Czech & Slovak Leaders 03/2019

Czech & Slovak Leaders II/2019

MAY/JULY 2019

Tomáš Petříček, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic

The legacy of Václav Havel

available worldwide online P hoto : V ojtěch V lk

www.czechleaders.com incl. electronic version Praha I Bratislava I Brno I Ostrava I Plzeň I Liberec I Olomouc I Hradec Králové I České Budějovice I Pardubice I Zlín I Jihlava I Karlovy Vary I Mladá Boleslav

diplomatic event

P hoto : J itka T omečková

THE PLACE WHERE LEADERS ARE SEEN MÍSTO KDE JSOU LÍDŘI VIDĚT

From left: H.E. Arber Vllahiu, Ambassador of Kosovo, H.E. Ilirian Kuka, Ambassador of Albania, H.E. Dominik Furgler, Ambassador or Switzerland, H. E. Seoung-Hyun Moon, Ambassador of South Korea, H.E. Miklos Boros, Ambassador of Hungary, and H.E. Kaoru Shimazaki, Ambassador of Japan

www.czechleaders.com

INTERVIEWS | EVENTS | PR | EU MATTERS From left: H.E. Saïd Hindam, Ambassador of Egypt and H.E. Daniel Meron, Ambassador of Israel

From left: H.E. Saïd Hindam, Ambassador of Egypt and H. E. Cardinal Dominik Duka

diplomatic event

From left: Jaroslav Kubera, President of the Senate and Rany Kenawy, Deputy of Egyptian Embassy

From left: H.E. Saïd Hindam, Ambassador of Egypt and H. E. Cardinal Dominik Duka

Honourable guests

H.E. Saïd Hindam, Ambassador of Egypt at his speech

From left: H. E. Cardinal Dominik Duka and Andrej Babiš, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic

From left: H.E. Saïd Hindam, Ambassador of Egypt, Andrej Babiš, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, and Petr Hladík, former Czech Ambassador in Jordan

Benke Aikell, your Publisher and Eva Anderová, Vice President for PR, UNYP and President, Franz Kafka Centre

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

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P ublisher ’ s

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contents

DEAR READERS,

events  page 8

By the time these words have been written, suddenly, we are in the midst of summer. One starts to wonder what happened to spring although my recollection is that the spring was very nice indeed. There is now the feeling that autumn is lurking around the corner and before you know it – winter is once again upon us and another year has gone.

Anyway, I hope this summer will bring a chance to relax and opportunities to enjoy time with family and friends. There is also the possibility to reflect over some of life’s bigger issues such as climate change and what we can do in order to reduce our respective carbon footprints.

The weather is on everybody’s mind and there are many topical discussions of having to deal with changing global weather systems, higher temperatures, melting icebergs and glaciers, and possibly higher sea levels in the future. Increasingly we know that we all must take a personal interest, raising awareness and shouldering the responsibility to do our part in reducing carbon dioxide – the main cause of pollution in the atmosphere.

Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic meeting Andrej Kiska, outgoing President of the Slovak Republic

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President of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman representing the Czech Republic 10 15 Years of the Czech Republic in the EU celebration in the Senate  page 12

In this issue, Dear Readers, we cover a plethora of important events such as Manager of the Year, Zlata Koruna Award, Iberian Award, Trebbia Gala Dinner and Award, the traditional Summerfest with Czech/German Chambers at the German Embassy, SBP Conference, Round Table by Comenius at Top Hotel, UNYP and Prague Society Conference, UNYP Graduation at Zofin, ELAI Week of Innovations, several events at the Greek Embassy, Berlin Female Forum, PragArtworks and many more interesting events.

We are also very happy to have Mr. Tomáš Petříček, Minister of Foreign Affairs on our front page, together with an interview with Mr. Jaroslav Kubera, the President of the Senate. We also feature Mrs. Hana Součková, CEO of SAP in CR; Mrs. Jana Maláčová, Minister of Social Affairs in CR; the Ambassador of Lithuania H.E. Mrs. Gunta; Mrs. Jill Meron, wife of Israel Ambassador in CR; Mr. Tomáš Zdechovský, recently elected again to the EU Parliament; MUDr. Babjuk, Urologist; Mr. Marcel Kolaja, recently elected into EU Parliament, representing Czech Pirates Party and our great contributors of various topics.

Dear Readers, have a great and relaxing summer wherever you are and whatever you do and , whenever you can, save some energy for the future, both to inspire and to help and care for others.

Jaroslav Kubera and Zuzana Čaputová

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Zuzana Čaputová at the Senate Innovation Week 2019 Round Table with Lubomír Metnar Secure Czechia in Secure Europe University of New York in Prague SingularityU Czech Summit Returns to Prague!

Are YOU ready for the exponential era?

75 Panel discussion on the European election 78 Lions Club Prague Bohemia Ambassador 82 Discussions in the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute  page 75

Benke Aikell benke.aikell@czechleaders.com www.czechleaders.com

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

Cyril Svoboda, former Minister of Foreign Affairs discusses European elections

C ontents

interviews

culture events  page 5

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18th annual International Trebbia Awards 2019 Dancing in the summer rain Manager of the Year UNYP celebrates its 18th Annual Graduation Ceremony Endowment Fund of Mrs Livia Klausová and Mr Václav Klaus Zlatá Koruna Awards Opening reception at Art Prague for PragArtworks Shanghai exhibition Cape of Good Hope (lessness) novel  page 14

Tomáš Petříček

5 Interview with Tomáš Petříček The legacy of Václav Havel and the Velvet Revolution remains relevant 34 Interview with Hana Součková A company built on values always offers something extra 36 Interview with Jaroslav Kubera Beware of doing good!

52 Interview with H.E. Gunta Pastore I am privileged to serve in a like-minded country 62 Interview with Jana Maláčová It is unacceptable for children to live in poverty 66 Interview with Jill Meron I am proud of my Czechoslovakian roots 76 Interview with Tomáš Zdechovský European belonging 84 Interview with Marek Babjuk Nothing replaces a doctor’s experience and intuition  page 36

Karel Gott, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for contribution to the dialogue of national cultures

diplomatic events 1 National Day of Egypt 51 South Africa´s Freedom Day Celebrations and International Nelson Mandela Day 58 Discussion event held at Greek Ambassador's Residence 70 Taste of Greece 90 Wiener Grinzinger Heuriger at the Austrian Ambassador’s Residence 94 Greek-Canadian summer concert 96 Iberoamerican awards ceremony  page 94

From left: H.E. Efthymios Efthymiades, Ambassador of Greece; Alena Onishenko, Sales Director, PragArtworks; Alexandr Onishenko, Artist and Photographer, Galerie Jakubská; and Louise Beer,Founder, PragArtworks Jaroslav Kubera

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contents

contributors 29

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Tereza Urbánková The art of letting go Cristina Muntean Career capital; loss or transformation?

Linda Štucbartová 6th Berlin Global Female Summit Eva Gáboríková Can you decode British politeness in business?

Iva and Joseph Drebitko Leonardo da Vinci; 500 years since the death of the Renaissance genius James A. Cusumano Life is beautiful! Part XIII: Fearless Leadership Jan Mühlfeit and Kateřina Novotná How and Why not to be scared Emanuel Šíp Czech high-speed rail: A progress has been made Alena Huberová So hard being a woman around here!

Iva and Joseph Drebitko

 page 60

Publisher: Benke Aikell Head of Editorial: Lenka Helena Koenigsmark Office Assistant: Tatiana Fominykh Webmaster: Petra Kubernátová DTP: Šárka Čičková EU Matters: CEBRE Czech Business Representation, CESES, Europlatform Contributors: James A. Cusumano, Martina Hošková, Lenka Helena Koenigsmark, Jan Mühlfeit, Kateřina Novotná, Linda Štucbartová, Tereza Urbánková, Alena Huberová, Cristina Muntean, Emanuel Šíp, Eva Gáboríková, Iva and Joseph Drebitko Photographers: Vladimír Weiss, Hana Brožková, Martin Janas, Katarina Gritt, Stanislav Milata, Jaromír Zubák, Eva Davidová, Tereza Šlápotová, Stanislava Kyselová, Amelie Gluntz Subscription: Czech & Slovak Leaders, Rumunská 1, 120 00 Praha 2 We appreciate your opinions of Czech & Slovak Leaders.

EU matters 100 EU matters interview Interview with Marcel Kolaja We need to bring the European politics back home 102 EU debate Conference "15 years in the EU" story of the Czech economy CEBRE founders met MEP candidates 104 EU matters business

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

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I nterview

with

T omáš P etříček , M inister

of

F oreign A ffairs

of the

C zech R epublic P hoto : V ojtěch V lk

The legacy of Václav Havel and the Velvet Revolution remains relevant CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

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I nterview

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T omáš P etříček , M inister

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F oreign A ffairs

of the

C zech R epublic

Tomáš Petříček is part of a new generation of politicians who place particular focus on issues of the environment and human rights. He has been Minister of Foreign Affairs since October 2018.

He previously held the role of Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and held the same role at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. He has been Deputy Chairman of the Czech Social Democratic Party since March 2019. His work experience encompasses both the Europe-wide level within the European Parliament, and the municipal level within the Prague City Administration.

He studied at Charles University’s Faculty of Social Sciences, where his doctoral thesis was entitled “The Prospects of Energy Security for the European Union”. He completed degrees abroad at Brussels’ Centre Européen de Recherches Internationales et Stratégiques and at the University of Warwick.

What are Czech diplomacy’s challenges 30 years after the Velvet Revolution? In 1989 our society was far more united. We were sure that we wanted democracy and that we wanted to rejoin the West. Today, it is not just Czech society that is far more polarised and fragmented.

I am convinced that even 30 years after the Velvet Revolution, its legacy remains relevant, and the values we stood for remain a guide to our foreign policy. Czech diplomacy continues to advocate for these values, which include defending democracy, defending the rule of law and defending human rights. We do so both in bilateral relations and through membership of international organisations. At the same time, we can all see how the world around us is changing and becoming more complex. The 1990s were a lot simpler in many regards. Today, information is often available to us through the internet much more quickly than through the official channels, from embassies to Prague. It is much more difficult to get a handle on the large amount of information we receive. On the other hand, one of the jobs of the diplomatic service is to provide detailed information on events around the world, including possible risks. We are facing new challenges, hybrid threats and cyberattacks alongside challenges relating to global warming, and Czech diplomacy is going to have to pay greater attention to these challenges. Along with traditional diplomacy, an ever greater role is being played by tools such as development and humanitarian aid.

Because society is divided, it is important that Czech diplomacy explain to the Czech public what its objectives are, what specific steps we are making, and generally strengthen the area known as public diplomacy. Today, foreign policies cannot be pursued without public support.

Recently, a new slogan was launched, presenting the Czech Republic as “The Country for the Future”.

I firmly believe that we are the country for the future. It is my conviction that the Czech Republic has a lot to offer in the field of innovation. We can be proud that we have so many talented scientists and cutting-edge research institutes.

We are world leaders in emerging sectors – e.g. in nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and energy. The EU Beamlines Centre in Dolní Břežany is unique in the world. So our

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strategy of presenting the Czech Republic as an innovation leader is the right one. We need the clear vision that the strategy provides. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want us to see the Czech Republic merely through the lens of innovation, thus neglecting the importance of the artists, doctors and athletes who help us to enhance our reputation abroad. Recently, I awarded the Gratias Agit Award, given for the promotion of the good name of the Czech Republic abroad, to renowned plastic surgeon Bohdan Pomahač and others. Since I started here, I have endeavoured to engage important figures in Czech public life in helping to present the Czech Republic abroad in an informal way, thus demonstrating that the Czech Republic has a lot to offer. We reached out to rock climber Adam Ondra and YouTuber Karel Kovář, known as Kovy, who took part in the UN’s ECOSOC Youth Forum. Last but not least, we should not forget the wonderful Czech countryside. Quite rightly, tourist interest in the Czech Republic continues to grow each year.

My next question also relates to building the Czech Republic brand. In 2006, I was on a commission receiving new students at the Diplomatic Academy. We were very careful at that time that candidates spoke of the Czech Republic as a medium-sized country. Discourse has now shifted, and we hear from many politicians that we are a small country. So what size are we?

It is my conviction that we are a medium-sized country. We mustn’t underestimate ourselves.

We are the same size as Portugal and Belgium, and we’re bigger than Norway and Sweden, countries considered diplomatic powers. Our stature is perceived in a wide range of fields, such as human rights, where Václav Havel’s legacy remains alive and we can even set the tone in the global debate. Since the fall of communism, we still haven’t overcome our tendency to put ourselves down. We have it within ourselves to make a mark on the world; we just need to want to do so and to do something about it.

In foreign policy, my goal is for us to promote ourselves as a self-confident country, clear about what it wants and knowing how to get it. At the same time, we should remain realistic.

Excessive expectations often lead to frustration.

We are not China, but we can deal with China with self-confidence.

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

Your bold entry into politics has enhanced the difference in the new generation of politicians, who emphasise new fields, such as environmental and human rights. How are you doing in pursuing these fields?

We have things to build on. In human rights, on the legacy of Václav Havel, and in protecting the environment and climate change, on the legacy of our first Environment Minister, Josef Vavroušek, who was tragically killed in an avalanche in the Tatra Mountains. These fields span the generations, and climate protection also spans the political spectrum. Finding allies isn’t entirely difficult, but nor is it entirely easy.

I’m glad we have a vibrant civic society that offers a helping hand to politicians.

What are the current trends in diplomacy?

You've mentioned humanitarian diplomacy, we still talk about strengthening trade diplomacy, and the Czech Republic also has three science diplomats in the United States of America, Israel and Taiwan.

I’ve already spoken about the importance of public diplomacy. Regarding new trends, a parallel with medicine comes to mind, in which we always know that we need to focus on preventing new problems. Within diplomacy, we focus on the issue of mediation.

Even human rights, as previously mentioned, should be perceived as a part of prevention, in that non-observance of human rights can result in problems with far-reaching consequences.

By taking a comprehensive approach, we aim to intercept problems at an early stage when they are easier to manage, and this is why we

I nterview

need to focus on the causes of problems, not just their manifestations. The migrant crisis has shown that the situation in regards to Africa has been long underrated. If we do not secure economic and social stability in the Sahel region, then we are going to feel the effects in the form of increasing migration flows to Europe. That’s why I am advocating that we take a more active approach in this region. A more comprehensive approach also includes more intensive co-operation with other departments. The Ministry of the Interior is involved in our projects, supporting our civilian mission within the EU, as is the Ministry of Defence through the presence of our soldiers in Mali, where we want to continue by strengthening our diplomatic presence. The tools of humanitarian and development cooperation aim to strengthen local involvement in solving problems. We advocated strongly in this field through the presidency of ECOSOC (the United Nations Economic and Social Council), and it is also one of the so-called Sustainable Development Goals.

In terms of European policy, we need to realise that this is no longer purely a matter of diplomacy. The links between different countries within the European Union, and the linking of different fields within European institutions, has led to a situation where diplomats co-operate directly with people in other departments, with European policy becoming a lot more similar to domestic policy than to international policy.

For a long time now, European policy has not

with

T omáš P etříček , M inister

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F oreign A ffairs

been a matter of foreign policy, but rather a part of domestic policy, involving the whole of public administration, including regional authorities, as well as wider civil society through consultations, and finally business. Today there is no major sector that does not have a home and representation in Brussels and that does not deal directly with European institutions.

Thus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs remains responsible for foreign relations and cooperation within development policy.

You are father to two small children, and your wife is very active in supporting women. How do you manage to reconcile your work and family life? Is workaholism part of politics?

Reconciling work and family life requires a certain amount of discipline, and I must admit that I don’t always manage it. Politics, especially foreign policy, requires being on the alert 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Global problems don’t usually take weekends off; world events don’t ask whether you’re planning a trip to the zoo. I’ve got used to it, and I went into politics knowing this was the case. This is in contrast to my wife, who would like to go to the Krkonoše Mountains, including places where there is no mobile phone signal.

I always try to reserve a part of the weekend to be with my family. Like most Czechs, I enjoy going to our cottage, where I cut the grass, paint the fence and relax. Either I clear my mind of thoughts, or in contrast I think about things that I don’t have time for in my hectic daily life.

of the

C zech R epublic

What is your final message for Czech and Slovak Leaders readers? I suppose this will relate to the summer and travelling …

I’ll begin by wishing readers a wonderful summer and relaxing holiday. Ideally without having to seek out our consular employees.

Read our Travel Rules, which also involve registration in the DROZD travellers’ database, a project involving voluntary registration of Czech citizens travelling abroad, allowing for the effective organisation of help for Czech citizens in the event of natural disasters or social unrest.

In the event of an unexpected situation, we are available to Czech citizens. In summer, we boost the presence of consular employees in tourist destinations such as Spain, Croatia and Bulgaria.

Unfortunately, holidays can also reveal a dark side. I would call on citizens to act responsibly and not overestimate their abilities. Czechs have a reputation in the world for being frivolous adventurers. We underestimate risks and overestimate our abilities. Even on holiday, we need to follow basic rules and act on common sense. Czechs have a bit of a reputation of being too easygoing adventurers. Do not go walking in the Tatra Mountains in flip-flops, and when at sea it is a good idea to take shelter from the midday sun… So once again, I wish you a great holiday!

By Linda Štucbartová české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

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P residential

P hoto : A rchive KPR, H ana B rožková

PRESIDENT MILOŠ ZEMAN

Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic meeting Andrej Kiska, outgoing President of the Slovak Republic

Federal President of Austria, Alexander Van der Bellen welcomed Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic to Austria

President Miloš Zeman welcomed Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the Croatian President, who was on a two-day state visit to the Czech Republic, at Prague Castle

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic in a lively discussion with Andrej Kiska, outgoing President of the Slovak Republic

President Miloš Zeman in a friendly discussion with Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the Croatian President, who was on a two-day state visit to the Czech Republic, at Prague Castle

P residential Business forum Three Seas Initiative taking place during the visit of Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic, to Slovenia

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Czech counterpart Miloš Zeman met at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, during the Belt and Road Forum

Ceremonial appointment of Army Generals

Ceremonial appointment of Army Generals

Salon de Vin - Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic surrounded by the winners of the Wine maker of the year competition

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S enate

15 Years of the Czech Republic in the EU celebration in the Senate

The ambassadors of EU member states set out for the Senate to commemorate the important anniversary of 15 years since the Czech Republic joined the European Union alongside senators. Since April 2014, the picture “The European Union has a Heart” has been hung in the Senate, a reminder of the Czech Republic’s position in the centre of the EU.

President of the Senate Jaroslav Kubera during his opening speech in the Senate in front of European ambassadors

Danish ambassador Ole Frijs-Madsen and Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs Pavel Fischer

Chairperson of the Committee on Education, Science, Culture, Human Rights and Petitions Jiří Drahoš; Eva Anderová of the University of NY in Prague; President of the Senate Jaroslav Kubera; and your publisher Benke Aikell

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

Senator Zdeňka Hamousová

S enate

Chairperson of the Senate Committee on EU Affairs Václav Hampl

Albanian ambassador Ilirian Kuka speaking to senator Miroslav Nenutil

In the foreground, Chairperson of the Senate Committee on EU Affairs Vaclav Hampl, President of the Senate Jaroslav Kubera and EU Commissioner Věra Jourová

Senators Jan Sobotka, Jiří Růžička and Jan Horník

Senators Zdeňka Hamousová, Miroslav Nenutil and Miroslav Adámek

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S enate

Zuzana Čaputová at the Senate

President of the Senate Jaroslav Kubera and his fellow senators welcomed Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová to the Czech Parliament’s upper chamber. Čaputová visited the Czech Republic during the first week of her mandate. During discussions in the Senate, she underlined the excellent mutual relations of both countries, and also laid out a number of areas which she wants to focus on as President. Despite the different opinions in society, she wants to strengthen Slovaks’ common values.

President of the Senate Jaroslav Kubera welcomes the Slovak President in the courtyard of Wallenstein Palace

Jaroslav Kubera and Zuzana Čaputová

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

The Slovak President with Vice-President of the Senate Miluše Horská

S enate

On the right of the Slovak President sits Slovak Ambassador in the Czech Republic Peter Weiss

A working meeting was held in Wallenstein Palace’s Knights’ Hall

Slovak President Čaputová is greeted by Vice-President of the Senate Jiří Oberfalzer

Zuzana Čaputová and Vice-President of the Senate Jan Horník

Zuzana Čaputová and 1st Vice-President of the Senate Jiří Růžička

The Slovak President greets Chairperson of the Senate European Committee Václav Hampl

Zuzana Čaputová with Jaroslav Kubera

Zuzana Čaputová and Chairperson of the Foreign Committee Pavel Fischer

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gala evening

P hotographers : O to P alán ; A rthur K off /4TO4U

18th annual

International Trebbia Awards 2019 Sunday, June 16, 2019

Spanish Hall of Prague Castle, Prague, Czech Republic

For 18 years Trebbia Gala Evening has been one of the most prestigious international events on the territory of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Trebbia International Awards are presented annually to laureates from many countries of the world during live broadcast by Czech and Slovak Television, and streaming on YouTube Trebbia Foundation channel General partner:

KNAP HOLDING SE

Partners:

BLACK 70/60/60/70 YELLOW1 28/0/76/0 YELLOW2 21/0/42/0 GREEN 47/0/97/0

With the support of:

Main media partner:

Media partners:

QATAR & CZECH COC

Jitka Novotná, Moderator of the Czech TV; Ľubomír Bajaník, Moderator of the Slovak TV

Milan Fiľo, Entrepreneur, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for support of the culture and the arts

ThLic. PhDr. Daniel Peter Janáček, PhD., O.Praem, Abbot of the Strahov Monastery during his laudatio speech

The 18th annual of the Trebbia Gala Evening was attended by ambassadors from following countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Belarus, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Switzerland, Ukraine, Yemen

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

gala evening

From left: Jan Burian, Director of the National Theatre in Prague, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; H. E. Peter Weiss, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to the Czech Republic, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; Milan Fiľo, Entrepreneur, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for support of the culture and the arts

From left: Ilja Šmíd, former Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic; Václav Klaus Jr., Pedagogue and Politician

Stanislav Vaněk, TV Director of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 Ceremony

From left: Tomáš Kraus, Secretary of the Federation of Jewish municipalities in the Czech Republic; Michael March, Founder of the Prague Writers‘ Festival, Member of the Trebbia INC

From left: Stefan Cemicky, CEO of Diagnostics and Research in Art AG, Zürich; Hannes Schmid, Photo-artist and Philanthropist, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for support of the culture and the arts

Heinz Reigl, SKÅL Club President with his wife Hana Reigl, Man. Dir. E.H.R.

From left: ThLic. PhDr. Daniel Peter Janáček, PhD., O.Praem, Abbot of the Strahov Monastery; A.R.D. Martin J. Bartoš, O.Praem., Prior of the Strahov Monastery; Miroslav Čurilla, ECO-INVESTMENT a.s. accompanied by Eva Čurillová

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gala evening

From left: H. E. Dominik Furgler, Ambassador of the Swiss Confederation to the Czech Republic, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; H. E. Hynek Kmoníček, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to USA, Member of the TREBBIA INC, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; Hannes Schmid, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for support of the culture and the arts; Moderators of the Czech and Slovak Televisions

From left: Simova Vrabcová, Actress of Slovak Theatre in London; MUDr. Gabriela Kozlová; Mark Smolak, Musician

From left: Helena Bínová, Member of the Board of AFPM a.s. with her daughter; Miriam Zoia, Art Collector, Zürich

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Hannes Schmid, Photo-artist and Philanthropist, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for support of the culture and the arts

Eliška Hašková Coolidge, Coolidge Consulting Services

From left: H. E. Yevhen Perebyinis, Ambassador of Ukraine to the Czech Republic with his spouse; Oksana Lyniv, Conductor, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for artistic achievement with her partner Andri Mursa; Natali Ruden, Fashion Designer; Miro Smolák, Founder of the TREBBIA Foundation

From left: H. E. Peter Weiss, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to the Czech Republic; Juraj Jakubisko, Film Director with his wife Deana Jakubisková

gala evening

From left: Martin Jan Stránský, Doctor, Publisher, Member of the TREBBIA INC, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; Karel Holas and František Černý, Čechomor - Laureates of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for artistic achievement; Jitka Novotná, Moderator of the Czech TV

From left: Benke Aikell, Publisher of Czech & Slovak Leaders Magazine, Member of the TREBBIA INC; Ulf Landeberg, CEO, Hotel Lindner Prague Castle

Papia Ghoshal, Actress, Singer, Painter, Writer (India) with her partner

David Mrkos, CEO, KNAP HOLDING SE, General Partner of the Trebbia 2019 Gala Evening, presented International Trebbia Award 2019

Miroslav Voštiar, Entrepreneur, Owner of the Aria Hotel and Zlatá studna

From left: Ing. Zbyněk Janeček, Managing Partner, Azisfin, s.r.o.; Pharm. Dr. Denisa Janečková, Ph.D., Pharmacovigilance Country Head Deputy, Bayer, s.r.o.; Mgr. Michaela Vašinová, CEO, legalTV.cz; JUDr. Michal Žižlavský, Partner, Žižlavský, advokátní kancelář, s.r.o.; Zdeňka Sigmundová, Member of the Administrative Board, Trebbia Foundation; Mgr. Adam Sigmund, Partner ,Žižlavský, advokátní kancelář, s.r.o.

Birgit Labrada Terna, Supervisor of the TREBBIA Foundation; Sabine Lefévre, Humboldt University Berlin; José Manuel Labrada Terna, Member of the Santiago de Cuba Symphony Orchestra

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gala evening

From left: Michael March, Founder of the Prague Writers‘ Festival, Member of the Trebbia INC, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; Michael Žantovský, Director of the Václav Havel Library, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; Daniel Löw-Beer, CEO of the Löw-Beer & Schindler Foundation, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; Thomas Keneally, Writer, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for artistic achievement

From left: Alena Borovičková, Journalist; Marta Gajdošíková, Program Director of the Slovak Radio and Television

Thomas Keneally, Writer, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for artistic achievement Miro Smolák, Founder of the TREBBIA Foundation; Lina Hu, Director of the Czech China Educational Exchange Association, z. s.

From left: Jozef Gáfrik, Journalist, Director, GGCE, spol. s r.o.; Jozef Gáfrik Jr., GGCE, spol. s r.o.; Natalia Gáfriková, Dentist; Martin Kaplan, IT specialist

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Paulo Ferreira, Tenor, Opera Singer, during his performance

Ivana Dupalová, Director of the hostesky.cz s.r.o.; JUDr. Martin Varga, Ph.D., Varga Legal

gala evening

From left: Ilja Šmíd, former Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; H. E. Yevhen Perebyinis, Ambassador of Ukraine to the Czech Republic, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; Oksana Lyniv, Conductor, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for artistic achievement; Moderators of the Czech and Slovak TV

H. E. Yevhen Perebyinis, Ambassador of Ukraine to the Czech Republic, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; Oksana Lyniv, Conductor, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for artistic achievement

Oksana Lyniv, Conductor, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for artistic achievement

From left: Paulo Ferreira, Tenor, Opera Singer; Aldo Sisillo, Conductor of the Trebbia 2019 Gala Evening, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of Luciano Pavarotti Municipal Theatre of Modena

From left: ThDr. Jaroslav Šuvarský with his wife; ThLic. PhDr. Daniel Peter Janáček, Ph.D., O.Praem, Abbot of the Strahov Monastery; A.R.D. Martin J. Bartoš, O.Praem., Prior of the Strahov Monastery

From left: Tatiana Lisičkina, VIP PETS Hotel; Natalia Pašuld; Natali Ruden, Fashion Designer

From left: H. E. Yevhen Perebyinis, Ambassador of Ukraine to the Czech Republic; Oksana Lyniv, Conductor, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for artistic achievement with her partner Andri Mursa

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gala evening

From left: René Zavoral, CEO of the Czech Radio, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; Livia Klausová, former first lady of the Czech Republic, former Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Slovakia, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; Marián Lapšanský, Piano Virtuoso, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for lifetime achievement

From left: Natalie Kuncová; Pavlína Kobrová; Kateřina Čupori - Lindner Hotel Prague Castle

From left: René Zavoral, CEO of the Czech Radio, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; Livia Klausová, former first lady of the Czech Republic, former Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Slovakia, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; Marián Lapšanský, Piano Virtuoso, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for lifetime achievement

Livia Klausová, former first lady of the Czech Republic, former Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Slovakia, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; Marián Lapšanský, Piano Virtuoso, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for lifetime achievement

From left: Eduard Kukan, former Minister of Foreign Affairs (Slovakia), MEP with his wife Zdenka Kukanová; Ing. Juraj Zábojník, Ph.D., Security Analyst

From left: Mr. Koenigsmark; Eva Anderová, President Franz Kafka Centre; Lenka Koenigsmark, Editor of Czech & Slovak Leaders Magazine; Benke Aikell, Publisher of Czech & Slovak Leaders Magazine

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

From left: Indira Kmoníčková; Albina A. Abdykarimova; Jana Žantovská

gala evening

Karel Gott, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for contribution to the dialogue of national cultures

From left: H. E. Christoph Israng, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Czech Republic, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; H. E. Alexander Zmeyevskiy, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Czech Republic, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; Karel Gott, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for contribution to the dialogue of national cultures

From left: H. E. Christoph Israng, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Czech Republic, presented International Trebbia Award 2019; Karel Gott, Laureate of the International Trebbia Awards 2019 for contribution to the dialogue of national cultures

From left: Paulo Ferreira, Opera Singer; Aldo Sisillo, Conductor

From left: Ivo Krýsa, Deputy Director, Public Health Authority of the City of Prague; H. E. Rosaura Leonora Rueda Gutierrez, Ambassador of the United Mexican States to the Czech Republic; MUDr. Kamila Maláčová, Chief Doctor of the Medicentrum Praha a. s.; Hans Weber, Prague Forum

From left: Milada Synková, Corepetitor of the Slovak National Theatre, Bratislava; Ján Všetečka, European Wine Culture Forum; Eva Blahová, emeritus Director of the Janacek Opera in Brno, Member of the TREBBIA INC

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gala evening

From left: Kateřina Brožová, Actress, Author of the painting for the beneficial auction; Martina Čerepanová, KNAP HOLDING SE, Auctioner of the painting

by Kateřina Brožová; Miro Smolák, Founder of the TREBBIA Foundation, Bidder at the Beneficial Auction

From left: Ing. Zuzana Warderová, Consul, Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Prague; Petra Suchá

From left: Juraj Jakubisko, Film Director; Vladislav Stanko, European Institute of Business and Public Education, Auctioner of the painting by Juraj Jakubisko; Miro Smolák, Founder of the TREBBIA Foundation, Bidder at the Beneficial Auction

Miro Smolák, Founder of the TREBBIA Foundation, Bidder at the Beneficial Auction; Moderators of the Czech and Slovak Televisions

Michael Žantovský with his wife Jana, Director of the Václav Havel Library

From left: Marek Baláž, KNAP HOLDING SE, Auctioner of the Artwork displayed at the North Pole; Miro Smolák, Founder of the TREBBIA Foundation

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

From left: Zdeňka Sigmundová, Member of the Administrative Board Trebbia Foundation; Miro Smolák, Founder of the TREBBIA Foundation

gala evening

From left: Mohammed Alqadiri, Ghadir Gallery (Kuwait); Vlasta Brtníková, Prague Writers‘ Festival; Michael March, Founder of the Prague Writers‘ Festival, Member of the Trebbia INC; Miro Smolák, Founder of the TREBBIA Foundation

Jadran Šetlík with his wife Gabriela, Photographer

Radim Otépka with his wife Marcela, Director of the PKF Prague Philharmonia

Hana Hlaváčková, Director of the Kindergarten Network; Jaromír Šlápota, President of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute

From left: Michal Zábojník, Owner of the Dendra Group; Nina Zábojníková, Chemistry Student; Denis Gachulinec, Manager of the Sentosa Bohemia, s. r. o.

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garden party

P hoto : J aromír Z ubák , S tanislav M ilata , T ereza Š lápotová Beautiful view of the German Embassy

Dancing in the summer rain WITH THE GERMAN-CZECH CHAMBER OF INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE On June 20th, the annual summer party of the German-Czech Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DTIHK/ČNOPK) took place at the historical site of the German embassy in Prague. The organizers and the more than a thousand guests also commemorated the historical events 30 years ago, when thousands of refugees from the GDR fled to the garden of the embassy and were finally allowed to leave and travel to the Federal Republic of Germany after a long wait. Among the guests were high-ranking representatives of the Czech-German business, of governments, associations and cultural institutions. Apart from networking, the chambers’ guests had a perfect time by checking out current and vintage Škoda models, dancing in the rain with a great show of famous Tonya Graves or enjoying the legendary Genscher balcony. All this together with delicious food and cocktails made it an unforgettable summer night.

From left: Jörg Mathew, President DTIHK/ČNOPK, Bernhard Maier, ŠKODA AUTO CEO, and Dr. Christoph Israng, Ambassador of Germany

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Dr. Christoph Israng, Ambassador of Germany

garden party

Jörg Mathew, President DTIHK/ČNOPK

Bernhard Maier, ŠKODA AUTO CEO

Bernard Bauer, Executive Director, DTIHK/ČNOPK with the delegation of IHK Dresden

Dieter Seemann, ŠKODA AUTO Member of the Board of Management for Purchasing with his wife

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25

garden party

From left: Mrs. Claudia Bauer-Graß and Mrs. Petra Bölts

René Harun, Managing Director, AHK Services, and Darina Sontag, Account Manager, Coface Global Solution & Financial Institutions

From left: Dr. Christoph Israng, Ambassador of Germany, Benke Aikell, your Publisher and Eva Anderová, Vice President for PR, UNYP and President, Franz Kafka Centre

From left: Mr. Karsten Krämer, Business Development and Shareholders Relations, PRE, Martin Herrmann, Chairman of the Board of Directors, CEO, Innogy, and Erik Kolsto CFA, Head of Commercial Management, NET4GAS

Dr. Detmar Doering, Projektleiter, Fridrich Naumann Stiftung with his wife

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Bernhard Maier, ŠKODA AUTO CEO with his wife

garden party Sponsor table - Anochin Roters Kollegen

Sponsor table - Brose CZ

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

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garden party

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The Party Band

Tonya Graves & Band

The Party Band

Tonya Graves

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

P ublic

relations

The art of letting go All of us probably have some experience with trying to unchain ourselves from something and the truth is, the harder we hold onto it, the more negative impact it may have on us, and others. Therefore, based on my experience, I’ve put together a few points to consider if you intend to break away:

Don’t be afraid of risk

Not so long ago, I was reflecting on how life sometimes tests us, challenges our decisions, throws seemingly unsurmountable obstacles our way, lifts us up at times and then pushes us down on other occasions. When negotiating these twists and turns, it’s easy to get trapped in past experiences and things which may thwart our plans, thus hindering our progress.

Why do we hold onto the past? Why do we cling onto things that are no longer relevant in our lives?

Letting go can be tough: it can concern people, ideas, expectations, wishes, bad habits, wrong decisions, professional errors, false beliefs, unhealthy relationships...the list goes on.

Yet, every day presents an opportunity to create ourselves anew, shrug off the baggage of the past, open ourselves up to the possibility of the moment and take action to create a great future. In general, learning the art of letting go can be the answer to living a fulfilling and productive life. This doesn’t mean not acknowledging the trials and tribulations of our own reality. Quite the contrary. It means reflecting on them, extracting the life lessons, and then putting them behind us.

Fear prevents us from reaching our potential because we miss opportunities. However, taking calculated risk, i.e. risk based on our experience and past lessons learned, can help us push boundaries. We often find that our worries are only in our head and letting these go makes us courageous and leads to greater achievements.

Keep learning (mainly from failures) Although failure can sometimes have a huge impact on our confidence and even our finances, it doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. Our failures are our life lessons. If we reflect on what went wrong, we are less likely to repeat the same pattern. We don’t need to dwell on the failures, just acknowledge them.

Then, we can commit to letting go.

Trust your decisions Letting go is naturally about trusting our own decisions and instincts related to what is best for us. When we have done all the basic work and are clear on how to strive for our goals, letting go becomes easy. Easier, actually.

Focus on present and future

Assume responsibility Yes, at the end of the day, we are responsible.

You need to consider that – are you strong enough to assume responsibility for your actions and what they may lead to? There is no point to blame anyone else, so be prepared to live with guilt if things don’t work out – naturally in time, you should be able to move away from that as well.

Life is not static, and change is nothing new to us as we keep going through our lives, opening and closing various chapters: some are exciting, some disappointing, some lead to big things and some take us a few steps back. We can’t be in control all the time but whichever decision we take, we should be able to look in the mirror and see someone who was brave, made effort, tried their best. Then even failure may taste more sweet than bitter.

Over the years, I’ve adopted a solutionoriented approach and a strong sense of ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’, rather than being ‘stuck in a rut’. I always remind myself of the Samuel Beckett’s book Waiting for Godot; Godot never arrives and can be understood as one of the many things in life people wait for which never materialises.

I believe that letting go of the past and embracing future can push us towards what we want, personally and professionally. I’ve also come to realisation that courage, decisiveness and determination to make things work may lead to more success than over-engineering the scenario or waiting until something happens that triggers the final step. As that ‘something’ might never come.

“In the process of letting go, you will lose many things from the past but you Being fixated on the past too much distracts will find yourself.” us from what is right in front of us. Future may be an important catalyst for letting go but it requires us to be mindful about the present, to realise where we are, to open our mind to intuition and move forward.

Deepak Chopra

By Tereza Urbánková

Tereza Urbánková is a PR, communications and marketing professional with 20 years’ experience and proven success in delivering award-winning communications programmes for multinational companies operating in industries such as hospitality, retail, IT, defence, broadcast, logistics, pharma and engineering. After having lived and worked in the UK for 11 years, she now works in Germany for Boehringer Ingelheim, a global pharmaceutical company, as Head of Global External Communication, Animal Health. Tereza is a member of the Executive Committee of the Czech British Chamber of Commerce in London. She speaks Czech, English, Spanish and Russian and can be reached through her LinkedIn profile.

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

29

ELAI

The world´s greatest visionaries have once again visited the Czech Republic, thanks to Innovation Week 2019: the country’s largest annual event in support of innovations, was held from May 20th to May 26th. The international conference was held on Monday May 20th in the Forum Karlín, where attendees got to listen to speakers including Sabrina Pasterski, a promising physicist called „The New Einstein“ by the Harvard University; Anna Du, the young girl who built a microplastic-detecting robot to save our oceans; Michael Gozin and Alexander Goldberg, the scientists from Tel Aviv University who invented a sustainable “bioplastics” polymer; and many more.

The Inovation Week also offered an Innovation Fair with professional seminars, offering the possibility to see and experience many breakthrough technologies, such as a virtual reality flight simulator. More than one hundred accompanying events were organized as part of Innovation Week in many Czech cities.

The biggest „guest stars“ of this year´s international conference of Innovation Week from left: Alexander Golberg, Michael Gozin (both from Tel Aviv University), Anna Du, Sabrina Pasterski (Harvard University), Tomáš Mikolov (Facebook), and Nikita Poljakov (Hospodářské noviny, moderator) Rudolf Urbánek, CEO, Microsoft Czech and Slovak, Patron of Innovation Week 2019

Lukáš Sedláček, Founder and Director of European Leadership and Academic Institute, organizer of the Innovation Week

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H.E. Stephen B. King, Ambassador of the United States to the Czech Republic

The Innovation Week has traditionally been in focus of the media. Freek van Eijk, Director of Holland Circilar Hotspot and Czech TV

Sabrina Gonzales Pasterski, Physicist, called "The New Einstein"

by Harvard University, main guest of the Innovation Week 2019

One of the most important topics of the Innovation Week 2019 – Circular Economy

Vojtěch Petráček, Rector, Czech Technical University in Prague

Jan Řežáb, CEO and Founder, Time is Ltd.

Krzysztof Zdziarski, Chair of the Board of Directors, Unipetrol, Patron of Innovation Week 2019

The Innovation Fair, part of the Innovation Week

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

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D iscussion

event

Round Table of Comenius Discussion session with Lubomír Metnar, Minister of Defence

TOP HOTEL Prague – June 18, 2019

From left: Radek Musil, General Director, Sellier & Bellot, Lubomír Metnar, Minister of Defence, Karel Muzikář, Petr Král, Director, Vojenské lesy a statky, Eva Svobodová, Advisor to the Board, Česká zbrojovka, Jozef Piga, Vice President, Omnipol, and Josef Diessl, CEO, Vojenská zdravotní pojišťovna

June 18th, Comenius organised a discussion with Czech Defence Minister, Lubomír Metnar. This meeting with the minister was a fascinating one with good attendance of those debating, and the minister well-prepared and knowledgeable about his department, with questions posed covering diverse topics. There was great interest in participating in the Round Table from all those invited.

The principal topics of the evening were equipping the Czech Army with new types of weapons including the project of combat operations robotisation. Amongst other matters, discussion focused on Czech industry’s involvement in the delivery of Czech Army supplies. There was also discussion of exporting Czech military equipment abroad and support for this from the Ministry of Defence. The head of Military Forests answered questions on the battle against bark beetle infestations.

From left: Radek Musil, General Director, Sellier & Bellot, Lubomír Metnar, Minister of Defence, Alžběta Cimová, Head of the Office of the Minister, Ministry of Defence, and Karel Muzikář, President, Comenius

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From left: Václav Růžička, CEO, Alkom Security, Pavel Krůta, CEO, Korus EU, and Jana Nováková, CEO, Trustav

D iscussion

From left: Petr Paukner, CEO, Carbounion Bohemia and Daniel Rous, Director of Security, ČEZ

From left: Tomáš Langr, CEO, Otidea and Daniel Vavřina, President, HealthCare Institute

From left: Tomáš Kopečný, Head of Department, Ministry of Defence, Marika Přinosilová, Director of Marketing & Communication, and Jozef Piga, Vice President, Omnipol

Jan Světlík, CEO, Vítkovice

Army General Josef Bečvář, President, Glomex Military Supplies during his speech

event

From left: Eva Svobodová, Advisor to the Board, Česká zbrojovka, Jiří Hynek, President, Defence and Security Industry Association of the Czech Republic, and Radek Musil, General Director, Sellier & Bellot

Jiří Hynek, President, Defence and Security Industry Association of the Czech Republic

Army General Jiří Šedivý, CEO, Generals

Zbyněk Fibich, Head of Department, Air Navigation Service of the CR

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33

I nterview

with

H ana S oučková , M anaging D irector , SAP C zech R epublic

A company built on values always offers something extra Hana Součková has been the Managing Director

of SAP Czech Republic since August 2018. I’ve had the privilege of meeting Hanka several times . She guards her privacy closely, so I greatly appreciated that she was willing to give this interview for Czech and Slovak Leaders Magazine, discussing not only intelligent enterprise but also her leisure time. Our hour-long interview passed by quickly. Hanka spoke with enthusiasm about Czech customers, value-based companies, as well as mindfulness and the art of taking time for oneself. She spoke with fervour and passion about the necessity of continuous learning and about herself being always ready to take on new challenges. Hana Součková is deserving of her ranking amongst the 125 most influential Czech women.

Intelligent enterprise has been a key issue for SAP for two years now. What exactly does this term, which may be confusing to Czechs, involve?

From its very beginnings, SAP has always endeavoured to understand enterprise in general, as well as the processes of our key customers. We use the experiences thus gained to create best practices for particular fields within the software we have developed, so that we can subsequently share these procedures with the entire market. Our SAP S/4HANA application, in combination with our traditional applications for managing purchasing, marketing or human resources, offers us another opportunity to move forward the processes amongst our customers and thanks to the connectivity of all current technologies we receive a new angle which brings not only new insights but above all intelligent solutions. In a nutshell, intelligent enterprise is about assessing current best practices, which are under constant development.

Remember what best practices used to be five years ago in different areas, whether in sales, human resources or purchasing, and compare it to the situation today. There is still room for further digitisation or optimisation but there will be much greater benefit in thinking about how to utilize the data we have available to us for new models of enterprise or for modifying processes in general.

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Instead of incremental improvement, SAP also offers a disruptive approach, said today to be the only suitable approach for succeeding in an ever more complex and linked-up world.

Exactly. Personally, regarding the intelligent enterprise trend, I most appreciate the discussion with customers regarding our solutions and how our technologies can help them in their business. Customers are aware that trends of disruption and agile management are on the agenda, and they are looking for ways to support these more. Thus, we not only lead discussions on how things are now, but we also hold strategic discussions on the necessary targeted vision in ten years’ time, regardless of the current solution. Personally, I think it is important not to let oneself be tied down by history, or the current state of implemented solutions, but rather come to a point where the business or company begins to focus more on the future in terms of functionality, rather than mere reaction or modification of the current state.

P hoto : A rchive

I nterview Your talk for journalists, organised in a futuristic style within an interactive truck, was focused on customer experience. You proudly presented cases of large Czech companies which have grown from their original family firms over the last quartercentury, and which use SAP solutions for further expansion, now on a global scale.

I think these Czech companies represent the true wealth of the Czech economy. It is extraordinary that quite a large percentage are still managed by their founders. Founders who have built up companies on the foundations of a long-term vision, resting on authentic values, give the business something extra, and for you, that is a reason to come back to them. The next generation today has a different approach to loyalty than the previous generations. In this context, it is important to stress that values and the customer experience linked therein play a great role. So-called “customer experience” is another term that is hard to translate into Czech. It isn’t just about general experience, but increasingly about the emotional experience the customer links to a particular service. The young generation is responding increasingly to whether they can identify with a company, its campaigns, its representatives and the values it embodies.

If they do not, they can conclusively reject that brand. SAP recently undertook the acquisition of Qualtrics in order to refine our data on customer experience, aiming to help our customers to answer the question of whether they have the right product for the right customer, offered at the right time and in the right way. Thus, we are now ready to help the company bridge the difference between what customers expect and what they actually get. In this way, intelligent enterprise is not only about actual operative data. Its strength is hidden in the ability to link together current data on company management as well as feelings, experiences and emotions experienced not just by our customers, but also by employees and business partners. This gives the enterprise new meaning.

You’ve said that a company built on values always offers something extra. But in the past, SAP had a reputation as a company offering a costly solution, and thus it focused above all on global corporations that could afford such a solution.

As I’ve already mentioned, SAP sets out to bring best practices to the market. However, you can only bring these when you have a customer base of a certain critical size, creating vital knowledge.

Best practices do not evolve based on two or three single experiences. Nowadays, SAP has 437,000 customers worldwide, and more than half of them are so-called SMEs. These stunning numbers can often be taken by Czech companies with a pinch of salt, but it is the experience of our local customers that confirms that SAP is definitely not suited only for global corporations. There is a parallel here with cars in terms of the costs. A car will take you from A to B, but it all depends on speed, safety, comfort, etc. Each of us, whether we are individuals or legal entities, has the ability to make a choice.

with

H ana S oučková , M anaging D irector , SAP C zech R epublic

We offer not just best practices, but also safety in terms of transparency, audits and a connection to company values, long-term commitment and vision realisation. Since 2010, SAP has invested 70 billion USD in development, which has involved not just developing our flagship SAP S/4HANA database, but also follow-up acquisitions, thus meeting our long-term commitment to continue our efforts at innovation, keeping up with the times.

In regard to prices, a cloud solution may be one option for optimisation.

Let’s return to the Czech customers, who are your core. I appreciated the fact that your conference was attended by hostesses in beautifully tailor made dresses from Bernhardt Fashion, a company that was also one of the winners of the SAP Quality Awards in the “business transformation” category.

I wouldn’t like to name specific companies here, because then I might leave out others. So let’s discuss specific customer groups. I’ve already mentioned companies that are still lead by their original owners, whom we have managed to persuade about the added value of our solutions, and we appreciate that our cooperation with these companies is long-term, allowing them scalable growth at a global level. For traditionally mediumlarge and large players with foreign ownership interest, we are successful in considering new solutions and possibilities for trying out new approaches. We cannot forget about public administration and national enterprises, which imitate the approach of corporations. With most of these companies, we cooperate in some measure of SAP transformation, and further use of the added value that SAP can offer today. These customers monitor new trends around the world using what we call expert user groups; recently, for example, a meeting was held with an entity with the notable acronym of SUGARRAIL, although this comprised experts in the railway.

SAP Czech Republic’s important status within the global corporation was most recently attested to by the fact that the new Managing Director for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has chosen to work in Prague.

Tom Kindermans comes from Belgium and has had an international career not just within the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), but also the APJ region (Asia, Pacific, Japan). His wife is Czech so Prague was a natural choice. He has said he appreciates the fact that Prague is close to everywhere. Belgium is comparable to the Czech Republic. It is good that the region’s management is based in Prague and thus has a better overview of the diversity of all 16 countries the region comprises. Sometimes size can be both over and underestimated at the same time. In terms of opportunities, these seem to be the same everywhere. In reality, we have to serve the same number of ministries as our colleagues in large countries, but with a far smaller team. The magic of small countries within corporations can be compared to the magic of start-ups. You need to know how to select your priorities well; you cannot focus on everything.

You also have better flexibility than in larger countries with large teams, which are more difficult to co-ordinate.

You’ve given many interviews, but you guard your privacy. I only found out from one of the interviews on SAP's Facebook page that you follow three principles in your private life: family, yoga and planning. In your leisure time you have also managed to organise kids’ mountain bike races on the weekends.

Right now, I am reading a book in which one of the protagonists shared an experience, one that resonated with me. On the one hand, this person worked hard and intensely, but on the other hand enjoyed doing it all. Over time, ended up working for 20 hours a day and unable to disconnect. I hope that doesn’t happen to me (laughter). I had to give up organising mountain bike races after four years, because organising races in which 2000 children take part each year was basically more work. I think I am able to set a balance. My previous role was a regional one, so nowadays there is less travelling.

I am aware, however, that my response to the question“How is it going?”is“Fast”. I sometimes regret not being able to experience the present moment more. On the other hand, during a crisis the wave passes over quickly and I don’t remain sad for long.

In terms of yoga, I am still able to find the time for it. I’ve already mentioned the impact of emotions on decision-making, but essentially 27 emotions control our life, you have to give yourself the space to experience them and live them through. Yoga and mindfulness techniques are not objectives for me, but rather a means to take time out. The largest percentage of workaholics is amongst the thirtysomething generation, who often do their work virtually and cannot set boundaries and unplug.

I think one’s response to the question: “When did you last spend a whole day doing nothing?” may be a good indicator of whether they have succumbed to workaholism.

You give a lot of support to young girls in IT. What final advice would you give as a mentor?

I, myself, follow the advice: You always need to work on yourself. It doesn’t matter what your position is. Don’t work on yourself in order to achieve a particular position in five years; rather be ready to take on new impulses and ideas.

I see today that some girls try too much to plan their future, and this narrows their opportunities.

I studied at the Physical Education and Sports Faculty because I was interested in coaching and sport psychology. It might seem to some that I jump around too much, but I think we are shaped by all of our experiences. Last year, after a not particularly long period in a regional position, I transferred to my current local role.

I consulted my husband on the matter, and he gave me support: Sure you’re ready. And I was.

For Czech and Slovak Leaders Magazine, Linda Štucbartová, DES, MBA české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

35

I nterview

with

J aroslav K ubera , P resident

of the

S enate

Beware

of doing good!

P hoto : A rchive

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

President of the Senate of the Czech Republic, Jaroslav Kubera, one of the most distinctive figures in Czech politics, is best introduced in figures.

He has been a constant feature of the upper echelons of politics since 1994. He has won his municipal elections seven times, and won senate elections four times. He is known for his controversial proposals, many of which not even his closest party colleagues know whether he means them seriously or in jest. What he enjoys about politics is the debate.

He stays true to himself, and while he enjoys debating with voters, he sees no reason to change or adapt his opinions.

Jaroslav Kubera is a champion of freedom (including for smokers), a critic of excessive regulation and the European Union – especially grant programmes (although he does not support Czexit), and is a thorn in the side of many feminists, although he does not take the issue of domestic violence lightly. Our discussion was not about the topics listed above, things we do not agree on due to the different social “bubbles” we inhabit, but rather focused on wider social issues in which we might instead find a certain level of consensus. It was nice to see that two people could hold a civilised discussion without having to agree on everything. This is the freedom of speech we demonstrated for 30 years ago. We should remember the words of Karl Popper, author of the opus The Open Society and Its Enemies, who wrote that a nation through democratic debate could come to the conclusion that there is no ultimate truth. Society can advance through the process of intellectual investigation, submitting ideas to criticism and abandoning them where opposing evidence is found.

Mr. President, you’ve spent a quarter of a century in top politics. Is this a cause for celebration, or for taking stock?

Well, politics is the second love of my life, right after my wife. We’ve been married a long time, and I’ve been engaged in politics since 1962.

Few today can remember the era one might characterise by the slogan “We shall have meat, comrades”, Antonín Novotný at Letná park, or listening to Radio Free Europe and Voice of America. History and events have subsequently gained momentum. 1968 is of much greater importance for me than it is for someone who didn’t experience it. Since that second liberation, I’ve simply had an issue with Russians. On the other hand, I’m not an advocate of hysterical campaigns or the latest fashionable issues, such as global warming or the fascination with electric cars. People often say today that things were

I nterview better under the previous regime. In terms of my personal life, that’s certainly true. In summer, I used to work from 6 in the morning until 2.30 pm, mostly we ended at two, and we went off to surf. In winter, we went skiing instead of surfing. Today, I only have memories of having time for hobbies; this winter I only went skiing once when attending an off-site meeting. The era was quieter, and probably simpler. One of the roles I have that I really enjoy is receiving ambassadors.

In meeting them, I realise not just how complex the world is, but also how accelerated it is. And on top of all that, there is the impact of technology, which prevents us from recognising what is true and what is not.

Still looking back, did you celebrate the 15th anniversary of joining the EU? I’m a critic of the European Union and how it works. There is a parallel with an unhappy marriage in which both partners remain in the relationship, dissatisfied, because the benefits outweigh the losses. The grants we receive, even if they are used just for building lookout towers in valleys, are a big draw. On the other hand, it is nonsensical to talk about Czexit: I disagree with Václav Klaus Junior on this, in contrast to climate change. I feel it is dangerous to fall prey to fashionable trends, whether they are about global warming, or the latest issue of electric cars.

Europe is in danger of destroying its traditional car industry, and what happens next when it proves to be a blind alley? Can you imagine the Jižní Město estate with the same number of electric cars as there are standard cars today?

We’re lacking critical thinking. I myself apply this rule: “Consider it once, consider it twice, consider it three times.” You’ll then often come to the conclusion that your first idea was totally stupid.

It’s the same with legislating. It seems to me that laws are passed blindly, and only afterwards amended. In early May, the government declared that children should not have to pay the debts of their parents. This should surely be the standard situation, and our case when we let children grow up and then send the bailiffs in must be an anomaly. But what is being focused on?

The Register of Contracts and opening hours during public holidays. Things for which I believe regulation is unnecessary.

Let’s turn from everyday worries and tribulations to celebrations. This year, we’re celebrating 30 years since the Velvet Revolution. When you look back at that time when we stood in squares and jingled our keys and compare it to the situation today, how do you see it?

I don’t think there was any other way. I’ll give you another comparison: kids are playing in a house where there is a big aquarium. One of the kids smashes into the aquarium, it breaks, the water pours out and the fish are flapping about on the floor gasping the air. Our task is to put the aquarium back together as quickly as possible, and if possible put the fish back in it alive. We did all that without knowing what glue we needed

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to use for glass. That’s our story. Experts from the USA told us then that the transformation from socialism into capitalism would take a few years, but the transformation in people’s thinking on the change of regime was a matter of 50 years. They were right. Still today, we cannot stomach the changes to some extent, because they caught each of us in a different situation.

The best examples come from life. Take two classmates. Before 1989, these two classmates, one who did well at school and the other badly, worked in one factory. The academic classmate stayed in the factory, while the one who failed set up his own company and became a billionaire.

The straight-A student cannot understand how his previously unsuccessful friend has got so far.

And please note these are not cases where there is anything sinister behind the success. I know cases of smart craftsmen who have worked their way up step by step. We all know the cases promoted by the media and the cases of failure.

But do we pay the same attention to those successful companies who are renowned around the world? So the bottom line is that there is no reason not to celebrate. Our transformation was a clear success. I’m afraid it will turn out as it always does, with demonstrations held and abuses pointed out, while celebrations are very much downplayed.

Is negativism one of the Czech traits?

I don’t think negativism itself is a typical trait of Czechs alone, in contrast to envy. I’m afraid that if you set up a global ranking of nations according to envy, then Czechs would be at the top, as they are in alcohol consumption. So let’s look at the role of envy in a wider historical context. Self-sufficiency is also reflected here to some extent. That’s why so much was stolen and is stolen in the Czech Republic, including the historical aircraft that flew here in May 1945 to the airport in Kbely, when we Czechs immediately took them apart, because we Czechs could and can make use of anything.

We don’t tend to hire gardeners; we prefer to dig our soil ourselves, even when we find it tiresome or we’re not good at it. Abroad, better-off families have a housekeeper to look after the household.

That’s not customary here, having a stranger in our home. Moving is another parallel. American experts have recommended that Czechs should learn to move for work. But for someone with a house, with a garden, with rabbits in it, and cats and their granny in the house helping with the kids, the idea of moving 100 km for work is inconceivable. Who would want to move into a flat that had previous tenants and use strangers’ furniture? I’m sure most people even bring their own balls to bowling... (laughs) Do you miss municipal politics?

I still head the financial committee in Teplice, and it scares me how much we spend. It’s common in the Czech Republic that we all want to own our own home. People take out bigger mortgages than they can afford, and in 20 years city mayors are going to have serious problems with people who have become homeless because they lost

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their house due to an inability to repay their mortgage as a consequence of illness or job loss. Anyone who takes out a loan can lose huge amounts. There’s a parallel with grants here. We look at grants differently to our own money.

I think cashless payment is another phenomenon that is going to have unintended consequences.

Banks don’t have money anymore; they have spreadsheets. But I was glad to leave behind the GDPR personal data agenda for good. On the other hand, we are witness to the theft of personal data on an unprecedented scale through various apps in our mobiles. And where is the state protecting us? Sure, you always have the option of not downloading the app, but then you can’t use the sat-nav or your camera. More regulation won’t help here. Quite the contrary.

Restrict who can access what information. It scares me that they’re planning a law that the police of the Czech Republic will be able to look at our bank accounts without consent from the Czech National Bank. It’s the principle of it.

What’s it to anyone that I bought a lawnmower?

Why should the state take an interest? And it’s all justified by doing good, and those involved justify it by saying they are doing good for others, even though they’re not asking for it. But when alimonies aren’t paid, the state doesn’t know what to do. I propose confiscating passports from those who aren’t paying so they can’t go on holiday outside the EU. They go to Egypt, but don’t pay for their kids. And they know the ombudsman would oppose it.

You’re known for your sense of humour. I’m surprised you haven’t lost it after all those years in politics.

Leaders should have a sense of humour.

Remember Jan Masaryk. I think without humour I would go mad. I’m often criticised for my humour. When I became President of the Senate, I was advised to take things more seriously. But people write to tell me not to change, and I’m staying myself. I think authenticity is absolutely fundamental for a leader. I stay myself and I speak to people entirely openly and naturally. And my voters appreciate that. I certainly couldn’t be a funeral speaker.

And your message for Czech and Slovak Leaders readers?

I think we should all answer the question of whether it was better under the last regime honestly. Take a look at your receipt at the supermarket, as long as it isn’t closed for a public holiday of course. Make a coffee and admit that it wasn’t better. And let’s celebrate our freedom. There are problems, but let’s not spoil the anniversary. We can demonstrate on 16 November, or 18 November, but 17 November? Let’s have a proper celebration.

Would anyone ever think of demonstrating on their own birthday?

By Linda Štucbartová české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

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From left: Radoslava Stefanova, Head of the Russia and Ukraine Relations Section, Political Affairs and Security Policy Division, NATO; Harald Müller, former Executive Director of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt; Tomáš Petříček, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic; Miloš Balabán, Head of the Center for Security Policy, Charles University; Lubomír Zaorálek, Chairperson of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, President EuroDéfense-CZ; Václav Bělohradský, Political Sociologist, Publicist; and Petr Pavel, former Chief of the General Staff of Armed Forces of the Czech Republic and Chairman of the NATO Military Committee

The annual Spring Security Conference with a title “Secure Czechia in Secure Europe” took place on Thursday, May 16th, 2019 in House for Professed, Prague. The conference with more than 180 attendees was traditionally organized by the Center for Security Policy, IPS, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in cooperation with European Commission Representation in the Czech Republic. On the eve of the conference, organizers hosted a reception for speakers and partners in the conference venue.

From left: Tomáš Petříček, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic; Miloš Balabán, Head of the Center for Security Policy, Charles University; Lubomír Zaorálek, Chairperson of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, President EuroDéfense-CZ; and Václav Bělohradský, Political Sociologist, Publicist

From left: Miloš Balabán, Head of the Center for Security Policy, Charles University; Lubomír Zaorálek, Chairperson of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, President EuroDéfense-CZ; Václav Bělohradský, Political Sociologist, Publicist; and Petr Pavel, former Chief of the General Staff of Armed Forces of the Czech Republic and Chairman of the NATO Military Committee

From left: Jan Ludvík, Center for Security Policy, Charles University; Luděk Moravec, Science and Technology Attaché of the Czech Republic to the United States; Olga Štěpánková, President of the Czech Society for Cybernetics and Informatics; Pavel Queisner, Director of Technical Division, RETIA/CSG Aerospace; Jackie Eaton, Senior Operational Research Analyst at the NATO Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre; Jaroslav Šmíd, Deputy Director of the Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency; Jan Beroun, Director of the Military Intelligence; and Nada Milisavljevic, Policy Officer, Unit "Innovation and Industry for Security" DG Home – European Commission

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From left: Miloš Balabán, Head of the Center for Security Policy, Charles University, and Lubomír Zaorálek, Chairperson of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, President EuroDéfense-CZ

From left: Michal Koudelka, Director of the Security Information Service; Marek Šimandl, Director of the Office for Foreign Relations and Information; and Helena Válková, Member of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, former Minister of Justice

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Radoslava Stefanova, Head of the Russia and Ukraine Relations Section, Political Affairs and Security Policy Division, NATO, and Harald Müller, former Executive Director of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt

Petr Pavel, former Chief of the General Staff of Armed Forces of the Czech Republic and Chairman of the NATO Military Committee

From left: Libor Stejskal, Center for Security Policy, Charles University; František Vavera, Deputy Director General of the Fire Rescue Service; Michal Koudelka, Director of the Security Information Service; Marek Šimandl, Director of the Office for Foreign Relations and Information; Helena Válková, Member of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, former Minister of Justice; Jan Beroun, Director of the Military Intelligence; Jaroslav Vild, Deputy President of the Police of the Czech Republic; Miroslav Hlaváč, Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Armed Forces of the Czech Republic; and Pavlína Bláhová, Center for Security Policy, Charles University

From left: Václav Bělohradský, Political Sociologist, Publicist and Petr Pavel, former Chief of the General Staff of Armed Forces of the Czech Republic and Chairman of the NATO Military Committee

From left: Michal Smetana, Center for Security Policy, Charles University; Lubomír Zaorálek, Chairperson of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, President EuroDéfense-CZ; Aleš Gerloch, Vice-Rector of the Charles University; and Václav Bělohradský, Political Sociologist, Publicist

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From left: Marcela Champion, Co-owner Hutira-Vision; Kateřina Smrčenská, Member of the Board of Institute of Joint Cooperation; Milan Janíček, Owner of URC Systems; Tomáš Petříček, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic; Robert Prokop, Owner of URC Systems

Malvína Krausz-Hladká, Deputy Director of the Institute of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, and Luděk Moravec, Science and Technology Attaché of the Czech Republic to the United States

Spring Security Conference

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From left: Miloš Balabán, Head of the Center for Security Policy, Charles University; Radoslava Stefanova, Head of the Russia and Ukraine Relations Section, Political Affairs and Security Policy Division, NATO, and Harald Müller, former Executive Director of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt

From left: Jaroslav Vild, Deputy President of the Police of the Czech Republic, and Miroslav Hlaváč, Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Armed Forces of the Czech Republic

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Have you ever wondered what you would do if, from a day to another you couldn’t practice what you do today? How would you pay your bills? How would you handle your family, economic and social commitments? How about your sense of self-worth – how would it be impacted by a potential loss of career capital?

One of my favorite questions that I ask wherever I go to speak about personal branding is: What would be left of you if suddenly someone took away your business card? Many people are shaken by this simple thought. That’s because we rarely take the time to reflect at who we really are behind the roles that we are currently playing at work. People start addressing such issues only in times of personal emergency: company restructuring, lost opportunity for promotion or salary upgrade, relocation and need to find a job on a new market, personal sickness or need to care for a beloved person etc.

This is however too late: not tackling one’s career capital management proactively means lost time, money, opportunities and, sometimes, relations – all in all, a lot of unnecessary anxiety for you and those close to you. On the other hand taking proactive charge of your career capital can not only prevent loss, but also empower you to lead a life that is more in line with your own goals, dreams and desires. In fact managing our career capital is prone to become the nr. 1 professional skill of the future. We just need to understand what we’re talking about, then take the first steps in this direction.

What is career capital?

Our career capital is made of everything that happened to us since we started being active outside our families, during school and on the labor market. It includes: 1. Our education. A degree from a fancy college provides you with powerful referrals, opportunities and a solid network of alumni.

However, don’t worry too much if you don’t have an Ivy League degree – just reflect on how your educational background enriches you and be able to communicate that message with the world.

2. Our network. We start building our contacts early during our school years. In fact some of the most successful businesses have been

created by high school or college buddies who leveraged mutual compatibility and the trust built along the years to bring new ideas to life.

As we advance in our careers so should our network. Be proactive about expanding your network and keeping it vibrant and alive. It will always serve you well on your journey.

3. Our experience. Every project, every new assignment, every new client is stretching our understanding of our profession and the world.

If you look at your work as if it were an endless reservoir of learning opportunities, you start to see the gold nuggets of career capital even in the most challenging of your professional experiences.

4. Our competencies and skills. At the end of the day when we leave a company this is what we sell to our next employer or business customers: what we know and how exactly we create value for them. Make sure you have an up-to-date list of your current skills. Also don’t hesitate to look into the future to see what skills your might need a few years down to road to be able to steer your career in the right direction.

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Our reputation and personal brand.

The more you invest in your personal communications to build a premium reputation, the easier it gets for you to navigate whatever challenges life might throw at you on your career journey.

There are other aspects of career capital that would be worth mentioning such as our family background (being born in a well-off family does have its perks) or our language (how amazing it is today to be born an English native speaker?!).

Some of these career capital aspects are more valuable than others. However, in order to manage our career capital skillfully we need to focus on those aspects that are more under our control and thus lead to more personal empowerment.

From loss to transformation

Yes, you may ask – all this is clear, but why should we care about our career capital in the first place?

The Czech economy is doing great, salaries are rising, career opportunities are by no means in short supply on the market these days. As lovely as that may be, managing the perception of our name and career capital is important because it is precisely during good times that we should use the opportunity to invest in ourselves and thus bulletproof our careers for potential downturns. If life taught me anything, it is precisely this mindset.

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Looking back at my own journey I remember distinctively two moments when I felt that I lost my entire career capital. One was when I decided to leave Romania immediately after finishing my studies in journalism and move to Prague.

Journalism, I thought, was something that you can do masterfully only in your mother tongue.

So at the beginning I struggled. I got a part-time job in a Czech consultancy that required French and English-speaking skills. At the same time I was teaching private lessons of French and English to make ends meet. I was in this company for almost a year when it started to crack and it became clear that I would need to look for another job. It took me huge courage and an immense leap of faith to put together a CV and a few articles and send them around to the three major English language publications: the Prague Monitor, the Prague Post and the Czech Business Weekly. Fortunately it was CBW that decided to give me a chance. The best thing that ever happened to me uplifted my career from a freelance position to becoming the deputy editor-in-chief right before the magazine was suddenly closed in April 2010. This was my second major moment of career capital loss, as it became crystal clear that I would need to reinvent myself in order to avoid such systemic shocks in the future. Even though I made the right decision – deciding to start training leaders and future leaders in media and crisis communications – it took me nine long years to become a fully-fledged people developer with the skills, experience and career capital that now allow me to stand in my full power and embrace my new professional identity.

Your career journey doesn’t need to be so dramatic. However, one thing is certain: you will face moments at the crossroad when you won’t know which path to take. Reinventing ourselves professionally twice or even several times during a lifetime is becoming the new normal in career management.

Handle your career capital – your education, network, skill development and personal branding well and you can turn any surprise life throws at you into an opportunity. Don’t handle it and each surprise can turn into potential losses. The choice is ours and there is no better time to start reflecting on our career capital management than today.

By Cristina Muntean české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

Cristina Muntean is a consultant, trainer, mentor and coach who specializes in personal branding, strategic communications, emotional and systemic intelligence for leadership. A former journalist with more than 12 years of experience in the Czech, Romanian and international media, she founded Media Education CEE, a PR advisory and training agency in Prague in May 2010. Her clients are executive level managers and entrepreneurs with Top100 companies in the Czech Republic and Central and Eastern Europe. Cristina is also an internationally certified trainer and coach with the Enneagram, a complex system of personal development, and a facilitator of systemic dynamics in organizations. She provides services in English, Czech, French and Romanian, her mother tongue. Cristina can be reached at +420 776 574 925 or at cm@cristinamuntean.com.

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Managers of the Year Prof. Vladimír Mařík and Tanja Vainio In the 26th year of the Manager of the Year competition, announced by the Czech Management Association, the representatives of the technologically progressive fields won. Many personalities of European and world stature appeared among the TOP 10 and winners’ categories.

The TOP 10 best managers in the Czech Republic for 2018 met on the podium at Žofín Palace

Prague, 25 April 2019 The best managers in the Czech Republic for the year 2018 are Prof. Vladimír Mařík from the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics, and Cybernetics, CIIRC ČVUT (Czech Technical University in Prague) and Tanja Vainio, the general director of the ABB company for both the Czech and Slovak Republics. They won the Manager of the Year competition, which has been announced by the Czech Management Association (ČMA) for 26 years. The award was accepted on the 25 April at Prague Žofín Palace during the celebratory Gala, where three hundred managerial personalities and guests had gathered.

The winners of the Manager of the Year come from different generations, but they both represent the area of modern technologies with Prof. Vladimír Mařík as an innovator in cybernetics and representative of the institution of European-class and Tanja Vainio as a bearer of innovation. “The use and development of new technologies is part of our DNA”, says Tanja Vainio.

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M.Sc. Radim Kočí, the Marketing and Sales Director of the Mucos Pharma Cz company, received a finalist’s diploma and the Manager of the Quarter Century recognition from Bořivoj Kačena (left) and from Olga Kupec, the Manager of the Year 2012 and the owner of the Abydos company

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A finalist of the competition, Jaroslava Poláková, the Chairwoman of the manufacturing collective, KOVO KONICE, received recognition from the ambassador of the Czech Management Association, Libor Witassek (left), and from Jaromír Zajíček, the Chairman of the Club of Public Administration of the Czech Management Association and the head of the Municipality Authority of the city Děčín

The chairman of the 15-member National Commission, Prof. Zdeněk Souček commented on the result: “Both have shown excellent managerial attributes within the most modern area of present-day entrepreneurship.” Pavel Kafka, the president of the ČMA selected similar words. He was unable to hide his delight from the fact that the number of managers who represent modern, perspective fields grew among the finalists and laureates. “I am glad that the entire course of the 26th year and its results confirm the great, social importance of this long-term project,” he stated.

The guests of the celebratory Gala at Prague Žofín Palace

Celebratory Gala in the great hall of Prague Žofín Palace, 25 April 2019

Pavel Kafka, the President of the Czech Management Association, who is the announcer of the competition, was the Gala's main host

Ján Dolejš, the Project Director of ZURI Zanzibar from the company Mikenopa International.

Stanislav Gálik (right), Innovations Director of the EURES Holding company. Miloslav Cváček (left) General Director and owner of ISMM Production & Business Cooperation

Petr Kazík, the chairman of the Evaluation Commission, who awards points to the participants during the first round of the competition, stated: “I consider it to be outstanding that managers from highly progressive fields with a great perspective have won. They are disrupting the stereotype of the Czech Republic as being only an assembly-based nation.”

Fifty finalists made it to the conclusion of the competition this year. The TOP 10 managers continued to the narrowest selection after having personally presented before the Evaluation Commission. From this narrow selection, the afore mentioned National Commission chose both the male and female Managers of the Year.

Eleven of the best managers placed in occupational or new categories. The totally new Visionary category was introduced and Tomáš Mikolov, a scientist of world importance and innovator in the area of artificial intelligence, was the first to succeed. Also, the category of Crisis Manager was new with Tomáš Milich, OVUS - a stock farming enterprise, as the winner. Foreign Manager was a new category where Niclas Pfüller, BROSE CZ, pulled through to the top. Adam Liška from Bekaert Petrovice Ltd. succeeded as the Young Managerial Talent.

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The fifty finalists of the Manager of the Year competition received diplomas - they walked on to the podium one at a time

Simona Kijonková from the company Zásilkovna won in the Services category, which also indicated the importance of new technologies. Miloslav Ludvík, FN Motol, shined in Health Services. Jan Duspěva, ČEPRO, was successful in Industry, Josef Mráz, AGROFERT, in Agriculture and the category of Public Administration was taken by Tomáš Elis from the municipality of Opava.

A special award was given for Innovation for Sustainable Development. Václav Matyáš was added to the Hall of Fame, a recognized personality in the area of construction and many years president of the Association of Building Entrepreneurs of the Czech Republic.

Among the finalists, Jaroslava Poláková succeeded. She is the Chairwoman of the manufacturing collective, KOVO KONICE (left) and Ilona Plšková, the General Director of Aircraft Industries

Tomáš Mikolov was victorious in the Visionary category. A world class scientist and innovator in the area of artificial intelligence who works for Facebook

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M.Sc. Pavel Tvrzník, Chairman of the Granát Board of Directors, the Cooperative for the Art Production, Turnov

Prof. Vladimír Mařík (second from the right) won in the Smart Manager category. The chairman of the Evaluation Commission, Petr Kazík (far left), the Chairman of the Agricultural Association of the Czech Republic, Martin Pýcha and the General Director of the MOTOR JIKOV Group company, and Miroslav Dvořák (far right) presented him with the award

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Simona Kijonková, the founder and CEO of the holding company Packeta Zásilkovna, accepted the award from Petr Kazík, the Chairman of the Evaluation Commission of the Manager of the Year competition. She won in the Services category

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Winners of the competition's ten categories

The E.ON company won with their battery-powered repository project in Mydlovary in the Smart Energy category. The award was presented as part of the Manager of the Year competition by the Czech Business Council for Sustainable Development and was accepted by a representative of the firm, Michal Jurík

Václav Matyáš (centre) entered the Hall of Fame, a distinctive figure in the area of construction and, until 2018, the long-term president of the Association of Building Entrepreneurs. Pavel Kafka (left), the President of ČMA and Bořivoj Kačena, the former general director of the Stavby silnic a železnic, a.s., company presented Václav with the award

Ph.D. Pavel Toman, Director of the secondary school of construction in Jihlava

The Prime Minister, Andrej Babiš, also presented awards to both the male and female Managers of the Year

From left: Pavel Kafka, President of the Czech Management Association, Prof. Zdeněk Souček, Chairman of the National Commission of the Manager of the Year competition, Jan Duspěva, Chairman of the Board of Directors and the General Director of the ČEPRO company, receiving the award for the victory in the Industry category and Rostislav Dvořák, Chairman of the Union of Czech Production Cooperatives

Vítězslav Schrek, the Director of the Home for Seniors in Velké Meziříčí received a finalists’ certificate

Prof. Zdeněk Souček, a striking figure of Czech management as the Chairman of the National Commission, announced the winners of the competition

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The winners were photographed together on the stairs of Žofín Palace

The Prime Minister, Andrej Babiš, also presented awards to both the male and female Managers of the Year

Prof. Vladimír Mařík took home the award for the best manager of 2018, awarded to him by Andrej Babiš, the Prime Minister, and Pavel Kafka, the President of the Czech Management Association

From left: Pavel Kafka, President of the Czech Management Association, Prof. Zdeněk Souček, the Chairman of the National Commission of the Manager of the Year competition, the overall winner of the 26th annual competition, Prof. Vladimír Mařík, receiving the award also in the category of Smart Manager, and Rostislav Dvořák, the Chairman of the Union of Czech Production Cooperatives

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Vice-president of the Czech Management Association, Petr Choulík, announced the new, now 27th, annual Manager of the Year competition toward the end of the Gala

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Jan Žůrek (right) received the award for Innovation for Sustainable Development from the President of the Czech Business Council for Sustainable Development along with Michal Jurík from the E.On company, Michal Vajdák from the Sobriety firm and Jan Korol of ADLER

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The highest title of male Manager of the Year and female Manager of the Year for 2018 was received by Prof. Vladimír Mařík from the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics, and Cybernetics, CIIRC ČVUT (Czech Technical University in Prague) and Tanja Vainio, the General Director of the ABB company for both the Czech and Slovak Republics

The guests of the Gala captivated by the media partners for the Manager of the Year competition. Also the Czech&Slovak Leaders magazine was found among them

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INSPIRATION from 6th Berlin Global Female Summit in Berlin and Reasons for FEMALE EXECUTIVES to Put Berlin on Agenda

The Czech and Slovak Leaders Magazine, as a proud media regional partner, supported this unique global forum for female executives for the fourth consecutive year. Attending elite events regularly creates unreasonably high expectations that inevitably result in frustration. I was relieved that my visit to this year’s summit again proved to be the exception to the rule and I am already awaiting the 7th GFL 2020 with curiosity. I enjoy the unique nature of the summit, combining various speaking, learning and discussion formats, while allowing enough time for networking and enjoying some scenic attractions of Germany’s capital. I also enjoy the true diversity of the conference, both with regards to speakers representing more than 20 countries and participants, with more than 250 executives attending. The program element offers both stability and change. While some key issues, such as geopolitics, technologies and leadership remain on the agenda every year, new topics and perspectives are introduced to present new offerings that one would not expect at such an event.

This year’s summit title was “Collaborating to Build a Better World” and the three selected themes were geopolitics and trade, tech sphere and opportunities and human leadership in the age of disruption.

Prominent speakers comprised of Cecilia Malmström, EU Commissioner for Trade, Katarina Barley, Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection, at that time also a German Social Democratic Party leader for European Parliament elections and Rebecca Saxe, Professor at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Each year, the organizers strive to secure top-notch speakers who openly share their perspectives and insights from various spheres while also ensuring these speakers are not merely frequent conference speakerstravelers with the same presentation touring for many years, as it is the case of many events in the Czech Republic.

I want to share five perspectives as my main take-aways from GFL 2019. I do hope some of you will join me next time as I felt a bit lonely, as the only other participant representing the

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Czech Republic and Slovakia was the inspiring Tanja Vainio, who was one of the panelists discussing the new world, automated and powered by data.

EU perspective matters, so let us be aware, active and present!

Saying positive things about the EU in the Czech Republic does not make you popular, so that is why the positive justifications practically disappeared from the news.

Cecilia Malmström reminded the audience that EU trade is open and characterized by transparency, inclusivity and focus on job creation. Did you know that 36 million jobs exist thanks to EU trade? More support for further growth, particularly of small and medium enterprises, is already on the way. As to promotion of inclusivity, many international agreements (such as between EU and Chile) contain special chapters promoting and safeguarding women and gender.

Mrs. Malmström hopes that the cross-border

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

cooperation will be further strengthened after the elections to European Parliament.

The fact that the East-West division did not end with the fall of the Berlin Wall was painfully presented in the speech of Dr. Katarina Barley, Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection and a leader of the German SPD Party for the European Parliament Elections.

As much as Dr. Barley underlined EU values of rule of law, democracy, freedom and diversity plus the ability to come up with a compromise, her constant criticism of Hungary and Poland (although in many ways substantiated) made me experience another East-West division that I would have not expected 30 years after the fall of the Berlin wall; I wish there had been more participants from the region together with me to object such a discourse.

Breaking the Silos: Why Real Leaders Should Care about Planetary Health

What is the link between the corporate and planetary health? It is much more subtle than

you think. Did you go running this morning?

If yes, did you appreciate the quality of the air you breathed? Dr. Nicole de Palua, CEO of Global Health Asia Institute made the argument that global warming is a risk to both human and planetary health. Many popular psychology articles advise staying away from toxic people. But what to do about living in a toxic world? Have you noticed the worsening trend of air pollution in big cities, London and Prague not being the exception?

Being healthy by definition means much more than simply the opposite of being

sick. Transdisciplinary approach and wide collaboration is needed in order to tackle the issue of planetary health. And where to start?

Start taking your children to nature as much as you can. Once they experience nature, they will have the desire to understand it more and to protect it.

What3Words - Technology that Saves Nerves, Times and Lives

How many times have you set up an address into a navigation system to end up at the different place than intended? We all know that existing systems are not good enough, with both people and goods getting lost.

Chris Sheldrick, founded the company what3 words, after he got frustrated with providing performers for private parties in hard to find locations and then having his performers arrive late or not show up at all due to being lost. Camilla Tylor, CFO presented the start-up that has divided our planet into grids, assigning each location a specific word, rather than a number. Three words, automatic generated combinations, can be used even in places without an address, as four billion of people currently live without an address. It was great to hear that the system has been successfully tested not only by Mercedes but also by health workers in the biggest slum of Durban where it helps to save lives of babies, as it helps emergency workers get to pregnant women faster. Go on the web and find out what your address looks like with the what3words system.

Unlike two (or more streets) in a different city, each address is unique. On top of that these words are much easier to spell to any sound system, so that next time you arrive on time and to the venue you wanted (not the one that navigation understood).

The Five Most Important Technology Trends

Vuyiswa M’Cvabeni from SAP shared her story of her eight-year old son writing homework and wanting to ask Alexa for help, since “Alexa has an answer for everything”. She continued, “Technology is built into every single interaction, forcing companies to look for the next competitive edge to meet rising expectations.” Here are her five trends you should pay attention to.

I had to have a very good reason to leave my family on Mother’s Day to get to Berlin on time for the pre-summit session. “What is your passion?” asked Cynthia Coutu, the Founder and Manager of Delectabulles, A Champagne Networking Club for Women. It was actually her passion that helped her to establish own business, after she lost her job at the age of 50, after having spent many years working for a large international organization. The need for women to support each other in a male-dominated business such as winemaking by meeting, swapping knowledge,

1. Artificial intelligence that performs human like tasks can create up to six trillions USD of additional value. However, we need to decide first where it can be used and where it can’t be used.

2. Autonomous things that collaborate can complete tasks without human intervention. It is up to further research, big data and cloud technologies to ensure safety.

3. Blockchain and autonomous interactions brings us to the question of trust. The centralized trust model known today adds delays and friction costs to transactions.

Blockchain can bring enormous value but while providing decentralized alternative trust mode.

4. Multi-cloud. I remember during the early stage of my writing career for our magazine the discussion about whether to go to cloud or not. Today, everything relies on the cloud and the good news for customers is that many cloud platforms are available to fit individual needs and to provide the best solutions.

5. Experience management While customer centricity seems to be another buzzword, are we truly aware of how we can make systems truly beneficial and integrated for the customer?

Last but not least, let us be prepared for surprises. Vuyiswa ended with the quote from Douglas Adams who said that “technology is a word that describes something that does not work yet.”

truly promoting one another and banding together when facing difficulties, should be repeated again and again.

It was fascinating that leadership lessons were demonstrated using the background of the champagne making industry which, in fact, has many active women, yet not all their stories are known. Previously widows, nowadays often daughters, have had to take care of their husbands’ businesses, since the fields of Champagne had turned into battlefields twice in the last century. Cynthia makes sure both stories and brands get the attention they deserve. I was pleased to hear that more and more traditional houses are hiring women to the position of number two cellar master. This is the proof that diversity is not simply a plain word to be mocked or used by corporate social responsibility department, but a necessity for catering to all customers’ needs and thus prosperity in the 21st century.

By the way, did you know that the south of England might become a new producer of sparkling wines? Due to climate change, not only is the soil changing but also ripening of the grapes and their acidity is affected. One more reason to take climate change seriously.

I also learned how to open a champagne bottle properly (turn the bottle, not the cork!), but also that the goal is to make cork coming out of the bottle sound like a gentle kiss (forget about Formula 1 splash) and to avoid overflowing the glass you need to pour a few centiliters to a tilted glass and only then fill the rest. Cheers!

Women Behind the Bottles or take-away from pre-Summit Program session on “Pairing Women and Champagne”

I hope I have enticed you enough. The next Women Entrepreneurial Mission from the Czech Republic to Berlin is scheduled for September. And, mark your agenda! The next GFL Summit 2020 will be on May 12-14.

By Linda Štucbartová

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

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D icussion

event

University of New York in Prague April 25th, 2019 UNYP was proud to welcome Mr. Tomáš Zdechovský, Member of the European Parliament and Mr. Tomáš Prouza, President of the Confederation of Trade and Tourism of the Czech Republic, who talked to the students about the current socio-economic issues and answered the questions about the Czech Republic's integration into the EU.

From left: Oscar Hidalgo-Redondo, Dean of the School of International Relations, UNYP, Tomáš Prouza, President of the Association of Trade and Tourism, Eva Anderová, UNYP Vice President for Public Affairs and Tomáš Zdechovský, MEP From left: Tomáš Prouza, President of the Association of Trade and Tourism, Eva Anderová, UNYP Vice President for Public Affairs, and Tomáš Zdechovský, MEP

Tomáš Zdechovský, MEP

From right: Tomáš Zdechovský, MEP and Tomáš Prouza, President of the Association of Trade and Tourism

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

Oscar Hidalgo-Redondo, Dean of the School of International Relations, UNYP

diplomatic event

South Africa´s Freedom Day Celebrations and International Nelson Mandela Day On Thursday 18 July 2019, the South African Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Her Excellency Ms N. R. Mosholi, hosted an event at the Hilton Hotel in Prague to mark South Africa’s 25th Freedom Day. The event also provided the Embassy with the opportunity to celebrate the 10th Nelson Mandela International Day as declared by the United Nations. The highlight of the Celebrations was the handing over of a violin, which was handmade by three young children of “Akord Kvint” from the town of Luby, to a talented child in South Africa.

In her official address Ambassador Mosholi expressed her appreciation for this gesture and said it was proof of the special relationship in existence between the peoples of the Czech Republic and South Africa. The Czech Government was represented at the celebrations by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Mr Martin Tlapa, who said that South Africa was the Czech Republic’s biggest trading partner on the African Continent and that both countries would continue to look at various ways to further strengthen relations through increased investment and bilateral trade as well as people-to-people diplomacy.

From left: Mr. Johan Oberholzer, Counsellor, Ms. Dipuo Madiba, Third Secretary, Ms. Electra Koutina, spouse of Mr. Oberholzer, H.E. Naomi Ribbon Mosholi, Ambassador of South Africa, Ms. Neo Moikangoa, daughter of Ambassador Mosholi, Mr. Sello Mahlangu, spouse of Ms. Madiba, and Vivian Ncongwane, First Secretary

From left: H.E. Virginia Hesse, Ambassador of Ghana, Mikolas Josef, famous Artist and Singer, who is currently running a successful tour of concerts, performing with South African vocalists, H.E. Naomi Ribbon Mosholi, Ambassador of South Africa, and H.E. Rosaura Leonora Rueda Gutiérrez, Ambassador of Mexico

H.E. Martin Tlapa, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic and H.E. Naomi Ribbon Mosholi, Ambassador of South Africa

The handing over of a violin, which was handmade by three young children in the company Akord Kvint (Mr. Josef Holis, Director), for a talented child in South Africa

From left: H. E. Fouad Bouattoura, Ambassador of Algeria, H. E. Khaled Alattrash, Ambassador of Palestine, H.E. Karima Bardaoui, Ambassador of Tunisia, H. E. Ayman Mohammad Aladsani, Ambassador of Kuwait, and H. E. Rola Hamdan, Ambassador of Lebanon

Eva Anderova, Vice President for Public Affairs, University of New York, President, Franz Kafka Centre, and Benke Aikell, your Publisher

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

51

I nterview

with

H.E. G unta P astore , A mbassador

of

L atvia

to the

C zech R epublic P hoto : A rchive

I am privileged to serve in a like-minded country

52

I nterview

with

H.E. G unta P astore , A mbassador

of

L atvia

to the

C zech R epublic

What comes to your mind when you hear Latvia?

Latvia deserves attention that goes beyond the “one of the three Baltic states” characteristic. According to the Lonely Planet guide, Latvia has much to offer, beyond its forests and architecturally rich cities and towns. The capital Riga, which is listed as a UNESCO heritage site, is famous for its art nouveau architecture, comparable to Vienna, St. Petersburg or Barcelona. The endless golden sandy beaches stretching along 500 kilometres coastline might be the second reason and a nice surprise for the first-time travellers. Economically, Latvia like Estonia has been quick with regards to high-tech development. Historically, next to the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution, Latvia prides its history by the peaceful Singing Revolution which started already in 1987 and called for Baltic emancipation.

H.E. Gunta Pastore has served her country for 25 years; since November 2018 she has been the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Czech Republic. She holds three degrees and her Ph.D. thesis addressed the EU’s foreign policy and how small states can punch above their weight in EU. We both exchanged experiences on what it meant to serve in diplomacy during the foundational times, when our countries were joining EU and NATO. However, soon our discussion turned to future challenges represented by EU unity or hybrid wars, the need for technology and innovation and last but not least women empowerment. Did you know that Latvia has above the average representation of women in the parliament, which is at 30.4 %? It also has the highest proportion of women in managerial positions (53%) and the highest proportion of women holding a doctoral degree in the world (60%).

What is the current status of Czech-Latvian relations?

I am happy to represent my country in the Czech Republic. We are friends and close allies. Both countries are members of EU and NATO and our views on many topics are almost identical.

Our societies are vibrant; our people are hardworking and creative.

This year we commemorate 30 years of the Baltic Way in Baltic States and 30 years of Velvet Revolution in the Czech Republic. In 30 years, both Czechs and Latvians have achieved a lot. Our successful development is based not only on own efforts, but also on the stability of international rules-based system.

Today Latvia and the Czech Republic work together in the EU to advance competitiveness, cohesion, internal market, digitalization, to respond to hybrid and cyber-threats. We strongly support EU neighbours, including the East neighbours.

Membership to NATO is essential for our countries. This year the Czech Republic celebrates 20th anniversary of accession to NATO and Latvia its 15th anniversary. Czech soldiers are part of the NATO battle group in Latvia and we are thankful to Czech pilots safeguarding the Baltic airspace.

All this is a great signal of solidarity which is strengthening our region.

The task of the embassy is to bring our people, represented not only by politicians, but also businesses, experts or artists, together. For me it is a great experience to work together with the Czech Foreign Ministry. Czech diplomats are open, skilled, cooperative and efficient.

What is the current country brand of Latvia?

How did you manage to transform it from the geographical or historical definition of the post-Soviet Baltic state?

We are pragmatic EU and NATO member, and we belong to the Nordic Baltic region. We value the rule of law and human rights. I am proud that the former Judge of European Court of Justice Egils Levits has been elected as the new President of Latvia.

Latvia is a green country combining rich cultural heritage and innovative spirit. We call our approach “Greenovative”, inspired by nature, advanced by scientists and put in practice by

entrepreneurs. Latvia is a data driven nation, among global leaders in IT speed & consumption, our annual ICT sector growth is 15%. I am proud to say that our country is the ninth most literate nation in world, more than 60% of population speak three languages.

Last year we celebrated the centenary of the Latvian statehood. The “Latvia 100” celebration was a genuine nationwide movement. The Latvian Song and Dance Festival 2018 was attended by 40,000 people. The festival is on the UNESCO Masterpieces of Oral Heritage list.

What are the challenges for your country?

Are there any challenges specific for post-communist countries? Regarding the discourse before the EU parliament elections, some “old” EU member states brought back the “old” vs. “new” division between the member states.

I see all the myths regarding any imaginary divisions within the EU being dangerous. There are many potential divisions, including north vs. south or divisions on migration or convergence issue. Latvia wants to be a constructive EU and NATO partner and I see the same approach in the Czech Republic. After 15 years we are mature members of the EU and both countries have held successful Presidencies of the EU Council.

The Baltic states are also eurozone members and they cooperate closely with the Nordic countries.

When I came to the Czech Republic, I realized that the Czechs do not view their past as negative trait since the past gives us the opportunity to appreciate and take care of what we have achieved. Our people tend to look forward instead of backwards, our people are not tired of living in democracy, they are curious and full of energy.

Let me turn to your personal career journey. You have three degrees, studying at Vienna Diplomatic Academy, being a guest researcher at the Swedish Defense University in Stockholm, confirm the popular saying “learning being the new fitness”.

I could not study political science during the Soviet regime, so I got a degree in engineering.

However, international studies are my true and unending area of interest, so after the regime change, I started to study political science, international relations and security studies.

Diplomats need to learn constantly as the nature of the work evolves. Today we need to learn about cybersecurity or technological innovations.

How do you manage work-life balance?

Being an ambassador sometimes entails two full time work loads. Working during the day, attending events in the evening and reading Financial Times before you go to bed.

I understood and learned the need for balance.

I make sure to do a lot of physical activities to recharge my batteries. I also spend enough time with my family.

Latvia seems to be the country for women.

It follows the trend of Nordic countries having high proportion of women both in parliament as well as in managerial positions.

Women and men had equal rights to vote and be elected from the first day of foundation of Latvia in 1918, similarly to Czechoslovakia. With regards to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have mostly women diplomats. We still have some stereotypes to challenge or the gender pay gap to address but I can see the situation changing and evolving very fast. Moreover, the country has already had a female President and Prime Minister. I believe that the future belongs to women.

What are your final words for Czech and Slovak Leaders Magazine readers?

Come and experience Latvia yourself. You will see how much in common our countries have.

As the Czech Republic is now rebranding “the country for the future”, we also follow the trend and concentrate on our green innovations and technologies. Enjoy our capital Riga and profit from the sea. I hope you will feel there like it’s your second home which is exactly how I feel in the Czech Republic. We are indeed like-minded countries.

By Linda Štucbartová

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

53

Can you decode BRITISH POLITENESS in business?

As an intercultural consultant I have been working with companies all over the world for more than 15 years. I have been supporting leaders of international companies, multicultural teams, sales representatives and HR managers to find the right strategies how to cooperate together. The focus of my workshops and consulting sessions is to support the clients to create strategies they can use immediately after our training. We discover cross-cultural values and differences related to business communication, communicating changes, motivating and providing feedbacks.

We deal with all phases of cross-cultural business negotiations. Our common goal is to make their cross-cultural journey successful.

What do British really mean? Why do they use words such as “brilliant” or “interesting” whey they do not match the context. The training participants were aware that Brits employ an indirect communication style. However, they were not sure how to decode it. In their language “I need the information to complete the project. “ is fully accepted and understood as an urgent matter. “Could you provide the information...” doesn’t give them any sense when there is an emergency.

Our discussion started with the question about small talk. They were curious how much time they should devote to small talk and what topics to focus on. They knew that weather is a key topic, however, as Slovaks usually struggle with it, they were looking for some other tips. They have already learnt that “How are you?” doesn’t mean a real invitation for a talk on your day and feelings.

And what does my colleague, Rita, say?

Unless you are very used to communicating with British people, you will inevitably be surprised by how indirectly they express themselves. Your British colleagues may use understatements such as “a bit of a problem” where you see a major disaster, or “not bad” of something that is clearly excellent. They may claim that they “will get back to you” when they do not agree with you at all and do not want to discuss the topic further. They can preface the most important thing they have to say with a vague “Oh, by the way …” and only give you a hint to make a crucial, deal-breaking change in a contract with the words “that would be helpful”.

My colleague Rita, an intercultural trainer in UK, provided the following recommendations: Be prepared to do a lot of small talk with your British team members. This is a must when starting a conversation. Jumping straight into important topics (no matter how pressing) will be considered as abrupt or even rude.

Take your time with them, drink your tea and enjoy listening to the moaning about the weather – it is however polite not to agree too much, instead say that you have come from very similar (not worse) weather in your own country. If you are standing up, leave your

Agree a meeting well in advance, detail who will take part, when and where it will take place and what will be discussed. Arrive on time and inform your British colleagues if you are going to be late.

Send your most knowledgeable people to the meeting – the British will ask questions. Every business meeting must start with small talk about weather, the traffic or some other neutral topic – avoid politics, religion, money or private matters.

Your presentations should be clear and factual – avoid anything that could come across as boasting or exaggeration. Even if you are selling, your selfpromotion should be shrouded in modesty.

Recently I have been asked by an automotive company to support their R&D team cooperating with a customer in UK. They have been working together for nearly 2 years and collected several questions.

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British colleague about one meter of personal space. Learn your colleagues’ first names and use them frequently.

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

Eva Gaborikova has been an intercultural consultant and certified ICF leadership coach supporting leaders and multicultural teams all over the world. She has been supporting international companies in Central Europe and their HR managers to build talent development trainings. You can reach her at: egaborikova@gmail.com or www.evagaborikova.eu.

Rita Rosenback is an Intercultural youth trainer and consultant, speaker and author, who lives in the UK. After moving from her native Finland 20 years ago Rita worked as a manager in IT and retail, until setting up her own business in 2012, within which she also works as a Family Language Coach.

You can learn more about her activities on www.multilingualparenting.com.

Avoid aggressive negotiation tactics and confrontations at all cost. If your British counterpart starts a sentence by saying “with all due respect” you have crossed the line and will have to mend bridges to continue the discussion. On the other hand, if you hear the words “Are we still on your Christmas card list?” your British colleagues think they may have pressed you too hard. Fair play and win-win scenarios are important for the British.

After the meeting, capture key points and action items, and email them to your British colleagues and get their approval for them.

Note that British do not like to talk about money, so financial details are often finalised via email. Once you have shook hands on something, the contract has been made and you are expected to stick to it. A deal is a deal.

In general, Slovaks do not have any problem with been organized and scheduled for a meeting. They welcome an agenda and sharing information. What makes them a bit lost is the understatement they do not fully understand. They do not pay attention to the issues mentioned “by the way” at the end of a meeting. Indeed, they are shocked to discover later that “by the way” was the key point. The phrases “with all due respect” or “let’s consider some other solutions” are perceived directly. As one of the training participants said: “We need the explanation of the codes the British use in their messages.”

Cross-cultural communication hides a lot of challenges for leaders, managers and team members to adapt a communication style and be aware of cross-cultural differences. Successful global leaders and multicultural teams understand the importance of a cross-cultural training and consulting. What about you?

Eva Gaboriková české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

COACHING P hoto :

archive

55

UNYP celebrates

its 18th Annual Graduation Ceremony

UNYP Graduation Ceremony took place on Slovanský ostrov

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The event honored nearly 200 graduates from over 40 countries

H. E. Stephen B. King, the U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic

From left: Sotiris Foutsis, UNYP General Manager; Sheila Marie Aird, Director of European Programs, SUNY Empire State College; Nikki Shrimpton, Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, SUNY Empire State College; Ilias Foutsis, UNYP President; and Athanassios Pantazopoulos, UNYP Director of LL.M. Program

Jindřich Fryč, State Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

On the 21st of June, 2019 the University of New York in Prague held their graduation ceremony at Palác Žofín on the beautiful island, Slovanský ostrov. The ceremony was opened by H. E. Stephen B. King, US Ambassador to the Czech Republic, followed by an inspirational speech by PhDr. Jindřich Fryč, State Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. ''The education our graduates have received will be their passport to future success and one of the most valuable assets in their lives and I am so proud of all of them,'' said Sotiris Foutsis, UNYP General Manager.

From left: Sheila Marie Aird, Director of European Programs, SUNY Empire State College; Nikki Shrimpton, Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, SUNY Empire State College; H. E. Stephen B. King, the U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic; and Sotiris Foutsis, UNYP General Manager

From left: Ilias Foutsis, UNYP President; H. E. Stephen B. King, the U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic; and Jindřich Fryč, State Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic

From left: Ilias Foutsis, UNYP President; Jindřich Fryč, State Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic; Eva Anderová, UNYP Vice President for Public Affairs; and Jan Fischer, former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic

From left: H. E. Efthymios Efthymiades, Ambassador of Greece to the Czech Republic; Sotiris Foutsis, UNYP General Manager; and Jindřich Fryč, State Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic

Sheila Marie Aird, Director of European Programs, SUNY Empire State College, with graduates

UNYP Graduates in the Great Hall of the Žofín Palace

Earl of St Andrews, Chancellor of University of Bolton

UNYP students graduate

Ilias Foutsis, UNYP President

Graduation Ceremony

The Great Hall of the Žofín Palace

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

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diplomatic event

DISCUSSION EVENT held at Greek Ambassador's Residence

The Embassy of Greece in partnership with the University of New York in Prague organized a friendly discussion with guest speaker Mr. Tomáš Zdechovský, Member of the European Parliament, with focus on the topic of the upcoming European Parliament election.

From left: H.E. Efthymios Efthymiades, Ambassador of Greece to the Czech Republic and H.E. Christoph Israng, Ambassador of Germany to the Czech Republic

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From left: H.E. Jordan Parvanov Parvanov, Ambassador of Bulgaria to the Czech Republic, Maria Alerta, Counsellor, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Greece to the Czech Republic, and H.E. Ilirian Kuka, Ambassador of Albania to the Czech Republic

From left: Tomáš Zdechovský, Member of the European Parliament and H.E. Efthymios Efthymiades, Ambassador of Greece to the Czech Republic

Benke Aikell, your Publisher and H.E. Gunta Pastore, Ambassador of Latvia to the Czech Republic

H.E. Efthymios Efthymiades, Ambassador of Greece to the Czech Republic and Eva Anderová, Vice President for PR, UNYP, President, Franz Kafka Centre and Honorary Consul of Zambia

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

diplomatic event

From left: Maria Alerta, Counsellor, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Greece in the Czech Republic, Eva Anderová, Vice President for PR, UNYP, President, Franz Kafka Centre and Honorary Consul of Zambia, Marc S. Ellenbogen, President, Prague Society, Businessman, Diplomat and Philanthropist, Tomáš Zdechovský, Member of the European Parliament, Benke Aikell, your Publisher, H.E. Efthymios Efthymiades, Ambassador of Greece to the Czech Republic, and H.E. Antonios Theocharous, Ambassador of Cyprus to the Czech Republic

From left: H.E. Christoph Israng, Ambassador of Germany to the Czech Republic and Benke Aikell, your Publisher

From left: H.E. Antonios Theocharous, Ambassador of Cyprus to the Czech Republic and Ph.D Konstantinos Tsivos, Institute of Greek and Latin Studies, Charles‘ University in Prague

Tomáš Zdechovský, Member of the European Parliament and Eva Anderová, Vice President for PR, UNYP, President, Franz Kafka Centre and Honorary Consul of Zambia

Eva Anderová, Vice President for PR, UNYP, President, Franz Kafka Centre and Honorary Consul of Zambia and Mr. Thorsten Kalinowski

Ph.D Konstantinos Tsivos, Institute of Greek and Latin Studies, Charles‘ University in Prague and Maria Alerta, Counsellor, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Greece in the Czech Republic

Eva Anderová, Vice President for PR, UNYP, President, Franz Kafka Centre and Honorary Consul of Zambia and Tomáš Zdechovský, Member of the European Parliament

CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

59

500 years

since the death of the Renaissance genius

In the autumn of 1516, an unusual parade passes a throng of curious onlookers and through the gates of the Château d’Amboise. A solemn old man with a full white beard sitting on a donkey is looking around at the place that will become part of his everyday life. On the wagon behind him, a number of chests are piled up, full of books, scrolls and objects of all kinds, amongst which we can see the portrait of a young lady with a mysterious smile, a painting today admired by millions of people the world over. The old man is the 64-year-old Leonardo da Vinci.

“Here, you will have the opportunity to live, create, think and work freely.” He is welcomed by King Francis I of France, who invited him to the town of Amboise, bequeathing him the title “First Painter, Architect and Engineer to the King”.

The King lets him stay in the Clos Lucé manor house, alongside his two Milan companions, Francesco Melzi and Battista da Vilanis. From his very first day there, Leonardo tirelessly researches and works, but his paralytic hand no longer allows him to paint. When Leonard dies in his room at Clos Lucé manor in Amboise three years later, the King cries over the loss of a man he lovingly referred to as “padre”, and grants him a grand funeral. Thus on 2 May 1519 passed one of the greatest artists, humanists and thinkers in human history. He left behind an extraordinary heritage, celebrated around the world, led by that picture of the Mona Lisa’s mysterious smile.

More than any other town, today the name

Amboise is linked to the life and work of this Tuscan master.

Leonardo was the illegitimate son of notary Ser Piero and country woman Catarina da Vinci. His father adopted him and secured him a general education. No records of his childhood have survived, so we can only guess as to his youth.

All we know of the young Leonardo was that he was of pleasing appearance and so strong that he could bend an iron bar. It is to this period that his dream of a bird is attributed, a bird that attacked Leonardo in his crib and inspired an entire book, “Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood” by the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. Another likely story from his childhood is an incident with a rough wooden shield, which its purchaser gave to Leonardo’s father to have it painted with a heart. Leonardo refused to do such a trivial painting, instead apparently painting it with an incredible portrayal of a mythical beast, striking all who saw it with fear. Ser Piero sold this painting to a Jew at great profit and gave the purchaser a peddler’s painting of a heart, with the poor countryman not even realising it.

When Leonardo was 14, he moved with his father to Florence and became a pupil of the artist Andrea del Verrocchio, alongside Botticelli, Perugino and Lorenzo di Credi. Here, he acquired his technical skills, learning the functional, precise and objective portrayal of objects. In his 20s, he was admitted to the famous Guild of Saint Luke for painters. He was 24 when he independently painted three famous paintings, Annunciation, Madonna of the Carnation, and the portrait Ginevra de’ Benci. By 1478, he had begun to take an interest in science, first studying military engineering, and he began to write the Codex Atlanticus.

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In 1482, the young Leonardo left Florence for Milan at the invitation of the powerful duke, Ludovico Sforza. Here, he collected a group of followers, some of whom remained loyal to him till the end of his life. In Florence he had not enjoyed such admiration, as his distinctive style and avant-garde ideas were too innovative at the time for sceptical Florentines, who could never have given him the recognition he deserved.

As a genius of his time, Leonardo created a unique language. His style was balanced between strong poetical feelings and the will of an artist, complemented by unique mystical gestures. Leonardo rejected the geometric form of perspective in order to create deep landscape views in his pictures. He freely utilised compositions involving the rich relationships of all living things on the canvas. In his pictures, he expressed the internal dynamics of figures in a curved body shape, which became one of the core models for classical figures in the 16th century.

He was 30 years old when he began to study aerodynamics and physics, anatomy, meteorology, astronomy and cosmography.

He was interested in Pythagoras’s mathematics, which he soon mastered, making it the basis for his own research. He applied the findings he obtained in his scientific research to his composition of paintings and sculptures.

Thus art and science were inseparable values for Leonardo. In 1487, he took part in an architectural competition for a model of the dome above the crossing in Milan Cathedral. All his designs, however, were too novel and bold, and so the cathedral was completed according to plans that were more Gothic in nature.

In 1495, he began work on The Last Supper.

He used new techniques with tempera and oil,

but these proved unfortunate and vulnerable to humidity, and the work soon began to deteriorate. Leonardo’s composition of the painting exudes a mysterious, almost esoteric spirit and the viewer is transported to a world of emotion and unending light dynamics.

His choice of colours became a means for describing atmosphere, a subtle combination of light and shade creating a new form and supporting the viewer’s imagination. Figures on the canvas are shown in typical Renaissance style, and in combination with the background achieve a final impression of monumentality and balance. By the mid-16th century, the work was said to be entirely destroyed, hence the Last Supper became subject to many future attempts at repair.

In 1499, Leonardo left for Venice because his benefactors, the Sforzas of Milan, were overthrown. His period of wandering had begun. A year later, he left Venice to return to Florence and illustrate the Divine Proportions for the mathematician Pacioli. On the basis of his studies of anatomy and the work of Vitruvius (architect for the Roman Emperor Augustus), he drew the image of a man in ideal proportions within a circle, setting new benchmarks for architecture and construction still used today.

Leonardo was 52 when he began working on La Gioconda (Mona Lisa) for a Florentine purchaser, Francesco del Giocondo, who commissioned

a painting of his third wife, Lisa. It is probably one of the most famous paintings in the world, and Leonardo hones it to perfection using a blending technique known as “sfumato”. In the end, he doesn’t want to give the painting away, and he takes it with him to France in 1516.

In 1513–1514, two years before leaving for Amboise on the invitation of the King of France, he lived in Rome at the palace of Guiliano de’ Medici (the younger brother of the Pope at that time, Leo X) and received a wage as his protégé.

This was a very welcome change for Leonardo, who until then had often lived in poverty, despite his renown.

Why is Leonardo today considered a genius?

His life’s work is extensive and has influenced art and science around the world. He wasn’t just a painter and artist, but also an engineer, architect, scientist, inventor, cartographer, anatomist, botanist and writer. He was a master in all his fields. He came up with the concept of the tank and helicopter before anyone else. He drew maps before cartography was established as a field. He described and drew the growth and movements of a foetus before anyone knew the science of anatomy, and so much more besides.

A large number of his artworks and scientific papers were destroyed, but research of his diaries is ongoing. He left many plans for many buildings in his diaries, although it is likely that none were actually implemented. During his life, he endeavoured to write a number of books on various aspects of his knowledge. His notes, however, are fragmented and scattered.

Leonardo’s literary legacy of about 7000 pages was later assembled, and today these pages can be found under codified titles in distinguished galleries and many European libraries, as well as in the hands of private collectors (e.g. Bill Gates). We know that Leonardo was working on a masterpiece of anatomy, painting, nature, light and shade. Unfortunately, none of his series of notes were completed in publishable form. Leonardo once said he had written 120 or 114 books, and he had not completed the Mona Lisa even after three years of work.

The last scientific study into why he did not complete many of his works of art and science

concluded that he suffered from attention deficit disorder along with hyperactivity.

Historical records show that Leonardo spent a large amount of time planning his projects, but that he also lacked patience in their implementation. It would not be historically correct to adopt a romantic image of da Vinci as a lone genius, unappreciated by his peers because his ideas were ahead of their time.

Leonardo had a tendency to “flip” between jobs, and to work without break the whole night, sufficing with just a short period of deep sleep.

His peers likely were unable to understand or forgive him for his lack of discipline, rather than for his vision.

Leonardo’s scientific works and research laid the foundation for modern science, and his masterpieces of painting remain today astonishing in their perfection. A Leonardo da Vinci portrait sold in 2017 for 450.3 million dollars at Christie’s, the highest sum a work of art has ever been sold for at auction. This too is proof of the greatness of this artist of the Italian Renaissance, perhaps one of the greatest geniuses of our era .

Author: Ing. Arch. Iva Drebitko

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I nterview

with

J ana M aláčová , M inister

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S ocial A ffairs P hoto : A rchive

It is UNACCEPTABLE for children to live in POVERTY At the end of June 2019 you’re celebrating your eleventh month in government. How do you assess your performance? What has been a positive surprise, and what has been a negative surprise? ČSSD (the Czech Social Democratic Party) is doing well in government, and I am pleased to be able to play my part in this. There have been a number of successes. These include increasing the minimum wage by 1150 CZK and abolishing the three day “waiting period” for receiving sick pay. This is important to me personally, because the Social Democrats have always been the party of labour. If you work hard, then we’ve got to be able to protect you and secure you decent working conditions.

Then there’s the highest pensions increase in history. And again, if you’ve worked hard your whole life, then you deserve a dignified old age and not one mired in poverty. But our pensions system

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isn’t perfect, which is why I’m glad that as well as increasing pensions we have also managed to set up the Fair Pensions Commission, which is going to focus on eliminating the greatest injustices.

We want to rectify women’s lower pensions and secure earlier retirement for what we term difficult professions. But we’ve still got to find new sources of revenue for our pensions system.

I also think another great success is the increase to the care allowance for Grade III and Grade IV dependency, as I consider it absolutely fundamental that these disabled people, who are in most cases reliant on the assistance of others, receive financial support from the state.

But my list wouldn’t end there. If I could summarise, I’m glad that ČSSD has been able to push the government towards more socially sensitive policies. If ODS (the Civic Democratic Party) or SPD (the Freedom and Direct Democracy Party) were in government in our place, things

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would look entirely different. Negative surprises can come at any time, but we then discuss it in government and we manage to come to a solution together.

Despite the good economy, you’re the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in a country in which a tenth of the population are subject to debt collection procedures; we have 115 000 parents refusing to pay child maintenance, and we have two vulnerable social groups – families with small children and pensioners – who are highly likely to fall into a poverty trap. Families and old-age are your priorities. What are the opportunities for systematic change?

First of all, I’d like to say that when our country is doing well and we have no major crisis to deal with, it is unacceptable for children to live in poverty in the Czech Republic.

I nterview There are a number of steps that can be taken to ease the situation. We are working on a profamily package that will include increasing child benefits, implementing back-up maintenance payments and promoting job sharing, such as for mothers on parental leave, as well as securing funding for kid’s clubs and micro-crèches. In regards to senior citizens, I’ve already spoken about the increases to pensions.

You’ve mentioned debt collection. According to the latest available statistics, 863 thousand people are subject to debt collection procedures.

This is a truly horrifying figure. If these numbers were added to the figures indicating those under threat of poverty, the results would truly shock us.

However, this problem is only partially my responsibility. Other ministries have to do their share of the work. In the meantime, I have unveiled an increase to the Living and Subsistence Minimum. People subject to debt collection procedures should get at least a little more. Work has simply got to pay under all circumstances. In this regard, I have therefore used a government decree amendment to apply a number of key principles, which should help to improve their living situation while also providing them with the opportunity to get out of their debt trap.

In addition, in the area of fighting poverty, we are coming down hard on all the fraudsters and those who profit from poverty, who are a menace in so-called areas of social exclusion.

You are the Deputy Chair of the Orange Club, which advocates fair representation of women in public life. We should note that according to the World Economic Forum, the Czech Republic is 88th in the world in terms of equal gender opportunities due to the low level of political and economic involvement, despite our high position in regard to equal access to health care and education. It seems from the outside that few are bothered by this low ranking, just as few are bothered by the 22 % pay gap. Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, has declared: “Diversity is Canada’s strength.”

What can be done to ensure this statement could apply to the Czech Republic too?

The fight for women’s rights is an important topic to me. Thanks to the 22 % K Rovnosti (22 % to Equality) project study, we know that women receive an 11 % lower salary than men for the same position with the same employer; this is equivalent to men receiving a 13th salary and their female colleagues getting nothing. Across the economy, the gap is the 22 % you have mentioned. A key reason, of course, is looking after the family and children. Unequal remuneration for women and men is a fundamental topic that I want to open up at our tripartite meetings. I think this is an injustice that causes harm not just to the people in our country, but also to our economy.

Again, our pro-family package applies here, as it includes funding for kid’s groups, micro-crèches and job sharing. These two measures should ensure that women should not need to face so many problems in balancing their career and

with

J ana M aláčová , M inister

working life due to looking after their children, something that can also have a negative impact on how much they take home. And, of course, we’ve got institutions such as the Labour Inspection Office and others, which need to ensure that no direct discrimination of women takes place in the workplace.

Single mothers are the most vulnerable group in the labour market; they are subject to discrimination in the workplace and, alongside pensioners, face the highest risk of falling into a poverty trap. Some companies prefer to go through the bureaucratic rigmarole of employing Filipinos or Indians rather than allowing shared work or job sharing. You are planning to submit your “family support package”. Why was it hard to find support for this?

Job sharing won’t mean any further administrative burden for employers. In contrast, we have endeavoured to create our proposal such that the entire process is as simple as possible. It won’t be any more complicated than any time you want to recruit any new employee.

Thanks to job sharing, employers will be able to cover some of their needs for qualified employees, of which there are insufficient numbers today. One job could be shared, for example, by a mother on parental leave and a pensioner who would like to continue working and maintaining relations with colleagues, but is no longer able to commit full-time, or would like to spend more time with grandchildren.

Budgetary reasons are often given as arguments against our pro-family package. But we should instead focus on the fact that investment in support for families will be returned to us many times over, whether in terms of a higher birth rate, or greater family financial stability. And we have a lot to invest in; we lack basic infrastructure, especially quality services in care for children under 3 years of age, support for part-time employment, etc.

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Let’s stay with female solidarity. Have you encountered it? Does it operate in government? Does it work in top-level politics? Some of your female colleagues are not well-known supporters of women or women’s topics.

It’s not for me to say. We all have a different agenda in each of our departments, and we communicate professionally together without major problems. However, when any disputes do break out, it is never at a personal level and we purely focus on discussion of our programme.

I personally have encountered the support for women that I am endeavouring to achieve in my previous roles, as well as within the Social Democrats, where this approach to women works excellently.

I’m not going to ask you how you manage with looking after your family and your career, because the question seems inappropriate since few people ask this question of men in top positions. So I’ll ask you how you work with energy, how you recharge, and how you manage to separate or bring together your work and family.

Thank you for formulating the question that way.

But you’re right; it isn’t always easy. It sometimes happens that I spend the evening with my husband looking at our diaries and finding a way to reconcile everything together. But it helps that we have clearly set out what each of us does, and what the grandparents, who also help us, do. But it’s the same for most people; I look forward to relaxing with my husband, to being with my son Gustík and just enjoying our time together. Besides spending time with my family, I also find relaxation in sport and sleeping well.

My favourite thing of all is to “switch off” over a good book or film.

By Linda Štucbartová české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

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T he P ower

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Life

James A. Cusumano, PhD Chairman, Chateau Mcely s.r.o.

Prague, Czech Republic

Is Beautiful Part XIII: Fearless Leadership1,2 Figure 1: Dorothy Jongeward wrote the book on how to create successful transactions among people. She developed the field of Transactional Analysis and presented the details in an easy-to-read international bestseller entitled Born To Win.

“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” Robert Byrne

I have been an entrepreneur most of my life, founding and leading the growth of publiclytraded companies. Although I’ve enjoyed success, I made some mistakes along the way – I eventually appeased my afflicted ego by calling them “learnings” ! These learnings taught me a lot about business, most especially about people and therefore about life.

I discovered eight guidelines, which if followed diligently, essentially enable growth to a successful thriving enterprise. These guidelines are as follows: 1. Have an Inspiring Leader 2. Create a Dream 3. Hire Right 4. Create a Market 5. Focus, Focus, Focus 6. Create an Early Success 7. Plan But Remain Flexible 8. Support All Stakeholders3 All eight are discussed in detail elsewhere. 4 None of these guidelines is more critical than number three, which expressed in its complete form is hire the right people for the right job at the right time and when you make a mistake – and on occasion you will – quickly and compassionately

make the necessary changes. This is so important because success in just about any undertaking is always about three things – people, people and people – from the managing director to maintenance personnel. They may not all be equal when it comes to position, salary and potential impact on the company, but every one of them is IMPORTANT and must function in the right frame of mind and motivation to do their job well.

If we take this analysis to the next level, there is an important aspect that permeates the leadership and management of every long-lasting success in business and that is Fearlessness. It is especially important as the business cycles through good times and challenging times, which all businesses do at one point or another. Perhaps a personal story will help clarify this point.

As my colleagues and I were building Catalytica Pharmaceuticals from five people and a novel concept to the largest contract-manufacturing pharmaceutical company in North America, namely, more than 2,000 people with annual sales of $500 million, we encountered some of those tough times. Early on, as CEO, I made certain key mistakes, which eventually became helpful learnings.

An important one of these learnings was how to properly handle business cycles. When times were good and we were meeting or exceeding our budget and goals, I must admit that I very much enjoyed my sense of accomplishment and the compliments that our management team and I received from our board of directors. But, in challenging times, when we were unable to achieve our goals and projections, I didn’t easily appreciate the input of some board members, probably because their constructive criticisms were right on target–but they hurt! I tended to blame our problems on the economy, or on other external factors. How could it possibly be due to the management team, right?

What did I do during those tough times?

Unfortunately, even though I had worked diligently and creatively with our team to hire excellent people – people who certainly were much more experienced and capable than I in their area of expertise, e.g., finance, sales, marketing, manufacturing and technology, as we entered these challenges, I began to expose the management team to my fears and concerns.

I often didn’t ask for their input concerning this or that potential solution to our problems, but strongly suggested my own ideas–even when I knew the team thought my suggested course of action would be ineffective and a waste of time.

References: 1. EDITOR’S COMMENT–This is the thirteenth article in a series based on the author’s book, “Life Is Beautiful: 12 Universal Rules,” Waterfront Press, Cardiff California, 2015. 2. The author may be reached at Jim@ChateauMcely.Com. 3. Not SHAREHOLDERS, but STAKEHOLDERS, which are Customers, Employees, Shareholders, Suppliers, Community and the World. 4. James A. Cusumano, BALANCE: The Business-Life Connection, SelectBooks, New York, 2013.”

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T he P ower the second means opportunity. In other words, in every crisis there is always an opportunity [see Figure 2].

In our first meeting she asked me several important questions.

• What is your mission?

• Are you still excited by and committed to your mission?

• What are your personal and company values?

• Are you still earnestly committed to these Figure 2: Chinese philosophy states that there is an opportunity in every crisis. Of the two characters that mean “crisis,” one means “danger” and the other means “opportunity.”

In a moment of personal truth, I knew things were not right. Something was wrong with the way I was looking at our challenges and the way I was behaving. Later, I would find out that I was operating out of fear and with little or no consideration for the expertise, experience and feelings of the talented people we had hired as members of our team.

There was a possible solution. Living in Silicon Valley, I had access to numerous proven counselors in the areas critical to building a successful business. A good friend introduced me to one of them – Dr. Dorothy Jongeward. Dorothy was a world-class psychologist in the field of Transactional Analysis (TA), which teaches how to alter your ego and control your fears as a way of solving personal and professional issues. She had written many books on the subject, one of them, Born to Win, had sold more than four million copies [see Figure 1].

The first time I met Dorothy, I really liked her. She was unpretentious, a great listener and showed an earnest concern to help me. During our discussion of business cycles, she advised me to think about the Chinese philosophy concerning the word “crisis”. The Chinese write “crisis” with two characters. The first one means danger, but

values?

• Do you spend quality time on the

important things that need to be done in your role as CEO to be successful, or are you distracted by other things, which may not be relevant to your mission–especially during challenging times?

She was pleased to hear my affirmative answer to each of these questions.

She then told me that the best metric to determine if a company or any group of people is functioning well is if trust permeates the organization. This certainly made good sense to me. She said that her sense was that Catalytica Pharmaceuticals had a very high level of trust in its corporate fabric. She ended with a simple straight forward comment.

“Don’t screw it up with the propagation of useless and damaging fear!” I was taken aback.

But as my ego recovered and I thought about her wakeup comment, I knew she was right.

Dorothy’s point was if you hire the right people at the right time to do the right job, then you must trust that they are doing just that. Yes, you can ask the team questions and make suggestions, but if these managers are more experienced and more highly trained in areas that are not your primary expertise, it would be ineffective to tell them what to do – worse, it could be demoralizing to them. Done too often, a smart and effective executive would soon find a different professional opportunity.

“Your primary job, Jim, as CEO,” she said, “is to set a strategic direction, agree with the team on goals and priorities, check back occasionally to be sure things are on target and then–get out of their way!”

The complete opposite of this is what happens when the leader jumps into the fear mode of operation. He or she usually has sleepless nights because the organization is not performing well. What will the board think? Out of fear and thinking it will help, a fearful leader often gives direct orders to his or her immediate reports.

Try this or try that! We’ve got to turn this thing around! In this case the outcome will only be as good as the leader is in a state of fear, and forego the benefits of the talented people hired into the organization.

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Philosophers and psychologists figured out long ago, you always attract what you fear, and that which you fear most comes swiftly to your doorstep. The reason that you fail when you are overrun with fear is the same reason you succeed when you put your focused “fearless” attention and intention on a desired positive outcome. It’s the other side of the coin. Fear induces all of the physical, emotional and psychological feelings necessary to create a negative outcome. Fear is a powerful paralyzing force.

This is why the leader must learn to manage fear and in the best case be absolutely fearless [See Figure 3]. It’s not easy. It requires practice, but it absolutely can be achieved. Not only is it important to be fearless in the presence of executives, managers and other employees but, it is equally necessary to demonstrate compassionate understanding for their fears. A fearless leader helps them see past their challenges, so that the entire team can operate like a well-oiled machine.

Otherwise, the company will be in the typical “fight-or-flight” mode, which is fine if you’re being chased by a bear.

In fight-or-flight operation, there is essentially zero creativity for solving challenging problems.

“Fight-or-flight” stress works well in military operations –Keep your head down, or it will be blown off! –but not in business. When your body experiences fight-or-flight, the Immunoglobulin (IgA) antibody levels in your body go down and your cortisol hormone levels go up. This is perfect physiological chemistry for creating illness. In fact, the medical profession is moving increasingly towards the conclusion that nearly all illnesses, from colds to cancer, are caused in this way, namely by frequent stressful fear reactions.

It’s not easy to become fearless, but it can be done and the results are well worth the effort.

However, we human beings have a great capacity to exaggerate the negativity and potential outcome of a challenge. This is due to prior conditioning by others and to remnants in our ancestral “animal brain”.

Two things can help overcome these two impediments – moderate physical exercise and meditation. The practice of both is best. Frequent exercise and meditation – just 20 minutes per day –have demonstrated that IgA levels increase and cortisol levels decrease leading to better health and increased longevity. Under these circumstances, the parasympathetic nervous system has been found to bring about radical healing of even the most recalcitrant diseases.

Life is truly beautiful.

Sat, Chit, Ananda!

Enjoy your journey, make a difference!

Figure 3: You attract what you fear, and that which you fear most, comes swiftly to your doorstep. The same mechanism is at play as when you manifest something positive by putting your Attention and Intention on a desired outcome.

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F rom J erusalem

to

P rague ,

an interview with

J ill M eron

P hoto : A rchive

I am proud of my Czechoslovakian Roots Jill Meron is not only the wife of H.E. Daniel Meron, the Ambassador of the State of Israel to the Czech Republic, she is a mother of four, a shy but significant volunteer for many community activities and more recently, a dedicated family historian. When coming to Prague she knew that, this time, her husband’s posting would be a different one, as they arrived in a foreign country for the first time without their four adult children who remained in Israel studying and working. Little did she know that discovering her family relatives would lead her to a new mission: becoming a family genealogist. She ensured that memorial stones called “Stolpersteine”, which commemorate victims of Nazi persecution, were laid in Olomouc for three Lindenbaum family members, with their names, dates of birth and dates of death. Jill managed to accomplish a procedure that usually takes years in several months. Our readers might find it interesting to know that more than 70 000 Stolpersteine have been laid so far which makes the Stolpersteine project the world’s largest decentralized memorial. I met Jill in my favorite café at Slovanský dům garden. During our interview, we discussed not only the past and the Holocaust legacy but also the promising current stage and future of Czech-Israeli relations, shared views on motherhood and dual-career marriages and, last but not least, Jill’s various involvement in Prague charity and community life.

Let me begin with a famous Elie Wiesel quote that you used at the end of the Stolpersteine ceremony. “One person of integrity can make a difference”. In the general public view, the Stolpersteine is linked to the past, while you linked it to the present. You said you did it not for those who died but for your children and other children.

I wanted my children to realize how my family and the Lindenbaum family and their fates were closely related. It could have been my children’s grandparents just as easily. My grandparents were fortunate enough to escape from Vienna to London just after the annexation of Austria

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by Nazi Germany, the Lindenbaums were less fortunate and had nowhere to go.

You knew that you had Czechoslovakian origins that you are proud of. Has the discovery of the fate of other family members changed your perception of the Czech Republic?

I spent two years on the process of researching that led to the ceremony. It was an incredible learning process. I knew that I had family roots back in Uherské Hradiště. My grandmother used to tell me stories about going from Vienna to Uherské Hradiště and spending time with her

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Berger family cousins. However, the Lindenbaum family was from my grandfather’s side and my grandfather did not talk about his family. The whole process brought me into contact with historians, archivists and many other people I would not have met otherwise. Everybody was just so willing to help get as much information as possible. It was surprising to see how many people here care about the Jewish history. And so many people in the Czech Republic have Jewish heritage or roots. What made me sad is how little the Jewish life has been reflected in the modern history of the country. Yes, there was the Holocaust but I wasn’t aware of the fact

F rom J erusalem

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P rague ,

an interview with

J ill M eron

that surviving Jews were not allowed to live as Jews after 1945. I didn’t understand the impact of communist persecution on Jewish life, the impact of the communist infiltration into the Community and other factors.

There was an interesting research presented on the occasion of the CzechIsraeli Innovation Day, addressing the “Neurobiological and psychological markers of reaction to extreme stress and its impact on offspring: a three-generation of Holocaust survivors and their offspring” carried by the Masaryk University. The issue of second and third generation of Holocaust survivors has been one that resonated within the Israeli society for the last couple of decades. The research proves that despite higher stress, survivors and their families also possess higher resilience and sense of fulfillment. How do you view the impact of your family experience on your life, as you mentioned that the Holocaust was part of what motivated you to leave England and move to Israel in 1985, as a 21-year-old graduate?

My childhood was heavily influenced by the Holocaust. In England, it is very common that as a sign of respect, you call you parents’ close friends auntie or uncle. My grandmother would never allow my mother to do that because all her real aunts and uncles were killed by the Nazis.

We would never buy a German car or any other German products. This being said, we never considered ourselves as Holocaust survivors.

Even if the case could be possibly made, as my grandparents left Vienna as refugees the day after the Nazis came. Personally, it never crossed my mind to associate any of my personal characteristics to my grandparents being refugees.

Let us move from the family past to the issue of motherhood. You have a profession of your own, at the same time you have been following your husband and supporting him in his career and raised four children on three continents. How do you see the reconciliation of the roles of a wife, a mother and a working professional?

I grew up in a different era. When I met my husband, he was already a cadet (attending Diplomatic Academy training – note by LŠ) in the Foreign Office and it was clear what his career path would be. I do not have a problem giving up on a career in order to give Daniel the opportunity to pursue his career. On the other hand, Daniel in pursuing his career, has always made choices that will allow me both professional satisfaction and prioritize our family values. As Daniel and I are both immigrants to Israel, we agreed that both a strong Jewish education and developing strong roots in Israel is important to our children.

We made the decision to spend significant time in Israel between diplomatic postings at the expense of Daniel’s career. We also made the decision that Daniel would apply to a position

to the US where I would be able to work and our children could attend a Jewish school. As in any relationship, partnership is important. There has to be give-and-take and the understanding that what is right for one person is not necessarily right for the other. Having said all that, I am not sure that if I had been born thirty years later, I would have thought in the same way. And I am sure that our daughters today have different expectations than my generation had.

Prague is the first posting where you do not work professionally, however, you have been incredibly busy and engaged in many community and non-profit organizations.

On top of keeping up with the very busy schedule of Daniel, how do you manage to fit so many activities of yours?

I must say that not being engaged professionally was purely my decision. I said to Daniel that it could be reversed at any time, since I know I am highly employable. But it is true that over the course of two years, I have become incredibly busy that now I truly do not have time to work professionally. The advantage that I see is that I have the privilege of choosing. I can look at my calendar and in case of conflicts, I can make a choice. Not many people have that luxury.

Literally, right before I moved to the Czech Republic, I was approached by the Diplomatic Spouses’ Association to become a Treasurer.

I did not know that association but I said yes.

I have never been a treasurer but I knew how to work with numbers, so I agreed. For the last two years, I was treasurer of the Diplomatic Spouses’ Association and each year we donated more than 2 mil. Czech crowns to various Czech charity organizations which I consider an amazing achievement. I have also been involved in the International Women’s Association of Prague, now I am the Treasurer there. I have been devoting so much time to family research which is a full-time job. The last two years, I have been researching my family, now I have begun to research Daniel’s side. It is much harder, because my father’s family name Brody, originally Brodawka, made it easier and my mother’s family name was Kriss, which is really

very rare. My husband’s family name is Miller, so it will be rather challenging. As his family comes from a different part of the world, I am looking to start my research from scratch. I have been also active within the Jewish community. I love travelling with Daniel around the country and to enjoy the unique opportunity to see places that tourists would never get to.

After two years being here, what are your impressions about the Czech Republic and the Czech people?

I think it is a beautiful country and I am proud to be partly Moravian. We went to Písečné, a very small town, and I found the graves from 1830’s that belonged to my great grandmother’s grandparents. Unfortunately, the cemetery in Uherské Hradiště was destroyed, however I managed to meet my cousins living in Uherské Hradiště and Jeseníky. I miss my children and yet no matter, how much I enjoy this beautiful country, I really feel that my home is in Israel.

The Czech Republic, next to the United States, is the best ally of Israel. What is the potential of further strengthening of mutual co-operation that goes on not only on the governmental level but also to the level of individuals?

On the Czech side, I see language as a problem.

Too many Czechs do not speak English. However, I am pleased to have met many Czechs that are exploring the opportunities of doing business with Israel. On the Israeli side, Israelis need more educating about the opportunities that the Czech Republic offers. The best way to do that is on one-on-one level, like you do with your women entrepreneurial missions. If there is a personal touch, everything is easier. Israelis should know how much Israel is loved and respected in the Czech Republic. Israelis know about the history, but they should be told more with regards to the current relations and opportunities. As for Czechs and the potential for cooperation, I think they need to understand that Israelis are like sabra, also known as prickly pears – prickly on the outside but soft on the inside.

By Linda Štucbartová

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Kateřina Novotná Jan Mühlfeit

Nature has provided us with a sense of fear to be able to cope with the impending danger. Although fear is undoubtedly a useful emotion that has in many cases helped humanity to survive, nowadays it represents one of the main problems of self-development. How can we or our children deal with fear? Can it be prevented? Jan Mühlfeit and Katka Novotná are speaking out about fear slightly differently.

Chemistry of fear

The chemical processes in our head are still the same as a million years ago. In stress situations, hormones are being excreted which increases the overall availability of the organism. Especially the adrenaline, i.e. the stress hormone, and cortisol, which prepares us, for example, for fighting or escape. Human priority is survival, with which hormones help us, but at the expense of that, our immunity is weakened. People exposed to stress or

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fear for a long time are therefore often more susceptible to diseases.

In addition to internal chemical processes, stress also manifests itself on the external physical side. Part of the nervous system that supports stress is activated and prepares us for impending danger. Accelerated breathing often occurs during this reaction. Stress blocking the diaphragm cause that we are not able to breathe deeply and breathe just shallowly.

Another sign is the increase in resting heart rate and the draining of blood from the brain to the limbs, so one is not capable of rational thinking.

Although the processes that take place in our bodies during stressful situations have hardly changed in the last few millennia, the number of times we are exposed to stress has increased many times. Previously, people faced danger several times a month, and the felt fear was real.

Today, in most cases, the fear is artificial, and our ego has taken over the defence mechanism, which is nothing but a ball of our fears. The

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success and the positive reality we experience are basically invisible for the amygdala (i.e. a component of the emotional part of the brain), in the case of negative sensations, the amygdala behaves like a zipper and sticks everything up.

Artificially created fears When we are born, we do not know many forms of fear. Over time, however, fear begins to artificially develop in many forms through various influences. It is not the fear of survival, but rather the fears of our ego. Its forms are very different, for example, children are afraid of failure or "what if I get a bad evaluation?", adults are afraid of a lack of financial security or of the judgment of others.

These fears are often transmitted from parent to child. So, we need to be careful not to pass on our own fears that we carry with us (even from

our childhood). Although parents easily get the impression that they can protect their child in the best way, because they already have some experience and want their children to avoid making mistakes, it is rather counterproductive, because they are making up children’s fear artificially.

Nowadays, the fears of this artificial form prevail in society. We experience them on a daily basis. By not being able to discharge them by "fight" or by escape, stress is somatised into our body, which then manifests itself by various bodily deficiencies and diseases. Indeed, doctors tend to believe that 90% of our diseases are caused by stress.

Anti-stress strategy

There are various techniques to prevent fear or stress. One of the brains characteristics is the socalled neuroplasticity, which allows the brain to respond to various changing external sensations, but also to ways of thinking. The negative programs we have learned from childhood can be overwritten by new programs.

Fear can be easily illustrated on the timeline - past, present moment, future. The feeling of fear stems from something that has already happened (past) or from something that is yet to happen (the future). If we learn to be here and now in the present moment, fear cannot paralyze us. Try taking a deep breath and exhale. Were you worried about something? There was not even room for that. From this knowledge comes the strategy of how one can deal with fear.

Do not be afraid of making mistakes Unfortunately, amygdala tends to stigmatize our mistakes. However, a mistake is a part of the performance as well as the result. To make our talent a strength, we need to put some effort into it. This investment can take various forms, such as acquiring certain knowledge, practice and skills. However, this process cannot be avoided by making mistakes. That enables us to learn how to do it differently and better next time. Therefore, it is necessary to learn not to be afraid of making a mistake.

“We can only lose if we give up. Everything else is a bridge to better results in the future.

Whether it is good or bad, it is necessary to learn, to return to the present moment and to continue working,” says Jan Mühlfeit.

If we are in a well-managed situation, the amygdala "sleeps". In the case of a negative experience, e.g. when we cannot calculate mathematical example, the amygdala "awakens" and begins to urge us. If it does not find a solution in our subconscious, then it alarms and makes the problem bigger than it really is.

One is convinced that if they do not calculate this example, they do not count anything, let

themself be carried away emotionally. In such moments, it is possible to exercise mental resilience, which consists of three components: body, breath and mind. To be able to use it properly and effectively, it is necessary to train it from childhood.

Mental resistance

If the child stands straight and looks ahead as a winner, the growth hormone testosterone is excreted, and positive feelings prevail. On the other hand, the stance with hunched shoulders and gaze into the ground causes the secretion of cortisol, a stress hormone, which brings not only negative feelings but also worse results.

This is also indicated by an experiment recently made at Stanford University. Ten minutes before the exam, they divided the 20-member group into two halves. One half took the "victorious" attitude, the other stood with the rounded shoulders. You can guess which group of students had 30% better results.

However, it is not only about attitude. Another means that can break the negative sequence of fear and stress is deep breathing. Equally important is the internal monologue, which is what one thinks about themself and how they think about themself. This is closely linked to feedback, whose correct prehension is the key.

It can be divided into three phases.

The sandwich feedback At the beginning of the evaluation, the child should be praised, no matter how well or bad they did. That will lead to serotonin exclusion, a chemical of happiness, and the child is much better prepared for the corrective feedback that comes in the second phase. In the corrective feedback, however, one rule must be respected – to separate the child from the activity. “You’ll never learn,” or “you’re not capable” will cause the child to take it personally, the amygdala will take over and convince the child that they are incapable and cannot do anything well.

If we change the assessment and say that the numerical example must be counted in another way, the emotional part of the brain does not take it personally and the person is open to feedback.

The essence of the third phase is the expression of support and trust for the child in the future.

At that point, oxytocin, a hormone of trust or love, is formed, and if we touch or hug the child, it will support the process.

It is necessary to think very well about what words we are using in communication with our children. Feedback can be tough, but it must be both balanced and growing. If parents take the right attitude to the child and show them their confidence and support in the first league,

in the event of misconduct and fall into the second league, it will not be difficult for the child to get back. If a child is mentally trained only for the division, they end up in the district championship.

Our barriers begin where our dreams end. And children often dream more often than adults.

The creativity of a six-year-old child is close to 100%, but twenty years old individual often does not even reach the decimal point. Various rules adopted, which are undoubtedly necessary for the functioning of today's world, are a part of this, but most of it bears guilt. Let's work through the combination of your body, breath and way of thinking to work with fear properly.

Unlock children's potential If you want to learn more about the topic, please sign up for practical workshops led by Jan Mühlfeit and Katka Novotná. You can help your children not only work with fear and stress but also discover their talents and prepare them for future life. As part of the Unlock Children’s/ Student’s potential, with the latest knowledge of positive psychology parents learn how to effectively lead children so that they can not only be successful but also happy in their lives.

The successful courses for children, students and parents are based on the best-selling book Unlock Children’s Potential (Albatros 2018) by Jan Mühlfeit and Kateřina Novotná. Given the great interest in these workshops, there is now also an online course for parents, teachers, or trainers who are actively working with children (odemykanidetskehopotencialu.cz).

By Jan Mühlfeit, Global Strategist, Coach and Mentor, former Microsoft Chairman for Europe české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

Bestseller Unlock Children’s Potential is being now prepared also in an English version

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diplomatic event

Taste of Greece

From left: H.E. Efthymios Efthymiades, Ambassador of Greece, Eva Anderová, Vice President for Public Affairs, UNYP and President, Franz Kafka Centre, Nikoletta Nikolopoulou, Director, G.N.T.O. office – Poland, and Benke Aikell, your Publisher

On June 20th, the Embassy of Greece, in cooperation with the Greek delicatessen shops “Greek Corner”, organized, at the Ambassador’s Residence, a tasting of Greek wines and extra virgin olive oil, from the winery “Semeli” and the company “Molon Lave” respectively. The companies' representatives presented their products to the Czech and international guests, including diplomats, officials, sommeliers, representatives of major restaurants, hotels, trading companies, as well as journalists.

From left: Giannis Manikis, Molon Lave, Christos Lavranos, Comeco, Ms. Zoi Tzouvanou, Marina Stoupa, Al Myra Villas, Vasilieos Megalovassilis, Sfageia Almopias, and Ioannis Varvaras, Sales Manager, Greek Corner

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CZECH&SLOVAK LEADERS II/2019

From left: H.E. Manuela Franco, Ambassador of Portugal and Renata Hochelber, Palbric Art Foundation

diplomatic event

From left: Ráchel Hengalová, Czech Centres, H.E. Efthymios Efthymiades, Ambassador of Greece, Lucie Kuligová, Czech Centre – Athens, and Martin Pechanec, Czech Centres

H.E. Seoung-Hyun Moon, Ambassador of Korea and Ms. Chloe Geitmann-Akrithaki

From left: Mr. Václav Pavlas, Elissavet Karali, Consul, Embassy of Greece, and Meshulam Zisso, TV Producer and Photographer

From left: Dimitris Geograntzoglou, Honour and Grace Hotel, Ms. Natalia Giannakopoulou, and Nikolaos Skiadas, AKTOR

Family photo

From left: Anthi Panatsi, Greece Tours, Panagiotis Drossos, Greek Corner, and Mr. Vassilis Panatsis, Greece Tours

Ms. Eleni Kasfiki and Mr. Thorsten Kalinowski

From left: Mr. Thorsten Kalinowski, Mrs. Nicole Anna Maria Haans, and Pavlos Olziersky, Counsellor of Economic and Commercial Affairs, Embassy of Greece

From left: Jens Geitmann, Tristone Partners, Livia Petkova, GPG Slovakia, and Jitka Samueli, Jewellery Nefeli

From left: Mr. Thomas Bauder, Magdalena Doerner, Siemens, and Ioannis Varvaras, Sales Manager, Greek Corner

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SingularityU Czech Summit Returns to Prague!

Are YOU ready for the exponential era?

Anita Schjøll Brede: The Future of AI Visionaries and futurists met again in the Czech Republic, at the representative premises of Žofín Palace, in the beginning of April 2019. For the second time, leading-edge speakers from Singularity University joined Central European leaders and innovators for a visionary journey on learning, inspiration and sharing. SingularityU 2019 focused on young leaders, future generation and women. A live band and a special graphic recording made the event even more engaging for the audience, unique and unforgettable. Czech and Slovak Leaders Magazine had the opportunity to interview the two very distinguished speakers. Fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the journey to the future.

Anita Schjøll Brede: The Future of AI Anita is the CEO and Co-Founder of Iris.ai; one of the 10 most innovative artificial intelligence startups in 2017 according to Fast Company.

Iris. ai is an AI Science assistant, able to read, digest and connect scientific knowledge, that will grow up to be the world’s first AI Researcher within a decade. Designed to democratize access to science, Iris.ai can reduce R&D departments’ time to map out existing research by 95% and remove the current necessity of having deep domain expertise involved in the process, thus allowing more people to solve more difficult problems.

Anita has never had what she refers to as “a real job” and Iris.ai is her fourth startup. The past 10 years of her career have spanned over 9 industries including developing an e-learning tool in Silicon Valley, performing theatre for babies, reducing energy consumption in the process industry through heat exchanger

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network optimization, getting 30 (mainly middle-age, male) engineers to dance to ABBA in front of their co-workers, facilitating solar light business creation in Kenya, being in the center of several startups crashing and burning, organizing entrepreneurial conferences and trying to disrupt the recruitment industry. She also dropped by 6 universities on the way. And built a race car.

Anita, speaking to you as a mother of a teenage daughter gifted in STEM, what is that our society fails to tackle to bring more girls to tech?

The basic answer goes to the way we treat our children from early childhood. We give the girls dolls and we give the boys fire-trucks.

At school, when a boy gets a bad grade in math, he is encouraged to keep trying. If a girl gets a bad grade in the same subject, it is likely suggested that she concentrate on other subjects. Many studies on the way we socialize our children are now available. One of my favourite stories is from the US: one congresswoman had another congresswoman as a friend and enjoyed spending free time together. One day, one of their children asked, “mummy, can men be a congresswomen too?”.

For this child, there were only congresswomen around, no congressmen. Therefore, I believe that role models are extremely important. The next important thing is to teach our children

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that they can. The problem is that many decisions are still made by people brought up in a system that was very different from the one that we hope to build now – a system where a 15-year-old girl can be whoever she wants to be. Systemic change needs to happen and at the same time it is happening very fast.

According to the latest outcomes of the Draw a Scientist Test, more women scientists or female role models are now being drawn by children. Research proves that we are on the right track. We need to take further actions. Let us not forget that diversity has more angles than gender. We need visible women role-models on stage, people of color on stage as well as people with disabilities on stage, all talking about their experiences. We live in a world that is more and more inclusive.

Anita, I admire your work with Iris.ai concentrating on artificial intelligence in science. We know that science is also gender biased. Some AI systems actually discriminated against women in the past, such as the Amazon HR system, as it was based on algorithms and data coming from mostly men candidates. How will you make sure that this will not happen?

Our algorithms do not use the citation system that holds incredible amount of data, but is biased itself, biased towards researchers with the most citations, financially strong institutions,

SingularityU Czech Summit Returns to Prague!

Are YOU ready for the exponential era? and yes, most researchers are white men of certain age. Currently we are reading the texts and comparing whether the text is relevant to the area of the research one is interested in. Hopefully one day we will have data proving the socialized differences. There are differences in the way men and women present their experiences. Even if you remove gender markers, the fact is that men present themselves differently and eventually AI might favor them.

So far, we do not have data on whether women and men write research differently. I am looking forward to finding out one day. Is there a difference how male and female scientists write their abstracts and conclusions and how does that affect our algorithms? So far, I assume that compared to the citation system biases, the difference is small.

Your system is open. Is there enough of interest for evidence that might be conflicting one’s preliminary finding or have we become comfortable just to confirm the idea of our social bubble?

We are specifically targeting academics and researchers. We tend to see a generational gap, those who have been in the field for more than two decades are more likely to possess the “I know what I am doing attitude”. To a certain extent, this might be true, just imagine that there are 300 researchers and you have met them all over the course of your career.

However, there are always tendential fields, as well as interdisciplinary research, that one might be not aware of. On the other hand, the person who knows it all and has been everywhere does not need our tool anyway. For anyone dealing with interdisciplinarity, the tool is useful, since you cannot absorb it all. We also see that our tool is very much appreciated by recent master’s students or PhDs, as they do not have the overall view, but have the open mindedness to use the new tool. We are selling the premium version as a tool to university libraries but our basic version is free.

You have reinvented yourself many times. Are you already thinking about

a new project? What is the next big thing outside of AI? I want to write more; writing is an incredibly funy and lovely process, but it will happen after I am not involved with Iris. I am deeply fascinated by the idea of convergence between quantum computing and AI and them mutually reinforcing one another.

What is your mentoring advice for kids and teens?

No matter how cliché it sounds but do your own thing! Do not worry about what your parents or classmates or teachers think. Follow what makes you excited, happy and makes you get up in the morning. It does not matter what it is.

Look at the happiness index. Some professions, such as lawyers, score miserably and most of lawyers will be replaced by AI anyway. If you can choose between what makes you happy or miserable, choose what makes you happy.

By Linda Štucbartová

Amin Toufani: Exonomics Amin is the CEO of T Labs. He brings a unique set of technological, entrepreneurial and policy perspectives to the dialogue about innovation. In what he calls exponential economics or “exonomics,” Toufani breaks the tech-driven changes happening in the modern economy into seven pillars: people, property, production, price, power, policy, and prosperity. Toufani pointed out that exonomics’ ultimate goal is to connect people and prosperity, and he shared his thoughts on how to do so. He has founded for-profit and social impact organizations in a range of domains: artificial intelligence, peer to peer lending, bitcoin, human rights, international development, carbon offsetting, and solar energy. In addition to his work at Singularity, he is building the World’s first hedge fund for the poor, as well as Reversopedia – a reverse encyclopedia composed of things we know we don’t know.

You ended your speech by claiming that we tend not to think big enough. Looking at the recent elections results bringing polarized societies, a half of the population does not want to think big anymore. How to bridge the gap? How can we actually return to critical thinking at all?

Past success usually gets in the way of future success. We are noticing that entire cohorts of society are comfortable because they have optimized their lives based on the way the world used to work. That is why we are

concerned with the emergence of exponential technologies taking society by surprise. We are aware that a lot of society members are not trained or educated enough and that is why such conversation matters on upgrading the education. Thanks to exponential technologies, such as biotechnologies, nanotechnologies, information technologies and others, our reach exceeds our imagination. We actually can do much more than we realize. The biggest risk is than not thinking big enough because most of us do not realize how far we can go. This

applies to individuals with regards to personal lives, to businesses and finding the right value proposition and all the way we are running our countries. I have met nine prime ministers within last three years and none of them have been prepared for the systemic, all at once happening, challenge. Self-driving cars will probably take away jobs at least from 1% of the workforce, they will disrupt at least 2% of GDP due to lower car ownership and 3% due death, destruction and car accidents. 5% of GDP lost and 1% of workforce that needs to be re-trained.

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SingularityU Czech Summit Returns to Prague!

Are YOU ready for the exponential era?

Hand-made visuals created during the conference by VisualCoach team: Kateřina Koželská, Jana Erbenová, Marcela Janíčková and Tereza Pešková

You call the next decade as the decade of bifurcation, an era to be likely remembered next to the great depression and the great recession. What can we expect?

Societies, companies and individuals will split up into two groups. Those benefitting from the exponential growing technologies and those left behind. The technology is amplifying both extreme negatives and also positives on both sides. Technology cannot be viewed simplistically as good or bad. The average outcome has stopped to be the most common.

One of our projects at T Labs is to make sure that life extending technologies are not available only to the most affluent members of society.

In order to belong to the first group, you mentioned that we need to both learn and unlearn. What have you personally unlearned?

I have unlearned a lot of management science I learned in business school. Modern management science has taught us that collaboration is the high-water mark in how we build our organizations and teams. If you ask people anonymously, 76% prefer working alone to working in a team. As the expectations from teams are continuously growing, the more stress and friction collaboration brings. We see a shift from collaboration towards coordination.

You do not have to give up creativity, you just need to concentrate more on certainty in the environment. I have re-learned a science on happiness and organizational psychology design. These give us what we call the velvet triangle that makes happy employees and links mastery – autonomy – purpose. These three components predict how happy people are at work. At T Labs, we do not have managers, we believe in self-management. We believe in giving the team members the right information, the right tools and the right feed-back to selfmanage and that makes a happier environment.

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From unlearning, let us move to stripping of the property. You talked about circular economy and sharing. You asked the audience to think of what they do not have to have. I was hoping that in your 7 Ps model, going from people, property, production, price, power, policy, all the way to prosperity, you would eventually mention another “P” standing for planet.

I love this idea and I will be glad to share it with my wife, being a co-author. Now, let me share why even though planet is not included, the environment is still a great focus for us. Just think about the impact of exponential technologies, such as solar growing double exponentially, and the shift from oil supply to oil demand. At what point actually we are not going to demand oil and gasoline? Our prediction is this is going to happen in between 2027-2030. In fact, we hope to write 2030 in the history books as the year when humans stopped killing each other because of energy. Vast majority of wars today are still commodity wars, masked as religious or ideological. Once we move toward “solar supremacy” which is our term for solar becoming dominant source of energy already happening in many parts of the world, then we begin to reverse many trends that have destroyed the planet. If you can figure out all the implications of our model starting with people, ending with prosperity, the positive externality on the planet will be automatic. However, it does require intentionality and conversations that need to be focused on moving away from business models.

Let us hope for healthier planet. Will prosperity also result in people becoming happier? Well-being was also one area you commented upon, not very frequent topic to hear during standard economic lectures.

Automation, AI and technologies will impact unemployment. Our prediction is that also by 2030, the public debate about universal basic

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income will be held in every country on this planet. We promote UBI and many models exist for its financing, including technological deflation which means that things get faster, cheaper and more effective because of exponential growing technologies. The most important conversation is whether there is life after work? I do not think we need to work to define who we are. We do not need to work for meaning. We need a purpose in our live.

We will see the emergence of purpose driven lives, that might not be commercial based on economic assets and devices. An emergence of kinder society where we care for another, a society where we do not stab each other in the back because of possessions driven by scarcity. The transition from traditional zerosum game thinking to abundance thinking is approaching but it is going to be painful and disruptive. It brings us back to the issue of bifurcation that we have already discussed and also is the subtitle of my book that I am going to publish later this year.

How many persons have called you the dreamer?

Many. I believe that the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Let me share my favorite quote of all times: Intelligence is hitting the target that nobody else can. Genius is hitting the target that nobody else can see.”

By Linda Štucbartová

DISCUSSION

Panel discussion on the European election The University of New York in Prague hosted a panel discussion, organized by the Prague Society.

Hon. Štefan Füle (former European Commissioner), Hon. Cyril Svoboda (former Minister of Foreign Affairs), and Hon. Zdeněk Tůma (former Governor of Czech National Bank) analyzed the results of the 2019 European Parliament elections and its possible effects on the future of the Czech Republic.

From left: H.E. Ilirian Kuka, Ambassador of Albania, Benke Aikell, your Publisher, Eva Anderová, UNYP Vice President of Public Affairs, President, Franz Kafka Centre, H. E. Roberto Alejandro Salafia, Ambassador of Argentina , and Cyril Svoboda, former Minister of Foreign Affairs

Marc S. Ellenbogen , President of the Prague Society

From left: Štefan Füle, former European Commissioner and Marc S. Ellenbogen, President of the Prague Society

From left: Štefan Füle, former European Commissioner and Marc S. Ellenbogen, President of the Prague Society , Zdeněk Tůma, former Governor of the Czech National Bank, and Cyril Svoboda, former Minister of Foreign Affairs

The Prague Society and Global Panel Foundation hosted Comments on the European Elections under the patronage of the University of New York in Prague and the Embassy of Greece

Cyril Svoboda, former Minister of Foreign Affairs discusses European Elections

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I nterview

with

T omáš Z dechovský , M ember

of the

E uropean P arliament P hoto : A rchive

I met Tomáš Zdechovský in 2012 when he was still working as an entrepreneur and crisis manager. Even then, the issue of Europe, its reform and future direction was close to his heart.

He’s been a MEP since 2014.

He is regularly ranked as one of the most important Czechs in Brussels, and is one of the hardest working MEPs. He is married with four children.

European belonging 76

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I nterview KDU-ČSL proposed celebrating 15 years in the EU with the “Week without the EU” event in order that people realise our priority should be to try to reform the EU, and not to leave the EU. Your idea was to “implement checks at borders, return goods certificates and prevent orders being made on the internet, reintroduce mobile roaming charges and authorise visas to Slovakia. It also involved limiting higher education grants and Erasmus programmes, ceasing motorway construction and sending all employees of foreign companies on a week’s unpaid leave.”

It seems to me that by stressing pragmatic benefits, the idea of peace and European belonging has been lost.

That idea was mostly a bit of provocation designed for those who think we’d be better off without the EU. Whenever I hear the arguments of most “Czexiteers”, I just think that all it would take would be a week and they’d quickly sober up because they’d realise the things they take absolutely for granted are not at all a given. Something like peace is too abstract for these people, and furthermore many of them are convinced that because of the EU we are in a kind of cultural war, and a war with migrants, liberals and so on. That’s why I try to utilise something they can picture better – and that’s these various restrictions, price increases, and lack of goods and labour.

Ideas such as European belonging are entirely beyond their understanding, perhaps because they have become aware of the different quality of food in countries to our west, with the idea promoted of the Czech Republic being the dustbin of Europe, alongside our lower salaries, meaning that we are merely Europe’s “cheap assembly plant”. As politicians, however, we are to blame for these ideas, because we have used exactly these arguments in stating that we want to solve such problems. But that doesn’t happen from one day to the next, and it just leads people to become frustrated, and ideas such as “European belonging” just add fuel to the fire.

In less than a month, the European Parliament elections take place. Czech voters are not particularly engaged in this type of election. In 2014, we had the second lowest turnout in them. What topics do you consider fundamental for Czech voters?

Security is foremost, and even though the migrant crisis has settled down significantly, numerous fears persist because people see problems with integrating foreigners in France, Germany, Sweden and other countries. Following this is reform, because more and more people are realising that our position in the centre of Europe, and the fact we are a small country with one of the most open economies in the world, means we’ve got to remain in the EU. But they don’t like its current overly left-wing orientation and are seeking alternatives. And then they need to feel the assurance someone has their back; to hear that someone “far away in Brussels somewhere” is sticking up for Czech citizens, companies and interests.

with

T omáš Z dechovský , M ember

You yourself are a proponent of EU reform, not leaving the EU. How do you see this EU reform specifically, and can the Czech Republic as a small country have any influence on such reform?

For me, it is absolutely essential that we sit down and start discussing where we want the EU to be in 2030, and to posit the question of whether we will achieve this if we continue down the path we have set for ourselves. The EU is now inflexible in many regards, and approaches many things in a very left-wing way because its main tools are regulations and quotas. Another problem is that it takes an ideological position in many areas, not a rational one, with facts the last thing it takes account of, and this can be seen, for example, in the issue of emissions and its poorly thoughtthrough support for electric cars. Furthermore, the Commission is unable to respond appropriately to unforeseen events, as was seen, for example, in its responses to Brexit and the migrant crisis. They look for errors everywhere except in their own actions, communication, and excessive push for certain phrases and political correctness.

In this regard, one can only hope that the next Parliament and Commission will be more conservative and right-wing in focus. The EU’s original objective was the free movement of people, goods and services. This has been achieved, so the question is why do we continue to produce more and more proposals? Personally, I would make major changes to various European agencies and institutions, because by abolishing the feminist committee FEMN and other agencies and groupings promoting gender equality, and leaving only a social committee with these subtopics, for example, we can also change the EU’s values focus...

Migration remains a bogeyman for Czechs; this is an area you specialise in. So how can the EU provide assistance in regard to migration, when the allocation of quotas was such a fiasco?

Quotas were a bad solution primarily because they did not reflect peoples’ free will. It was assumed that the migrants would be satisfied anywhere in the EU and would not look at whether there was a larger national community elsewhere, etc. Yet the EU can help at the sites where refugees are, such as by improving the conditions in refugee camps (e.g. by providing schools for kids, etc.), so that they can wait out the crisis period as close as possible to their home country without having to go further to Europe. The EU can help by providing structural restoration of their countries, or overall development so that people are motivated to remain in their home country because they can find work and generally good living conditions there. Morocco is a good example here, where a number of projects have been successfully implemented to improve their health service, food and technology self-sufficiency, etc. The EU can also be a mediator in various disputes.

It provided help in this manner in setting up the Libyan coast guard, managing through a common goal to more or less stabilise relations between a few dozen fractious political groupings.

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I’m not saying the situation is ideal, but it certainly helped to quell illegal migration to the EU across the Mediterranean Sea. The EU can also set up a more effective asylum system. Holland can serve as inspiration here, with the entire admission process including return or appeal completed within 6 weeks. The fact that various security databases are linked up helps here, with the police getting the data they need very quickly. Thus, those who really need asylum get it, and there is better control over who we can still manage to integrate.

Simply put, there are more solutions than merely giving everyone the right to migrate anywhere.

You’ve been described as one of the 50 most influential Czechs in Brussels. What specific interests of Czech voters have you managed to represent?

Personally, I see three areas. The first I have called helping Czech citizens and companies, the second is support for the government’s long-term positions, and the third is promoting and dealing with larger areas that trouble most citizens, or where there is a structural problem.

In order for a MEP to be able to help Czech citizens and companies, you really need to travel to the regions to meet people face-to-face and visit companies. I have therefore never made the excuse that MEP’s work is just to prepare legislation; I have approached the temporary role I have attained as a service to the people, and gone the extra mile. If you put my name into Google or visit www.zdechovsky.eu, you’ll find out that I have helped dozens of people, companies and non-profit organisations during my term. Not all these cases are as well-known as the story of Mrs. Michaláková’s, whose son was taken away from her in Norway, or the case of the unfairly sanctioned drivers in France; they generally came to an early and positive end, and so not much is known about them; you’re more likely to remember “tough battles” than a single happy ending.

I include amongst my support for government positions, for example, active resistance to the nonsensical refugee quotas, opposition to gun control regulations, providing significant help to negotiating EIA exceptions so that the Czech Republic can build new motorways using European grants, and support for Israel. These were all in the interests of the Czech Republic, and I provided great support to our government in these areas. In the third area, I would include, for example, the battle against the double standards in food quality, and also aid for the depopulating regions of Broumov and Želivka. I would also include here the fight against a number of frauds, where I have endeavoured to measure everyone with the same yardstick within the inspection committee, whether in regard to Mr. Juncker’s Selmayrgate, the Czech “holding companies” case or the misuse of grants in Slovakia, where I undertook a number of inspection missions following the murder of Ján Kuciak.

By Linda Štucbartová české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

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networking / charity Doc.Ing.Zdeněk Tůma ,CSc., former Governor ČNB and plenum LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador

In cooperation with Czech & Slovak Leaders

Lions Club Prague Bohemia Ambassador Guest of Honor: Doc.Ing.Zdeněk Tůma ,CSc., former Governor ČNB Topic: WHEN DO WE CATCH UP WITH AUSTRIA?

From left: Ing. František Novotný, President of Association SDSS and Secretary of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador, Prof. MUDr. Aleksi Šedo, DrSc., Dean 1st Medical Faculty of Charles University and President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador, and Ing. Lukáš Pichrt, Economist

Ing. Anton Gerák, CSc., Commercial Director and Secretary of LCI D122 Czech Republic and Slovak Republic

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From left: Prof. MUDr. Václav Mandys, CSc., Institute of Pathology, Prague, and Petr Laštovka, Entrepreneur

Doc.Ing.Zdeněk Tůma ,CSc., former Governor ČNB

networking / charity Mgr. et Mgr. Adam Vojtěch, MHA, Minister of Health of the Czech Republic

In cooperation with Czech & Slovak Leaders

Lions Club Prague Bohemia Ambassador Guest of Honor: Mgr. et Mgr. Adam Vojtěch, MHA, Minister of Health of the Czech Republic Topic: CHALLENGES OF CONTEMPORARY HEALTHCARE

From left: Ing. Anton Gerák, CSc., Commercial Director and Secretary of LCI D122 Czech Republic and Slovak Republic, Ing. Jiří Bříza, CSc., IT Analyst, Ing. Tomáš Spurný, Economist, Manager, Statní úřad úřad pro jadernou bezpečnost

Miroslav Hříbal, Entrepreneur and Ing. Vladimír Páral, Writer

From left: Prof. MUDr. Václav Mandys, CSc., Institute of Pathology, Prague, Mgr. et Mgr. Adam Vojtěch, MHA, Minister of Health of the Czech Republic, Prof. MUDr. Aleksi Šedo, DrSc., Dean 1st Medical Faculty of Charles University and President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador, and Ing. František Novotný, President of Association SDSS and Secretary of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador

Doc. MUDr. Petr Čáp, PhD., Head of the Centre of Allergology, Homolka and Doc. MUDr. Eva Mandysová, CSc., Doctor

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P hoto : V áclav K recl

charity event

of Mrs Livia Klausová and Mr Václav Klaus

Gothic hall

The 16th jubilee gathering of friends and supporters of the Fund of Mrs Livia Klausová and Mr Václav Klaus with the participation of both of its founders, took place at the New Town Hall of Prague 1 on the 30th May 2019.

The mission of the Fund is to support predominantly educational activities for socially weak people.

From left: Ladislav Petrásek, Member of the Board, Livia Klausová, Chairwoman of the Board, and prof. Václav Klaus, former President of the CR and co-founder of the Endowment Fund

Kamila Kryštofová, Director, Endowment Fund of Livia and Václav Klaus

Sisters Kroupovy, students supported by the Endowment Fund with their friends

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Jaroslav Svěcený, famous Violin Player

From left: Romana Rašovská, Endowment Fund of Livia and Václav Klaus, Julie Růžičková, Director, Fund Unipetrol, prof. Václav Klaus, former President of the CR and co-founder of the Endowment Fund, Katarzyna Barbara Woś, Chairwoman, Fund Unipetrol SK, and Kamila Kryštofová, Director, Endowment Fund of Livia and Václav Klaus

Czech high-speed rail:

A PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE About three years ago our magazine brought an article where it was announced that, at the end of the financial crisis, experts again returned to the table the theme of highspeed trains in the Czech Republic. Now we can assess what has happened during this short period of time.

A considerable progress has really been made, which should be hardly possible without a broad political support covering almost all political parties of the House of Deputies, which found its expression also in several resolutions of its Economic Committee. This gave a decisive impetus to the Government to approve the Rapid Services Development Programme in the Czech Republic in May 2017 as the decade-awaited strategic document paving the way towards a new and ecologically favourable system of longdistance passenger transport. The future Rapid Services network should play a binary role: to mutually link major national centres of population as well as incorporate the country into the existing and developing international high speed network. The international connection has already been negotiated in bilateral relations, and was also embodied in a declaration of the Visegrád group of countries: Czechia, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.

The network of the Rapid Services should consist of classical high-speed lines (with a speed over 250 kmph) and conventional upgraded lines of higher parameters (160 – 250 kmph). The lines should run along the following axes: Prague – Dresden - Berlin, Prague - Brno – Vienna, Prague - Pilsen - Munich and Brno – Ostrava – Warsaw.

A high-speed line should e.g. allow to cover the distance of about 200 km between the two largest cities, Prague and Brno, in a less than an hour. The total cost of the network is to amount over CZK 600 billion (EUR 23 billion) and it should be accomplished during about 20 years.

The recent stage until 2021 is devoted to the elaboration of feasibility studies of individual lines that are to find the most convenient routes, determine their urbanistic, ecological and territorial features and assess their extent

of total costs and the cost-benefit ratio. The aggregate of results of the feasibility studies is then to be integrated into a final networkshaped complex. Some sections of the lines in the vicinity of larger cities like Prague, Brno and Ostrava, the route of which is already fixed and without serious conflicts, may be prepared for construction in advance as pilot projects to be constructed and put into operation about 2025.

Then a very complex zoning and negotiation stage for the rest of the network will follow, the contents of which will predominantly be formed by discussion with regions, municipalities and other stakeholders. It cannot be expected that everybody will be delighted to have a new track with frequent trains in or near to his or her backyard.

The prerequisite of success when placing the route into the respective territory is to minimise negative impacts on both on the environment and on neighbouring settlements and businesses. This should be done with the help of supporting legislation containing also due compensation to seriously concerned persons. Only after this stage it will be possible to make all necessary preparations for the construction of first lines that should begin in the second half of the next decade. The first complete high-speed line, probably that between Prague, the town of Ústí nad Labem and Dresden, may be put into operation in the first years of the 30’s.

Even if we have the Rapid Services Development Programme many strategic issues are to be solved well beforehand.

Beside the already mentioned supporting legislation (at least for the high-speed lines) it concerns e.g. the concept of direct trains and interchanges to connecting public and individual transport. If the high-speed trainsets are to switch to conventional lines those lines have to be thoroughly upgraded, and equipped with alternating current traction and compatible signalling and interlocking systems. Another task is to determine the standards for the stations where high-speed trains are planned to stop.

The stations should enjoy full accessibility for passengers with reduced mobility, convenient disposition of transfer routes for public and

individual transport, and – dependent on their significance and expected turnover of passengers – also information centres, high-quality waiting rooms, lounges, and accommodation, catering and shopping facilities. This will require in many cases a profound reconstruction and refurbishment of the existing historical station buildings or construction of brand new ones.

A special care must be taken of the structure and time schedule of financing. Even if a certain part of funds may come from European sources the decisive volume will have to come from Czech public budgets, the state budget in particular. The use of private sources like credits or public-private partnerships depends of their potential future repayment while they might be too expensive to be used for rough construction of tracks, bridges and tunnels (with the exception of several sections when it is imperative to finish the construction stringently within a shorter term and predetermined budget).

The main role of private finance may be found particularly in introducing and operation of progressive technologies, exact train operation control, everyday preventive track maintenance, and also in station developments. Should the whole high-speed network be constructed in about 20 years, estimated CZK 30 billion (EUR 1.1 billion) in today’s prices is to be reserved on average per year for this programme, which is about three fourths of funds reserved today for the entire Czech railway. To ensure stable financing of the programme will be a challenging task in the situation when mandatory expense for social security and state officials’ salaries grow year after year.

Emanuel Šíp Partner Allied Progress Consultants Association

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ČSÚZ

Discussions In cooperation with Czech & Slovak Leaders

in the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute

The Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Parliament, Jaroslav Kubera spoke with members and friends of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute

Invitation to the February discussion in the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute was accepted by a personality well known for his wisecracks, humour, and immediacy – by Jaroslav Kubera, the president of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

The popular guest touched a variety of topics: global warming, the quality of the work of media, division of today's society, orientation on nuclear power, the quality of laws. The aim of discussions was not to seek or solve the problems, however, it did not hurt to listen to the half-serious, half-jokingly mentioned possible ways of solution.

The discussion showed that the president of the Senate, as well as other participants, does not find as beneficial manipulative activities of the media, the bias of all sorts of scientific studies, which are based according to who is paying for them, the inability of political groups to carry the electoral defeat and let the winners of the election implement the program for which they were elected, the weakness of the state, the unreasonable amount of legal norms, and many other phenomena in today's Czech society.

In February, members and friends of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute enjoyed greatly the interview with the president of the Senate of the Czech Parliament Jaroslav Kubera. Pictured left, the chairman of the Institute Jaromír Šlápota, right, the vice-chairman and former president of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, PhDr. Libuše Benešová

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At the invitation by a member of the Institute, Ing. František Hřebík (pictured right), the ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the Czech Republic, H. E. Zhang Jianmin visited the nursery school whose director is a member of the managing board of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute – Hana Hlaváčková, in mid-March

ČSÚZ

The ambassador of the UAE to the Czech Republic, H. E. Abdulla Mohamed Almaainah spoke about the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute in May

At the invitation by a member of the Institute, Ing. František Hřebík and a member of the Institute’s managing board Hana Hlaváčková, the owner and director of the Mozaika nursery school in Praha – Kunratice, the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the Czech Republic, H. E. Zhang Jianmin came to visit children and their teachers in kindergarten in March, accompanied by six staff-members of the embassy, the chairman of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute Jaromír Šlápota and other members of the Institute.

Director Hana Hlaváčková showed them the nursery school, which has been in operation for two years, has a capacity of around three dozen children and an experienced six-member teaching staff and is equipped with the latest tools such as the interactive learning devices, musical instruments, toys, the gym and garden-area with two paddling pools for the aquarium with a large turtle. "The kindergarten Mosaic gives its children the basic English language, the correct posture and good behaviour into the life," summed up Hana Hlaváčková. H. E. Zhang Jianmin then explained to children how their peers are taught in China. The interesting thing was that ways of teaching children of preschool age in the Czech Republic and China are in many ways similar.

The guests then surprised the kids with a demonstration of teaching Chinese writing.

At the end of March, the ambassador of Turkey to the Czech Republic, H. E. Ahmet Necati Bigali spoke about the current situation in Turkey and about the relations of Turkey with neighbouring countries with the members and friends of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute. Pictured left, the chairman of the Institute Jaromír Šlápota, in the middle is the member of the Institute Jaroslav Kalát, who interpreted the discussion

At the end of March, the ambassador of Turkey to the Czech Republic, H. E. Ahmet Necati Bigali accepted an invitation to discussion in the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute once again after two years. He explained in particular, how Turkey faces the problems of terrorism and how it affects the policy of the Turkish government and its relations with neighbouring countries.

"Between Turkey and the Czech Republic there are good economic relations and we never had problems in political relations," he said at the introduction, and recalled that the Czech Republic and Turkey are allies, because they are jointly members of the Atlantic Pact, and that diplomatic relations between Turkey and Czechoslovakia existed since 1924, when the Turkish embassy was opened in Prague. In 1949, Turkey was among the founding members of the Council of Europe, in 1952, it joined NATO and 60 years ago, in 1959, it officially expressed interest to join the European Economic Community, with which it is still working. The actual process of adoption into the European Union began in October 2005. Out of the 35 negotiated chapters, so far only 16 have been opened and only one – science and research – was negotiated and concluded. Turkey, however, keeps seeking to join the EU. In May, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), H.E. Abdulla Mohamed Almaainah spoke about his country in the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute. The main theme of his talk was tolerance. Emirates, considered the heart of the business and financial world, are preparing for the 2020 World Expo and this year is dedicated to tolerance, opening up to other cultures and spreading awareness in that sense. The ambassador mentioned that in the Emirates, members of 200 different nationalities, cultures and religions live in harmony and tolerance. The government of the UAE has taken on the task to build bridges to remove hostility between nations and states. H. E. Abdulla Mohamed Almaainah also spoke about the position of women in the Emirates, which is one of the first Arab countries struggling to overcome gender difference. Out of 32 ministers there are 9 women there and a woman is also the chairperson of the Parliament.

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I nterview

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P rofessor M arek B abjuk , H ead

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M otol U niversity H ospital P hoto : A rchive

Nothing replaces a doctor’s EXPERIENCE and INTUITION Professor Marek Babjuk is the Head of the Department of Urology at Motol University Hospital, Chairman of the Czech Medical Association of J. E. Purkyně’s Czech Urological Society, and senior doctor at the Uroklinikum clinic.

He specialises in treating cancers.

He has undertaken numerous placements abroad at prestigious workplaces in Germany and the USA. Our interview covered the topics of bladder cancer, smoking, prevention, modern surgery, and also gender reassignment.

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I nterview

with

P rofessor M arek B abjuk , H ead

Professor, you are Head of the Department of Urology of the 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and Motol University Hospital. Motol University Hospital is the largest hospital in the Czech Republic, and its motto is “Serving Generations”.

How are the size of your workplace and its ambitious mission reflected in your everyday practice?

Our hospital is the largest in the Czech Republic, and it is also a university hospital. In practice, this means that as well as providing care to our patients, we are involved in teaching students of medicine and teaching doctors undertaking specialist training (i.e. prior to certification), and we are also expected to undertake research. Sometimes it is very difficult to bring it all together and meet all expectations.

One huge advantage is that our hospital is one of the most modern and best equipped in the country. Our clinic has modern rebuilt operating theatres equipped with cutting edge technologies, including equipment for robotic surgery. Our equipment is comparable to that in leading clinics abroad, and we endeavour to ensure our outcomes are reflective of this. It would seem, at least according to the statistics, that we are succeeding. This naturally means we have a great responsibility, with a large number of patients coming to us, and with the current method of payment and our personnel situation, especially in terms of paramedical staff, it can sometimes be difficult to please everyone. But we do our utmost.

You specialise in bladder cancers. How are Czechs doing in the statistics?

Malignant tumours of the bladder are very frequent, the sixth most common cancer amongst Czech men, and just below tenth most common amongst women. Over the past 30 years, the incidence of the disease has doubled. In 1990, 1300 new cases were discovered, while in 2015 the figure was 2158 cases. It would appear, however, that in the last few years this upward trend has stopped.

Another positive fact is that despite the high incidence, deaths are stagnating, something which is also a reflection of the high quality of care provided in our country.

Smoking is said to be the main cause of bladder cancers. Are Czech patients aware of this and disciplined? Are there any new statistics available in light of the growing popularity of e-cigarettes?

Smokers are a high-risk group. Smoking cigarettes increases the risk of bladder cancer by up to six times, and there is also a higher risk of more aggressive forms of the disease.

And we mustn’t forget that breathing in tobacco smoke when you live with a smoker at home or at work for many years is also dangerous. Bladder cancers are the second most common cancer connected to smoking after lung cancers. It is a pity that the public

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are not often informed about bladder cancer or its connection to smoking. An educational campaign would be of great use for all of us – even for a smoker who quits, the risk of getting the disease falls after 1-4 years by up to 40%. E-cigarettes likely reduce only some of the risks connected to smoking. As I have said, the upward trend of incidences has stopped in recent years, and this may be due to the falling number of smokers, or other factors may also be involved, including a healthier environment.

The lay public is to some extent aware of the issue of stomas due to their use by some well-known personalities. What are the options for replacing the bladder?

There are currently a number of ways of dealing with urine diversion after bladder removal, such as following cancer. Besides fitting a stoma, a new bladder can be created from part of your small bowel, which we connect to the urethra. One should be aware, however, that although it might appear that the patient can pee as before, they actually have to learn how to “handle” the new bladder – notice how full it is, practice draining it, etc., and this can take a number of weeks or months and is actually quite difficult.

This method isn’t applicable to all patients, of course, and can be limited by the size of the tumour, or the function of the kidneys or overall condition of the patient and their willingness to co-operate.

The use of non-invasive and endoscopic treatments is ever more common in medicine. It may be rather bold of me to ask how much longer people are going to be doing surgery, and when will robots begin operating on us?

I’m not sure whether a robot can entirely replace a doctor. Even surgical robots, muchdiscussed today, are not really robots in the true sense, but rather a kind of remote manipulator. Movements of the doctor’s hands are relayed to a fine instrument placed inside the patient’s body through a number of small incisions. The result is less invasive and also more precise, and furthermore some negative “human factors” such as hand tremors are also eliminated. In addition, the digital image transmitted to the surgeon by the camera introduced into the patient’s body allows for perfect image sharpness, and various modifications can be applied to improve the visibility of certain structures or tumour lesions. I think things will develop further in this direction, with some sub-steps likely to be automated, but the role of the doctor using his intuition and experience cannot be entirely replaced.

However, doctors’ preparation for doing surgery will change. Experience will be acquired from simulators including digital simulators able to faithfully simulate specific surgeries, including particular situations which may occur during such surgeries. Thus

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M otol U niversity H ospital

doctors won’t learn directly on patients, just as pilots don’t learn to fly in a real plane with passengers.

In the context of the generational renewal of doctors, a trend has been noted that female graduates of medicine now predominate over men. While gynaecology has been a common specialisation for male doctors, it seems to me that urology has long been perceived as a male field. Do you perceive this generational gender problem?

It is true that there have been more women in urology recently, and they are even the majority of younger juniors. One reason for this is that urology is not a purely surgical field (diagnostics and outpatient care also play a certain role), and urological operations are precise and delicate, not normally requiring brute force. I don’t think women joining the field is negative – they bring new perspectives and approaches. Naturally, women have a different life cycle to men, but this need not mean any limitation to their professional career. Employers and the state should adapt and create the right conditions for nurturing the professional careers of all who wish to advance – I think this will be more beneficial to society than any one-off financial contributions.

The series Most!, in which the main character has undergone a sex change from a man into a woman enjoyed great popularity amongst viewers. Real life is often different from television… What eludes the general population in regard to gender reassignment surgery?

Most! portrayed everything in a rather humorous and exaggerated light, which I think is good – we really needn’t take life seriously in all of its aspects. For transsexuals, of course, we often see positive life stories and very good cosmetic outcomes following a sex change. However, the public does not see a number of hidden problems – the necessity of long-term hormonal treatment, the difficulty and risk of the surgery, and the complexity of a problem which doesn’t relate merely to outward appearance, but also to personality and how others perceive it.

A final word for Czech and Slovak Leaders readers?

You shouldn’t underestimate symptoms suggesting something isn’t right with your body. For urological diseases, these mainly involve blood in urine, or difficulties emptying the bladder. Visiting a urologist today doesn’t involve painful examinations, so it is not something you need be fearful of.

By Linda Štucbartová české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

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G ala

event

Zlatá koruna awards 30th May, Top Hotel Prague On the 30th May, Top Hotel in Prague held the Gala Evening of the 17th Year of Zlatá koruna (Golden Crown), the biggest and oldest competition of financial products in the Czech Republic. Financial Academy of Zlatá koruna, with its chairman Michal Mejstřík, awarded the best products in 17 categories including the innovative FinTech. Besides public categories, Cena veřejnosti (Public Award) and Cena podnikatelů (Entrepreneurs Award), they were also given the award for the Academic Year and CSR Project. The event took place under the auspices of the Governor of the Czech National Bank, Jiří Rusnok and the Minister of Finance, Alena Schilerová, who appreciated the role of Zlatá koruna as a project that helps to grow and promote financial education in the Czech Republic.

From left: Pavel Doležal, Founder and Director, Zlatá Koruna and Zdeněk Rys, Director of Deposit, Insurance & Investment Products, mBank

Alena Schillerová, Minister of Finance and Filip Zavřel, Head of Day to Day Banking, Air Bank

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From left: Dušan Mlynarčík, Owner and Director, JK Jitka Kudlackova Jewels and Martin Dolanský, Market Management Director, Allianz

G ala

From left: Jiří Procházka, Product Manager, Michal Pokluda, Director of Product, Marketing and Sales Support Financial Group and Martin Horčička, Chief Operations Officer, all Wüstenrot

Representatives of Česká spořitelna

event

From left: Richard Siuda, Member of the Board and Sales Director, Conseq Investment Management and Richard Hindls, Member of the National Budget Council, University of Economics, Prague

Alena Schillerová, Minister of Finance and Vladimír Dohnal, Member of the Board, TOP HOTEL Group

From left: Pavel Doležal, Founder and Director, Zlatá koruna, Benke Aikell, your Publisher and Eva Anderová, President, Franz Kafka Centre, Vice Prezident for PR, UNYP, Honorary Consul of Zambia

From left: Jaroslav Hanák, President of the Confederation of Industry and Robert Chrištof, General Manager, mBank

From left: Karel Mráček, Academic of the Year 2018 and Lukáš Kovanda, Academic of the Year 2019

Winners of Zlatá koruna 2019

From left: Miroslav Bláha, Head of Sales, ŠKODA AUTO Czech Republic and Vratislav Strašil, Managing Director, Volkswagen Financial Services CZ

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P hoto : A rchive

So hard being a woman around here!

Have you ever found yourself sitting in a meeting frustrated and talking under your breath: It’s so hard being a woman around here! No matter what I say or do, they won’t take me seriously!

Welcome to the club, fellow female sufferer! You’re not the only one feeling that your efforts are in vain sometimes or that your voice is not loud enough in the tough man’s world. I hear you. No doubt there are situations in which women are still not fully recognized and appreciated and that there are individuals amongst us who still have reservations about women and their capabilities. But, is it really so bad? Or are we - women - making it worse than it really is?

I work with a lot of female executives and one in particular comes to mind. She was a product manager in a sector ladies don’t venture into that often. The only women on the team, and in fact pretty much everywhere she set her foot in, customer events, conferences, etc. She was intelligent, extremely capable and working (much too) hard. She loved her job yet she was exasperated, she didn’t see any future for herself in the company due to being a woman. Every time we met for our coaching sessions she had a story to tell and it would start with something like this: “Alena, would you believe what my boss told me today?!” “You should see how my colleague treated me in front of the whole team!” “This is pointless, they will always see me as a weak link!” She would go into great length to prove how unfairly she was being treated and how mean her colleagues were to her simply because she was a woman.

I am not here to diminish the difficulties she had to face but I could see how she was adding fuel to the fire. When I tried to analyze the situation with her, I hit a wall. For her the issue was crystal clear: she was treated unfairly for being a woman.

Is that the truth?

Or is that your truth?

When we experience frustrations and difficulties at work, it’s easy to blame others or external circumstances or misfortunes. But are they the true causes behind our career failures?

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Let me ask you this. How many times have you entered a meeting thinking it was going to be a disaster and it was? What about the time you finally met John, a guy you heard so much about and how hilarious he was; did he turn out to be just hilarious?! Or, this woman you met at a networking event; you had a bad feeling about her right from the start and when you got the chance to talk to her, bingo! She was just as obnoxious as you thought.

My friend, I am not a behavioral scientist, but there’s something that I am painfully aware of.

The power of preconceived ideas, beliefs and biases that we all succumb to more often than not. I say painfully because some of these beliefs can be extremely detrimental to our careers, relationships and our overall health and wellbeing. Our life is a reflection of our beliefs.

Our beliefs shape our reality because they influence our behavior and the behavior of others towards us.

conclusions from our past experiences, we adopt them from the media or from others. Have you heard the saying, whatever you believe becomes your reality? That’s exactly it. Your beliefs become the lens through which you perceive others and the world around you and through which you interpret all that’s happening in your life.

So, what do you believe?

Let’s consider the beliefs you have about yourself. These are critical because they shape all your important decisions such as which career path you choose, whether you’re willing to voice your opinions in the workplace, ask for a promotion or raise. What you think and believe directly influences how you feel and how you behave. If you think you’re a failure, you’ll feel like a failure, and then you’ll act

What is a belief? It is an inner conviction, an acceptance that something exists or is true. It’s a feeling of certainty about something or what something means. Whether something is true or not, a belief makes it true for you.

We have beliefs about ourselves, about others, about life, about the meaning of things, about what’s possible. We acquire beliefs during our developmental years, we also draw them as

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Image source: joshuanhook.com

like a failure, which reinforces your belief that you must be a failure.

Whatever your beliefs (about yourself or anything else for that matter), the confirmation bias kicks in. Confirmation bias is a cognitive bias in which one tends to search for, interpret, favor or remember information which confirms one's preconceived beliefs, while undervaluing or ignoring information which contradicts those beliefs. In other words, you will tend to look for evidence that supports your beliefs and discount anything that runs contrary to your belief. Whatever your belief, whether drinking five coffee cups a day is a good idea because it improves mental performance, or that the death penalty reduces crime rate, or that your employer is actively trying to discriminate against you, you will always find the evidence that will support your belief! Seek and you shall find! Oh yes my friend. We love to be right and be proven right. We love when our ideas, assumptions and beliefs are validated!

Or better still, if other people validate them.

Check your library shelf, what kind of books and magazines do you find? To what extent do they support your beliefs and your view of life? Think about the people you most admire or people you love surrounding yourself with?

To what extent do they share your beliefs?

We have a clear tendency to favor people or information that confirms our assumptions or preconceptions (whether they’re true or not).

And the moment we encounter something or someone that threatens our beliefs, we laugh at them, discount them, condemn them. We choose to see what we want to see. We’re constantly looking for reassurance of our values, because the contrary is uncomfortable. When our values and beliefs are questioned, so is our entire being, our way of life, our identity and that can be deeply disturbing. We’re shaken to the core because who would want to face the realization that maybe, perhaps they were wrong all along?

Gender stereotypes impact us directly…

We also ought to know that the source of many of our negative beliefs are hidden in stereotypes. I recently read an article in the Harvard Business School Magazine about how gender stereotypes determine people’s beliefs about themselves and others. It’s been shown that women lack confidence in their ability to compete in fields that men are stereotypically believed to perform more strongly in, such as science, math, and technology. And that’s even if they receive positive feedback on their performance and are shown their brilliant results! Women tend to downplay their achievement or discount them.

Similarly, women are less likely to speak up on topics in fields where they believe their gender is weak.

Going back to my client and the issue of women in business. Beside the fact that my client had a whole array of negative self-beliefs she was unaware of, she also had very strong beliefs about others, in particular about men and how they actively try to discriminate women in business. Whether she acquired them during her childhood or as a result of gender stereotyping is something we’ll leave aside for now.

able to decide which ones to cultivate and which to eliminate. Beliefs are here to stay and will get reinforced over time. That is, unless we actively challenge them, unless we introspectively question our attachments to our beliefs, to a particular ideology, to our patterns of thinking.

I believe that just like our computer software, our mind also needs an occasional ‘upgrade’ for the most optimal performance.

Imagine you have that same strong belief about men as my client and you get yourself into the following hypothetical situation. How do you think the story will unfold? Here’s what I think:

And so, next time you feel frustrated at work and think how hard it is to be a woman in the tough man’s world, think about your own beliefs and biases and how they contributed to your situation…

Your male boss asks you to fetch him a coffee on the way to a meeting room. The chances are you will feel infuriated by his request.

Depending on your emotional maturity and communication skills, you may decide to bring him the coffee but in your silent anger you almost spill it all over his shirt; you may utter a remark with a heavy dose of sarcasm or you may loudly object to his absurd request, making him see his wrongdoing. Even if you don’t say a word, your body will radiate your fury which is something your boss is likely to pick up on from your body language and your facial expression.

He gets a feeling that something is going on but he has no idea what. He may be very surprised by your reaction because asking his colleagues to fetch him a coffee is something he does habitually in order to gain time to set up his presentation in the meeting room. Depending on his emotional maturity and communication skills, he responds to you or not, in any case, he is likely to think, what’s wrong with her today? Or, isn’t she a bit over-sensitive? Depending on his previous experiences with women he may even think, for god’s sake who can understand them!?

So hard to have women around here! And so the story goes… You both will probably end up feeling frustrated but with a comforting sense of certainty that you were right all along... For you it’s clear that men are discriminating against women and for your boss it’s clear that women are overly sensitive and difficult to work with…

What reality do you want for yourself?

Beliefs have tremendous power. They impact how you feel and how you behave which in turn impacts how other people behave towards you. Beliefs have so much power, that they can heal or kill and I mean that literally. You can do your own research on people who cured themselves of a terminal illness thanks to the power of their beliefs, and on the contrary, who died just because they believed a diagnosis that was later proven wrong.

There are empowering beliefs and there are destructive beliefs. We all have them and we ought to be aware of them. Only then we are

Remember, beliefs create your reality, you have the power to decide what reality you want for yourself. Make it an awesome one!

My best wishes!

Alena

By Alena Huberova Leadership Trainer / Keynote Speaker Helping Women to Become the Bosses People Love www.alenahuberova.com alena@alenahuberova.com české znění naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.czechleaders.com

ABOUT ALENA HUBEROVA Fifteen years in the corporate arena with roles in marketing, sales and communication, living in 5 different countries across Europe and Asia. Alena assists business leaders in developing a powerful personal presence on and off stage and delivering presentations that capture hearts, change minds, and inspire action. More recently, with her signature program ‘SHELeads', Alena has been helping female executives build selfconfidence, find their voice and become leaders that people love to work with.

Alena’s achievements include speaking at the TEDx UNYP 2017 conference, winning the second place in the 2018 Czech National Championship of Public Speaking, and coaching X.GLU, a team from the Czech Technical University to win the world title at the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017 in Seattle, USA (in collaboration with Presenation.com).

Alena is regularly asked to speak at industry events and conferences. She is a contributor to various magazines and newspapers including Czech & Slovak Leaders and Business Woman. You can read her articles and follow her blog at: www.alenahuberova.com

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diplomatic event

Wiener Grinzinger Heuriger

AT THE AUSTRIAN AMBASSADOR’S RESIDENCE

H.E. Alexander Grubmayr, Ambassador of Austria with his welcoming speech

Colonel Sean Cantrell, Defense Attaché, U.S. Embassy and Jennie Young, Head of Finance and HR, U.S. Embassy H.E. Alexander Grubmayr, Ambassador of Austria and Eva Anderová, Vice President for PR, UNYP and President, Franz Kafka Centre

From left: Karel Zeleny, Marketing Manager, Government of Ras Al Khaimah and Claudio Sturm, General Manager, Falkensteiner Hotel with his wife

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From left: Heinz Reigl, President of Skal International and Nadir Safarov, Regional Representative in Europe, Azerbaijan Airlines

diplomatic event

From left: Daniel Xuereb, Owners Representative and Executive Director, Corinthia Group and Manuel E. Jimenez-Alonso, Sales Director, Body and Soul

Mr. Michael Waldhart and Markéta Rohrwasserová, Director, Traveller

From left: Mag. Georg Stöger , Honorary Consul, Embassy of Austria with his daughter and Dr. Anton Hopfgartner, Property Solutions s.r.o. with his wife

From left: Heinz Reigl, President of Skal International and H.E. Alexander Grubmayr, Ambassador of Austria with his welcoming speech

From left: Adéla Horničková, Asst., E.H.R., Ing.Hana Reigl, Managing Director, E.H.R., and Mgr. David Augustin , Personalist, Mail Step a.s. with partner

From left: Jose Luis Atienza, Director, Dorado Tours and Félix Julio Granda, Manager - Owner, Granda Tours

Ing. Libor Pospíšil, CEO, Europark Shopping Center and Ingrid Sieder, MBA, Sieder TourismStrategies

Michal Zazvonil, Managing Partner, Víno & Spol with his wife

From left: Dr. Anton Hopfgartners´ wife, Michal Zazvonil, Managing Partner, Víno & Spol with his wife, and Dr. Anton Hopfgartners

H.E. Alexander Grubmayr, Ambassador of Austria with his parents

From left: Manuel E. Jimenez-Alonso, Sales Director, Body and Soul and Franz Hengl jun., Wein- und Obstbau, Alter Bach-Hengl

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culture event

Opening reception at ART PRAGUE

for PRAGARTWORKS

From left: Mr. Adam Roučka, Louise Beer, Founder of PragArtworks, Pavel Roučka, Artist, and Daniela Flajšarová, Fashion Designer

PragArtworks joined this year's edition of the renowned international contemporary art fair Art Prague that was opened on May 13 thru May 19 at the Náměstí Republiky 7 at Prague 1.

The PragArtworks booth showcased representative pieces by such great artists as Pavel Roučka, Jakub Flejšar, Václav Bláha, Dan Trantina, Marek Schovánek, Rudolf Burda, Lukáš Rais and Pedja Djaković. The event has been a huge success with the visitors and collectors.

Lukáš Rais, Artist

While many people are interested in acquiring Art, they are often not sure were to look. PragArtworks´central mission is to help anyone in buying first rate quality contemporary art navigate the present-day art scene.

From left: Václav Bláha, Artist in front of his artwork with Louise Beer, Founder of PragArtworks, and Magdalena Bláha, Photographer

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Rudolf Burda in front of his artwork

From left: Alena Oniscenko, Director of Sales, PragArtworks, Louise Beer, Founder of PragArtworks, Inka Truxová, Landscape Architect, and Mrs. Myung Ji Suh, Spouse of the Korean Ambassador

culture event

Marek Schovánek, Artist and Louise Beer, Founder of PragArtworks

Pedja Djaković in front of his artwork - Jazzman Curtain

From left: Per Boye Hansen, Designated Artistic Director of the Opera of the National Theatre and State Opera, Louise Beer, Founder of PragArtworks, and René Beauchamp, Consultant Hotelier

From left: Bohdan Wojnar, Member of the Board, Human Resources at Škoda Auto, President of AutoSAP and Benke Aikell, your Publisher

From left: H.E. Ahmet Necati Bigali, Ambassador of Turkey, Louise Beer, Founder of PragArtworks, Mrs. Gulner Bigali, Spouse of the Ambassador of Turkey, and René Beauchamp, Consultant Hotelier

From left: H.E. Ole Henrik Frijs-Madsen, Ambassador of Denmark, Louise Beer, Founder of PragArtworks, and Mrs. Claire Frijs-Madsen, Spouse of the Ambassador of Denmark

From left: Zuzana Panská, Photographer, Jakub Flejšar, Sculptor, and Louise Beer, Founder of PragArtworks

From left: Michael Hermann, Art Collector and Pavel Roučka, Artist

From left: Dan Trantina, Artist, Louise Beer, Founder of PragArtworks, and Marek Gregor, Chief Editor, Reflex magazine

Alena Oniscenko, Director Sales, PragArtwork and Louise Beer, Founder, PragArtwork

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diplomatic event

Greek-Canadian

summer concert

On 29 June, the Ambassador of Greece, Mr. Efthymios Efthymiades, in cooperation with the Ambassador of Canada, Ms. Barbara C. Richardson, hosted, at the Greek Residence, a Greek-Canadian summer concert with selections from "Charlotte – a Tri-Coloured Play with Music" as well as other well-known arias and songs, performed by Ariana Chris, mezzo soprano, Peter Tiefenbach, pianist, and other cast members. The concert was followed by a Greek-Canadian buffet with delicacies and wines representative of both countries.

From left: H.E. Efthymios Efthymiades, Ambassador of Greece; Ms. Ariana Chris; Andrew Cohen, Actor and Classical Singer; Shaina Silver-Baird, Actress and Classical Singer; Derek Kwan, Actor, Singer, and Creator; and Mr. Peter Tiefenbach

From left: Kim Cowan, Counsellor for Political, Economic and Public Diplomacy, Embassy of Canada; Peter Tiefenbach; Shaina Silver-Baird, Actress and Classical Singer; Pamela Howard, Director and Scenographer in opera and contemporary music theatre; Andrew Cohen, Actor and Classical Singer; Derek Kwan, Actor, Singer, and Creator; Ms. Ariana Chris; and H.E. Efthymios Efthymiades, Ambassador of Greece

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Performance of Ms. Ariana Chris at the Greek Residence concert

diplomatic event

From left: H.E. Efthymios Efthymiades, Ambassador of Greece; Alena Onishenko, Sales Director, PragArtworks; Alexandr Onishenko, Artist and Photographer, Galerie Jakubská; and Louise Beer,Founder, PragArtworks

From left: Sotiris Foutsis, General Manager, UNYP; H.E. Nicholas Stewart Archer, Ambassador of the United Kingdom; and Pamela Howard, Director and Scenographer in opera and contemporary music theatre

From left: Louise Beer, Founder, PragArtworks; Irina Mikhovitch, Glebus Alloys; Baron Stephanos Germenis, Blatna Castle; and Baroness Jana Hildprandt-Germenis, Blatna Castle

From left: Ms. Maria Alerta, Counsellor, Embassy of Greece and Ms. Barbora Polášková

Alexandr Onishenko, Artist and Photographer, Galerie Jakubská; and Alena Onishenko, Sales Director, PragArtworks

From left: H.E. Nicholas Stewart Archer, Ambassador of the United Kingdom; H.E. Efthymios Efthymiades, Ambassador of Greece; and Baron Stephanos Germenis, Blatna Castle

Pamela Howard, Director and Scenographer in opera and contemporary music theatre; and Marc S. Ellenbogen, President, Prague Society

From left: Elissavet Karali, Consul, Embassy of Greece and Chloe Geitmann-Akrithaki, Artist and Photographer

From left: Marc S. Ellenbogen, President, Prague Society; Baroness Jana Hildprandt-Germenis, Blatna Castle; Benke Aikell, your Publisher; Eva Anderová, Vice President for PR, UNYP, President, Franz Kafka Centre and Honorary Consul of Zambia; and Kim Cowan, Counsellor for Political, Economic and Public Diplomacy, Embassy of Canada

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diplomatic event

IBEROAMERICAN AWARDS CEREMONY XXIV EDITION PRAGUE, 10 APRIL 2019

Charles University, Hall of the Patriots

Hall of the Patriots, Charles University

The XXIV annual Iberoamerican awards ceremony took place on Wednesday, April 10, 2019. The competition was organized by the Embassies of Iberoamerican countries residing in Prague: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Spain, Mexico, Peru and Portugal, under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and Charles University.

Since 1994, hundreds of students from Czech universities have participated, in the successive calls of the Iberoamerican Award, by presenting a work of research directly related to history, culture, economy, politics or society of Iberoamerican countries, written in Spanish or Portuguese, languages, that are studied in the Czech education system. The mastery of both languages contributes to enriching lives of students by offering them the opportunity to communicate with some 750 million people in the five continents, whose native language is Spanish or Portuguese.

Rector of Charles University, Prof. Tomáš Zima, Vice Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, Dr. Dana Prudíková, Vice Minister of Culture, Dr. Kateřina Kalistová, Ambassadors of Iberoamerican countries in the Czech Republic, as well as some members of the academic community and students were present as guests of honor.

From left: Dr. Kateřina Kalistová, Vice Minister of Culture, H.E. Rosaura Leonora Rueda Gutierrez, Ambassador of Mexico to the Czech Republic, Prof. Tomáš Zima, Rector of Charles University, and Dr. Dana Prudíková, Vice Minister of Education, Youth and Sports

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Dr. Dana Prudíková, Vice Minister of Education, Youth and Sports at her speech

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From left: Olga Líbalová, Charles University in Prague and H.E. Rosaura Leonora Rueda Gutierrez, Ambassador of Mexico to the Czech Republic

diplomatic event

THE WINNERS OF THE XXIV EDITION OF THE IBEROAMERICAN AWARDS First Place: Eva Trávníčková, Masaryk University Brno, essay “Cuando el alma se vuelve material o paralelos entre el espacio y la conciencia en la novela existencial ¨Para siempre¨ de Vergílio de Ferreira“.

Second Place: Anna Nováková, Palacký University Olomouc, essay “Entre Flandes, España y Bohemia. Guillermo Verdugo, agente de Francisco de Dietrichstein”.

Third Place: Martina Snášelová, Czech University of Agriculture in Prague, essay “Por una tableta de chocolate”.

Mentions of Honor: Olga Líbalová, Charles University in Prague, essay “El rol de la reforma vareliana en la transformación de la identidad uruguaya”, and Dominika Dibalová, Masaryk University Brno, essay “Los aspectos de la feminidad en la novela ´El Silencio´, de Teolinda Gersão”.

H.E. Rosaura Leonora Rueda Gutierrez, Ambassador of Mexico to the Czech Republic at her speech

Prof. Tomáš Zima, Rector of Charles University congratulating the winners of Iberoamerican Award

Eva Trávníčková, Masaryk University Brno - winner of the First Place

Winners with Ambassadors of the Iberoamerican countries in the Czech Republic

Prof. Tomáš Zima, Rector of Charles University and H.E. Rosaura Leonora Rueda Gutierrez, Ambassador of Mexico to the Czech Republic

Winners of the Iberoamerican Award, from left: Martina Snášelová, Eva Trávníčková, and Anna Nováková

Consul Evelyn Leon Perez, Head of Mission, Embassy of Cuba and H.E. Danilo Alonso Mederos, Ambassador of Cuba to the Czech Republic

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C ulture

event

SHANGAI EXHIBITION

From left: Erik and Sophia Slingerland, Co – organizers of the exhibition, Fu Jin, Museum Director, Pavel Roučka, Artist, Jieyin Wang, Artist, Jennifer Zhang, Founder and Managing Director, L’Étincelle Art Space, and Daniela Roučková Flejšarová, Fashion Designer

Pavel Roučka, Artist with Daniela Roučková Flejšarová, Fashion Designer in front of Octavia painted by Pavel

Bruce Rosen, Marketing Director, SAIC China – Skoda JV in China and Jennifer Zhang, Founder and Managing Director, L’Étincelle Art Space, in the background from left: Martin Jahn, Executive VP Sales & Marketing of FAW-VW, Volkswagen’s Chinese JV and Pavel Roučka, Artist

From left: Dawei Wang, Dean of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Lijun Ren, Artist, Pavel Roučka, Artist, and Czech Consul General Richard Krpáč

From left: Jennifer Zhang, Founder and Managing Director, L’Étincelle Art Space, Jieyin Wang, Artist, and Pavel Roučka, Artist

From left: Yichu Wang, Painter, Jieyin Wang’s daughter, Daniela Roučková Flejšarová, Fashion Designer, Jennifer Zhang, Founder and Managing Director, L’Étincelle Art Space, Jieyin Wang, Artist, and Pavel Roučka, Artist

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Pavel Roučka, Artist with enthusiastic Chinese art lovers

culture event

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE (LESSNESS) NOVEL Launch of the novel by Jiří Kostelecký Cape of Good Hope (lessness)was held on April 10, 2019 in Café Liberál. The festive "Baptism" of the novel begun with a small concert where virtuoso classical guitarists, HAMU graduates Soňa Vimrová and Miroslav Žára, played compositions by famous Spanish composers Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, Astor Piazzolla and Manuel de Falla.

The godfathers of the new book were Zdena Procházková - the legendary Austrian-Czech actress, former wife of Karel Höger and Prince Karl Ferdinand von Thurn und Taxis, who baptized the book.

Jiří Kostelecký, Writer

Mrs. Vlasta Hemalová and Jiří Kostelecký, Writer

From left: Jiří Kostelecký, Writer, Irena Pavlorková, Fashion Designer, and Prince Karl Ferdinand von Thurn und Taxis

From left: Zdena Procházková, Actress, Prince Karl Ferdinand von Thurn und Taxis, and Jiří Kostelecký, Writer

From left: Profesor MUDr. Pavel Calda, CSc., Head of the Fetal Medicine Centre Charles University in Prague, First Faculty of Medicine, Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics and Jiří Kostelecký, Writer

Jan Kodeš, legendary Czech tennis player and close friend of Jiří Kostelecký

From left: Jiří Polák, Director, Endownment Fund "Věčná naděje", Jan Kodeš, legendary Czech tennis player, and famous jazzman Pavel Smetáček, Founder, Traditional Jazz Studio Pavla Smetáčka

Prince Karl Ferdinand von Thurn und Taxis

From left: Kateřina Kachlíková, Mezzosopranist, Jiří Kostelecký, Writer, and Blanka Adensamová, Artist

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We need to bring the European politics back home INTERVIEW WITH

Marcel Kolaja Marcel Kolaja is a Member of the European Parliament for the Czech Pirate Party and the head of delegation of the European Pirates in the European Parliament. He has been focusing on digital policies in Europe since 2003, when he contributed as an activist to stopping the software patent directive. Furthermore, he actively worked on founding an organization called Open Cities (Otevřená města), which helps municipalities to be transparent and open to citizens.

Professionally, he is an information technology expert with focus on Open Source Software. Before his election, he worked as a Product Manager of a successful enterprise Linux distribution.

First of all, congratulations on your election results. You are one of the new faces in the European Parliament, when have you decided to focus on European politics and why?

Thank you! I started to focus on European politics back in 2003, i.e. when the Czech Republic wasn't part of the European Union yet. At that time, the European Commission put forward a proposal of a directive introducing software patents in the Union.

As it would be a major obstacle not only for Open Source Software but also for small and medium enterprises and innovation in general, I have decided to contribute as an activist to rejection of the directive. That goal has been achieved in 2005.

Before the elections, your party had estimated that you could have gained around 20 per cent of total votes. Do you perceive the final result, nearly 14 per cent of votes and 3 seats in the European Parliament, a success or do you feel there was a potential for a better outcome?

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In percentage, we have almost tripled the result from the previous European elections 5 years ago as well as we achieved a percentage increase from the last national elections. In addition to that, we have quadrupled the number of Pirates in the European Parliament and doubled the number of countries that Pirates represent in the Parliament.

I consider it not only a Czech success but even a European one.

You are heading to the Greens/European Free Alliance group of the European Parliament. What are the main reasons for joining this group and was one of them the fact that overall, the Greens gained a stronger mandate compared to the previous legislative term and therefore will have a stronger position in the Parliament?

It was a combination of reasons. We were able to negotiate great conditions with Greens/European Free Alliance, especially when it comes to the committees we want to work in. Being part of the group, we have

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P hoto : A rchive

also determined that Greens/European Free Alliance became bigger than the nationalistic populists Identity & Democracy (formerly known as Europe of Nations and Freedom, ENF), which gave the group and the Pirates a much better position in the Parliament.

After all, I have been nominated by Greens/ European Free Alliance for one of the five Quaestors of the European Parliament. In addition to all that, Renew Europe (formerly known as Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, ALDE) did not make a single step to withdraw their support for the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and his party ANO. We refused to join the same group as the party whose chairperson is criminally prosecuted and in a major conflict of interest.

Which committees would you like to join and what are the priorities that you would like to focus on?

I'd like to work in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee (IMCO) as a full member and in the Culture and Education committee (CULT ) as a substitute

P hoto : A rchive

member. I want to focus especially on removing barriers on the Digital Single Market, consumer protection and fundamental rights protection in the digital era.

Digitalization is one of the key topics of your party. How do you evaluate the work of the EU regarding the creation of the Digital Single Market so far and what will be the main topics in this area that will arise in the next 5 years?

There is a ton of work that needs to be done.

Besides a comprehensive copyright reform, the legislation on removing terrorist content on-line wasn't finalized in the previous term.

In addition to that, re-evaluation of some legislation is expected in the new term, including geo-blocking, platform regulation, and the directive on the accessibility of websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies.

In the list of your priorities for the EU elections, you also mention that the copyright legislation needs to be reformed. However, the high profile modernisation of the EU copyright rules

was concluded at the beginning of this year and it was the first modification of the rules since 2001. Why do you think there will be a strong political momentum to change the rules again in such a short time?

The Commission, the Parliament, and the Council have failed to reform copyright in a meaningful way in the last term. The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market has not come to the necessary harmonization and brought even more issues with articles 15 and 17 (originally 11 and 13) by introducing the link tax and Internet censorship machines. A comprehensive copyright reform is still due and is for example a prerequisite for a complete removal of geoblocking in media services and a functional Digital Single Market. A fragmented digital market is harmful for consumers and impeding innovation in Europe. People taking part in the public demonstrations across Europe, academia, European digital start-ups, and SMEs recognized the pitfalls of the new legislation. Now it's up for the EU leaders whether they react accordingly.

European politics and the European legislative procedures are not easy topics to communicate to the general public, especially in the Czech Republic. What will you do to change the scepticism towards European politics among Czech citizens and how will you communicate the work you’ll be doing in Brussels towards your voters back home?

We are in the process of building our communication strategy right now. We will surely link the national and European politics together, so that it becomes more understandable and logical to the general public. We definitely need to bring the European politics back home, so that people understand how it relates to their lives, which we will do both through on-line media and our physical presence in Czechia as much as possible.

Thank you for the interview!

By TomĂĄĹĄ Hartman

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EU

debate

Czech Business Representation to the EU

Conference "15 years in the EU" STORY OF THE CZECH ECONOMY

From left: Dana Kovaříková, Head of European Commission's Representation in the Czech Republic, Milena Hrdinková, State Secretary for the EU Affairs, Office of the Government of the Czech Republic, Věra Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, European Commission, H.E. Charles Sheehan, Ambassador of Ireland to the Czech Republic, Vladimír Špidla, former Commissioner and Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, and Zdeněk Čech, Economic Counsellor and Deputy Head of European Commission's Representation in the Czech Republic

From left: Josef Středula, Chairman, Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions, Aleš Chmelař, Deputy Minister for EU Affaires, Ministry of Foreign Affaires CR, Vladimír Dlouhý, President, Czech Chamber of Commerce, and István Pal Szekely, Principal Advisor, DG ECFIN, European Commission

From left: Pavel Bouška, Owner and CEO of VAFO, Radek Špicar, Vice-President of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic, Hana Fořtová, Founder of Frusack, and David Klimeš, Economia a.s.

On the 1st of May 2019, the Czech Republic celebrated 15 years since its accession to the EU. On that occasion, the European Commission’s Representation in the Czech Republic brought together various stakeholders that were both preparing the entry of the country to the EU and that represent it today, as well as social partners and other important stakeholders. During the conference, the speakers discussed to what extent the Czech standard of living has approximated to those of other EU Member States, what was the influence of EU membership on business and investment in the Czech Republic, and how the financial resources from the EU budget helped Czech economy.

From left: Jan Brůha, Director, Economic Research Division, Monetary Department, Czech National Bank, Hilmar Schneider, CEO, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Robert Stehrer, Scientific Director, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, Septimiu Szabo, Economic Analyst–Czech Desk, DG ECFIN, European Commission, and Pavlína Žáková, Economic Advisor, European Commission Representation in the Czech Republic

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EU

Czech Business Representation to the EU

debate

CEBRE founders met MEP candidates

From left: Vladimír Dlouhý, President, Czech Chamber of Commerce, Jan Wiesner, President, Confederation of Employers' and Entrepreneurs' Associations of the Czech Republic, and Jan Rafaj, Vice President, Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic

Two months before the elections to the European Parliament, representatives of Czech business organizations met with candidates to Members of the European Parliament to present them their priorities for the 2019-2024 legislative term.

Representatives of the founders of CEBRE Czech Chamber of Commerce, Confederation of Employers' and Entrepreneurs' Associations of the Czech Republic and Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic explained the candidates their requirements in the areas of the single market, trade policy, data economy, environmental policy and labour market.

Businesses create jobs and GDP, and therefore CEBRE founders believe that elected MEPs will hear their demands.

From left: Jan Zahradil, Member of the European Parliament, and Kateřina Konečná, Member of the European Parliament

Participants of the meeting

From left: Irena Bartoňová Pálková, Vice President, Czech Chamber of Commerce, Marcel Kolaja, Member of the European Parliament, Dita Charanzová, Member of the European Parliament, and Alena Mastantuono, Director, CEBRE – Czech Business Representation to the EU

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Did you know what?

One of eight European supercomputers placed in Ostrava Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel announced in June eight cities that will host the first European supercomputers. Ostrava is also among the eight locations, accompanied by Sofia (Bulgaria), Kajaani (Finland), Bologna (Italy), Bissen (Luxembourg), Minho (Portugal), Maribor (Slovenia) and Barcelona (Spain). The creation of the supercomputers is funded by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and 19 countries will participate in the operation of the computer centres. Computational capacity will be used to develop new applications in medicine, advanced materials, bioengineering etc.

EU should have proper space strategy, say Member States The Council of the EU adopted conclusions on space policy at the end of May, underlining the importance of space for society and a number of economic sectors. The Council also calls for better space coordination between the EU, the European Space Agency and the Member States. In addition, the Council supports the development of innovative space-based sectors that will allow new products and services to emerge, and also called for the establishment of a long-term strategy to increase Europe's impact on space at global level.

Level of digitalization in EU is slowly increasing The European Commission presented the results of the Digital Economy and Society Index 2019 (DESI), which shows how individual Member States are successful in digitization and how they increase their digital competitiveness. The results show a rising demand in ultra-fast internet access, but only 60% of households currently have the access.

83% of Europeans use the internet at least once a week (compared to 75% in 2014), but more than a third of the actively working EU population do not have basic digital skills. However, the demand for advanced digital skills in the labour market is rising.

Businesses are moving towards digital solutions, especially when it comes to using cloud services (18% of companies versus 11% in 2014), but the development of e-commerce is relatively slow.

Council approved legislation on disposable plastics At the end of May, the Council approved the Commission's proposal that bans sale of top 10 disposable plastic products that create waste in the seas and at European beaches. The legislation concerns the sale of disposable plastic products such as cutlery, trays and straws. For other products, emphasis will be placed on limiting their use.

The Directive will enter into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. Since then, Member States will have two years to transpose the legislation into their national law.

New rules for safer use of drones The European Commission adopted rules that will increase safety standards for the use of drones in the EU. The rules will apply to all drone operators, both professional and leisure users. As of 2020, all operators will have to be registered and Member States will have to define zones where it will be prohibited to use drones, such as airports or urban centres.

Let´s talk numbers!

Czech unemployment still lowest in EU According to information from the European Statistical Office, unemployment in the euro area decreased by 0.1% in April 2019 compared to the previous month, reaching 7.6%. During the same period, EU28 unemployment was 6.4% and remained unchanged compared to the previous month. The Czech Republic recorded the lowest unemployment rate (2.1%), followed by Germany (3.2%) and the Netherlands (3.3%). On the contrary, Greece (18.5% in February 2019), Spain (13.8%) and Italy (10.2%) have the highest unemployment. Compared to April 2018, unemployment fell by 0.8% in the euro area and 0.6% in the EU as a whole.

May euro area inflation estimated at 1.2% According to the flash estimate of Eurostat, the annual inflation rate of euro area fell by 0.5% in May 2019 compared to the previous month and now stands at 1.2%. The estimates show that energy prices grew the most in a year-on-year comparison (3.8%), followed by food, alcohol and tobacco (1.6%) and services (1.1%).

Number of non-performing loans decreasing The European Commission recently published its fourth progress report on non-performing loans, which shows that the number of these loans in the EU is gradually decreasing. Since 2014, the number of non-performing loans has fallen by half to 3.3% in the third quarter of 2018, but figures are still below precrisis levels. The information will serve as a basis for discussions on the completion of the Banking Union.

EFSI Fund mobilized nearly EUR 400 billion in investment According to the European Commission, the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the main pillar of the Juncker investment plan, has succeeded in mobilizing â‚Ź 398.6 billion of additional investment since July 2015. Of these money, projects in all EU countries will be funded, improving access to finance for some 949 000 start-ups and SMEs. Most additional private sector investment in relation to GDP was obtained in Greece, Estonia, Bulgaria, Portugal and Latvia.

GDP grew both in euro area and EU28 According to the Eurostat flash estimate, GDP increased by 0.4% in the first quarter of 2019 in the euro area and by 0.5% in the whole EU compared to the previous quarter. Compared to the first quarter of 2018, this means a 1.2% growth in the euro area and 1.5% in EU28.

In the world!

EU signed aviation agreements with China The EU and China have signed agreements on civil aviation security and a horizontal aviation agreement to promote cooperation between the two. In addition to improved aviation cooperation, agreements should also increase the competitiveness of the aviation sector. The agreement will eliminate the need to get unnecessary double confirmations and certifications for aviation products, which will reduce costs for businesses. A horizontal agreement will allow Member States' airlines to fly to China from anywhere in the EU, which has not been possible so far.

EU vision for Central Asia The European Union outlined its vision of a renewed partnership with Central Asia and updated its strategy for relations with the region which was first established in 2007. The partnership covers five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan).

The Communication proposes that the EU engages in the future in strengthening the capacity of the Central Asian states to overcome internal and external shocks and implement reforms to help them modernize their economies, improve sustainable connectivity and increase investment in youth.

Council agreed to launch trade negotiations with the US The Council adopted negotiating directives for a trade agreement between the EU and the United States, building on a joint statement by Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, and Donald Trump, President of the United States, from July 2018.

Two agreements, namely a conformity assessment agreement, which will make it easier for companies to meet EU and US technical requirements, and an agreement to remove customs duties on industrial products. The agreement does not cover agricultural products. According to Commission surveys, the agreement on the elimination of customs duties on industrial products should contribute to an increase in EU exports to the US of 8% by 2033.

EU and US strengthen liquefied natural gas cooperation EU-US energy sector representatives held a meeting in Brussels to discuss energy cooperation between the two. The discussion focused mainly on the potential of importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US to the EU. In a joint statement issued after the meeting, both sides stated that the EU and the US would strengthen strategic cooperation in this area and increase US LNG imports to the EU. The volume of LNG trade between the EU and the US reached a record volume of more than 1.4 billion m3 in March 2019.

European investment screening mechanism enters into force The EU framework for screening of foreign direct investment, which aims to protect the EU's strategic sectors, has entered into force.

Among other things, the framework will establish a cooperation mechanism between the Commission and the Member States, in which both parties will exchange information on suspicious investments. The Commission will be able to evaluate these investments and present safety analysis and recommendations to the Member States. The framework also introduces rules for the establishment of new national investment screening mechanisms. So far, 14 Member States have introduced such systems.

Brought by CEBRE – Czech Business Representation to the EU

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