German channel) a TV report on the village Avrig in Romania. Before going further into details, let me provide you with some background information on this place.

Avrig is a small town of 16000 inhabitants, located about 25 km away from Sibiu, on the road connecting Sibiu to Brasov and hosts two nationalities (Romanians and Germans).

I was impressed when I found out that a young 29 year old German was elected by a Romanian majority to be mayor of the town. Still, it doesn't seem unique enough to attract my attention. Furthermore, what I found to be really interesting about this mayor was that, after his university studies in Germany he chose to return to the home town. He was interviewed by ARD and with a accent-less, correct German he presented his plans for the town's development.

As soon as I've learned this, I immediately made a connection to the Richard Florida's creative class and I energetically started to look for empirical evidence showing the possibility to attract the creative class to rural areas.
One study from Cornell University, which I find very relevant in this regard is available under the following link:

Recasting Creative Class

Even though the study shows that such a possibility exists, it doesn't go into details on how to attract the creative class. Thus, I would like to enumerate some ideas that crossed my mind:

1) A good transport and communication connection to the two vicinity cities (Sibiu and Brasov) are vital as they allow the creative class to commute to the vicinity cities whenever necessary.
2) Leisure amenities are definitely another "must be" in the town. Under this category I refer not only to hiking or biking tracks, paragliding, or other outdoor sports, but also to the stores able to provide with the necessary equipment.
3) Organizations of like minded individuals - where the members of the creative class can socialize and of course, some places that allow for socialization. Such organizations have a further role, namely they can provide the mayor with input ideas for attracting more members of the creative class. That's how the county Walle Walle in the US received input for developing "attraction strategies for the creative class".
4) Security and tranquility - I built this idea on the results of the above mentioned study, which shows that the middle age creative class segment decides to move to rural areas, that is families with children. Thus, it is important to know that it is safe to leave the children play outside your private property and that one finds in Avrig a quite place, appropriate for relaxation.

This sounds all very nice, but now, let's be reasonable and take an objective look at where the town Avrig stands. It lacks transportation and water infrastructure, as well as the necessary leisure amenities. The positive side is that now Avrig has a mayor that is committed to build the necessary basic infrastructure and turn an unused mansion into a touristic accommodation.

Now, some of you might say that the lack of modern infrastructure can sometimes be an advantage and that it attracts a certain segment of tourists. That's true, but I believe that we can offer to these tourists secondary routes where they can experience how it is have only basic living conditions. In this case, Avrig would be a starting point for such trips.

I could go on and expands my ideas further, but I find that the information provided are enough for you to understand the topic.

How to escape an addiction?

Throughout our lives, everyone of us becomes addicted for some time to one thing or the other, be it drugs, cigarettes, TV series, chocolate, actions, or people. So had I until recently a long time addiction, which intensified in the last few days.
When asking my friends for solutions to get over it, I was given similar suggestions. All were rational responses to this addiction.

However, besides my rational restrain I needed an emotional one, which I couldn't exactly define what it could be. The good news is that now I know it. The bad news is that I had preferred to find it out without having to personally experience it. I realize that this all might be too abstract for you to understand, so I'll try to clarify it without getting into details.

It's well known that the best learning method is the "do it yourself" and experience the consequences of your actions. The same applies to addictions. Although I knew from others' experiences what the solution to my addiction is, I wasn't willing to accept to implement it long-term. So, I decided to learn from experience: I gave in my addiction and I "got burned" so to say. In other words, the outcome was so negative that it affected me both physically and mostly psychically.

Now, whenever I am on the brink of giving in this specific addiction I will remember the feeling I experienced when I embraced my addiction.
To conclude, it seems that experience is the best way of learning. Even though it may be true that "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger", let's adopt what others have learnt from their experience and not insist on experience everything ourselves as it can be much too painful.