Magazine of Economics and Business student Faculty association Groningen
Prospect Prospect / February 2013 / Volume 6 / Issue 3
Joop Munsterman “Over het floreren van kranten en een voetbalclub” Cover Story:
Interview:
And:
The Netherlands Cartel Country?
Jan-Peter Cruiming
• Death paper world • Groninger tram • Match-fixing
Persoonlijk Personal
Preface Prospect Dear reader, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Charles Darwin knew years ago, what many companies are still discovering at the moment; managing change is crucial for subsistence, especially in these times of crisis. Harold Wilson brought Darwin’s message a little less subtle. “He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.” A firm statement, but we can’t reject its truth. 8350 companies will confirm this; they had to declare bankruptcy in 2012. An exceptional number, compared to former years. What went wrong? Were they all victims of the theories of the same man that provided us with the preceding words of wisdom? Yes, it’s Darwin again. He discovered that our human race is equipped with an evolutionary protection mechanism: we all overestimate our own qualities and skills compared to the general population. This phenomenon, nowadays known as the Dunning-Kruger effect, is a cognitive bias in which individuals suffer from illusory superiority and thus rating their ability much higher than average. Due to this evolutionary feature, the owners of the now bankrupt companies underestimated the dangerous position in which their businesses were situated, with thoughts like: ‘That won’t happen to my company’. Now they know better. But what should we be without the Dunning-Kruger effect? No one would ever be able to climb the mount Everest, win Wimbledon or create a business empire named after a piece of fruit without a little feeling of superiority. It enables people to take chances in life, enable the impossible and to adapt to change. Conclusion? Life is a lot more exciting with a little bit of Dunning-Kruger! Naturally, we like to be a good example for this lifestyle.. With our (new!) Prospect team, we are investigating the magazine market and we aim to adapt to the emerging changes in an optimal way. As you might have noticed yet, our Prospect has a completely new lay-out. On behalf of the whole Prospect team, I proudly present you our improved Prospect. Enjoy the change! Kind regards, Merel Koppen, Editor in Chief
February 2013 _ Page 3
Colophon Prospect Prospect Volume 6 / Issue 3 / February 2013
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Merel Koppen MANAGING EDITOR Stefan Kapell EDITORIAL BOARD Pamela Bediako, Jing Chen, Marriël Edzes, Rick Lotterman, Bram Raatjes, Lisa Beij, Luuk Elkhuizen, Hannah Merz AUTHORS Pamela Bediako, Jing Chen, Marriël Edzes, Stefan Kapell, Rick Lotterman, Niels Oskam, Bram Raatjes, Lisa Beij, Luuk Elkhuizen, Hannah Merz LAY OUT OCC dehoog, Marriël Edzes, Stefan Kapell PHOTOGRAPHY FC Twente Media, Jobbird.com SPECIAL THANKS TO Bas Boekema, Jan-Peter Cruiming, Ingemarie Kroesen, Nicole Lodder, Joop Munsterman, Sebastiaan Wijsman EDITORIAL ADDRESS EBF | Prospect P.O. Box 800 9700 AV Groningen T: 050 363 73 01 E: magazine@ebfgroningen.nl ADVERTISEMENTS, TESTIMONIALS & EXPOSURE Niels Oskam T: 050 363 71 43 E: n.oskam@ebfgroningen.nl CIRCULATION 7000 copies CHANGE OF ADDRESS Alumni can communicate changes of adress to Jeanette v/d Waal (j.van.der.waal-raukema@rug.nl) and students can communicate changes of adress to the Centrale Studentenbalie (csb@rug.nl) or adjust it themselves through Studielink. Companies can contact Niels Oskam for their changes of adress. PUBLISHER Economics and Business student Faculty association, www.ebfgroningen.nl COPYRIGHT PROSPECT Articles and pictures from this edition can only be reproduced with written consent of the editor in chief.
SUBASSOCIATIONS:
International Business on #Twitter
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Inhoud Content
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Content
Tweets
The ten 6 The ten sorry tales from treasure hunting
A poem from my rich dad, “Investors invest when they know the way and gamblers bet… and then hope and pray.”
The call for a society 14 How the gang rape case of a young Indian woman stirs up a whole country and the world
Free news and high quality journalism 22
Robert Kiyosaki @theRealKiyosaki
How newspapers try to reclaim balance, paywalls seem to be the new deal
Cover Story: The Netherlands cartel country? 24 Is the forming of cartels typical for the small country in Western-Europe?
Just wrapped with @lancearmstrong More than 2 1/2 hours. He came READY!
How match-fixing ruins sports troughout the world 28 Are we really watching honest sports?
Oprah Winfrey @Oprah
Interview Joop Munsterman Voorzitter FC Twente
8
Home of the angry birds 30 More than just a smartphone game
Hollands Glorie: Port of Rotterdam
32
Entrenpreneurship: 123aandeel.nl
34
If Schiphol is the pearl of transportation, the port of Rotterdam is the diamant.
Jeesh. 11 govt workers in UK fired for using Twitter, FB
Studying with a business next to it.
And: Death of the paper world Region tram in Groningen Keep on burning, don’t get burnout The cost of social media Faculty pages
Jeff Jarvis @jeffjarvis
12 13 16 17 37
EBF
On August 7 2007 one Fed governor described the subprime crisis as “quite a good thing” Chris Adams @chrisadamsmkts
Interview Jan-Peter Cruiming Oprichter vacaturebank.nl
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Pictures 41 Master Communities 42 Dutch Inhouse Tours 45 EBF Activities 46 EBF Agenda 47 Committee: IBR 48 Spotlight 49 EBF Column 50
Persoonlijk Personal
The Ten
February 2013 _ Page 7
5 Daimler-Benz - Chrysler Without a doubt this is one of the most widely used examples in college and extensive investigated mergers. Daimler-Benz got badly burned after its marriage with Chrysler. In 1998 Daimler paid $37bn to acquire Chrysler. Differences in management styles and culture made that the new combination failed to capitalize on synergies. In 2000 a loss was reported and in 2001 Daimler announced to slash 26.000 jobs at its Chrysler division. In the end Daimler actually had to pay a private equity firm more than $600mn to take Chrysler off it’s hands.
‘sorry tales from treasure hunting’ Author: Bram Raatjes
6 The end of the British motor industry ...finally came when BMW purchased Rover. The deal was a quicky. Ten days and it was done. BMW forked out a POUND 800mn for Rover, but unfortunately Rover’s sales data were inaccurate. In 2000 BMW ended up selling Rover for only POUNDS 10 to a Phoenix consortium, only six years after it had acquired Rover. By that time it was incurring losses of approximately POUND 2mn a day. Land Rover, part of Rover, was sold for around $2 billion to Ford.
1 Deepwater Horizon
Perhaps this is one of the most tragic business stories in recent times. In the beginning of 2010 British Petroleum (BP) acquired a portfolio of assets from Devon, an independent oil and gas producer, which included assets in the Gulf of Mexico. Among the assets was the ultra-deep oil rig ‘Deepwater Horizon’. In april 2010, only months later, an explosion on the oil rig killed 11 people and roughly 4.9 million barrels of crude oil leaked into the ocean, doing incredible damage to marine and wildlife. BP estimated the total costs related to the oil spill at $40bn. Its market value dropped by 105 $bn since the blowout.
7 Murdoch’s hunt We write 2005, the year that Rupert wanted to be cool. Rupert Murdoch sought investment opportunities in online media, so he bought MySpace for a staggering $580mn, little did he know was that Facebook was the real cool thing. And as Facebook continued to grow it overtook MySpace in 2008 by numbers of daily visits. From that time on MySpace users started to decline. Finally News Corp. sold it in 2011 for only $35mn, a fraction of the original price, making Specific Media Group and Justin Timberlake the new owners.
2 HP’s Autonomy
In 2011 Hewlett Packard acquired the British software producer Autonomy Corporation for a mere $10bn. Within a year CEO Leo Apotheker is fired due to disappointing earnings. A year after the acquisition HP has to admit it severely overpaid and has to charge $8.8 billion to align Autonomy’s value with its real value. HP claims to be the victim of a multi-billion dollar fraud, and speaks of misrepresentations and disclosure failures surrounding the financial metrics of the firm. The first lawsuits already have been filed and HP’s stock was sent into freefall comparable to that of Felix Baumgarter’s.
8 Draw something ...while you still can. It seems it’s now or never in today’s online media business. Zynga, famous for Farmville and its annoying invitations on Facebook by ‘friends’, acquired OMGPOP, the developer of Draw Something. The mobile App market took some huge leaps forward in recent years, while we enjoyed hits as Angry Birds and Wordfeud. Draw Something grew on average with one million users per day during its first fifty days. By the time the deal was done, the number of users already declined to 15 million. The following month it were only a mere 10 million. Deal value: $210mn. The result was a loss of $95mn related to the purchase of OMGPOP and a plummeted stock price.
3 AOL - Time Warner
CEO’s with ‘dollar signs’ in their eyes. The dot.com boom. At its peak AOL acquired Time Warner for $164bn, the largest merger up until that time. Both parties wanted to capitalize on the opportunities of mass media and the Internet, but shortly after the merger the dot.com bubble bursted. AOL saw its value significantly decline and in 2002, only a year after the merger, AOL reported a loss of $99bn. In the following years shareholders continued to exert pressure on Time Warner (as it changed its name), suggesting a break-up of the company into four separate companies, as it would increase shareholder value by approximately $5-$8 per share.
9 Sprint and Nextel Communications Another sad media story. It all happened in the summer of 2005 when Sprint acquired a majority stake in Nextel for $35bn. Together they were the third largest provider of telecommunications. Synergies were to come from access to each other’s customer base and cross-selling their products and services. Cultural differences turned out to prevent the companies from creating the anticipated synergies, and the difficulties surrounding the integration process made executives and mid-level managers leave the company. Technical asymmetries in the commoditizing market of Internet and Wireless services with strong competition lead eventually to a write-off of $30bn on goodwill. Its stock price was rated: Junk.
4 Bankers on a treasure hunt1 In 2007 the Royal Bank of Scotland lead a consortium in the takeover of ABN Amro. Again a poor decision in M&A history. Together with Santander and Fortis, RBS acquired ABN Amro for $98.3bn. One could question some of the motives behind the acquisition. Only a few years prior to the acquisition ABN tried to take over Santander, which was definitely not appreciated. A year later, when the credit crunch hit, RBS recorded a loss and broke some records. The next year, RBS was bailed out by the British government and in 2009 it announced to have incurred a loss of POUND 20bn due to the purchase of ABN Amro. 1 what about a title for all stories?
10 Penn Central It was the spring of 1968, a few decades ago, when Pennsylvania Railroads and New York Railroads merged to form Penn Central. At the time the combination was the sixth largest corporation in the United States. Wall Street was shocked when Penn filed for bankruptcy protection only two years later. The merger only survived 867 days, and thereby broke records, making it the largest bankruptcy ever at the time.
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February 2013 _ Page 9
J
oop Munsterman is bij het grote publiek vooral bekend als voorzitter van FC Twente. Lange tijd werkte hij ook bij dagblad Tubantia, dat later opging in Wegener. Zijn carrière bij de krant begon Munsterman als schoonmaker. “Om wat geld te verdienen maakte ik de kantoren schoon.”
Interview: Sebastiaan Wijsman & Stefan Kapell Fotobron: FC Twente Media
“Ik wilde altijd graag bij een krant werken”, vertelt Munsterman. “Ik had het grote geluk dat ik werd voorgesteld aan de directeur van Tubantia. Hij vroeg me wat mijn ambities waren en ik antwoordde dat ik graag op zijn stoel wilde eindigen. Hij keek me toen raar aan en moet gedacht hebben ‘dat betekent het einde van de krant. Ik had toen zulk lang haar”, vertelt Munsterman terwijl hij met zijn hand naar zijn bovenarm wijst. Toch zag Munsterman zichzelf niet zijn hele leven actief in krantenland. “Ik ging ’s avonds naar Amsterdam om economie te studeren aan de universiteit. Overdag werkte ik bij de krant.” Dat hield Munsterman zo’n twee jaar vol. “Ondertussen ging het snel met mij bij Tubantia. Op mijn 24e werd ik leidinggevende. Toch wilde ik wel graag een doctoraal economie halen.” De combinatie van werken in Twente en studeren in Amsterdam bleek te vermoeiend. “Ik moest kiezen tussen werk en studie en ik vond het maken van een krant ontzettend interessant.”
Joop Munsterman Over het floreren van kranten en een voetbalclub
In die tijd kwam de krant vaak te laat. “Die krant moest natuurlijk op tijd gaan komen”, vertelt Munsterman. “Op de redactie had je te maken met moeizame verhoudingen op de grafische werkvloer.. In die tijd heb ik leiding leren geven in het laagste segment. Daar kun je niet meteen op je eerste dag grote veranderingen in de cultuur doorvoeren. Dan word je volledig afgebrand.” “Wanneer je leiding geeft aan een redactie of aan een commercie afdeling ben je ontzettend kwetsbaar. In die tijd kwam het voor dat er ineens een stuk kopij wegraakte dat geplaatst moest worden op de voorpagina. Daardoor kwam de krant te laat. Wij zochten dan op een academische manier via kopijstromen en processen naar de oorzaken, terwijl iemand zo’n stuk kopij gewoon in z’n zak had verstopt. Na directeur te zijn geweest bij De Oostelijke Weekbladpers, Dagblad Tubantia en de diverse Wegener huisaan-huis-kranten werd Munsterman in 2008 I CEO van Wegener, het bedrijf dat meerdere regionale kranten bezit waaronder het genoemde TC Tubantia. Twee jaar later nam hij ontslag. vanwege verregaande meningsverschillen
met zijn aandeelhouders in Engeland, “Dat voelt niet als een nederlaag. De Engelse kijk op het maken van kranten is een totaal andere dan de wijze waarop wij in Nederland tegen het maken van kranten aankijken. Tussen 2004 en 2010 combineerde Munsterman zijn werk bij Wegener met het voorzitterschap van FC Twente. “Ik werkte toen van zes uur ’s ochtends tot elf uur ’s avonds. Dat hield ik vol omdat ik deed wat ik leuk vond.” Bij zijn aantreden als voorzitter zat FC Twente in een financieel dal. “Toen ik bij de club kwam was FC Twente failliet. We maakten 3,5 miljoen verlies en stonden 13e. Het was ook een slapende organisatie. Men vond eigenlijk dat men het best goed deed, maar de resultante was een fors verlies. Tijd voor discussie was er niet, in zo’n periode is er sprake van een autoritaire organisatie. Voor diegenen die het niet eens zijn met visie, strategie en implementatie is er geen plaats. De gedachte is topdown.” Binnen een mum van tijd ging het een stuk beter met de club. “Met het plan ‘FC Twente in de steigers’, gebaseerd op meer omzet en minder kosten en daardoor winst waren we binnen de kortste keren gezond. Dat plan, waaraan we strak vast hielden, had een duidelijke visie, een heldere strategie en een goed implementatieplan Daarna kwamen we in de tweede fase, die vooral gericht was op consolidatie. Vasthouden aan die doelstelling op financieel gebied maar wel met de introductie van de kernwaarden: voetbal, ambiance en solidariteit. Dat plan heette ‘FC Twente, meer dan alleen een passend (t)huis’. Op het gebied van voetbal gaat het dan vooral om beter te presteren. Ambiance richtte zich op het stadion en solidariteit ging vooral over solidair zijn met de medemens, maar ook over teruggaan naar de oorsprong. Tegelijkertijd met die kernwaarden, installeerden we een nieuw managementteam. Toen dit plan succesvol werd afgesloten trad het derde plan in werking : FC Twente working on a dream, gebaseerd op een hecht fundament op diverse functionele gebieden, uiteindelijk leidend tot een kampioenschap. We werden al in het eerste jaar daarvan kampioen, zodat we vice versa ons
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plan moesten uitvoeren, d.w.z. een omgekeerde organisatiepiramide creëren via dienend leiderschap waarin de mens centraal staat. Ofwel: dat is de cultuur die je hebt gecreëerd binnen je bedrijf en vanuit die cultuur creëer je de organisatie r
February 2013 _ Page 11
Niemand keek ervan op dat ik langs het veld stond totdat we succes hadden
De genoemde drie tot vierjaren plannen werden allemaal binnen twee jaar gehaald. “Door de ontzettende drive die binnen onze organisatie aanwezig was werden alle processen versneld. Duidelijkheid van doelstellingen zijn daarbij ontzettend belangrijk.” Munsterman refereert dan aan het verhaal van voormalig president van de Verenigde Staten Kennedy. “Iedereen moest zich melden in het oval office en maakte zich op voor een lange nacht vergaderen. Binnen vijf minuten stond iedereen weer buiten met één opdracht: ‘Put a man on the moon before the Russians do’. Wanneer je dan op Cape Kennedy kwam en je vroeg aan de schoonmaakster wat ze aan het doen was antwoordde ze: ‘I’m putting a man on the moon’. Als je zoiets tot in de haarvaten van een organisatie duidelijk maakt, dan win je altijd en ben je niet tegen te houden.” Het stadion van FC Twente, de Grolsch Veste, speelt ook een belangrijke rol in het succes van de club. “Wij zijn volledig eigenaar van dit stadion”, vertelt Munsterman. “Daardoor kunnen we ons stadion volledig gebruiken
om extra inkomsten te genereren, maar ook om de maatschappelijke betrokkenheid te versterken“ FC Twente heeft bijvoorbeeld een terminale box, waarin iedere wedstrijd zieke mensen worden ontvangen.
Toen wij dit stadion bouwden zijn bij heel veel andere clubs geweest. Bij Manchester United hebben we ons alles laten uitleggen over de marketing instrumenten die zij gebruiken. Liverpool bezochten we om de ambiance in het stadion te voelen. Van het bezoek bij Arsenal leerden we vooral veel over stabiliteit. De president van de club vertelde ons dat hun budget minder dan de helft is dan dat van Manchester United maar dat ze altijd bij de eerste vier zouden eindigen door stabiliteit in de organisatie. We hebben daar ook naar het stadion gekeken en de afmetingen van de supportersruimten zijn vrijwel hetzelfde. In Duitsland bezochten we FC Schalke 04 om te leren hoe de catering in het stadion georganiseerd moet worden. Daarbij zijn we nu nog bezig om de sponsorpiramide opnieuw in te richten en meer internationale bedrijven aan te trekken, conform het model Bayern Munchen.” Een belangrijk aspect voor een voetbalclub is het spelen in de Champions league. “l. Het is het hoogste niveau waarop je als clubteam kan spelen en het is een enorme
geldgenerator.” “Toen wij van Ajax verloren, grepen we niet alleen naast de titel maar verloren we ook dertien miljoen voor de Twentse gemeenschap. De supporter uit het buitenland geeft gemiddeld achthonderd euro uit. Als er per wedstrijd duizend fans meereizen met hun club, dan kost dat de omgeving zo’n acht ton. Dan kun je wel zeggen dat voetbal alleen maar sport draait, maar als je het als een internationaal bedrijf ziet dan levert het de omgeving alleen maar extra geld en aandacht op.” Munsterman ziet dan ook absoluut geen problemen in het vragen van overheidsgeld om betaald- voetbalclubs te steunen. “Je moet het de gemeente in ieder geval niet verbieden. Als de gemeenschap graag een voetbalclub heeft moet zij dat toch zelf weten. Nu mag dat niet en ik weet nog steeds niet van wie het niet mag.”. Blijkbaar vond de gemeenschap in Eindhoven dat PSV belangrijk was voor de regio en daarom werd de club gesteund ” Als voorzitter van een grote club is Munsterman ook geregeld mikpunt van de media. Een onderdeel dat vaak werd belicht was zijn verschijning aan de rand van het veld. “Dat
deed ik al in 2004. Niemand die er ooit een probleem van maakte totdat we succes hadden en kampioen werden. Velen zeiden dat ik me van die kritiek niets moest aantrekken maar dat deed ik wel. Op een gegeven moment dan word je een karikatuur van jezelf. Dan gaat René van der Gijp je nadoen en daarom besloot ik om het veld niet meer op te gaan. Ik ben niet gevoelig voor kritiek, maar ik doe er wel iets mee.”
Als de gemeenschap graag een voetbalclub heeft moet je die kunnen steunen
In de toekomst kijken vind Munsterman lastig. “Over vijf jaar zal dit een bedrijf zijn met een omzet van zestig á zeventig miljoen. We staan al een aantal jaren structureel in de top van de ranglijst. Naar anderen clubs kijken doe ik niet graag. Ik kijk liever wat we zelf presteren.” De afsluitende tip van Munsterman ligt in de menselijke sfeer. “Behandel iedereen zoals je zelf behandelt wil worden. Als je iets afspreekt moet je dat nakomen. Net zoals op tijd komen bij vergaderingen en afspraken. Dat heeft te maken met respect. Als dat een kernwaarde voor jezelf is, dan ben je altijd op tijd.”
Small affairs
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Death of the paper world
Small affairs
February 2013 _ Page 13
Region tram in Groningen
Whether there is a future for printed media Author: Hannah Merz
I
n an age of high-speed Internet connections, smart mobile devices and fragmented audiences, the sustainability of printed media such as magazines, newspapers and books becomes increasingly challenging. Information is available at any time, at any place, providing an invincible convenience, impossible to be matched by the ‘old-style’ distribution of news. The sacrifice of such modern comfort would be unthinkable if not unbearable for many digital enthusiasts.
However, are printed media truly doomed to be extinguished in the near foreseeable future? Will they be relicts of the past or is this hype around prints solely an exaggeration of a rumour created by notorious hypocrites?
However, critics counter that back in the day, TV did not kill the radio back, and neither will the Internet kill off the printed media. Still, they do admit that the landscape of printed media is mutating beyond recognition.
“There will be no media consumption left in 10 years that is not delivered over an IP network. There will be no newspapers, no magazines that are delivered in paper form. Everything gets delivered in an electronic form.“ , claims Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. Almost all printed forms of media nowadays also publish an online version of their works. The advantages are apparent. Up-to-the minute news supply, an endless source of information to a much broader audience all over the globe. The option to filter out the news the reader is not interested in, provides the option to gain information much more focussed on, and tailored to the specific interests and needs of, the client.
In the near future, ‘printed media will become leaner when it comes to circulations, more specialised when it comes to audiences and having to embrace a hybrid future where it actively offers content on the web and interacts with online audiences’, says journalist Mindy McAdams. ‘An adaptation of print and news organisations to rapidly changing consumer patterns and a corresponding shift toward digital content, exacerbated by the recent financial crisis’.
Not only the audience benefits from the online versions of their information resources, also the publishers behold the upsides. The costs of publication has diminished to a fractional amount of those for printing and distribution. As no spacious office buildings and manufacturing sites are needed any more, would the prediction of extinction become true? The amounts of money saved would be staggering. Furthermore, the opportunities for sharing and interactive discussions on an online basis are infinite.
As long as the generations who grew up with the printed media are still alive, there will still be demand for the ‘old-fashioned’ way of news and information which will prevent the paper prints from extinction. What is evident is the fact that the Internet has long overtaken newspapers as a primary source of information. However, does the Internet substitute the printed media or does it simply complement it in a different way? The question remains unanswered: What is the future of the printed media? Well, we certainly are about to find out.
E
veryone who drives to Zernike now and then should have noticed it. Papers at windows with the text: ‘Tram?! No way!’ Since February 2009 a big discussion about the region tram in Groningen started. Many people like the idea of a tram in Groningen, while others are strongly against this idea. What does this vision of a tram in Groningen actually mean? Author: Lisa Beij
It is the intention to improve the accessibility of the region and city at a sustainable manner by an extensive rail network in combination with good connections for motorists, cyclists and bus passengers. Groningen wants to achieve this with the construction of two tram routes. The first route is from the central station to Zernike and the second route is from the central station to Kardinge. Halfway, there will be a transfer stop so commuters can go into every direction. Everyone knows nowadays that it is important to look into the future and react to certain difficulties. Groningen is increasingly confronted with heavy traffic. The roads become clogged and parking spaces full. There is no room for more busses. This means that further growth is impossible and the city is threatened to become inaccessible. Of course this is not the only reason why the tram could be positive. Trams are much cleaner, quiet, faster, more reliable and the capacity is greater. This means that more people can be transported, there will be less emissions of exhaust gases and less nuisance. Busses will disappear from the Grote Markt making the centre more liveable. Not yet discussed is the large amount of money that has
already been invested in the project. The College of Mayor and Aldermen calculated that the municipality and province of Groningen invested almost 40 million into the project. This money has gone inter alia to parking places which have been replaced and the construction of cables and pipes. Many people are still against the idea. They think the tram will make no sense because it will only cost a lot of money while this could be spent on more important things. Certainly the economic crisis does not promote it and according to them, people will have to walk further to get to a tram stop. Also problems like congestion on the ring have not been solved and they hate the idea that Groningen will be a construction pit for many years. Because of the reasons mentioned above and other reasons the idea of a tram in Groningen is unfortunately cancelled. Some political parties in Groningen refuse to give their permission and the municipality has therefore withdrawn. But aren’t these people just afraid for changes?
Verdieping In Depth
February 2013 _ Page 15
The news of the horrible fate of the 23-year old Indian woman went around the world in a flash in December of last year. Not only were people flustered by the abominable cruelty of the crime, however, it also unveiled the role and the rights of women in India. Thousands of citizens went to the streets following the terrible assault, protesting against the corruption of government and police forces as well as demanding equal treatment for women and a safer society. Protests took place in the country’s capital New Delhi as well as in many other major cities in India. The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women demanded the government “to do everything in their power to take up radical reforms, ensure justice and reach out with robust public services to make women’s lives more safe and secure”. The discussion that arose targeted the fact that less than 30% of rape accusations in India are followed up and have a chance of resulting in a conviction of the perpetrators. The victims got raped because they wore too much makeup, went out after dark or because they went to a party: those are only a few ‘justifications’ given by some opinionated people.
The call for a safe society How the gang rape case of a young Indian woman stirs up a whole country – and the world Author: Hannah Merz
“The incident has raised the issue of declining public confidence in the system of law and order in the city, especially in its capacity to ensure safety of women, as a number of such incidents have been reported in the national capital in the recent past,” says the National Human Rights Commission. An outcry of indignation and disbelief ran through the globe, calling the attention to the situation in the country. It changed the view of the world on the seemingly peaceful Asian country. The family of the young woman demanded the death sentence and improvements in the country’s laws so that their daughter had not died in vain. Thus, the question arises whether the death of the 23-year old can help open up a culture in which men and women still do not have an equal status.
‘One of the main problems in this society is that girls and boys are being kept apart from the very beginning. It is not possible for them to develop a natural and healthy relationship with the other sex. Naturally, this whole situation is prone to develop into major problems within society. The aggression arising from those restrictions can then result in cases such as this horrible assault’, says a student from New Delhi. Many Indian families still prefer sons over daughters, which has manifested itself in a worrying imbalance in the population. ‘The 2011 census of the world’s secondmost populous nation recorded an alarming drop in the percentage of girls among country’s pre-schoolers.’, reports the CNN. It is illegal in India to abort a child because of its sex, however such abortions still happen regardless of this law, often aided by illegal clinics. “The reasons for the high number of female feticide in India include a deeprooted traditional son preference, continued practice of dowry and concern for safety of the girl child and exploitation and abuse of women and girl children,” explains Krishna Tirath, minister of women and child development in India. However, it will clearly not be enough to call for further changes in law and legislation. The people within the country have to realise the need for change and thus change their perceptions. ‘A greater responsibility on the part of parents as well as society is demanded to not raise their sons in a way that indoctrinates them with a sense of superiority and privilege. ‘There is also a need on the part of young men to be actively involved in their schools and communities in advocating women’s equality rights’, so the CNN further. A change in the thinking and the traditions of the countries people is required to make the society more aware and ensure a safer society.
Page 16 _ February 2013
Small affairs
Keep on burning, do not get burnout. Author: Marriël Edzes
Small affairs
February 2013 _ Page 17
The cost of social media The privacy paradox Author: Pamela Bediako
Burnouts have been a topical issue for years within companies. The most recent numbers indicate that 900 thousand people in the Netherlands suffer from burnout, which is approximately 13% of our labour force. Yet, a high rate of managers suffer from burnout. The role of managing a company can be highly stressful, this is due to an isolated feeling managers often experience or regular negative responses they receive from the personnel. Since a significant amount of students is likely to end up as a manager, it might be helpful to take a closer look at the issue of burnout. Obviously, burnout is related to stress, but how does a burnout evolve itself exactly? Moreover, how can you prevent getting a burnout. Cause nobody likes to end up in some clinic - which costs you tens of thousands Euros - far, far away, right? Stress has 547 million hits in Google, search for burnout and you will have 276 million hits. Since severe stress is a herald for burnout, it is pure logic that it has double the amount of hits. But what happens inside your body when you are experiencing stress, and how do people develop a burnout? A stress-response is originally meant to protect yourself against threats, thus it gets your body into an alert state. If you experience a stressful situation, your hypothalamus – which takes care of your emotions, propagation, the nervous system and your hormone releases – sets off an alarm system in your body. This system prompts the adrenal glands to release hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. The adrenaline will increase the heart rate, heighten your blood pressure and boosts your energy supply. The cortisol - which is the primary stress hormone - will increase glucose levels in the bloodstream and thereby allow your brain to use the glucose. Lastly it will increase the availability of substances that will repair tissues. Normally, a stress-response will dissolve once the threat is gone, but when a person is under stress for a serious
amount of time, the body will remain in this high alert state. Because of this the body cannot recover itself and therefore shuts down, with a burnout as a consequence. The most common symptoms of burnout are feeling exhausted, experiencing a loss of motivation and feeling blunted emotionally. So it is clear how a burnout develops itself, but what can you do to prevent a burnout? Firstly, try to keep your energy level up by getting a good night’s sleep, exercising and eating well. Secondly, learn to set boundaries and say ‘no’, so cut back commitments that are too tiring. Thirdly, for tasks you dislike, even drop them or cut them into small bite sizes so you will only have to work on them for a short amount of time. Lastly, you can moderate your stress-level by meditating. Some people believe that this will relieve stress and help you regain emotional balance. However, if you do find yourself in the situation of experiencing a burnout, there are a number of options to treat it. Treatments usually focus on three areas: reducing physical complaints, learn the proficiency to reduce stress and examine dysfunctional thoughts that maintain the symptoms from occurring. The treatments that are primarily provided are treatments such as comprehensive behaviour therapy, solution-oriented therapy and biofeedback. This is often done by means of therapies such as coaching, hippo therapy (therapy with horses red.), foot-reflex therapy or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Last but not least, you can also get into a six weeks program in a way too an expensive clinic. But please, do not get yourself in this position. Let us keep it healthy in our career. You might be able to study extensively for a short period of time before your exams, but keeping up that kind of study method for a few months or years will most likely not be doable. So keep the stress level low and live a burnout clear life.
T
he popularity of social media has brought us a long way from better communicating with close friends and relatives to sharing our lives with virtual friends, some of whom are complete strangers. Thanks to social media, people can defy geographical boundaries and communicate, share pictures, even use smileys to show each other’s emotions and establish a wide network, all without even having to be in the same place let alone see each other. In short, social media does come with a lot of blessings. And the best of it all is that it is free, or is it?
The photo sharing app, instagram quite recently caused a little bit of an uproar when it came out with a revised privacy policy that suggested that it would sell the pictures of its users to third parties without any compensation to them, and that users could take it or leave. Since its launch in October 2010, instagram has managed to round up a large user base, but it has one problem, it is actually not making any profit, and like every other social media before it that started out as one that wants to put pleasing users above making money, it surely realized its need to make money. Its recent bid to achieve this goal backfired though as many users became displeased with the decision of instagram and started to revolt. Two days later, it tried to control the damage but it might have been a little too late since some had already left. Whether temporarily or permanently, only time will tell. This recent case causes one to wonder just how free social media services really are. Maybe instagram went about things the wrong way but can one really blame them for wanting to make some money, which actually is necessary for a business to survive. Its recent attempt might have failed, but we can be sure that it will go back to the drawing board and come up with a better more subtle strategy next time. So are the social media services we use and love so much really free? On facebook for example, you can pay online and send virtual gifts to friends maybe on their birthdays, most of this money goes to the company. For others though, a simple happy birthday is more than enough.
This does not necessarily mean that these users are using it entirely for free. Actually everyone using it is paying, only in a more subtle way, with our personal information, our location, our identities, our privacy. In google, you can easily find, copy or save pictures that originally were posted on facebook and were meant to be in your personal facebook profiles. You can also just copy a complete stranger’s picture with no prohibitions and no consequences. Personal information posted on any social media website is open for others to see. Even if you are displaying only what you want people to see, hackers might beg to differ. What privacy really means in the social media dictionary must be entirely different from what it generally means in the real sense of the word. It is therefore very crucial to be careful what you post about yourself on any social media, you never know when something you already forgot about is going to come back to haunt you or cost you a much wanted job or promotion.
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February 2013 _ Page 19
J
an-Peter Cruiming is een van de meest succesvolle ondernemers van Noord-Nederland. Na het succes van de Nationale Vacaturebank, heeft Cruiming zich recentelijk opnieuw in de banenmarkt gestort. Ditmaal met de website Jobbird.com, een bedrijf zonder winst oogmerk, met als doel zo veel mogelijk mensen zo snel mogelijk aan een baan te helpen. We spreken af in Groningen, de stad waar Cruiming werkt en de stad waar hij gestudeerd heeft.
Auteur: Luuk Elkhuizen Interview: Sebastiaan Wijsman & Luuk Elkhuizen Fotografie: Jobbird.com
De studententijd van Cruiming begon met de studie Management Economie en Recht aan de Hanzehogeschool. Deze studie bood hem echter niet de uitdaging waarop hij had gehoopt. “Het was heel erg schools en makkelijk. De docenten waren slecht, het was niet uitdagend en niet zinvol. De opleiding duurde vier jaar, maar het had volgens mij makkelijk in één jaar gekund” Na een jaar lang eigenlijk min of meer zijn tijd verspild te hebben, begon Cruiming met de studie rechten aan de RUG. Hoewel deze opleiding hem wel de uitdaging bood waar hij naar op zoek was, is het vooral de ontwikkeling die bij het hele studentenleven hoort, die hem veel wijsheid heeft gebracht. “Studeren is niet alleen kennis vergaren maar ook een stuk ontwikkeling. Het is niet zozeer belangrijk wat je studeert, als je maar studeert. Qua kennis had ik meer uit mijn studie kunnen halen, maar het sociale leven was erg boeiend. Ik heb een geweldige tijd gehad. Ik woonde in een studentenhuis met 15 mensen en ik had veel vrienden in de stad.” Ondanks de vele sociale activiteiten naast zijn studie, is Cruiming niet in het studentenleven blijven hangen. Sterker nog, hij heeft zijn studie na 2 jaar stopgezet om te gaan werken.
Interview Cruiming
Het is zijn innerlijke drive en zijn pragmatische houding die er bij Cruiming voor zorgen dat hij Hunter Select weer verlaat en na een paar jaar een nieuw bedrijf opricht: de Nationale Vacaturebank. “Hunter Select was een succesvol bedrijf en wat betreft het inkomen dat het genereerde had ik het makkelijk tot mijn 65e vol kunnen houden, maar ik wilde iets zinvollers met mijn tijd doen. Hunter Select hielp maar een paar mensen per maand aan een baan. Uiteindelijk hielpen we met de Nationale Vacaturebank duizenden mensen per maand aan een baan.” De Nationale Vacaturebank is uiteindelijk een enorm succes worden. In 2004 besluit Cruiming het bedrijf te verkopen, niet met de intentie om terug te keren in de markt. Echter, vrijwel direct na de verkoop gaat het meteen een stuk slechter met bedrijf. Het bedrijf verslijt meerdere directeuren in een kort tijdsbestek en het aantal vacatures op de website blijft dalen. In 2011 besluit Cruiming opnieuw de markt op te gaan om het concept van online werving en selectie weer nieuw leven in te blazen. Cruiming richt het bedrijf Jobbird.com op, en binnen de kortste keren is het bedrijf de grootste op de markt. In de toekomst heeft het bedrijf zelfs de ambitie om ook internationaal te gaan opereren.
“Ik kom uit een ondernemersgezin, dus dat pragmatische zat toch echt in mijn genen. Enerzijds vond ik het academische erg leuk, anderzijds wilde ik echt wat ‘doen’. Uiteindelijk heb ik er voor gekozen om te gaan werken.”
Hoe het toch kan dat Cruiming steeds zo succesvol is? “Je moet een passie ergens voor hebben, enorm veel doorzettingsvermogen, en ook een bepaalde feeling voor de markt. Ik heb een passie voor ‘de match’ tussen mensen en bedrijven.”
Cruiming begon zijn carrière als beheerder bij een Golden-Tulip hotel. “Hoewel het geen eigen onderneming was, had ik wel veel eigen verantwoordelijkheid”, aldus Cruiming. Mede door de ervaring die deze verantwoordelijkheid met zich mee bracht, richtte Cruiming in 1998 uiteindelijk zijn eerste eigen bedrijf op: Hunter Select, een werving en selectie bureau gericht op hogeropgeleiden in Noord-Nederland.
Het is volgens Cruiming dus niet zo dat hij het gat in de markt had gevonden. Sterker nog; dat gat in de markt bestaat niet eens. “Waar het om gaat is dat je concept een toegevoegde waarde heeft. Toen ik in 2000 begon met de Nationale Vacaturebank, waren er al 400 vacaturesites in Nederland. Maar ik vond het concept niet goed. De uitgevers verkochten simpelweg advertenties via internet, gewoon millimeters adverteerruimte eigenlijk.
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Voor mij was de match cruciaal. In feite heb ik het hele werving en selectie proces digitaal gemaakt. Iedereen konden gemakkelijk zijn CV of vacature plaatsen, en ‘s nachts had je een match-mail die dat aan elkaar koppelde. Uiteindelijk waren we binnen een jaar nummer één.” Het concept van toegevoegde waarde creëren hoeft echter volgens Cruiming niet eens zo ingewikkeld te zijn. Cruiming illustreert wat hij bedoelt aan de hand van een interessant voorbeeld: “Afgelopen weekend ben ik op Vlieland uit eten geweest. In de hoofdstraat zitten een stuk of 10 restaurants vlak bij elkaar. Negen van de tien restaurants waren helemaal leeg, en een zat helemaal vol. Als ondernemer vraag je je dan of hoe dat kan. Qua plaats en menu doen de bedrijven niet veel voor elkaar onder, maar toch weet een bedrijf alle klanten te trekken. Je kunt dus blijkbaar echt het verschil maken als je gewoon goed met je vak bezig bent. Zorg dat alles klopt en dat je beter bent dan de rest, en de klanten zullen dat waarderen. Dat geldt denk ik voor elke onderneming.” Een groot deel van de zo belangrijke passie die Cruiming heeft voor zijn ondernemingen komt voort uit een grote maatschappelijke betrokkenheid. “Ik vind het de kick, en ook eigenlijk de verplichting als je zoveel bezoekers hebt op je site, om het matchen dan ook zo optimaal mogelijk te doen”, aldus Cruiming. Het is niet het geld wat hem motiveert, maar het idee dat hij kan bijdragen aan het verbeteren van de wereld. “Ik heb veel geld verdiend met de Nationale Vacaturebank, maar zonder dat geld had ik het ook gedaan. Dat zie je vaker bij vernieuwende ondernemers, dat het ze niet om het geld te doen is. Vaak zijn het mensen die innovatief zijn, die de wereld willen verbeteren, die succes bereiken. Een sterkere drive kun je niet hebben.” De ideologische kijk op de wereld die hem met ondernemen veel succes heeft gebracht, komt bij Cruiming ook tot uiting in zijn politieke betrokkenheid. Sinds een paar jaar is Cruiming lijstduwer voor de Partij voor de Dieren. Maar hoe kom je als ondernemer bij de Partij voor de Dieren terecht? Voor Cruiming ging dat op een natuurlijke en logische manier. “Ik eet sinds mijn twaalfde geen vlees. Sindsdien ben ik me er ook eigenlijk al bewust van hoe schadelijk dat is voor het milieu, de gezondheid en het dierenwelzijn. Mijn bijdrage destijds was dat ik altijd in mijn geboorteplaats Zuidhorn collecteerde voor de dierenbescherming, maar dat leverde weinig op. Op een
February 2013 _ Page 21
gegeven moment las ik in een interview met Marianne Thieme, dat zij een nieuwe partij had gestart. Ik herkende mij heel erg in haar idealen en haar passie, en ik had meteen het gevoel dat het een succes ging worden. Toen heb ik haar gebeld, en gevraagd op welke manier ik kon bijdragen.” Op dit moment is Cruiming vooral achter de schermen betrokken bij de partij, maar een verhuizing naar Den Haag sluit hij in de toekomst niet uit. Hoewel zijn ongeduldigheid hem wellicht in de weg zal staan in Den Haag, is de mogelijkheid om iets te veranderen in het land een dusdanig aantrekkelijk perspectief dat hij er waarschijnlijk wel voor gaat als hij ooit genoeg stemmen zou krijgen. “Misschien is het wel goed dat Den Haag een keer opgeschud wordt, dat zij zich eens aan mij moeten aanpassen in plaats van andersom.” Die trip naar Den Haag is misschien dichterbij dan zijn plek op de kieslijst doet vermoeden. “Ik stond bij de afgelopen verkiezingen op plek 25 op de kieslijst, maar door middel van voorkeursstemmen ben ik uiteindelijk op plek 5 geëindigd. Die voorkeursstemmen kwamen niet alleen uit het noorden, maar waren verspreid over het hele land. Het profiel dat ik heb als ondernemer aan de ene kant, en het milieubewuste aan de andere kant, spreekt mensen blijkbaar toch aan.” Cruiming spreekt met passie over zijn betrokkenheid bij de Partij voor de Dieren, dat anders dan de naam doet vermoeden, verre van een one-issuepartij is. Zo is de partij ook erg bezig met het creëren van werkgelegenheid, een onderwerp waar Cruiming zelf natuurlijk alles vanaf weet. “We zijn voor lagere loonbelasting, waardoor je meer mensen aan het werk kunt hebben. Die lagere loonbelasting financieren we met meer belasting op winst en vervuiling. Werk is heel essentieel, werkloosheid heeft enorme impact op het leven van iemand. Als je 40 plusser bent en werkloos raakt, kan het echt een uitzichtloze situatie worden. Daarom is het creëren van werkgelegenheid ook zo belangrijk, en daarom vind ik het werk wat ik doe ook zo belangrijk.” Hoewel Cruiming het creëren van werkgelegenheid erg belangrijk vindt, is hij geen voorstander van het ontslagrecht. “Er moet een goed vangnet zijn voor mensen die geen werk hebben, maar een baan is geen eigendom. Andersom gebeurt het namelijk ook niet zo. Als werknemers ergens anders meer kunnen verdienen zijn ze zo weg, maar andersom mag het niet. Dat is ongelijkheid. Ik ben vooral voor transparantie en openheid. Je salaris moet
gewoon het resultaat zijn van vraag en aanbod. Ik denk dat je dan een veel betere arbeidsmarkt krijgt.” Ook voor studenten voor wie het zoeken naar een baan nu soms nog een ver van hun bed show lijkt, is het vinden van een baan straks enorm belangrijk. Maar hoe kun je ervoor zorgen dat jij straks wel een baan vindt? Het idee van toegevoegde waarde creëren, dat zo belangrijk is in het opzetten van een eigen bedrijf, gaat volgens Cruiming ook op voor werkzoekenden op de arbeidsmarkt. “Zorg dat je je onderscheidt van anderen, bijvoorbeeld door dingen naast je studie te doen.
Tot slot heeft Cruiming nog een goede tip voor studenten als ze later een plekje op de arbeidsmarkt moeten veroveren. “Zet je cv op een of meerdere vacature sites; zoals bijvoorbeeld Jobbird. Het is een kleine moeite om je CV te plaatsen, het is gratis, en we zijn de grootste vacaturebank van Nederland. Binnen 14 maanden hebben we al 10.000 Nederlandse bedrijven aan ons weten te binden. Dit is de plek waar mensen naar banen zoeken, maar ook de plek waar werkgevers banen aanbieden.”
Verdieping In Depth
February 2013 _ Page 23
Free news and high quality journalism? How newspapers try to reclaim balance, paywalls seem to be the new deal. Author: Marriël Edzes
I
t is common property that the amount of prints of newspapers is decreasing, it is a perennial phenomenon for years. Obviously, the number of readers online increases. Most news online can be accessed for free. However, the revenues of advertisements online are a fraction of the printed ones, thus what happens with the quality of journalism? Moreover, what can newspapers do to transform their profit model to secure high quality journalism?
National situation The original business model of newspapers was based on revenues from advertisements and subscribers. But since subscribers of the newspaper resign, and websites are more often attended because they can be accessed for free, a new business model is necessary. Especially because advertisement revenues on websites are significantly lower than printed advertisements in the newspapers. In relation to the third period of 2011, the amount of prints of the largest national newspapers in the third period of 2012 decreased. Varying from 0,2 % for the AD and up to 5% for the Telegraaf. However, NRC Handelsblad and the Financieele Dagblad managed to maintain the equivalent number of subscribers. Though, the amount of paper newspapers prints decreased, yet the number of digital subscriptions increased. With this digital subscription it is
possible to read the newspaper on your phone, e-Reader, tablet or laptop. But since news can be accessed so easily via the website of newspapers or by a simple search on Google, it might become a difficult job to convince people to pay for news. How the New York Times manages it The New York Times implemented a paywall in March 2011. The Times ‘ online enables readers to read ten articles a month for free. After that readers will have to subscribe themselves if they want to be able to continue reading. A number of journalists claim that the quality of articles will decrease because of the large amount of free articles. Publishers state it is not affordable to give away articles for free. However, bloggers argue that paywalls turn off a large number of readers who are accustomed to a free web.
Originally, a 80-20 ratio of advertising and subscription earnings was considered to be a healthy mix. But, since the advertising market decreased tremendously since 2008, that ratio was no longer viable. By introducing a paywall, the Times managed to create a whole different profit model. Instead of relying on the advertisements’ revenue, they managed to increase their revenue from subscribers which is an even higher amount than advertising. Moreover, the amount of advertising earnings are falling slower than the subscription sales are rising. A month after introducing the paywall, the Times already had over a 100 thousand subscribers. Furthermore, during the first 12 months that the paywall was introduced, advertising earnings decreased with 3.7 percent. This while circulation revenues increased with 7.1 percent compared with the previous period. So sales losses on adds already were surpassed by $19.2 million in the first year that readers were charged online. In the third quarter 2012 the ratio for advertising and subscriptions was 39-55, the remaining 6% is ascribed to ‘other incomes’. The paywall system from the New York Times seems a reasonable good system. However, some argue that newspapers could generate more revenue from an openly accessible website. Because a higher amount of readers means more sharing, thus more traffic on the website. Nevertheless, online advertising will generate a considerably lower profit, since the advertising prices are lower than those of print advertising. Moreover, a website loaded with advertisements is not exactly suitable for the Times, since it has a protective reputation. And others in the US Approximately one-fifth of the newspapers in the United States have implemented a paywall-system on their websites so far. Among them are the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. Remarkable is the strategy of the Washington Post, which resists to introduce a paywall on their website. The Washington Post differs strongly from other newspapers because of their distribution area. The Post only has a small circulation area around Washington D.C., however, most of the readers of the Post’s website are from outside the Washington D.C. area. Thus, the Washington Post argues that there is no advantage to imposing limitations on the website since distribution of the newspaper towards those readers is not possible. Therefore, the post invests in the development of web rea-
dership through the use of social channels. An example of these investments is the Washington Post’s Facebook social-reader app, this app is designed to increase the traffic from Facebook to the post’s website. Paywalls in the Netherlands So what about the Netherlands? The first newspaper who implemented a paywall system in the Netherlands is the Nederlands Dagblad. They implemented this system in July 2011, only a few months after the New York Times introduced the system. The amounts that have to be paid for the articles varies between 10 up to 95 cents, depending on the length of the article. The Nederlands Dagblad took quite a prominent position in this matter, since only recently other Dutch newspapers announced the infliction of a paywall. At the start of January a number of northern newspapers announced they will shortly introduce a paywall on their websites. Boom Regionale Uitgevers and NDC Mediagroep (Leewarder Courant and Dagblad van het Noorden) stated that only the larger articles will be fenced, the small articles will remain to be accessible freely. Furthermore, NRC Handelsblad also announced they will introduce a paywall system as of March 2012. According to the editor-in-chief Peter Vandermeersch, the launch of paywalls on news websites worldwide will be one of the biggest affairs in the news branch. Vandermeersch argues that within approximately 10-15 years the weekly newspapers will all be digital. Nevertheless, a paper magazine in weekends will probably take form. NRC wants to fix its position by focussing high-quality journalism, primarily by research-oriented journalism, it is an expensive strategy though meaningful. Future It is obvious that times are changing. The ‘free online web’ will no longer be infinitely available. The facts show that the current situation is not endurable for newspapers for much longer. Changes have to be made to secure the future of highly-qualitative journalism. Because only financially healthy newspapers will be able to invest in highly remarkable or disturbing phenomena’s, obviously, that is the kind of journalism that we must treasure.
Cover story
February 2013 _ Page 25
The Netherlands: Cartel Country? I n the beginning of December 2012 Philips and six other international electronics companies have been fined by the European Commission for forbidden price agreements about television- and computer components. In total, the penalty amounted over 1,47 billion Euros!
Authors: Lisa Beij & Luuk Elkhuizen
The European Commission has never imposed such a large penalty for cartels. This fine was imposed to seven companies, namely: Samsung, Technicolor, Panasonic, Toshiba, MTPD, LG Electronics and of course Philips. Of this seven companies, Philips is the company which had to pay the highest amount of money. Because Philips is one of the Netherlands’ most well-known companies, the country was kind of shocked. Are cartel-agreements a common thing in the Netherlands? We believe that during the last decennia’s, Dutch companies became increasingly involved in fraud cases concerning cartels. Cases like the construction fraud, the cartel between mobile providers and now the cartel between the electronics companies comes up to us. Is the Netherlands truly a cartel land? We think it is interesting to carve this out. Let’s do some research. Some background information Being one of the most advanced economies in the world, few people would have thought that the Netherlands is in the top 3 of most international cartel agreements in Europe. With 49 violations from 1990 to 2005, the Netherlands is in third position when it comes to nationwide cartel-agreements, right after Germany and Switzerland. As such, the Netherlands is accountable for 11% of all international cartel agreements in the world. With regard to fines
imposed, the Netherlands has the irreverent honor of having imposed the biggest cartel fine ever for a single case (Philips). The above mentioned statistics deal with nation-wide forms of cartel agreements. But what about domestic cartel agreements? If we only look at recent years (2000-2010), we are already dealing with more than 100 cases of domestic cartel-agreements. That is; cases where the Dutch Office of Fair Trading (Mededingingsautorieteit) imposed a fine. Given the microeconomic-literature consensus that the detection rate of cartel-agreements hovers around 10%, the ‘true’ number of cartel agreements must be much higher. An explanation Dr. Marco Haan, specialist and teacher in Microeconomics at the University of Groningen, has an explanation for the relatively high performance of the Netherlands when it comes to cartel-agreements. Before 1990, the Netherlands did not do anything to detect and prevent cartel-agreements. On the contrary; the Netherlands was one of the few countries in the world that allowed cartel-agreements. As a result, the Netherlands was a ‘cartel-paradise’ for companies. The idea behind this policy was that the allowance of cartel-agreements, together with a favorable tax-system for multinationals, positively influenced the overall attractiveness of the Netherlands for investments.
Cover story
As a result of the lack of governance, cartel-agreements were a vivid phenomenon in the Netherlands for years, especially before 1990. In 1990, the Dutch government decided to prohibit cartel-agreements, as the welfare costs on society were considered to be too high. However, also after 1990 we have had quite some cartel-scandals, which is probably due to the sudden nature of the prohibition. It seems logical that companies that were involved in cartel-agreements were not able to stop their agreement ‘cold-turkey’, especially not if one considers the additional profits that are associated with such agreements. Even though the Dutch Office of Fair Trading now is really active in detecting and preventing cartel agreements (as is reflected in the increasingly high fines), the fact remains that we have seen quite some scandals in the past. It is definitely worthwhile to take a closer look on some of the more spectacular ones. The details of those cartel-agreements that have come to daylight are often unbelievable to read. The unscrupulous behavior of firms and individuals involved in cartel-agreements often is astonishing to witness; nothing like what you would expect in a developed country such as the Netherlands.… Electronics companies As was already briefly touched upon, Philips was recently involved in one of the biggest cartel scandals of all time. For almost ten years, from 1996 to 2006, Philips arranged together with the six other companies price agreements about components of picture tubes for televisions and computers. They also divided the markets and customers along each other and limited their production so they could charge a larger amount of money. The European Commission sees price agreements like one of the most harmful factors for competition and charge high fines for such cases. Of the seven companies that were punished, Philips and LG Electronics had to pay the most. Philips did get two fines. One of 313 million Euros referring to misbehaviour of Philips self. The other one amounted 392 million Euros, distributed to LG Philips Displays, a joint-venture between Philips and LG Electronics. Philips had to pay half of this fine and LG Electronics the other half. LG Electronics also get a fine referring to their own misbehaviour of 296 million Euros. According to the EC the companies did have some top meetings multiple times a year and also weekly consultations. The part over which agreements were made amounted 50 to 70 percent of the total price of a picture tube. Hereby we can state the illegal behavior was great. Because of this consumers and producers paid an unfair price for televisions and computers.
February 2013 _ Page 27
Mobile providers and the croquettesandwiches In 2001 five Dutch mobile providers also thought it would be clever to start a cartel. This concerned the companies KPN, Vodafone, Dutchtone (nowadays named Orange), O2 (nowadays named Telfort) and Ben (nowadays named T-Mobile). They exchanged information to each other about dealer compensations and made agreements about lowering this fees. According to the NMa this could be seen as a restrictive measure. After a long appeal three Dutch providers got fined, against the other two was ‘no evidence found’, even though
the Office of Fair Trading argued that there was evidence that all 5 parties were involved. Surprisingly enough, the critical issue on which the Office of Fair Trading and the attorneys of the mobile providers debated was the order of croquette-sandwiches in a Dutch restaurant. The Office of Fair Trading found evidence that directors of the above-mentioned companies met in a restaurant and ate croquette-sandwiches together. More specifically, a receipt was found which stated that 5 croquette-sandwiches were ordered, indicating that 5 people were present during
the meeting. However, since not enough additional evidence was found against Orange and Telfort, eventually only KPN, T-mobile and Vodafone got fined. Perhaps one of the present directors was hungry and ordered two sandwiches? KPN got the highest fine of 7,9 million Euros, T-mobile 4,6 million Euros and Vodafone 3,7 million Euros. At the start of last year KPN, Vodafone and T-Mobile coincidently increased their tariffs for mobile internet almost at the same time. Should we be concerned that they ate croquettesandwiches together again? Construction fraud At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Netherlands was being startled with one of the biggest frauds in Dutch history. From 1990 until 2000, construction firms in the Netherlands had made secret agreements on the division of public building projects between them. As a result, the firms involved were able to keep the price of construction work high, and prevent uninvolved firms from competition. More than 300(!) construction firms were involved and civil servants were bribed to prevent critical information from being brought to daylight. Since so many firms were involved for such a long period of time, one could say that cartel agreements were a core characteristic of the constructionindustry as a whole. It took more than ten years before the Dutch Office of Fair Trading (Mededingingsautorieteit) took notice of the matter. In 2002, a parliamentary investigation was set up to investigate the matter and eventually the sector came to an agreement with the government. In total, more than 70 million in fines were paid by all firms involved. This amount probably reflects only a fraction of the total costs to society. However, since it is nearly impossible for the Office of Fair Trading to file a case against all 344 firms involved, we probably should be graceful that at least we have gotten something back. What can we conclude? All in all, one could say that before 1990, the Netherlands really was a cartel-paradise. Without rules against cartelagreements, the logical result was that a lot of agreements were made between companies. Perhaps the Netherlands even gained something from their tolerance, as it does not seem unlikely that cartel-allowance contributed to the attractiveness of the Netherlands for internationals. However, the exact calculations of gains and losses of cartel-agreements are nearly impossible to make, so we are left to speculations. The ‘cold-turkey’ manner in which agreements had to be stopped certainly were unrealistic. As a result, cartel-agreements continued also after the prohibition in 1990, and have lead to several juicy stories for us to read today. Whether the Office of Fair Trading is getting a grip on the situation remains to be seen, but certainly they are fining more heavily.
In Depth
February 2013 _ Page 29
How match-fixing ruins sports throughout the world Author: Luuk Elkhuizen
Match-fixing From baseball to sumo wrestling and soccer; deliberately losing or influencing matches for the sake of earning money has been an apparent phenomenon all throughout history. We have seen all sorts of scandals in the past, but still match-fixing seems to be taking place today – probably even more than ever before.
The White Sox intentionally lost against the Cincinnati Reds and hence threw away their chances of winning the title. The eight players were banned for life by the league and the story dominated all newspapers throughout the country for weeks. As a result the White Sox are now still carrying the irreverent Chicago Black Sox as their nickname.
The Chicago White Sox In 1919, the Chicago White Sox were one of the best teams in America’s highest baseball league, comparable to the major league as it is called today. The team was home to some of the most well known stars of the game at the time and even had a chance to win the championship that year, when the team got involved in one of the first and probably the biggest sport scandals of all time. During the world series (the playoffs at the end of the season that determine the champion), eight of the white sox’ players were bribed by New York gangsters.
Sumo Wrestling The White Sox’ scandal by no means can be seen as a standalone or a onetime thing. Virtually all sports have had their scandals, even a sport like sumo wrestling. Being a sport where culture and ethics play a larger role than in nearly every other sport, few people would have thought that losing on purpose and bribing would take place on a structural basis in sumo wrestling. However, economist Steven Levitt found evidence that this is indeed the case. In Sumo, there is a very large difference in earnings for wrestlers in the elite league
(from 70,000 dollars up until a couple of million dollars) and wrestlers in lower leagues (lower than 15,000 dollars). Once every two months, the wrestlers compete in tournaments where each wrestler plays 15 matches and wrestlers can get promoted or relegated. Wrestlers that win at least eight matches remain in- or promote to the highest league. Wrestlers that win less than eight games, get relegated or stay in the lower league. Levitt investigated thousands of matches over a very long period of time and found that when wrestlers that already were in the first league and were 7-7 in their first 14 matches, they almost always won their last match if they played against wrestlers that already won eight games. How could this be? One would expect exactly the opposite, since the wrestler that already won eight games should generally be the favorite. This statistical fact alone was strong evidence that losing on purpose takes place in Sumo, on a structural basis. In more recent years, the statistical significance finally got backed by actual scandals. Several wrestlers eventually admitted they were involved in match-fixing. For many fans of the game the number one sport of their country has lost face forever. Match-fixing in European football The striking fact about the Sumo scandal in Japan, is that match-fixing seemed to be incorporated in the very nature of the sport. As a result, fans have probably watched thousands of matches that actually were not real matches. How should we look at match-fixing in Europe then? Could it be that match-fixing is becoming just as incorporated in our sports as it was in Japan? Well, if we look solely at the increasing trend of the number of match-fixing problems in Europe the last couple of years, one would probably be inclined to answer the question with a quick ‘yes’. For example, if we look only at proven cases of match-fixing in European football during the last decade, we are already dealing with hundreds of fixed matches all throughout Europe. These fixed matches include matches in the highest leagues of Germany, Turkey and Italy.
However, one should bear in mind that it is very hard to prove match-fixing. Online gambling allows gamblers and criminals alike to bet on specific events in a football match. For example, one can bet on a particular player getting a yellow card, or on which team earns the first free kick. These kinds of bets can easily be manipulated, since criminals only need to bribe one player or referee. Moreover, bribing players or referees is not even always needed. If one team ‘sells’ a match to criminals (or to another team for that matter) and all players earn a significant amount of money by deliberately losing, who is going to alarm the authorities? In the Serbian first league, football club Borac Cacak ‘sold’ their own matches to finally earn some money after months of delayed salary payments. Even if there is evidence of match-fixing, there is still a long way to go before this is actually proven. A very suspicious outcome of a particular football match alone is by no means enough for Fifa to start an investigation (remember the 1-7 result between Zagreb and Lyon in the 2011-2012 Champions League) and it is not in Fifa’s interest to create the view among football fans that match-fixing occurs. Moreover, Fifa itself is often considered to be corrupt. Last year, news came out that Fifa’s ex-chairman Havenlange had taken bribes at the time he was still chairman. All in all, one could conclude that the rapidly increasing number of proven fixed matches is just a fraction of the true number of fixed matches. The way forward Of course local authorities can do something against match-fixing without the involvement of the Fifa (like the Italian police did against Juventus and AC. Milan in 2006). But it is usually not the main priority of these authorities to do so, especially not if there is no clear-cut evidence. Since 2011, a European commission has been established to detect and prevent match-fixing. Although it is a clear step in the right direction, it is highly doubtable whether the commission has enough time and man-power to perform their task successfully. For the time being, be warned whenever you watch a sports match; it might not be what it looks like!
In Depth
February 2013 _ Page 31
O
ne decade ago, when you mentioned Finland, you meant the hometown of Nokia. Nowadays, Finland is more often mentioned as the hometown of certain birds. Yes! Angry Birds. By the second quarter of 2012, Angry Birds video games were downloaded more than one billion times. The birds are not only trying to take over your mobile phones, your pads and computers, but also your daily life. Believe it or not, it is a phenomenon now.
Home of the Angry Birds Author: Jing Chen
About three years ago, Rovio Entertainment introduced Angry Birds as a video game for Apple’s iOS. At that time, there were already more than 20000 games available by the App Store, although it was only one year after the App Store was launched. When many people were still trying to find their favorite games, Angry Birds had already become a hit in 2010. Compared to many other video games, Angry Birds is considered to be more addictive, lower priced, easier to start with and maybe also a bit mindless. Despite of the severe competition among all the video games,
Angry Birds was awarded ‘the largest mobile app success the world has seen so far’. Moreover, some people think that Angry Birds may become more successful than the classic cartoon or video game characters, such as Mickey Mouse, Pokémon and Super Mario. If the parents do not think that video games is a good idea for their young children, they can still try the Angry Birds theme park or buy the Angry Birds board game which can be played simply on table.
However, Rovio Entertainment thinks beyond the original idea of video games. Take Mickey Mouse for example. In 1928, Mickey Mouse was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks as a cartoon character. In the first several decades after he was introduced, he mainly appeared on the screen and in the cartoon books. Sometimes he also appeared on wrist watches and alarm clocks, which are nowadays still popular among children. Later, Disney Parks were built in different countries with Mickey Mouse as the official mascot. What’s more, the image of Mickey Mouse can be seen everywhere, from pens to sheets and from candies to bags. Now most of the revenue of the Walt Disney Company is not made from the Mickey Mouse films and books. Rovio Entertainment also tries to expand the world of Angry Birds to other commercial fields. Since Angry Birds has already been in existence for more than three years, it is possible that some other new games will take over it in the near future, just like Gangnam Style became the most liked song of all time on Youtube, leaving Justin Bieber behind. Rovio Entertainment knows that they should not only make profits from the Angry Birds video games, but also expand the games and sell the copyright of Angry Birds’ image. Hence, a new catchy game Bad Piggies was launched in September 2012, which reached the top of the App Store list only three hours after it was released. If you visit Finland, you can buy for yourself an Angry Birds soda when you are thirsty or Angry birds chewing gum after your lunch. You can even find Angry Birds and Bad Piggies shampoo, headphone, towels and rugs. In 2011, Rovio Entertainment made about € 74,5 million in revenues with about thirty percent of this coming from different merchandise sales. It is expected that Rovio will double its revenue or even more in 2012. The licensed products of Angry Birds have brought big profit for the company. It is known that Coca Cola and Pepsi are two of the most consumed soft drinks over the world, but not anymore in Finland. Now the Angry Birds soda is the bestselling drink in Finland and it will soon be available in Australia and New Zealand. However, Rovio is aiming to gain even more revenues from the merchandise sales, say, more than fifty percent of all the revenues. This is reasonable, because customers can get their free Angry Birds game on Google Play and even hacked versions on their iPhones. Moreover, Android has the market share which is
four times big as that of Apple’s iOS and the gap is getting even bigger. If Rovio concentrates only on the sale of the video game, they may lose revenue quickly. Meanwhile, unlicensed products are stealing the profits of Rovio. Unlike many other industries, such as the music industry and publishers, Rovio is not going to fight back too much. According to Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio, Piracy may not be a bad thing. The music industry has tried to combat piracy for long, but it turned out not to be a good idea. It makes them even lose more profits to sue the piracy than just letting it be. Peter Vesterbacka, CMO of Rovio Entertainment even thinks that the increasing piracy shows that Angry Birds is getting more and more popular. He said it is not quite possible for Rovio to win the battle if they want to sue all the piracy. Rovio will only pursue pirate products which are seen to hurt the Angry Birds brand through quality or pricing. Rovio Entertainment is aiming to attract more fans instead of users in future. One decade ago, game developers tried to release certain popular games and replace it with a new one after some time to keep their customers interested. They treated their customers as users of their games, but not like fans of the games. Before Angry Birds was resealed, Rovio already launched 51 games, but none of them became a phenomenon like Angry Birds. Rovio does not want people to consider them as a game developer, but as a group of entertainment and lifestyle. Hence, Rovio is not going to focus on introducing more and more new games. Up to nowadays, Mickey Mouse has already helped Walt Disney Company to make profits for more than 80 years. If Rovio also wants their Angry Birds to be popular in the upcoming decades, they have to be more creative than Walt Disney, because the world is changing faster and faster.
Hollands Glorie
Hollands Glorie Port of Rotterdam
February 2013 _ Page 33
History The development of the Harbor dates back to the 14th century. Rotterdam gradually developed from a small town into one of the world’s largest harbors of the world. It started with docks built on the banks of the river, the Nieuwe Maas. In the 19th century, bigger ships started to get difficulties reaching Rotterdam because the connection between the city and the North Sea was fairly poor. Port activities slowly started moving towards the North Sea in the first half of the 20th century to get better access to the sea. To improve the connection with the North Sea, a large canal was designed, the Nieuwe Waterweg, which would connect the rivers the Meuse and Rhine with the sea. The banks of this ‘new waterway’ started to attract industrial activity. In the years following, new docks and harborbasins were built. Business moved seaward over time. The port grew further by the construction of the Europoort, which was later extended into the sea. In recent years more terminals and land for industrial activity was designed as the port continued to develop. Ultimately it served as the world’s largest port for more than 40 years, before it was taken over by Shanghai in 2004, and later by Singapore. Today it remains one of the largest in the world and in the past decade the port continued to expand and develop.
Always wondered where our Kiwi’s come from or who builds oil rigs in the North Sea? Author: Bram Raatjes
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f Schiphol were the pearl of our transportation sector, the Port of Rotterdam would be her diamant. Today it stretches over 40 kilometres and covers approximately 105 square kilometres. Annual cargo tonnage is more than 400 million tonnes and annual container volume is approximately 11 million TEU (Twenty equivalent foot units). To come to grips with the volumes is basically impossible. Looking at the numbers, it is perhaps not surprising that Rotterdam is the biggest European port. The harbor facilitates the needs of a hinterland with 40 million consumers, and it goes without saying that Rotterdam is of immense strategic importance to the Dutch economy.
Business The harbor is of immense strategic importance to the Dutch economy. It offers direct employment to 86 thousand people in Rotterdam and an additional 200 thousand, indirectly. The most important is the petrochemical sector and cargo transshipment handlings. Furthermore the port functions as an important transit hub for the transport of bulk and other goods between Europe and the rest of the world. From Rotterdam a huge hinterland can be reached. The river the Rhine and Maas can carry cargo up and as far as Switzerland. The cargo railway, Betuweroute, transports into Germany and through nearby Schiphol cargo can be flown to anywhere in the world. And the rest of Europe can be easily covered by transport over roads. The goods and services produced in the port and industrial complex have a total economic value in the region of €11 billion per year, which is greater than most small countries’ GDP. Another unique feature is that together with the Terminal of Ponta da Madeira in Brazil, Rotterdam is the only available mooring place for the MS
Berge Stahl, the world’s largest iron ore bulk carrier. Rotterdam’s location makes it superior to its competitors such as Antwerp and Hamburg. It’s located close to sea and can handle ships with a draught of up to 24 metres, whereas Antwerp and Hamburg are located more land inwards. The port knows many specialised ‘zones’. One of them is the Fruitport (merwehaven). This is where all the fruits, vegetables and fruit juice are carried through. All companies in this area are specialised in fruit and vegetables. This is where the kiwi’s from New Zealand, grapes from South Africa and apples from Chile come from. Through the port of Rotterdam they find their way to the rest of Europe. To your kitchen shelf. It’s good to be Dutch and in the maritime industry The Netherlands is a world-class player in the marine and offshore industry. The development of Rotterdam undoubtedly contributed to this position, and as such many specialised firms can be found in the area of the Harbor. An example is Heerema, a firm that builds and installs production platforms worldwide for the offshore oil and gas industry. Heerema employs thousands of people and owns the world’s largest offshore crane. To get a sense of how big such a crane is, imagine the Euromast, the Netherlands’ highest tower. The offshore crane is higher, and it actually contains multiple cranes, has a crew of 742 and even a movie theatre. In Heerema’s production facility, platforms are build that belong to the biggest in the world. Heerema needs suppliers as well. Guess what is needed when those platforms need to be dragged out to sea. Some of the biggest, strongest and toughest transport ships are needed to fulfill that job. Rotterdam has the companies capable of accomplishing that task. Dockwise is one of those firms. It is the world’s largest seagoing heavy-transport shipping company. To make sure ships as the MS Berge Stahl will be able to call the port of Rotterdam in the future, waterways need to be dredged frequently. What are the Dutch good at? Yes, dredging. Royal Boskalis Westminster for example has the largest dredging fleet in the world. And in the meantime companies as Van Oord will build Palm Islands for rich oil emirates. And they are all making good money. Could it perhaps betime to make a career switch?
Entrepreneurship
February 2013 _ Page 35
Entrepreneurship: 123aandeel.nl Sipke Jelmer van der Meulen (Msc. BA Organisational & Management Control) and Peter Prins (Bsc. Economics & Business Economics) Author: Pamela Bediako
Motive behind 123aandeel.nl We both are private investors and are quite interested in stock markets. What we found really annoying was that there wasn’t enough useful information for private investors about stocks. Banks and analysts give buy, hold or sell advice but they don’t explain why you have to buy or sell that stock. Before I buy a stock I like to be convinced about why it is a good idea to buy that particular stock. At dinner one evening, we had a discussion about how difficult it is to make a good investment decision. We thought of how we could make this easier for private investors. This is how we came up with a platform at which every private investor can share his or her own research with other private investors to make the decision making process easier and faster.
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long with their studies, Sipke and Peter own and manage a fast growing business, bringing private investors and companies closer together and making a name for themselves in the market. They explain to us what they do, what drives them, and what they want to achieve.
Quality of company analysis Accuracy of the information shared by the private investors on the website is guaranteed by other visitors who can judge the information shared by other investors. This also forms an advantage for the investor who posted the research since the investor can draw lessons from the feedback he is provided with. Moreover, it gives us an external way of controlling what is posted there. Based on these judgements we compose a top 5 buy and a top 5 sell arguments for each individual stock. The interesting thing about the stock market though is that no one can actually be certain of all the information, so it is sometimes difficult to assess whether an argument is good or not.
What differentiates 123aandeel.nl from others Well there are other websites that give advice about stocks but not in the way that we do it. The unique thing is the ‘crowd-source’ based manner of collecting investment arguments. Every investor cannot only see which stocks to buy or not, but also why. All in a very simple overview! That’s what makes us special. Is it already making profits as a business? This started as a hobby but we are now making money because there are sponsors that buy advertisement space. Before they do that, your site has to attract a lot of visitors and that takes a lot of time, but now we are at a point where companies are willing to buy advertisement space. We looked for two, maximum three companies because we thought the website would look more professional for investors. It is important to look objective. When you have too many sponsors you seem subjective. We look subjective if we, for example, let KPN advertise on our website and then advice investors to buy their stocks. They might say that it is because we are being
sponsored by KPN and our integrity will be questioned. We have sponsors that advertise on our webpage and do not sell stock on the free market. There are a lot of those companies so we have a lot of options when we decide to look for more sponsors. The main goal of the site was not to make money actually; as we said, it is a hobby. We are running it for nine months now and we have acquired costs which we prefer not to handle out of our pockets and so we asked some companies to advertise on our site and they pay a good amount of money. We would love to not just breakeven but make profits, but that is not our main priority. However, when we keep the progress as we are doing now, profits will be made. We are doing this more for the fulfilment it gives us because we are putting to practice what we learn at the university. What next... We have already developed an android app. Soon we will release an IOS (iphone) version. We also want to have more visitors and expand. Our target is to attract a thousand visitors a day.
Faculty
AkzoNobel Masterclass 2013
February 2013 _ Page 37
ENGAGE with
our ideas show your TALENT Meet Willeke and Joost. After finishing their Master’s they started their careers at AkzoNobel. They’ve discovered that we encourage you to have great ideas, then support you in bringing those ideas to life. AkzoNobel’s annual Masterclass is your chance to find out if you’d like to be part of this unique culture. Join us, get to know us and experience how we’ve become such a successful global player. You’ll look at our business of tomorrow from different angles, and have plenty of opportunities to meet senior management and young employees.
When: May 13 & 14, 2013 For: Master students Please visit www.akzonobel.nl/masterclass for more information and to apply online. There you will also find out more about the roles that Willeke and Joost play within AkzoNobel.
06614_230113
Where your ideas go far www.akzonobel.nl/masterclass
The research of Hans Risselada: Using networks to analyze customer behavior Text: Willem van Reijendam
Faculty
February 2013 _ Page 39
T
he question why someone feels the need to buy a new car, shortly after his neighbor has bought one is as old as humanity. The reasons to buy a new watch, a new phone or to switch to another energy provider are not only price-driven, but are also influenced by the behavior of our fellow consumers. “This subject may be very old, but contrary to the past we have a huge amount of data at our disposal, which can be used to analyze this behavior,” says dr. Hans Risselada, assistant professor of marketing at the FEB.
While studying Econometrics (MSc in 2007) Hans Risselada became fascinated by quantitative marketing research and he wrote a thesis on the staying power of churn prediction models in cooperation with a large Dutch telecom operator. His current research is about modelling social influence on behavior in customer relationships. Analyzing calling history In one of his research projects he focuses on the individual motives to buy products from a large Dutch telecom provider. That may be the acquisition of a smart phone, or a new contract, or the opposite, the switching to another company. By analyzing the calling history between customers, the so called customer-to-customer interactions, and the things they buy, he can draw conclusions about the way the customers may have influenced each other. Risselada: “This kind of research, if anonimized, can be done for scientific reasons. The company itself is not allowed to use these types of data and analyses for marketing purposes. It is a huge amount of data. The difficulty is that there are lots of factors that have to be ruled out, like a recent marketing campaign, a pricedrop or news about that company. That’s why we have to do this research over a long period, to correct the results for those other effects.”
Networks as marketingtool Risselada notices that the effect of the networks on the individual behavior, the things that are said about a product or the fact that for instance a friend has bought an iphone are decreasing in time, after the introduction of this product. Unlike five years ago, no one buys a new smartphone, just because a friend did so. That means that companies will keep needing other marketingtools as well: “Direct marketing was supposed to be an old-fashioned marketing tool, but it still turns out to be useful. You cannot only rely on ‘word of mouth marketing’”, Risselada says. But this way of marketing will become more and more sophisticated, he predicts: “Our research might tell something new about the value customers have to companies. Now it is only related to the amount of money they spend, but it might be even more valuable when they buy a little and talk about it a lot. That will be customers a company wants to invest in.” To get to know these customers and their motives better, Risselada expects that research on a more individual level will be needed. “I think we will more and more experiment by examining the interaction and behavior of a group of members of a social network, like Facebook. In that case we can control the circumstances and check if a hypothesis really works.”
Professor Power: combing academic and practical experience
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rofessor Damien Power of the University of Melbourne is new part-time Professor of Global Operations Management at FEB. In addition to his extensive academic experience, Power also has more than twenty years of practical experience in sectors such as construction, food, electronics and telecommunications.
Editor: Annemiek Koning
Why did you choose for Groningen? “The University of Groningen has a strong international reputation in the field of Operations Management and Operations Research. The research programme OPERA is unique in that it incorporates a diverse range of disciplines and research paradigms. This degree of diversity is not common in other institutions and it promotes a dynamic research and teaching culture.”
Could you tell us more about your career so far? “I worked in the field of Operations and Supply Chain Management for more than 20 years prior to becoming an academic and was employed by firms such as NEC, Schlumberger and Fosters Brewing and they operate out of Europe, Australia and Asia. My responsibilities ranged from project management through technology transfer and supply chain
to facility management. While working full time, I completed a Masters Degree by doing research on the importance of the human factor in JIT (Just In Time) operating environments. My PhD was on the adoption and application of supplychain-enabling technologies in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods sector. Since moving into academia I have held positions at Monash University and for the past 10 years at the University of Melbourne where my teaching has been in the subject areas of Supply Chain Management, Operations, e-Business and Project Management. I have also held senior administrative positions including acting Associate Dean of Research for the Faculty of Business and Economics and Chair of the Department of Management and Marketing.” Your chair is in operations management. What issues are dealt with in your research? “My current research is primarily in the areas of supply chain management, business-to-business e-commerce and operations strategy. This covers the adoption and use of technologies −established and emerging− within and between firms, the management of inter-firm relationships, and developing a competitive advantage through the operations function. I have also published in the areas of Quality Management and more recently have been involved in some major international studies looking at national culture and the extent of economic development as moderators of operational outcomes.”
And what about societal relevance? “The field of Operation Management is significant to society as all of us stand to benefit from firms being able to create and maintain efficient and effective processes. Such processes create value for society, but more importantly are the foundation for developing sustainable societies as resources become increasingly scarce and waste becomes more problematic for the environment. This holds as strongly for services as for goods. We find that applying the principles of operations research to sectors such as health care is helping to improve how their services are delivered.” What can we expect of you in the future? “I plan to do further studies on how technology is used and integrated in supply chains and more international research in operations strategy. I am also planning to extend my research focus to sustainability in international supply chains and I am pursuing joint research with colleagues from the USA on relational coordination. This latter project is of growing interest to me as it provides an opportunity to explore the application of the operations methodology at a micro level (such as within health care teams), between teams as they span boundaries between processes, and potentially between firms as they seek to integrate inter-firm processes.”
Photos
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Master community
Master community
February 2013 _ Page 43
Master community IBM/IE&B The master community IB&M/IE&B is part of the EBF and aims to bring students in contact with their fellow students, professors, alumni and organisations. This goal is being achieved through several formal and informal activities throughout the year. As most of the students have different backgrounds in their studies, they might not know each other very well. In order to change this, the committee kicked off with an informal event: ice-skating at Kardinge. During this event students got a chance to become acquainted with one another outside the lecture halls and for the international students it was a great opportunity to enjoy one of the popular Dutch winter
traditions. A social gathering at café van Diepen followed the event. There are many informative and fun events coming up in the next Semester. In February Toine Simons from Beerschot will be giving a lecture on issues that irritate students and how students can change their mind-sets and form a positive approach to these subjects. To bring students and companies closer together, several activities will be held during the upcoming career week in May. With these activities we hope to bridge the gap between theory and practice for students and to create an integrated group of people, which will lead to a genuine ‘community’ feeling.
Master community Change The MC Change is a community that connects masters and alumni of Change Management with each other. Organizing events and company visits provides us with the opportunity to connect the theories discussed at the courses with the practice in daily business life. Furthermore, the MC Change tries to put effort in
improving the content of the available courses within the program. Lastly, of course also relevant, the community aims at enhancing fellow students’ social life by arranging social drinks in the lively city centre. This year’s team consists of master students Samara Minnema, Jody van den Bos and Annelies Dussel.
Master community HRM Master community SB&E In de community van de master Small Business & Entrepreneurship zitten dit jaar drie vrolijke meiden (Martha, Froukje en Tjeska) die zich ervoor inzetten om de studenten te verenigen met elkaar en met het bedrijfsleven. Omdat het een kleine mastergroep is, 20 studenten zijn in september begonnen, is de groep zeer hecht en is het een gezellige boel. Dit geldt zowel voor het contact met de professoren als voor de studenten onder mekaar. Zo worden er geregeld borrels georganiseerd en is
er een weekendje weg gepland. Daarnaast wordt er natuurlijk ook aan de toekomst gedacht. Zo wordt er een dag in de carrière week gereserveerd voor SB&E studenten, waar ze in contact worden gebracht met het bedrijfsleven. Hierbij kan worden gedacht aan presentaties en workshops. Al met al zorgt de community ervoor dat dit (laatste) jaar niet wordt vergeten. Martha, Froukje en Tjeska
We, as mastercommunity of the master HRM, think a connection between theory and practice is very important. For that reason we try to offer the students the possibility to make that connection. Throughout the year we offer several activities. For the Career Week in September we invited some interesting speakers from different fields to tell about their career. More recently, we set up a master class with prof. Dr. Aukje Nauta. She is a Professor “Employability in Working Relationships” at the University of Amsterdam, independent member of the SER and co-founder of the consultancy firm Factor Vijf. During this master class she gave new and interesting insights in the future
of employment relations. An upcoming activity is an Assessment day at GITP, a HRD consultancy firm. Theme of the day will be ‘Top Talent’. Students who participate have to make an e-assessment at home which will be evaluated during the day. Moreover, there will be a case about their trainee program. Last, but not least we value a good atmosphere within the community. So far, we have had three socials at Chaplin’s Pub that were, if we may say so, quite a success. The vision of the future is to create a tight “community” of students, professors, alumni and HR businesses, which is connected by a shared passion for HRM.
Master community
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Dutch inhouse tours
February 2013 _ Page 45
DIT belooft wat!
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oor alle studenten die benieuwd zijn naar hoe het er aan toe gaat bij grote multinationals en andere topbedrijven organiseren Aureus (VU), EBF (RuG) en Sefa (UvA) dit jaar voor het vijfde jaar op een rij de Dutch Inhouse Tours (DIT). Indien jij geïnteresseerd bent in wat de mogelijkheden zijn wanneer jij afgestudeerd bent of bijvoorbeeld wat de verschillen zijn tussen verschillende bedrijven die in dezelfde branche opereren, is DIT een uitgelezen kans om daar achter te komen.
MC SIM – Ambizzious Are you Ambizzious? We definitely are! We are the MasterCommunity of Strategic Innovation Management we are here to reinvent the past and innovate the future. We organize various activities for our SIM-students, such as monthly socials, introduction events, company visits, and workshops.
and concept and thought about how this could be improved. Clearly, the day ended with a social as well and it was a very nice day! A last example is our work-shop presenting, taught by Kaliope. It was interesting to see how little tips can greatly affect your presenting style!
An example is last September’s beer-tasting in the City Brewery of Groningen as an introduction event for all SIM students and teachers. This was a great opportunity to get to know everyone in an informal setting. In addition, we have also organized a company visit to Innovation Generation, which uses crowdsourcing as a concept to help companies innovate. After a crash-course in innovation techniques, we discussed a few of the ‘assignments’ they had online. In another session we discussed their website
As you can see, we try to balance social and educational activities and there are many more to come. Both SIM master, SIM pre-master students and teachers are invited! We will keep you updated through our Facebook page MC SIM – Ambizzious, and the EBF website! Hope to see you at one of our activities! Liesbeth, Susanne, and Arien
Of je nu interesse hebt in banking, consultancy, accountancy of een ander vakgebied, er is voor ieder wat wils op economisch, bedrijfskundig of technisch gebied. Tussen 15 april en 17 mei kun jij een kijkje nemen in de keuken van een of meer van de deelnemende bedrijven naar jouw keuze. DIT is de globale indeling van een dag: de inhousedag wordt geopend met een presentatie over het bedrijf, haar werkzaamheden en cultuur. Daarna gaan de studenten zelfstandig aan de slag met een case, die een goed beeld geeft van de werkzaamheden. De dag zal worden afgesloten met een informele borrel, DIT is je kans om je vragen te stellen en met verschillende werknemers na te praten. Aangezien bedrijven aan de DIT deelnemen om toekomstige werknemers te werven, is DIT alleen toegankelijk voor studenten in de eindfase van hun studie. Dus ben jij derdejaars bachelor-, pre-master- of masterstudent, of ben je zelfs al afgestudeerd, schrijf je vanaf 11 maart in via onze website www.doedit.nu. De selectie wordt gedaan door de bedrijven zelf en vindt plaats op basis van je cv (en afhankelijk van het bedrijf eventueel een cijferlijst en/ of motivatiebrief).
In week 10 zal iedereen het profielenboek thuis gestuurd krijgen met daarin alle informatie over de deelnemende bedrijven. De inschrijvingsdeadline ligt op 5 april, zorg dat je je voor die tijd hebt ingeschreven! Tot slot nog een aantal voordelen kort opgesomd: • Divers aanbod van deelnemende bedrijven. • Veel verschillende branches. • Deelname vergroot de kans op (scriptie)stageplaats, traineeship of zelfs baan. • Alle deelnemende bedrijven hebben startersplekken. • Kennis maken met je toekomstige collega’s. • De case geeft je een goed beeld van de werkzaamheden van het bedrijf. • Goede indruk van de sfeer binnen het bedrijf. Let op je brievenbus voor het profielenboek in week 10! Ben je al eerder benieuwd naar de deelnemende bedrijven? Houdt dan de website goed in de gaten! www.doedit.nu
Heb je nu al vragen, aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! E-mail: info@doedit.nu
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Waarom EBF?
zig zijn bij alle activiteiten van de EBF en ook het merendeel van de activiteiten van de onderverenigingen van de EBF. Daarnaast is er veel contact met (actieve) leden, de Faculteit en andere besturen en bedrijven door heel Nederland! Voor meer algemene informatie en over de functies ga naar: www.ebfgroningen.nl/en/membership/activemembership/ ebf-board-application of stuur een mail naar: j.sloote@ebfgroningen.nl Meld je aan voor het EBF Bestuur 2012-2013 voor 7 april!
* The EBF Board is only available for Dutch speaking students.
ESR: study trip to Warsaw Developing an economic power: the journey to success. This year the destination of ESR May is Warsaw! As one of the major business centers in Central Europe and known as a ´magnet for multinationals´ it is an excellent place to conduct academic field research at established companies and to zoom in on the Polish’ business life. In 2009, when every EU-member state saw its economy shrink, there was one exception: Poland. As most of Europe is still slowing down economically, Poland is one of the first countries to pick up. Based on this information, we will conduct research for our research theme: Developing an economic power: the journey to success. During our research trip we will try to find answers to questions such as “How did Warsaw become an economic power?”. The research trip will take place from the 18th until the 25th of May 2013. Next to field research, there will be time to explore Warsaw during the day and night. You will not be disappointed with the cultural highlights to visit, since Warsaw is a city with both a great history and a great future. In other words, participating in European Study Research promises to be an experience of a lifetime!
February 2013 _ Page 47
Agenda
Een bestuursjaar bij de EBF betekent een jaar vol nieuwe ervaringen en nieuwe inzichten. Als bestuurder van de EBF zul je in één jaar veel ervaring opdoen en uitgedaagd worden op het gebied van strategisch denken, in teamverband werken en het motiveren van anderen. Een bestuursjaar van de EBF is veelzijdig, uitdagend en erg leerzaam. Na het bestuursjaar kun je al deze opgedane kennis meenemen in je verdere carrière en beleef je een ervaring die je nooit zult vergeten! Algemene informatie Het bestuur bestaat uit zeven bestuursfuncties. Ook zijn er verschillende modules die nog onderverdeeld zullen worden over de bestuursleden. Het bestuur heeft een wekelijkse vergadering waarin alle zaken besproken worden. Verder lopen de taken sterk uiteen per functie, maar er zijn een aantal zaken waar (bijna) elke functie mee te maken krijgt. Deze zijn het jaarlijks beleid, commissiebegeleiding en functionele begeleiding. Tijdens de wekelijkse bestuursvergaderingen worden de lopende zaken besproken en worden bepaalde beslissingen genomen. Ook vinden er functionele overleggen plaats. Verder zal het bestuur in principe aanwe-
EFB
January
March
31
1 4 5 5-7 7 7 11 13 13 14 14 18 20 21 21 22 23
VESTING Sleepless Night
February 4 4 5 5 5
6 7 7
EBF Booksale 2.1 EBF Mastercommunities’ Social EBF Booksale 2.1 VESTING National Econometrist Day Risk Investment Evening + Social / Announcement Risk Candidate Board 2013-2014 EBF Freshmen Activity MARUG Social Risk Bowling Activity
April
If you are interested in joining us please visit www.ebfgroningen.nl/esr-warsaw for more information. The application deadline is February the 22nd!
About ESR: Each year the Economics and Business Faculty Student Association (EBF) organizes two European Study Research trips (ESR). The project is designed for 25 motivated second and third year Bachelor students from the Economics and Business Faculty (FEB), both Dutch and international students. The goal of this project is to enable students to conduct high academic research in an international setting by giving them the great opportunity of putting their theoretical knowledge into practice.
MARUG Dies EBF Social VESTING Activity and social MARUG National Marketing Battle MARUG Social + Announcement Candidate Chairman 2013-2014 Risk Conference EBF Half-yearly General Members’ Meeting EBF International Day VESTING General Members’ Meeting MARUG Conference VESTING Inhouseday SNS Reaal Risk General Members’ Meeting EBF/FMF Consulting Event EBF/FMF Consulting Event VESTING Inhouseday Optiver EBF New Active Members’ Weekend EBF New Active Members’ Weekend
9-16 11 18 18-22 20 21 21 22 25 27
EBF Ski-trip Risk Investment Team EBF Midyear Party Risk Banking Tour VESTING Teacher-student Social MARUG Return of the Marketeer VESTING Inhouseday APG Deadline committee applications Risk Investment Team EBF Leadershippanel
4 7 15 15 16
MARUG Social + Announcement Candidate Board 2013-2014 Deadline EBF Board applications EBF Booksale 2.2 EBF Social EBF Booksale 2.2
16 18 20 23 24 24 24 26-28
VESTING Activity and social VESTING Inhouseday ABN VESTING Alumni Activity Risk One Day Accountant and Controller VESTING Conference EBF Leadershippanel VESTING Conference Batavierenrace
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EFB
EFB
February 2013 _ Page 49
Spotlight Wat is je naam en leeftijd? Graham Rikhof, 21 jaar Wat studeer je? Msc. International Economics and Business
Author: Rick Lotterman
O
n the grey, rainy afternoon of the 29th of October, I was walking home from my final exam when all of a sudden I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket.This buzzing signaled the the beginning of a new adventure with me, a 22 year old master’s student that was looking for a challenge one side, and International Business Research, a long-running international research project on the other. The caller turned out to be Jenny, a board member of IBR Colombia 2013, who supplied me with the only news I wanted to hear at that moment; the news that I had made it through the selection and was going to either Colombia or Vietnam with them. At that moment, I had only a general idea of what I had gotten myself into, but it would all become clear during the introduction dinner. That night, the group of 25 assembled for the first time in the Papa Joe. After almost instantly forgetting the name of everyone who introduced themselves, the cross-interrogations began. “How old are you?”, “What do you study?” and of course the discussions about who had been the most insecure about making the cut. After this interesting and delicious dinner, the whole group migrated to Café Ome Ko, where the delegations of Colombia and Vietnam united for the first time. Naturally, our main goal is to successfully complete our IBR operations, but there is a second important aspect. This aspect is the forging of a strong group. I get to work with some of the smartest and and most motivated people my age, who I am now happy to call my friends..
The truth is that IBR Colombia has hit a bit of a rough patch, but everyone seems to stay positive regardless. “There is nothing that some hard work will not fix”, appears to be our unspoken motto. Until this changes, the focus will lie on the acquisition part of the project, with an occasional brush-up of the group’s Spanish. This has lead to me gaining a lot of experience in how to approach companies, learn some professional conversational skills and adopt a strict planning habit that will definitely benefit me in the future. I am still hoping for the one call that lands me a contract, allowing me to put my years of education to use. The boards of both IBR Colombia and Vietnam are doing a great job so far. They have invested a lot of time and effort in the respective projects and are doing everything to make it yet another success. The IBR project has been running since 1988, and has yet to deliver unsatisfactory results. This means that the level of quality is extremely high, making their challenge even bigger. It takes a special kind of person to do what they do. This, and the fact that they are all just as much fun as the next person is why I hold each and every one of them in high regard. The project has opened up a part of life that the University just could not do for me. The attention has switched from regurgitating theories and formulas to the application and practicing of my individual skills, knowledge and wit. For the first time in my years of college I have an idea for what awaits behind the barrier they call graduation, wrapped in an adventure abroad. This is the main reason why I would recommend anyone who can to join IBR on their future adventures, as it will teach you more than any book ever would.
Hoe ben je voor het eerst in aanraking gekomen met Lacrosse? Tijdens de KEI week van 2011. Ik was KEI – leider en heb daar een standje gezien met lacrosse als sport. Ik heb het daar uitgeprobeerd met een vrouwenstick, een ondiepere variant van een mannenstick. Even later werd mijn vriendin lid en ben ook ik gaan spelen bij de Gladiators in Groningen. Kun je in het kort vertellen wat de sport inhoudt? Het lacrosse is verschillend voor mannen en vrouwen. Mannen lacrosse wordt gespeeld op een gras of kunstgrasveld met 10 vs. 10. 9 veldspelers en een goalie. Er zijn drie dedicated defenders die niet van de verdedigende helft af mogen. Ook zijn er drie dedicated attackmen die niet van de aan vallende helft af mogen. De middenvelders, waaronder ikzelf, spelen op beide helften en bemoeien zich zowel bij de aanval als ver dediging. Er mag continu gewisseld worden, wat ook wel nodig is met zo’n snel spel. Er wordt gespeeld met een soort stuiterbal ter grootte van een tennisbal. De bal mag met de stick en voeten beroerd worden. Het komt er in het kort op neer dat er door samenspel gescoord word door de bal in een doel van ongeveer meter bij twee meter te werpen. Lacrosse is de
snelste sport op twee benen, maar naast snel passwerk en lopen met de bal mogen er ook bodychecks en checks met de stick worden uit gedeeld aan de baldrager. Je speelt voor het Nederlands team. Hoe ziet dat eruit? Ik heb afgelopen zomer inder daad voor jong oranje gespeeld op het WK in Turku, Finland. Er zijn voor toernooien als EK’s en WK’s try-outs waar in principe ieder een aan mee kan doen. Daar na traint een selectiegroep wekenlang in weekenden tot dat er een uit eindelijke groep van ongeveer 20 tot 23 man overblijft. In aanloop naar het WK hebben we elk weekend 16 uur getraind en zijn we op trainingskamp geweest als laatste voorbereiding. In Juli hebben we het WK gespeeld en zijn we elfde geworden. Dat geeft echt een kick. Naast de sportieve prestatie was het een geweldige ervaring en heb ik vrienden gemaakt en banden opgebouwd die me het hele leven bijblijven. Je clubteam is in Groningen. Kun je daar iets over vertellen? De Groningen Gladiators is in 2003 opgericht en begonnen als mixed- lacrosse vereniging. In middels is er een heren- en een damesteam. Beiden zijn al meerdere malen lands kampioen geworden. Momen teel ben ik er ook voorzitter naast mijn studie en tevens speler van de Heren 1. Het is een erg leuk team en er zit veel talent. Elk jaar stromen er nieuwe jongens en meiden in en je ziet dat de techniek en het samenspel elke
week vooruitgaat. Het werkt aan stekelijk en het zorgt ervoor dat ik zelf ook de drive houdt om steeds beter en beter te worden. Is het moeilijk om de sport te combineren met de studie? Hier in Groningen train ik nu gewoon met de club mee op maan dag en woensdag omdat er op het moment geen internationale ver plichtingen zijn. Het is nu zeker makkelijker dan de periode in voorbereiding op het WK. In die periode was het uitermate lastig om het te combineren omdat ik complete weekenden kwijt was aan de sport en daar naast elke dag nog individueel trainde. In de aanloop naar het WK zal ik zeker volle bak aan het trainen zijn, maar misschien, héél misschien ben ik dan al afgestudeerd en kan ik me die periode volledig op lacrosse storten. Dat zou geweldig zijn. Wat is je grote droom op het gebied van Lacrosse? Ik zou erg graag meespelen in het Dutch National Team dat in 2014 op het WK uit komt in Denver, in de Verenigde Staten. Het zou geweldig zijn om na Jong-Oranje door te kunnen stromen naar het team dat het tegen de besten van de wereld opneemt. Ik weet dat ik nog een lange weg te gaan heb en daarvoor letterlijk elke dag moet trainen. Soms lukt dat, soms lukt het niet, afhankelijk van de drukke momenten die gepaard gaan met mijn studie. Toch hoop ik door veel inzet en trainen het team te kunnen halen. De try-outs en selectie procedure zullen ergens na de zomer beginnen dit jaar.
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Lang leve de eerste keer.
Column Chairman Author: Roderick Jongbloed
In my view, it is highly plausible that students will choose for easier programs to avoid exceptional financial risk in case of delays. Moreover, studying might become suitable for students from rich families only, which can cope with the required liquidity. In combination with increased study pressure like binding study advice, the focus will be mainly on ‘consuming university education’, while room for self-development will decrease. The freedom of the ‘academic world’ will gradually disappear and universities will lose their competitive edge compared to institutions of applied sciences. I believe those developments to have negative consequences for students, but also for the Dutch
knowledge economy on which the Netherlands is highly dependent. For prospective students, it gets more important to choose the appropriate study program right away while entering the University. Furthermore, it implies that getting a job right after your study is of increased importance in order to pay off the students’ debts. Besides studying at high pace and achieving exceptional results, extracurricular activities will be of increased value to optimize your chances after obtaining your University degree. The EBF offers a wide range of opportunities to perform extracurricular activities while studying at our Faculty. Participating in career events like the Recruitment Days will offer you the opportunity to find a spot that suits you well. Moreover, investing in your future by participating in one of the EBF Committees or in the EBF Board will sharpen your learning curve and offers valuable experiences. As the chairman of the EBF, I am currently experiencing the value of being a board member, which is highly appropriate for developing professional and social skills. In addition, you will get in touch with companies and you will be offered the opportunity to extend your network within and outside the University. Therefore, I sincerely hope that prospective students will have enough chances to perform extracurricular activities in the upcoming years!
© 2012: Ernst & Young Nederland LLP. All Rights Reserved.
In Autumn 2012, the Dutch government decided to abandon the long study fine (‘langstudeerboete’) for students with a study delay. Students were relieved and those with study delays did not have to pay a 3000 euro fine. However, the Dutch government is currently planning to implement a system of social feudal system instead. It actually means that the current government grant of around 13.000 Euros will be replaced by the opportunity to obtain a loan of the same amount for studying a regular period of four years. The average student loan over four years was in 2012 already €17.500, which means that prospective students will have a total average debt of around 30.500 Euros before entering the labor market. Moreover, students will have to pay for their public transportation card in future.
Je eerste gesprek met een klant. Je eerste presentatie. Je eerste optreden voor een volle zaal. Het zijn drempels waar je overheen moet. En iedere keer leer je. Ook als het een keer minder goed gaat. Maar dan moet je wel werken in een organisatie die je steunt. Die erop is gericht je beter te maken. Zo’n organisatie is Ernst & Young. Kijk voor jouw mogelijkheden op ey.nl/carriere
© 2011 KPMG N.V., alle rechten voorbehouden.
Marleen van Dijsseldonk, 26 jaar Junior adviseur KPMG Advisory “Onderweg naar een opdracht bij een klant in #Barcelona. Weekendje shoppen eraan vastgeplakt met vriendin daar.”
Voor 24/7 updates over werken bij Audit of Advisory, check de KPMG-bloggers op www.gaaan.nu
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