My first book on Open Innovation is in the market

"Dear author,
Your project "Integrating Open Innovation in the Strategic Planning Process", with the project number 29521, and ISBN 978-3-639-21783-4, has been published."

This has been the news that came into my Inbox a few days ago. Naturally, it makes me happy and proud, at the same time. However, I feel that I've deserved this outcome. The next phase would be to translate it into Romanian and publish on the Romanian market, as well.

Therefore, if you are interested on the topic of Open Innovation, go on Amazon, purchase the book and provide me with feedback. I am most looking forward to the customer reviews and/or your personal feedback.

Have a great weekend and prepare for the Winter Season.

Best,

Ligia

An interesting business model

A few days ago, while walking on my way home, I've heard a funny noise on the street. When I looked at where it came from, I've noticed a small truck colorfully painted and with a logo saying "Frozen food home delivery" (translated into Romanian). Needless to mention how surprised I was by the business idea. Consequently, I've started wondering whether it is really profitable and who would be interested in their services.
I had a similar experience while I was in Hungary, in some very remote area, with the difference that in that case it was a mobile ice-cream truck which sold only ice-cream.

So, coming back to my initial question: is it a viable business idea?
You might say that it must be a viable idea, otherwise I wouldn't even have seen that truck. However, the Romanian business landscape provides us with several such business ideas, which didn't have a sound business plan behind it.

In this case, let's analyze the main revenues and the costs.

Before looking at the revenue and cost side, we should review the offer. The product offer is made of: frozen meat and vegetables, ice cream.

In order to look at the revenues, we should take into consideration the customer segments targeted.

1) The eldery -who have a limited mobility. However, on the minus side, they have a weak purchasing power due to their low pensions.
2) Moms with small children - who cannot carry their children to shopping with them as the public transport is not children - friendly. They also have a medium purchasing power.
3) Upper middle class families with housekeeper - where the housekeeper is also the cook. She prefers to spare the shopping trips in order to keep up with housework and other housekeeping needs. This segment is not limited by a food budget.
4) Single young professionals - who don't have time to go shopping and rarely cook at home. They also have a high income, and food costs make up for a low proportion of their overall costs. They go out in clubs on weekend and go on weekend breaks. They are very fashionable, buy brands and drive premium cars.

Prices:
a 10% plus compared to the hypermarkets.

On the cost side, the main cost positions are:
- driver's salary costs
- truck depreciation
- food losses - due to validity time
- fuel costs

Still, much depends on the number of activity days and on the average sales.

Nevertheless, this business model can only be successful in urban agglomerations, as in small towns and villages following problems arise:
- very limited disposable income
- no demand for more sophisticated products such as frozen vegetables
- dependence on subsistence economy

Consequently, two conclusions can be drawn:
- the business model is definitely not viable outside urban agglomeration areas
- in agglomeration areas, much depends on the overhead and on the areas visited by the truck, as well as on the number of working hours and days.

Are you aware of a similar business model in your country?

Re-thinking what success really means

For some months now, hundreds of articles have been published on the topic of graduate studies' value. Titles such as "MBA studies don't pay off nowadays" or "25 percent of Ivy league MBA 09 graduates are still jobless" add to the mental pressure that MBA graduates looking for jobs face. This made me realize that we're living in a society which makes us believe that we are totally responsible for our career success.

Our society ruthless splits people into two categories: winners and losers. "Winners" are considered the richest, most renowned in their industry, working for the industry leader companies, while "losers" are the one who don't have one of these qualities. Added to this, business schools preach that the best for one's career is to go either into management consulting, and there only to McKinsey, BCG, Bain or Booz or into banking to Goldman Sachs & its peers. Should you think about another career, you're bound to be included in the "losers" category.

After quite a long time of being brainwashed to think this way, I've come across an inspiring talk given by Alain de Botton on the topic of success. His speech supported my previous attempts of going against this conventional flow and pursuing a personal career track. As I know that many of you are dealing with the same struggles, I wish to share the main take-outs from Alain de Botton's speech:

- Success is an individual definition. In other words, when setting a career goal make sure that it is your OWN wish, and not merely a conventional expectation that society has from you. Otherwise, as you approach to your goal and give up other things for that, you start wondering whether it is something that you really wanted, and you risk being miserable though you reach your goal.

- Society makes you believe that you can be anything and anywhere. The truth is that we cannot control our lives and success to 100%. Hazards and luck play a role in our reaching our career goals.

- You cannot be good at everything. In other words, don't expect to be the best management consultant in the FMCG industry in your country and be the best dad in your country, at the same time. In order to be the best at something, you need to give up something else. Make sure that you are well aware of your choices.

All in all, I suggest you give a thought to your goals and make sure that they are really yours and that you are well aware of what it takes to achieve them.

For the ones who feel that it's worth dedicating 17 minutes of their time to hear the entire argument, please find below the Alain de Botton's talk on TED:

City energy

Living in a city that you can draw your energy from is not such an easy thing to find. Having lived in several cities before of different sizes (from 40.000 inhabitants town to a city of 2 mio. inhabitants), I noticed that my energy and motivation has varied. Counter-intuitively, it is not direct proportional to the dimension of the city in terms of inhabitants. Rather it is the atmosphere that the city conveys.















In terms of energy, the city that would fit me best is Vienna. To me, this phenomenon is rather interesting and not completely explainable. What I feel is only the outcome of this atmosphere, namely that: the city belongs to me, that I am free to enjoy it and live it; it invites each one of you to discover it, to relax in the atmosphere of its imperial past and be a contemporary princess. Vienna is not too poor, but not too luxurious. To me, this is what assigns it that feeling of a city which belongs to everybody.















Not the same feeling is born when I am in Frankfurt A/M. The spirit of intensive corporate financial environment is everywhere and to relax in this city is not that easy. A totally different situation offers Zurich, which is a small big city, which means it is not a town, but also not a true metropolis. In Zurich you have that safety feeling that nothing can happen to you no matter where you walk or at what time. On the one hand it is a comfortable feeling, but on the other it can become a bit boring. Furthermore, leveraging all the amenities seems self-understood and you take the "luxurious" features (such as a ceramic water pipeline system) for granted. However, the significant difference versus Vienna is that all that high class features that you find in Zurich makes it obvious that the city belongs only to chosen ones.



















What is the city that supplies you with energy?

Quarterlife crisis

What I thought to be a personal crisis is apparently a more wide spread phenomenon with people of my age. Until now, I've only heard about the midlife crisis, but never of a quarterlife crisis. This seems to be a quite new phenomenon in line with the increased mobility and increased career opportunities that high potential graduate students have.

The quarterlife crisis is characterized by "unrelenting indecision, isolation, confusion and anxiety about working, relationships and direction", which affects "people in their mid-twenties to early thirties who are usually urban, middle class and well-educated".

What's the explanation?
Briefly said:

"They can’t make any decisions, because they don’t know what they want, and they don’t know what they want because they don’t know who they are, and they don’t know who they are because they’re allowed to be anyone they want."

To this I could add that, when they know what they want, they are not sure that it is the right way and they are highly risk averse regarding their career. Thus, they are proofing their decision by trying out other areas of business with the result that they don't like it that much and so they become more certain that the initial plan is the right one to pursue. Nevertheless this is quite a costly way to test whether a decision is right or wrong.

What to do about it?

Some thoughts:

1) The first job is usually not the ultimate job. Job changes are possible and normal during a career development.
2) The sooner you take the chance, the better. As a young adult, you don't have too many responsibilities towards a family (spouse / children), household, bank credits, so you can afford to take the chance and do what you are in the mood for. It may be the only chance to do this in your life.
3) Follow your gut feeling. After you have analytically and structurally evaluated some opportunities and still don't know what to do, just let the information process unconsciously in your brain and follow your gut feeling. What is known as gut feeling is in fact the result of the unconscious work that our brains are doing while we are sleeping or relaxing.

I welcome any other suggestions!

May you have a smooth Quarterlife Crisis!

Source for some info: Carraway, K. (2009). Welcome to your quarterlife crisis, Eyeweekly.com

Visiting Vienna again

Kaffee melange, Stephansdom, Rathausplatz, MQ, Belvedere, Schönbrunn, WU, Frey Wille, Mariahilferstrasse, Hundertwasserhaus, Naschmarkt, Sissi, Hofburg, Balls, Walzer, Wienerschnitzel, Schubert, Coffeehouse Prückel, and not least important Zanoni & Zanoni....



No matter how many times I have the chance to visit this city, I go there with the same enthusiasm as the first time. The sole difference is that whereas the first time you let yourself guided by a traveler book, in my case I let myself carried away by the atmosphere, by my mood and my reviving memories.

So how do I want to spend my day in Vienna? I'll take my bike in the morning and start my day at my favorite spot: MQ, where I'll have breakfast and coffee cream. Then I'll make a bike tour of the ring, ride along the Danube Channel and stop by the Hundertwasser House, then continue towards the Central Park.

After chilling and reading from Barack Obama's biography, I'll take my bike and head towards the Naschmarkt, the best place to have lunch. Then gaze at the Frey Wille jewelery, still unaffordable at this point, and imagine a bracelet from the collection Ode to the Joy of Life around my arm. Heading to Schönbrunn to enjoy the gardens and the view above the city, then riding at full speed towards the WU (University of Business) and from there straight to an open air cinema. The evening will pass by somewhere along the Danube Channel in one of the jazz clubs or on one of the terraces and enjoying my last hours in my favorite city.

So looking forward to that!

Eric Schmidt speech at Univ. of Pennsylvania

Very inspiring video. Will try to follow his advice, although in incomparable less favorable circumstances.
Enjoy!

Romania in pictures

This is a presentation which I prepared two years ago to present Romania to my master class colleagues.
Enjoy!

Romania

View more presentations from ligiafolea.

And one more which I found on the Web. It has more pictures.

Romania - Wonderful Places

View more presentations from Raissa_ro.

Branding yourself

In a world where everything is branded, in order to succeed we need to learn how to brand ourselves. Tom Peters gives us an overview of where and how to start doing that.Tom Peters suggests following these steps:

1) What makes You different?
- Start by identifying the qualities or characteristics that make you distinctive from your competitors -- or your colleagues.
- What is the "feature-benefit model" that the brand called You offers?
- What do I want to be famous for?

2) How to market the brand You?
- Get involved in adjacent projects that help you gain visibility: teach in a local school, make some panel presentations, write in a local newspaper
- Being aware that everything You do matters and afects the You brand perception
- Drive word of mouth marketing - the key to any personal branding campaign

3) What's the real power of You?
- Learn to get and use power to grow the You brand
- As power is a matter of perception, act in a way so that you create a halo effect around your actions
- Organize your actions in terms of projects, which have the advantage of being: time limited, organized around deliverables, measurable, and leave you with braggables.
- Choose projects based on how you want to growth the brand You

4) How is brand You doing?
- Put together your own "users group" and ask them to provide you with feedback on your performance
- Know the value of the You brand on the market at every moment so that you know your bargaining power


Finally, I would like to share with you Tom Peters' quote, which I found extremely relevant and motivating to me:

"As you scope out the path your "career" will take, remember: the last thing you want to do is become a manager. Like "résumé," "manager" is an obsolete term. It's practically synonymous with "dead end job." What you want is a steady diet of more interesting, more challenging, more provocative projects. When you look at the progression of a career constructed out of projects, directionality is not only hard to track -- Which way is up? -- but it's also totally irrelevant."

His advice:

"Instead of making yourself a slave to the concept of a career ladder, reinvent yourself on a semiregular basis. Start by writing your own mission statement, to guide you as CEO of Me Inc. What turns you on? Learning something new? Gaining recognition for your skills as a technical wizard? Shepherding new ideas from concept to market? What's your personal definition of success? Money? Power? Fame? Or doing what you love? However you answer these questions, search relentlessly for job or project opportunities that fit your mission statement. And review that mission statement every six months to make sure you still believe what you wrote."

Good luck to all of you in this challenging endeavor!

Looking for a mentor...

Let's skip today's celebration of either "the working day" (in the more socialist market countries) or "dance into the May" (in the countries without a socialist history), and get down to business. Lately, I have been struggling with the idea of taking advantage of this crisis time when jobs are rather scarce and uninteresting, to consider building my own business.
There are four driving factors towards this entrepreneurial path:

1) Awareness that there are so many market opportunities in Romania and that I know where some of the opportunities lie

2) I know at least 4 other high potential people around me who are in the same situation: fresh graduates from leading European universities, with a lot of potential, who are in need for a navigation point.

3) The acknowledgment that the sooner you make a start-up business, the better because you don't have so much to lose and are rather used to the simple standard of living as a student.

4) I already have potential clients who are in need of my strategy & consulting skills and would trust to give me my first projects.

At the same time, however, I am aware of the risks and probability of failure that an entrepreneurial start-up encompasses. In line with this, for better or for worse, I have several potential alternative jobs, even in this crisis time. So, what I am missing now is a mentor with an entrepreneurial spirit. Until I find one, I am leveraging other people's mentors.
Check out the video below, which is the evidence that if you graduate from a world top university, it hardly ever means that you should pursue "standard" career paths.

Enjoy!




Some ideas from the presentation - on how to choose the focus area for the startup:
- Find what you are really passionate about
- Develop a product / service that solves one / some of people's problems/concerns
- Gather people around you who are at least as passionate about that thing as you are
- Keep your solution fast and simple
- Develop a corporate culture
- Know when to step down

Checking how Google Trends works

This graph clearly shows the impact of digital media in today's world. Clearly, all the talk around the swine flue is not due to the real danger of this disease. It is people's subjective opinions and concerns that drive this irrational, exuberant behavior.

Congratulations, once again, to Google for a very successful business idea!

Leveraging social media to make yourself famous

Who would have thought a decade ago than one can become famous without being a star, nor investing a chunk of money in PR activities?

Julia Allison is the mere example that it is possible to be well-known by having a steady, continuous presence in targeted online websites. Julia Allison has clever leveraged social media, Web 3.0 to position herself as a person notorious enough to be regularly followed by thousands of people.

And how did she achieved this? Wired magazine explains it succinctly:

1) It's not who you know, it's who you're next to.
When you go to a party, be sure to get photographed with well-known guests — even if they have no idea who you are. By posting these pics on your blog, you can make yourself look like an established personality.

2) Dress against type.
Heading to a party filled with khaki- clad geeks? Consider a flashy designer dress. Have a reputation for glamour? Stick with a simple T-shirt. Counterintuitive wardrobe choices keep your fans guessing.

3) Embrace enigma.
One day Allison announced that online haters were ruining her life and she'd never blog again. The next day she was back. Is she a train wreck or mastermind? Narcissist or self-satirist? No one knows — that's why they keep watching.

4) Let your minions fight your battles.
Sure, Allison has her critics — but all the discussion helps keep her in the spotlight. "Create two separate camps of supporters and attackers," says Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek. "Don't spend a lot of time defending yourself. If someone attacks you, let it sit there. If you respond, you don't give other people a chance to get engaged and defend you."

5) Be a hot woman with an exhibitionist streak.


I am not saying that one should do this. Rather, what I want to point to is the increasing role that social media plays and that being aware of this and cleverly leveraging it can increase the success of a business. I´ll touch upon this more in the next post.

New use for Google Adwords

A recent The Economist article points to a secondary use of the Google search words. According to Hyunyoung Choi, who works at Google, fluctuations in the frequency with which people search for certain words or phrases online can improve the accuracy of the econometric models used to predict, for example, retail-sales figures or house sales.

The advantage of using Google Trends is that one can forecast performance based on current data, and not on old, historical data. Although it doesn't work for all industries, Google Trends may provide useful paid services and thus become a new business area for Google. Currently, these data are available through a site called Google Trends, which allows anyone who cares to do so to download an index of the aggregate volume of searches for particular terms or categories.It is important to note, though, that it is critical which categories you choose, and how the categories move in the same direction and to the same extent to your company's products / services.

How widely could this idea be applied? For some things, like retail sales, the categories into which Google classifies its search-trend data correspond closely to what people may want to predict, such as the sales of a particular brand of car. For others, like sales of houses, things are less clear. It appears that searches for estate agents work better than those for home financing.

All in all, this new Google tool may prove to be more accurate than the internal strategy department's forecast, which is based on historical, old data already.

See the below charts for an example of Google Trends' use.

Best living qualities in Frankfurt

If you ever wondered what it takes to make a place the most wanted residential area, let me share with you from my current experience what such a place looks like and what it offers to its inhabitants.








1) Extensive transportation system - extended and quick multi-system public transport (bus, regional trains) and a good car connection to a high interest economic center (distance: 20-30 km).
2) Strict building regulation - to ensure that the houses being built follow a certain pattern and don't disturb one another.
3) Having woods and meadows in the area - to be used for practicing different sports: running, nordic walking, cycling. Apparently, having large green areas in the neighborhood is one of the main points of difference between equally attractive areas.
4) Comprehensive housing solutions - which makes the area not only dedicated to the high net worth individuals (personal income > 1 mio. EUR), but also to the middle class. This includes: different housing options (individual housing, houses in rows, houses with an inner yard, 3 story common housing), as well as affordable financing options.

Comparing these criteria to what we have in Romania, the logic leads to noticing that:

- the deficient transportation system makes the residential areas crowd in small spaces. Thus, even new, relative expensive residential areas offer: 14 story blocks, or in the best case unaffordable expensive individual houses with 3m concrete fences and with little or no green space for a yard. What is more, current residential areas around Bucharest (e.g. Pipera) have no or a very weak public transportation connection to downtown.

- no building regulations- make residential areas show striking unbalances: views of 3 story velvet colored houses next to a 1 story house, or individual houses next to industrial firms.

- limited woods, trees, or other public spaces where one can practice sports. Even if this exists in restricted areas, such a "feature" makes the price of the land unaffordable for the upper mid class. Thus, only the "newly enriched people" have access to these facilities and they use them not for enjoying themselves, but more for public promotion.

- housing solutions - Currently, the housing prices in Romania have no connection what so ever with the personal income that inhabitants possess. This makes housing highly unaffordable even to the middle class, who then has to live in the old communist apartments. Some of these people fall into the real estate firms' trap and engage in highly leveraged credits to pay the sky rocketing, low facility, questionable quality houses.







Just for comparison: a 58 square meter apartment in a newly built central area in Frankfurt am Main costs about EUR 170.000, whereas in Bucharest a similar size apartment, but localized in an area with limited access to public transport and far from the downtown costs more than EUR 200.000. To make this comparison even more striking, bear in mind that the annual gross salary of a graduate is in Romania at best EUR 12.000, whereas in Frankfurt it is about EUR 36.000. Make the calculations yourself how long it takes an university graduate to afford a decent house at a yearly salary increase of 10%.

The effects of PMI: a case where the theory is very close to reality

It is common understanding that what is learned in the business schools as "theory" represents an ideal, optimal state of affairs, compared to which the "reality check" reflects a more or less different story. In the case of Post merger integration (PMI), the reality seems to be very close to what the theory is preaching.

To review what I'm talking about, theory says that as after a merger or acquisition, both companies (the acquirer and the acquired) suffer from a discontinuous economic activity and go through a series of stages of disruptions. Some of the most commonly mentioned are:

- corporate culture clash
- psychological employee concerns about the future, which affects working productivity
- reduction in the number of redundant functions and employee release
- change in location for some employees, which also leads to them leaving the company

All of these translate into lower company results for the entire integration time. Consequently, it is highly recommended to begin with the integration even before the merger process is formally announced.

What I currently witness is a relevant example for an integration process that has started in 2001 and it is not yet ended. Naturally, I wouldn't be able to talk about it with objectivity if I were involved in it. However, as a "side watcher", I can distinguish all the issues mentioned in the theory as they happen in reality. Of all these, I will discuss about the mobility of people and change in location that a merger usually involves.













One of the merger's objectives is to achieve synergies and leverage shared knowledge between the two merged entities. That is why usually in the aftermath of a merger, employees on a mid to high management level or some company functions (e.g. R&D, marketing) usually have to relocate. This has happened in this case, as well: the commercial functions (marketing, supply, consumer research) need to relocate in another country in order to leverage knowledge and be close to the decision making place.

I won't concentrate on the upside of the story this time. My focus is on company's losses as a result of this decision. Imagine a 40 year old person in upper mid management level, who has to decide between the following:
- to move and likely progress in her/his career
- stay and move in another role, usually with a lower managerial importance, in order to maintain stability on the family and personal life side

It often happens that very valuable people who are made to make such a decision will eventually leave the company. From my current experience about 20-25% of people choose this way. Moreover, it often happens, as in the current case, that the company loses among the most valuable people. Thus, a move which is expected to bring higher economic returns by leveraging knowledge and best practices, leads at least on mid term, to negative economic returns and limited benefits.

Witnessing such a case is much more dramatic than it seems when reading about it in the case studies, as one sees: teams being left without a leader to guide them in the new environment, or being left without their informal leader, teams lose their overriding common goal and spread into adjunct, non-productive discussions.

Celebrating spring...among others

Today I celebrate two important events:

The first one is the beginning of spring, which is celebrated in my country, Romania, with flowers and certain pin-ons which are given as a gift from men to women, from children to moms and to the teachers, as well as among pupils. It's meaning is briefly explained below:




The second celebration is that today is one year since I started writing on this blog. Be it in times of economic growth, crisis and depression, I tried to capture and present what I passionately care about besides my daily professional life. Apart from being a "catching up" platforms with my friends from all over the world, it is meant to reflect the changes in my interests, a certain "how I was vs. now" kind of thing. As such, even if this blog is not as interactive as was initially aimed to be, I still find it very valuable as a storyboard of my globetrotting. I thank to my friends who take the time to read my pages from every now and then and I am happy that we can stay in touch through this, although I would prefer to meet you all in person again.

Enjoy reading and have a great spring!

Hafen City

Hafen - City (in English Harbour City) is one of the largest new urban areas in development, whose aim is to increase Hamburg's, the second biggest city in Germany, appeal to investors and to attract the creative class. The idea behind is to revitalize part of the the harbour which has stayed as as unused area for many years and thus to connect the city north of Elbe to the (poorer) southern part of Hamburg.

This is however not the single project of this kind. Other cities such as Amsterdam, Copenhagen or Vancouver have developed similar projects and are are thus in a "competition" for increasing their value as a location.

When it comes to the Hafen City project, it promises to be much more than a residential or office area. It aims to become the "hottest" metropolitan district which offers a mix of cultural and leisure infrastructure, retail and hospitality outlets, inner-city living quarters, service-sector office space as well as public parks, squares, and waterfront promenades.

According to official sources, at the beginning of 2009, roughly 1.500 people live in HafenCity and about 3,000 people work there. Every building in itself is interesting and is meant to connect to the water theme. However, my current impression, from walking though the finalized areas, is that the buildings don't connect to each other. Although this may change in time when they start beautifying the areas with trees and flowers, it currently looks as a Legoland. Or as somebody has brought modern buildings each made by star architects and put them one after another to build a city. Unfortunately, the place still looks pretty "sterile" and "artificial". If one judges after the people who stroll there, it can be said that it is a museum alive...but not a place to live.

The prices for the residential apartments are rated at aprox. EUR 8000/ sqm for luxury apartments for sale, and at about EUR 5000 / sqm for middle range apartments, whereas the rent starts at EUR 670 / month for one-room apartments. Although authorities aim to make the area affordable, when we look at prices it seems already a bit up-priced compared to other Hamburg districts (except for the old city centre).

Here are some pictures to have a look yourself at the current state of development:

The credit crisis visualized

Here is a great explanation of the credit crisis. 

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Swiss voted "yes"

Today has been a pretty important day for us, Romanians as we have finally been recognized as EU member country. This means that we are moved from the category "other countries" into the category "new EU member countries" when it comes to being granted a residence or a work permit. 

This is a good news, since it shows that Swiss acknowledge the fact that they are in need of work force. However, the result is to be seen in the light of an important specification: should the treaty have not been agreed on, all the other treaties regarding the free movement of persons between the EU and Switzerland would have been null. 

However, the the Neuer Zürcher Zeitung says: 

"Für manche Rumänen steht das anbrechende Zeitalter der Freizügigkeit innerhalb der EU und auch der Schweiz angesichts der akuten Image-Probleme ihres Landes unter einem schlechten Stern. Solche Überlegungen trüben ihre Freude über den Ausgang der Volksabstimmung in der Schweiz." (am 9. Februar 2009)

This paragraph draws attention to the importance of country brand. What is known today about Romania in the EU and in Switzerland can be summarized under the following statement: poor, third world country, where people have difficulties even to afford enough food, gipsy, dark skinned, and on the more positive side, lower salary demand in EU standards, hard working. 

However, very little or nothing is known about the country. Dividing on the EU citizen's imagination, Romania could be drawn as:

- a slavic land, having a language similar to Russian

- rich in natural beauty and virgin lands

But we know that Romania is more than this. So, we'd better not wait for a national branding campaign to be launched on CNN and use the word of mouth to advertise our country. 

Integrating open innovation in the strategic planning process

Here is some piece of work to which I have dedicated my last three months. It's an academic paper which serves as a master thesis and represents the final step in finalizing the master program in Strategy and International Management from the University of St. Gallen. Before taking a look at it, I just want to warn you that for the non-specialists it may be very resource intensive to read as it contains many specialized terms.
Integrating open innovation in the strategic planning process

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Theses Academic Work strategy formulation strategic planning p

Vals

As part of a Graubünden tour (the canton in Eastern Switzerland), I've visited a more remote location called Vals. Vals is a village of 800 inhabitants, situated in the mids of the Romansch speaking region, whose main income source (75%) comes from tourism. 

What is interesting though, is that for the first time visitors, the village seems to be at the end of the world, as one usually has to change trains two times and then take a bus for the rest 20 km in order to get there. For the "less initiated" with the Swiss small mountain roads, it is recommended to go by bus. As you will see from the images, the road is too narrow to allow two cars to take a turn. 

While walking through the village, the first idea that stoke me was: how does this village survive and why is it such a touristic attraction? As previously mentioned, it is a remoted place, with a typical Swiss mountain landscape. 

So how do they do it?

After a brief analysis from different information sources, the following important elements could be drawn, which contribute to Vals's success as touristic area:

- A very open local administration, that markets its region very well and which also took the role as a one time stop for everyone who is interested in visiting Vals. That is, they not only advertise the natural beauties of the region, but also already suggest possible touristic activities and active support the visitors in planing their trip, finding accommodation, offering insights about what is to be seen.

- The peasants which were mainly active in agriculture, saw and reapt the opportunity to diversify their income sources by enlarging their challet and accommodating a small number of tourists (aprox. 10-15). The provided food is advertised for originating from the area, as well as the served dishes.

- Vals has thermal water sources and posseses a hotel made of two eight storey buildings and the building which accommodates the baths. Although the two hotel buildings are architecturally typical for the seventies, the inspiration came when the most renowned Swiss architect Peter Zumtor was appointed to re-design the bath building. As in other examples such as the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain, the new building became "the point of attraction" for the entire village. By using only local materials and taking its inspiration from the particularities of the region, Zumtor has designed a special place for relaxation and health, where the combination of light and shade, open and enclosed spaces and linear elements contribute to a sensation appealing pilgrimage through the Vals region.

 

If I were to compare this to a place in Romania, I would name Baile Herculane as being the most similar to this place. Briefly described, they are also situated in the mountains, being not very well connected, but still close enough to big cities such as Craiova or Timisoara. It benefits of a mild, sub-Mediterranean climate and vegetation, of thermal waters and fresh mountain air. So, why isn't it as known as Vals is, and what can be done about it?

I would recommend to compare the three elements mentioned and see where this resort lies in terms of competitiveness in comparison to Vals. Take the example of Vals and particularize it for Baile Herculane region.

First impression about Frankfurt

After four days of living in Hessen, in one of the so called „selected areas“ of Frankfurt, Bad Homburg, I’ve adventured myself into discovering the non-touristic areas of the innercity.

Only pure luck could have brought me to an area which I really like called Sachsenhausen. It begins at the Museum quai and continues to the south along the Swiss Street (Schweizer Strasse).

Not too green, not too crowded, not too perfect, this region has been love at first sight. I love how the houses form a continuous, uniform,  front to the street, the warm colours used for painting the houses, the small caffee shops, diverse restaurants and people who walk on the street. Posh bistros and upper scale bio-stores are intertwined with restaurants whose names speak for the kind of food served:Taj Mahal, Eis Cafe Milano, NYC bar & restaurant, trattorias, etc. Above this reigns the metalic sound of the tramway, which runs in a ten minute tempo.

But enough with the sentimentalism and let’s get down to business. I wonder how much it costs to live here. If you look at the people walking on the street, they are a mix of multicultural residents, some much better dressed than others. From this, one could conclude that the prices shouldn’t be up in the sky. However, the proximity to the bank quartier which is right on the other side of the Main river, speaks against this.

Though Richard Florida’s criteria, this would be an area for the creative class, which is on the verge of being gentrified due to its short distance to the bank quartier.

So, being at the coffee shop Fellini at the Swiss Place (Schweizer Platz), I add to my today’s „to do list“ a research  about the rent prices in the area.

Finally, I leave you with a collage of pictures freshly taken from „THE PLACE“.

Dacia is heading to the top

Dacia is one of the companies that benefit from the crisis. According to a consumer survey made in Germany, 11,5% of the ones questioned, are considering to buy a Dacia in response to the "Environment Package" offered by the German government. This policy is meant to indirectly support the car manufacturers during the crisis. 

However, according to the "official version" of the policy, this is meant to be an environmental policy, aimed at progressively changing all the old cars to new cars which conform to the EURO 4 standard. Described in a sentence, the package was voted at the end of January 2009, and offers EUR 2500 to the owners of cars which are older than nine years, who opt for composting their old car and buy a new one.

All in all, the German package of promoting European car manufacturers is in fact promoting Romanian cars and small cars. 

Heading to...?

Dear all,

There are critical moments in life when one asks oneself:

What to do with my life?

Numerous books and articles have been written on this topic. What they suggest is:

- The assumption that you can follow your dreams after having raised enough money is false, as one freeze dreams because they die in time. Fulfilling one's dreams is liberating and makes one happier even having less cash. Postponing to fulfill one's dream is wrong as time flies and without something personal negatively impacting one's life, the dream will be abandoned.

- Using logical reasoning to solve this problem usually only leads to answers that make the brain happy and jobs that provide "brain candy." Intense mental stimulation. Thus, the right question to ask is not "what am I good at?", but "what would stimulate me for a year or something that I can be passionate about for 10 year?"

- Thirdly, the right question to ask when searching for a job is not "what will I do?", but "who will I become?" This is because once rooted in a particular system, it's often agonizingly difficult to unravel oneself from its values, practices, and rewards. In other words, one needs to find a job that complies with one's values and principles.

- Lastly, it's very important to ask oneself the question "what to do with my life?" and think about it seriously. Let yourself time to consider several options and check whether they are in line with your inner self. One needs to be aware that the more options one has, the more difficult it is to answer the Question.

In line with a previous post on whether to return to Romania after finishing your studies, here is a survey made by the Association of Romanian Students and Scholars at Princeton University. These findings call for the need to bring together high potential young individuals, to create a platform for them to network and develop future businesses in Romania.

Here is the presentation.

Survey Romanian Student and Scholar Association at Princeton

View more presentations or upload your own.

Economy today...

Some clever cartoons found on the web on nowaday's economic situation. Enjoy!

Economy today

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

GDL Seminar in Sinaia

DISCOVER REGHIN'S HEART

These days I’ve been taking part at a three-day seminar on the topic of why and how local authorities should include communities in the strategy development process. Besides the theoretical aspects discussed, I have left from this seminar with the following take-outs or better said observations:

About Reghin’s development potential:
- There is limited will to bring significant, beneficial changes to the town and the ones who are committed to it, namely young, motivated individuals, are being suppressed.
- High ranked local authorities are half willing to bring a significant change and are concerned only about political games.

About local public authorities in Romania, in general:
- As the salary for the ones working in a public authority is uncompetitive with the one in the private sector, the most motivated and knowledgeable people avoid taking a public job and leave for another job in the private sector as soon as an opportunity comes along.
- Generally, people working in the public local authorities lack the will to drive a significant long-term change for the city they administer.

As such, a city can significantly change only when:

- There’s a strong will coming from high ranked local authorities, which are committed to bring about a change
- Motivated individuals are rewarded accordingly based on performance and merit and not on hierarchy
- Public authorities should collaborate with NGOs and other representatives of the civil society in order to receive more feedback from the town’s residents and consult them in important matters concerning the town’s development.
- NGOs could play the role of the intermediary between the local authorities and the citizens, could educate the citizens regarding issues such as how to preserve historical areas. Furthermore, NGOs could be used to consult citizens and to explain to the citizens in plain language the development proposals coming from the authorities.

A political view on Switzerland

On February, the 8th. 2009, the Swiss will decide through a referendum whether they agree or not to enlarging free movement of EU citizens to Romania and Bulgaria. Basically, this treaty facilitates the easiness of a Romanian or Bulgarian citizen to reside in Switzerland. Until now in order to reside in Switzerland for more than three months, a Romanian citizen needed to submit a visa application in his/her country of origin and after receiving this visa he/she was allowed to apply for a residence permit. Under the new law, the same citizen won't have to apply for a visa in his/her country of origin anymore. Thus, the process of receiving a residence permit is simplified.

Furthermore, the free movement law has provisions regarding the right to asylum and immigration policy. Without going into details, I will tackle each of SVP's (the Swiss People's Party) accusations.

1. More job losses - The Labour Ministry in Switzerland pointed several times to the fact that Switzerland needs more people on certain job areas and that EU and especially the new EU countries are a qualified source for such labor. Thus, the extension of this treaty facilitates job occupation and does not lead to job losses.



2. Lower wages - At least in the last two years since I have been living in Switzerland, the average wage is steadily increasing and not decreasing. Furthermore, there is high transparency regarding average levels of salaries depending on industry and qualification and a provision regarding minimum wage. Added to this, the Romanian and Bulgarian citizen that SVP is afraid of (aka the low qualified) do not compete for the same jobs as the Swiss. Thus, the extension of the free movement of persons positively affects the labor market and not negatively in the medium and long run.

3. Empty accounts of the Agency for Jobless - In line with the argumentation at point 2, the free movement of persons through more job occupation brings additional revenues to the Agency for Jobless. Furthermore, even if on short - term more persons from the two countries will be tempted to move to Switzerland, and thus the costs might increase short term, they will be out-weighted by the additional revenue from new occupied jobs.

4. Ruined social security - Even if theoretically more immigrants increases the need for social security, the pile of documents necessary for applying for this is so big and the process so complicated that few of the immigrants are able to make such requests. As will be discussed below, in order for everyone (EU and Switzerland) to win, what Switzerland should do is cooperate and not close itself. Remember the prisoner's dilemma.

5. Increased criminality - It is true that more persons will be tempted to go to Switzerland. However, even now it is possible to enter Switzerland without a visa if you stay less than three months. And I doubt that those categories of people that SVP is afraid of will ever state now that they want to stay longer. Consequently, it depends on the check control at the borders whether they allow those categories of people to enter Switzerland or if they submit them to a harsher control. Furthermore, through collaboration with the Romanian and Bulgarian authorities, the criminals could be tracked easier and their liberty of movement restricted. However, what I cannot agree with is for an entire nation to suffer because of some pick pocket criminals or beggars which are unrepresentative for the entire population.

6. Decreased democracy - On February the 8th, Swiss will have to vote for two things: to prolongs the existing free movement treaty with the EU and to extend it to Romania and Bulgaria, the two new EU countries. As the two countries are already EU members, it is actually one issue to be voted for, and that is the prolongement of the treaty. Thus, there are no two different issues to be discussed and thus one vote is enough.

7. Pressure from the EU and the Swiss Parliament - SVP suggests a separation of the voting in two issues: prolongement of the treaty as it is valid now, and as a different issue the extension of the treaty to Romania and Bulgaria. However, as argued above, to restrict the rights of two EU countries only because they are new is hazardous. Other solutions should be found to fight against the small criminality. In this, cooperation and not isolation is the solution.

All in all, the arguments brought about by the SVP are light hearted, to say at least. Their overall position is against EU and for a closed Switzerland, which is an undesired situation economically speaking. See my post on "Switzerland closes itself again" for additional arguments regarding this topic as well as the following links:

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