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

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.

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“.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Strategic positioning of ASE's specializations

While looking for academic literature for my master thesis, I came across an interesting article written by a Romanian PhD student at the University of Cincinnati. It basically uses a quantitative approach (self-administered questionnaires) and asked 340 students from the Academy of Economic Studies (ASE) about the selection criteria they use when deciding for a specialization.
He looks both at the "popularity"/irrational reasons, as well as the rational motivation and thirdly takes into account the external influence (of friends, parents) when choosing the specialization.

The specializations analysed are: Banking, Finance, Accounting, Applied Informatics, Trade, International Relations, Management, Marketing, Tourism, Environmental Economics, Economics and Statistics.

The results show three clusters:
1) Rational group - chose banking, finance, accounting or applied informatics. For this group the relevant selection criteria are: salary, high market demand. They also have the highest economic performance.
2) The second group consists of five specializations: marketing, management, international relations, trade and tourism and services. This cluster differentiates itself through its high scores on the emotional dimension, (i.e. high levels of perceived communication and creativity) having a perceived moderate orientation towards pragmatism and rationality (i.e. more talk less work).
3) The third group includes: statistics, environmental economics, and economics. This group is interested in getting a diploma no matter the specialization or the employment opportunities, nor the personal interests for a specific topic. They have the lowest academic performance.

The conclusion is that:
- banking and finance and marketing - management specializations are too close to each other positioned.

So what?
This leads to a loss of students in all four specializations. This study helps university managers to reposition to find out how the specializations are looked at. Furthermore, it also helps them find a strategic position that is free.
The below chart helps you better understand the situation.

I consider this study a good pilot project for other Romanian universities that are interested in attracting the best students and in positioning themselves differently than their competitors and thus raising higher revenues and improving their profitability.

Latest advertisement for Microsoft

Do you see it as a response to Apple's advertisements?

Here the Microsoft advertisement:



and here you have one of Apple's advertisements against Microsoft.



So, maybe you're wondering: How come did Microsoft come up with such an advertisement? What are they targeting at? Is it effective?

If you ask me, it doesn't give me any clue about Microsoft's brand features as I suppose that that's what they are aiming at with this advertisement.

However, as I'm not a specialist in advertising, I cite you a specialist's opinion:

"Is Mr Gates’s shopping spree with Mr Seinfeld another misjudgment? Perhaps not. The ad appears to have set up the forthcoming campaign with an ingenious twist that its critics have missed. Its viewers, Crispin assumes, have been watching Apple’s ads, in which a nerdy, pale, chubby and hapless “PC”, played by the actor John Hodgman, talks to a hip, suave and unruffled “Mac”. Ironically, however, it is the PC who has become famous and won hearts, despite being the butt of all the jokes, whereas the Mac character is cool but smug, and would not get invited to anybody’s dinner.

Mr Gates, Crispin’s creative types must have realised, is the authentic embodiment of the PC character: geeky, awkward, dressed for a cubicle rather than a bar, unglamorous but unpretentious, able to get the job done, if not excitingly. And like the PC in Apple’s ads, the Bill Gates in Microsoft’s spot has an impish side that occasionally peeks out. One of the world’s richest men comes across as unassuming and approachable, the antithesis of Apple’s aspirational cool, which some find annoying and snooty. In a country that loves to poke fun at “elitists” (especially during elections), it would be wrong to write off Microsoft’s new campaign just yet." (extract from The Economist - Postmodern wriggle, 11th. September 2008).

Apparently, it doesn't target me, but only Americans. Maybe it's a matter of intercultural differences that I don't get the meaning of this advertisement.
In the end, I'm interested to know: did you feel anything, did anything cross your mind while watching the Microsoft commercial?

Laws with special dedication

Dear all,

While scanning the newspapers today, I discovered an article about how the EU suits Germany for the "VW Law". If you haven't heard of it, the German state released a law which states that 80% of VW shareholders must agree to an acquisition, otherwise it won't happen. And guess what? This makes it practically impossible for VW to ever be taken over as the German Land Lower Saxony controls 20,1% of the shares.

What do you say about this? Apparently it's not only in Romania that the legislators make laws "with special dedication". In fact, it happens in older EU countries, too. So, should we (Romanian citizens) feel relief because it can happen anywhere in the EU?...

Not really. Now that we're in the EU doesn't imply that we should "import" all the customs of the legislators from older EU member countries. What we should do is to keep the straight way and stay "in the light of sincerity". Is that realistic to ask? Not really. However, we can ask from our legislators to think of the benefit of the larger society when they release a law.

Here is the link to the article:
EU suits Germany for the VW Law

The Beheaded Rooster/ Cocosul decapitat

Dear all,

As recommended, I watched the movie "The Beheaded Rooster" and I would like to share my impressions on it with you. For the ones who haven't seen it yet, it is a Romanian movie whose action takes place in Transylvania between 1940-1944. It is mainly about the changes in the daily life of the multicultural town of Fagaras during this timeframe.

Fagaras was at that time inhabited besides Romanians, by Germans, Hungarians, Jews and Rroma minorities. The co-vival among cultures is disrupted by the Second World War and the population who adopted the Nazi theory of disregarding Jews and Rroma. The movie follows the friendship among a four main characters (Felix Goldschmidt, Gisela Glückselig, Alfa Siegrid Binder and Hans Adolf Bediner).

Felix Goldschmidt is the son of a middle class German family who immigrated to Fagaras 800 years ago. The plot shows the changes in attitude that Felix lives through (from being neutral to embracing the Nazi dogma and then fighting against it).
Gisela Glückselig is the daugther of a Jewish family who owns the cinema in Fagaras. The movie shows the oppression and exclusion that this family has been through between 1940-1944 and the stains left in each person's inner self.
Alfa Siegrid Binder has royal roots and this high social position gives her authority and secures her respect in the town.
Hans Adolf is the son of a low class family. His father works for the Felix's and Alfa Siegrid's families. This character shows how the Nazi ideology makes its way into a young man's head and leads him towards irational actions and turns him against his friends from childhood.

After having summarized the movie, it's time to make a short comment about it and analyze 3 aspects:
1) Quality of images - the captured landscape is beautiful. Besides this, the director captures typical Transylvanian scenery and shows the complexity and the several offers for spending the spare time that a small town in Transylvania offerred. This is a good comparison with the situation today, showing the decadence that the town has been through during this time. For this the movie gets my highest mark.
2) Quality of the scenery - the movie is not tight well and the action does not always flow smoothly. Therefore, I give it only a passing mark here.
3) Description of characters - the characters have been thoroughly described looking at different aspect (gender, social status, inner development). For this, the movie gets a good mark.

Overall, I would recommend to watch the movie not only for its landscape if you are interested in visiting Transylvania, but also if you are passioned about history and want to learn how a small town in Romania perceived the Second World War.