Prague Leaders Magazine Issue 02/2014

now available in Brussels

I DO NOT LIKE THE TERM FIRST LADY

MARCH / APRIL / 2014 / 199 CZK

Mrs. Ivana Zemanová, the wife of the President of the Czech Republic

www.leadersmagazine.cz incl. electronic version

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Zvířata zde na následky sucha umírají už dlouho. Nyní umírají také děti.

© UNICEF/Olivier Asselin

J E N E J L E P Š Í Č A S N A Z ÁC H R A N U Ž I VO TA

„Awa byla velmi slabá, měla průjmy, horečku a doslova se ztrácela před očima,“ vysvětluje babička půlroční holčičky. Okolo zdejšího zdravotního střediska vyrostly během posledních týdnů bílé stany, aby pojmuly nápor dětí trpících akutní podvýživou. Ze stanů je slyšet dětský pláč, nejohroženější děti jsou však potichu – jsou příliš zesláblé na to, aby plakaly.

Awa má štěstí: do výživového centra se dostala včas a již po týdnu intenzivní léčby v programu podporovaném UNICEF jsou na ní patrné známky zotavení. „V oblasti Sahelu je podvýživou právě teď ohrožen jeden milion dětí. Kdyby se Awě nedostalo pomoci, už by teď nebyla na světě,“ popsala své pocity z návštěvy výživového centra Mia Farrow, herečka a vyslankyně UNICEF. UNICEF v zemích Sahelu právě teď zajišťuje dodávky terapeutického mléka a speciální výživy Plumpy'Nut pro děti trpící podvýživou. Plumpy'Nut je směs arašídové pasty, rostlinného oleje, cukru a odtučněného mléčného prášku, obohacená o vitaminy a stopové prvky. Je připravena k okamžitému podávání, nemusí se upravovat, a tak nehrozí kontaminace závadnou vodou. Kromě toho UNICEF spolu s místními komunitami a partnerskými organizacemi rozvíjí programy zaměřené na omezení rozšiřování pouště a podporu drobného pěstování brambor, cibule a dalších plodin, které zajišťují potravinovou soběstačnost rodin do budoucna.

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Jan Zahradil (ODS), leader of the ODS candidates list

Otto Chaloupka (Republika), former member of the Parliament

Klára Samková (Úsvit), lawyer

Radek John (Věci veřejné), former Minister of the Interior of the Czech Republic

Pavel Telička (ANO), former EU commissioner

Who may be our representative in Brussels according to the upcoming elections to the European Parliament?

WIDEN YOUR WORLD NAME / ISIM

LIONEL MESSI FROM / NEREDEN

ISTANBUL TO / NEREYE

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UDĚLÁME vám v tom JASNO Elektronickou podobu ãasopisu najdete také na www.parlamentnimagazin.cz

publisher’s note & contents

DEAR READERS, It’s noon on Saturday and I’m trying to get my thoughts in order. Discipline and concentration is needed now, so I don’t give in to the temptation to go out and enjoy the beautiful spring weather we have right now. About 22 degrees, excellent weather for golf or just walking or biking around in the wonderful city of Prague. Most people have probably left the city for the countryside, so for those of us who are still here, it’s a changed place – a more calm and tranquil city, far away from the noisy, hectic and sometimes very stressful Prague.

Now’s a good opportunity to slow down, reflect, find new ideas and write my Publisher’s Note.

I’m very happy that we managed to get an interview with Ivana Zemanová and also to have her on our front page.

She doesn’t like to be called ‘First Lady,’ however I believe Czech people will continue to do so and that they respect her humble and serious outlook in her new position. Among the first thing Mrs. Zemanová did was to create a foundation – Zemanová Foundation Fund to help children in need. We wish her all luck and success with this important charity.

Other important interviews we have in this issue, to mention a few, are with the new Minister of Local Development, Věra Jourová, Minister of Agriculture, Marian Jurečko and Minister of Industry and Trade, Jan Mládek.

I also recommend that you read all our in-depth and interesting articles on various topics from our many contributors.

I would like to highlight some of Leader’s coverage of various events in the Czech Republic. Presidential visits, events from the Senate, the Russian Ball at Žofín Palace, the stunning and traditional Trebbia Award event at the Spanish Hall Prague Castle, a Round Table discussion with Governors and with the Governor of the Czech National Bank by Comenius, an e-Money Seminar, the Edith Stein Foundation at Kampa Park Restaurant by the Sybera family, Afghan New Year, Irish National Day/St Patrick’s Day, the Gas Association Seminar, CSUZ Reception and CFO traditional Seminar.

So, Dear Readers, I hope you will enjoy and appreciate this issue of Prague Leaders Magazine as much as we who produce the magazine do. Also, I wish all of you a wonderful spring and summer and finally to be kind to each other, care for others, and smile upon others. It makes a fantastic difference.

events 13 State Visit of the President of the Republic of Armenia 14

State Visit of the President of the Republic of Macedonia

15 Senate – International Holocaust Remembrance Day 16

Senate – V4 Leaders Negotiations in Budapest

17

Round Table of Comenius with MVDr. Josef Řihák, Governor of Central Bohemia Region and JUDr. Martin Netolický, PhD., Governor of Pardubice Region

20 Round Table of Comenius – Discussion Dinner with Ing. Miroslav Singer PhD., Governor of the Czech National Bank 24 Celebration of Nouwrus New Day, organized by Czech-Afghan Chamber of Commerce 28 Lions Club Prague Bohemia Ambassador 29 Lions Club Prague Bohemia Ambassador 32 Let‘s Communicate – Capturing Emotion in Photographs A Unique Charity Auction Supported Asante Kenya Foundation 34 Endowment Fund of M.J. Stránský 38 The CFO Club – First Session in 2014 44 EMONEY GROUP B.V. Social Event at the Netherlands Embassy in Prague 46 Reception held by the Edith Stein Foundation 54 Fryday – Afterwork Networking at Siddharta Café

events/Fryday – Afterwork Networking at Siddharta Café

From left: Jolana Sittinger, Sales Manager, Hans Weber, Manager, and Nicole Pavlov, Director. f page 54

56 Fryday W – Diplomatic Forum in Jurys Inn 86 7th International Conference Prospects for the Development and use of CNG/LNG In Transport 104 Czechoslovak Foreign Institute New Year Gathering in Strahov 105 The Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies in the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute

Benke Aikell ■ B benke.aikell@leadersmagazine.cz www.leadersmagazine.cz 6 Leaders Magazine II/2014

contents interviews 10 I don’t Like the Term ‘First Lady’ nor do I Consider Myself One An interview with Mrs. Ivana Zemanová 30 During Difficult Times, I Realized how Close Each One of us in this Country is to Ending up Under a Bridge

culture events 50 13th Czech-Russian Entrepreneur Ball 72 14th Annual of the Trebbia European Awards 94 World Premiere of “The Alchemist of Dream” with Music by Maestro José Miguel Maschietto

An interview with Věra Jourová, Minister for Local Development 36 I Would Like our Agriculture to Move Toward Self-reliance, Particularly

culture event/ 14th Annual of the Trebbia

in Commodities Where we Were the Traditional Producers An interview with Marian Jurečko, Minister of Agriculture

interview/the minister of Agriculture

From left: Aleš Briscein, Tenor, Alena Miro, Soloist of the Prague National Theatre, and Rastislav Štúr, Conductor An interview with the Minister of Agriculture, Marian Jurečko

f page 72

f page 36

42 We Are Committed to our Clients’ Success An interview with Adam Leščišin, CEE Regional Director of eMoney

diplomatic events 102 St Patrick’s Day 2014

Group 58 We are a Country with a Great Industrial Tradition, that’s ‘in People’s Blood’

diplomatic events /St Patrick’s Day 2014

An interview with Jan Mládek, Minister of Industry and Trade 100 It is Very Often Necessary to Combine both Feelings and Rational Approach. I am Trying to Listen to Both Heart and Mind An interview with Jaroslav Ďuriš, CEO, Prague Public Transport Company

sport events

Miloš Balabán, Director, with his wife Gabriela on the left and H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland

23 BMW Supports Biathlon 64 Golf Stars Heading to Czech Masters

f page 102

67 How to get Club Membership in Five Holes

Leaders Magazine II/2014 7

contents & info contributors 41

New Government – New Hopes?/Emanuel Šíp

60 Parliament Overreacted on 2030 Targets/Evžen Tošenovský 61 Human Trafficking Businesses Must Act to Stop Slavery/Jonathan Wootliff 62 How to Unravel Gender Bias… Getting rid of Sticky Floors at Work/Elisabet Rodriguez Dennehy 63 The Assertiveness is not the Weakness/Martin Opatrný 68 Dare to Dream and Dream Big!/Tereza Urbánková 69 Journalism’s Impossible Dilemmas/Cristina Muntean 70 Day X+3. Big Brother Peeked at me Again/Ivan Pilný 71

European Leadership & Academic Institute Discussion Dinners/ELAI

82 Nikos Balamotis/Linda Štucbartová 84 Tomáš Jelínek/Linda Štucbartová 90 Whether You Believe You Can or You Believe you Cannot – You Are Right/Sanjiv Suri 92 The New Big Bang: Big and Open Data/Jan Mühlfeit 96 India – Historic Heritage, Part II/Iva and Joseph Drebitko 98 Balance: The Business-Life Connection Part IV: Give and You Shall Receive–Big Time!/James A. Cusumano, PhD 106 Are We Before a Second Cold War?/Jan Koukal

India – Historic Heritage / Iva and Joseph Drebitko

Taj Mahal f page 96

EU matters 108 Our companies are committed to meeting customer needs. We need fair rules and regulatory consistency.

An interview with Daniel Pataki, Director of the Association of European Telecommunications Network Operators (ETNO) 110 EU Debates – Modernized Common Agriculture Policy Rules from 2015 111 EU Debates – What are the Chances of Getting back Czech Women into Labour Market?

112 Bussiness News

Leaders Magazine is a member of 8

Publisher: Benke Aikell Head of Editorial: Lenka Helena Koenigsmark IT Manager: Michael Serences Office Assistant: Tatiana Fominykh Webmaster: Olga Budnik Manager of External Articles: Miroslava Horáková EU Matters: CEBRE Czech Business Representation, CESES, Europlatform Contributors: James A. Cusumano, Iva Drebitko, Joseph Drebitko, Elisabeth Rodrigues Dennehy, ELAI, Martina Hošková, Lenka Helena Koenigsmark, Jaroslav Kramer, Jan Mühlfeit, Cristina Muntean, Martin Opatrný, Ivan Pilný, Sanjiv Suri, Emanuel Šíp, Linda Štucbartová, Evžen Tošenovský, Tereza Urbánková, Jonathan Wootliff Photographers: Ondřej Besperát, Roland Hilmar, Anna Chlumská, Martin Janas, Jiří Janda, Jakub Joachim, Jan Levora, Ivan Malý, Martin Pinkas, Jan Šilpoch, Jan Šulc, Martin Vlček Subscription service: Leaders Magazine, CEPONA, s.r.o.

Lužická 32, 120 00 Praha 2 We appreciate your opinions of Leaders Magazine.

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Licence: MK ČR E 13147 No reproduction is permitted in whole or part without the express consent of Leaders Magazine.

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Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors or persons interviewed and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or Leaders Magazine.

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Typos, tiskařské závody, s.r.o., závod Praha tel.: 266 021 230 techno@typos.cz www.typos.cz

Photos from the last Advisory Board Dinner

info ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS PhDr. Zdeněk Čáp, Managing Partner, Equity Solutions s. r. o.

Josef Drebitko, CEO, D&COMM Prof. Ing. Jiří Fárek, CSc., Professor, Technická Univerzita Liberec and former First Deputy Mayor, City of Prague 6 Mgr. Marta Gellová, President, EFPA Michal Heřman, General Manager, Star Communications Plk. Mgr. Vladislav Husák JUDr. PhDr. Oldřich Choděra, Lawyer, Law Firm JUDr. PhDr. Oldřich Choděra & spol.

Prof. Ing. Kamil Janáček, CSc., CNB Bank Board Member

From left: Benke Aikell, your Publisher, H.E. Otto Jelinek, Ambassador of Canada, H.E. Ed Hoeks, Ambassador of the Netherlands, and H.E. Christian Hoppe, Ambassador of Denmark

and Chief Executive Director Ing. Peter Jusko, MBA, Partner, London Market Ing. Petr Kalaš, Advisor to the Minister, Ministry of Agriculture of the CR and former Minister of Environment Ing. Josef Kreuter, CSc., former Czech Ambassador to the EU Prof. Dr.h.c. JUDr. Jan Kříž, CSc., Partner, Law Firm Kříž a partneři s.r.o.

Genmjr. JUDr. Lubomír Kvíčala, former Director of the Department of Protection of Constitutional Officials, Police of the Czech Republic Ing. Vladimír Laštůvka, former M.P. Ing. Jan Mühlfeit, Chairman Europe, Microsoft Corporation Ing. Jiří Maceška, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Česká pošta a. s. and former Czech Ambassador to OECD George Parobek, Managing Director,

From left: Jaromír Šlápota, President, ČSÚZ, Martha Gellová, President of the Board of the Association, EFPA, Ing. David Libiger, Advisor to the Minister of Transport, and Ing. Jiří Musil, Member of the Board, ČSÚZ

Ifield Computer Consultancy Šárka Parobek, Director, Ifield Computer Consultancy Doc. Ing. Václav Petříček, CSc., Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Chamber SNS Ing. Jozef Piga, Managing Director, Servis Praha a.s.

Ing. Lucie Pilipová, Partner, Via Perfecta, s.r.o.

Ing. Ivan Pilný, Member of the Parliament of the CR, President, TUESDAY Business Network JUDr. Čestmír Sajda, MBA, former Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs MUDr. Richard Sequens, PhD., Head of Surgical Gastroenterology Center, Nemocnice Milosrdných sester sv. Karla Boromejského v Praze and former Senator PhDr. MgA. Miroslav Smolák, Owner, Galerie MIRO Mgr. Albin E. Sybera, Managing Director, Sybera Enterprises spol. s r. o.

PhDr. Jaroslav Šedivý CSc., former Ambassador

From left: Maureen Chang, Founder, Casa Serena, Carlo Capalbo, President of the Organizing Committee, RUNCZECH and Founder of Czech Marathon, and Ing. Radomír Šimek, former President, German-Czech Chamber of Industry and Commerce and member of numerous international boards

and Minister of Foreign Affairs JUDr. Josef Šesták, Assistant Professor, Vysoká škola obchodní v Praze, o.p.s.

Ing. Radomír Šimek, current member of numerous

ADVISORY BOARD COMITTEE Benke Aikell, Publisher, Leaders Magazine Ing. Petr Kubernát, Director, PEKOS s.r.o. and former Czech Ambassador to the Netherlands Ing. Karel Muzikář, CSc., President, COMENIUS

HONORARY MEMBERS ABROAD AND GOODWILL AMBASSADORS H.E. William J. Cabaniss, former United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic Vincent J. Derudder, Secretary General, The European Federation of Financial Advisers and Financial Intermediaries Frank J. Devlyn, Rotary International President 2000–2001 and Rotary Foundation Chairman 2005–2006 H.E. Alexey L. Fedotov, former Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Czech Republic Ing. Peter P. Formanek, President Emeritus, Canadian Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic H.E. Richard Graber, former United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic H.E. Jan Cornelis Henneman, Ambassador of the Netherlands to the Czech Republic Otto Jelinek, former Canadian Cabinet Minister and current member of numerous international boards H.E. Athar Mahmood, former Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the Czech Republic H.E. Zdravko Popov, former Ambassador of the Republic of Bulgaria to the Czech Republic H.E. Mati Vaarmann, former Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to the Czech Republic Ája Vrzáňová, Czech World Champion in Figure-skating, Sport Legend H.E. Huo Yuzhen, former Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the Czech Republic

international boards Jaromír Šlápota, President, Československý ústav zahraniční Ing. Pavel Štefka, MSc, 4-star General (ret.), Chief of Defence and Special Programs, Tatra Ing. Helena Švédová, HR Director, PSG International, a.s.

Ing. Josef Tauber, Advisor to the President, Czech Banking Association Ing. Jiří Vávra, Vice Chairman, STROJEXPORT, a.s.

JUDr. Petr Vyroubal, Partner, Law Firm Vyroubal Krajhanzl Školout

interview An interview with Mrs. Ivana Zemanová

The wife of the President of the Czech Republic, Ivana Zemanová, was the recent founder of a Foundation Fund, organized mostly to care for children in need.

What would she consider a success for the foundation and how is the program created? In this interview, Mrs. Zemanová also says she doesn’t allow herself to be influenced by the opinions of people she never met.

Photo: Archive 10 Leaders Magazine II/2014

interview It’s been a year since the first direct presidential elections. At the end of January, 2013 it was already clear that you would become a ‘First Lady.’ Do you still remember your feelings as you received the confirmation of the election results?

I remember that moment exactly. I had mixed feelings. I was very happy for my husband. He did everything to achieve it and I think that the presidential function is the natural completion of his lifetime career in politics. On the other hand, given my previous experience as the wife of the Prime Minister and the President of the Chamber of Deputies, I knew what was ahead of us – from the loss of privacy to the constant political and media pressure. And this was confirmed.

The Czech constitutional order does not recognize the term ‘First Lady’ yet it caught on in the media. I even found the expression ‘First Lady in Office.’ Do you see yourself as a representative of an office or, rather as representative of a certain role? What actually are the basic elements of this ‘institution’ and how do you see them?

I don’t like the term ‘First Lady’ nor do I consider myself one. I’m the wife of the President of the Republic and my representative obligations arise from this as well.

In terms of the official visits, the program of the wife of the President is established by protocol. How do these protocol requirements match your own idea?

The program of the wife of the President is created after an agreement between the protocol and the cabinet of the wife of the President. My priority

area is help to those in need. The composition of our program developed accordingly – children’s shelters, orphanages and senior homes.

When it comes to your classic daily agenda, how does it look? To what degree do you decide on it yourself?

My daily agenda is composed of meetings, dealing with correspondence and the representative obligations of the wife of the President. I organize my daily program along with my assistant. She in turn collaborates with the other departments of the Presidential Office.

Your every step at the side of the President is carefully watched. This question is a cliché, but still – is it possible to get accustomed to the media interest, particularly the somewhat uncompromising Czech-style of criticism?

I’m not exactly a ‘media type’ person, but I try not to get influenced by opinions of people I never met. On the other hand, I believe that if a journalist treats me correctly and doesn’t step over the line of decent behavior, there is no reason to be unfriendly.

I read that you liked Livia Klausová the most as a First Lady. As an ambassador now, in an interview for our magazine, she said that she tried ‘not only to represent our country well, but also be somewhat of an ombudsman and personally respond to what bothers people in our country.’ Is this your approach as well?

I honor my predecessors. I share the opinion of Mrs. Klausová that one should help in specific cases. That’s actually the motto of my new foundation.

Why did you decide to start a foundation? Did you change your opinion in this area? What is the primary goal of your foundation?

Originally I didn’t want to start a foundation.

The reasons were bad experiences with the notalways-transparent financing of some facilities.

However, very soon I ran into the issue that even help in one specific case must be anchored within the system and cannot be carried out without such an institution. This is why the Ivana Zemanová Foundation Fund was created.

What will you consider to be your success in terms of the foundation?

Every directly addressed and applied help will be a success.

During your time in the role as wife of a President, did you discover other areas and issues that need attention?

My priority is that I want to pay attention to children in need. The statistics for last year, when 28 children were tortured to death in the Czech Republic and 750 were the object of sexual abuse, are alarming and we must pay serious attention to them – from the obligation of reporting suspicions of abuse to resolving the situation in the Klokánek facilities. I really believe there are people out there who will join me.

What do you consider the foundation-stone of a successful career? Is it the strong will that you personally have?

That’s a difficult question. For me, personally, aside from a strong will, it’s also about moral integrity in your surroundings. I truly value such people. The question is whether all Mrs. Ivana Zemanová with her husband, Miloš Zeman, President of the CR

IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

Leaders Magazine II/2014 11

interview those who are successful actually have such characteristics.

Welcome reception for Red Cross held December 5th, 2013

Are you still close to the field you studied at the Philosophical Faculty at the Masaryk University – Romance studies?

I didn’t finish the studies and it had no direct influence on my subsequent professional career.

I think I’m more a Francophile than Francophone :) I mentioned this earlier– the media can be very cruel, creating their own world of opinions and often stepping over the limits. On the other hand, it is in the interest of the public to carefully watch the activities of their highest state representatives and the people around them.

I agree with that, but only as long as the opinion of the media is objective. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen.

Our magazine will be published at the end of February and beginning of March. What will your program be at the time? And if we were to look further into 2014, what are you most looking forward to?

We just came back from the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, which was an unforgettable experience. As for the representative obligations, the Trebbia Gala Evening is ahead of me, where I will be handing the award to world-renowned photographer, Annie Leibowitz. But most of all I’m looking forward to being able to deliver help to the first specific recipients through my foundation.

Official visit of Moravian-Silesian Region

12 Leaders Magazine II/2014

Finally, something a bit lighter still – did you know that the President will mention your mother in his speech to the newly forming government coalition. That concerns the notion that she had shown interest in a ministerial position?

I didn’t know that. It was a great exaggeration and you have to accept it that way. Anyone who knows my husband knows that he likes to use similar parallels.

Would you be able to imagine that other people from your immediate surroundings might also be active in high politics?

I have such highly capable people in my surroundings that I would only wish for high politics they would be part of it. But as far as I know, it’s not their goal :)” Jaroslav Kramer ■ český překlad naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz

Photo: Hana Brožková – Archive KPR

state visit IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

State visit of the President of the Republic of Armenia

From left: H.E. Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Republic of Armenia, and Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic

From left: H.E. Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Republic of Armenia, and Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic

At the invitation of President Miloš Zeman, President of the Republic of Armenia, H.E. Serzh Sargsyan visited the Czech Republic on January 29th–31st.

13 From left: H.E. Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Republic of Armenia, and Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic

Photo: Hana Brožková – Archive KPR

state visit IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

At the invitation of President Miloš Zeman, President of the Republic of Macedonia, H.E. Gjorge Ivanov visited the Czech Republic on February 27th–28th.

From left: Miloš Zeman, President of the CR and H.E. Gjorge Ivanov, President of the Republic of Macedonia

14 From left: H.E. Gjorge Ivanov, President of the Republic of Macedonia and Miloš Zeman, President of the CR

From left: H.E. Gjorge Ivanov, President of the Republic of Macedonia and Miloš Zeman, President of the CR

Photo: Martin Vlček

The confederation of Jewish Communities under the auspices of Milan Štěch, the President of the Senate, organized a commemorative meeting in the Senate regarding the International Holocaust Remembrance Day and prevention of crimes against humanity. President Štěch said that the Holocaust was the worst in the history of mankind and shall never be repeated. The Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies, Jaroslava Jermanová, also gave a speech, as well as several witnesses, including several prisoners from Auschwitz.

senate IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

Milan Štěch, the President of the Senate

Zuzana Veselá and Felix Kolmer, Holocaust survivors

15 Jaroslava Jermanová, Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies

Přemysl Sobotka, Vice President of the Senate and Oldřich Látal, the Head of the Jewish Community in Teplice

Photo: Pető Zsuzsa

senate

Leaders of the Parliaments of the Czech Repubic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia

IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

V4 LEADERS NEGOTIATIONS IN BUDAPEST The Presidents of the Parliaments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, the Visegrad Group countries, met in Budapest to negotiate their joint position regarding Ukraine. The Czech Parliament was represented by the President of the Senate, Milan Štěch and by the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Jan Hamáček.

From left: László Kövér, the President of the National Assembly of Hungary and Jan Hamáček, the President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic

16

From left: H.E. Helena Bambasová, Czech Ambassador to Hungary, Milan Štěch, the President of the Czech Senate, and Jan Hamáček, the President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic; on the very right: László Kövér, the President of the National Assembly of Hungary

Renáta Zmajkovičová, Vice President of the National Council of the Slovak Republic

In the middle Ewa Kopacz, the Vice President of the Polish Sejm and Bogdan Borusewicz, Marshall of the Senate of the Polish Republic

networking/discussion event Josef Řihák, Governor of Central Bohemia Region, Karel Muzikář, President of Comenius, Martin Netolický, Governor of Pardubice Region

TOP HOTEL PRAHA, FEBRUARY 11, 2014

IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

ROUND TABLE OF COMENIUS

WITH MVDR. JOSEF ŘIHÁK, GOVERNOR OF CENTRAL BOHEMIA REGION AND JUDR. MARTIN NETOLICKÝ, PHD., GOVERNOR OF PARDUBICE REGION

The first Round Table of Comenius in 2014 was an intense discussion with two regional Governors; Mr. Josef Řihák, Governor of Central Bohemia Region and Mr. Martin Netolický, Governor of Pardubice Region. Throughout the engaging discussion both politicians commented on the distinctiveness of regional management and they also touched upon crucial subjects such as obtaining funding from the regional operational programme of the EU, establishing schools and hospitals, social security and also growing unemployment and criminality. Governor Řihák reminded all participants that the Central Bohemia Region is still dealing with the consequences of the 2013 floods and that the cooperation with the State Environmental Fund has been of great help in this matter.

Governor Netolický then discussed budget planning of the Pardubice region and he also expressed a great interest in integrating regional projects into a wider Czech and European context. Both Governors concluded the extensive discussion by noting that not just Pardubice and Central Bohemia Regions but that all Czech regional governments are open and looking forward to new dialogues with other political sectors and with the new Czech government.

From left: Jaroslav Trávníček, Chairman of the Board, Poličské strojírny, Miloslav Pavlas, Chairman of the Board, Kovolis Hedvíkov, Miroslav Němec, Director, Administration and Maintenance of Roads Pardubice Region, Roman Sodomka, Director, Chamber of Commerce of Pardubice Region, and Otakar Klepárník, Owner, Medesa

From left: Josef Rada, General Director, Office of the Civil Aviation and Petr Havlíček, CEO, SUDOP Group

Rostislav Dvořák, President, Union of Czech and Moravian Production Co-operatives

From left: Jiří Vacek, Co-owner, Avanti, Miloslava Procházková, Co-owner, Avanti, Jan Tašek, Owner, ASE, and Albín Sybera, CEO, Sybera Enterprises

From left: Jan Horák, CEO, CR Project, Benke Aikell, your Publisher, and Karel Muzikář Jr., Managing Partner, Weil, Gotshal & Manges

17

networking/discussion event

From left: Jan Muhlfeit, Chairman, Microsoft Europe and Václav Irovský, CEO, Military Technical Institute

From left: Piotr Wielowieski, Vice Chairman of the Board, Unipetrol and Jiří Hájek, Marketing Manager, Unipetrol

Jan Wiesner, Chairman, Confederation of Employers’ and Entrepreneurs’ Associations of the Czech Republic From left: Milan Kubek, President, Czech Medical Chamber, Jiří Uklein, Chancellor, Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, and Piotr Wielowieski, Vice Chairman of the Board, Unipetrol

Petr Hotovec, Executive Director, ZENOVA Services, Lucie Orgoníková, Managing Partner, ORGMedia Michal Schuster, Spokesman to the Central Bohemia Region

From left: Daniel Štěpán, Deputy Mayor, Municipality Prague 7 and Jakub Joska, Partner, KF Legal Law Office From left: Miroslav Němec, Director, Administration and Maintenance of Roads Pardubice Region, Stanislav Holobrada, Director, Regional Hospital Příbram, and Michal Schuster, Spokesman to the Central Bohemia Region

18

From left: Lucie Orgoníková, Managing Partner, ORGMedia and Adéla Syberová, Advisor to the President, Comenius

From left: Jaroslav Trávníček, Chairman of the Board, Poličské strojírny, Ondřej Typolt, Vice President, Olympus CEE, and Václav Irovský, CEO, Military Technical Institute

networking/discussion event

From left: Milan Kubek, President, Czech Medical Chamber, Jiří Uklein, Chancellor, Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Piotr Wielowieski, Vice Chairman of the Board, Unipetrol, and Jiří Hájek, Marketing Manager, Unipetrol

From left: Karel Muzikář, President of Comenius, Martin Netolický, Governor of Pardubice Region, Roman Sodomka, Director, Chamber of Commerce of Pardubice Region, Jan Wiesner, Chairman, Confederation of Employers’ and Entrepreneurs’ Associations of the Czech Republic Jiří Uklein, Chancellor, Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic

From left: Martin Netolický, Governor of Pardubice Region, Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, and Karel Muzikář Jr., Managing Partner, Weil, Gotshal & Manges

From left: Piotr Wielowieski, Vice Chairman of the Board, Unipetrol, Jiří Hájek, Marketing Manager, Unipetrol, and Jan Muhlfeit, Chairman, Microsoft Europe

Petr Havlíček, CEO, SUDOP Group

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Round Table of Comenius with Governors of Central Bohemia & Pardubice Region

networking/discussion event IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

HOTEL AMBASSADOR – MARCH 17, 2014

From left: Kresimir Draskovic, CEO, Olympus Czech, Roman Cabálek, General Director, Business Strategy, Microsoft CEE, and Ondřej Typolt, CEE Regional Manager, Olympus Czech

RD OUNDD TABLEI OF C OMENIUS . M S P D., ISCUSSION INNER WITH NG IROSLAV INGER H GOVERNOR OF THE CZECH NATIONAL BANK

On March 17 Comenius Society held a Round Table – discussion dinner with the Governor of the Czech National Bank, Mr. Miroslav Singer, with English as the working language. Governor Singer opened with professional remarks about the much debated National Bank’s decision to depreciate the Czech crown and he described the economic circumstances preceding and resulting in this serious step. Governor then reminded all participants that Czech Republic is one of the few countries that did not yet have to spend on saving the local financial system and that we therefore rank among the most stable and resilient economies. Throughout the discussion several participants joined H.E. Ambassador of Turkey Mr. Cihad Erginay in congratulating Mr. Singer for being recognized as the “Central Bank Governor of the Year for Emerging Europe” and the evening then continued with economic forecasts not only for the Czech Republic but also for the EU. The discussion dinner concluded with various opinions on the Ukrainian crisis and Governor Singer expressed that the Czech Republic seems to be in a good position in awaiting the “energy storm” which might arise from the conflict.

From left: Pavel Baštář, Executive Director, BMW invelt and Vítězslav Vala, Director of Strategy, SIKO koupelny From left: Otto Kechner, Lecturer, The University of Finance and Administration, Tomáš Čáp, Executive Vice President, Comenius, and Stanislav Beneš, General Director CEE, Infram

Vít Linhart, General Director, Atmos Chrást

20 From left: Vít Vařeka, Executive Director, AMISTA investment company and Otto Kechner, Lecturer, The University of Finance and Administration

From left: Václav Jakeš, Owner, Pretol HB and Marek Jakeš

networking/discussion event

From left: Vít Vařeka, Executive Director, AMISTA investment company and Ondřej Horák, Sales Director, AMISTA investment company

From left: Martin Novák, CFO/Vice Chairman of the Board, ČEZ, Cheng Yongru, Commercial Counsellor, Embassy of China, Miroslav Singer, Governor, Czech National Bank, Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, and Otakar Hora, Partner, KPMG Milan Kubek, President, Czech Medical Chamber

From left: Alessandro Pasquale, General Director, Karlovarské minerální vody, Martin Gebauer, CFO, České Radiokomunikace, and Benke Aikell, your Publisher

Congress Hall of hotel Ambassador

From left: Alessandro Pasquale, General Director, Karlovarské minerální vody, Karel Nohejl, CFO, Vemex, and Cheng Yongru, Commercial Counsellor, Embassy of China

H.E. Ayman Al Adsani, Ambassador of Kuwait

Marek Switajewski, CEO & Chairman of the Board, Unipetrol

From left: H.E. George Prata, Ambassador of Brazil, Otakar Hora, Partner, KPMG, Martin Novák, CFO/Vice Chairman of the Board, ČEZ, and Miroslav Singer, Governor, Czech National Bank

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, Martin Novák, CFO/Vice Chairman of the Board, ČEZ, and Igor Plaksin, Director Economy Department, Embassy of the Russian Federation

21

networking/discussion event

From left: Pavel Kulík, BMW invelt and H.E. Cihad Erginay, Ambassador of Turkey

From left: Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, Alessandro Pasquale, General Director, Karlovarské minerální vody, and Martin Gebauer, CFO, České Radiokomunikace

H.E. George Prata, Ambassador of Brazil

H.E. Cihad Erginay, Ambassador of Turkey From left: Roman Cabálek, General Director, Business Strategy, Microsoft CEE, David Frantík, Public Sector Lead, Microsoft, Alessandro Pasquale, General Director, Karlovarské minerální vody, Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, and Karel Nohejl, CFO, Vemex

22 From left: Otakar Hora, Partner, KPMG, Martin Novák, CFO/Vice Chairman of the Board, ČEZ, Miroslav Singer, Governor, Czech National Bank, and Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius

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sport event

sport event

BMW SUPPORTS BIATHLON Strategic partnerships should always benefit both sides. In the case of the BMW Czech Republic Group and the Czech Biathlon Association this certainly holds true.

On a global level, the BMW brand supports active sports, where competitors exhibit their strength, endurance and focus. Biathlon is certainly one of those fields, particularly in organizing the IBU World Cup and IBU World Championship. BMW extended this collaboration within the Czech Republic where, as of the beginning of the 2013/2014 winter season, BMW Group Czech Republic became the official partner of the Czech biathlon association.

BMW logos now appear on the clothing of these athletes, as well as their trainers, at all siginificant competitions that took or will take place in the Czech Republic and abroad.

BMW Group Czech Republic supplied the Czech Biathlon Association with ten vehicles from various model lines. Given the focus of this sports field, all these BMWs are equipped with xDrive on all wheels and ready to take their passengers to all sports events with top-level traction, while providing them with their typically’ pleasant ride at the same time. The cars are available both to actual competitors (Gabriela Soukalová, Veronika Vítková, Ondřej Moravec or Michal Šlesingr), as well as the main men’s and women’s trainers, Ondřej Rybář and Jindřich Šikola.

Support from BMW Group Czech Republic reinforced a better focus for their preparation.

Thanks to the abilities of the BMW cars with intelligent xDrive on all wheels, both competitors

and trainers can be assured of reaching all the various locations. This was one element that gave them an advantage in properly preparing for the Sochi Winter Olympics, where Czech biathlonists won three silver and two bronze medals.

BMW has supported global biathlon since 2011. In the Czech Republic, this partnership had its premier in Janurary of 2012, during the IBU World Cup. It significantly contributed to the Czech success at the IBU World Championship

in biathlon that took place in February of 2013 in Nové Město na Moravě.

This year, the European Championship in biathlon in Nové Město na Moravě, from January 29th until February 4th, was also held under the auspices of the BMW Group Czech Republic, the automobile partner of this European Championship. Again, a wide range of BMW vehicles, with intelligent all-wheel xDrive, was up to the challenge.

Czech biathlon team

Leaders Magazine II/2014 23

Afghan New Year

IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

Nouwrus means “New Day”. It is the new day that starts the year, traditionally the exact astronomical beginning of the Spring.

From left: Eva Decastelo, Moderator, H.E. Ziauddin Mojadedi, Ambassador of Afghanistan, and Fawad Nadri, President, Czech-Afghan Chamber of Commerce

CELEBRATION OF NOUWRUS NEW DAY,

ORGANIZED BY CZECH-AFGHAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

From left: Mgr. Kamila Tichá, Head Coordinator for Legion 100 Project, Ministry of Defence of the CR, Ing. Michael Hrbata, former Deputy Minister of Defence, and Martha Gellová, President of the Board of the Association, EFPA

From left: Fawad Nadri, President, Czech-Afghan Chamber of Commerce, Kateřina Průšová, Model and Sasha Isar, Entrepreneur

24 From left: Mr. Karel Řehák, and Jan Machálek, PhD., Embassy of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Vladek V. Zinkl, A.C.V. Group with his wife

From left: Jan Kohout with his partner on the left, Pavel Podroužek with his wife, and Khalil Abdul Qudus, Councellor, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Afghanistan From left: Benke Aikell, your Publisher, and JUDr. Ing. Václav Školout, Attorney, VKŠ

From left: Lenka Klicperová, Editor in Chief, Lidé a Země, Fawad Nadri, President, Czech-Afghan Chamber of Commerce, and Mrs. Štuková

Martha Gellová, President of the Board of the Association, EFPA and Jim Smith, Owner, Spartan Tactical

From left: Fawad Nadri, President, Czech-Afghan Chamber of Commerce, and Pavel Kopáček, Jablobijoux, s.r.o.

From left: Khalil Abdul Qudus, Counsellor, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Afghanistan, H.E. Ziauddin Mojadedi, Ambassador of Afghanistan, Benke Aikell, your Publisher, and Fawad Nadri, President, Czech-Afghan Chamber of Commerce

25

Afghan New Year

From left: Dr. Syed Abdul Quadir Gailani, Consultant for Afghanistan with a friend

Delicious Afghan food at Kampa Hotel

Stanislav Kosík with his wife

From left: Tomáš Hubač, Director, NOGUP, Hynek Čech, Military Veteran Foundation REGI Base I., and MUDr. Jindra Pavlová

From left: Ivan Kašpárek, ULZ with his wife and Fawad Nadri, President, Czech-Afghan Chamber of Commerce

From left: Mrs. Barbora Liberská and Mrs. Eva Bezděková

From left: Fawad Nadri, President, Czech-Afghan Chamber of Commerce, and Tomáš Hubač, Director, NOGUP

From left: Tomáš Hubač, Director, NOGUP, and Karel Petrželka, CEO, DEKONTA, a.s.

26 Eva Decastelo, Moderator and Fawad Nadri, President, Czech-Afghan Chamber of Commerce

From left: Jiří Basl, Jiří Schams, and Václav Linduška

Afghan New Year

From left: Eva Decastelo, Moderator and Martin Črep, Photographer

From left: Michal Vajner, Jan Machálek, PhD., Karel Řehák, Lucie Petříková, and Jakub Vajner, Embassy of the Democratic Republic of Congo

From left: Mr. Martin Suba with his partner and Mr. Stanislav Šefl with his partner From left: Ing. Bohuslav Chalupa, Member of the Parliament, Fawad Nadri, President, Czech-Afghan Chamber of Commerce, and Zdeněk Cvrkal, Manager of Marketing and PR, GearSpect Group s.r.o.

Lenka. K. Galeoni and JUDr. Ing. Václav Školout, Attorney, VKŠ

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From left: Radek John, Journalist and former Minister of Interior, Martha Gellová, President of the Board of the Association, EFPA, Khalil Abdul Qudus, Counsellor, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Afghanistan, and Fawad Nadri, President, Czech-Afghan Chamber of Commerce

27

networking/charity Guest of Honor: Doc. PhDr. Jan Němeček Topic: World War II and diplomatic negotiations

IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE From left: Ing. Anton Gerák, CSc., Commercial Director, former President, LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador, Secretary LCI D122 Czech Republic and Slovak Republic and MUDr. Martin Molitor, Doctor

From left: Ing. Antonín Novotný, CEO, CSI, President, LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador and JUDr. PhDr. Oldřich Choděra, Lawyer, Charterpresident, LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador and former Governor of LCI D122 Czech Republic and Slovak Republic

From left: Ing. Jaromír Kaulfus, Entrepreneur and JUDr. Jaroslav Novotný, Lawyer, Membership Chairperson, LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador, Editor in Chief, Český a Slovenský Lion Guest of Honor – Doc.PhDr. Jan Němeček

28

From left: JUDr. Jaroslav Novotný, Lawyer, Membership Chairperson, LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador, Editor in Chief Český a Slovenský Lion, MUDr. Václav Poláček, CSc., Plastic Surgeon, and Ing. Aleš Haur, Entrepreneur

From left: MUDr. Oto Schütz, Petr Humpolík, President LC Praha Heraldic, and Bc. Lucie Jouzová

networking/charity

From left: JUDr. Jan Kotous, Pedagogue, Faculty of Law, UK and Ing. Anton Gerák, CSc., former President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador, Commercial Director, Secretary, LCI D122 Czech Republic and Slovak Republic

Guest of Honor: Mrs. Nora El-Lababidi

IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

CHANGES OF LIFE IN SYRIA DURING THE 20

TH

From left: Ing. Ladislav Bouček, CSc., Entrepreneur, former Governor, LCI D 122 Czech Republic and Slovak Republic and PhDr. Ladislav Říha, Owner, CK RI-Tours and former President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador

From left: JUDr. PhDr. Oldřich Choděra, Lawyer, Charterpresident of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador and former Governor of LCI D122 Czech Republic and Slovak Republic and JUDr. Vojtěch Trapl, Lawyer, former Governor, LCI Czech Republic and Slovak Republic

Ing. Antonín Novotný, CEO, CSI, President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador and Nora El-Lababidi, guest of honor

CENTURY

From left: Ing. František Novotný, Director, TERRAMET and Ing. Antonín Novotný, CEO, CSI, President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador

From left: MUDr. Martin Molitor, Head Physician, Department of Plastic Surgery NNB Praha, Oldřich Hořák, Owner, Hotel Bílá Růže in Poděbrady, Petr Laštovka, Entrepreneur, and Ing. Jiří Málek, former President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador

29 Mrs. Nora El-Lababidi, Guest of Honor

interview An interview with Věra Jourová, Minister for Local Development

She already had begun a political career, but because of the supposed ‘Budišov case,’ had to begin again from scratch. After seven years, she returned to the department, this time as a minister. Věra Jourová says she never again wants to experience such a fall and tries to be as ‘normal’ as possible. She also mentions that the power statements of other politicians in the media deeply disrupt her work.

30 Leaders Magazine II/2014

interview “Madame Minister”… have you yet become used to being addressed this way? Do you internally feel like a minister?

No, not yet. I guess it will come in time. My internal resistance is working. I try to remain a normal human (laughter) and I don’t want to let this get under my skin. Today I’m a minister, but tomorrow I may not be. I already experienced one situation where I fell from the top to the bottom and I don’t want to re-live a similar shock. By that I don’t mean that I intend to leave.

How does it look, specifically, when a minister tries to remain ‘normal’?

I havn’t changed my personal habits. A classic example is my minimal use of a car and driver. I try to use public transport and daily run my favorite trail, which is good for the head. Neighbors laugh at me when I go to recycle my own garbage, but it seems important to me not to lose my normal daily habits.

The Ministry for Local Development seems to be a logical choice in your case. Was it clear to you as well?

It was the simplest solution for me. I’m at home here and, in several areas, even really at home.

These are the European Funds, where the ministry has a rather dominant role. In terms of actual focus, it is a natural progression in my professional career.

Is your return to the ministry a ‘political dream come true’ as you mentioned in one of your earlier interviews?

I would rather say that it’s a professional dream come true. Today I’m a politician, a Member of Parliament and I focus on politics in the sharpest sense of the word. I have a say in the main directions that our country should go. That’s the ‘roof’ over all else. But I see the essence of my work in my professionalism. I have assigned areas to take care of, where I try to move things in a strong, positive direction. As I mentioned, my dominant role is in European Funds, but I’m also learning quickly about other subjects. I got back into the tourism industry, which was my focus on the regional level. The area of public tenders, land planning, construction proceedings and housing policy – those are issues I try to quickly study up on.

In regard with your ministry, most people think mostly of European Funds and public tenders. Is there an area that’s somewhat overlooked, even though it’s problematic?

That would certainly be housing policy, which is a subject that has a huge social impact. According to research, up to 150,000 people in the Czech Republic today live in conditions that experts consider ‘non-housing.’ I don’t mean only the homeless here, they’re the extreme edge. This subject touches me very personally.

During my difficult times, when I was a divorced woman with child care and a mortgage, I realized how close each of us in this country is to living under a bridge. All that needs happen is for two feet of the tripod – health, family or work – to be kicked out from under you. A person is then headed to a com-

IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

plete fall, with the threat of losing the roof over their head.

The ministry focuses on housing issues from the position of preparing investments into housing. We closely collaborate with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, where we deal with the ‘soft’ issues of which people are threatened by ‘non-housing’ and whether and to whom the state should guarantee housing, etc. This is related to the agenda of Minister Dientsbier.

So you will closely collaborate?

It will be very difficult. As is understood, interministry affairs don’t do very well in the Czech Republic (laughter).

I wanted to ask about this. What do the first indications of inter-ministry collaboration look like?

Those will soon become apparent. The first meeting of an inter-ministry group is being arranged, where we will clarify our positions and put a schedule on the table in order to move on with the law concerning social housing.

You mentioned you need to study a number of new areas. How detailed were your thoughts about current problems with the agenda? A lot must have changed in the seven years you were away from the ministry…

I had an excellent overview of the Funds and tourism, as well as public tenders. The most unfamiliar for me are the areas of land-planning and construction proceedings. What helps me there is that I completed my studies in law quite recently in Prague, where I was tested on administrative law. I began focusing on the questions of housing at the moment I was appointed to this field within the ANO Movement. Back then, we laughed at it – ‘as a shadow minister’ – at time when, back in July, we had 0.5% voting preferences, this expression indeed seemed very funny...

So, prior to the elections you didn’t expect that the ANO Movement would have such success?

I didn’t expect it. In September, the preferences moved and then it soared upward. 18.7% was a huge surprise. Naturally, while we celebrated our success, I had a deeply wrinkled brow. Looking at the simple arithmetic, I knew our participation in the government was unavoidable.

Was that the moment you realized you’d become a minister?

From the moment we begun negotiations about the format of the coalition or the support of the government, I said I wasn’t going to the ministry. I saw my role more in the Chamber of Deputies. But then I understood I must go wherever I was the most needed. From then on it inevitably pointed toward the ministry. At one point Mr. Babiš and I discussed the Ministry of Justice, then after a few interviews I mentioned the Ministry of Culture. My original qualification was cultural anthropologist…

But you also studied law?

Then I completed my study of law. I was very interested in culture, but as a movement, we were

rather strongly focused on economic subjects.

Should the European Funds be properly implemented into the economy, it would have a huge positive influence on our country, so Mr. Babiš didn’t want to hear about culture. In the end, I’m here and it’s a natural development.

What would be a success for you in the Ministry as a personal goal?

Not to lose my social capital and remain normal.

Perhaps I allow myself to center too much on my social capital from what people write me. They write that they see me as a normal, fair person, who got to the top despite great life difficulties. Besides top-level performance, they expect me to ‘not to go nuts’ and not to slip into the bad habits that have been a long-term problem within our state administration and politics.

Then I have a number of professional goals.

It’s a cliché, but I really want to see a maximum amount of money used for good projects that bring development in measurable numbers – GDP and employment. So it’s not only to draw the funds, but also to direct them where they will bring the most positive results.

I would also like the ministry to gain a greater informal authority under my leadership. For a long time, it’s been discussed as something unnecessary and to be cancelled. The ministry can also gain informal authority by being a strong partner to the regions and municipalities in the government. These are key target groups for me. These are people in various functions and positions, without whom we can’t push the regional agenda from the top. We can’t do a thing without them. So I will work hard to build trust toward the regions and municipalities. It doesn’t mean I will meet all their requirements. Currently there are battles over new European funds and dealing with me is often a tough nut to crack (laughter).

How would you personally characterize the current Czech political culture?

It’s not factual enough for my taste. Certain people in certain parties already show notable signs of worrying about themselves, their positions and the showing off of power. We send too many power statements to each other through the media. It horribly disrupts me in my work and bothers me. We have to be forceful in sticking to facts and fulfilling what we promised in our program statements. It has to be a driving force – to focus on the subject and not on ourselves, procedures and competition.

How do you envision leadership?

For me, a leader must have natural authority and a huge amount of charisma. But leaders must also be able to target their goals, have an overview, a tempo and know precisely what they want to achieve. They also must be able to communicate it. If you add a matter-of-factness and the ability to find and implement simple solutions, that’s it. Naturally, they must surround themselves with strong personalities, people who are smart and capable.

Jaroslav Kramer ■ český překlad naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz

Leaders Magazine II/2014 31

charity event

From left: Petr Duchek, Director, British Airways, Lejla Abbasová, Founder, Asante Kenya, Marcela Roche, Managing Director, BCC, Ondřej Soukup, Composer, Vilma Cibulková, Actor, Tomáš Ďurnák, Photographer, Silvia Bušniaková, Head of Networking, BBC, Tomáš Hanák, Actor, Gisela Šabóková, Artist, and Alexander Hemala, Presenter of the evening

IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

LET‘S COMMUNICATE

CAPTURING EMOTION IN PHOTOGRAPHS A UNIQUE CHARITY AUCTION SUPPORTED ASANTE KENYA FOUNDATION The British Chamber of Commerce together with the Asante Kenya Foundation, Golden Tulip Savoy Hotel and British Airways organized a very unique charity auction and festive gala reception “Let’s Communicate”.

Photographs created by the talented photographer, Tomáš Durňák, were auctioned off showing high-profile personalities on the Czech cultural scene.

The collection of photographs creates a story that depicts a dialogue and communication. “We believe that miracles do in fact happen thanks to communication, listening skills, engaging in dialogue and cooperating. And so we decided to convert this idea into action,” said Silvia Bušniaková, Head of Networking of the British Chamber of Commerce. Personalities who lent their faces to the projects were: actresses, Vilma Cibulková and Jitka Čvančarová; presenter, Ester Janečková; fashion designer, Beáta Rajská; composer, Ondřej Soukup; fashion photographer, Robert Vano; and Karel Schwarzenberg. 138 000 CZK was raised for the Asante Kenya project.

The founder of the Asante Kenya Foundation, Lejla Abbasová, explained the purpose of the project. “All proceeds go directly to our educational centre Narok in Kenya. Thanks to events like this one, we can change lives of at least few people in Kenya, provide them with an education and, therefore, a better future.” An educational boarding centre (Narok) was built for Massai girls who have run away from home to escape the rite of female genital mutilation (or female circumcision). The Narok Centre is the youngest project of the Asante Kenya Foundation.

The „Let’s communicate“ Project was supported by H.E. Jan Thompson, the British Ambassador to the Czech Republic.

From left: Mr. Karel Schwarzenberg, Chairman, TOP 09 and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Lejla Abbasová, Founder, Asante Kenya

32 Petr Duchek, British Airways director with one of the bidders

From left: Beata Rajská, Fashion Designer, Lejla Abbasová, Founder, Asante Kenya, Ondřej Soukup, Composer, Vilma Cibulková, Actor and Ester Janečková, TV Presenter

charity event

Alicia Huziuk-Raith, Director, Golden Tulip Savoy Prague

From left: Silvia Bušniaková, Head of Networking, British Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic, Luděk Vrána, Vrana a Pelikan, Partner and Board Director of the British Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic, and Marcela Roche, Managing Director, British Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic

From left: Petr Palička, Country Managing Director, Penta Investments with his partner on the left and Marcela Roche, Managing Director, British Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic

From left: Lejla Abbasová, Founder, Asante Kenya, and Alexander Hemala, Presenter of the evening

From left: Ondřej Soukup, Composer, Lucia Šoralová, Singer, and Alexander Hemala, Presenter of the evening

33 Tomas Durňák with his exhibition

BCC Team with Tomáš Hanák, Actor

prestigious award event MUDr. Martin Jan Stránský, Endowment Fund of M.J. Stránský and host of the evening

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ENDOWMENT FUND OF M.J. STRÁNSKÝ Wednesday March 5th saw the presentation of the “Přítomnost prize” of 100.000 Czech crowns at Národní kavárna on Národní street to three amateur authors, who wrote in essays to the magazine focusing on the so-called “Czech question”, namely that of Czech identity. Přítomnost the country’s oldest and best-known political social commentary magazine, also celebrated its 90th birthday. The magazine was founded with a million crowns from Cezchoslovakia’s first president T G Masaryk, who gave the money to Jaroslav Stránský, grandfather of the present publisher Dr. Martin Jan Stránský.

Jaroslav recruited Ferdinand Peroutka, the greatest journalist of the day, to be the magazine’s first editor, which set the magazine’s reputation. Following 1948, the magazine was predictably banned, but was resurrected again by Dr. Stránský, who eventually converted it to its present internet format (www.pritomnost.cz). The magazine also has its own English language section “The New Presence” which can be reached via the same website.

Currently, the magazine enjoys steadily rising popularity among intellectuals, leaders as well as students. Accordingly, the award was very well attended.

In the audience were some of the country’s most famous literary talents as well as political commentators, such as Ivan Klíma, Michal Fleishman, Jan Hartl and many others. The event was also symbolic in that it took place in Národní kavárna, which is reviving the tradition as its home to the literary community of journalists in inter-war Czechoslovakia.

From left: MUDr. Martin Jan Stránský, Endowment Fund of M.J. Stránský and host of the evening and Petr Woff, receiving the Přítomnost Prize Jana Šmídová, Český rozhlas Plus, and Ing. Ivan Štern, Ministry for Regional Development of the CR

34 From left: Petr Fleischmann, Consultant, Senate, Mr. Michal Klíma, and Hana Pavlátová, Painter

From left: Jan Jícha in his thank you speech for receiving the Přítomnost Prize, and Petr Fleischmann, Consultant, Senate

award event

Petr Fleischmann, Consultant, Senate From left: Mgr. David Bartoň, Librarian and Documentarist, GASK and Anna Ester Šotolová recieving Přítomnost price

From left: MUDr. Martin Jan Stránský, Endowment Fund of M.J. Stránský and host of the evening and Mr. René Pavlů From left: Michael March, President, Prague Writer’s Festival, Mrs. Dagmar Sedlická, Mrs. Vlasta Brtníková-March, and Edvard Outrata, former Senator

Peter M. Bisek, Editor-in-Chief, Americké Listy, and Mrs. Hana Bakičová

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From left: Mr. Petr Woff, MUDr. Martin Jan Stránský, Endowment Fund of M.J. Stránský and host of the evening, Mr.Jan Jícha, and Mrs. Anna Ester Šotolová

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From left: Ivan Klíma, renowned Writer and Hana Pavlátová, Painter

interview An interview with the Minister of Agriculture, Marian Jurečko Minister Jurečko, you entered politics in 1999, but your first successes didn’t come until 2010. Did you ever feel like giving up your career before things ‘worked out’?

I’m one of those people who, if they decided to do something, they go into it full speed and with the dedication to do it properly. I never followed the target of a career. There was this character of Emil Nádeníček in the movie How the World Loses Poets, who was a propaganda agent who had a graphic timeline of his plan – a holiday in Yugoslavia, first child, a car, career promotion, a holiday in Bulgaria, second child… I never had a plan like this. I simply worked without setting out the goals of being the Vice-Chairman of KDUČSL, a leader of the party in the Olomouc Region or the Minister of Agriculture. But to be specific – I entered the so-called ‘big politics’ in 2010 when I became the Vice-Chairman of the party, with a single goal: to bring KDU-ČSL back to the Chamber of Deputies. We succeeded. But politics are not the peak of my career. I have a family, three children and expecting a fourth. These are the more important priorities in my life.

Your political career seems very dynamic since 2010. Do you also see it that way?

I already mentioned 2010. I think that after the elections of that year, when the voters, entirely deservedly, sent us away from the Chamber of Deputies, then a totally essential election caucus took place. There was an important personnel and generational upgrade and the leadership of KDU-ČSL was composed of people who spent three years working as vice-chairmen for KDUČSL, entirely without pay and in their free time.

I think we also managed to change our method of communication and began to speak in an understandable language. These are perhaps the two essential reasons why KDU-ČSL succeeded in its historic comeback.

Photo: Archive

I WOULD LIKE OUR AGRICULTURE TO MOVE TOWARD SELF-RELIANCE, PARTICULARLY IN COMMODITIES WHERE WE WERE THE TRADITIONAL PRODUCERS Marian Jurečko, the twelfth Minister of Agriculture of the independent Czech Republic, spent his entire life ‘in the field.’ He studied at the Agricultural High-School in Přerov, then majored in Plant Health, with specialization on Plant Protection, at the Mendel University in Brno. From 2002 he’s been a private farmer at the family farm in Rokytnice in the Přerov area. What are his goals for the ministry and where does the Minister actually buy food?

36 Leaders Magazine II/2014

You are called the “Minister from Hanakia“ [an ethnic region in central Moravia, known for its agriculture] and you are very familiar with agriculture, thanks to your family farm. Still – there were those who doubted your prerequisites for the position of Minister of Agriculture.

I wasn’t the only candidate for the ministry targeted by the critics, but I personally have only noticed criticism from the President of the Agrarian Chamber, Jan Veleba. We clarified our positions during a meeting in January. The criticism was mostly regarding a lack of knowledge on issues from the period when the Common Agricultural Policy was being prepared in Brussels. I’d dare to say I closely followed these issues, despite the fact I wasn’t at the table in Brussels. And when it comes to professionalism, something with very great emphasis in the selection of candidates for Ministers, it’s generally known that I spent my time in agriculture since childhood. I know the subjects of both large-scale and small-scale agricultural companies and food producers. I worked

interview in two large companies and I even have a highschool and university degree of an agricultural type. So I think those arguments weren’t valid.

How detailed was your overview of ministry problems prior to coming into the office? What surprised you most from this perspective in your first days?

I have experience as a farmer and a former advisor to the Minister of Local Development, as well as a Representative of the Olomouc region from the state administration. As a politically-oriented person, I naturally followed everything regarding the ministry. Then, when I came to the ministry, it surprised me, for example that there were tenders being announced for things that I didn’t think were necessary, and that was not only in terms of millions, but sometimes tens of millions of CZK. These were mostly tenders in the area of IT, marketing or legal services. On the other hand, I was very pleased and perhaps even surprised when I walked through the premises, office by office, to meet the Ministry employees, about how positive an approach to their work they had. It was clear that they do their work with their hearts in it.

If you were to select three problems that you would like to solve in the shortest possible time and three about which you know that they can’t be solved within a single election period, what would they be?

As a summary, I would say that I would like all the measures we introduce to lead toward the development of agriculture and food production in the Czech Republic. Therefore, we will further support animal and plant production, care more about the support of young farmers and protection of agricultural soil erosion, including solving problems with the consequences of natural disasters. For this reason, my ambition will to sustain investments into anti-flood measures, also possibly increasing them in a reasonable scale.

We have also allowed the areas of fruit production, vegetable production and gardening get to a catastrophic state. These were professions that had a very high level of quality prior to 1990 and then we allowed them to fall. A key element, but often overlooked, is how we will learn water management. I know I listed more problems than you wanted, but that’s simply what it is. I can’t just select three. I also know that we can’t solve everything within one election period, but we will try to at least begin the resolution of further problems.

What do you consider to be your success as the head of the ministry?

I would like Czech agriculture to move toward self-reliance, particularly in commodities where we were traditional producers. This means we should not only produce quality foods, but also create new jobs.

As a private farmer, you surely have your own opinion on agricultural policy. To what degree do your opinions differ from the central level?

I’m a farmer as well as a minister. With a certain exaggeration I say that both agree that

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The Minister of Agriculture Marian Jurečka at the fair Salima

Czech agriculture lacks a concept. For example, our own food safety is not among our national interests, so it’s about time to clearly define what it is we actually want and start acting upon it. We already discussed the problems I’d like to solve, but I’ll add the support of investments into new technologies, which also has to be longterm and may not be affected by the change of a Minister from Prague. And of course, support for producers, both farmers and food producers, so that they can market their product, I hope directly to the consumer.

Discrepancies in tenders, tender proceedings, resignation of employees… it seems you didn’t have an exactly easy entry into office.

I don’t think I’m any different from other colleagues in the government. But it’s a good thing you mentioned it, because at least I can explain why I made some personnel changes when I came to the ministry, although I thought about it for a long time because I’m not a fan of personnel revolutions. Upon entering leadership position, one wants to be surrounded by a team of people he can trust and who will be sufficiently hard-working and capable. I came across some problems, so I needed people who are hundredpercent reliable and their work ethic will be from dawn till dusk.

You haven’t spent much time in top politics.

Still, has it changed you by now somehow?

I don’t think top politics will change me, but I’m not the one to judge it, you’d have to ask others.

What it definitely changed is my life and family rhythm.

Since the early elections into the Chamber of Deputies, you are under careful watch of the media. How did you deal with their presence and have you had to change your approach to them?

Anyone entering politics must be ready to be watched by the media. I already had some experi-

ence with them as the Vice-Chairman of KDU-ČSL and now it’s, of course, manifold more. I try to be approachable to anyone. One of the examples is that, after taking the office, I made my cell-phone number publically accessible. Of course when I’m at work, I can’t respond immediately, but I think the journalists understand that.

Did you notice the question the media keeps repeating since you came to office, ‘where do you buy food’?

Yes, that is a question journalist like to ask me. And I tell them that I most often go shopping in three shops. One little shop is in our village and run by our good friends. I also buy quality meat products from a local agricultural co-op shop and milk products from a friend who has a dairy farm.

What makes you, as a minister, currently happiest and what consumes most of your energy?

I’m happiest in time spent with my wife and children and recently these have indeed been precious moments. What consumes my energy?

Often, the pointless and lengthy debates in the Chamber of Deputies. They take up time that could be used much more meaningfully.

And finally – comprises a true leader in your view?

For me, a leader is a person, or more specifically a personality, who has natural authority and a respect for others. But when you said ‘leader’ as someone from agriculture, I also thought about the European LEADER subsidy program. That almost seems as a profession-induced distortion, doesn’t it? Rather than a solid set of measures, that program is a method of mobilization and implementation of development of the countryside in local communities. Simply a leader.

Jaroslav Kramer ■ český překlad naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz

Leaders Magazine II/2014 37

Photo: Jan Šulc

discussion event

Aleš Barabas, Member of the Board, UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia, Vice President of the CFO Club

IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE First session of the CFO Club in 2014 was held on February 26 in the Grand Hotel Bohemia in Prague. “Prognosis of economic development in 2014 and a look back at 2013” was the topic of the discussion in which differences in development of Czech and Slovak economies were mentioned. All speakers predicted a slight growth for 2014.

THE CFO CLUB – FIRST SESSION IN 2014 From left: Štěpán Pitra, Finance and Administration Manager, CALPRA and Jan Turek, Finance Director, JRD

From left: Bořivoj P. Pražák, Senior Advisor, Arthur D. Little, Member of the CFO Club Council, and Benke Aikell, your Publisher

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From left: Jaroslav Vomastek, Director of the Department of Economic Analysis, Ministry of Industry and Trade of the CR, Pavel Sobíšek, Chief Economist, UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia, Ľubomír Koršňák, Chief Economist of the Slovak branch, UniCredit Bank, and Aleš Barabas, Member of the Board, UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia, Vice President of the CFO Club

Pavel Sobíšek, Chief Economist, UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia

discussion event

From left: Radim Duchek, Deputy CEO, ČIA – Česká informační agentura, Hana Pavlištová, Managing Director, Česká informační agentura and Vice President ČNOPK, and Blanka Vysloužilová, Controlling Manager, Olivova dětská léčebna From left: Dušan Kučera, Manager of executive education, University of Economics in Prague and Antonín Moravec, Business Development Manager, Oracle Czech

Jan Vinter, Chairman of the Editors Board, CFO World and Alice Maar, CEO and CFO, WINE4YOU

Pavel Jablonský, Imitator

From left: Petr Kubernát, Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Ambassador to the Netherlands and Roland Leisztner, Entrepreneur

From left: Tomáš Kouřil, Executive Finance Director, Telefónica Czech Republic and Jakub Minařík, Manager, Arthur D. Little

39 Ľubomír Koršňák, Chief Economist of the Slovak branch, UniCredit Bank

Ondřej Kadaník, Department of active trade and receivables management, J & T BANKA enjoying the wine

discussion event

From left: Vladislav Kalous, Senior Manager, Accenture Central Europe B.V. and Aleš Barabas, Member of the Board, UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia, Vice President of the CFO Club

From left: Jan Mühlfeit, Chairman Europe, Microsoft Corporation, Martin Novák, CFO, ČEZ, Member of the CFO Club Council, and Aleš Barabas, Member of the Board, UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia, Vice President of the CFO Club

Vendula Krtilová, European Business Center, NWD Asset Management CZ and Petr Vaculík, Head of Clinical Operations, PSI CRO Czech Republic

Eva Barabasová, Česká spořitelna and Michal Mareš, CEO, NB Financial Advisors

From left: Marek Huml, Partner, Stanton Chase International and Štěpán Pitra, Finance and Administration Manager, CALPRA

40 View of the conference room

Aneta Neradová, Project Manager, CFO Club and Milan Petřík, European Union Unit, Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic

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analysis

NEW GOVERNMENT

– NEW HOPES? The House of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic gave the coalition government of the Czech Social Democratic Party, the ANO 2011 Movement and the Christian Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People’s Party a vote of confidence on 18 February 2014, approving its policy statement. The new Government can be characterized as centre-left one containing both socially-liberal and conservative political bodies; also because the Communist Party, in spite of previous fears, remained outside the structure of the cabinet. The Government pledges itself in its policy statement to guide the Czech Republic, on the basis of a socially and environmentally oriented market economy, towards prosperity, and is to seek to maintain social cohesion in the country.

The Government states to actively “strive for a European Union which is politically influential and capable, economically competitive, a defender of democratic values and promoter of social cohesion and human dignity” and wishes to operate in the European area as a comprehensible and credible partner. It is a clear signal of diversion from rather eurosceptic and euro-reluctant policy of the previous centreright governments. It will also “actively strive to create conditions conducive to the adoption of the euro”. This all, of course, also depends on the upcoming development in the eurozone and should not mean resignation on national interests. The Government seems also to be more environmentally aware, and another difference from the previous is more stress on the development of civic society and equal opportunities.

One of the most important tasks of the new Government is to overcome the existing longlasting stagnation of the economy and push it to a sustainable economic growth. Therefore it accents support of free enterprise, promises to restore the system of incentives for foreign and domestic companies with a key role to be played by CzechInvest agency, and improve the system of promotion of goods and service exports. A broader public support of research, development and innovation is also planned to boost competitiveness of the economy.

The entrepreneurial sector needs very urgently that the Government releases blocked public investment the deadlock of which heavily struck especially construction and project industry during last several years. The Government

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promises clearer rules and terms in the zoning, building permitting, land procurement and EIA processes aided by introducing a new law on linear structures.

Literally in the last minute, the Government will attempt at a maximum efficient exhaustion of EU funds under programs for the 2007–2013 programming period, while aiming at a better preparation for the new 2014– 2020 period. The ailing efficiency of public investment should be recovered by the so far missing state expertise for the entire field of public-procured capital construction. The main accent in transport infrastructure is set on the construction of motorways and expressways.

It is only a little wonder that the policy statement heralds an uncompromising fight against all forms of corruption and related manifestations that, after all, formed in this or that way a decoration of political programmes of almost all previous governments. But if the Government follows and even enhances the initial steps to combat corruption made by the former Mr. Nečas’s Government, it may really improve the atmosphere both in the Czech politics and the economy. Also the promises to reduce the number and complexity of official acts encumbering citizens, strengthen law enforcement and avoid tax evasion and wastage in the redistribution of the taxes sound positive.

On the other hand, little space is devoted to the simplification of the Czech tax system which belongs to the most complicated and timeconsuming among OECD countries.

The policy statement shows some tension between projected spending and the pledge to keep Maastricht fiscal criteria, especially the maintenance of the government deficit below 3% of GDP. It will be demanding to keep the budget target in the condition of reduction of VAT on some commodities, higher government budget for social services and termination of reduced indexation of pensions. The statement calls for changes in the pension system that

should establish a long-term stable structure and the proportionality of benefits granted, but it is not documented how this objective could be attained.

As it showed more times with previous cabinets, words are words no matter how they sound. Only real development can show to what extent the new Government will be successful in keeping its political promises. Considering the state of the society and economy, there are many reasons to hold thumbs up to its good intentions. Anyway, it will be under sterner and less patient public control than any of its predecessors.

Emanuel Šíp ■ Partner, Allied Progress Consultants Association český překlad naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz

Leaders Magazine II/2014 41

interview An interview with Adam Leščišin, CEE Regional Director of EMONEY GROUP

WE ARE COMMITTED TO OUR CLIENTS’ SUCCESS Adam Leščišin worked for more than 15 years at various management levels of GE Capital. He built and directed strategic group projects in areas of outsourcing, credit risk, fraud prevention and anti-money laundering.

He built and led international executive teams, streamlined processes and managed technology operations in regulated banking environment. His work experience spans altogether 24 countries across Europe, North and South America and Asia. His specialization and hobbies at the same time include IC technology, leadership and team development, process management and improvement. Adam actively speaks four languages.

Photo: Archive 42 Leaders Magazine II/2014

interview What is the main business of EMONEY GROUP? EMONEY GROUP is focusing on designing, building and operating digital ecosystems, with specific focus on municipal and transport services. In more practical terms, we are currently active in city-card, transport fare collection and contactless payment solutions.

Can you be more specific about what digital ecosystems mean?

A digital ecosystem is the alignment and collaboration of social and technological systems in a single, open and mutually beneficial environment. Similar to nature’s ecosystems, it contains and serves the interactions of people, information, interfaces and the governing rules.

Our role goes well beyond the purely technical design and services – we believe the critical factor is to be able to merge the technical capability with the needs of the local environment. And we believe EMONEY GROUP possesses a unique combination of competences in these areas.

The company is fairly young, how has it established itself so far with your clients?

EMONEY GROUP itself is a relatively new company, its origins date to middle of 2012. But it was created by restructuring several existing companies into a new group, so the history really dates back before year 2000. Also, the EMONEY GROUP team is made up of seasoned professionals, some of them carry more than 10–20 years of experience in the payment and related industries.

What is more important, however, is how we are being seen by our clients. For example, last week I met with the city hall officials of one our municipal clients after completing a fairly massive upgrade project of existing systems and optimization of their processes. I was told on several occasions that our team did a superb job, impressing with professional attitude, diligence and expertise ready to share and assist, even at odd times of the day and week. That is a stellar feedback for the hard work of our teams!

What is EMONEY’s competitive advantage?

We at EMONEY GROUP believe that our major value is that we combine international expertise, local execution and strong cooperation with local industries. To make it clearer: we believe that it makes no sense to use a cookiecutter approach, where one-size-fits-all method forces the client to adapt to an existing solution. Instead, we rather adapt to the local reality to maximize the value for the client. It requires close cooperation with local partners and taking advantage of local expertise.

To give you an example: in a recent project in Mexico we were originally planning to import purely European solution for payments on buses – the most common public transport in Mexico.

In the end we decided instead to work closely with a local industrial partner.

Albeit it is a fairly small company, their solution was superior for their environment to anything we have seen before.

It is our general approach and proves very effective, because we also get much better understanding of the local realities and how to address them effectively.

EMONEY GROUP is involved in one of the most discussed projects in the Czech Republic – the Opencard. Can you tell us more about it?

In many ways, Opencard is actually a very successful project, the largest contactless smartcard program in the CEE region. It is being used by more than 1,2 million users (i.e. more than 11% of Czech population) using it daily for various services: e.g. public transport, library services, payment for parking, discounts, etc..

For more than 7 years of growth now, without any significant technical issues. It is a shame that it’s discussed more in a political context than from the service and technical perspective. Because it slows down a pragmatic discussion and decision making about the future of the program and creates a false impression that there is something fundamentally wrong with the underlying service and solution, which is not true.

Our role in Prague is to maintain and develop the ecosystem under the leadership of the municipality, which we have taken over in the beginning of 2013 from the original supplier. Every day, more than one million people seamlessly use the service and every year the ecosystem manages more than a billion of Czech crowns in travel & parking credits. This is the best proof of the quality of the solution and of our services. But we also have lots of ideas how to innovate a program like this and we are fully prepared to be the city’s long-term partner in its journey.

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EMONEY GROUP – Innovator for the digital ecosystems in transport & municipal services EMONEY GROUP is an international company, focused to design, build and operate innovative digital ecosystems in transportation, municipal services and cashless payments.

Our team of professionals has extensive experience in building and running such businesses based on smartcards & mobile technologies in transportation, micro-payments, and municipal services.

EMONEY GROUP brings together the best-of-breed models and components in the world of micropayments, ticketing, smartcards and automated fare collection. Using proven methods and technologies to effectively combine global experiences with a thorough understanding of local needs and opportunities. The company works intensively with local industries like equipment manufacturers, load network operations, retailers, etc.

EMONEY’s core business areas are smart-card and mobile solutions for municipalities, regional governments, transport and retail businesses; covering mainly ticketing, micro-payment, e-ID, and e-Vouchers applications.

EMONEY’s approach is focus to build a value for program owners as well as it’s users, and connecting the needs of all stakeholders, including the scheme owners, transportation companies, load network operators, as well as citizens.

The company has its headquarters in Hoofddorp, Netherlands, with activities around the globe, currently with projects in Latin America, Central & Eastern Europe as well as South East Asia.

EMONEY GROUP experts have played key roles in building the biggest public transport smart card programs, for example the Dutch OV-Chipkaart program, Octopus Card in HongKong, EasyCard in Taipei and other similar programs.

REDQ is one of the recent successful projects EMONEY GROUP participated in, which is smartcard ticketing program in Queretaro, Mexico launched in Autumn 2013

EMONEY GROUP also participates in standardization activities and is member of several organizations active in ticketing and micropayments standardizations, like the OSPT Alliance, Open Ticketing Institute and others.

Leaders Magazine II/2014 43

social event Christian Senly at his presentation

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EMONEY GROUP B.V. SOCIAL EVENT AT THE NETHERLANDS EMBASSY IN PRAGUE The International Company EMONEY GROUP B.V., in cooperation with the Netherlands-Czech Chamber of Commerce, hosted a social event on the occasion of Prague’s decision to transform the Opencard Citycard Program program into a dedicated organization founded by municipality – Operator Opencard (OOC). The meeting of the Prague City-Hall leaders, representatives of the Operator Opencard and senior management of EMONEY GROUP B.V. focused on discussing examples of good practice in smart programs in the world and of current trends as well as future opportunities and challenges in this field.

Christian Senly, a guru in the areas of city, transportation and micropayment smart-cards systems, with more than 20 years of experience and personal involvement in the building of smart-card programs in Hong Kong, Taipei, Netherlands and others was one of the speakers at the event.

EMONEY GROUP B.V. presented the problems which some international smart-card projects have faced and parties discussed the current needs of the Opencard project in Prague so that it can become a successful, smart program. Despite the popular criticism, Opencard is one of the largest citycard projects in the Central and Eastern Europe. Prague leaders declared an imperative to draw a line behind the past of Opencard and start to build an effective future primarily for the benefit of the users of Opencard and Prague citizens.

Kateřina Šišková, Councellor to the Deputy Mayor of Prague, and Jiří Vávra, 1st Deputy Mayor of Prague

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From left: Jiří Pařízek, Councilor, Capital City of Prague, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, OOC and Jan Vašíček, Member of the Supervisory Board, Capital City of Prague, Member of Supervisory Board, OOC

From left: Christoffer Jonker, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Jitze Jongsma, Chief Financial Officer, EMONEY GROUP

Petr Stránský, CEO, EMONEY GROUP at his welcome speech

EMONEY GROUP – Innovator for smart programs in transport & municipal services EMONEY GROUP is an international company, focused to design, build and operate innovative digital ecosystems in transportation, municipal services and cashless payments.

The team of professionals has extensive experience in building and running such businesses based on smartcards & mobile technologies in transportation, micro-payments, and municipal services.

EMONEY GROUP brings together the best-of-breed models and components in the world of micropayments, ticketing, smartcards and automated fare collection. Using proven methods and technologies to effectively combine global experiences with a thorough understanding of local needs and opportunities. The company works intensively with local industries like equipment manufacturers, load network operations, retailers, etc.

EMONEY’s core business areas are smart-card and mobile solutions for municipalities, regional governments, transport and retail businesses; covering mainly ticketing, micropayment, e-ID, and e-Vouchers applications.

EMONEY’s approach is focus to build a value for program owners as well as it’s users, and connecting the needs of all stakeholders, including the scheme owners, transportation companies, load network operators, as well as citizens.

The company has its headquarters in Hoofddorp, Netherlands, with activities around the globe, currently with projects in Latin America, Central & Eastern Europe as well as South East Asia.

EMONEY GROUP experts have played key roles in building the biggest public transport smart card programs, for example the Dutch OV-Chipkaart program, Octopus Card in HongKong, EasyCard in Taipei and other similar programs.

EMONEY GROUP also participates in standardization activities and is member of several organizations active in ticketing and micropayments standardizations, like the OSPT Alliance, Open Ticketing Institute and others.

social event

From left: Ing. Petr Kubernát, Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Ambassador to the Netherlands, H.E. Eduard W. V. M. Hoeks, Ambassador of the Netherlands, Jop Fellinger, General Counsel, EMONEY GROUP, and Petr Stránský, CEO, EMONEY GROUP

From left: H.E. Eduard W. V. M. Hoeks, Ambassador of the Netherlands and Jitze Jongsma, Chief Financial Officer, EMONEY GROUP

From left: Jiří Pařízek, Councilor, Capital City of Prague, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, OOC and Jan Vašíček, Member of the Supervisory Board, Capital City of Prague, Member of Supervisory Board, OOC

45 H.E. Eduard W. V. M. Hoeks, Ambassador of the Netherlands

From left: Ondřej Košťál, Member of the Board, OOC and Petr Vychodil, Chairman of the Board, OOC

honorary reception

From left: Marian Jurečka, Minister of Agriculture of CR, Fay Adensamová, Personal Assistant of the Minister of Agriculture, and Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius

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KAMPA PARK RESTAURANT, MARCH 20, 2014

RECEPTION HELD BY THE EDITH STEIN FOUNDATION On the first spring day, March 20, the Edith Stein Foundation held an honorary reception at Kampa Park Restaurant. The family foundation commenced its activities with translating the full work of a unique 20th century philosopher Edith Stein from its German original to Czech and held a commemorative reception on the occasion of completing and publishing the first volume of the collected works; Stein’s doctoral dissertation “On the Problem of Empathy”.

Introductory words about the philosophical and spiritual significance of Edith Stein were pronounced by the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic, Mr. Daniel Herman, by the Directors of the foundation Mr. Albin Sybera, Mr. Albin Sybera jr. and Ms. Adéla Syberová and also by a special guest Mr. Manuel Herder, owner of the Herder family publishing house. Honoring the legacy of the Judeo-Christian philosopher, the evening was well attended by important representatives of the Catholic and Jewish communities of the Czech Republic, by Senators and Members of the Parliament and also by guests affiliated with the Czech cultural and business society. Wonderful weather and fine cuisine of Kampa Park Restaurant contributed to the delightful atmosphere of the entire evening, which provided an opportunity for genuine conversations about matters surpassing our daily work obligations.

From left: MUDr. Jiří Běhounek, Governor, Region Vysočina, Ms. Adéla Syberová, Organizer of Edith Stein Reception with her family and her father Albin E. Sybera, Managing Director, Sybera Enterprises s.r.o., Real Estate Developing and Debt Collecting

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From left: Albin E. Sybera, Managing Director, Sybera Enterprises s.r.o., Real Estate Developing and Debt Collecting, Karel Petrželka, CEO, DEKONTA, a.s., and Albin Sybera Jr.

From left: Miro Smolák, Owner and Director of MIRO Gallery, Ms. Adéla Syberová, Organizer of Edith Stein Reception, and Albin E. Sybera, Managing Director, Sybera Enterprises s.r.o., Real Estate Developing and Debt Collecting

From left: Alexander Akulinin, Project Manager, Russia and CIS Operations, Comenius, Miro Smolák, Owner and Director of MIRO Gallery, and Jan Tašek, Chairman of the Board, ASE, s.r.o.

honorary reception

Ms. Adéla Syberová, Organizer of Edith Stein Reception and father Albin E. Sybera, Managing Director, Sybera Enterprises s.r.o., Real Estate Developing and Debt Collecting

From left: Martin Berka, Investment Analyst, ECPI Management s.r.o., and David Berka, Consultant, Grant Thornton Advisory, s.r.o.

Jiří Polách with his wife Ing. David Kromus, MBA, MSc, Director, UniLeasing with his wife

From left: Ing. Libor Joukl, Deputy Governor, Region Vysočina, and MUDr. Jiří Běhounek, Governor, Region Vysočina From left: Mr. Jakub Štohanzl, Ing. Arch. Tatjana Rojíková, CSc., ARDEC, and Mr. Rojík

From left: Benke Aikell, your Publisher, Jan Tašek, Managing Director, ASE, s.r.o., Albin E. Sybera, Managing Director, Sybera Enterprises s.r.o., Real Estate Developing and Debt Collecting, Jiří Čunek, Senator, MUDr. Ota Schütz, Žilní klinika, Ivan Pilný, Chairman of the Committee on Economic Affairs, PSP ČR, and Pavel Kozák, Member of the Parliament

47 From left: Mr. Manuel Herder and Mr. Vladimír Petkevič

honorary reception

Ing. Arch. Martina Hovořáková, Authorized Architect and Ing. Oldřich Dajbych, Department Director, Prague 1

Guests

Mgr. Ing. Marek Joch, Attorney, Joch and spol. with his wife

From left: Mr. Karel Kovařík and Jiří Skalický, Director, Monument Care, Prague City Hall

From left: Mr. Pavel Málek and Ing. Jan Málek, Director, Controlling Department, Ministry of Finance, with his wife

Lukáš Zich, Director, ZNZ Electronics with his partner

From left: Daniel Herman, Minister of Culture and Ms. Adéla Syberová, Organizer of Edith Stein Reception

48 Mrs. Syberová with her daughter Teresie

Mr. Manuel Herder with his wife and Ms. Adéla Syberová, Organizer of Edith Stein Reception in the middle

honorary reception

Tomáš Jan Podivínský, Minister of Environment and PhDr. Gabriela Mrázová

From left: Dr. Markéta Mališová, Director, Centrum Franze Kafky, Olga Strusková, and Zoša Vyoralová, Director, Jewish National Fund in the Czech Republic

JUDr. Lucie Bányaiová, Ph.D., Attorney, Bányaiová, Vožehová, and František Bányai, President, Jewish Community of Prague

From left: Mons. prof. PhDr. Tomáš Halík, Th.D. and Albin E. Sybera, Managing Director, Sybera Enterprises s.r.o., Real Estate Developing and Debt Collecting

Mr. Vladimír Petkevič with his family

From left: Albin E. Sybera, Managing Director, Sybera Enterprises s.r.o., Real Estate Developing and Debt Collecting, Ms. Adéla Syberová, Organizer of Edith Stein Reception, and Benke Aikell, your Publisher

From left: Aleš Janík, Sparkasse with his wife, and Tomáš Krejčí, Actor and Moderator

From left: Jiří Čunek, Senator and MUDr. Ota Schütz, One Day Clinic Surgery

@

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From left: Mr. Manuel Herder with his wife on the left, Mr. Vladimír Petkevič, Ms. Adéla Syberová, Daniel Herman, Minister of Culture, and Albin E. Sybera, Managing Director, Sybera Enterprises s.r.o., Real Estate Developing and Debt Collecting

49

events IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

From left: H.E. Tigran S. Seiranian, Ambassador of Armenia and H.E. Sergey B. Kiselev, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Czech Republic with his wife

13 CZECH-RUSSIAN ENTREPRENEUR BALL TH

On Thursday, March 6, 2014 the Prague Žofín palace hosted a traditional meeting of representatives of Czech companies – exporters into the Russian Federation and Commonwealth of Independent States. The 13th annual Czech-Russian Entrepreneur Ball was organized by the Chamber of Trade and Industry for CIS Countries, a special chamber of commerce.

Similarly to previous years, the ball was organized under the auspices of H.E. Sergei B. Kiselev, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Czech Republic. Among the more than six-hundred guests were representatives of Czech companies active in the market of the Russian Federation and countries of CIS, a number of their Russian partners, Ambassadors of the CIS countries and representatives of Czech legal and state bodies.

Representatives of Czech companies greatly appreciated the presence of the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, Jan Mládek and his Deputy, Milan Hovorka.

The opening of the Ball was highlighted by the Ballet of National Theater with the waltz from the Swan Lake. Among other artists in the program were Lucie Bílá, Olympic and Andrej Romanov. Popular host Jakub Železný proved to be an excellent moderator.

Positive responses from the ball participants confirmed that the Czech exporters and entrepreneurs will be eager to meet again at Žofín together with the CIS chamber.

From left: Jana Kordačová, Deputy Executive Director, Chamber of Trade and Industry for CIS Countries and Milan Šimonovský, Chairman of the Board, Sigma Group

From left: Doc. Ing. Václav Petříček, CSc., Chairman of the Board, Chamber of Trade and Industry for CIS Countries, Mrs. Miloslava Masopustová, and Ing. František Masopust, Executive Director, Chamber of Trade and Industry for CIS Countries

50

From left: Ing. Lucie Lamačová, Ph.D., Managing Director, AkoyaPearl, and Jana Kordačová, Deputy Executive Director, Chamber of Trade and Industry for CIS Countries

From left: Miloš Večeřa, Head of Division, Trade Finance, Cash Management and Factoring, Raiffeisenbank a.s., Martha Gellová, Martha Gellová, President of the Board of the Association, EFPA and Benke Aikell, your Publisher

events

Roman Baláž, Commercial Director, MSA with his partner

Albin E. Sybera, Managing Director, Sybera Enterprises s.r.o., Real Estate Developing and Debt Collecting with his family

From left: Alexander Akulinin, Director European Business Consorcium, EB, Martha Gellová, President of the Board of the Association, EFPA and JUDr. Vladimir Ermakov, CSc., General Director, Managing Director, Vemex

Dr. Petr Vozka, Senior Vice President, Commerzbank with his wife

Lucie Bílá, renowned Singer

Josef Hušek, Chairman and CEO, Inekon Group with his wife From left: Ms. Adéla Syberová, Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius, and Mrs. Jana Syberová

51 From left: Miro Smolák, Owner, MIRO Gallery, Petr Bratský, Senator, and Benke Aikell, your Publisher

From left: Miroslav Stříbrný, Division Head, Sberbank CZ with his wife and Michal Straka, Senior Relationship Manager, Sberbank CZ with his partner on the left

events

From left: Ing. Petr Zemánek, Director, Association of Engineering Technology with his wife and Doc. Ing. Václav Petříček, CSc., Chairman of the Board, Chamber of Trade and Industry for CIS Countries

Dancing performance

Ing. František Masopust, Executive Director, Chamber of Trade and Industry for CIS Countries

From left: Ing. Milan Hovorka, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, his wife, and Doc. Ing. Václav Petříček, CSc., Chairman of the Board, Chamber of Trade and Industry for CIS Countries H.E. Vasily Markovich, Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus and his wife

Ing. Jan Veleba, Senator, President, The Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic with his wife

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From left: Ing. Jan Mládek, CSc., MInister of Industry and Trade of the CR, Doc. Ing. Václav Petříček, CSc., Chairman of the Board, Chamber of Trade and Industry for CIS Countries and H.E. Sergey B. Kiselev, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Czech Republic

From left: Miloslav Kostelka, former Czech Ambassador to Russia and former Minister of Defence with his wife on the left, and Mrs. Miloslava Masopustová

Miro Smolák, Owner and Director of MIRO Gallery with his wife Alena

events

PhDr. Jakub Železný, Moderator, Ing. Oksana Gazukina and Mgr. Světlana Trushko, Chamber of Trade and Industry for CIS Countries

From left: Ing. Zdeněk Šíma, Director, Rosatom Overseas ČR with his wife and Ing. Jan Bulíček, CEO,l ZPA Pečky, a.s. with his wife

From left: Doc. Ing. Václav Petříček, CSc., Chairman of the Board, Chamber of Trade and Industry for CIS Countries and Ing. Zdeněk Liška, General Director, Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic Lucie Bílá, renowned Singer and Ing. František Masopust, Executive Director, Chamber of Trade and Industry for CIS Countries

Bc. Jaroslav Jirkovský, Director, Division Export and member of the board, PSJ, a.s. with his wife

@

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From left: Doc. Ing. Václav Petříček, CSc., Chairman of the Board, Chamber of Trade and Industry for CIS Countries and H.E. Sergey B. Kiselev, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Czech Republic

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events

From left: Jolana Sittinger, Sales Manager, Zbiroh Castle, Assem Al-Sabban, Counselor at Saudi Embassy Paris, and Marketa Boruvkova, Assistant of Commercial and Economic department, Flanders Investment and Trade with a friend

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FRYDAY

AFTERWORK NETWORKING AT SIDDHARTA CAFÉ

From left: Bermet Aitalieva, Student, ICT and Assistant, „FRYDAY Prague“, Irina Korneeva, Student, MUP, and Yana Kindalova, Assistant of event management, „FRYDAY Prague“

From left: Tat’jana Fil, Art Dialog and MUDr. Anna Šulcová

Julia Paly, Manager, Bonapesca-Praha and Tim Addison, Marketing Manager & Partner, OpenBrand

54 From left: Jacky Damwani, Owner, Suit & Me, Bespoke Clothing, Lenka Štipčáková, Marketing & Communication, STILE DESIGN, and Ing. Petr Pásek, Director, Translation agency Slůně

Lively discussions

events

Svetlana Yarosh, Finance Specialist, SAP and Beno Ge, Ertrag&Sicherheit, Czech Armed Forces

From left: Jolana Sittinger, Sales Manager, Zbiroh Castle, Hans Weber, Manager „FRYDAY Prague“ & Country Manager Greenstar Solar, and Nicole Pavlov, Director, Pavlov’s boyzzz ltd.

Hans Weber, Manager, „FRYDAY Prague“ & Country Manager Greenstar Solar and Milena Koptová, Senior Specialist backoffice, Citfin

Agne Stakulyte, Associate Analyst, Accounting Operations, Cash & Treasury, SITA Inc B.V., Assem Al-Sabban, Counselor at Saudi Embassy Paris, and Mrs. Michaela Bartůňková

From left: Anna Alexeeva, Business Unit Manager, European Distributor Markets, LifeScan and Agne Stakulyte, Associate Analyst, Accounting Operations, Cash & Treasury, SITA Inc B.V. Jana Sudaková, Student, VSFS and Stefan Schweiger, Owner, Executive Stays

From left: Suzanne Drisdelle-Guven, Commercial Counsellor, Embassy of Canada, and Veronika Harrison, Suppliers Solution Manager, PrimeReevenue

From left: Irina Shamraeva, Accountant, Infosys BPO, Ksenia Efimova, Research Analyst, IDC, Svetlana Yarosh, Finance Specialist, SAP, Hans Weber, Manager, „FRYDAY Prague“ & Country Manager Greenstar, Solar, and Munkthogoo (Mugi) Lkhagvadorj, Business Agent, Commercial Trade Holding

55 From left: Luna Novotná, Freelance Editor and Lecturer, Věra Kratochvílová, Freelancer, and Kristína Macková, Advanced World Transport a.s.

From left: Geo Joseph Briggs, MacKay Shields, New England Investment Associates, Equitable Capital Management, Tat’jana Fil, Art Dialog, and MUDr. Anna Šulcová

From left: Cyril Svoboda, Owner, Diplomatic Academy Prague, Margareta Mensah, Richards Group, Translator, and H. E. Borys ZAICHUK, Ambassador of Ukraine

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FRYDAY W – DIPLOMATIC FORUM IN JURYS INN

From left: Alisa Zhukova, Conference Producer, Marcusevans, Assem Al-Sabban, Counselor at Saudi Embassy Paris, and Storm Lindbo, Manager / Office Coordinator, GTP Prague at GlobeTekPro Science Foundation From left: Petr Mikel, Marketing Manager, EGT Express CZ s.r.o., Mauro Lazzari, Managing Director, TTC2 s.r.o., and Torben Damgaard, Associate Wealth Consultant, Devere Group

Bill Pixley, YORNETstudio s.r.o.

56 Rami Mashinsky, Independent Legal Services Professional and Jennifer Fallon, Manager at AAU

From left: Igor Kazmyr, Student, Elnur A. Guliyev, First Secretary, Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Burcu Yavuz, Second Secretary, Embassy of the Republic of Turkey, and Alisa Zhukova, Conference Producer, Marcusevans

events

From left: Matt Andri Sani, Regional Vice President, International Account Management EMEA, Sirva and Thilo Hoffmann, Partner and Attorney-at-Law, Weinhold Legal v.o.s.

From left: Susanne Hammer, Student, Milan Šarapatka, Member of the Parliament of the CR,Úsvit přímé demokracie Party, and Georgi Bidenko, Executive Director, Environment Commerce CZ

From left: Antal Disztl, Counsellor, Embassy of Hungary and Hans Weber, Manager, „FRYDAY Prague“ & Country Manager Greenstar Solar asking a question

From left: Michael Bahles, Internationa Planning Director, Leagas Delaney Praha, Veronika Harrison, Project Manager, Ariba Network Growth, Mr. Philip Harrison, and Shinichito Sugita, Assistant Manager, JTB Czech

Victoria Kudrya, Editor, Statuss Magazine and Rene Sion, CEO Dallmayr Czech Republic From left: Nathan Schmidt, Nyu Student, Antal Disztl, Counsellor, Embassy of Hungary, and Cian Dinan, US Embassy

JD, JayDee, Who’s free

From left: Thomas-Georg Poehlmann, Managing Director & Shareholder, Exped East GmbH, Hans Weber, Manager, „FRYDAY Prague“ & Country Manager Greenstar Solar, and Cyril Svoboda, Owner, Diplomatic Academy Prague

57

Photo: Archive

interview Jan Mládek, an experienced Czech politician studied at the University of Economics in Prague, then received a Candidate of Sciences title (similar to PhD.) at the Prognostic Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. During Jiří Paroubek’s government, he served as the Minister of Agriculture for almost a year, while also holding the position of the Chairman of the Presidium of the Land Fund of the Czech Republic. He also served as Director of the Czech Institute of Applied Economy, s.r.o., was Vice Governor of the International Monetary Fund for the Czech Republic and held the function of the First Deputy of the Minister of Finance. In recent years, he served as the Shadow Minister of Finance for ČSSD. He is a member of the Supervisory Board of the Czech Post Office.

58 Leaders Magazine II/2014

An interview with the Minister of Industry and Trade, Jan Mládek

interview Mr. Mládek, you spent over twenty years in politics in the state administration. What do you consider to currently be the peak of your political career?

That’s not entirely precise. I do have extensive experience from the state administration, but, of course, with some breaks into the private sector.

And only time will tell whether this is the peak of it and whether we will be able to actualize the goals we set for ourselves. In terms of the area of Industry and Trade, what I see as critical in the upcoming years is mainly to stabilize and ensure a supply of reasonably priced energies for homes and enterprises, support the development of trade through the path of economic diplomacy and gain investments in order to increase employment. And as for my career up until now, I consider my professional peak to perhaps be my work in the position of the First Deputy of the Minister of Finance, between 1999–2001.

During Jiří Paroubek’s government, you were the Minister of Agriculture. Do you also think about that now and why, in the end, you decided for the Ministry of Industry and Trade?

I must admit I didn’t consider agriculture this time. Although it’s true that some agriculturists approached me with the question of whether I’d be interested in possibly coming back to the ministry, possibly because I wasn’t connected to any particular interest group in the agricultural segment and would lead the ministry unbiased and fairly, as I did between 2005 and 2006.

How detailed was your awareness of the challenges at the Ministry before you took the office? And what surprised you most in your first days from this perspective?

Of course I knew the problems in this sector. In some areas, I think I knew them in great detail, such as the support of export and foreign investments. CzechInvest is an issue I supported from the get-go. I must admit it will take me a while before I get entirely oriented on subjects such as the Czech Trade Inspection. I’m still a bit unsure about the systems of function in this institution that are significant for protecting consumers. However, I see the issues of consumer protection on both national and international levels as very important.

As soon as you took office, you had to deal with issues around Amazon and the OKD issue is ongoing, Temelín... I guess working in this field will be a challenge. Do you see it that way?

Exactly. Those are complicated, yet important issues and true challenges for the minister. Although you can see how the problem could be best solved technically, you cannot forget other circumstances; the social dimensions of such solutions, the consequences in international politics, because we are a part of a strong European structure, as well as ecological impacts and more. You have to keep all this in mind as you try to make a decision that is optimal. But again, I see as the essential issues at the moment, gaining foreign investment for creating new jobs, issues of economic diplomacy that are becoming even more

IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

significant in the current international political situation and the area of energy policy of the state is absolutely critical.

When it comes to Amazon, how do you explain the unwillingness of the administration to participate in this project?

Partly, I recognize the unwillingness of the Brno administration as related to the fact that Amazon, as an important foreign investor able to bring several thousand jobs to the area, selected two locations for their business that make sense from the perspective of logistics – they are both close to airports and highways. But they omitted the social aspects of these locations. Both areas, near Brno and near Dobrovíz, are close to large centers, therefore with lower unemployment. Personally, I don’t see the decision of the Brno representatives as a positive one, but I respect it. Immediately after Brno repeatedly showed disinterest in the investment, as well as the jobs, there were dozens of other areas that appeared and that have higher social needs.

Věra Jourová, Minister of Local Development, says that we still haven’t learned to do PublicPrivate Partnership projects in the Czech Republic. Do you plan to collaborate between ministries in order for us to ‘learn’ these lessons?

Yes, Minister Jourová is entirely correct. PublicPrivate Partnership, as a method, is suitable for the construction of economically demanding projects, lineal construction, etc. For example, compared to Great Britain, we’re not doing very well. It’s up to us, as government members, to work together and solve problems though the partnership method, so I’ll be happy to support Minister Jourová in this.

If you were to select three problems that you would like to solve as quickly as possible and three that you feel cannot be solved within a single election period, what would they be?

I’m repeating myself, but it’s important… I fully devote myself to increasing foreign investments and, therefore, decreasing unemployment. The second item would be to satisfactorily solve the limits of mining in the Ústí Region. And this is actually preconditioned by the third problem, which is approval of energy and natural resources for the next time period. And what can’t be solved within this election period, but what we must work on, is a responsible decision about completing or postponing the construction of the Temelín nuclear power plant. Then there remains the introduction of the Euro within the time-frame of 2019–2021, as well as the diversification of external energy sources. That’s a truly long-term international matter.

Statements concerning the necessity of bringing investors into the Czech Republic continue to resound in the media. What do you personally consider to be the main arguments for their interest in the Czech Republic?

We are a country with a great industrial tradition, that’s ‘in people’s blood.’ A country that has a permanent position between the three states with the largest contribution of industry to GDP

in the entire EU! And we must sustain this unique position. Thanks to this tradition, we can offer educated, qualified, yet relatively cheap labor. Access to the unified EU market is also important.

What will you consider success as head of the ministry?

Success has clear criteria. It is definitely the growth of GDP, growth of exports, creating new jobs and decreases in unemployment.

Between 1992–1995 you worked as an external advisor to the Minister of Industry and Trade. Do the memories come back and which ones specifically?

I particularly and vividly remember the negotiations concerning the Czech Republic entering the OECD, that I actively participated in and was completed in 1995.

One of your articles from 2013 is called ‘We Have a Good Chance to Start Paying with Euro on January 1, 2021.’ Would you still sign your name to this statement? And if so, why?

I would sign it and in this respect, I would be even more optimistic now. Today I would even change the title to the date of January 1, 2019.

The government of the Czech Republic made the first step toward accepting the Euro, by rejecting the so-called ‘Klaus’ Condition’ over signing the Lisbon Treaty. Prime Minister Sobotka is about to sign a fiscal pact, which is another important step.

And as the beautiful Chinese proverb says, ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.’

As a Minister, what makes you personally the most happy and what saps most of your energy?

Frankly, I’m the most pleased about the pragmatism of the new government. What saps most of my energy is the ongoing negative mood in our society. Just observe the public comments on internet news servers. They are full of aggression and vulgarity…

How would you characterize and what’s the essence of the Czech political scene in 2014?

I would say that, at least in terms of the government, the proper inquiry and meeting of differences across the government ČSSD, ANO and KDU-ČSL parties. I see an effort to find compromises, despite ideological variances, which is important…

Actually, why do they call you the Great Bear?

That’s an old nickname from my youth that got eagerly picked up by the media, but to be honest, I no longer use it.

And finally – what does a real leader look like in your view?

In my eyes, a leader is a person who is decisive and willing to act, but who is also perceptive toward ordinary people and humble toward those who are experts in their fields.

Jaroslav Kramer ■ český překlad naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz

Leaders Magazine II/2014 59

analysis

PARLIAMENT OVERREACTED ON 2030 TARGETS The European parliament’s position on 2030 framework for climate and energy policies has been voted in Strasbourg at the beginning of February. Related to the opinions of some left-wing colleagues, I am here bringing some very bad news. The European Parliament surrendered to the flow of green idealism.

Unfortunately, the majority of the MEPs pushed through purposes that would encumber the entire European industry sector. Czech manufacturers, and I feel concerned about them especially, would be subjected to higher costs regarding energy, which would lower our possibilities of competitiveness with Asia

Photo: Archive

60 Leaders Magazine II/2014

or with the United States. During the plenary session, the European Parliament asked the EU member states to determine three 2030 binding targets regarding the 2030 climate and energy policies. Concretely, greenhouse gas emissions should drop by 40 per cent compared to the 1990 levels; in the field of energy efficiency, the target is 40 per cent and in the field of share of renewable energy sources there should be a rise up to 30 per cent.

I would like to stress the reality, these changes have nothing to do with preservation of nature, and this is a pure cost increase driven by the administration. Once again, the climate-energy engineering prevailed in the European Parliament. The saddest fact is that the Czech Socialist and Christian Democratic members participated on the final shape of the report.

The report included such a high number of conflicting affirmations and thesis; we absolutely could not agree with the final text. In particular, our European Conservatives and Reformists group does not support the mandatory target concerning the renewable energy sources and the 2030 energy efficiency target, nor their dissolution at a national level. As a consequence, those who voted in favour of this report, particularly harm the European industry competitiveness, interfere with the accomplishment of the liberalization of the European energy market and do not reflect today’s member states economic achievements.

The Social Democrats declared: “The only useful thing in the realistic world left for us is the objectivity of its recognition and rationality in decision making, and how to act in this realistic world.”

I could not agree more with this. Although it is very sad that this rationality they have talked about is being excluded in the climate and energy targets debate. The

Socialists are naturally defending the framework suggested by the Commission and its similar, but more radical version that has already been voted by the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

In the meantime, is this framework based on some objective truth or on some exact scientific knowledge? Does rationality consist in the fact when compared with other regions in the world; the European industry sector becomes uncompetitive? The decrease of energy prices in the United States and the reverse trend, which is happening in Europe, is more than alarming.

European Union deteriorates its business spectrum itself. The continuously increasing pressure on European businesses is being very risky for the future. Europe should stop harming itself. In my opinion, it is absolutely necessary that all countries in the world, and especially China and the United States, known as the world’s biggest emitters, join the active fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

At this stage, it is not about the approval of a compromise agreement with the European Council, as it is sometimes incorrectly mentioned.

No official discussion between the European institutions have taken place in this matter, we are talking here about a European Parliament’s autonomous position which is only about to be addressed to the European Council. I firmly believe that the European Council will take these impetuous ambitions back to earth. The European Parliament is subjected to a direct vote and I think that I am not the only MEP who is always trying to voice loudly the interests of the people I represent. Having said that, the European Council’s position is always very important to me, because the European Council directly represents the positions of elected democratic governments.

After all, the European Conservatives and Reformists group’s mantra consists in the fact that the member state’s sovereignty should be preserved at its maximal moderate extension within the European Union.

Finally, I would like to warn my left-wing colleagues that the report requiring three binding targets for 2030, and which they cherish so much, is against the position of associations representing the Czech industry and other employers who give jobs to our people. This report is also going against the official position of a member state they come from; the Czech Republic. What kind of interests do the Czech Socialists and Christian Democrats represent?

I am convinced that voters will be wondering about the same matter at the upcoming European Parliament elections.

By Evžen Tošenovský ■ Member of the European Parliament český překlad naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz

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sustainable development

HUMAN TRAFFICKING BUSINESSES MUST ACT TO STOP SLAVERY Surely few things can be worse for a company or an industry than to be associated with human trafficking or slave labour.

Sadly, this country is said to have one of the highest levels of slavery in Europe, which means that there are Czech businesses connected in some way with this shameful practice. According to the recently published Global Slavery Index, compiled by the non-governmental organization, Walk Free Foundation, the Czech Republic ranks third in Europe with as many as 40,000 people believed to be effectively enslaved.

When the Americans famously outlawed Slavery in the 1850s, Abraham Lincoln said, “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves”. It’s therefore shocking to realise that the practice is going on more than 150 years later, right under our noses, in the Czech Republic.

Contrary to popular myth, enforced labour extends way beyond the sex industry, affecting all sectors of society. The chances are that every one of us have purchased products and services that are in some way connected with this terrible practice.

Many companies are complicit without actually knowing about it, often because they are simply unaware that somewhere in their workforce or along their complex supply chain are impoverished people who are being dreadfully and unacceptably exploited. But ignorance isn’t an excuse, either in the eyes of the law, nor in the court of public opinion.

Human trafficking is one of the largest and most profitable crimes in the world. According to the International Labour Organisation, approximately 2.5 million people are trafficked every year for the purposes of some form of enforced employment.

The United Nations defines human trafficking as: “The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”

Jonathan Wootliff A former director of Greenpeace International, Jonathan Wootliff lives in Prague and works throughout the world as a sustainability consultant to business. He is a special advisor to the Czech Business Council for Sustainable Development. He has consulted many large corporations including BP, Colgate-Palmolive, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble and Whirlpool, and providing counsel to companies on the development of sustainability strategies that benefit the environment, society and business. Among his many activities, he helps companies to resolve disputes, forge productive relationships with non-governmental organizations, and build long-term sustainability strategies. A qualified journalist with a subsequent background in public relations, Jonathan commonly assists companies with their sustainability communications. He can be contacted at jonathan@wootliff.com

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Companies may risk being associated with human trafficking and slavery in a range of ways.

Traffickers may use a company’s products, premises or services in connection with their illegal activities. For example, moving trafficked victims by bus or other forms of transportation, or accommodating them in hostels or cheap hotels. It is the responsibility of all such companies to be vigilant and on the look-out.

Forced labour can be hidden somewhere along a company’s supply chain. The procurement of products without knowing exactly from where or how they are manufactured, runs the risk of enabling the exploitation of trafficked victims.

Using workers who are recruited and managed through third party agents could mean that they are being exploited or worse. It must be the duty of every company to ensure that all staff, directly or indirectly employed, are properly treated and fairly paid.

In 2012, a television documentary entitled The Tree Workers Case exposed what has been labelled as the biggest case of labour exploitation to have taken place in Europe in the last two decades.

The film focused on the case of over 2,000 labourers who were forced to work under very harsh conditions for the Czech Republic’s state forestry company.

Workers were lured with bogus promises and partly with false contracts. They were taken to various locations in the Czech Republic, they were getting poor quality food in insufficient quantities, their living conditions were miserable, and they were either paid minimally or not at all.

They were threatened against leaving, and in any case the workers had no money to pay for their return. They had no idea where to go and sometimes they didn’t even know where they were living and working because they had been brought in the middle of the forest.

These workers, many of whom also came from Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia among other countries, were employed by agencies rather than by the state-owned firm. The management said they did not hire the workers and therefore had no responsibility.

Recent reports by German media highlighted the precarious situation of foreign workers at the Czech plant of a major electronics manufacturer.

In a bid to combat human trafficking and modern-day slavery, the Czech Republic has passed a series of legal measures. It has joined the Palermo Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, and accordingly adapted its penal code. It has also adopted a European Union directive on human trafficking. But the nation’s only NGO specialising on this issue, La Strada, believes that the measures are not properly implemented.

Its director, Irena Konečná says: “The bottleneck here is the implementations of these policies which are formally set up. For instance, in 2012 there

Former Greenpeace International director, Jonathan Wootliff, is now a sustainability consultant living in Prague.

Photo: Archive of Author

were just three final court verdicts on labour trafficking in the Czech Republic despite the fact that the definition of human trafficking in the criminal code is in line with the definition internationally recognised in 2004. So it took eight years before Czech law enforcement agencies were able to prosecute labour trafficking.”

While government must clearly ensure it has the most effective legislation and enforcement measures in place, Czech business must play its part in stopping slavery and human trafficking. This must be an important part of every company’s corporate responsibility strategy.

Sustainability in the business context calls for companies to follows the principle of what has come to be known as the Triple Bottom Line, whereby management need to balance the three key imperatives of Profit, Planet and People – often referred to as the Three Ps. Simply stated, environmental protection and human rights are of equal importance to making money.

Czech companies have a clear legal and moral duty to safeguard against the exploitation of any workers, either directly or indirectly. It is their responsibility to ensure that all employees within their own businesses and those of their suppliers fully understand their rights.

There are many ways a company can responsibly address human trafficking within its own operations and supply chains. This includes making sure responsible managers learn more about the problem and do everything possible to comply with the law.

Companies should conduct thorough assessments to mitigate the risk. Training as well as internal and external communications to proactively raise awareness of the potential problem should also be carried out.

Steps must also be taken to make it more difficult, if not impossible, for traffickers to use a company’s products or services in support of its criminally exploitative practices.

Claims of being implicated in human trafficking, even if unproven, can seriously damage reputation. Human trafficking and enslavement is wrong.

Business must do the right thing in facing up to the challenge in helping to eliminate the practice in the Czech Republic. It is time to act.

By Jonathan Wootliff ■ Leaders Magazine II/2014 61

analysis

HOW TO UNRAVEL GENDER BIAS… GETTING RID OF STICKY FLOORS AT WORK The phrase “sticky floor” is usually associated with the syndrome women go through of not been able to move forward at work and feeling “stuck”. They do not know what else to do. I add that management feels the same way most of the time, they are doing everything in their power yet the numbers of women especially at the executive level are still modest.

A fundamental part of my work is to show women and men how to get rid of the sticky floor syndrome.

In the core of the issue is a concept that many dislike, feel uncomfortable discussing, or just try to deny that it exists-bias.

Throughout years of work, we have developed a comprehensive and impactful program that addresses this issue. With a clear understanding of

Photo: Archive

62 Leaders Magazine II/2014

the negative consequence of bias for everyone, participants feel relieved and motivated to engage with people of the opposite sex and leave behind anxiety and a sense of conflict-us vs. them.

Let me give you the highlights of the process we follow: First we examine the root causes for bias and stereotypes. We help the audience understand that bias is a natural behavior developed during our upbringing and life experiences; our culture, our family of origin; our schools, our community.

We are told what is good, bad, safe, normal, what language we speak, the food we eat, what behavior is acceptable or sanctioned. This socialization experience offers everyone a very important emotional context- safety, security and predictability.

Second we introduce the social, cultural and biological differences between girls and boys. Girls are raised one way and boys are raised in a different fashion.

Third we take the audience to their work environments and open up the dialogue to explore how the preconceived expectations that we develop as girls and boys and throughout our socialization process come through the door at work. We all get to “see” how the us vs. them paradigm emerge.

The gender “clash” is therefore the result of expectations developed from childbirth. Men bring their expectations and bias and so do women. To help illustrate this fact I use a square to describe male context and a circle to describe female context. I place the circle inside the square which is what women have tried to do “fit in”-with little success. They will never be squares! Their feet are stuck- no movement forward.

At this time we offer hard data and research that helps participants “see” the adverse consequence of enforcing these expectations at work. This is one of many examples: To overcome bias, most major U.S. orchestras began to broaden and democratize their hiring procedures in the 1970s and 1980s, advertising openings, allowing orchestra members to participate in hiring decisions and implementing blind auditions in which musicians audition behind a screen that conceals their identities but does not alter sound.

As a result, blind auditions have had a significant impact on the face of symphony orchestras.

About 10 percent of orchestra members were female around 1970, compared to about 35 percent in the mid-1990s. Rouse and Goldin attribute about 30 percent of this gain to the advent of blind auditions. Cecilia Rouse, an associate professor in Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the economics department, and Claudia Goldin, a professor of economics at Harvard University We follow with practical exercises, based on current research, that help participants understand the importance of gender integration and complementarity. How we self-regulate bias.

(In my book Can you Afford to Ignore Me? How to manage gender and cultural differences at work, you can find a wide range of exercises and tips you can use with your team.)

As we conclude our program the environment in the room feels light. I’m always pleasantly surprised at the shift we all experience. The floor is clean, and everyone walks with a sense of belonging and full engagement.

By Elisabet Rodriguez Dennehy, President Rodriguez and Associates LLC ■

IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

analysis

THE ASSERTIVENESS

IS NOT THE WEAKNESS Martin Opatrný is a Communication expert and advisor on Media and Crisis Communication. He gained his present experience both in the private sector and in civil service. Before his previous engagement as spokesperson and advisor for the Prague City Hall Opencard project, Martin worked in Interel – the European strategic communications group that offers an integrated approach to top level public relations and affairs. He also worked as press secretary and spokesperson for the President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament. He obtained most of his professional experience and skills in the Public Relations Department of the Ministry for Regional Development, where he served as acting departmental head, spokesperson and Editor-in-Chief of their official website. Martin also acquired his practical work skills as a journalist for Czech Television, a PR agent at a private PR agency and a professional freelance writer. He now teaches Media and Crisis Communication at Charles University in Prague, conducts courses and trainings on communication and gives freelance advice across his field of expertise. Martin graduated from the Philosophical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague, where he obtained his PhDr. degree in cultural studies, with a specialization in mass communication and psychology. He also studied management and marketing.

You can find more on: http://cz.linkedin.com/in/martinopatrny and reach him at: martin.op@centrum.cz.

Many people think that assertive communication means retreat. Actually, the opposite is true and if you properly use assertive communication, success is almost assured. Assertiveness is not aggressive, but working sensitively with a counterpart. Unlike manipulation or aggressiveness and superiority, assertiveness respects others.

Briefly, it’s the art of saying NO, explaining one’s own opinions and persuading a counterpart with

both respect and esteem. Assertiveness is not only a special type of communication, but requires a healthy self-confident, stable and well balanced communicator as well. The assertive man is responsible for position and understands the power of his own words.

Many people are unable to refuse a request for help because they feel guilty themselves. It is better to say NO than promise the moon. It is not

even necessary to explain in detail the reasons we cannot or do not want to help. These details may very quickly change to arguments that our counterpart can use against us. If someone uses this tactics, defend yourself and resist, understanding it is a method of manipulation.

Everyone has the right to express own opinions as well as refuse another’s requests. On the other hand, we always have the right to ask for help, without the feelings of guilt. The champions in this discipline are children. They ask for help or refuse what they don’t want, firmly and in an innocent way, with no feelings of dishonesty.

With assertive communication and behavior we should be able to accept criticism and criticize without dishonor. This very artful practice needs more than the ‘smart rules’ found in success-guaranteed trainings. It needs empathy. Afterwards, we can criticize, express our opinion and not hurt someone’s feelings. Justifiable criticism is the only method of realizing our own mistakes and disadvantages. Wrongful criticism should not damage the ego, because nobody is perfect. This is one of the basic assertive rules.

Many unenlightened and profit-seeking courses and trainings explain assertiveness as a kit of tactical maneuvers to achieve the goal. This is a radical mistake. Assertiveness is not a method of winning at all costs; it is a process of cooperation. If you master assertive communication, you can freely communicate your own opinions, commend or criticize if needed and assert your requirements based on well-founded arguments, rather than manipulation. Assertive communicators listen to others and respect them.

Assertive communication is an optimal and sustainable social interaction that respects the morality, opinions and dignity of others. However, it is impossible to learn it during a one-day course or after reading a single article…

By Martin Opatrný ■ český překlad naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz

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Leaders Magazine II/2014 63

PGA – European Tour at Albatross Golf Resort in the Czech Republic

GOLF STARS HEADING TO CZECH MASTERS We’d better not miss that one. These words would best describe the overall spirit of the D+D REAL Czech Masters press conference. The excitement can easily be compared with the atmosphere during press conferences after the arrival of FC Barcelona or the buzz around the departure of our hockey players for the Olympic Games. It seems to be an exaggeration for the uninitiated ones but those who came to the Angelo Hotel in Prague at the beginning of February bear witness.

Over a hundred people finally gathered in the conference room. The media, the sponsors, other guests – everybody was there. There are still more than five months left till the prestigious European Tour event takes off but the Start list is already packed with some impressive names. Stephen Gallacher – the defeater of Tiger Woods – has confirmed his presence on Albatross only a couple of days after winning in Dubai!

“We met with Stephen in Dubai during the tournament. Therefore, his victory in the following days made us even happier. He is planning to come with his whole family,” says Petr Dedek, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of RELMOST. The first time RELMOST team travelled to Dubai for the negotiations was during the European Tour finale last season.

“We also met with Henrik Stenson to speak about our tournament. He promised to come if his schedule frees up. We caught him in a good mood, however, and knowing his ambitions in the FedEx Cup on the PGA Tour, we think it might have easily been a slight overstatement,” adds Petr Dedek.

Winners of over a hundred of tournaments There is quite a collection of some really interesting names among those who have signed up for the tournament on the Albatross Golf Course this coming summer (21–24 August). The two-time Ryder Cup winner from Italy – Francesco Molinari, The Frenchman Victor Dubuisson – a fresh winner from Turkey with another success from the Match Play Championship and The Englishman Tommy Fleetwood – winner of the Johnie Walker Championship in Scotland; Dutchman Joost Luiten who won the Lyoness Open and the KLM Open last year, or David Howell from the UK – a proud winner of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. When talking about the European Tour titles, Simon Dyson and Richard Stern – with six winnings each – are definitely in the lead.

Having added up all the trophies from the European Tour together, one might find there are over a hundred triumphs of the enrolled golfers.

“As for appearance on the Czech soil, the Swede Niclas Fasth is surely the absolute record holder.

He took part in the Chemapol Trophy in Marianske Lazne back in 1994,” reveals David Trunda, the Sports Director of RELMOST, digging deep in the history of golf.

Another Swede – Oskar Henningson – has been confirmed as the first official face of the tournament. He won the Czech Open hosted by the Celadna Golf Resort in 2009.

“We would like to have the last three winners of the Czech Open on Albatross. This is not a direct continuation of this series but we wish to symbolically follow up in this manner. Oliver Fisher who won the last European Tour tournament on the Czech soil in 2001 is already in; we are only missing the most famous one of the three – Peter Hanson,” reveals David Trunda.

We have received confirmation from four Czech players to date. We are going to welcome Marek Novy, Daniel Suchan, Adam Rajmont a Petr Gal. There are total of eight Czech golfers who will receive the Green Invitation Card. We have also been approached by Alex Cejka, representing Germany but born in Marianske Lazne.

Pilsner Urquell to be enjoyed in abundance RELMOST has gained another important partner – Plzensky Prazdroj. During the tournament the company will be promoting the Pilsner Urquell brand.

“We strive to strengthen the connection between the finest beer and the finest tournaments. Pilsner Urquell has been a partner of golf in the Czech Republic for a long time and we have also been the partner of the British Open for the last few years. We use these prestigious events to bring the unique taste of PU alive to the discerning local and international audience.

We have a unique opportunity to demonstrate the art of the master bartender in delivering the perfect Pilsner Urquell. We are also excited that we can support the program of bringing famous players to Czech, which will surely attract good crowds who will enjoy golf and, of course, beer of the highest quality,” says Grant McKenzie, the Marketing Director of the company.

“Our presence at the tournament will take quite an active course; apart from the fact that you can look forward to finding the best beer throughout the entire tournament area, we will demonstrate some excellent tapping from Master Bartenders- the winners of a prestigious international competition. With their assistance, the visitors will also be able to get familiar with our beer academy. All players and visitors, too, will be invited for a brewery tour and we will introduce some of our popular golf merchandise,” adds Grant McKenzie.

The D+D REAL Czech Masters program will provide entertainment for the whole family. There will be a so called interactive zone created within the Albatross Tented village. Children will be able to practice the first swing on a special golf course, the ladies will be able to relax at the beauty and spa center, and a nice collection of golf clubs will lure the parents to sample a couple. Visitors will be handed out tokens for beer, cocktails or access to different game activities such as language lessons.

On Sunday spectators will have the possibility to take part in a raffle. The winning parent with obtains free tickets and entry to a chosen tournament of the European Tour. On Saturday visitors will be able to enjoy a concert of the ever so popular Eddie Stoilow band.

General Media Partner of the Czech Masters – Ceska Televize “There will be four-hour live transmissions broadcasted from Thursday till Sunday, as well as regular discussion panels with the players after each round,” adds Petr Dedek, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of RELMOST. Albatross Golf Resort – 14 Holes Have Undergone Adjustments The European Tour Commissioners have performed one more inspection of the Albatross golf course recently and confirmed the venue was ready. The training area has been marked as one of the best ones in Europe! Yet there have been several adjustments made. The golf course is now eligible for use even after two to three-day rain.

“We adjusted 14 holes, mainly the shapes of the fairways. They have mostly been narrowed towards the green, and the bunkers have been brought closer. On the par-3 7th we have enlarged the bunkers to the maximum. The Clubhouse is also under construction, going through some serious changes,‘’ discloses Stanislav Lisner, the General Manager of the Albatross Golf Course.

There have been 3500 tickets sold to date, the excitement has taken over not only the Czech spectators but also crowds from abroad, especially Germany, Austria and Spain.

The Tournament will take place on the Albatross Golf Resort from 21–24 August 2014. The players are to divide the prize money of 1 million Eur.

From left: Stanislav Lisner, General Manager, Albatross Golf Resort, Petr Dědek, CEO, RELMOST, David Trunda, Sports Director, RELMOST, Grant McKenzie, Marketing Director, Pilsner Urquell, and Pavel Poulíček, Speaker

64 Leaders Magazine II/2014

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a true golf story

HOW TO GET CLUB

MEMBERSHIP IN FIVE HOLES The question was the same as always: For someone who plays his home course, Emirates Golf Club, every day I asked my regular golfing partner Rudi, “Which course are we going to play today my friend?” I didn’t want to play the Majlis for the twentieth time in a row.

My second question was, “Which golf course have you never played in Dubai?”

This turned out to be Al Badia so, with a tee time booked, Paul, (also an Emirates member), Rudolf and I went to see how we would fare on this beautiful golf course.

Everything started as usual that day – practice driving, putting, say hello to the starter, first tee drive, first tee mulligan drive, three putts – a normal day on the golf course, except it wasn’t going to be!

So, a little later we got to hole no 4 near the refreshment hut when I said to Rudolf, “This hole is an extraordinarily difficult par 5. It is very difficult even for Pros to reach the green with their third shot. Look Rudolf, you are not the youngest man and maybe the green is so far away for you that you cannot even see it. You know, if you reach it with your 4th shot, I will reward you with a membership at Emirates Golf Club. This is my

challenge for you today on this hole.” So, this is how it all started.

Rudolf enjoyed a double hot dog and a drink (117 AED – maybe Emirates is not so expensive after all!). After this he banged a 250-yard drive over the water to the middle of the fairway.

He was concentrating so hard that he would not even speak to me. Calmly he hit his second shot with his 5-wood to a distance of…. 50 yards and the ball fortunately stopped a few inches before the water hazard. Since it was GUR, Rudolf dropped his ball back and hit his next shot 195 yards to the middle of the fairway.

When we stood there together after his third shot, which was now a distance of 165 yards from the front of the green, I told him, “Now I would not like to be in your shoes my friend.”

Rudolf’s 5-iron shot landed pin high on the green so this was to cost me a lot of money but it could not have been better spent and it made me very happy!

While leaving the 4th green I phoned EGC to speak to the Membership Department and, even though it was Saturday 16:10, Lanie Amora was there. I explained the situation to her and asked

her for a quick application for our prospective new Club member.

Fortunately, I had Rudolf’s passport and a visa copy in my iPhone and Paul and I were able to propose and second him; I was able to forward all of this to Lanie… after some good drives by all of us to the 5th fairway!.

By hole 6, Lanie replied that she had received all the documents except for Rudolf’s photo so, despite his protests I took a photo of Rudolf.

Hole number 7 and the invoice for the membership came through! It was just the authorisation and the payment through my credit card that needed to be done and that was it. Well I had to miss this hole altogether to finish off the ‘paperwork’.

Hole number 8 and Lanie confirmed payment and registration. After our 220 yard drives on hole number 9 I received an email from Emirates Golf Club confirming our new member – Rudolf Liska.

Just five holes to become a member of the Club!

Welcome to Emirates Golf Club Rudolf!

A true story by Pavel Foubik ■

From left: JUDr. Pavel Foubík, Leaders Magazine II/2014 Rudy Fox, and Pavel Nedvěd, famous football player

67

life style

DARE TO DREAM AND DREAM BIG!

One of the greatest pleasures in life is doing what other people say you cannot do. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean breaking or bending the rules.

There comes a time in the life of most people when the challenges seem overwhelming. You’ve suffered one setback after another and you seriously think about throwing in the towel.

You question yourself. You doubt yourself. Perhaps you don’t have what it takes after all? Or your breakthrough idea just isn’t realistic? Maybe you should quit now rather than continue to make a fool of yourself? Self-doubt creeps into your heart and soul. Despair begins to take over.

It happens all the time. The truth is, however, that you should never ever give up on your dreams.

People may call you crazy, unreasonable, unrealistic. But nothing revolutionary was created by dreaming small. There will be no shortage of people who will tell you what can or cannot be done.

Most of those who bash your dreams have never done what you feel destined to do. If you listen to the naysayers, you may live existence of mediocrity; if you follow your dreams, you can fly high.

This subject makes my mind wander off to Tereza Urbánková is a PR, communications and marketing professional with over 15 years’ experience and proven success in industries such as hospitality, retail, IT, defence, broadcast, logistics and engineering. For the past seven years she has been working and living in London, UK; currently she is Manager of Global Communications for AMEC plc, a large international engineering consultancy. Tereza also works as a freelance consultant in the area of communications and PR. She speaks Czech, English, Spanish and Russian and can be reached on terezaurbankova@yahoo.com or through her LinkedIn profile.

68 Leaders Magazine II/2014

a dream-catcher which I have recently got as a gift. I’ll come back to it and explain how it works later in the article. For now, let’s focus on dreams that we can truly convert into success.

It takes true courage to follow dreams. So, before you take a decision not to pursue them anymore, which you may then regret for the rest of your life, there are a few things to consider.

neath their skills, talents, and abilities. They are so much more than what they have become. In addition, success brings joy to your life – imagine being able to celebrate with your family and friends who have been supporting you. Crossing the finishing line and winning your personal goal is a sense of accomplishment that’s almost indescribable. So go for it!

What’s the alternative?

If you give up now, what are your options? How are you going to end up? Adrift? Aimless? Imagine how that is going to make you feel. Things not going your way may be only a detour on your journey to success. We all get sidetracked from time to time and there’s probably a good reason why it is happening. Look at the billionaire author of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling: she was rejected 12 times before she got her first chance. Perseverance pays off.

Prove them wrong.

Last but by no means least…prove the pessimists wrong. They take pleasure in sowing seeds of doubt. If you give in, one day you will be saying: “I wish I had...”. Tapping into my own past, I attempted four times to get to the university to study languages despite being told I stood no chance due to my dissident family. I kept being rejected over and over again. Finally, when the iron curtain fell in 1989, I knew this time the truth would really come out and show whether I couldn’t study for lack of talent or my background. It was a test.

I didn’t want to be one of those saying the regime had been preventing me from fulfilling my aspirations without actually giving it a go when nothing was standing in the way anymore. You can’t imagine the joy when I was finally accepted.

Mistakes? Simply part of the journey.

There’s no straight line to success. You’re going to hit small bumps in the road that at the time feel like mountains. Don’t worry, you’ll get over them.

If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not getting out of your comfort zone, trying new things and approaches, you’re not progressing anywhere.

The key thing is to learn from the mistakes and never repeat them.

We’ve all heard stories about famous figures in history who failed numerous times. Abraham Lincoln failed to win several positions before becoming US president. Thomas Edison’s teachers called him ‘stupid’ and he was fired multiple times before ‘failing’ 1000 times attempting to invent the light bulb. A journey to success is hard, mentally and physically strenuous.

Failure is its necessary part; however, it’s never the end.

And what about the dream-catcher?

If the idea of dreaming big and accomplishing something doesn’t appeal to you but you still like to dream, get a dream-catcher to make dreaming the most pleasurable experience. Dream catchers, typically handmade, have been a part of the Native American culture for generations and are intended to protect the sleeping individual from negative dreams, while letting positive dreams slip through. The positive dreams then slide down the feather and glide onto the sleeping person; the negative ones get caught up in the web, and perish with the first rays of the sun. It’s a beautiful myth – despite that, I hung it on my bed with great anticipation.

You need passion.

If you give up on your dreams you may live a life unfulfilled. I can’t imagine not being passionate about Are you convinced you something I really want. can achieve your dreams?

Do you really believe you Not yet? Then get inspired can become successful if Example of a dream-catcher by a piece of wisdom from you have a wishy-washy apa creator of the wonderful proach and don’t feel strongworld where dreams of any shape or form are ally about your personal endeavour? Make your lowed and encouraged: dream a proper objective – make it SMART: spe“If you can dream it, you can do it. Always cific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. remember that this whole thing started with If you don’t have a mission and a purpose, don’t a dream and a mouse.” Walt Disney. you think that’s a waste of why you were placed on this planet? Live your life with a purpose and you And I’d only add – dreams are only alive if you will never be bored. are.

You live only once.

By Tereza Urbánková ■ Don’t surrender your precious dreams – one day you will achieve them. Make sure you live your český překlad naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz life with no regrets. Many people are living way be-

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media power

JOURNALISM’S

IMPOSSIBLE DILEMMAS Flipping through my Amazon wish list I stumbled upon a book I wanted to read ever since I was a reporter. The Journalist and the Murderer is a 1990 study by Janet Malcolm on the ethics of journalism. It describes at length the tricky dynamics between a reporter and a source during their interaction. And it draws a startling conclusion: no one sane can believe that journalism is a moral process.

The book attracted heavy criticism upon first publication. When you read the first paragraph, you can grasp why. “Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.”

Janet Malcolm continues by noting: “He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse. Like the credulous widow who wakes up one day to find the charming man and all her savings gone, so the consenting subject of a piece of nonfiction writing learns – when the article or book appears – his hard lesson.”

Treacherous intimacy What is the book about? Malcolm, a journalist and non-fiction book writer herself, takes on a journey to study the dynamics between a journalist, Joe McGinniss, and a convicted murderer — former Special Forces Captain Jeffrey MacDonald, who became the subject of McGinniss’ 1983 book Fatal Vision. According to Wikipedia, McGinniss had become a best-selling author with his 1969 work The Selling of the President.

After an interview with the accused murderer, Cristina Muntean is a professional communications advisor, media trainer and coach. She has more than 12 years’ experience in the Czech, Romanian and international media. In August 2010 Cristina founded Media Education CEE, a Prague-based premium PR advisory and training agency. Her clients are top managers, diplomats and public officials who aim to make their voice heard in their community. In June 2011 Cristina was elected president of the Czech PR Klub; in January 2012 she was elected chairwoman of the Marketing Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Prague. Cristina speaks Romanian, French, English and Czech and can be reached at cm@mediaed.cz.

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Jeffrey MacDonald, MacDonald proposed that McGinniss write a book of his story, and asked for a share of the revenue from the book as a way to fund his legal battle. McGinniss agreed. He struck up a close friendship with MacDonald, an Army physician charged with the 1970 murders of his twenty-six year-old pregnant wife and their two young daughters.

The agreement was that the journalist would report from both the court room and from within MacDonald’s team. McGinniss shared housing with his book’s subject, exercised with him, and sat beside him at the defense table during his trial. Within a month of MacDonald’s conviction, the journalist began a series of letters expressing sympathy and support. However, as later revealed, McGinniss had become easily convinced of MacDonald’s guilt during the trial.

Yet, he continued showing support to MacDonald for years in order to basically keep his subject talking. For four years, MacDonald imagines he is “helping” McGinniss write a book exonerating him of his crime. What Malcolm describes as MacDonald’s “dehoaxing” takes place in “a particularly dramatic and cruel manner” — a 1983 taping of the CBS news program 60 Minutes. As host Mike Wallace read aloud portions of the nowcompleted Fatal Vision, the cameras broadcast MacDonald’s look of “shock and utter discomposure.”

Morally indefensible narcissism MacDonald goes to sue McGinniss for his approach. Malcolm, who had gone through a similar legal hassle herself, a $10 million legal challenge by psychoanalyst Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson following the publication of her book In the Freud Archives, starts covering the case after the trial, and draws conclusions that take many aback.

While in his book McGinniss portrays MacDonald as a “womanizer” and “narcissist,” Malcolm draws the conclusion that narcissism is precisely the “social disease” behind McGinniss’s behavior of encouraging his subject to believe otherwise long after he had been convinced of his subject’s guilt.

In Malcolm’s eyes McGinnis’ moral sin — and the basis for her broader journalistic critique — was to pretend to believe in MacDonald’s innocence. In Malcolm’s opinion he does this long after he’d become convinced of the man’s guilt. This is the “morally indefensible” position she speaks of on the book’s first page.

Photo: Jakub Stadler

The reality check In an era where the fundamentals of the media world as we know it are falling apart, is further criticism necessary? Malcolm’s book, that went on to be regarded as a “seminal” work and ranks ninetyseventh on The Modern Library’s list of the 100 Best Non-Fiction works of the 20th century, seems more painfully up-to-date today than ever before.

Indeed, the media industry is suffering all across the globe under the disruption caused by new technologies. Indeed, media is more vulnerable in fresh democracies such as the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Maybe the fact that Janet Malcolm was born in 1934 in Prague is not a coincidence. The media industry is going through a fundamental disruption.

Yet people’s yearning for stories to learn from and information to guide their lives accurately, responsibly, morally is still alive. In an era where 20-years old reporters can be assigned to cover parliaments — I was one of them — where the media market is dangerously concentrating and where the gap between the media reps and the real needs of the public is constantly increasing, a narcissism check is utterly appropriate.

No room for illusions What does this all mean for individuals and companies who still consider media relations as one of the most relevant parts of their public communication? Regardless of the shape, the fundamentals of the media game have not changed: reporters will always cultivate the narcissistic tendencies of their sources to keep them talking, and the dehoaxing upon article publication will be as painful as the length you went in the illusion that the reporter is on your side.

It is up to each of us to watch our borders and give ourselves a regular narcissism check. After all, no one in this process is innocent. Being aware, however, reduces the chances of too big a shock. It’s the best your media relations can get.

By Cristina Muntean ■ český překlad naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz

Leaders Magazine II/2014 69

analysis

Day X+3 Big Brother peeked at me again are begging for our activities to be recorded. We have no control over what we told our ‘friends’ about ourselves on Facebook or any other social network. Our each click on the internet is recorded and used, naturally and always within an ‘improvement of services’ for us. Everything we’ve written in an e-mail may be used or possibly abused.

Small armies of marketers create our profiles, offering the irresistible, trying to predict what we will buy even before we even think of it. All kinds of people know what type of music I like or what I prefer to read. Amateur or professional photographers and video amateurs spread the recorded images of my face and acts wherever possible, without my knowledge.

I fight my irresistible desire to purchase technological toys again and again. The last time it was an iPad mini. Tiny, beautiful and I don’t really need it, but who could resist a bite off the apple.

I started downloading whatever anyone suggested into it or what I found various places. It also came with Google Earth, excellent map software, allowing you to see maps as well as detailed images of most buildings.

I couldn’t resist and looked up my own house.

To my surprise, I realized that Google knows everything already and let everyone know I bought a new car. The original Peugeot standing in front of the garage was replaced by my daughter’s Golf.

It shocked me and made me glance over my shoulder to make sure the feared Big Brother wasn’t standing behind me. He knows everything and, unfortunately, passes it on to others.

Someone said “The fact that you aren’t paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t watching you.” This quote is from Communist times but it seems still valid. It forced me to wonder ‘How is this possible?’

Shall we start with our own naivety that costs Big Brother nothing? He’s simply using it. We

70 Leaders Magazine II/2014

Sure, at least partly this is our own fault, but we can hardly prevent it. Perhaps we should be more careful in disseminating personal information, read what we allow these marketers to do in fine-print and occasionally fend off their intrusions into our privacy.

But add to this the institutionalizing of monitoring. Our calls are recorded, we have biometric passports, are scanned at the airports, act in front of cameras without an entitlement to royalty.

Thousands of our pictures circulate someplace, with no control. There are records of us in registers and black-lists. The essential problem is that, in most cases, we are unaware of this collection of personal and specific data.

Those illegally accused of collaborating with the Communist Secret Police can defend themselves in court. But how do you defend yourself against

a pointless listing among some list of debtors? All these activities are justified by the fight against terrorism and its prevention. Successes in this fight are certainly justly celebrated, but we usually never learn how the secret services and police came upon the necessary data.

Is there some recipe for a compromise between the protection of personal data and security against terrorists and thieves?

Unfortunately, hiding in a dugout, covering oneself with branches and not communicating is either impractical or a prescription for monks and hermits. So where is the boundary Big Brother may not cross?

Perhaps a few principles would suffice, such as being far more careful about our privacy. We should be informed when there are cameras watching us. The owner of each register or blacklist should be legally liable for making public incorrect information that is damaging. The same is true of internet sites. The operator must take all reasonable steps to prevent the publishing of illegal information and seek to identify those who attempt to publish it.

Phone wiretapping, e-mail monitoring and monitoring in general should only be permitted by the court and that court should be held accountable in cases of illegal proceedings. Private detective agencies should be forbidden this type of access. The illegal use of collected personal data should be punished without compromise.

But we must also protect ourselves. Let’s not sign contracts covering the use of our personal data, not automatically click such requirements, allowing ourselves to be paid off by dubious discounts for an option to manipulate us. Let’s be more careful about what we share with our Internet friends. Let’s protect our privacy!

From a new book by Ivan Pilný and Tereza Kučerová: Manéž informačního věku published

by Albatros

By Ivan Pilný ■ Member of the Parliament, ANO party President of Tuesday Business Network český překlad naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz

IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

Photos: ELAI archive

discussion dinner

EUROPEAN LEADERSHIP & ACADEMIC INSTITUTE DISCUSSION DINNERS In the first in a series of discussion dinners organised by the European Leadership & Academic Institute (ELAI) with the new members of the government, the minister of Agriculture Marian Jurečka sat down to talk about his plans for agriculture and the direction in which he plans to steer the ministry during his term in the office.

The event, which took place on March 6 at the scenic Villa Richter just by the Old Castle Steps,

overlooking the Prague skyline, was attended by key stakeholders, ranging from business owners from the food and agriculture sector to members of industry, among others. Minister Jurečka argued that agriculture is a stable sector, very suitable for investment, but also emphasised the need to start treating water as a strategic commodity if agriculture is to remain sustainable. Additionally, Minister Jurečka also

argued for the need of a long term strategy, one that has been missing and that would provide a certain degree of predictability for the future.

In the upcoming weeks, the series of discussion dinners will continue with a get-together with Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Bělobrádek, followed by Minister for Regional Development Věra Jourová, and Minister of Industry and Trade Jan Mládek.

Lively debate during the dinner

From left: Marian Jurečka, Minister of Agriculture, Jan Žůrek, Managing Partner, KPMG Česká republika, and Přemysl Šašek, Manager of the Legislation and Licence Management Division, ČEZ, a.s.

IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

From left: Marian Jurečka, Minister of Agriculture and Jan Žůrka, Managing Partner, KPMG Česká republika

From left: Lukáš Sedláček, Executive Director, European Leadership & Academic Institute and Jan Žůrek, Managing Partner, KPMG Česká republika

Leaders Magazine II/2014 71

The Gala Evening was held under the auspices of: Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic Daniel Herman, Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic

culture event IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

Trebbia was supported by:

Main Media Partner

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Main Partner

Patrons

14 ANNUAL OF THE TREBBIA TH

Media Partner

EUROPEAN AWARDS AND BENEFIT CHEQUES TREBBIA ON MARCH 9TH, 2014

Spanish Hall of the Prague Castle From left: MgA. Peter Duhan, Director General, Czech Radio, handed over the prize to Rudolf Kallat, Laureate of the Trebbia European Award 2014 for Support of Culture and the Arts

From left: Daniel Herman, Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic and his Laudatio speech, Jitka Novotná, Moderator, Czech TV, and Maroš Kramár, Moderator, Slovak TV

From left: Karel Gott, Singer, handed over the prize to Anna Ponomareva, Council of the Russian Federation Embassy, who acted for Viacheslav Zarenkov, Laureate of the Trebbia European Award 2014 for Support of the Arts, Jitka Novotná, Moderator, Czech TV, and Maroš Kramár, Moderator, Slovak TV

Marta Reichelová, Soprano

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From left: Róbert Daduliak, Chairman of the Board of Directors, EUROMILLS-TRADE PLC, Klaus Von Trotha, former Minister of Science, Research, and Culture of Baden – Württemberg and President of International Herman Hesse Society, Jane McAdam Freud, Laureate of the Trebbia European Award 2014 for Creative Activities, Jitka Novotná, Moderator, Czech TV, and Maroš Kramár, Moderator, Slovak TV

From left: MUDr. Ján Lešták, Owner of the Eye Clinic JL; Vladimír Železný, Collector and Patron of Art, Media businessman and politician; Kunying Straková and Jiří Straka, Laureates of the Trebbia European Award 2014 for Contribution to the National Dialogue of Cultures

culture event

Vladimír Železný, art collector and patron, presented award to Kunying and Jiří Straka; Marcela Augustová, Czech TV, took over a benefit cheque for CZK 230.000 for Pomozte dětem Foundation (Help the Children); Zdeňka Sigmundová, took over a benefit cheque for CZK 230.000 for TF; Marta Reichelová, soprano; Petr Dvořák, general director of Czech TV, presented award to Štefan Kvietik; Eugen Bakoš, pastor, Christian Tachov Civic Association, took over a benefit cheque for CZK 110.000; Kunying and Jiří Straka (China), laureates of the Trebbia European Award 2014; Peter Hirjak, co-scriptwriter and director of documentary shorts; Daniel Dořák, architect, stage designer of Trebbia; Róbert Daduliak, presented laureate cheque for CZK 50.000 and bought J. Kornatovský’s and O. Tabakov’s paintings at auction for CZK 170.000; Juraj Filas, composer, author of Symphonic Prelude Trebbia 2014; Alena Miro, soprano, soloist of the National Theatre Prague; Jane McAdam Freud (United Kingdom), laureate of the Trebbia European Award 2014; Aleš Briscein, tenor, soloist of the National Theatre Prague; Ján Lešták, presented laureate cheque for CZK 50.000; Michael Haas, Michael Haas Gallery Berlin – Zürich, member of the Trebbia INC; František Komárek, presented laureate cheque for CZK 50.000, bought Jiřina Bohdalová’s painting at auction for CZK 90.000; Larisa Táborová, presented laureate cheque for CZK 50.000; Rastislav Štúr, conductor, conducted Prague Symphonic Orchestra FOK; Jiřina Bohdalová, actress and author of the painting Apple; Eva Blahová, art chief of the opera of the National Theatre Brno and member of INC Trebbia; Rudolf Kallat (Austria), laureate of the Trebbia European Award 2014; Daniel Herman, minister of culture of the Czech Republic; Peter Weiss, ambassador of the Slovak Republic in the Czech Republic, presented award to Štefan Kvietik; Ludmila Peterková, clarinet; Štefan Kvietik (Slovakia), actor, laureate of the Trebbia European Award 2014; Jiří Balvín, former minister of culture of the Czech Republic, presented award to Juan González de Quirós; Stanislav Vaněk, Czech TV director; Peter Duhan, general director, Czech Radio, presented award to Rudolf Kallat; Juan González Quirós y Corujo (Spain), laureate of the Trebbia European Award 2014; Petr Kužel, president, Chamber of Commerce, bought graphic work by Ron Wood for CZK 130.000; Klaus von Trotha, former minister of culture of Baden-Württemberg, member of the Trebbia INC, presented award to Jane McAdam Freud; Jitka Novotná, moderator, Czech TV; Jiří Srnec (Czech Republic), laureate of the Trebbia European Award 2014; Maroš Kramár, moderator, Slovak TV; Benke Aikell, publisher of Leaders Magazine Prague, member of the Trebbia INC; Karel Gott, singer, presented award to Viacheslav Zarenkov on behalf of Anna Ponomareva, Council of the Russian Federation Embassy; Jaroslava Válová, bought Karel Gott’s painting at auction for CZK 180.000; Anna Ponomareva; Martin Jan Stránský, head physician, teacher, publisher and journalist, member of the Trebbia INC; Michal Bouzek, author of the bronze statue Trebbia 2014; Miro Smolák, founder of the Trebbia Foundation, chairman of the Trebbia INC ; Marek Zvolánek, trumpet. The Gala Evening was held under the auspices of Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic and Daniel Herman, Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic. Venue: Spanish Hall of the Prague Castle. The Trebbia ceremony was broadcasted live on Czech and Slovak Television on 9 March 2014 (www.trebbia.eu)

From left: Larisa Táborová, Member of the Board, Kovosvit MAS PLC; Petr Dvořák, General Director of Czech Television, handed over the prize to Štefan Kvietik, Laureate of the Trebbia European Award 2014 for Lifetime Achievement; H.E. Peter Weiss, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic in the Czech Republic Ludmila Peterková, Clarinettist

From left: Jiří Balvín, former Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic and Juan González Quirós y Corujo, Laureate of the Trebbia European Award 2014 for Support of the Arts

From left: Ing. František Komárek, General Director, KOVOSVIT MAS PLC, Jiří Srnec, Laureate of the Trebbia European Award 2014 for Artistic Achievement, received the prize by Daniel Herman, Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic

From the middle: Miro Smolák, Auctioneer, Founder and main organizer of the Trebbia Foundation, Chairman of Trebbia INC (Czech Republic), Director, MIRO Gallery, Prague, Jitka Novotná, Moderator, Czech TV, and Maroš Kramár, Moderator, Slovak TV

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culture event

Laureates of the Trebbia European Award 2014 for SUPPORT OF CULTURE AND THE ARTS: Juan González de Quirós y Corujo, Count of La Carrera (*1943), Art Patron and Collector (Spain) Rudolf Kallat (*1938), Trained Hospitality Manager and Restaurateur (Austria) Viacheslav Zarenkov (*1951), Doctor of Economics, Founder and President of Etalon (Russian Federation)

Laureates of the Trebbia European Award 2014 for CREATIVE ACTIVITIES: Annie Leibovitz (*1949), Prominent U.S. Photographer (United States) Jiří Srnec (*1931), Theatre Producer and the inventor of “black theatre” (Czech Republic) Jane McAdam Freud (*1958), Prominent English Sculptor and Artist (United Kingdom)

From left: Francisco de la Fuent Ramos, Lawyer, Spain, Julia Careva, Sunoffer, Spain, Juan González de Quirós y Corujo, Laureate Trebbia 2014, Benigno Irías Fletes, Museum Director, Spain, Juan Carlos Clemente, Sunoffer, Spain, Alena Miro, Soloist, National Theatre Prague, and Juan González de Quirós y Sánchez del Rion, Lawyer, Spain Marek Zvolánek, Trumpeter

From left: Jaroslava Válová, General Director, Siko bathrooms Corp., successful bidder of painting by Karel Gott, which was auctioned for 180.000 CZK, Karel Gott, Singer and author of the painting, and Miro Smolák, Auctioneer, Founder and main organizer of the Trebbia Foundation, Chairman of Trebbia INC (Czech Republic), Director, MIRO Gallery, Prague

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From left: František Komárek, successful bidder of painting by Jiřina Bohdalová, which was auctioned for 90.000 CZK, Jiřina Bohdalová, Actress, and Miro Smolák, Auctioneer, Founder and main organizer of the Trebbia Foundation, Chairman of Trebbia INC (Czech Republic), Director, MIRO Gallery, Prague From left: Róbert Daduliak, Chairman of the Board of Directors, EUROMILLS-trade PLC and Miro Smolák, Auctioneer, Founder and main organizer of the Trebbia Foundation, Chairman of Trebbia INC (Czech Republic), Director, MIRO Gallery, Prague

From left: Petr Kužel, President, Czech Chamber of Commerce and Miro Smolák, Auctioneer, Founder and main organizer of the Trebbia Foundation, Chairman of Trebbia INC (Czech Republic), Director, MIRO Gallery, Prague

From left: Miro Smolák, Auctioneer, Founder and main organizer of the Trebbia Foundation, Chairman of Trebbia INC (Czech Republic), Director, MIRO Gallery, Prague and Mgr. Eugen Bakoš, Pastor, Christian Civic Association Tachov

culture event

Laureates of the Trebbia European Award 2014 for LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT: Štefan Kvietik (*1934), Leading Slovak Actor and Theatre Instructor (Slovakia)

Laureates of the Trebbia European Award 2014 for CONTRIBUTION TO NATIONAL DIALOGUE OF CULTURES: Kunying Straková (*1969), Chinese Painter and Curator (Czech Republic – China) Jiří Straka (*1967), Czech Sinologue and Artist (Czech Republic – China)

From left: Marcela Augustová, Patron, Pomozte dětem, Czech TV, Zdeňka Sigmundová, Member of the Administrative Board of the Trebbia Foundation and Miro Smolák, Auctioneer, Founder and main organizer of the Trebbia Foundation, Chairman of Trebbia INC (Czech Republic), Director, MIRO Gallery, Prague From left: Alena Miro, Soloist of the Prague National Theatre, Fabrizio Sinigalli, Amres, and Dr. Daniela Sinigalliová, Amres

From left: Andrej Hryc, Actor an Honorar Consul of Seychelles in Slovakia, Juraj Filas, Author of the “Trebbia” – singing soul of St. Roch (world premiere), Deana Jakubisková, Film Producer, J & J Jakubisko Film s.r.o., and Juraj Jakubisko, Movie Director

From left: Miro Smolák, Auctioneer, Founder and main organizer of the Trebbia Foundation, Chairman of Trebbia INC (Czech Republic), Director, MIRO Gallery, Prague, Mr. František Komárek, Michael Haas, Owner, Michael Haas Gallery Berlin – Zurich and Halina Nowak, Art Consultant, Berlin

Vlasta Brtníková, Prague Writer’s Festival and Michael March, Director, Prague Writer’s Festival

From left: Alexander Parachanian, Architect and Businessman, and Petr Kužel, President, Czech Chamber of Commerce, successful bidder of graphic by Ron Wood, which was auctioned for 130.000 CZK with his wife

75 From left: Peter Hirjak, TV Director, Radomír Morochovič, TRM service s.r.o., and Andrej Smolák, Artist

culture event

From left: Aleš Briscein, Tenor, guest vocalist of the Prague National Theatre Opera, Alena Miro, Soloist of the Prague National Theatre, and Rastislav Štúr, Conductor, Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK

From left: Amri Aminov, Artist, Paris, Andrea Verešová, Czechoslovak Model, and Andrej Smolák, Artist

Jan Zbigniew Czendlik, Roman Catholic Parish, Eliška Coolidge-Hašková, Owner, Coolidge Consulting Services and former Assistant of five American presidents

Klaus von Trotha with his wife Ján Lešták with Tereza Čiháková

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From left: Mgr. Adam Sigmund, Lawyer and Partner, AK Zizlavský and partners, Zdeňka Sigmundová, Member of the Administrative Board of the Trebbia Foundation, Ing. Zbyněk Janeček, Fleet Manager, Opel C&S; Pharm, and Dr. Denisa Janečková, Bayer s.r.o., Pharmacovigilance Country Head Deputy

From left: Mrs. Hipšová, Alena Miro, Soloist of the National Theatre, Prague, and Václav Hipš, Musician

culture event

From left: Juraj Jakubisko with his wife Deana Jakubisková and Jiřina Bohdalová, Actress From left: Alena Miro, Soloist of the National Theatre, Prague and Eva Blahová, Member of INC Trebbia

From left: Veronika Blažková, Spokesperson, Prague 1, H.E. Zaal Gogsadze, Ambassador, Embassy of Georgia in the Czech Republic, Viktoria Kudria, Status Magazine, René Sion, Director and Executive Head, Dallmayr, and Oldřich Lomecký, Mayor of Prague 1 From left: Milada Synková, Slovak National Theatre, Bratislava with her brother Mr. Synek and Rastislav Štůr, Conductor, Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK From left: Michal Zábojník, Dendra a.s. with his partner

From left: José Labrada Terna, Musician, Cuba, Birgit Labrada Terna, Economic Director, MIRO Gallery Prague, and Mrs. Magdalena Fuchs from Germany

From left: MUDr. Martin Starzyk, PolyStar s.r.o. with his wife, Miro Smolák, Auctioneer, Founder and main organizer of the Trebbia Foundation, Chairman of Trebbia INC (Czech Republic), Director, MIRO Gallery, Prague, and Ing. Petr Polák, B. Braun Avitum s.r.o.

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culture event

From left: Ing. Vladislav Stanko, CEO, CSR-CZECHOSLOVAK REAL s.r.o., Kamila Moučková, former Moderator, Czech TV, and René Schreier, Deputy of the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic with his Assistant

From left: Jozef Gáfrik, Journalist, Prague Press, Veronika Nováčková, Journalist, David Nováček, Council of Prague, and Iveta Demianová, RWE Energo

From left: Ivana Procházková, Teacher and Larisa Táborová, Board Member, Kovosvit Mas, a.s.

From left: Alena Miro and Mohammed Alqadiri, GHADIR GALLERY, Kuwait

From left: Lubomír Brabec, Guitar Virtuoso with his partner

78 From left: Róbert Daduliak, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Euromills-trade PLC, Mr. Michael Haas and Mrs. Halina Nowak

From left: Benke Aikel, your Publisher and Eva Blahová, Member of INC Trebbia

culture event

From left: Hynek Chudárek, Director of Business, Czech TV, Regina Rázlová, Actress, Janis Sidovský, Manager, SIDOVSKY Management s.r.o., and Iveta Toušlová, Czech TV

From left: PhDr. Juraj Chmiel, CSc. with his wife and Cyril Svoboda, Diplomatic Academy Prague with his wife Mrs. Svobodová From left: Michal Bouzek, Sculptor and Author of the bronze statue Trebbia 2014 with his wife Lucie Crocro, Painter

From left: Miro Voštiar, Businessman, Owner, Aria Hotel, Štefan Kvietik, Laureate of the Trebbia European Award 2014 for Lifetime Achievement, Miro Smolák, Auctioneer, Founder and main organizer of the Trebbia Foundation, Chairman of Trebbia INC (Czech Republic), Director, MIRO Gallery, Prague, and Juraj Jakubisko, Movie Director

From left: Petr Bratský, Senator, Parliament of the Czech Republic and Jiří Straka, Laureate of the Trebbia European Award 2014 for Contribution to the National Dialogue of Cultures

From left: Seen Aquin, Owner, Body Body s.r.o. with his wife, Julia Careva, Sunoffer s.r.o., Spain, and Aurelija Majauskaite, Sunoffer s.r.o., Spain

From left: Marta Reichelová, Soprano, Maroš Kramár, Actor, and Eva Blahová, Member of INC Trebbia

From left: Ulf Landeberg, General Manager, Lindner Hotel Prague, Zuzana Tančaková, Manager, Hilton Hotel, Mrs.Christina Landeberg and Mrs.Natasha Rechter, students from Namibia From left: Jana Bobošíková, Politician with her husband

From left: Alexander Hemala, TV Moderator, Maroš Kramár, Moderator, Slovak TV, Jana Doleželová, Miss Czech Republic 2004, Ján Lešták, Owner, Eye Clinic JL, and Mrs. Hemalová

From left: Jiří Kunert, General Director, Unicredit Bank, Prague, Růžena Nechanská, Consultant, Eliška Coolidge-Hašková, Owner, Coolidge Consulting Services and former Assistant of five American presidents, Benke Aikell, your Publisher, and Jitka Hosprová, Viola Soloist

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culture event

From left: Barbora Mottlová, Actress, Lenka Vacvalová, Actress and Moderator, Tomáš Lešták, Eye Clinic JL, Jana Doleželová, Miss Czech Republic 2004, and Lucie Smatanová, Model

From left: Alena Miro and Juraj Filas, Composer with his wife

From left: Peter Linhart, Owner, Cruet – Elesko Prague, Veronika Obuchowiczova, Owner, Cruet – Elesko Prague, and Miro Smolák

From left: Paula del Moral Olid, Art Historian, Spain, Sandra Lehnertová, Manager of Trebbia, and Markéta Kocourková, Art Management – student From left: Jana Balounová, Manager, COCCO accessories and Dominik Biľo, Graphic Design Department Director, MIRO Gallery

80 In the middle: Martin Kubala, Cameraman, Czech TV and Viktor Průša, Main Producer, Czech TV

From left: Jane McAdam Freud, Laureate of the Trebbia European Award 2014, Shumei Zhang, Linguist from China, Martin Weber, Curator and Art Collector; and Peter McAdam Freud, Jane’s husband

culture event

From left: Marta Gellová, President of the Board of the Association, EFPA, Benke Aikell, your Publisher, and H.E. Otto Jelínek, Ambassador, Embassy of Canada in the Czech Republic and his wife

Ing. Radomír Šimek, former President, DTIHK – ČNOPK with his wife

From left: Daniel Volopich, Lawyer with his wife Andrea Verešová, Model and Jadran Šetlík, Artist with his wife Gabriela

From left: Andrej Hryc, Actor, Maroš Kramár, Moderator, Slovak TV,and Veronika Obuchowiczova, Owner, Cruet – Elesko Prague

From left: Eliška Coolidge-Hašková, Owner, Coolidge Consulting Services and former Assistant of five American presidents, Růžena Nechanská, Consultant, Iveta Toušlová, Czech TV, and Kamila Moučková, former Moderator, Czech TV From left: Natali Ruden, Fashion Designer and Roman Knap, General Director, SAP CZ /SK

From left: Alexander Hemala, TV Moderator, René Sion, Director and Executive Head, Dallmayr, Viktoria Kudria, Status Magazine, and Mrs. Hemalová

From left: Ing. Petr Polák, B. Braun Avitum s.r.o. with his wife, MUDr. Martin Starzyk, PolyStar s.r.o. with his wife, and Štefan Kvietik, Laureate of the Trebbia European Award 2014 with his wife From left: Daniel Herman, Minister of Culture of the CR, Ing. Vladislav Stanko, CEO, CSR – CZECHOSLOVAK REAL, s.r.o., Mgr. Martin Zach, Press Agent, CSR – CZECHOSLOVAK REAL, s.r.o., and Simona Koudelková, Consultant, European Institute of Security and Crisis Management

81 From left: MUDr. Jiří Kasík, PhD., Head Physician, Military Hospital Střešovice and Ján Lešták, Owner, Eye Clinic JL

From left: MUDr. Alan Olejníček, Private Surgery ORL, Alena Miro, and Mrs. Olejníčková

ambassadors without diplomatic passport

Nikos Balamotis Nikos, first traditional question – how do you perceive today’s world?

Today’s world is full of contrasts. Nature probably taught us how to live with them. After all, we are used to natural contrasts: extreme droughts – floods, hot – freezing, desserts and rainforests.

Our world is full of good and evil, fair play and dirty tricks, wrongdoings and justice, earthly paradises and hells, poverty and fortune. I perceive our world fully in accordance with prevailing human nature, which has been recorded in our history for 3000 years. If you don’t live in one of the God forsaken countries like Syria, Afghanistan and some others, then the world we live in can be quite nice. By all measurable indicators, today’s world is much better place than ever before. Respondent’s personality is often reflected in the answer to this question, at least you can tell an optimist from pessimist. For myself, I like to believe and live by the fact that I have an influence on events. The world is as good as I make it. And if not the whole world then at least it’s my micro-world I can affect.

Another personality from the series Ambassadors Without A Diplomatic Passport is Nikos Balamotis, a managing partner in QED GROUP Company, facilitator, lecturer and coach with more than 20 years of experience in retail and business. I chose Nikos from two reasons. First, I wanted to pay tribute to all Czech entrepreneurs successful on foreign markets for contributing to spreading a good reputation of the Czech Republic, the second reason being my interest in human resources, learning and development.

Since 2010, Nikos has been a managing partner in the QED GROUP Company, developing partnership network of Sociomapping and 4Elements products in the USA and other countries (the Netherlands, Switzerland, Central and Eastern European region and others). He coaches both teams and individuals in the Czech Republic, Europe, USA or Canada. Nikos came to Czechoslovakia three years before the Velvet Revolution from Greece. Consequently, he graduated from biochemistry but while still studying, he begun doing business. At first he was a tour operator and later he worked for the Faculty of Medicine as an organizer of student exchanges. Then he did business with Folli Follie, Attrattivo and since 2003 he had been cooperating with the public company Coffeeheaven International plc, Together with his partners , they built a network of more than 90 cafes in 7 CEE countries, later sold to Costa Coffee.

Every encounter with Nikos fills me with inspiration, deep admiration and unique experience.

During the last course I took with him I managed to break an arrow over the wall using the hollow of my neck, all I needed was encouragement and determination! Nikos shares both his achievements and failures with the participants of his courses, he is able to stand on the ground with both feet and still have his head full of visions and be himself (he doesn’t like suits which is why he doesn’t wear them). As a true entrepreneur, he tries to improve and enrich the traditional meaning of the word “businessmen” and free it from the stigmata of dishonest practice, which is an opinion prevailing from the past regime or the 90’s of last century.

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And how do you perceive the Czech Republic?

Again, it depends on the reference point and which characteristics I follow right now. Greece has got better weather, but I wouldn’t want to do business there. Singapore has got better environment for business but I wouldn’t want to live there. I think that despite of all that could be reproached to the Czech Republic, business still has got large degree of freedom, the standard of living is above-average, geographic location is strategic and the only thing I miss is the sea and waves, but I can easily fly to those.

You switched from the traditional business (retail) to sphere of human resources, which is still underestimated and undervalued in many companies. How do you cope with that?

I don’t have to try extra hard. I am lucky enough to work with a fantastic team in a company that from the broad field of HR focuses on the most rewarding one, which is development of people.

It is true that we don’t need to sell our service actively. Our clients come to us because they know how important it is to invest in people and together we decide on the best way to do it.

Sociomapping is a method developed by Radvan Bahbouh in the 1990s. This method has penetrated into many areas, from scientific research, counseling for management and organization to analysis of behavior of complex systems. From the prestigious projects I will mention the Czech Republic Army and international research project MARS 500, which was the first human simulation of flight to Mars planet. What are other areas of application besides the sphere of management?

ambassadors without diplomatic passport focus on individuals is deeply rooted in the corporate culture, evaluation systems, evaluation interviews and elsewhere. USA is certainly further in this area which is another reason to focus on its market.

Sociomapping is actually a method of 3D visualization of information-data among which there is a relation. The method uses a metaphor of landscape, otherwise well known as 3D geographic maps for placing subjects (e.g. people) or objects (e.g. products). The simplicity of visualization will help us understand information that used to take plenty of excel tables, within a few minutes.

A Sociomap can visualize relationships between people, departments of a company or values and factors of employees’ engagement. Applications are in the sphere of marketing research and engagement surveys. However, we see the primary value in being able to offer the management a perspective in effectiveness of cooperation between individuals, project teams or departments of a company and help teams get a reflection of how they work together.

You have successfully introduced the concept of Sociomapping in Dallas, Washington DC, Silicon Valley and Toronto. In the area of manager trends and development it is countries like USA who sets the trends. How difficult was it to get on the market? What other markets are you focusing on?

It may seem odd but USA particularly is perhaps the best market for Sociomapping. It is true that USA sets the trends in this area, especially because a significant number of international corporations takes over the best practice and tools from American parent companies.

Moreover, number of reputable researches which proved close relationship between quality of communication and cooperation and financial results of companies, come also from the USA. That’s why we are there. Our first experiences show that simplicity of the instrument and high engagement of the group (Sociomaps arise in real time before eyes of participators) look like tailored for American target group, which is very open and Sociomap is valued as a great impulse for the opening of communication about relationships among team members or divisions.

How difficult was it to penetrate foreign markets?

I think we have taken only the first step and I am sure it was the right move to the right direction. It wouldn’t be truth saying we have penetrated foreign markets. We have a great product, but more than that a vision that I believe is worth pursuing. I am deeply convinced we help building better teams by helping people communicating more effectively. We help building better organizations, better places to work and live. This is just worth striving for and the foreign market penetration is a just very natural getting this dream materialized. Its not difficult and it is not easy. It is just our route to go and we will face high tides and great downhill rides.

Have you ever encountered any prejudices for being from the Czech Republic?

More the opposite. The Czech Republic has a great name in technology/IT development.

Many great companies and products have their

You are originally from Greece, living in the Czech Republic and your teams and clients are all over the world. Do you consider yourself to be a Czech, a European or a world-citizen?

I eat and drink wine like a Greek, I do sports like a Czech, I do business like a European and I travel like a world citizen. Almost always when my wife and I find ourselves in a new place I’m thinking: “I could live here,” but my wife usually brings me down to earth again.

Your motto is: “Don’t be a rich man, live a rich life.” What is your advice for work-life balance?

I don’t believe in work-life balance, I don’t like the concept. Life is only one. And if you do what you really enjoy, this is usually not an issue. What you call to be my motto can be misunderstood.

I think it’s necessary for everyone to set their personal value system. There belongs the definition of wealth. For me the most important part is time. Distribution of time between work, family, traveling and sport should be in line with this value system and then the work-life balance can be omitted. The truth is that one has to accept that he can’t manage to do everything.

origin in the Czech Republic and there is a great awareness of that in the US. Your products allow for building and managing highly effective teams which are in demand in these days. Do you observe a reverse trend from focusing on individuals within learning and development approaches from the 90s?

I would like to have observed such a trend already. However, we are nowhere near that yet.

I dare to say that clients to whom we are close have done a great job in this area. Still the primary

Finally – which trends in management would you like to point out for Leaders Magazine readers?

I think that as good leaders, we should take responsibility for motivation of people whom we have decided to work with. Concept I personally find to be the most effective is called Empowering Teams. It is a set of activities, approaches and attitudes that strengthens and enhances the company’s small structures, or small teams, and where the value for shareholder/owner or leader arises by cooperation of individuals instead of competing and comparing of egos.

Translated by Markéta Horázná ■ český překlad naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz

Linda Štucbartová graduated from the Institute of International Territorial Studies. After a one year scholarship at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, she obtained a Diplome d’études supérieures from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. Between the years 2002 and 2006, she worked in senior positions at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 2006 she has functioned in the private sphere, and lectures at the Anglo-American University, where she was named the Chair of the Department of Diplomacy.

In addition to training in negotiation and communication of clients from the private, public and non-profit sector, she regularly collaborates with Photo: Archive NGOs in the projects of the International Global Young Leaders Conference and the Women and Leadership Programme. Linda Štucbartová is a member of the Rotary Club Prague International. Articles are extracts from her book Velvyslanci i bez diplomatického pasu (Eng. “Ambassadors without a Diplomatic Passport”).

TO BE CONTINUED WITH OTHER AMBASSADORS WITHOUT DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT

Leaders Magazine II/2014 83

ambassadors without diplomatic passport

Tomáš Jelínek Photo: Archive

For a long time I‘ve wanted to write about current Czech-German relations from an informed point of view by the experts involved, rather than their political perspective. It becomes clear that even excellent relations can be improved in many aspects when examined further, despite Czechs regular assurance by politicians that Czech-German relations are excellent.

Tomáš Jelínek is Executive Director of the Czech-German Fund for the Future. This fund helps build bridges between Czechs and Germans. It supports projects that bring people together from both countries, allowing a deeper insight into their common culture and history. The Czech-German Fund for the Future was founded by the Czech-German Declaration, signed on January 21, 1997. Since 1998 that fund has provided approximately 45 million EUR to more than 7500 projects.

Tomáš happens to be my classmate from the Faculty of Social Sciences, but he also studied in Düsseldorf and Erlangen. During his studies, he was a member of the negotiating team in international negotiations on compensating victims during the Nazi era. He is a member of several international bodies and a founder of the Living Memory non-profit organization in Prague.

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The first traditional question – how do you perceive today’s world?

What fascinates me about today’s world is its openness and access.

I belong to a generation that still perceived the bipolar division of the world and what limitations life with a lack of freedom brings. That is why, today I see an increase in the number of offers and options for what and where to study, how and where to live, what to pursue professionally, what to get involved in or simply where to go. At the same time, I also realize that this is a privilege that billions of people in the world do not have. The world, of course, remains a place where contradictory values and principles often clash and where they are often enforced by force or manipulation and not by free and responsible acceptance.

And how do you perceive the position of the Czech Republic in the world?

I think we’re extremely lucky. Just look at Ukraine. That is why we need to nurture our affiliation with the West. By this I don’t mean only those relationship with the EU and NATO, but especially the active development of the values that serve as the foundation of Western community. These certainly include a mature political culture and a strong civil society, dialog with our neighbors and knowledge of them which, by the way, is exactly what the Czech-German Fund for the Future strives for. We cannot afford to declare our experience from the last century as having been overcome. That would be a sign of intellectual laziness, which I somewhat fear. Searching for shortcuts at any price and emphasizing entertainment and personal comfort is a breeding ground for the spread of corruption and growth of populism.

Czech-German Relations in 2014 – are they still an issue or not? Czech journalist Bára Procházková, in her critical article from 2012, mentioned that “the development of cooperation between the Czech Republic and Germany can be observed on economic, political and socio-cultural levels. The biggest boom came in the economic sphere as, on the contrary, political contacts in the long-term perspective lagged behind. This

ambassadors without diplomatic passport cultural sphere carries engaged civil society on its shoulders, particularly in the border regions, where hundreds of bilateral projects are carried out annually. The further we move inland, the less interest exists concerning neighbors. And this is true of both sides.“ Fortunately, Czech-German relations still remain an important issue. Having a good relationship and, above all, being on familiar terms with the key player of European and to a certain extent global politics and economics is definitely beneficial to the Czechs. It is no longer so painful and delicate. On the contrary, for more and more people it’s a place of mutual inspiration, for holding up a mirror, as well as enrichment and shared profit. Over the last fifteen or twenty years, Czech-German relations have undergone tremendous and positive growth and which continues.

Today, almost two years after Bára Procházková‘s article was published, we have unprecedented dynamics in Czech-Bavarian relations in the political sphere, which has finally caught up with business and civil society.

Moreover, both sides’ plans are a promise that this was not just a temporary configuration. The high relevance of mutual relations, even at the federal level, is also confirmed by the policy statements of the new governments in both countries. The Czech Government considers the development of a strategic dialog with Germany as its priority and the German Government sent a clear signal to the Czech Republic when, in the coalition agreement, it made a commitment to ensure the future extension of the Czech-German Fund for the Future beyond 2017.

But what I would not agree with is the assertion that our interest in cooperation with the Germans is strongest in the border region.

At the Czech-German Fund for the Future, we are most often approached by people from both capital cities who come to us with their ideas, yet there are also large numbers of people from Brno and Hamburg. Of course a dense network of contacts works primarily between border federal states and Czech regions, but the inhabitants, for example, of North Rhine Westphalia, the South Moravian and Central Bohemian regions and Hessen also have considerable at stake in cooperation.

To what extent does the lack of interest and decline in knowledge of German in the Czech Republic influence our largest neighbor? When I attended the Czech-German educational program, Czech German Young Professional Leaders, I was surprised that the program was in English.

We have not noticed a decline of interest in cooperation with the Germans. On the contrary, last year a record number of citizens from both countries in the past fifteen years approached us with projects. But I do think the decreasing number of children learning German is a problem, although it seems there are better days ahead.

Two years ago we declared our support of German language as our topic of the year. In

parallel, the German and Austrian embassies and both cultural institutes initiated a campaign called “Šprechtíme” (We speak German), and last year a second foreign language was made compulsory in Czech schools, which certainly works in favor of German. This is not about competing against English, but rather about what other foreign language to learn. In this respect, the largest argument supports German.

In terms of our programs focused on young Czech and German leaders from business, NGOs, government, politics and media, we planned it from the beginning in English, not because we could not get enough candidates, but because we wanted to pull a new and important target group into Czech-German exchange. Usually, young German speaking professionals already have a deep knowledge of the neighboring country and they are also networked well with their German counterparts. It’s not that they are disinterested in the program, but from our perspective it doesn’t make much sense. We’re mainly interested in people without a clear Czech-German background, who will find significant added value from our program and, thanks to whom, Czech-German relations will gain advocates within important positions.

You were appointed at the age of thirty as the director of the Czech-German Fund for the Future. Have you ever seen your youth as a disadvantage?

Youth may be a disadvantage if it’s combined with low self-reflection and an unwillingness to work harder on certain things. But because I believe that neither of these was a problem to me, I never complained about my age. On the contrary, my affiliation with the young generation was more of an advantage in my work, focusing on overcoming the tragic historic chapters of Czech-German relations, as well as the development of cooperation oriented towards the future.

You were involved since 2000 at the CzechGerman Fund for the Future. How do you reflect upon your fifteen years of involvement?

This work still has a huge allure for me. In the early years it was a great opportunity to capitalize on my focus on German speaking countries.

As a member of the negotiating team, I had the opportunity to participate in the last major international negotiations on the consequences of World War II and then do everything possible to ensure that as many of the nearly 90,000 Czech victims of Nazi persecution and forced labor lived to see their compensation. The fact that this compensation was carried out successfully strengthened the confidence in the Fund’s work, as well as in the fact that both sides took reconciliation seriously.

Then, when I moved to the Fund’s management, the focus of my work shifted and I was able to primarily work on the development of relations between Czechs and Germans in the areas of youth and education, culture and science, cooperation of non-profit organizations and the restoration of landmarks and monuments in the Czech borderland. This is work that remains extremely fulfilling.

Feeling so much positive energy from thousands of Czechs and Germans investing in joint projects and observing the result of that work is truly encouraging. On the other hand, I also believe that our effort for a friendly approach to everyone who approaches us with an idea for an interesting project is encouraging for them. Work in the Fund is never routine for me, even after so many years. Our annual topic of the year, which impacts dozens of projects and motivates people on both sides of the border to work together on current problems, further contributes to this. This year it will concern our joint engagement in drug prevention.

We are also preparing, along with our German partners, a large international exhibition on forced labor under the Nazis. It will be presented in the Belvedere at Prague Castle this summer. I am also looking forward to this year’s anniversary conference of the Czech-German Discussion Forum in Litoměřice, as well as the fact that the entire application submission process will be made more accessible, thanks to its move to an online system.

Linda Štucbartová ■ české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz

Linda Štucbartová graduated from the Institute of International Territorial Studies. After a one year scholarship at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, she obtained a Diplome d’études supérieures from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. Between the years 2002 and 2006, she worked in senior positions at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 2006 she has functioned in the private sphere, and lectures at the Anglo-American University, where she was named the Chair of the Department of Diplomacy.

In addition to training in negotiation and communication of clients from the private, public and non-profit sector, she regularly collaborates with Photo: Archive NGOs in the projects of the International Global Young Leaders Conference and the Women and Leadership Programme. Linda Štucbartová is a member of the Rotary Club Prague International. Articles are extracts from her book Velvyslanci i bez diplomatického pasu (Eng. “Ambassadors without a Diplomatic Passport”).

TO BE CONTINUED WITH OTHER AMBASSADORS WITHOUT DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT

Leaders Magazine II/2014 85

international conference Welcome speech of Jan Ruml, CEO, Czech Gas Association

IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

7 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE TH

PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF CNG/LNG IN TRANSPORT

Lennart Pilskog, Secretary General, CEO, NGV Europe

Chairman table of NGV 2014 – moderator Pavel Novák from Czech Gas Association on the left

86 Gabriele Gozzi, former Chairman and Member of the Board, NGV Global

Marcel Eder, Department Director of New Technologies and Tetjana Bondarčuk, Project Manager, Vemex

international conference

Martin Petřík, Head of Marketing Department, Linde Material Handling 7th International Conference NGV 2014 at Congress Centre U Hájků in Prague

From left: Jan Žákovec, Pražská plynárenská and Ludmila Bratskich, xperion Energy & Environment Timo Vehrs, Director of Business Development, Gazprom Germania

Miloš Křepelka, Department Director, Ministry of Environment of the CR From left: Pavel Novák, Moderator, Czech Gas Association and Martin Hrdlička, Head of Chassis and Aggregate Development, Škoda Auto

87 Chairman table of NGV 2014, speaking Jan Ruml, CEO, Czech Gas Association

Václav Koza, Institute of Gas, Coking Chemistry and Climate Protection, Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague

manager of the year

THE FINALS OF THE MANAGER OF THE YEAR COMPETITION ARE APPROACHING Who are the best Czech Managers? The prestigious MANAGER OF THE YEAR competition has been mapping answers for more than two decades now.

It is annually awarded by the Czech Management Association (CMA), Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic (SPCR) and Confederation of Employee and Business Associations of the Czech Republic (KZPS). The first of the above institutions is also the organizer of the competition that now enters its 21st year.

The goal of this most prestigious and systematically advanced Czech management competition is to find, objectively and independently, select and highlight the best and most significant personalities in the area of management, their methods and contributions to the development of companies and the entire economy. The social and ethical purpose of the competition is to contribute to the development of an elite of Czech management.

Both private and public company managers performing their management function in the Czech Republic for at least three years may be nominated and they needn’t be Czech citizens. Those managers nominated must give their consent; another condition for participation is an entry fee of 15,000 CZK. The fee includes an entry to the gala evening with the announcement of the competition results in Prague’s Žofín Palace on April 24, 2014 that will be attended by the President of the Czech Republic, Miloš Zeman. It is expected that approximately 400 managers, professionals, journalists and others will attend.

Nobody may nominate themselves. The nomination may be submitted by legal entities, state and public institutions, banking institutions, employee, entrepreneur and commercial chambers, administration or statutory bodies of companies and co-ops, or participants in previous years of the competition. All submissions fulfilling these requirements are entered into the competition and subsequent finalists are selected from the entries. The names of this year’s finalists will be announced to the media on April 9, 2014, when they will also be introduced through a printed brochure and subsequently at the competition website and the websites of the organizing parties. The finalist managers will also be introduced in the publication Manažeři s lvíčkem III (Managers With LIttle Lion III), to be published by Management Press.

The managers entered compete in 26 fields for the title Manager of the Field. Further, all finalists are assigned a category based on their age and size of a company or institution they lead. From these categories the Young Managerial Talent up to

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the age of 35 are selected, Outstanding Manager of a Small Company of up to 50 employees and an Outstanding Manager of a Medium-Sized Company up to 250 employees.

Top 10 Managers of the Year are selected from all finalists and, ultimately, the winners of the given year are chosen – A Female Manager of the Year and a Male Manager of the Year. The winners from previous years are made members in the Manager of the Year Club.

Each participant must fulfill the following criteria: • Have a personal share in the success and development of the company, • Are highly qualified in their field as well as in the area of management, • Use and develop modern methods of managing a company, strategic and inventive thinking, • Apply their managerial profession within the conditions of the European economic space, • Know how to support their employees to meet company goals, • Are known for ethics and moral dealings in business, following the Manager Code stipulated at the website of the Czech Management Association www.cma.cz.

The evaluation considers the economic results of the company, thought-through creation of company image, success in local and international markets and the results of the social policy of the company.

The Executive Board is the top body of the competition, composed of representatives of the organizing associations, partners, top managers and specialists from the management area and oversees the conformity of the course of the competition.

The Evaluation Committee named by the Executive Board, processes materials for the National Committee, also named by the Executive Board and composed of important mangers, specialists delegated by the individual associations and winning former Managers of the Years. The National Committee becomes fully acquainted with the ma-

terials provided by the Evaluation Committee and, according to the approved procedures, evaluates and votes for the winners of the competition in the individual categories. The competitors are therefore evaluated over two rounds by two independent committees.

The names of the members of the National Committee are only published after the announcement of results to prevent them from outside influence.

The composition of the Executive Board and the Evaluation Committee are published on the competition website well in advance. This year, the Chairman of the Executive Board is JUDr. Rostislav Dvořák, the Chairman of the Union of Czech and Moravian Production Co-operatives and the Chairwoman of the Evaluation Committee is Professor Ing. Eva Kislingerová, CSc. A round-table discussion with the leading representatives of the Czech government will take place between noon and 2 pm, prior to the public announcement of the winners. Among the invited are Bohuslav Sobotka, Czech Prime Minister; Andrej Babiš, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Government and the Minister of Finance and Pavel Bělobrádek, Deputy Prime Minister for Science, Research and Innovation. The competition organizers will be represented by Jaroslav Hanák and Jan Wiesner. Also winners of the last year’s Manager of the Year, Jan Světlík and Olga Kupec, will be among those participating. They will also be the public faces of the event – it is the tradition that last year’s winners are allowed to present their opinions prior to the selection of their successors. The main subject of the round-table discussion will be the critical view of managers and business representatives of the Government Statement and first steps of the new government, particularly in relation to the competitiveness of the Czech Republic.

Further information is available at www. manazerroku.cz. Please address your questions to the Project Office of Česká manažerská asociace, Václavské nám. 21, 113 60 Praha 1, tel.: 224 109 301, 434, tel./fax: 241 431 149, e-mail: lukovic@cma.cz.

manager of the year We Cultivate the Image of the Managerial Profession How do the top Czech managers view the image of their profession and what options do they see for improving this image among citizens was the main subject of the New-Year survey conducted by the organizers of the Manager of the Year competition among the finalists of the previous twenty years of this competition.

Local managers believe that society does not positively evaluate their profession and more than four fifths of them are of this opinion. At least that’s the conclusion of the New-Year survey sent out to more than a thousand finalists of the Manager of the Year competition. Among the respondents were managers also well known among the public, such as Zbyněk Frolík of Linet, Jan Mühlfeit of Microsoft or Evžen Korec of Ekospol.

The respondents considered the reasons for this, in their opinion, was a negative view of their work.

One third of them pointed to the influence of media interest in management failures. „The media interest is fundamentally and disproportionately negative and focused primarily on cases of management failures, unethical or illegal conduct of managers, preferring a readable selection of stories with the potential of scandals,“ said Josef Novák, the General Director of VEBA textile factories.

The impact of cases of bad managerial behavior regarding corruption, tunneling of companies and general indecency was cited just as often. A fifth of the respondents pointed out that absurdly high remunerations and ‘golden parachutes,’ particularly in cases of managers of state-run or loss companies, have a negative influence on the image of this profession. “A manager that brought a company into a loss should not be entitled to any rewards at all,” said Evžen Korec, the owner and Director of Ekospol.

A fifth of the answers also pointed out the influence of high-handedness and arrogance in the behavior of managers. “Their good name is damaged by self-importance, unprofessional behavior, loftiness and showing off the insignia of a privileged group, including expensive brands of clothing and accessories. Humbleness, a sense for fairplay and decent behavior improve it,” said Zbyněk Frolík, a Member of the Board of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic and the Representative of Linet.

The same ratio of respondents pointed out the state administration as a factor that undermines

the positive image of managers and makes performance in this profession more difficult. Jan Lustyk, the Director of Rieter CZ summed up the opinion of many respondents “The renown of managers of state-owned companies, who often battle over state contracts or, on the other hand, decide on the purchase of services or materials, is approaching the way people view our politicians, whether deservedly or not.” The improvement and professionalization of the state administration was also among the most frequent New-Year demands for other managers and entrepreneurs.

Among the prescriptions for improving the prestige of local managers were empathy and a willingness to listen to others or “not acting like knowit-alls” (Josef Hynek, Rector of the University of Hradec Králové). A number of managers consider their ability to create a quality team of their colleagues or subordinates. “It’s no accident that top managers are judged by the ability of the teams they are building and directing,” said the previously cited Evžen Korec.

We Motivate Employees by Personal Example Personal example is the key motivational factor for employees. Two thirds of local managers, finalists of the Managers of the Year competition, agreed on this. At the same time, they point out that such an approach should also be more prominently applied in the state and public administration, as well as in politics. „A number of local managers serve as examples for their employees through their hard work, fairness and social recognition. In my experience, you must have a personal approach to people, talk to them, know how to appreciate their work and thank them. This is one of the ways to strengthen company loyalty and motivate employees,” said Jaroslav Hanák, the President of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic.

As also became apparent from the research, it is praise given among other employees, but surprisingly also personal critiques that are strong motivational factors. Other motivation factors include the trust of employees in their management, space for personal initiative and creative contribution.

The respondents also mentioned the importance of diversity in work and the change of stereotypes.

The already mentioned intensity of communication and its role in sustaining the team spirit also have a motivating effect.

Jan Wiesner, the President of KZPS said in this regard, “A manager doesn’t motivate their employees only for solving immediate tasks, but also for thinking in terms of the future, the employee’s own work as well as the company as a whole. Although we may not be able to precisely tell today how things will develop, certain principles remain valid. To motivate also means to develop and support interpersonal relationships, create ties between families and initiate shared out-of-work activities.

At least this always proved worthwhile to me.”

Nearly all managers agreed on the need to include a financial stimulus in the form of premiums or bonuses in the mix and possibly a share of revenues (these are mostly applied in cases of management employees). Financial bonuses are usually more notable in cases of management than line-employees.

Besides the financial stimuli, non-financial stimuli also play a great role, having been mentioned in 90% of the responses. Particularly significant were classic motivators such as food tickets, cultural or sports events and life insurance. But also among the most effective stimuli were the chance to receive education, whether inside the company or outside, for example a university degree, with the company’s contribution, as well as the chance of career growth.

All managers agree on the need to set up financial stimuli in a manner that makes them measurable, achievable (the employee must be able to influence them) and fair during distribution. More than one tenth of the respondents mentioned a stable job as a significant motivational factor.

A sufficient and ongoing communication with employees concerning company results and outlooks also has a stimulating significance – this item was mentioned by approximately half of the respondents. “Clear and proper informing of employees by the managers about the future risks in the development company is also a part of the motivation – if people know the risks ahead, they can deal with them better and also feel that they are important to the company and that the company depends on them in overcoming the problems,” Rostislav Dvořák, the Chairman of the Union of Czech and Moravian Production Co-Operatives commented on the results, adding, “the level of detail in the motivational system is a significant indicator of the economic condition of the company. Companies that find themselves in economic difficulties start trimming off the motivational elements of salaries, because they lack the funds for them.”

Manager of the year 2012 ceremony – a toast of the winners with Miloš Zeman, President of the CR and Milan Štěch, President of the Senate of the CR From left: Pavel Kafa, President, CMA, Winners Olga Kupec and Jan Světlík with Pavel Kysilka, General Director, Česká spořitelna

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thoughts about alternative ways...

WHETHER YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN OR YOU BELIEVE YOU CANNOT – YOU ARE RIGHT In my heart I knew I could do this but everyone I spoke to (including my doctor) thought I was crazy. Then I raised the stakes and also decided to raise $ 100.000 for Medicins Sans Frontiers by begging my friends to contribute to health care for those who need it most but can’t afford it & then by matching their contributions and doubling them. And so I was in India on my 54th birthday Jan 22 to start this new adventure. ☺

I always dreamt of travelling across the villages of India on a bicycle or in a way that would put me in touch with the lives of the ordinary people.

Day 1 – Jan 23 – 76 km – On the first day with rather flat roads (thank God) along the coast from Puducherry to Chidambaram – 34 km before breakfast and then I stopped for a miracle. Probably the best breakfast I ever enjoyed in a roadside restaurant – idlis (south Indian rice dumplings) served on banana leaves with sambar (spicy lentils) and coconut chutney and costing under ten crowns. We were 5 biking today – Unni, Jo, Alain, Priya and myself.

Unni Karunakara, the Worldwide President of Medicins Sans Frontiers, who was just about to finish his 3 year term in September last year and make a 5600 km bicycle tour of India starting on Oct 12 from Kashmir in the north to Kanya Kumari in the south, asked me to join him for the last 850 km leg of his trip.

But I had a problem, I still had three severe slip discs in my lower back, I had never cycled more than 10–15 km recreationally with my children & I barely knew how to change gears in a bicycle. In short I was not a cyclist.

So now it was just a question of what I thought and what I wanted to do in my life. Ratan Tata, the Indian Industrialist defined FEAR as two choices – Forget Everything And Run or Face Everything And Rise.

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remember from memory and without a phone was that of my colleague Dana. I was fortunate to find the other cyclists three hours later.

Day 2 – Jan 24 – 81 km – Chidambaram to Karaikal and I had a unique problem – my right triceps were totally immobilized & very painful and I could not hold the handle bars anymore so I was riding with one hand behind my back but that day I experienced and saw the hospitality of people who had practically nothing but were willing to invite us into their house & share whatever little they had without knowing or worrying about where their next meal would come from. I realized that being rich was not about how much we had but about how much we could give – so now to me rich or poor are just a state of the mind. It is in the thinking, not in the things.

Later this day, Unni crossed the 5000 km mark from his start on Oct 12 in Kashmir. ☺ Day 3 – Jan 25 – 153km – I saw Hiromu San who has travelled 55 countries in the past 5 years on his bicycle – 21 in Europe, 33 in Africa and now India and he would continue thru central Asia and Africa for the next 5 years so literally living on his bicycle for 10 years and he was so pasThen came the humbling experience of taking the wrong road and being lost in the middle of nowhere without a cell phone, without a wallet, without identity and without water in the scorching 35 degree sun. It just opened my eyes & my mind to a completely new world where I was just another human being without the infrastructure & the resources behind me and I had to beg on the street for someone to allow me to make a call to Prague because the only number I could

thoughts about alternative ways... sionate about his travels and excited about going further. Wow!!! How Inspiring!!!

The memories, few of them caught on camera, are innumerable and the experience so precious – I dare say 8 days of my life where I learnt more about people, about the country of my birth but most importantly about myself and the absence of limitation except for the ones created by our own thinking. I could see children along the way having nothing at all except dreams, hopes, lot of happiness and smiles as big as the Suez canal.

Day 5 – Jan 28 – 116 km – I received huge support from friends and family with emails, text messages and facebook messages but then something amazing happened – I started to get support emails and money from people I have never met.

A student and a pregnant single mother sending 500 czk when they really need it themselves and the list was quite long..……… it was so heart warming to see that we live in a world very different from what our televisions and newspapers would make us believe.

This day, we meet with an unfortunate accident.

One of our co-cyclists Rob did not see a speed bump probably due to a combination of exhaustion & appreciating nature and fell straight down head first and needed to be taken to a hospital intensive care. As Rob was unconscious nearly till the following morning we decided to take a day’s break on Sunday Jan 26, also India’s 64th Republic day.

Day 6 – Jan 29 – 56 km – A shorter day but the support and cheers continued and were incredible.

I was getting tens of messages every day encouraging me, but I needed no thanking, no encouragement, I was just charged with energy & happiness.

It was here that I realized again and again that the real joy of life was in giving and sharing…

Day 4 – Jan 27 – 110 km – Thalivialagam to Thondi – I realized that learning and education are best achieved thru discovery & sometimes I noticed every single drop of morning dew on every single leaf, every single flower, every single bird singing and at other times I was just singing old hindi songs and riding for an hour or two without noticing anything as if in a meditative state – totally exhausted but full of energy and very, very happy.

Now I wake up every single morning & am grateful for this opportunity & wish that I could live the rest of my life as excited, as innocent, as exhausted and as in the flow as I was in those eight days.

It was a transformation and a realization once again of the difference between making a living and making & enjoying a life – every single moment of it. A life so pricelessly precious and happy in giving and serving and planting trees in the shade of which I never intend to sit. A life so exciting, a life I have always dreamt of and this was a dream come true. ☺

Day 7 – Jan 30 – 126 km – the roughest, toughest, hilliest, windiest day & here I realized the value of sweet deep sleep on a thin mat on the floor when I was physically completely exhausted but did not feel tired at all because I was so Happy and excited like a small child and up and ready 15-20 min before the sunrise starts every single morning. This day I hit the mat after a couple of Kingfisher beer and a visit to Kanya Kumari – the southernmost tip of India.

Day 8 – Jan 31 – 124 km – Kanya Kumari to Trivandrum – Day 7 was nothing compared to this final day. It was like riding in the Alps with huge potholes and heavy Indian traffic. I learnt to ap-

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preciate the first sip of coconut water in the sun, the shade of a tree when you have not seen one for a couple of hours in the scorching sun or the pleasure of lying on hay in the middle of a side road and nearly falling asleep with exhaustion but then waking up with excitement to see what is around the next turn on this last day.

At the end of the day, I made it through 842 km in 8 days – I have learnt to bicycle properly, my back is absolutely fine & we raised more than $ 120.000 through the generosity of many friends (who were all very generous) and some new friends, but more importantly I have learnt so many new lessons & it all happened because I believed I could do it although everyone told me I could not, so my conclusion is “Whether you believe you can or you believe you cannot – You are Right“. It is just a mind game. ☺ Sanjiv Suri, President & CEO, Zátiší Group ■ sanjiv@zatisigroup.cz

Leaders Magazine II/2014 91

global perspectives

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Jan M端hlfeit, Chairman, Europe Microsoft Corporation Photo: Paul Pacey

global perspectives Big data is no longer a new phenomenon in Europe, we are familiar with it and the challenges it continues to pose. Big data are information assets so complex that they require new forms of processing, but offer such new opportunities that they may enable enhanced decision making, insight discovery and process optimization. I like the three dimensions of big data published in 2012 in a report by Gartner: high volume, high velocity, and high variety. However, there is a new dimension at play now: veracity. The latest stage of the ICT revolution in Europe is not just big data, but big and open data. ‘Open data’ refers to free access of predominantly government data to the public, unless this would violate privacy, confidentiality or security. Big and open data is also about veracity because it refers to the quality of conforming to facts, and being accurate. Overall, increased access to and transparency into public sector created and collected data can spur innovation and provide greater insights across industries, as well as increase accountability of public sector bodies. Leveraging big and open data just might be a new measure of progress in our society.

Availability of public sector data, as well as transparency of public sector, has been discussed in the European Union and in the Czech Republic for some time now. In Czech Republic, what started as a localized political debate on what should and should not be open data, became a discussion across the board. Although the Czech public sector bodies currently provide various datasets to the general population, they are often not fully accessible because they are difficult to find and they might not be in standardized data formats. Therefore, attempts to reuse these datasets in useful and insightful applications may require significant effort or might even be impossible.

Big data might not be a totally new phenomenon but it still poses challenges. The high volume of a high variety of data generating at high velocity cannot be administered by traditional ICT (information and communications technology) tools. Moore’s Law has often been employed to predict and determine the development of new technology and it can be employed to provide some insight into big data. Room size computers for governments and corporations evolved into small gadgets for consumers in only four decades. As the performance of devices doubled every year, they also generated twice as much data than each device before it – and big data was born. Added to the challenge is open data, now demanded by citizens. Big and open data can help the public sector become more transparent and accountable, if countries will leverage their benefits.

Many countries are working through the challenges of big and open data and many have moved in the same direction to provide open data to the public. In Europe, many countries have gone as far as the United States of America

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in making public data available. The rest of the Member States are also falling in line, including Czech Republic. However, it will take time for government agencies to make an inventory of their data and priorities their release. They must also take steps not to release information that, though safe on its own, could be joined with other data and cause issues of confidentiality– yet another challenge. The right balance must be struck between restricting access to data for privacy, confidentiality and security reasons, and releasing all public-sector data.

Since I am an optimist, I would argue that despite these challenges, big and open data will provide great potential for progress. There is an exciting opportunity for innovation from public sector into the private one. Big and open data can inject fresh insight into any business, small or large, across industries. And with innovation, comes value. According to the Warsaw Institute for Economic Studies, in their report Big and open data in Europe: A growth engine or a missed opportunity?, the economic gains of big and open data policies on EU-28 by year 2020, is estimated at €206 billion in GPD. This is a 1.9% growth in GDP generated solely from data-driven solutions. According to the same report, GDP growth will make an impact across sectors and industries, if data-driven solutions are introduced. The report predicts trade as the big winner with a 23% growth in GDP across EU-28 by 2020, followed closely by manufacturing at 22% growth.

Czech Republic, due to its mature manufacturing sector that is well integrated into international supply chains, can therefore expect substantial gains. The reports also mentions finance & insurance as well as public administration to grow by 13%. This growth broadly encompassing sectors and industries highlights increased productivity, improved competition and allocation of production across the board.

Indeed, small businesses from any industry can leverage big and open data, as well as technology, and make it its competitive advantage. Just think of America’s military satellitenavigation system, GPS (Global Positioning System) – government held data and technology made available to the world by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Entrepreneurs went on a frenzy of innovation: car-navigation, cellular telephony, meteorology, precision farming and the list goes on. And even if GPS innovation may not be at the center of a business, official weather data is used by everyone from traders to hot dogs sellers. Similarly, I predict that open data is the new big bang of the private sector, and will send entrepreneurs on another frenzy of innovation. I would argue that most entrepreneurs will eventually use at least some public-sector information in their business.

However, to leverage the breakthroughs that open data will allow, we must work through its challenges at the policy level within the European Union.

Firstly, the nature of the big and open data revolution must be understood and public data must be organized and prioritized by each

Member State. It is very important that the right framework is put in place based on protecting privacy, confidentiality and security. Keeping in mind that public data belongs to the public, the right to privacy for example must be respected.

In the future, the harmonisation of privacy laws can strengthen the single digital market and empower individuals to choose the data they wish to remain private–this will provide the private sector with the opportunity to look for value in data acquired under clearly established rules.

Secondly, the benefits of big and open data rely on a range of enabling technologies – which allow for the collection, transmission, storage, processing and analysis of data. Member States must incorporate broader and interoperable ICT solutions such as cloud computing in their process. Furthermore, it is not just up to the national government to lead by example but regional and local government bodies must also invest.

For example, the public transport agency Transport for Greater Manchester, United Kingdom, is leveraging the potential economic and societal benefits of big and open data. The transport agency has deployed an open data cloud-based platform that helps travellers better plan, manage, and enjoy their journey. The platform uses Windows Azure to store all of the city’s regional transport records. Due to open access to this data, over 100 third-party developers and entrepreneurs have created mobile apps with useful travelling information provided in real-time – such as parking or metro shuttle locations, and journey times.

Thirdly, and a subject very close to my heart, is ensuring that there is a continued push to cultivate a robust talent pipeline of professionals with strong STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. At the national level, Member States must continue to invest in education because our upcoming computer scientists, data analysts and engineers will be the ones working through the big and open data challenges. Business intelligence or analytics can be used to sort through and analyze information, but big and open data require more sophisticated tools and frameworks. Therefore, increased investment in STEM education across Europe will ensure we have sophisticated data scientists that can transfer the benefits of big and open data across industries. Data has no impact without context, so the brightest analysts will be needed to propose and implement databased solutions.

The big data revolution is already on its way, and now with open data, transparency will be the new enabler of innovation. Big and open data is coming of age and will grow exponentially. I look forward to seeing entrepreneurs in Europe take charge and invent solutions that will dwarf what GPS has achieved over more than 30 years.

By Jan Mühlfeit Chairman Microsoft Europe ■ český překlad naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz

Leaders Magazine II/2014 93

culture event

From left: Danilo Lovieno, General Manager, Hotel Le Palais, Dr. Nino Altomonte, Maestro José Miguel Maschietto, Composer and Conductor, Ing. Arch. Dora Kovářová, Architect, and Dr. Michael Cukier with a partner

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WORLD PREMIERE OF„THE ALCHEMIST OF DREAM“ WITH MUSIC BY MAESTRO JOSÉ MIGUEL MASCHIETTO The premiere of the show „The Alchemist of Dream“, which took place at Ponec Theatre in Prague on Friday 7th of March, 2014 provided a brilliant and unique artistic experience to the audience. The symbiosis of original piano music, composed and performed by Maestro José Miguel Maschietto, with fragile scenic dance of Michaela Josífková, carried the audience on a symbolic journey into the mysterious world of dreams – through harmonies and shades of colors, from silence to the rhytm. „The Alchemist of Dream“ is an international project, based on music by Italian Maestro, pianist, composer and conductor José Miguel Maschietto; an experience that brings a fresh concept of a combination of live chamber music concert of original music with modern dance theatre.

Maestro José Miguel Maschietto, whose musical roots arise from classical music (we remember him for example, at the Prague State Opera); in this spectacular evening performed 10 original pieces in contemporary and minimalist style.

Probably for the first time in its history, the stage of Ponec Theatre had the opportunity to host a grand piano Petrof, imported specially for the occasion. The original compositions were accompanied by Bronislav Vagenknecht on trumpet and by scenic dance performed by Michaela Josífková. The last piece, as dramaturgical finale of the evening, was enriched by a performance of Prague Youth strings.

The light design of the performance was an important part of the concept of the show, corresponding to the imagination of a mysterious dream world where the performers appear in a disc of coloured light and dissapeare again slowly into a total darkness.

The performance was held under the patronage of the European Union of Arts, Ministry of Culture and the City of Prague. The General Sponsor and host of the Gala reception, was Le Palais 5***** Art Hotel Prague, and the main partners were the prestigious Petrof Piano Company, Stage Praha, Irina Kruchinina, Nikolay Essence and Ponec Theatre.

Among the guests of the premiere were the representatives of sponsor and partners of the project and prominent personalities from the political, cultural and social life, who after the show moved to the reception, held in the unique atmosphere of Le Palais 5***** Art Hotel.

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culture event

From left: Mrs. Alena Konopíková, Dr. Pavel Roith, and Mr. Charles Beneš Maestro José Miguel Maschietto, Composer and Conductor and Ing. Arch. Dora Kovářová, Architect

Performance

From left: Dr. Jiří Vajs and Maestro José Miguel Maschietto, Composer and Conductor From left: Michaela Josífková, Dancer, Maestro José Miguel Maschietto, Composer and Conductor, and Bronislav Vagenknecht, Trumpet

From left: Dr. Petr Humpolík, former President, Lions Club, Maestro José Miguel Maschietto, Composer and Conductor and Irma Manjgaladze, Euro gold centre Prague

From left: Dr. Ladislav Kochtík, Mrs. Kochtíková, Mr. Charles Beneš, Dr. Petr Vašíček Performance

95 Lively discussion

From left: Mr. Pavel Smetáček, Maestro José Miguel Maschietto, Composer and Conductor, and Mr. Martin Keberle, Petrof

the good things in life

INDIA – HISTORIC HERITAGE PART II Golden Palace, Amritsar, Punjab

Jaisalmer-Fort

The area between Agra, with the Taj Mahal, Rajasthan with its Maharaja palaces and the city of Amritsar in the north, with the Golden Temple complex in the state of Punjab, is considered the imaginary golden triangle of historic monuments. This is only a short list of the tremendous cultural heritage present today in India.

after several weeks in isolation, decided to build a memorial celebrating their unique love. He called in architects and artists, but none of their proposals satisfied him.

He concluded that only someone who had experienced the same destiny could capture such a perfect design. He learned of a famous architect who was very much in love with his wife. Using intrigue, the ruler had her murdered and then proposed to the architect the creation of a tomb for the joint memory of their beloved wives. Thus, a project satisfying the ruler was born. Yet the author of the work himself died prior to finishing the construction and under mysterious circumstances.

The siting of the building is a unique aesthetic experience and its majestic beauty is strengthened by its symmetric setting on a high platform on the northern side of an extensive square garden, with a cross layout of a water surfaces, reflecting the building. The entire monument is built from the purest white marble in Makrana, Rajasthan. Arranged in such a way that, with its backdrop of blue sky, it changes from pink tones in the morning to blues at noon and orange hues before the sunset.

Twenty thousand of the finest craftsmen and artists from around the world created this gem over nearly twelve years. The marble is inlaid with

The Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983, means the ‘Crown Palace’, the most recognizable Indian building worldwide and one of the seven modern Wonders of the World. It’s considered to be the most perfect work of its type, a jewel and the masterpiece of Indo-Islamic architecture. This style gave it its thought-through composition and a setting within the 17 hectare (42 acre) landscape, as well as a genius layout.

It epitomizes the perfect treatment of space and proportion, beauty of selected materials, absolute harmony of all architectural elements and details and, ultimately, its masterful construction and artistic execution.

The elevated bank of the Yuman River near Agra was selected as the site for placing the tomb of the Mughal Shah Jahan’s favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died prematurely in 1631. Legend says that after twenty years of perfect love, the ruler collapsed with sorrow after her death and,

Palace of Winds in Jaipur

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Jaisalmer-Fort

precious stones that came from Baghdad, Egypt, Russia, China and Persia. Four minarets, topped by an eight-sided pavilion, support the symmetry of the entire complex and are erected with a slight tilt away from the central building, so that in case of an earthquake, their collapse wouldn’t damage the mausoleum.

The onyx-inlay calligraphic writing on the marble façade is not noticeable from a distance. The writing and regular ornaments increase in size toward the top, creating an optical impression that all lines and motifs are equally large. Its monumental entry gate empathizes the depth of the space and panels inlaid with precious stones in the arch reflect the changing light that provides the mausoleum its aura of mystery. The huge and intricate filigree walls of the royal tombs are carved from a single piece of marble and set in a perfect octagon. The flood of carver floral motifs symbolizes the main theme of a paradise garden.

The neighboring mosque and guest palace of red sandstone on each side of the tomb intensify the unearthliness of the central building. The ruler is said to have spent the rest of his life on the opposite bank of the river in the Agra fortress, with a view of his wife’s tomb, having been imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb, who assumed the throne.

The ruler’s remains were then laid in the Taj Mahal when he died, thirty years later.

the good things in life Harmandir Sahib – the Golden Temple The Golden Temple is the location of the Sikh Holy Scripture and the Granth Sahib is a landmark of Amritsar and justly so, considered by the Sikhs do be the most beautiful temple in the world. From an architectural point of view, the temple symbolizes a reverse lotus bloom. This is explained by the fact that the white buildings surrounding represent the lotus petals, the golden temple the center of the bloom. The reverse concept could be explained by water not surrounding the bloom but being in the water and, in this case, the water is inside the nectar pond.

The temple has a unique atmosphere, thanks particularly to the singing continuously heard from the central gilded building. Here, the main priests take part in singing from the Guru Granth Sahib’s Holy Scriptures. The Granth Sahib book has a very busy life and rests on a special throne in the outer building. Before dawn, priests ritually wake it up and carry it to the Golden Temple on a handbarrow, while constantly fanning it. There they continue with the reading – singing from the previous day. Their singing is pleasantly accompanied by musical instruments and amplified throughout the complex by speakers. It is naturally also broadcast in a live program on a religious channel. Exactly at 11 pm, the procession picks up again and, accompanied by musicians, carries the book to rest in its ‘bedroom.’

Rajasthan No other state in India offers such a bounty of exquisite palaces and fortresses. Rajasthan was the trade crossroad with the Arab world and the largest concentration of wealth, culture and architecture in India. The Thar Desert was formerly ruled by three large kingdoms – Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Bikaner.

The forested south hosts the fairy-tale fortresses of Udajpur, along with lakes and palaces, as well as national parks known for their tigers.

The capital city Jaipur, also called the Pink City, thanks to the color of of the most important building façades, is a maze of bazaars, palaces and historic monuments. Tradition and the modern age blend here, motorcycles passing camels in narrow streets, older people in turbans mingling with youths in jeans. The Wind Palace, Hawa Mahal is the heart of the city, a bizarre building with a depth of one room. It was built by the aesthete and ruler, Savai Singh, on the edge of the palace complex, in order for women from his harem to be able to watch the busy street life below without being seen. Today, this decorative façade is the icon of Jaipur.

Jantar Mantar is a massive astronomical observatory from the middle of 18th century, said to be the most realistic and logical landscape made of stone. Thanks to their construction as immense brick structures, the astronomical instruments resist vibrations and even today are very accurate.

The complex contains more than ten constructions for various astronomical purposes (time keeping, eclipse prediction, monitoring star positions, etc.). As an example, the Samrat Yantra cannot be overlooked. It is a right-angled triangle, the hypotenuse of which is parallel to the axis of

the Earth. On both sides are brick quadrants for measuring sun-shadow. This is supposedly the largest sun-dial in the world. We found the accuracy to be within 2 minutes on the marked tracks.

Thanks to its unique significance and form, the entire complex was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010.

The Amber Fort, located immediately above the city of Jaipur, is a palace and fort that served as the seat of Rajasthan rulers for over 200 years.

Its robust fortifications, from the 11th century, follow the edge of a natural peak. The beauty of the palace complex lies in the diversity of its buildings, as gradually built by individual rulers. The Sun Gate leads to a spacious courtyard, where we take an elephant-ride through the passageway.

These luxurious, richly decorated palaces are surrounded by Mughal-style gardens and hold Women in Jaipur

Landscape around the Amber Fort in Jaipur

sculptures and exquisite artifacts of inimitable craftsmanship and beauty.

Another wonderful monument is the Jaisalmer Fort, the Golden City of Camels, located in the restless border area of southern India and Pakistan, in the state of Rajasthan, in the Thar desert. The most remote part of the desert hides the lonely oasis of Jaisalmer, reminiscent of the stories of One Thousand and One Nights. This is not a cliché, but actually one of the most romantic cities in India. From a distance, Jaisalmer seems like a mirage, with a dominant fort built of yellow sandstone. The sun reflecting on its walls gave it the name Golden City.

The perimeter of the fortifications covers five kilometers, with a total of ninety-nine defense towers. The labyrinth of stone streets within the forts is so narrow that two camels can scarcely pass one other here. The fort is settled by approximately four thousand people, mostly from the Brahman casts and soldiers. They’ve lived here for entire generations and, in the old days, fought on the side of the Maharajas. Both casts live in their own houses, in separate quarters.

Up until the division of British colonial India, Jaisalmer was located on an important caravan route that brought it great wealth. Local tradesmen showed off by building palaces called haveli. In the beginning of the 18th century there seemed to be a race over whose haveli would be the most luxurious. Just like the city walls, the havelis are built

from yellow sandstone. That stone masonry is so delicate that, from a distance, they appear to be wood carvings. Each haveli is decorated with richly detailed small balconies and windows protected by stone bars with filigree-thin decorations. Through them, the women of the tradesmen could observe the street-life without being seen by strangers.

Most Hindus go to pray each morning in the almost 800 year-old temple of Lakshmi Mata.

Before they begin the day’s work, they bow to the goddess for blessing. The space between the temples and palaces then fills with the ever-present salesmen of typical Rajasthan carpets, decorated with small mirrors. Another local product is wooden marionettes. Even though today’s Jaisalmer is an important destination for travel agencies, you will not find crowds of white people here. There are mostly tourists from India here.

A cultural-heritage journey through Rajasthan must be completed in Udaipur, a city in the south with one of India’s most wonderful palaces, situated in the middle of a lake. These days, it is one the most exquisite and romantic hotels in the world, where servants, all descendants of the original palace servants, ensure complete comfort to their visitors.

By Iva and Joseph Drebitko Photos: Iva Drebitko ■ český překlad naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz

Taj Mahal

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Leaders Magazine II/2014 97

personal enlightenment James A. Cusumano, PhD

BALANCE: THE BUSINESS-LIFE CONNECTION

PART IV: GIVE AND YOU SHALL A,B RECEIVE–BIG TIME! “Suffering ceases to be suffering once it finds a meaning. Being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself—be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love—the more human he is.”

Viktor Frankl1 ■ The ultimate and most effective definition of success is presented and proven beyond question or doubt in Adam Grant’s current best-selling book, Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success.

■ Through the results of numerous studies, Grant has shown that there must be a third leg to the proverbial “stool of success,” which by our 300 year-old classical definition has had only two legs—money and power, Without a third leg called “service” there can be no long-term stability or personal satisfaction and true success.

■ Interviews with hundreds of thousands of global workers from a broad spectrum of professions showed that the single most significant factor that creates meaning in a job is when the employee is convinced that his or her job makes a positive difference in the world.

■ Successful businesses of the 21st century will recognize this untapped potential and do all they can to be sure that their employees find inspiration, satisfaction and perhaps even their Life Purpose by assuring that the employees firmly and truly understand that they are making a positive difference in the world by doing something of value for their company and for others.

[Drive and A Whole New Mind] exclaimed in his recommendation that “Give and Take is a truly exhilarating book–the rare work that will shatter your assumptions about how the world works and keep your brain firing for weeks after you’ve turned the last page.” I believe that he was right on target [Figure 1]!

In my latest book, BALANCE: The Business-Life Connection, I present evidence from decades of personal experience and research in founding, and leading the growth and performance of public companies that the only true path to lasting fulfillment is finding meaning in life by discovering your personal Essence, that special something that you’re good at and that you relish doing, and then connecting it with a need in the world that makes it a better place. You then have found your Life Purpose.

Or, as Grant puts it, the number one feature of a meaningless job is when a person’s effort has little positive impact on others, i.e., from his or her point of view their work makes little difference in the lives of others and therefore does not make FIGURE 1: Give and Take: Best-selling author Robert Sutton [Good Boss, Bad Boss] says that Give and Take just might be the most important book of this young century.”

this a better world. Studies of millions of employees point out that this single feature is more important than promotions, income, job security, and hours.3 Yes, it is true that personal autonomy, variety, challenge, performance feedback, and the opportunity to work on a product or project from start to finish are important. But as important as these elements of a job are, studies of millions of workers show unquestionably that giving something of value to someone and making this a better world trumps them all in creating long-term personal and professional fulfillment.4 Grant references extensive detailed studies that show that 90 percent of the people in jobs such as airline reservation agent, revenue analyst, and TV newscast director have difficulty finding meaning in their life purpose. Why? Because they have a challenge seeing lasting significant positive impact on other peoples’ lives. In contrast, jobs such as adult literacy teacher, fire chief, addiction counselor and neurosurgeon bring lasting fulfillment because these workers can immediately and clearly see that their job makes an important difference in peoples’ lives and in the world.

To drive his message home, Grant points to several independent studies that provide proof of his thesis: – A study reported in the Journal of Applied Psychology by psychologist Stephen E. Humphrey and colleagues, concerning the values of more than 11,000 employees from numerous industries showed that the single most significant factor that created meaning in a job was when the employee was convinced that his or her job made a positive difference in the world [Figure 2].5 – Psychologists Ruiz-Quintanilla and England found in their work that when employees were asked, “When does an activity qualify as work?”

A

If you read just one book in 2014 and want to change your life for the better, read New York Times best-seller Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam Grant, professor at the Wharton School of Business.2 I was motivated to read this book after one of my favorite current-day authors, Daniel H. Pink

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EDITOR’S COMMENT – This is fourth article in a new series based on the author’s latest book, “BALANCE: The Business-Life Connection, SelectBooks, New York, 2013.” The book is based on three decades of personal experience on how to achieve success and long-term fulfillment in both your personal and professional lives.

Details concerning the book and points of purchase can be found at www.JamesCusumano.Com. B The author may be reached at Jim@ChateauMcely.Com.

personal enlightenment they responded, “If it contributes to society.” This response was common in the U.S., Europe and even in China. In a spectrum of cultures and geographic locations around the world, the common response is that work is defined more in terms of contributing to society rather than getting paid to do a task, or just being told what to do.6 – Amy Wrzesniewski, an eminent Yale professor and a world renowned expert on the meaning of work, found that when people see their job as a calling rather than as a job, they are much more fulfilled. And in their view the central feature defining a calling is doing something that makes the world a better place.7

FIGURE 3: Discovering that special thing that you are good at and love to do, and connecting it with a need in the world that makes it a better place, creates your Life Purpose. Pursuing you Life Purpose ultimately leads to deep personal and professional fulfillment. This is the most effective definition of success.

The Good News!

The results of Grant’s research and that of others suggest that there are steps we can take to make jobs more meaningful for ourselves and for others, even when they may not seem meaningful as currently practiced, e.g., as mentioned above, for the jobs of airline reservation agent, revenue analyst, and TV newscast director.

In some cases the job may have a significant impact, but the employee is too distant from the end user to see the impact. Grant gives the examples of automotive safety engineers who never meet the drivers of the cars their company manufactures, or medical researchers who make significant healthcare discoveries, but don’t see the patients they help or whose lives they save.

Research shows that by connecting directly with the end users, we can see the benefits of our service or product. In Grant’s research he and his colleagues found that when university fundraisers met with just one student whose scholarship was funded by their work, they increased by 142 percent in weekly phone minutes and over 400 percent in weekly revenue.8 And when radiologists saw a patient’s photo included in their x-ray file, they wrote 29 percent

longer patient reports and made 46 percent more accurate diagnoses.9 Grant states from his studies that “This is why leaders at John Deere invite employees who build tractors to meet the farmers who buy their tractors, leaders at Facebook invite software developers to hear from users who have found long-lost friends and family members thanks to the site, and leaders at Wells Fargo Bank film videos of customers describing how low-interest loans have rescued them from debt. When we see the direct consequences of our jobs for others, we find greater meaning.”10 As corroborated by New York Times columnist Susan Dominus, “The greatest untapped source of motivation is a sense of service to others.”11 Have no fear if you are for example, an airlines reservation agent! Grant provides complete details in his book on how to enrich your job by crafting into it specific changes that can make it much more meaningful and help you to recognize your value added and move towards personal fulfillment.

What so amazes me is how book after book and study after study of millions of employees around the world describe and verify the accuracy of the following findings and yet employers ignore the greatest asset before them.12 – Nearly 80 percent of all employees are disengaged from their jobs, ranging in a spectrum from simply collecting a paycheck to outright disdain for their job and their management.

Could 80 percent of all employees be innately uninspired to do their job? I don’t think so. What an untapped resource! What a shame!

– All employees have a certain innate skill—their Essence—which if accessed provides what I call the Triple Win. The employee finds personal fulfillment; the employer receives optimal performance and builds a successful business; the world sees a benefit. What could be better?

Isn’t it worth the time and effort to create an environment that identifies and utilizes an employee’s fundamental Essence and helps that person find personal and professional fulfillment while building a great company and helping to create a better world [Figure 3]? Let’s reduce the 80 percent figure of disengaged employees and create a Triple Win—Business, Employee, the World!

As I said at the beginning of this column, if you read just one book in 2014 and want to change your life for the better, read New York Times best-

FIGURE 2: Global studies of millions of employees from a broad spectrum of professions show without question that the single most significant factor that creates meaning in a job is when the employee is convinced that his or her job makes a positive difference in the world.

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seller Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam Grant, professor at the Wharton School of Business.13 It is a special gift to all of us.

Sat, Chit, Ananda.

Enjoy your journey!

James A. Cusumano, PhD ■ 1 Frankl, Viktor, Mans Search For Meaning, http:// www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-ViktorFrankl/dp/080701429X 2 Grant, Adam, Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&fieldkeywords=adam%20grant&sprefix=adam+gr%2Cstrip books&rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Aadam%20grant.

3 Cascio, Wayne F., Changes in Workers, Work and Organizations: Part III The Work Environment published in The Handbook of Psychology, http://onlinelibrary.wiley. com/doi/10.1002/0471264385.wei1216/abstract 4 The Most (and Least) Meaningful Jobs, http://www. payscale.com/data-packages/most-and-least-meaningful-jobs/salary-versus-job-meaning 5 Humphrey, Stephen E.; Nahrgang, Jennifer D.; Morgeson, Frederick P., Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol 92(5), Sep 2007, 1332-1356. See: http://psycnet. apa.org/journals/apl/92/5/1332/.

6 Ruiz-Quintanilla, S. Antonio, England, George W., How working is defined: Structure and stability http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/(SICI) 1099-1379(199612)17:1%2B%3C515::AIDJOB821%3E3.0.CO;2-G/abstract 7 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S0092656697921620.

8 Grant, Adam M. et. al., Impact and the art of motivation maintenance: The effects of contact with beneficiaries on persistence behavior: http://www.sciencedirect. com/science/article/pii/S0749597806000641.

9 Turner, Yehonatan N., http://www2.rsna.org/timssnet/media/pressreleases/pr_target.cfm?ID=389.

10 Grant, Adam M., How Customers Can Rally Your Troops, Harvard Business Review, June, 2011 and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-grant/the1-feature-of-a-meanin_b_4691464.html.

11 Dominus, Susan, “Is Giving the Secret to Getting Ahead?,” New York Times, March 27, 2103.

12 Cusumano, James A., BALANCE: The Business-Life Connection, SelectBooks, New York, 2013.

13 Op. cit., Reference 2.

James A. Cusumano is Chairman and Owner of Chateau Mcely (www.ChateauMcely.Com), chosen in 2007 by the European Union as the only “Green” 5-star luxury hotel in Central and Eastern Europe and in 2008 by the World Travel Awards as The World’s Leading Green Hotel. It is home to Chateau Mcely Forum™ (www.ChateauMcelyForum.Com) which offers programs that teach the principles of Inspired Leadership. He is a former Research Director for Exxon, and subsequently founded two public companies in Silicon Valley, one in clean power generation, the other in pharmaceuticals manufacture via environmentally-benign, low-cost, catalytic technologies. While he was Chairman and CEO, the latter – Catalytica Pharmaceuticals, Inc. – grew in less than 5 years, to a $1 billion enterprise with 2,000 employees. He is coauthor of Freedom from Mid-East Oil, released in 2007 by World Business Academy Press (www.WorldBusiness.Org) and author of Cosmic Consciousness – A Journey to Well-being, Happiness and Success, published in English and Czech by Fortuna Libri, 2011. His new book, BALANCE: The Business—Life Connection was published in April 2013 by SelectBooks in New York City. It was published in Czech in October 2013 by Fortuna Libri.

Leaders Magazine II/2014 99

interview

Photo: DPP

Jaroslav Ďuriš is the CEO of the Prague Public Transport Company (DPP), the most important public transport provider in the Czech Republic. He knows the DPP very well as he worked here between 1981 and 2008. In 2008 he left and managed the public transport company in České Budějovice for four years. He returned to Prague as a crisis manager and immediately took on a challenging task: to save the local public transport company.

100 Leaders Magazine II/2014

interview An interview with Jaroslav Ďuriš, CEO, Prague Public Transport Company You finished second in the last year’s selection procedure of the new CEO of the DPP. Could you imagine at that time that in the future you could lead the DPP nevertheless?

I did not think about it. I fully focused on my work in České Budějovice.

You managed the public transport company in České Budějovice. Are the two transport companies comparable? In your opinion, what is the same and where do you see the largest differences?

Of course, many things are comparable, from the main activities of the companies, the ownership structures, communication with the town hall to legislation. From my point of view, the main difference lies in the size of the companies.

Your “100-day grace period” (although the term might not be used in your field of business) is over. How was it?

During these 100 days, I was extremely busy.

There are really a vast number of priorities and I often had to decide which of them is more important than the others. I worked from dawn to dusk.

to do something about that, I would never have accepted the job. I believe that the situation can be managed, even if the results will not be visible in the course of the nearest months.

It has been said in some media that you have a strong mandate thanks to your experience in the public transport business. They call you a new “general” of the largest municipal company in the Czech Republic. How do you feel about this?

I appreciate this title; however, I do not overrate it.

Do the media follow your work more closely than you had expected? And how do you get on with them?

I am trying to treat the media fairly. My priority is communication in all directions; with employees, as well as with our owner, that is the town hall, and obviously also with the media.

On the other hand, when you took up the post, the politicians said openly that if you fail, the results for the DPP will be disastrous. With a bit of exaggeration, do you consider yourself an interim manager?

I knew from the very beginning that the situation in the company is quite complex. On the other hand, if I had not believed that it was possible

When you became the CEO of the DPP, you announced some steps that you would like to take. Which of them do you consider to be of greatest importance?

In my opinion, the most important step, especially during my first months at DPP, has been the stabilization of the company. This includes internal cost savings, change of conditions

regarding the order for new trams from the Škoda Transportation company, and of course also finishing the works on the extended metro line A. Do you still communicate with ordinary employees like you used to do in České Budějovice?

In my opinion, this is one of the features of my management style. During the long years that I spent working here in the Prague Public Transport Company, I made a lot of friends and acquaintances. Therefore I communicate both with our social partners and with employees throughout the company.

You said that when deciding about taking up the leading post in the company, you had listened to your heart. Will this influence your management of the DPP in any respect? Or do you prefer strictly rational approach to decision making?

It is very often necessary to combine both combine both feelings and rational approach; I am trying to listen to both heart and mind. As I was a part of the company already in the 1980s, the heart plays an important role. However, as the CEO, I often have to take the rational approach. As you see, I combine both.

When did you last travel by public transport?

I travel by public transport almost every day, so the last occasion was today. For me, it is the fastest and at the same time very comfortable way of travelling from the headquarters of the DPP to the city centre and back.

Do you have any proven recipe for relaxation?

In my opinion, everybody must learn to “switch off” after work. I have two proven recipes. First and foremost my family, and secondly fishing.

By Jaroslav Kramer ■ By translation Zuzana Halamíčková český překlad naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz

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Leaders Magazine II/2014 101

diplomatic event

From left: Mrs. Thelma O’Connor, H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland, Mr. Cóilín O’Connor and Mary Keane, President of the Czech Irish Business Association

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ST PATRICK’S DAY 2014 St Patrick’s Day, 17 March, was celebrated in style in the Czech Republic.

The Petřín Tower in Prague and the Ostrava City Hall joined Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative to mark the Irish National Day. The lights on the Petřín Tower turned green on Friday evening, 14 March in the presence of Prague City Mayor Tomáš Hudeček, Mayor of Prague 1, Oldřich Lomecký, and Her Excellency Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland, who marked the event with a traditional toast of Jameson Irish whiskey. The Greening was made possible by the generous support of Tourism Ireland, Žabka, and the Czech Irish Business and Cultural Association.

On the evening of St Patrick’s Day, Ambassador Kelly hosted a reception in the beautiful Mayor’s Residence for friends of Ireland, including members of the Government and the Chamber of Deputies, the Mayor and members of the City Council, diplomatic and business colleagues and the Irish community.

From left: Tomáš Kafka, former Ambassador, H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland, Petr Kolář, Senior Advisor, Squire Sanders, Kristina Larischová, Director General, Analytic and Communication Section, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Edvard Outrata, former Senator

Miloš Balabán, Director, Center for Social and Economic Strategies with his wife Gabriela on the left and H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland

102

Daniel Herman, Minister of Culture and H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland

From left: Ladislav Müller, Director, Enterprise Ireland, Tomáš Hudeček, Mayor of Prague, H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland and Oldřich Lomecký, Mayor of Prague 1

From left: Tomáš Hudeček, Mayor of Prague, H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland and Ladislav Müller, Director, Enterprise Ireland

diplomatic event

Michael Specking, General Manager, Hilton Hotels Prague, H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland and Mrs. Claudia Specking

From left: Tomáš Hudeček, Mayor of Prague and Benke Aikell, Publisher of Prague Leaders Magazine

Petr Kolář, Senior Advisor, Squire Sanders and H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland

From left: Thomas Hrubý, Hrubý & Buchvaldek, H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland and Richard Sequens, former Senator From left: H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland and Eva Anderová, Deputy Minister for International Relations, Ministry of Finance Václav Novotný, Deputy Mayor of Prague and H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland

H.E. Gary Koren, Ambassador of Israel and H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland From left: H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland, Karel Žebrakovský, Head of Department of Science and Research, Czech Technical University and Helena Válková, Minister of Justice

From left: Mark Cummins, Plant Controller, Doosan Bobcat Manufacturing, Diarmaid de Búrca, Technical Director, Plzeňský prazdroj, David Werry, Managing Director, Davcor and H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland

Anthony Schofield, Director General, Jan Becher – Karlovarská Becherovka and H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland

103 H.E. Alison Kelly, Ambassador of Ireland and Tomáš Hudeček, Mayor of Prague

ČSÚZ

JUDr. Josef Bartončík and PhDr. Petr Nebeský, Members, Czechoslovak Foreign Institute (in the middle) with their friends

CZECHOSLOVAK FOREIGN INSTITUTE NEW YEAR GATHERING IN STRAHOV More than hundred members and friends of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute and its Club of Czech and Slovak speaking foreign diplomats met in the unique Strahov monastery. The abbot of the monastery Michael Josef Pojezdný, the member of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute, has offered splendid space of the monastery refectory and allows quests to enter unique halls of the Strahov library for five years now.

“When the New Year starts, people make various wishes. They wish everything turns out well.

PhDr. Libuše Benešová, Chairwoman, Czechoslovak Foreign Institute and Ing. Jan Zahradil, the first Vice Chairman ODS (Civic Democratic Party), and Member of the European Parliament

104

But it all depends on them mostly,” the abbot mentioned and he quoted Jan Werich’s words: Since a man already exists, he should care to be.

And since he cares to be and he is, he should be whom he is and not be whom he is not as it is usually. It is very important to care about our own lives as Werich says. We can influence many things, we can create space for ourselves where people like to meet, the abbot emphasized.” The Chairman of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute Jaromír Šlápota expressed his thanks to everybody for their contributions thanks to which the Institute already celebrated its 85th anniversary. People from all over the world are sending thanks for that: from universities in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, Lvov, Minsk, Baku, Czech schools in Vienna and Croatia, Czech schools without borders in London and Brussels, Washington Sokol and other institutions. These are the places where the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute sends financial contributions from its members to improve education, especially Czech classes. He also mentioned that the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute established itself in Slovakia under the participation of the first lady Ivana Zemanová who has been its member for several years. The Chairman of the Institute in Slovakia in Bratislava Mgr. Radoslav Baran came to the Strahov meeting for the first time. Jaromír

From left: Michael Josef Pojezdný, Abbot, Strahov Monastery and Member, Czechoslovak Foreign Institute and Jaromír Šlápota, Chairman, Czechoslovak Foreign Institute presented their New Year wishes

Šlápota concluded his speech wishing so that all the participants could meet next year there again, and he thanked everybody for bringing help and joy to children of Czech countrymen abroad.

And what do the participants of the meeting think about it? “For us diplomats it is unique opportunity to meet in pleasant and unusual atmosphere. To talk in such a place feels very special, festive. Strahov is one of the most beautiful places in Prague. Not everybody can enter it and thanks to the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute we have that chance,” Anna Ponomareva, the counsel of the Russian Embassy said. I appreciate opportunity to meet other diplomats who speak Czech and the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute members. I feel as at home with you. I am grateful to the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute for organising such meetings,” Slovenian Ambassador Smiljana Knez added. Similarly Yan Yunqing, chargé d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy: “We appreciate regular meetings where we can exchange information and can discuss questions of our common interest. We look forward to other meetings in the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute in this year which is in the sign of horse following Chinese horoscope. Horse is a symbol of success, progress, energy. I wish you all success in the year of horse.”

From left: Michael Josef Pojezdný, Abbot, Strahov Monastery and Member, Czechoslovak Foreign Institute, Yan Yuqing, chargé d’affaires a.i., Chinese Embassy, Ju Won Chol, Deputy of the North Korean Embassy, members of the Club of Czech and Slovak Speaking Diplomats, Czechoslovak Foreign Institute, Jaromír Šlápota, Chairman, Czechoslovak Foreign Institute and Mrs. Anna Kafková

A record-breaking number of the members and friends of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute and Czech and Slovak Speaking Diplomats was interested in meeting the Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies Jan Hamáček.

ČSÚZ

THE CHAIRMAN OF THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES IN THE CZECHOSLOVAK FOREIGN INSTITUTE A record-breaking number of the members and friends of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute and Czech and Slovak speaking diplomats was interested in meeting the youngest chairman of the Chamber of Deputies in the Czech history and maybe in Europe Jan Hamáček (ČSSD) on February 25. The thirty-five-year old politician, at the age of 27 already adviser of the Prime minister, since 2006 deputy and member of the International committee and Committee for European affairs in the Chamber, caught attention of members by his knowledge and professional speech.

“Czechoslovak Foreign Institute is not an unknown institution for me and therefore it is a real honour for me to be here,” the Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies said and thanked the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute members for their work.

He appreciated that its members do all their work for the fellow countrymen voluntarily and without any honorarium that makes their activity even more valuable. He informed participants of the meeting about orientation of international work of the Chamber. “The Parliament can play a big role in creating Czech foreign policy,” he said adding that he is ready to put a greater role to the Chairman

A commemorative medal of Silver Lion was also presented again to the Azerbaijanian Ambassador Tahir Taghizade. The first one that he received in the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute was stolen to him by thieves.

of the Chamber and improve coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Institute and the president between which a good communication has started after last-year elections because all of them aim at promoting interests of the Czech Republic abroad. „The Czech Republic as a member of the European Union and NATO has a chance to stop its voluntary isolation in Europe,” he emphasized. He described several-year period when the Czech Republic has limited itself in the EU on declaring what it did not want but it was less clear what it really wanted. The EU allies then stopped their interest in opinions of Czech Eurosceptic crew. According to the Chamber chairman, in the new political constellation it is necessary to respect that the Czech Republic citizens voted to become the EU members and to define cooperation with Visegrad countries, Germany and other EU members newly. “I hope that the Czech Republic will be a reliable partner again and that the EU members will consult important issues with the Czech Republic,” he said.

As far as NATO is concerned, he said that since we entered it we should work in it too. Not to fulfil member duties is not a solution but it does not exclude possibility to discuss other definition of that alliance, its new programme and other aspects

that appear in the political spectrum of individual member countries.

Jan Hamáček described relations between the Czech and Slovak Republics as above standards.

He informed about the planned common negotiation of both countries governments. “We can learn from each other and as for diplomacy, we can learn from Slovakia,” he said. Slovakia for example managed to reach crucial political consensus in the state foreign policy meanwhile political parties in the Czech Republic have partly different conception and they try to push it through.

As far as Russia, China, India and Brazil are concerned, in previous seven years our activities have dropped down and the Czech Republic started to solve the problem of human rights in the world more intensively than other EU members at the expense of its own economical interests. That would be better not to deal with human rights in the world from the position of just one country but to persuade the EU partners to act together. “That would bring benefit and it would give free hands to the Czech business policy,” the Chairman Jan Hamáček concluded its speech in the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute.

Hebr ■

105 Czechoslovak Foreign Institute Chairman Jaromír Šlápota awarded a commemorative medal of Silver Lion to the guest Jan Hamáček.

analysis

ARE WE BEFORE A SECOND COLD WAR? In writing today about the main current political crises is risky at first glance and it is not just because there is a haze of propaganda and tremendous amount of published comment.

Especially this is valid, when I am going to write for the magazine, which comes out in two weeks. In addition, the deadline is ahead of the weekend referendum in the Crimea. I guess we can assume that, first referendum will be and second we likely know what will happen.

My intention is to perceive on the context and objectives, which may crucial players in this crisis have. Above all, it is important to realize that we are in a game of chess, which runs for some time. Let’s say it’s the shorter version and I will do the last two decades.

Putin had defined his geopolitical objectives quite clearly in saying that the disintegration of the USSR had been a great historical tragedy. This makes it clear that his intention is to reconstruct imperial powers on such geopolitical scale. We may ask whether it is meant up to that level to restore global polarity of the two blocks. Then but my question in front is the theme to be seriously considered. But the world has changed and on the stage we have other important players and like China and India. Also, the EU would like to play a role, but so far it has a minimum of political instruments, mainly because of its constitution.

The traditional European powers play the potential EU’s role instead. In relation to the current crisis the importance of Poland has clearly increases.

H.E Jan Koukal, former Czech Ambassador to Austria and former Lord Mayor of Prague.

Photo: Archive

106 Leaders Magazine II/2014

Moreover, the relationship with Russia rather divides the European countries than opposite.

Even within some states this issue is far from settled opinion or does not prevail in the long term.

Putin’s image in the media today mainly due to the statements of some politicians is indeed pretty bad. But it would be wrong and dangerous with this view to go into the negotiations. Secretary of State John Kerry remarked in an interview in CBC: “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on [a] completely trumped-up pretext.” He also warned that President Obama “has all options on the table” – including the use of military force, though he said that option would “not serve the world well.” No comment.

analysis

German chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly opined that the Russian head of state may have lost “touch with reality” and appeared to be “living in another world.” Almost simultaneously but she declared: sanctions...would inevitably hit Germany“. Later about European penalties against Russia she added …“depend on how the diplomatic process progresses.”

What did the U.S. geopolitical activity in recent times in relation to Russia? As we mark these days an the entry of the Czech Republic into NATO we should admit that in 2004 it was promised that the alliance will not be in future closer to the Russian border. However, the Baltic States entered the NATO and we have had a debate about Georgia and now about Ukraine. Let us remember also events in Haiti, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo etc. Yes, we could say that it was the Cold War. The same statement is valid in 2002? The United States unilaterally withdrew from its treaty with Moscow banning anti-ballistic missiles and plans to station missiles droughts in Eastern Europe.

Putin cannot and will not simply retreat. The geopolitical chess game is played simultaneously in other parts of the world. It’s now less visible in the media in Syria, Palestine or Afghanistan, etc. There are the politicians carefully evaluating the steps taken by the two superpowers, who are looking for a reliable partner for its particular goals, not only in the general political level. There

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are the simple things, like where to buy weapons, against whom it is necessary to have more respect, who is reliable, who is able to invest and participate in the potential future development i.e. lend out money, etc. The general lesson from Crime invasion is that the globalisation of the crises caused that, regardless the fact that Europe is Russia’s largest trading partner and the primary market for Russia’s energy exports, which provide 50 percent of government revenue, economic or energetic interdependence is no safeguard against military conflict.

Let us remember the two events from the last two decades, namely the creation of the Republic of Kosovo and the war in Georgia. Republic of Kosovo’s declaration of independence was established by Parliament of Autonomous Region in February 2008. Serbia turned to the UN in October 2008, the General Assembly approved an resolution to assess the legality of this step in international court in The Hague. In July 2010, the court ruled out that the unilateral declaration of independence was not violation of international law. Serbia with its ally Russia has not succeeded, although the general recognition of the Republic of Kosovo is not yet a closed chapter.

By the war in Georgia I consider the events of the 2008 in South Ossetia and Abkhaz operation in the Kodori Gorge. The intervention of the Russian army was initially perceived positively also within

the American side, as confirmed U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle. Let’s say later, the rate or spatial depth of intervention had led to a distortion of integrity of Georgia. Before the global community fully recognized the political situation Russia scored the military and political victory and South Ossetia and Abkhazia broke away from Georgia.

The positions of individual politicians, but also the states of the West today inspire rather smile. Czech even managed to stand in the same time on the side of Georgia, but also on the other side. Governments of separated now Russian satellites still have a problem with international recognition, but in the context of Russian brotherhood they exist.

How legitimate in this context looks the argument about the legality of the Crimean referendum? Are we prepared to understand that the justice dimensions of this crisis are more complex than they appear to be at first glance?

Still, it can be perceived weakness and inconsistencies on our side i.e. the west side, or the side of USA’s administration and the EU states, but we cannot ignore the way how President Yanukovich governs his home country.

The daily life of ordinary Ukrainians has become losing a human dignity. Then as in our velvet revolution, whether the starter was anyone or anything, people in the streets became hegemons.

It was a classic popular revolution. It began with an unmistakably reactionary regime. President Yanukovich sought to gather all power, political as well as financial, in his own hands. He came to power in democratic elections, but then he altered the system from within. The country, Ukraine, was in effect an oligarchy, where much of the wealth was in the hands of couple of Yanukovich companions.

Moreover it was not enough; he wanted to be not only the president but the oligarch-in-chief.

Here is sympathy easily assignable and we do not need to remind us that part of Ukraine was part of Czechoslovakia. In comparison with the situation in the nineties, when the West has managed to integrate several countries that were once behind the Iron Curtain, Ukraine nowadays without Russia, would have no economic, financial, or cultural viability. The situation is therefore historically unique and very complicated. Many simplistic historical parallels that appear in the media are misleading.

It is essential that it can shift the boundaries of Western democracy again one step to the east.

When you will read this article, you will already know whether Ukraine went through the so-called Western pressure and maintained its integrity.

Crimea according to the expected outcome will likely not be Putin’s Trojan horse for handling whole Ukraine. It will probably stay only as a symbolic example for other parts of eastern Ukraine. I think Putin would prefer originally the first version. Also because now Ukraine will without Crimea have a far greater tendency and above all broader support en its route into the European political space.

On principle autocracies like Russia or Yanukovich’s Kiev overestimate their power and leverage, while democracies underestimate theirs. Are we now prepared to turn the crisis into an opportunity?

By Jan Koukal ■

Leaders Magazine II/2014 107

EU matters interview

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An interview with Daniel Pataki, Director of the Association of European Telecommunications Network Operators (ETNO)

OUR COMPANIES ARE COMMITTED TO MEETING CUSTOMER NEEDS. WE NEED FAIR RULES AND REGULATORY CONSISTENCY. ETNO’s Director since February 2012, Daniel Pataki’s prior work included President of the Hungarian National Communications Authority, the European Regulators Group (ERG) and the EU Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG). Prior to working in the regulatory authority, Pataki was Hungarian Deputy State Secretary in charge of Communications at the Ministry of IT and Telecommunications, from 2002 to 2003. A Hungarian national, Pataki graduated from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences and holds a postgraduate degree from Programme Copernic, Paris. He was awarded the Officer Cross of the Order of the Republic of Hungary in 2009 for his work in EU electronic communications regulation and the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary in 2005 for his work promoting the development of the ICT sector.

Photo: Archive

108 LeadersAmsterdam Magazine II/2014 Athinai Berlin Bratislava Bruxelles Bucureşti Budapest Dublin Helsingfors København Lefkosia Lisboa Ljubljana London Luxembourg Madrid Paris Praha Rïga Roma Sofia Stockholm Tallinn Valletta Vilnius Warszawa Wien

EU matters interview The telecommunications sector is broadly regulated in the EU. At the same time, it is a fast growing sector and adapted regulation is needed. How do we ensure that the new regulation doesn’t harm the growth and competitiveness of this sector?

Whichever policy or regulation is put in place, it must be innovation-friendly and growth conducive. The telecommunication sector is highly regulated, much more so than other sectors in the EU and far more than in the rest of the World. Due to rapid innovation, our industry is a moving target for regulators and we need less sector-specific regulation.

The Internet value chain has changed compared to ten years ago. Today we need to address two key challenges: platform competition and overthe-top players. As for platform competition, fixed networks compete with mobile and cable networks. In addition to this, the same services operated before only by telecom operators, are now being delivered by over-the-top players providing SMS, voice, video and others (internet services such as Whatsapp, Google or FaceBook).

We cannot ignore it. Our companies don’t fear this competition, but to compete we must have a fair basis – an equal footing – for all players currently in the market. The problem is that we have a range of services that are regulated when provided by telecom operators, but unregulated among over-the-top players. This creates a threat to consumers, who have different sets of rights.

Therefore, we wish to have deregulation in our area of fixed access and level the playing field for competing with over-the-top players.

The telecoms sector still bears the legacy of former national monopolies, no large telecommunications companies operate in all Member States. What are the primary barriers to Single Market in this area?

We are a strong advocate for Single Market.

Building scale is the next step for telecom operators to drive growth and fight for innovation and success in a global ICT market. Another important aspect is spectrum. We are supporters of the European Commission proposal in this area, as spectrum is the life blood of the telecom sector. Across the EU we are confronted with varied design, timing and pricing of spectrum auctions. We would like governments to realize that the price of spectrum should reflect further investments made by telecom operators.

The priorities of the Greek presidency, concerning your members, are the development of a Digital Single Market, extension of broadband networks and the creation of systems to assure cyber and telecommunications security. It’s an ambitious agenda. What, in your opinion, is achievable and what questions will remain on the table?

ETNO supports the Greek presidency on all ICT issues. Their working program is based on growth, so any of these proposals fit our priorities perfectly. They also plan to review the Digital

agenda targets that were set five years ago. At that time, the Commission was focusing on the supply side. We will support broadening the scope of Digital agenda targets towards policies and targets that drive investment and support growth.

In this sense, we are sympathetic with those who believe that traditional telecoms regulation approaches are not viable with these new digital developments. We need to think about whether the policy is supportive of new changes, such as smart cities, e-health and connected TVs that improve social welfare, efficiency and positive environmental aspects.

What are your major concerns regarding the Connected Continent regulation proposal and, if not adopted under this EP mandate, what approach would you recommend to future MEPs? Our major concerns at the moment are the open internet provisions. First, I must emphasize that we are for an open internet. We also believe that every measure must be innovation-friendly and allow the differentiation of services and offers by the industry, because different users have varied needs. The text on Connected Continent now being discussed in the European Parliament will affect our ability to deliver the most innovative services (IPTV, IP video, VPN and so called specialized services). If this text is passed, it would reduce the choices of users and hamper competition among our members with respect to the rest of the world.

The proposal as such is very comprehensive, but consumers are usually interested in roaming prices. Is there an opportunity for European operators to reduce these prices and how might that be achieved?

Operators are offering competitive prices, because clients ask to use their bundles, especially regarding data, wherever they travel in Europe. So our companies are committed to match customer needs. We only ask for regulatory consistency. In 2012, the EU institutions approved Roaming Regulation 3, which addressed exactly these same issues. Telecom companies are already investing to implement these measures.

Going back to cyber-security, how can fraud, cybercrime and network security best be ensured?

Trust is a key issue today. Our companies are committed to ensure that communications are safe and that both companies and individuals are protected from cybercrime. As far as cybersecurity is concerned, ETNO believes that crosssector regulation should replace sector-specific frameworks, especially now, when technological developments are revolutionizing the traditional value chain. For this reason, we welcomed the proposed NIS Directive, as it constitutes a first fundamental step towards recognizing the importance of security throughout the entire value chain.

More specifically, we call on the co-legislators to recognize that e-communication providers

are already subject to several obligations in the information security field. We would therefore welcome a further clarification on the relationship between various existing risk management and incident reporting frameworks (Telecoms package, draft regulation on e-identification).

The EU is currently negotiating a most important trade agreement with the US. Opening up markets will certainly bring competitive changes with the entry of new players. Is that an opportunity for your members or rather a matter of concern?

Any regulatory discussion with such a large economic player is important. Overall, we think that growth and regulatory convergence should be the twin objectives of the negotiations. There are various areas where the scope exists to promote convergence of regulation between the EU and US. We ask for more convergent frameworks for our companies and an equal playing field with all internet players.

Innovation has been the cornerstone of success in the mobile ecosystem and companies are pushed for constant development. What kind of funding can your members find under the new EU MFF 2014–2020?

Many of our members will be actors under the Horizon 2020program. There will be also a new opportunity for members in the 5G Public-PrivatePartnership. Its aim is to build the communication network foundations for the coming decade and address future ‘connectivity’ needs in key societal and economic domains. The challenge for 5G PPP is to secure European leadership in particular areas where Europe is strong or where there is the potential for creating new markets such as smart cities, e-health, intelligent transport, education or entertainment & media. The total budget devoted by the public side of the 5G Infrastructure PPP is expected to total around €700 million in Horizon 2020 (European Commission), which is mirrored by €700 million committed by the private side.

In addition to this, the expectation is that the telecommunications industry will invest five to ten-times this amount outside the partnership in activities that contribute to the objectives of the PPP. What opportunities does Connecting Europe Facility bring to your members? Compared with other sectors (transport and energy), the digital support from CEF proposed by the Commission at €9.2bn was reduced to €1bn at the February 2013 European Council. Can this amount generate significant investments?

ETNO supported the CEF proposal since the beginning. Unfortunately, the outcome is not ideal and we hope the financial envelope destined to telecommunication sector will be used in the most cost effective manner.

Thank you very much for the interview!

Alena Mastantuono, Director of CEBRE – Czech Business Representation to the EU ■

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EU matters debates IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

From left: Jaroslava Beneš Špalková, Deputy Minister for EU Common Agricultural and Fishing Policies, Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, Tassos Haniotis, Director, Directorate for Economic Analysis, Perspectives and Evaluation, DG AGRI, European Commission, Šárka Kučerová, Advisor for the Common Agricultural Policy, European Parliament, Jiří Kubíček, Head of the Information Office of the European Parliament to the Czech Republic

MODERNIZED COMMON AGRICULTURE POLICY RULES FROM 2015

After three years of intensive negotiations between the European Parliament and EU Member States the reform of the Common agricultural policy (CAP) was finally approved in December 2013. Due to the fact that the implementation of the new legislation into national standards will take at least half a year, new CAP rules will come into force in 2015. As in previous years, CAP is to become the biggest slice of the European budget pie (39%). Under the new rules, quota systems, namely for milk, sugar and wine, should temporarily persist. The modernized CAP Directive should have an impact on the Czech agriculture, especially in the field of reduction of direct payments. What other impacts will have this reform on Czech farmers and what are the general CAP benefits has been discussed during a debate co-organized by CEBRE, Czech Chamber of Commerce, European Commission Representation to the CR and European Parliament’s Information Office in the CR on the 19th February 2014 in Prague.

Tassos Haniotis, Director, Directorate for Economic Analysis, Perspectives and Evaluation, DG AGRI, European Commission

110 Participants of the debate

From left: Jaroslava Beneš Špalková, Deputy Minister for EU Common Agricultural and Fishing Policies, Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, Tassos Haniotis, Director, Directorate for Economic Analysis, Perspectives and Evaluation, DG AGRI, European Commission

From left: Šárka Kučerová, Advisor for the Common Agricultural Policy, European Parliament, Jiří Kubíček, Head of the Information Office of the European Parliament to the Czech Republic

From left: Petra Janíčková, Founder of www.pracezeny.cz, Kateřina Jirková, Director of Social and Family Policy Department, Ministry of Labour and Social Affaires CR, Alena Mastantuono, Director of CEBRE – Czech Business Representation to the EU, and Jana Klampflová, Gender expert and Managing Director of GENDER Consulting, s.r.o.

EU matters debates

WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF GETTING BACK CZECH WOMEN INTO LABOUR MARKET?

IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

Insufficient capacity of preschool facilities, lack of flexible working arrangements and persistent social stereotypes are the most common obstacles to Czech women willing to return to work after maternity leave. Flexibility in the form of part-time jobs, home office or job sharing could often help women with children to get back to the working process more easily. Czech society is very conservative in this respect compared to the rest of the EU Member States. These weaknesses of Czech labour market have also been pointed out in the set of recommendations by the European Commission within the European semester and were the main topic of a debate devoted to obstacles in the labour market for women on maternity leave co-organized by CEBRE, Czech Chamber of Commerce, European Commission Representation to the CR and European Parliament’s Information Office in the CR on 17th December 2013 in Prague.

Kateřina Jirková, Director of Department of Social and Family Affairs of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs

Petra Janíčková, Founder of www.pracezeny.cz Jan Michal, Head of Representation of the European Commission to the Czech Republic

111 Participants of the debate

Jana Klampflová, Gender expert and Managing Director of GENDER Consulting, s.r.o.

EU matters business

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE

BUSINESS NEWS January–February 2014

DID YOU KNOW THAT…? …the Commission has introduced climate and energy goals for 2030?

The European Commission presented new EU framework on climate and energy for 2030 setting one binding target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 1990 levels and EU-wide binding target of 27% for renewable energy sources.

The role of energy efficiency which has been part of the 20-20-20 Strategy will be considered in the revision of the Directive on energy efficiency, which is to be concluded later this year.

Furthermore, the Commission proposed to establish a market stability reserve at the beginning of the next ETS trading period in 2021. The reserve should address the surplus of emission allowances produced in recent years. To achieve the EU targets on renewables a new management system based on national energy plans for competitive, secure and sustainable energy will be built. These plans must be established by Member States in the framework of a common approach that will ensure greater investor confidence and greater transparency and strengthen the coherence, coordination at EU level and supervision. It is expected that the European Council will discuss the climate and energy package for 2030 at its spring meeting in March. …the Commission has proposed new rules for the banking sector?

To stop the biggest and most complex banks from engaging in the risky activity of proprietary trading is the main objective of the Commission’s proposal on revision of rules for the banking sector. The new legislation also gave supervisors the power to require the banks to not conflict risky trading activities with their deposit-taking business, provided that these activities could have a negative impact on financial stability. The Commission also adopted measures to increase the transparency of shadow banking, so that the banks did not intentionally shift risky activities in this sector. As stated by the Commissioner for internal market and services Michel Barnier, the measures will only apply to the largest banks, whose potential bankruptcy would threaten the stability of financial markets. …the EU industrial structure report 2013 has been published?

According to a report on the current state of the industry in the EU, published by the European Commission, the majority of industrial sectors still have not regained their production level before the crisis. The report also revealed that significant differences exist between sectors and Member States. Report on the industrial structure of the EU in 2013 deals with the downward trend in production and emphasizes the mutually beneficial relationship between manufacturing and services, as well as the importance of global value chains. Areas analyzed in the report are also included in the recently presented Commission Communication on European industrial renaissance. … new Executive Agency for SMEs has been established?

In early 2014, the European Commission established Executive agency for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that continues the work of the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI). Its purpose is to manage most parts of the Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs (COSME). Agency will also be responsible for new and innovative instrument to support SMEs in Horizon 2020. Other programmes that will fall under the administration of EASME include Energy and Climate societal challenges within Horizon 2020, as well as the Programme for Environmental and Climate Action (LIFE). Later in 2014, the Agency will also be responsible for some parts of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). The newly established Agency aims primarily to improve the competitiveness of SMEs. … The European Commission has approved regional aid map 2014–2020 for the Czech Republic?

At the beginning of February the European Commission approved the plan for state aid for regional development between 2014 and 2020 in the Czech Republic under the new guidelines adopted by the Commission in June 2013. The new rules define the conditions under which Member States may grant state aid to enterprises in order to promote growth and cohesion of the single market. Regional aid will include regions covering 88.1% of the entire population. The remaining 11.9% of the population lives in the capital and the support will not apply

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to them, since Prague region exceeds 100% of the average GDP in the EU. The maximum aid intensity will be 25% of the eligible costs of a particular investment project. Although the intensity in comparison with the previous period decreased by 5–15 percentage points, the number of affected population is almost unchanged.

LET’S TALK NUMBERS… Gross energy consumption in the EU28 decreased by 8% between 2006 and 2012 The European Statistical Office released figures which show that during the last two decades the gross domestic energy consumption in the EU28 rose to a peak of 1 830 Mtoe in 2006 and then fell to 1 680 Mtoe in 2012. This means that between 2006 and 2012 the gross energy consumption in the EU28 decreased by 8%. The energy dependence rate, which shows the extent to which a country is dependent on energy imports, amounted to 53% in the EU28 in 2012. Among the three largest energy consumers in 2012 were Germany (319 Mtoe), France (258 Mtoe) and United Kingdom (202 Mtoe). Between 2006 and 2012 the energy consumption fell in twenty four Member States and rose only in Estonia (+11.6%), the Netherlands (+2.9%), Poland (+0.8%) and Sweden (+0.4%). Member States which are the least dependent on energy imports were Estonia (17%), Romania (23%) and the Czech Republic (25%). The only net exporter of energy in this period was Denmark.

European Consumer Centres across the EU handled more than 80 000 enquiries The European Commission has published the results of a survey showing that the European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) responded to more than 80,000 inquiries from citizens from across the EU in 2013. This presents an increase of 11% compared to 2012. The aim of this network is to provide consumers with information related to the crossborder purchase of goods and services in the internal market, to answer any questions or help in dealing with complaints. The centre dealt with a total of 32 522 complaints in 2013, of which approximately one third was related to the transport sector.

The largest proportion of complaints has been recorded in air transport sector (18.3%).

Winter 2014 prognosis foresees a continuation of the economic recovery The European Commission published its winter economic forecast for 2014, which includes an analysis of main macroeconomic indicators. The forecast assumes a continuation of the economic recovery in most of the Member States and across the EU. Real GDP growth of 1.5% in the EU and 1.2% in the euro area in 2014 should continue and reach 2.0% in the EU and 1.8% in the euro area in 2015. The forecast is based on the assumption that the Member States will increase confidence and improve financial conditions. All this will depend on the implementation of agreed policy measures at EU level.

Furthermore, the study expects a slight decrease in the rate of unemployment and moderate inflation in consumer prices.

Satisfaction with the political leadership of the EU is very low According to a recent survey conducted by Gallup, the popularity of EU leadership has fallen dramatically almost in all Member States since 2008, and especially since the crisis.

Citizens of Greece (19%), Cyprus (21%) and Spain (27%) agree with the EU governance the least. Low ratings were also recorded in Great Britain, Sweden and the Czech Republic. On the contrary, EU leadership has the strongest support from the citizens of Luxembourg (67%). In recent years, support has fallen the most in Spain (-32 percentage points) and Ireland (-23 points).

Annual inflation in euro area is stable According to the latest EUROSTAT data, the annual inflation rate in the euro area in January 2014 reached 0.8%. In comparison with the previous month, the rate is stable. Last year the rate was 2.0%. Monthly inflation rate in January 2014 amounted to -1.1%. In the EU28, there has been a decline recorded in the annual inflation rate to 0.9%. Compared with December 2013, annual inflation fell in seventeen Member States, remained stable in seven and increased in four. The highest growth rates were observed in the United Kingdom and Finland (both +1.9%), while a negative rate of inflation was recorded in Cyprus (-1.6%),

Greece (-1.4%) and Bulgaria (-1.3%). The annual inflation rate in the Czech Republic was 0.3 %.

IN THE WORLD The Commission launched a special Advisory Group to advise on TTIP By the end of January, the European Commission has set up a special expert group to advise in the ongoing negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which are now about to enter its fourth round. The Advisory Group consists of 15 experts representing a diverse range of interests from environmental protection to consumer protection and services. The group’s goal is to increase transparency in the negotiations and provide support to the main negotiators of the EU in areas that are discussed in the context of TTIP. First official working meeting of the Group was held on 25th February.

EU started negotiations on bilateral cooperation with Cuba In Mid-February, EU Council backed Negotiating Directives in order to launch bilateral Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement with Cuba. The bilateral Agreement aims to strengthen relations between the EU and Cuba, while establishing a solid framework for constructive dialogue and enhanced cooperation.

This should help to promote EU values and interests in Cuba and ensure continuity in EU policy objectives, including support for the on-going reform, promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as strengthening development cooperation.

European negotiators will try to reach an Agreement on political dialogue and cooperation by the end of 2015. The EU is for Cuba the biggest foreign investor and second biggest trading partner after Venezuela.

Representatives from Euro-Med met at the Mediterranean’s 9th ministerial meeting On 19 February 2014, representatives from more than 30 Euro-Med countries and partners came together at the Union for the Mediterranean’s (UfM) ninth ministerial meeting on Euro-Mediterranean industrial cooperation, held in Brussels. The meeting has been dedicated to the topic of the Euro-Mediterranean industrial cooperation which aim is to increase a support for small and medium-sized enterprises and to create a Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area. During the meeting, findings of an assessment of the business climate in the Mediterranean neighbour countries were presented. The representatives also adopted a work programme for 2014 and 2015 and endorsed a declaration in order to continue to develop EU-Med business.

European Commission launched MERCOSUR IPR SME Helpdesk At the beginning of 2014, the European Commission launched assistance service for small and medium-sized enterprises, providing a support in the area of intellectual property rights (IPR) related to the MERCOSUR region. The service aims to facilitate and enhance business cooperation between European SMEs, MERCOSUR countries and Chile (and other Latin American markets, such as Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Peru). IPR Helpdesk will be operating until June 2015. Its services are provided by a consortium of organizations from Europe and Latin America, which include, for example, the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry EUROCHAMBRES. EU and Kosovo discussed their future cooperation Representatives of Kosovo and the EU met in January for the third time in a framework of the Structured Dialogue on issues related to rule of law. Kosovo presented a comprehensive overview of the progress that has been made in this area in 2013. Issues related to the judiciary and judicial reform, independence of the judiciary, the fight against organized crime and the effective prevention were mainly discussed during the dialogue. Kosovo is expected to carry out a comprehensive rule of law strategy and action plan by the end of April 2014 which will allow the EU to provide targeted assistance to Kosovo over the next three years.

Brought by CEBRE – Czech Business Representation to the EU (kindly supported by Ministry of Industry and Trade of the CR), www.cebre.cz

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6.11.2013 17:12:40