ESTIEM Magazine | Autumn 2004 | Europeanization by ESTIEM

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SKOPJE

EDITORIAL

CONTENTS

Dear readers,

4 5 6 8 10 13 15 18 20 22 24 26 27 28 30 31 32 34 35 36 37 39 40 43

Bojan Jovanoski, PL bojan.jovanoski@estiem.org

President’s Speech A Brief Introduction to ESTIEM Getting Your Hands on ESTIEM Council Meeting Sofia Interview with Ph.D. Mariusz Branowski Management in European Integration Master Courses - Technische Universiteit Eindhoven An ESTIEMer’s journey in taking an idea Europewide Interview with Daniel Giebel “Going East” for Bosch to the Czech Republic An Introduction To ESTIEM Alumni Vision of Change TIMES “Career Days”- A New Service, A New Challange Past and future, KMC is rocking! ESTIEM Exchange Guide Summer Academy 2004 Just For Fun Page ESPOM Newcomer Weekend CoM Magazine VISION St. Petersburg TIMES Final Agenda

I would like to introduce to you the newest edition of the ESTIEM Magazine, the official publication of the ESTIEM, European STudents of Industrial Engineering and Management. A whole new team dedicated its time and efforts in creating the new style of the Magazine. I would like to thank Slobo, Sasha, Anna, Marja, René, Outi, Maaretta, Hans Ulrich, Sandra, Ismail, and the proofreaders Carolina, Peter, Tom, Michael and Pauler for helping me achieve what I had planned. This issue is full of articles written by professionals, interviews with them, articles from the ESTIEM projects and events. I would also like to thank all of those who gave up their free time for a second, and answered to our requests. This issue is dedicated to the newest happening in Europe - the growth of the European Union with new members. The articles should give you answers to questions whether this was a good choice. Who will benefit from it? Is the European economy going to be better? Enjoy reading this issue! Bojan Jovanoski Project Leader Local Group Skopje

INFO

IMPRINT ESTIEM Magazine 2004/II Issue Number 27 ISSN 0874-5242 Property: Local Group Skopje, Mechanical Faculty Skopje, Macedonia Project Leader: Bojan Jovanoski, bojan.jovanoski@estiem.org Design, Frontpage and Layout: Bojan Jovanoski [bojan.jovanoski@estiem.org], Slobodan Radicev [slobodan.radicev@estiem.org] Editing: Bojan Jovanoski [bojan.jovanoski@estiem.org], Slobodan Radicev [slobodan.radicev@estiem.org], Anna Marszalkiewicz [anna.marszalkiewicz@estiem.org], Rene Heunen[rene.heunen@estiem.org] Alexandra Myzyka [alexandra.muzyka@estiem.org], Marja Emilia Ollila [marja.emilia.ollila@estiem.org],

NOTES The ESTIEM Magazine is the official publication of ESTIEM, the only students association for IEM students that operates European-wide. The ESTIEM Magazine is published twice a year. The contents are submitted by the members of ESTIEM, sponsors and professionals. The contents may not always reflect the attitude of the publisher. Any reproduction or copy is permitted only with the permission of the editors. Look for opportunities, not guarantees

TRONDHEIM

PRESIDENT’S SPEECH

Hans Ulrich Elsner, President hans.ulrich.elsner@estiem.org

urope moving together - what else could be a better example for this than a European Students’ Organization as ESTIEM is one? Represented in 25 countries at the moment, ESTIEM is truly European, with all the accompanying benefits and problems.

Having a Dutch project leader, who manages events in ten different countries with a team from Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, and Hungary is nothing strange but day-to-day business in ESTIEM. This sounds like what many companies claim will be the future in work-life around the world. In order to use the advantages of different mindsets and cultures, international teams are created. In these teams, different personalities with different cultural backgrounds as well as different experiences are working together and complementing each other. Thus, international teams are supposed to be more creative, innovative and/or flexible than those consisting only of people from one nationality.

INFO

So ESTIEMers should be perfectly prepared for those challenges in their work-lives. They are used to travelling around, working and communicating with different nationalities, and doing all this in a language that mostly is not their mother tongue. But it is more than just getting prepared for all this. By working in and for ESTIEM the students in our organization get to know the opportunities and the limits of international teams. So they learn that Europeanisation has advantages as well as disadvantages.

Every new country brings new input to ESTIEM, this being one of the driving forces behind our organization. But it also brings with it a new set of values and customs. The Dutch project leader mentioned above might have to cope with team members that have a different perception of punctuality, making it more difficult to set deadlines for tasks. People from one country might be used to a more direct language than those from another, resulting in the latter feeling insulted though this has never been intended. The challenge is in putting the right people to the right tasks and making people aware of their differing cultures. Communication and its management are crucial for the success of an international team. Only one more explanatory sentence can sometimes help to prevent from a lot of misunderstanding. Also, the right mindset helps preventing those misunderstandings. Of course, everybody expects one’s own culture to be respected. But on the other hand, one also has to be aware of the difficulties in understanding a different culture, and that it is very hard to always act so nobody feels aggrieved. Therefore, one should be more tolerant in this regard. Also, even a truly international organization like ESTIEM has to realise that sometimes, the best way to achieve results is to have a national team working on a task.

difficult to get enough participants to join events in locations not so easy to reach. So the positive effects of new countries joining are again met by challenges to overcome. So being in ESTIEM not only prepares our members for an international work-life. It also trains them to judge the advantages and disadvantages of globalization and Europeanisation. In effect, ESTIEM has many things in common with companies, and we both can learn from each other. In this issue of ESTIEM Magazine, you can find more examples and solutions for Europeanisation as well as a lot of other interesting things. Enjoy it! In high ESTIEM, Hans Ulrich Elsner President

Another challenge for ESTIEM as well as other students’ organizations in Europe results from the growing distances with new countries joining. As most times, members have to pay for their travel themselves it has proven

Half of getting what you want is knowing what you must give up to get it.

VAASA

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO ESTIEM

ack in 1990, students from five different countries founded an organization called ESTIEM (European STudents of Industrial Engineering and Management). Its aim is to establish and foster interrelations among European students of industrial engineering and management (IEM). ESTIEM is currently represented at 66 universities in 24 European countries, and is still growing. All these universities offer courses in IEM. Through its membersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; organizations ESTIEM reaches and represents over 40.000 students.

The decision-making body of ESTIEM is the Council, which

formation for students who want to go abroad), Council Meetings and ESTIEM Career, lead by the Project Leaders who are elected at the Council Meetings.

The five board members of the board of ESTIEM are elected

On the European level, besides the board and the projects, ESTIEM members can also take over bigger responsibility by taking part in the work of the Committees. The Committees work closely together with the board, carrying out some of the work of the board members. ESTIEM has six of them at the moment: the Information and Communication Technology Committee, the Public Relations Committee, New Members Committee, Knowledge Management Committee, Financial and Legal Committee and the recently started Academic Network Committee.

during the autumn Council Meeting. The board is responsible for the management, co-ordination and administration of the association. The board represents the association in all legal matters. ESTIEM has continuously increased the number of its activities, thus being able to offer a great variety of events to IEM students. Based on its activities, ESTIEM has attracted many active students and the organization has seen rapid growth since its inauguration. Major activities on a European level include the European case competition TIMES, Vision seminar series, ESTIEM Magazine, Summer Academy, Exchange (a database with inWinners never quit, quitters never win

For more detailed information about our organization and activities please visit our website at www.estiem.org

ESTIEM Permanent Office Paviljoen A-22 P.O. Box 513 5600 MB Eindhoven The Netherlands Fax: 00 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 31- (0)40 2473871 e-mail: info@estiem.org

INFO

The students of Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) incorporate both management and engineering skills. Through involvement in ESTIEM, students get an opportunity to experience different cultures, take part in international projects and make friends with other ESTIEMers all over Europe. Our belief is that the activities and projects of ESTIEM give our members knowledge and experiences that are important for their personal development and reaching of future goals. The students involved with ESTIEM incorporate both the skills required for modern business and an open-minded approach towards other people and cultural issues.

meets twice a year, in autumn and in the spring. Each university, represented by its local group, sends two student representatives.

OULU

GETTING YOUR HANDS ON ESTIEM The short of ESTIEM uropean STudents of Industrial Engineering and Management, ESTIEM for short, was founded in 1990 in order to bring together IEM students from all over Europe. In fourteen years, it has grown into an organization for 40.000 students from 66 universities. ESTIEM has members in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Turkey.

Marja Emilia Ollila Marja.Ollila@estiem.org

Another guiding idea is to create links between the students, the academics and the companies in order to create a European-wide, multi-level IEM network.

Cities of ESTIEM

How it all works The executive power of ESTIEM lies with the board and its five members. The board is elected each year in a Council Meeting. This assembly of ESTIEMers is held twice a year and is the major decision-making body.

INFO

What ESTIEM is about Meetings, workshops, brainstorming, parties. Each ESTIEMer will find the aspect that he or she likes best, but most probably each of them will relate to ESTIEM’s official aim:

to establish and foster interrelations among the students of IEM.

ESTIEM is a textbook example of a project-based organization. Several projects and committees are at work all the time, organizing case-solving competitions, seminars, lectures and exchanges – making ESTIEM happen. With lots of teams and tasks to choose from, there is a place for everyone. Naturally, the backbone of ESTIEM is the European IEM student. Open-minded and keen on developing him- or herself, he or she is eager to make friends and

create contacts with different IEM representatives from all over the continent.

Changing angles A great ship is not easily steered. In any organization as big and as international as ESTIEM, cultural clashes are a part of everyday reality. The life in a European student association sometimes is a pattern of ideology and bureaucracy, professionalism and party-animalism – just name it. At the core, these controversies are an integral part of the richness

that arises from ESTIEM’s diversity. One should not forget where the origin of ESTIEM lies: four students in a gasthaus in Darmstadt, spending the night discuss-

The mind is like a parachute. It works best when it is open

TALLINN

GETTING YOUR HANDS ON ESTIEM ing passionately, and – to quote ESTIEM’s history – excited about the spirit that evolved when students from different parts of Europe gathered together. That is the ESTIEM spirit we want to cherish today.

Council Meeting. Arranged twice a year, this general meeting of member groups holds the ultimate decisive power in ESTIEM.

CoM RCoM

Coordination Meeting, Regional Coordination Meeting. An event where a small group of people get together for a Project Meeting or a Regional Local Groups Meeting.

Local Group. ESTIEM is basically a network of these IEM student associations located in different universities around Europe.

Local Responsible. The person in charge of a LG.

Project Leader. The person in charge of an ESTIEM project. Analogously, Committee Leader is designated with CL.

Working Group. In Council Meetings, several Working Groups are formed to discuss different crucial ESTIEM matters.

WGL

Working Group Leader. A person who is in charge of the WG. He plans, guides the members and prepares the documentation.

How to get involved TIMES If you feel like SAC making friends with people AC around Europe, going to places KMC you have not seen before or being a part of NMC something that is working for the future of all European IEM students, this is for you. Just surf to www.estiem.org

Tournament in Management and Engineering Skills. Summer Academy. A two weeks event, held in the summer each year. It is very professional and it is guided by a well known professor. Academic Network Committee. This group of people is in charge of fostering and strenghtening the relationship between the academics and ESTIEM. Knowledge Management Committee. They make sure that all knowledge is kept and that experiences don’t get lost with handover or when people resign from their active ESTIEM life. New Members Committee. This team supports the new members of ESTIEM and provides information for those who are interested in joining the ESTIEM organization.

or ask your Local Responsible for the next ESTIEM event. Once

you are there, just open your mouth at the right moment and you’ll find yourself immersed in ESTIEM. Trust us.

INFO

LG? PL? CM? When ESTIEM was founded, the aim was at making it an abbreviation-free association. However, this goal was not completely achieved… After all, ”CM” fits in the mouth so much better than ”a Council Meeting”. Above you can find a brief introduction to the most common ESTIEM abbreviations. Sources: ESTIEM’s Organization and History on ESTIEM’s web page, www.estiem.org. Author picture: Courtesy of Ms. Terhi Upola.

Success requires shifting your emphasis from won’t power to will power

SOFIA

Nikolai Dimitrov nikolay.dimitrov@estiem.org

COUNCIL MEETING SOFIA Local Group (LG) Sofia is quite new to ESTIEM. Our first Council Meeting (CM), as observers, took place in the beautiful city of Munich two years ago and that’s where the idea to organize such an event in Sofia arose.

Of course at that time we did not have enough experience to undertake such a responsibility, but we waited patiently and at the CM St. Petersburg in spring 2003 we finally applied for the opportunity to organize the 28th ESTIEM Council Meeting in the spring of 2004. CM Sofia took place from the 20th to the 25th of April and gathered more than 150 delegates from nearly 50 Local Groups.

EVENT

The preparations for the upcoming event started with booking the Hotel of National Sports Academy right after we got back from Russia. Any other more detailed arrangements could not be done since there was almost a year to go, but we started developing the outlines for the CM in Sofia. We were very happy because the number of our LG members began to increase.

LG Sofia wants to say a big “Thank You” to the Technical University Sofia for the great financial support, to the ESTIEM Board 2004 for their help, and especially for keeping the General Assemblies on schedule, to the members of the Students’ Council Board, Rosen Dimitrov and Dimitar Aleksiev, for their tremendous help in dealing with the university’s administration, and to all the others who contributed in one way or other for organizing the CM. Sofia welcomed the first participants on April 15th but the big rush was on the 19th and 20th of April when the majority of the ESTIEMers arrived – some of them from Istanbul, others – from the Pre-Council Meeting in Skop-

je/ Ohrid (Macedonia), and many via Hungary because of the cheapest plane tickets. The registration process was done in the evenings of 19th and 20th and for us that was the hardest part of the

Council Meeting. After everybody was welcomed, accommodated and registered, the things eased a little bit, because we had everything arranged in advance and the only responsibilities the or-

ganizers had were to make sure that things were on schedule and to participate in the parties! Unfortunately, as with every other big event with many participants there were unexpected problems

and not everybody was satisfied, but everything went quite smooth in all. The hotel, where the ESTIEMers were hosted, is situated on the

So long as you are still worried about what others think of you, you are owned by them

KAISERSLAUTERN

COUNCIL MEETING SOFIA

The organizing team was formed as: Kiril Izov – Project Leader, accommodation, food Nikolay Dimitrov – visas, transportation, city tour Radoslava Velinova – LG Sofia Local Responsible Maria Beron – parties, city tour Emil Tzokov – website, badges, coffee breaks Kalin Millanov – rooms for the General Assemblies and the Working Groups Valeria Ivanova – rooms for the General Assemblies and the Working Groups Tsanko Nenov – rooms for the General Assemblies, gala dinner Emil Yankov – President of LG Sofia Nikolay Popnikolov – parties Martin Ivanov – General Assemblies Ivailo Nedyalkov – the animated story of Think, Drink and Sing Vladimir Daskalov – Official delegate Viktor Kojouharov – Police registration Zoya Ivanova – Coffee breaks Dobromir Tsanevski – Official delegate

ESTIEM spirit at different places, which were walking distance from the hotel (except on April 24 when we went downtown for the Gala dinner). The official opening of the 28th ESTIEM Council Meeting took place on the 21st of April. A big part of the university’s executive body was present and our Vice Rector Assoc. Prof. Marin Hristov made a short speech in which he welcomed the participants and wished them fruitful work. The first General Assembly started with our President

EVENT

grounds of the National Sports Academy – a very green and quiet place with a lot of sports facilities. Both the hotel and the Technical University Sofia, where the General Assemblies and the Working Groups took place, are situated in the Student Town of Sofia. It is a big complex of universities, dormitories, clubs, bars, discos, shops, etc. and home to over 35000 students from all over the country. The participants had the chance to enjoy the Bulgarian nightlife and to show some

Hans Ulrich Elsner knocking the ESTIEM hammer, followed by the organization’s official song and then the real work began. The Board did a very good job with the General Assemblies’ timing although during the presentations there were many questions and discussions. As usual the ESTIEMers’ attention was mostly attracted by the presentation about the upcoming CM in Istanbul and by the applications for Project Leaders. During General Assembly 3 Mr. Wali Nasir from Microsoft gave a very interesting presentation which was basically feedback and discussion oriented, and all the participants attended it actively, despite everyone being quite tired from the hard work during

the Working Groups and General Assemblies. During the Council Meeting much energy was spent and a lot of sacrifices were made, but your sincere appreciation made this week unforgettable. We hope that LG Sofia will host many other events in the future and why not another Council Meeting?!

The best way to predict your future is to create it

“To be or not to be”... in the European Union? This time, Shakespeare’s question was asked by all inhabitants of Poland as national debate led up to the referendum. It is too early to talk about what has changed after 1st of May 2004, but clear is that it has big impact on the way Polish managers have to deal with the international environment. I hope that my interview with Ph.D. Mariusz Branowski will cast some light at these questions.

Your scientific work concerns, among other things, international negotiations. What are the implications?

obstacles (different negotiations styles, behaviours etc.) can lead to a failure in cross-cultural negotiations. Therefore, competence in international negotiations is for modern managers one of the most important skills. Are there different negotiations styles? Can they be classified?

Globalization is a complicated process leading to considerable

Negotiation is a process in which two or more entities come together to discuss common and conflicting interests to reach an agreement of mutual benefit. A negotiation is cross-cultural when the parties involved belong to different cultures and therefore do not share the same ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. The negotiations process is signifi-

economic, social and political consequences. A lot of these consequences are of great importance for managers and create new tasks and challenges for them. I would like to concentrate on international business development and tasks related to that development, i.e. international negotiations. In a global

cantly influenced by the cultures within which the participants are socialised and educated. A negotiations encounter is influenced for example by ethnic heritage, as well as the attitudes and customs which are embedded in the participants’ cultures. A failure to anticipate, understand and remove potential culture-related

the environment within which it is said. In high-context cultures (like in Italy), the communication may be indirect, and the expressive manner in which the message is delivered becomes critical. The message cannot be understood without its context. The context of communication is high because it includes a great deal of

What are the challenges for managers confronted with a progressive globalization?

economy, managers constantly negotiate with people from other countries and cultures, whether the issue is coordinating operations within a multinational firm, arranging a joint venture, preparing a foreign trade contract, or convincing foreign government representatives to approve the construction of a plant.

Individuals having the same cultural backgrounds tend to display common patterns of thinking, feeling and reacting. As a result, behaviour in negotiation is consistent within cultures and each culture has its own distinctive negotiations style. A country may be classified as either a highcontext culture or a low-context culture. Germany is an example of low-context culture. In this type of society, messages are explicit. What is important, then, is what is said, not how it is said and not

PROFESSIONAL

Anna Marszalkiewicz Anna.Marszalkiewicz@estiem.org

INTERVIEW WITH PH.D. MARIUSZ BRANOWSKI

ZÜRICH

He who gets angry first usually loses

POZNAN

INTERVIEW WITH PH.D. MARIUSZ BRANOWSKI

additional information, such as the individual’s background, associations, values and position in society.

Trying is lying. To do is to be true

of publications about this subject. It is also possible to use computer expert systems that can aid in making decisions related to the international, cross-cultural negotiations. Competence in international negotiations cannot be however achieved without practical experience. During the study time it is possible to get such experience by participation in games which simulate international negotiations. I have prepared two such games which are related to international agency and distribution agreements. These games are usually played among Finnish-Polish and Finnish-Chinese groups of students.

PROFESSIONAL

style of persuasion. The German style of persuasion is generally the factual-inductive (appeals made to logic). The Polish style of persuasion tends to be more Could you give an example of the affective-intuitive (emotional negotiations differences be- appeals). Differences exist also tween two foreign managers? in bargaining strategies. There are basically two strategies of Because of my personal experi- bargaining, namely representaences, I would like to concentrate tional and instrumental strategies. on Polish-German cross-cul- When representational stratetural sales negotiations. The first, gies are used communication huge difference between Polish is based on the identification of and Ger- problems, a search for solutions man nego- and the selection of the most aptiators finds propriate course of action. When expression instrumental strategies are used, in their communication involves affecting preparation the other’s behaviour and attito negotia- tudes (promises, commitments, tions. Ger- rewards and punishments). German negotiators Ph.D. Mariusz Branowski: (52) is a scientific and didactic will often worker of the Institute of Management Engineering at use inPoznan University of Technology. Contemporarily, he strumental is leading intensive consulting forms like internationstrategies alisation and restructuring of companies, research and without inculcate programmes for local government, permanent hesitation consulting in management domain for big and small companies, foreign trade and international marketing. He if they beparticipated in business negotiations mainly in Germany lieve it has and also in the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Finpositive land. Besides, he was a member of the board of directors influence among other things in joint stock companies and limited on the liability companies. success of negotiaman negotiators, in general, are tions. better prepared for the interactive part of negotiations. Polish nego- How can we learn about intertiators tend to believe more in im- national negotiations? How do provisation. Other differences can we prepare? be found in the persuasion phase of the negotiations process. DurSuccessful negotiations ing that phase, the parties try to require some understanding modify one another’s perform- of each party’s culture and ance expectations through the may also require adoption of use of various persuasive tactics. a negotiations strategy that is Inter-cultural studies suggest that consistent with the other party’s each country has its own cultural cultural system. There are a lot

Which opportunities do you see for students who are members in a students’ association like ESTIEM?

I believe that being a member of ESTIEM enables co-operations with students who belong to other cultures. It improves communication skills through verbal and non-verbal means and excellently prepares for international business and crosscultural negotiations.

Anna Marszalkiewicz Local Group Poznan

SEVILLA

POZNAN, INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT ENGINEERING Institute of Management Engineering

PROFESSIONAL

The Institute has been established in 1970 under the name of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Institute of Organization and Managementâ&#x20AC;?, which changed into its current name in 1992. The Institute used to be a scientific and research unit belonging to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering & Management. Since the beginning of academic year 2001/2002 the Institute of Management Engineering together with the Institute of Computing Science and the Institute of Control and Systemsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Engineering creates the Faculty of Computing Science and Management (FCM). The structure of the Institute includes seven division, which are responsible for both research and teaching: - Organization of Production and Management - Ergonomics and Quality Management - Marketing and controlling - Economics and Law - Sociology, Philosophy and Methodology of Acting - Applied Computer Science. The scientific research conducted by the Institute concern such problems as: - Globalization and entrepreneurship - Virtual enterprise - Information systems management - Management systems design - Ergonomics and work environment engineering - Methods of industrial product marketing - Problems of the economy transformation.

From the viewpoint of functional areas of the enterprise the research is focused on strategic management, business planning, controlling and financial management, marketing management, engineering management, logistics, production management, total productive maintenance, quality management and human resource management. There is 99 full time staff members in the Institute including 85 researchers and university teachers. About 2500 students study in the Institute. Divisions: - Production Engineering and Management - Ergonomics and Quality Management - Marketing and Economic Engineering - Economic Science - Sociology, Philosophy and Phraseology - Managerial Applications of Computing - European Integration and Business Law The Institute of Management Engineering Courses of Study As a didactic unit the Institute offers full time and part time bachelor and master degree courses on: - Management and Marketing - Industrial Management - Automation and Management. The courses are presented in formula of both full time and part time courses. Specialist institutes from the Faculty of Computing Science & Management and Mechanical Engineering & Management participate in leading the courses.

Industrial Engineering Graduates Profile Among business organizations the biggest complexity of processes and structures characterize industrial companies.To manage such complicated technical, social and economical systems professionally, interdisciplinary knowledge and skills are needed. This knowledge includes widely understanding technology but also logistics, organization of production, quality management, personnel management and financial management. The graduate of Industrial Engineering is a modern engineer with a broad intelligence, prepared for managing interdisciplinary teams. He or she also possesses skills of solving technical, social and economical problems. The course on Industrial Engineering was established in Poland in 1999. The same year the first students started their study on this course at Poznan University of Technology. The courses on Industrial Management were established under the influence of the demand submitted by industry for engineers who are able to assure the competitiveness of companies in a business globalization (text from the University website http://www.me.put.poznan.pl)

Most people fail in life because they major at minor things

ST. PETERSBURG

MANAGEMENT IN EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

For European integration, the social aspect is the dominating one, and this is reflected in EU citizens having high professional mobility between the different member states, due to the free movement of the labour force. Management of European integration occurs in various ways connected with the new conditions of economics, political development and social collaboration between European nations. Russia does not hold back from such integration. The Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation signed between the Russian

Economic cooperation and partnership between the EU and Russia demands special approaches towards management in economic, political and social spheres. From my perspective, a good example is that of managing integration in the field of education, as reflected in the wellknown Bologna process. The necessity for greater cooperation in higher education throughout Europe has led to the active role of Russia in this field. In my opinion, European and Russian students have left politicians and business people far behind in developing the processes of integration, partnership and cooperation. When jointly arranging various educational, scientific and cultural projects, the students involved find common interests quickly and efficiently. Indeed, the cooperation between students in organizing such projects is an example of internationally managing the social side of the globalization process. ESTIEM gives its students the opportunity to challenge the problems of communication and cultural diversity.

The ESTIEM local group at Saint-Petersburg State University of Engineering and Economics has existed since 1995. Each year our students organize

PROFESSIONAL

Vladimir Limonov PhD (history), professor assistant Vice Rector of Student Affairs Saint-Petersburg State University of Engineering and Economics

Federation and European Union in 1994 is the basis of our political and legal relations. This agreement, which came into effect in December 1997, has become one of the most important agreements signed by Russia in the last century. The core idea of this agreement is partnership that should meet three main criteria: the devotion of both sides to the same principles of humanity, the unity of strategic goals, and a high level of interaction and trust.

international projects in cooperation with fellow students from different European universities. Together they put into practice various seminars, workshops, and competitions, covering the field of Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM), helping each other to gain experience beyond the standard university curriculum. In this way, students of IEM erase cultural differences, break the barriers between the states and create a positive impact on the process of European integration. The youth of ESTIEM proves that the ideas of partnership and cooperation between all European countries should be encouraged and developed in the 21st century.

Believe in yourself first, then you can believe in another

Vladimir Limonov, Vice Rector of Student Affairs vladimir.limonov@engec.ru

uropean integration is part of the globalization process, whereby the economic, political, communicative, financial and social aspects of countries worldwide are becoming more and more interlinked.

BREMEN

I have interviewed Vice Rector of Student Affairs at Saint-Petersburg State University of Engineering and Economics about the relations between students and professors and the importance of their mutual cooperation. Could you introduce yourself briefly? What are your scientific interests and field of work?

PROFESSIONAL

Alexandra Muzyka, VP of Finance alexandra.muzyka @estiem.org

MANAGEMENT IN EUROPEAN INTEGRATION Primarily I am in charge of all youth student organizations, both international and local, working under the patronage of the University. Together we form a culture based on the long-term traditions of the University, and present a common external face by means of the press service and editorial office of the Uni-

important role in the personal and professional development of future Industrial Engineering and Management specialists. I cannot imagine the life of any teacher or representative of the University Board who did not have close cooperation with their students. The team I work with spends the majority of their time with students and I believe this is the reason why our cooperation is so fruitful. How long have you been involved with Local Group SaintPetersburg?

I graduated from the history faculty of Saint-Petersburg State University in 1984. Since then I have been teaching history and political science at the Saint-Petersburg State University of Engineering and Economics (ENGECON). I completed my thesis in 1990. The field of my scientific interests covers the political history of Russia, sociology and public relations. My latest research is devoted to the development of civic society and democracy in Russia after disintegration of the Soviet Union and history of business and entrepreneurship in Russia. Among my publications there are works on history of Russia, political science, and history of entrepreneurship. Since 2000, besides teaching, I have been working as Vice Rector of student affairs.

What are your official duties?

I have been supporting Local Group Saint-Petersburg since the revival of their activities and the organization of their Activity Week in the year 2000. That year coincided with my beginning work as Vice Rector. Later I was pleased to become involved with many ESTIEM projects on both international and local levels such as Activity Week 2001, TIMES (Tournament in Management and Engineering Skills) East Semi Final 2002, with the Council Meeting in April 2003 being the most challenging.

versity. In addition, I support the association of graduates and the recruiting office of the University. What role do students play in your life? In my opinion no university can exist without active students. It has always been one of my goals to encourage as many studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; projects as possible. International and local projects play a very

Why are you especially interested in the current topic of the ESTIEM magazine? I keep track of the developments in the main ESTIEM magazine. My professional interests coincide with the questions raised in the current issue and I am pleased to give my input to the matters discussed. This interview was conducted by Alexandra Muzyka.

Do something! Lead, follow, or get out of the way!

HELSINKI

MASTER COURSES -TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN

Interview with Professor Fransoo

Could you please give us in short some information about the master programmes the Technology Department offers?

department of Eindhoven University of Technology, a university with which ESTIEM has already

tions planning and process quality. It is a relatively quantitative course. Innovation Management

Why did your department choose to offer these master courses? The two master courses are based on the strengths that our department has built up over the years. In the field of logistics, our department has a long tradition of strong education and research. In Innovation Management, we

PROFESSIONAL

With this article, we would like to present two master courses from the Industrial Engineering

Our department decided to offer students two master courses. These are “Operations Management and Logistics” and “Innovation Management”. Operations Management deals with tools and techniques to design and manage logistic systems like opera-

deals with the management of innovation techniques like alliance management, knowledge management and entrepreneurship. Both programmes are taught in English to make them more accessible for foreign students.

Michael Schyns michael.schyns@estiem.org

uring the past few years, many European countries have started to implement the Bachelor-Master structure into their education systems. This means that a growing number of bachelor and master courses is available across Europe, leading to an increasing number of students that go abroad for their studies.

a long relationship. For this, we interview Professor Fransoo, who is the academic director of this department.

have developed a lot of capability over the last five years, with several professors coming to join our

When your ship comes in, make sure you are willing to unload it

MASTER COURSES -TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN

NAPOLI

group of European technological universities that cooperate internationally. Students from some of these universities are eligible for a degree both at our university as well as their home university when they graduate from our department.

PROFESSIONAL

Could you please tell us about the Technology Management department?

department. However, the three other disciplines we have - Human Performance Management, Information Technology and Quality & Reliability Engineering - are also represented in both master courses. What is your function? At this department, I have basically two functions: one as a professor in Logistics and the other as academic director. As academic director I’m responsible for the shaping of the academic programme. My appointment as academic director lasts for three years and I see it as one of my main responsibilities to assist in the changeover from our old structure to the Bachelor-Master structure. Are you aiming at special groups of students for these courses? What we try to do is to create a mix of international students. To

create an international atmosphere it is important to have a more or less equal distribution of students from various countries, both from inside and outside Europe. A special group of students are those that come from the so-called Cluster network1, a

The Technology Management department has been offering Industrial Engineering courses for nearly forty years. Every five years there is an external evaluation of our department in which we have scored well in recent years. Our aims for the future are to focus more on our core competences, to belong to the top departments in Europe in our field and to strengthen the link between the Master and the PhD programme.

General information Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e) is a relatively young university. It was founded in 1956 and is situated in the southern part of The Netherlands in the city of Eindhoven, well known as the hometown of the giant in Electronics, the Philips Company. In the past years, the city of Eindhoven and its region have developed into a major centre for advanced technology. Numerous small and medium size enterprises have been established in the greater Eindhoven region in the field of electronics, materials engineering and communication technology. Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e) provides 12 Bachelor programmes, 25 Master programmes, 10 postgraduate design programmes, three teacher-training programmes and various postgraduate courses. Out of these, the department of Technology Management offers two bachelor study programmes, four master study programmes, three certificate programmes, two postgraduate programmes as well as an international exchange programme. The Cluster network (www.cluster.org) consists of the following universities: Technische Universität Darmstadt, Universität Karslruhe, INPG Grenoble, Université Catholique du Louvain, Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Politecnico di Torino, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Imperial College London, Helsinki University of Technology, EPF Lausanne, and Universidad Politécnica de Barcelona.

You are never going to “have it all together”. That is like trying to eat once and for all

CAMBRIDGE

MASTER COURSES -TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN

Why do you believe that it is interesting for foreign students to come to study in Eindhoven?

some with activities especially aimed at foreign students, which take care of the social aspect of studying in a foreign country.

Firstly, I believe that it is important for every student to spend part of their student life abroad

What does the university offer foreign students that wish to come and study in Eind-

across Europe. In the Netherlands, we have tried to create a modern education system with a lot of project and design oriented education. Also, there is an open atmosphere in which the professors are very easy to talk to. In addition to this, Dutch universities, including ours, have decided to offer most of their master courses in English.

regardless of the country they choose. I think our university is a good choice for several reasons. Our main strength is of course our strong programmes which combine a high academic standard with good connections to companies. Besides, we offer good facilities like a large and well-equipped sports facility and good housing. Thirdly, Eindhoven is well located close to major cities in Belgium, France and Germany, which makes it a good base for exploring Western Europe. I should also mention that Eindhoven has an active student life with many different associations,

hoven? To make it attractive for foreign students to come to Eindhoven the university has taken a number of measures. For example, it offers guaranteed housing to all foreign students for the first six months and longer if possible. It also offers Dutch courses for those students interested in learning more about Dutch language and culture and assists in the process of obtaining visa.

PROFESSIONAL

Lastly, the theme of this magazine is Europeanization. What is your view on Europeanization? From an academic perspective, I see a harmonization of European education in the long term. In the process of implementation, every country is still taking a different approach at the Bachelor-Master structure, but I believe that eventually, these differences will equalise and there will be one European university landscape with students migrating between different countries and universities. For more information please visit: http://www.tue.nl/studyprograms

Is there anything left that you would like to add? Currently we can still see a lot of differences between universities

The way to truly appreciate someone is to realize that someday you might lose them

SIEGEN

AN ESTIEMER’S JOURNEY IN TAKING AN IDEA EUROPE-WIDE

disappointed when I realised my project would be too risky to

Idea phase, the MySecretary.Net concept Contemplating my strengths and past, I looked at my options where - I could avoid venture capital, meaning setting up on a low budget. The reason for this was that I had noticed several business sub-optimisations at my work at a venture capital backed firm, and I wanted to be sure about a success in the way when you only will need plus and minus. - I could use my background in telecommunications. - I could work directly with ready packaged products to end-users, having become impatient when working with enterprises that buy only after many months, or years, sales cycle. - I could do something differently than others without needing to compete head-to-head, at least not from the start. The idea I ultimately honed in on was to look at the telecoms service provider business from another perspective than the usual; instead of taking care of outgoing calls, but looking particularly at the value of incoming calls. As I thought the best metaphor for this would be a personal assist-

ant, I bought the rights to use MySecretary.Net as a brand.

or quite a few years, I have been nourishing the thought of setting up my own business. I think it is the challenge and the possibility to manage my own agenda that makes me tick. Here is my brief report from an enterprise in the making – or breaking…

PROFESSIONAL

Henrik Rudberg, Marketing Director and Sales Representative henrik.rudberg@cellip.com

From idea to launch, and then what?

MySecretary.Net is meant to help you to control your communication in a hopefully easier fashion.

Now, what do we need to do? One of the biggest mistakes that could ever be done is probably to think you are at least half way there once you actually have an idea of what to do. For me, it took months of business plan writing and tackling several issues. Finding a suitable, more tech savvy partner and financing the project were some of the more daunting issues. I relied on luck and the

market as-is with my extremely low budget. This was because I could not find a small enough yet worthwhile pond to try to become the biggest fish in (to use Geoffrey Moore’s words – Author of “Crossing the Chasm” and more).

Interim steps necessary So my newly found business partner and I tried to focus on the incoming calls in a big enough, somewhat homogenous group that was Henrik Rudberg not directly targeted by henrik.rudberg@cellip.com anyone else. A group Active member of ESTIEM Alumni that we could serve Graduated in IEM in Chalmers, Gothenwith the same, rather burg in 1996. costly telecommunicaCareer: Systems Engineer and Business tions infrastructure, we Development at Cisco Systems, Inc.; Marwould also later need keting Director and Sales Representative for MySecretary.Net. at Hotsip AB We ended up with a second, supportive, idea or company www.linkedin.com service to find rather, that we call Svefintel (absystem architect Per Hübinette, breviation from “Sverige-Finland now my business partner. I was Telefoni”, or “Sweden-Finland Te-

Life is a persistent teacher. It will keep repeating the lessons until we learn

PORTO

AN ESTIEMER’S JOURNEY IN TAKING AN IDEA EUROPE-WIDE

PROFESSIONAL

lephony” in English). With it, we hopefully not stop by launching looks of it, the first countries, in provide Finnish phone numbers MySecretary.Net, but also by which phone numbers could be to Finns living in Sweden, so that introducing Germany-Turkey Te- supplied, seem to be Sweden, they can more lephony, France- Finland, the US, the UK, Italy and easily stay Italy Telephony, Germany. If everything actually Cellip AB, www.cellip.com in touch with etc. If you are up works according to our plans, I - Originally set up to apply for friends and for a challenge, hope to have included most of GSM licenses, therefore its relatives back and have a par- the ESTIEM countries by the end crude name. Currently focus in Finland at ticular dual coun- of 2005! Whoever feels inclined on consumer brands: Svefintel the price of a try-relationship to go forward in a marketing caand MySecretary.Net. - Now markets fixed telephony local phone in mind, do send reer, you and we might even be services. call. But, are me an e-mail! good for each other! four employees, so far no 189 000 perturnover. sons born in On the other Finland, living hand, will we ever in Sweden, be able to launch enough to raise capital, in abso- MySecretary.Net with a split folute numbers and above all willing cus? Since me and my business to pay for such a service? We do partner do not have time now to not know yet (by the time of writ- focus on it, but need to pay all ing this in the summer of 2004), attention to Svefintel, we have but we will find out fairly soon as hired someone to make the efwe launch to this group in Sep- fort to put the missing pieces into tember at the annual Swedish- MySecretary.Net. Who knows, Finnish athletics tournament. check back at www.cellip.com to see whether it has actually What about Europeanization been launched by the time you coupled with the future of my are reading this article. From the project? Contrary to what I was alluding Entrepreneurial lessons learned so far: to when saying we simply set - Administrative hurdles – The good thing, I suppose in all, developed up another idea or company to countries is that there is a recipe for how administration and logistic support the development of the processes work. The bad thing is there is not much else than experifirst one, there is only very little ence that make you understand all the inner workings of it. This does simple about it. We have already take, and has to take time. realised that we might well be - Europeanization – You find that there are many things that are done or are under way when it comes to easing trade and entrepreneurship able to reuse all of the most exbetween countries. However, you will also be surprised at how little pensive equipment, our biggest attention is put at consumer-targeting trade and particularly the value capital expenditure. But, when it added tax problems and inconsistencies that arise in cross-border comcomes to processes, provisionmerce. A personal opinion is that this should be a prioritised area since ing the service and actual billing it does not only affect real-number growth, but also because so called of the service; it has so far cost Business to Consumer (B2C) activities will generate a pull effect on us more man-hours than would many Business to Business (B2B) activities. usually be healthy for any budget - Lack of professionalism by B2B players — having been selling all even though it is not as noticethrough my career, I realise I had not understood how few the compaable for those already running nies are that have a selling culture with professional staff. At least 50% of the approximately 60 companies I have had to deal with so far have on zero salary. Of course, we had a less than adequate attitude towards the customer. I think this also will still need to try to use this constitutes an opportunity for people with just reasonably priced and to our advantage… If Svefintel placed products. becomes successful, we will A winner says “I will” and succeeds. A loser says “ I’ll try” and fails

KARLSRUHE

INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL GIEBEL I studied IEM in Cottbus, Gothenburg and Halifax between 1994 and 2000. I have worked in the ICT-arena since 1999, currently

Saying that T-Systems International is one arm of German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom doesn’t give a complete picture. This wholly owned subsidiary itself has many arms, and it has an iron grip on various information and communication technology (ICT) service offerings. Those various arms reach into 20 countries and hand out a full range of consulting and outsourcing services, including desktop services, along with Web hosting and networking, and systems integration. For international carriers and corporate customers in sectors across the board, the company offers telecommunications services, including IP services, network services, and voice and data communications

at T-Systems International, the IT-services group of Deutsche Telekom AG. Currently, I mainly work in Desktop Services. An example of the work we do is fixing the computers for Lufthansa in some 380 locations in 94 countries. Could you describe your long involvement with ESTIEM, and where and when it began? I started my activities in ESTIEM with a local TIMES qualification in Cottbus, which promptly lead to the Semi Final in Berlin in February 1996 (admittedly it was not the greatest distance to travel, but it was still enough to catch the ESTIEM spirit). My first Council Meeting (CM)

was the spring CM 1996 in Veszprem, Hungary. I actually went to my first General Assembly (GA) in a suit and tie, as I had no idea of what to expect. Guess I was somewhat overdressed…

T-Systems International GmbH Company Profile

PROFESSIONAL

Daniel.Giebel daniel.giebel@t-systems.com

Can you introduce yourself briefly?

got elected.

Running through a couple more CMs, the highlight of my ESTIEM-life was my board year in 1999, where I acted as Vice President of Activities. After a couple more quiet years (well, I did still participate in a couple of CMs, but more on a leisure basis), I decided to run as ESTIEM Alumni president in 2003/2004, and, strangely enough,

After your term as Vice President of Activities in 1999, what made you continue with Alumni? Alumni gives me the opportunity to stay in active touch with my ESTIEM friends (something I would probably do anyway), but in a more defined and organized way. Given the infrastructure ESTIEM provides to ESTIEM Alumni, it is much harder to completely lose contact with someone than is normally the case. Furthermore, it gives me the chance to stay in touch with ESTIEM and to realize what’s going on there, and where the or-

ganization is headed as a whole. As I gained tremendous value from the time that I spent within ESTIEM, and I guess also some experience, I really do care how the organization develops. And I hope I can enhance the active ESTIEM life by offering advice and support, so that as many students of IEM as possible can benefit from ESTIEM in the way I did. What personal and professional skills did you develop whilst at ESTIEM, and how did that influence your career? ESTIEM taught me very early the benefits (the “dos”), and certainly also the pitfalls (the “don’ts”), of working together in international teams. My time with the organization has given me a sharper view on how people from different international backgrounds act, work and party together. This is very important for the position that I’m working in, trying to build a global service delivery in a company that is very “German”, based on its history. Indeed, my experiences in ESTIEM strongly lead me to this kind of position, as I was able to find out whether I was able to work on the international scene (hopefully…), or whether I’d be better sticking to an “in-country”role (as many of my study friends in fact now do). Do you see an impact of “Management in European integration“ in your everyday work? Yes, definitely. For my work, the larger Europe means a lot more business opportunities, and much easier transactions

If you want to know what your true beliefs are, take a look at your actions

VALENCIA

INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL GIEBEL ever offer you. Beyond that training, you build a network around Europe that makes working and private life a lot nicer, more pleasurable and also easier in a lot of aspects. I know that the current board has already travelled down that route, and I hope that a lot more ESTIEMers will be able to do the same. opinion, and I do express that towards people that join my team, it is definitely worth studying a year more (other people speak, in my opinion very wrongly, of “losing a year”) and enhancing your international profile through the activities ESTIEM offers. I can see an increased need for people to work internationally

Where do you work at the moment? Mostly in different airports around the world :). However, I do have an office in Frankfurt (which actually, despite common perception, is not that bad a city to live in!) What do you wish for the present Board and future generations of ESTIEMers? Something that suited me well was taking part in as many ESTIEM events as time schedule and budget permitted. In my

Daniel Giebel T-Systems CDS GmbH Serviceline Computing & Desktop Services Desktop Delivery Operations Daniel.Giebel@t-systems.com

(ever heard of “globalization”?!), and there is no better way to train than during ESTIEM events and the subsequent beers. It is something no university course can

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

PROFESSIONAL

between countries. This is one of the main fields I had to learn much more about when joining this job, and where I think ESTIEM is light years ahead in its mindset. While interacting with people is easy, convenient and efficient these days, providing services or moving goods and funds across countries’ borders is in contrast often a bureaucratic nightmare. European integration and harmonization makes it considerably easier to interact with other countries on that basis.

Students are often wondering how the start of their career will be like. In the following article you can get an impression about what you can expect when starting your Career at ESTIEM’s partner Bosch. Growing up y name is Andreas Pfundstein. I am 28 years old and I grew up in a small village in the Black Forest, a mountain range in the south-western part of Germany. After my high school graduation I worked half a year in a sawmill and afterwards I did voluntary social work for another six months, mainly for the integration of refugee children from the civil war in former Yugoslavia and Kurdistan. During that time I was also a tennis coach for young children in the tennis club in the village I grew up in.

PROFESSIONAL

Andreas Pfundstein, Manufacturing Engineer andreas.pfundstein@cz.bosch.com

“GOING EAST” FOR BOSCH TO THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Studies I studied Industrial Engineering and Management at the Technical University of Karlsruhe. I chose this subject mainly because I wanted to get an insight into both technical and business fields. This idea was also realized during my two internships abroad which were definitely the highlights of my studies: A business internship in the finance department of a medium-sized German company in their Shanghai-office in China, and a technical internship in Portland, Oregon, USA. I wanted to focus on the manufacturing processes so I wrote my master thesis while working in the area of Process Develop-

ment in a plant in Germany. First contact with Bosch and application Two things were important for me when I applied for my first job after graduation: I wanted to start in manufacturing and I wanted to do a Graduate Management Trainee Programme with an international orientation. During my studies I didn’t have direct contact with Bosch, except for washing machines and drills on supermarket shelves. The first time I met anyone from Bosch was at the Hannover Industry fair during my application, where Bosch had a recruiting booth. And Bosch offered a Graduate Management Trainee Programme which was very appealing, as they have various kinds of programmes such as finance and accounting or a manufacturing programme. In addition every trainee is assigned to a high level senior management advisor, who coordinates the obligatory stay abroad during the

two year program. Then I sent my “official” job application for the manufacturing programme to the responsible HR department in the Bosch Headquarters and I got an invitation for an interview at the

TAMPERE

Bosch plant in Bamberg. But it wasn’t just any ordinary interview in Bamberg; they organized an “application day” especially for me: First I had an interview with a person from personnel, then an interview with the plant manager and after that with the head of a manufacturing department. I was really surprised that a plant manager, who is in charge of 7500 employees, has the time to interview someone who applies for the Graduate Management Trainee Programme. This underlines how carefully Bosch select their potential future managers, to be sure that they are right for the company. But this was not the end of the “application day”. After lunch I got a tour of the plant and in the late afternoon I had a final discussion with the HR person again. Only a couple of days later I received a contract for the Graduate Management Trainee Programme in the Bosch automotive branch. As this application process was an absolutely unique experience for me, I decided to become a “Boschler”. Bamberg plant period I started my career with Bosch in the Bamberg plant in manufacturing engineering, working on injection valves. On the very first day I was allowed to join a meeting with the top management of our business unit where they presented the results of recent months. I was also immediately integrated into

Getting rid of bad habits is like peeling an onion. It must be done one layer at a time

AVEIRO

“GOING EAST” FOR BOSCH TO THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Ceske Budejovice plant period In November last year a new period started in my professional life at Bosch. After 14 months in Germany I moved to our Czech plant in Ceske Budejovice. My first task was to implement an additional test device in our cylinder head cover assembly line to prevent further customer complaints. After this I had to make improvements to a so called “quality stop system” in another assembly line to reduce reaction times of our indirect service departments. In general, our plant here is faced with three main questions: - How can further growth be realized? - What does lean manufacturing and thinking really mean? - How does this plant become a benchmark of quality within the Bosch world? These three questions can lead to tremendous changes and challenges for the plant, as this process is being undertaken very quickly. Cultural differences First I was surprised, astonished

did old “animosities” break out and the Czechs sang loudly and proudly in the market square in German (!) when they eliminated Germany from the tournament: “Auf Wiedersehen, Deutschland!”

and even a little bit scared, when my advisor told me that I should go to Ceske Budejovice for my trainee assignment abroad. I had never been in the former Eastern block countries; I didn’t know anything about the people or the language. But I calmed down when I arrived in Ceske Budejovice for the first time and saw Obi, Spar and Kaufland which are typical German shops, but they are open from nine in the morning until 10 in the evening, seven days a week, which is NOT typical in Germany. In addition, the surroundings of Ceske Budejovice are also very nice: The Bohemian Forest reminds me of the Black Forest at home and the “Lonely Planet” travel guide says “Cesky Krumlov (the neighboring city of Budejovice) is one of the most beautiful medieval cities in Europe”. And I found out that most of the Czech people here are open minded and friendly towards foreigners (and even towards Germans, although we have a “difficult” past). Only when Germany played football against the Czech Republic during the European Championship,

Retrospect and prospect Now I am almost at the end of my trainee programme and when I look back, I definitely have to say it was the right decision to choose this programme at Bosch. I have seen within a pretty short period of time different departments, different plants, different examples of executive managers, different countries, different approaches to doing business and different solutions for different problems. I have found the challenges I asked for – especially when I came here to the Czech Republic. Maybe there is not as much of a “Gold rush feeling” here in CZ as e.g. in China right now, but there’s still an atmosphere of making progress and pushing forward. I feel happy to be part of this changing process within our plant and within the Czech society and economy. And this is motivation enough for me to stay here longer. After my trainee programme I will take my first “regular” job in manufacturing at Bosch as an “expert” in our plant here in Ceske Budejovice.

After you make your mark in this world a lot of people will come around with erasers!

PROFESSIONAL

the daily work of the manufacturing engineering team, which involved systematically reducing the inventory in production, improving logistics and the optimization of technical devices. After seven months I joined the Process Development Department and took over responsibility for the grinding process of a direct injection valve; I had to verify the capability of the grinding process. My last assignment in Bamberg was a one month period in the Finance and Accounting Department to get a closer insight into business tasks as well.

GALWAY

AN INTRODUCTION TO ESTIEM ALUMNI

Tilman Tillmann, Alumni President mail@tilmantillmann.de

n the beginning there was the ideaâ&#x20AC;Śto keep the European-wide network of active and unique IEM students who founded ESTIEM alive, have fun together at the Alumni Meetings, drink some beer (or some more) and exchange experiencesâ&#x20AC;Ś

PROJECTS

As you know, ESTIEM is an organization with exceptional students: skilled engineers with multicultural attitudes and experiences, speaking several languages and quite flexible in terms of mobility. To lose the contact with these people just because you become a professional would not

make much sense. The main aim of the Alumni organization is to maintain the contacts you made during your active ESTIEM time and to get in contact with many other IEM-graduates within our network. ESTIEM Alumni aims to establish and foster interrelations not only in Europe but around the world, as many of our about 300 members have found their way overseas. What can ESTIEM Alumni provide to you? - a growing personal network of friends and business contacts, a unique selection of young European professionals who are mostly experienced in international projects and teamwork - Info letters at regular intervals, - annual Alumni Meetings in different parts of Europe, events with some serious work but also plenty of fun and new cultural experiences, - a variety of interesting activities, ranging from sailing tours to industry days or wine harvesting In addition to all people formerly involved in ESTIEM also other professionals interested in Industrial Engineering and Management are welcome to join the Alumni. Currently there is no membership fee, but we welcome any donations in order to enable an active and lively ESTIEM Alumni.

ESTIEM Alumni Internet Forum Our Internet homepage is our main tool for communication, including the contact database of all members. The possibility to search the Alumni database for branches (e.g. consultancy IT, consultancy strategy, automotive industry, consumer goods, ..) and departments (management, marketing, engineering, quality, ..) opens the opportunity for an expert forum. Through the internal Alumni-mailing-list all our members can be reached instantly, providing for easy and efficient distribution of information. Alumni Meetings (AM) Our members meet once a year in Alumni Meetings where different projects and future policies of the organization are discussed. The AM are the platform for most

The organizers

of the strategic and co-ordination work within ESTIEM Alumni, and also include cultural and free time activities. Here you will experience that the special spirit connecting ESTIEMers is still alive! The next Alumni Meeting will be in held in May 2005 in Sofia, Bulgaria. A new Alumni board is elected annually at the Alumni Meeting. The targets of the current board

I am grateful to all those people who refused to help me. Because of them, I did it myself

ILMENAU

AN INTRODUCTION TO ESTIEM ALUMNI

are to increase Alumni activities, develop the Internet Forum, and foster the contact to ESTIEM. Here a brief introduction to the Alumni board 2004-05: Anna Akhmadulina (St. Petersburg, Russia) I got involved in ESTIEM at the Council Meeting 1997 in St.Petersburg, and since then joined and organized to different extent many ESTIEM events based in St.Petersburg. After three years upon graduation, which I spent working for Hotel Kempinski, I decided to join ES-

Mirko Tomforde (Hamburg, Germany) My first ESTIEM event was the 1992 ski-happening in TIGNES. It went on with the Eindhoven International Weekend Management Skills and the Council Meeting Hamburg in 92... After my graduation in 1998 I was first working as an SAP consult-

Tilman Tillmann (Wolfsburg/Hamburg, Germany) My active time in ESTIEM started with the Council Meeting in Hamburg in 92. After that I have organized some events, joined several CMs and nearly all AMs, and been involved in the TQM Vision seminar, which also influenced my later career. After graduation I have gained work experience in quality consulting and automotive industry. For the past few years I have been working for Volkswagen group, including one year in China (Beijing) developing lo-

cal suppliers in the Asia-Pacific region. My target as the President of the Alumni is to get a variety of activities taking place, and install possibilities to increase networking in different branches or departments within the Alumni. How to become a member of ESTIEM Alumni? You do not need to wait until you graduate; you can already apply for Junior status when you are still studying. Please apply under www.alumni.estiem.org or send a mail to Anna at Anna. Akhmadulina@estiem.org

If you have any questions please mail us at board.alumni@.estiem.org Make the most of the ESTIEM Alumni network and join us! Tilman Tillmann President of ESTIEM Alumni

PROJECTS

TIEM Alumni at AM Istanbul 2004 - which with the help of some of you brought me to the board. My main responsibilities in the board will be administration and maintenance of the Alumni Database.

ant and later in the private equity business. Currently I am positioned as a manager controlling subsidiaries at Lufthansa Technik AG in Hamburg. I am enthusiastic about all kinds of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sâ&#x20AC;?-sports, such as swimming, sailing, scuba-diving, soccer... and in September I started my first Olympic triathlon. My board responsibilities include finances and the interface to ESTIEM.

Old and new board

If you love what you do you will never work another day in your life

DRESDEN

VISION OF CHANGE A EUROPEAN PROJECT OF ESTIEM

naomi.tolhuizen@estiem.org

Naomi Tolhuizen, PL

usiness strategies in a changing Europe”, “Vision of Change” for short, is the topic of the current Vision Project. Vision is an ESTIEM project which is held every year with a different topic for a series of seminars throughout Europe. In the Vision of Change series there will be 18 Local Groups organizing a seminar, each with their own subtopic, which is related to the central topic of Vision of Change. The seminars will take place from October 2004 to May 2005. Within this time frame each of these seminars will offer an event which includes several seminars and workshops dedicated to the topic as well as other activities such as company visits, cultural activities or just some activities to relax and have fun together.

PROJECTS

At the Autumn Council Meeting 2003 in Vienna the Working Group Vision chose the current topic for the Vision Project, Business Strategies in a Changing Europe. The 18 different seminars will take place at universities around Europe, each with its own subtopic. The subtopics are roughly about the changes we face with the extension of the EU, environmental changes and policies within Europe, technological improvements, entering new business markets, resistance of change and expanding business communication and logistics. Within the given time frame as many subjects as possible related to the current Vision topic will be discussed. This will give a good insight into the changes companies and governments have to face at this time of living.

Vision Coordination Meeting in Zurich From the 4th till the 6th of June, the Coordination Meeting for Vision of Change took place in Zurich. On Saturday and Sunday there were Working Groups at the university with discussions about current Vision issues. Topics of discussions were: the importance of a high academic content at the seminars and workshops (especially having an academic coordinator), how to attract international and local participants, elimination of late cancellations by participants, setting up programs for present local seminars, and finally, a discussion about how to optimise the communication between the Project Leader and the Local Groups. For more information, please refer to the minutes of the Coordination Meeting on the File Sharing System. The weekend was a great ESTIEM activity with effective working hours, some sightseeing, barbeques, parties, getting to know new people, and above all, experiencing the ESTIEM spirit together. Vision of Change Final Conference in Hamburg The Final Conference will be the last one in the series of Vision of Change seminars. During the conference, the central topic “Business Strategies in a Changing Europe” will be discussed in depth. Speakers of various nationalities will give seminars and workshops to get a good insight in what the changes

in Europe were, are and will be in the future. The aim is to attract professors from a diversity of universities throughout Europe, European Parliament members, internationally oriented companies and members of the national parliament as guest speakers to give their vision on the topic. During the conference week there will also be a company visit to a company leading in technology. Local Group Hamburg will organize the Final Conference for Vision of Change in May or June 2005. More information will follow soon concerning the date and program of the Final Conference.

You are all more than welcome to participate in the Vision of Change seminars! It is a good opportunity for you to get to know new cultures, make friends from different countries, experience the ESTIEM spirit and maybe the most important, join seminars with interesting topics about new business strategies in a changing Europe! The schedule of the upcoming Vision of Change seminars can be found at the end of this Magazine or at the Vision of Change website: www.visionofchange.es tiem.org

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone

BUDAPEST

TIMES

past. However, exceptions can tractive and entertaining aspect be made under certain restric- besides the academic one. tions; please ask your Semi-Final Dates to keep in mind: local responsible for more informaPlease refer to the following people for any question. tions concerning the Semi-Finals: Özgur Erpek (LG Ankara), Jan Spruijt (LG Eindhoven), Antoine Perret (LG Grenoble), Tobias Eulenberger (LG Ilmenau), Gustaf Landin (LG Linköping) and Christian Url (LG Vienna)

organize the Final of the 2005 edition for the first time in Switzerland! The six Semi-Finals will take place in Ankara, Eindhoven, Grenoble, Ilmenau, Linköping and Vienna. In order to enhance everyone’s chance and increase the attractiveness of the events while preserving fairness, the Semi-Finals will be organized on a more regional level than in the

universities’ champions. Furthermore, special training will be organized during the Fall Council Meeting in Istanbul for everyone wishing to organize such a Local Qualification. Hints, tips and best practices will take care of any uncertainties. During the SemiFinals and the Final there are also plenty of free time activities offered, giving the events an at-

Two qualification rounds are required to be selected for participation in the TIMES Final: all participants first take part in a Local Qualification round at their home university. The winning teams are then allowed to participate to the Semi-Final round, organized in six locations throughout Europe. Only the winners will travel to the next and final round taking place in Zurich.

rounds can take place very soon after the Autumn Council Meeting in Istanbul, between midNovember and mid-January. The Semi-Finals will then be spread between February and March. Last but not least the Final will take place in Zurich between the 3rd and the 9th of April 2005. The Local Groups wishing to participate in the TIMES 2005 will be asked to fill out a subscription form before December 1st.

PROJECTS

It is a great pleasure for my team and me to take over the responsibility of the project and

One of the goals of the TIMES 2005 will be to increase the number of participating Local Groups to a record-breaking percentage. Thus I would really like to point out here the advantages and benefits of organizing a Local Qualification. First of all the expenses are quite low since the first round consist of only one case study: our long time partner Roland Berger Strategy Consultants will automatically provide an appropriate case study, which means that the sponsor search will be very limited. Then, students of the same university can compete and gain experience on a real case study before they measure themselves with other

Fabrice Volken, PL fabrice.volken@estiem.org

ournament In Management and Engineering Skills, TIMES, known as the flagship project of ESTIEM. It has been successfully organized for over ten years and has greatly contributed to the development of business partnerships and thus to growth of the organization. Today it is considered a prestigious and highly acclaimed European-wide case study competition, in which about 65-75% of the local groups regularly participate!

On behalf of the project team and the Semi-Final organizers, I hope to have given you an interesting introduction and will be pleased to answer further questions via email or directly at the Council Meeting! Fabrice Volken, Project Leader TIMES 2005

When you are an expert on yourself, you are an expert on everyone else

ANKARA

“CAREER DAYS”A NEW SERVICE, A NEW CHALLANGE

PROJECTS

Akin Akyürük, PL akin.akyuruk@estiem.org

he main aim of a student organization is “adding value” to its members as ESTIEM does. One means for that objective is guiding its members in career planning to help them in their personal development and reaching their future

goals. ESTIEM Career was born for the mission of guiding ESTIEMers in their career planning by giving information about CV writing, interviews, cover letters, etc. as well as also publishing career events across Europe and company related information like postings. The evolution of the project was tough. ESTIEM Career was founded as a successor of ESTIEM EGC (European Graduate Catalogue). The vision of the project was created to fit with the organization and the objectives were designed as to be feasible. As the first result, the ESTIEM Career Website was designed.

The idea was to collect valuable career-related information around the Internet in a portal and put the information in an ordered, digestible form and publish them in web-quest style. Now, the Career Website is online inside the ESTIEM portal

Working Group Career decided to translate the idea into action. The content of the event was discussed and decided.

and lets ESTIEMers benefit from sorted, categorised, and countryspecific career information.

The event is planned to be held annually and to last five days. About 20 to 25 students from all over Europe are expected to participate. Four main topics will be covered. The first topic is “Interactive CV Writing Sessions” in which participants bring their own

Career Days The second and the most promising objective of ESTIEM Career is Career Days. The innovative idea to organize a career event was suggested in the Working Group Career during Council Meeting Sofia in spring 2004. It was shared with the Council during the General Assembly. Considering the support of the Council, the ESTIEM Look for opportunities, not guarantees

The Career Days are designed to provide the basic career planning information an ESTIEMer needs.

ISTANBUL

“CAREER DAYS”A NEW SERVICE, A NEW CHALANGE

CVs, evaluate them according to what they learn during the event and change their CVs correspondent to the discussions and interactive supervision. Second is “Interview Simulation”. This will be the most challenging part of the event and probably also the most exciting one. The idea is to improve the participants’ interview skills by taking part in an interview simulation. These interviews are held by HRresponsibles of companies sponsoring the event and detailed feedback is given afterwards.

The last but not the least part is

cess of our organization in international events once more. Local Group Budapest already took

Career Days is a fresh and challenging idea for ESTIEM. The first Local Group to organize this event will be the pioneer in ESTIEM and will prove the suc-

Akin Akyürük PL ESTIEM Career LG Ankara-Bilkent

this challenge and is planning to hold the first Career Days after February 2005.

If you don’t start it is certain you won’t arrive

PROJECTS

The third part of the event is “Leadership and self-improvement games” which are played in teams, so team members can improve their teamwork, leadership, and communication skills. On the first day of the event, participants get to know each other and team building is accomplished by these games.

“Case Studies”. On a separate day, the teams have to solve a case study provided by the sponsors. T h e s e four titles will build the core of the event, but the whole five days are further enriched by high quality lectures about several topics like “Self improvement and knowledge”, “How to promote yourself?”, “How to behave in an interview?”, etc…

EINDHOVEN

PAST AND FUTURE, KMC IS ROCKING!

Martin Schönbeck, CL martin.schönbeck@estiem.org

he Knowledge Management Committee (KMC) has existed for two and a half years now and is one of the biggest committees of ESTIEM. A fancy name, so what’s all behind it? In a student organization like ESTIEM, active members turn over relatively quickly due to their studies. Whenever an experienced member is leaving the organization, they take most of their skills and knowledge with them. KMC was founded to prevent this from happening. What has been done so far?

PROJECTS

KMC was first started to produce the Best Practice Documents (BPDs) that are now available to every ESTIEMer in the file sharing system (www.files.estiem.org). They exist for all projects and different types of ESTIEM events. A Best Practice Document summarises experiences from the past and is a useful guide for any project leader or event organizer. The Best Practice Documents are constantly updated to keep them accurate. A help-tool was implemented to give (help@estiem.org) ESTIEMers answers to their everyday questions. If you send an email to this address, it will automatically be forwarded to a bunch of experienced ESTIEMers who will do their best to help you. This help-tool was created to prevent the ESTIEM board from getting overloaded with questions. In connection with this help-tool a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) with corresponding answers has been developed and can soon be found on the ESTIEM Portal.

At the Council Meeting (CM) in Sofia (April 2004), KMC ran for the first time a training for Local Responsibles and also one for Project Leaders and Committee Leaders. At the CM in Istanbul a third training was started in cooperation with the TIMES (Tournament in Management and Engineering Skills) project, for organizers of TIMES local qualifications. These were all prepared a few weeks before the CM at a Coordination Meeting in Bremen.

In addition, KMC has recently carried out other activities as well. Examples include creating guidelines for the ESTIEM board and the improvement of project evaluation forms. What does the future hold? At the Council Meeting in Istanbul, a Knowledge Management working group was held for the second time to support KMC. There is still a lot of work to do and the things that have been done so far have to be maintained. The BPDs will be improved and promoted intensively so that people cannot miss them anymore, and a structure has

been set up to constantly update them and make them even better. The ESTIEM FAQ will be developed further and we must better advertise the available help-tools to let all ESTIEMers benefit from them. After the successful trainings which have been given so far, more will be prepared and held in the near future. For example, KMC could prepare trainings for Regional Coordination Meetings, since this is an excellent way to reach more students and get them involved in ESTIEM. Such trainings could also be used at events like Local Groups’ strategy weekends, newcomer weekends, etc. KMC will work together with the Members Committee to support inactive Local Groups. The role of KMC will lie in the creation of support material for getting inactive groups active again. Want to get involved? KMC is always looking for motivated ESTIEMers (new or experienced) who would like to contribute to the success of the committee. It is a nice way to get involved in ESTIEM and we can find a suitable task for everyone. If you have any questions, just drop me a line! Martin Schönbeck Committee Leader KMC

If you have made yourself important, notice you are not important

MÜNCHEN

ESTIEM EXCHANGE GUIDE

ave you always wanted to do a part of your studies abroad, but have not yet found viable options where to do it? If so then the Exchange Guide is an opportunity for you.

to look at travel stories written by students who have studied abroad at some IEM university and of course the pages provide links to exchange related sites. Recently Erasmus recognised ESTIEM with the help of the Exchange project and added ESTIEM to its student association pool. In the Council Meeting Sofia in the spring 2004 the Exchange project did not have its own Working Group, instead it was incorporated with Working Group Development. This was done to

Thomas Mathews, PL thomas.mathews@estiem.org

ESTIEM created the Exchange project in the year 1993. Its goal was to make it easier for students to study IEM abroad. Marja Blomqvist had an ambitious dream, to make an exchange network within all ESTIEM member universities. After a lot of effort from her and her professor ESTIEM had its own Erasmus ICP-net under EU’s Erasmus program consisting of fifteen ESTIEM universities. These universities had bilateral exchange contracts with each other. Afterwards the Erasmus program took over these responsibilities and the ESTIEM Exchange project focused on providing information and contacts in the

solve its strategic and long term challenges. As results from these sessions the Exchange project got some new ideas and suggested that the board and the project team should figure out how to continue the hard work done for the Exchange project after the Council Meeting Istanbul. So after many years of being an on-going project Exchange is going to be known in the future as the Exchange Guide. This name was given to the project since it describes well what the ESTIEM Exchange project has been for the past years: a guide for ESTIEMers around Europe to search information and contacts when planning their exchanges. In the future the Guide will be a part of the Academic Committee (AC). Since AC is all about promoting the academic part of ESTIEM we can all be assured that the Exchange Guide will be in good hands. As the last Project Leader Exchange I would like to thank all active members of the Exchange project. Please keep up the good work and update the database regularly. This is a task for each and every Local Group. Also inputting of travel stories is important and everyone who has gone for an exchange in another ESTIEM university should fill one out. Without up-to-date information the web pages are useless!

PROJECTS

Europe is integrating at ever accelerating pace; therefore cultural exchange and mastering foreign languages have become valuable and wanted in today’s job market. During university studies students are encouraged to go for an exchange to gain new experiences and skills. To help achieve this aim EU has funded several programs. As a result for example the current amount of Socrates exchange students is about one million and increasing all the time. The opportunities offered by the integration are endless. People who are ready to take advantage of the possibilities emerged can have international careers, develop their personal networks, and experience other cultures.

form of the Exchange Guide. By providing essential information about ESTIEM universities the Exchange Guide helps students to plan their exchange. The information is gathered and stored into a database, which can be easily accessed from the internet. In the database you find necessary information about how the studies are organized, living costs, housing prices, contacts to international offices, how to apply for an exchange and much more. All the information is filled in by local IEM students, so the information is from students to students. That is what makes our database so unique. On the web pages you have the opportunity

Europe is waiting for you. Open your Guide at http:// www.exchange.estiem.org. Thomas Mathews Project Leader Exchange LG Tampere

The angry people are those who are most afraid

LISBOA

SUMMER ACADEMY 2004

Haraszti Péter, PL peter.haraszti@estiem.org

uring this summer – like last year – two Summer Academies (SAC) took place in different locations. The first academy was in Hungary (Balatonalmádi) under the leadership of Dietrich Brandt (University of Aachen) with the topic “Human-Centered System Design – People, Organization and Technology”; the second one was held in Sweden (Gothenburg) under the leadership of Jim Platts (University of Cambridge) and Adam C. Östhed, a successful entrepreneur from the USA. ESTIEMers were very interested in SAC, we received a lot of applications, but because of the limited space we could invite just about half of them to the SAC events. In the following, you can

PROJECTS

s companies move from being large, monolithic organizations towards being virtual organizations of like-minded individuals working in close relationships in a geography-free way, ESTIEM provides a model environment for developing the skills needed for this kind of working. The ESTIEM Summer Academies look at the leadership skills needed in such situations. These are skills not of command and control - command and control does not work in an open network - but of care and growth, the skills that bring cohesion and personal creative fulfilment to the people in such networks. You can’t learn leadership from books, nor can you learn it in the lecture hall. It is a matter of self development - a matter of achieving a substantial level of personal maturity - and you can

find an article by Jim Platts about the SAC concept and two articles written by SAC participants about their thoughts on this year’s events. We are very grateful for the great effort and enthusiasm the Academic Leaders put in the project and gave ESTIEMers the unique chance to grow and to learn about leadership. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Dóra Henger (Budapest), Erik Hansson (Gothenburg), Maaretta Törrö (Oulu), Etienne van Gils (Eindhoven) and other people involved in the SAC project for their excellent work and help. Together we created valuable and successful events which we can be proud of

only learn it in deep interaction with someone who can not only

At last, but certainly not at least, I would like to thank the company SolidWorks, our main sponsor, and Valeo, the local sponsor of the Hungarian event, for their financial contribution, making it possible for SAC 2004 to go ahead. Peter Haraszti Project Leader - SAC 2004

and somewhere quiet, able to think and discuss deeply on issues of good leadership practice, both in the wider sense and also on detailed aspects of particular interest to you. If all goes well, in 2005 as well as the two Summer Academies there will be a Spring Workshop - a shorter event able to accommodate a larger number of people. These things can never be large events, but they don’t have to be. They fit the nature of ESTIEM. And over time they can help ESTIEM and ESTIEM Alumni change the face of manufacturing in Europe.

do it but who is interested in caring for and growing you and will give you personal time and attention. Hence you have the format of the ESTIEM Summer Academies:- two weeks in a small group, away from the world

Jim Platts University of Cambridge

If you want something and still don’t get it, means you dont really want it

LUND

SUMMER ACADEMY HUNGARY 2004

The programme of this Summer Academy event differed a little from the previous Summer Academies, because one of our sponsors, the French automotive supplier Valeo, wanted us to spend three days in their company. Therefore, we stayed the next three days not in our house at Balatonalmadi, but in

On the weekend, we followed the suggestion of our Turkish friends and went by bus to the famous Sultan Sulaiman monument. Besides, we visited Budapest, the capital of Hungary, and went on a nice sightseeing tour guided by a member of Local Group Budapest. During the second week, we continued our lectures under the main topic of leadership combined with group work, giving presentations and writing the thesis. The professor gave lectures less and less often and instead, we had to work by ourselves. This included presentations, group discussions and group work led by one of us. At the end of the two weeks, we had improved ourselves very much in presentations and leading a discussion. Aside from the lectures, we had to write our thesis for which we could choose our individual topic within the main topic of leadership and hu-

man centred design. Professor Brandt supported us a lot when we were writing it and if we had questions we were always able to ask him. The whole collection of these theses will soon be published in a book. On Wednesday of the second

week, Dora Henger, local project responsible for the SAC Hungary, organized a sailing trip on Lake Balaton. However, the wind was missing and therefore the sailing trip was changed into a swimming trip in the middle of the lake. The professor and his wife joined us, too. On the last evening of our two weeks, we joined a wine festival taking place in Balatonalmadi, where we had the opportunity to try some delicious Hungarian wines. At the same time, this was a splendid farewell night for our group.

EVENTS

On the first two days, we had lectures and seminars given by Professor Dietrich Brandt. The topic was: Human-centred System Design - People, Organization & Technology. Professor Brandt gave us an overview of the topic and presented us interesting details about humanism in production. He has already been working on this subject for 30 years now and is an expert on this topic.

the area of the company Valeo. On the first day, we had a visit of the production plant and a presentation that gave an overview of the company itself as well as the production process. The next two days, we were busy solving a real case for Valeo. We had to create a production process for a modified object called “clock spring”, which is a part of the steering wheel. After two days – and sometimes nights- of hard work we presented our results to one of the board members of Valeo. He was positively surprised and told us that they are interested in continuing this kind of relationship with ESTIEM next year. This was one of the best feedbacks we could get.

Steffen Franke steffen.franke@estiem.org

n August 1st, 12 ESTIEMers from all over Europe arrived at the airport in Budapest to spend the next two weeks together with Professor Dietrich Brandt from Aachen, Germany, in a nice house in Baltonalmadi. Baltonalmadi is a village located at the north side of the famous Lake Balaton. We, i.e. six students from Turkey, two from Hungary, two from Germany, one from Sweden and one from Russia, were looking forward to two very interesting and exciting weeks.

The Summer Academy in Hungary was a great event, where we had the opportunity to learn a lot which is not taught at university and also to make new friends in ESTIEM. I can only give one advice to everybody who has the chance to participate in SAC: Just do it! In high ESTIEM Steffen Franke

“I can’t” is always a lie. The truth is, “ I can, but right now I choose not to”

GÖTEBORG

JUST FOR FUN PAGE

René Heunen rene.heunen@estiem.org

Useless facts * Each year, about 100 people choke on a ballpoint pen * 35 percent of the people that place a contact advertisement are already married * It’s physically impossible to lick your elbow * There’s no English word that rhymes with ‘month’ * The electrical chair was invented by a dentist * The eyes of an ostrich are bigger than its brain * TYPEWRITER is the longest word you can make using only the letters of the top row of your keyboard * A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue * The lighter was invented before the match * 93 percent of the people who have read this tried to lick their elbow; you did too, didn’t you….? Escape from the secret ESTIEM files

INFO

You did it! Finally, after a long and dangerous journey you made it to the secret ESTIEM file room. You survived so many attacks, disarmed numerous traps ... SLAM!!! The door falls shut. The lights go out. You stay calm - you know what to do. There is a mechanism to open the door from the inside, but you have to hurry. The mechanism is inside a column with a square base. In the middle of each side of the column is a hole. All four holes are identical in shape and size. Behind each hole is a switch. You can put your hands inside two of the holes and finger for the switches. Once you’ve found them, you

can flip one or both switches, if you want to (up/down). After that, you have to pull out both hands simultaneously because the column will start spinning when one of the hands leaves its hole. After a while the column will slow down and eventually come to a halt. Now again you can reach for the switches. The door will open if all four switches are in the same position when the column starts spinning. Because you cannot mark the sides of the column and you do not want to hand your life over to sheer luck, you need to use clever tactics. How many number of tries guarantees you an escape from the treasure chamber? CM date mix-up The Council Meeting in Istanbul requires a lot of energy from its participants; it even affects their sense of time. Seven Local Responsible (LR) are having an argument about which day of the week it is. They speak as follows: * LR Stockholm: “The day after tomorrow is Wednesday.” * LR Karlsruhe: “No, it is Wednesday today.” * LR Skopje: “You are both wrong; it is Wednesday tomorrow.” * LR Bremen: “Nonsense. Today is neither Monday, Tuesday, nor

Wednesday.” * LR Novi Sad: “I’m quite sure yesterday was Thursday.” * LR Eindhoven: “No, tomorrow is Thursday.” * LR Lyon: “All I know is that yesterday was not Saturday.” If only one of the remarks is true, what day of the week is it? If the world population was to be summarized in a mere 100 people, there would be: *57 Asians *21 Europeans *14 from North and South America *8 Africans *52 would be female *48 would be male *70 would be non-white,30 white *59% of the entire world’s wealth would belong to only 6 people and all 6 would be citizens of the United States *80 would live in substandard housing *70 would be unable to read *50 would suffer from malnutrition *1 would be near death *1 would be near birth *Only 1 would have a college education *99,999993 of them would not see this message,because only 0,0000067 would be an ESTIEMER!

Until we are all that we can be, how can we be upset with someone who is not what we wish them to be?

LYON

ESTIEM SPORTS MEETING ESPOM ZURICH 2004

new event has been born inside the ESTIEM network. Most of the current projects (Vision, TIMES, Summer Academy) have been

We experienced very intense four days. The participants from Sweden and Germany arrived on Thursday. Just by chance, our Local Group had organized an information evening for po-

The weather improved throughout the day. After a refreshing rain during the morning soccer games, the sun came out in the afternoon. Without even noticing it, most of us got sunburned… However, unpredictable things happen: After finishing both tournaments we had two evenly matched teams for the title… What should we do? We settled for a soccer/ volleyball compromise: playing soccer with a volleyball barefoot! Over-time was required before a team scored, becoming the first winner of the ESPOM trophy. At the Council Meeting (CM) Istanbul in the autumn 2004, we will pass the ESPOM event to the next Local Group (LG) willing to carry on organizing this event. Everybody went to bed early in order to be rested to face the challenge of Swiss mountains on the next day. We drove to the Alpine hut, split up into two

Sunday morning we cleaned the hut and made our way to the next surprise: racing down the mountain with over-sized microscooters. Almost all of us made it down in one piece. We only had to witness one casualty, when a rock blocked the front wheel of a scooter. After witnessing the Hollywood-style flight, a big scare, and a couple of bruises we all met at the bottom for a sandwich.

EVENTS

tentially interested IEM students. The event took place in the Irchel Park, where we had a barbecue and watched the soccer game between Switzerland and England. Although Switzerland lost, we spent a fun evening under clear skies getting to know

Friday was the competition day. We met at 08:30 after breakfast on the sports field. Soccer and beach volleyball games were planned. We mixed the different groups to make five teams with members from Gothenburg, Karlsruhe, Kaiserslautern, Linköping, Zurich, and six members of the Electrical Engineering STudents European assoCiation (EESTEC) Zurich.

groups and climbed up the mountain. After about a four-hour hike, most of us made it back to the hut before the rainstorm. For dinner, we had several big plates of spaghetti and then spent a fun evening playing board games and cards.

Christoph Ott christoph.ott@estiem.org

stressing the academic value of conferences. However, ESPOM ESTIEM SPOrts Meeting - is based on the age-old idea: “mens sana in corpore sano” – a healthy mind in a healthy body.

ESTIEMers, local students, and hopefully some new ESTIEMers.

The adventure was coming to an end. Participants collected the things, repacked them in their cars and made their way home exhausted, but happy. As mentioned above, we in Zurich are looking for another LG ready to take up the challenge of the ESPOM. Let us start a new tradition of sports inside ESTIEM! On behalf of LG Zurich, Christoph Ott

If you don’t have what you want, you are not committed to it 100 %

HAMBURG

ESTIEM NEWCOMER WEEKEND LOCAL GROUP HAMBURG

Hendrik Korb hendrik.korb@estiem.org

rom the 18th to the 20th of June the “Newcomer Weekend”, hosted by the ESTIEM Local Group (LG) Hamburg, took place. The “Newcomer

Weekend” was created as an unique solution for informing interested IEM students about ESTIEM and its different projects, as well as to getting to know each other better.

EVENTS

About 20 motivated ESTIEMers and those who intended to become them (the “Newcomers”) drove towards the location where the event traditionally takes place: a house in a very small village called Welzin. Welzin is located about 80 kilometres from Hamburg and less then 10 kilometres from the Baltic Sea – a place that is really “somewhere in the middle of nowhere”. After everybody

had arrived and checked the surroundings in the early evening, the participants had dinner together. The participants took advantage of the beautiful landscape and the sunny weather after dinner to have a little welcome-party inside and outside. The newcomers were also introduced to the ESTIEM song… After breakfast on Saturday, the newcomers were divided into three groups so that the different ESTIEM projects could be presented simultaneously. Marcus was responsible for TIMES, Björn gave some general explanations about ESTIEM and the program of LG Hamburg, and Hendrik for the projects; Summer Academy, Magazine and Vision. Digesting this large amount of information was a little bit exhausting – so everyone took the chance to relax during lunch… However, as soon as everyone finished their dessert, the work continued: Martin Schönbeck from LG Eindhoven presented the IT Project to the participants. The last presentation showed that enough work for the day was done so people decided to go to the beach on the Baltic Sea nearby. After return to Welzin, everybody watched the football game between Germany and The Netherlands in the Euro-

pean Championship. Meanwhile, dinner was prepared on the grill outside and a campfire was also lighted. The atmosphere was set for fun games (like ESTIEM abbreviation game…) and a great party for the evening. On the next morning everybody got up quite late… As a result, the three working groups hit the ground running: one dealt with a design for the ESTIEM Hamburg logo and an improved Newcomer Weekend presentation, another working group with the concept of the Summer-MAX-Party, which is regularly organized by ESTIEM Hamburg, and the last working group elaborated on plans for the Vision Final Conference. Everybody had lunch during the working session in order to have enough time left for a last ESTIEM song before we drove back to Hamburg.

In conclusion, we had a really nice weekend near the Baltic Sea. The newcomers got to know the famous ESTIEM spirit. Last but not least: a big “Thank you!” to Martin Schönbeck. It was really great that you travelled the long distance to honour us with your attendance!

Courage is simply the willingness to be afraid but act anyway

NOVI SAD

ESTIEM MAGAZINE COORDINATION MEETING , NOVI SAD

Magazine Coordination Meeting (CoM). Eight students took part in this Coordination Meeting: Bojan Jovanoski, Vladimir Stojanoski and Dejan Blazeski (LG Skopje, Macedonia), Andrej Manevski (LG Bitola, Macedonia), Oya Ari (LG Istanbul – ITU, Turkey), Anna Marszalkiewicz

This CoM was organized with the purpose of continuing the work that was commenced at the Council Meeting in Sofia (Bulgaria) in April 2004. On the first day, we were working on the topics and subjects that the next issue of ESTIEM Magazine should cover. It was not an easy task at all, having in mind that the Magazine has 44 pages on average. We also agreed that the Magazine should be printed again in the countries of South-Eastern Europe, because that way

it would be least expensive. We talked about the option of having a central printing place, a city where the printing costs are very low. This can be Istanbul, Sofia or Skopje. From there each time the packages with the Magazines and the other printed material, will be distributed to the CM. This will give us a permanent and proven printing partner, who will decrease the technical difficulties that we encounter each time when we print at a different location. Another interesting idea that we came up with, was the “Comic brochure”. We will cut out the “Fun page” from the next issue on, but we will add more interesting material. This material will be on four pages, and it will be possible to remove it from the magazine. It will be in the center fold place, and it will be lightly attached to the magazine itself. This will give a chance to the students who use the magazine as PR material, to remove it and in that way keep the magazine more professional and serious. The following days, we were mostly working on improving the

Slobodan Radičev slobodan.radicev@estiem.org

(LG Poznan, Poland), Alexandra Muzyka (LG St. Petersburg, Russia) and Slobodan Radicev (LG Novi Sad, Serbia).

EVENTS

rom June 25th -29th, Local Group Novi Sad and the Faculty of Technical Sciences organized the first

design of the following issue, which is to be published this

Your interpretation of what you see and hear is just – your interpretation

LINKÖPING

ESTIEM MAGAZINE COORDINATION MEETING , NOVI SAD

October. The Faculty of Technical Sciences provided us with two laptops and a projector along with one of their best-equipped computer rooms that completely met all our demands.

EVENTS

The participants of the CoM were accommodated in well-equipped dorms. Concerning meals, the participants were especially delighted and satisfied with the

dinner at the “Balkan express” restaurant, where they were served delicious meals from the authentic Serbian cuisine. The participants of the CoM were very satisfied with Novi Sad’s

nightlife and hospitality of its people. They particularly liked the Petrovaradin Fortress, the City Hall, and the famous beach “Strand”. We also had a minor problem during the CoM, if it can be called that way. It was an injury that Alexandra Muzyka had jumping on a trampoline on the “Strand”, but she was taken to the local hospital and adequately taken care of. She had to return home with a cast on her leg, which by the way solved the dilemma she had about which shoes she should wear on the ceremony of receiving her diploma on 30th June ;-) Bojan Jovanoski and Vladimir Stojanoski even decided to stay a little longer for the EXIT Summer Fest, the biggest of these events in this part of Europe, which they were extremely satisfied with, as well as with everything else in Novi Sad.

tion and cooperation of the students, assistant teachers and teachers at the Faculty of Technical Sciences. To conclude, I would like to express my thanks to everybody who helped me in organizing this CoM, especially our dean professor Dr. Ilija Ćosić, and assistant teacher Bojan Lalić, without whose help it would have been

impossible to organize this international meeting. Also, I would like to thank the whole LG Novi Sad crew who helped us: Nikola Zivlak, Slavko Prekajski, Branka Svonja, Borislav Pantovic, Miroslav Radulovic, Ivan Karlovic and Marko Ljubicic. Slobodan Radičev Organizer of the CoM Magazine, Novi Sad

All participants of the Magazine CoM were pleasantly surprised with the very good communica-

Blaming others for our troubles is as logical as saying flies cause garbage

STOCKHOLM

INNOVISION ST. PETERSBURG “INNOVATION MARKETING” for our participants thanks to the sponsors we had managed to find.

rom March 28 to April 3 Local Group St. Petersburg organized a memorable event including an InnoVISION seminar belonging to the annual ESTIEM Vision seminar series. The topic of the InnoVISION series was Innovation management and the series included 20 seminars, the last one of them being held in St. Petersburg.

A Hermitage tour (our famous museum) followed on the next day. That day, we also had some sort of a game. Divided into four teams, our visitors had to find their way around the city by themselves being provided with a city map, a list of certain sights to be found and one tour guide from the organizing team. Visit-

The InnoVISION seminar started on Wednesday. The topic of the seminar was devoted to innovation marketing. All in all, about 130 people came to listen to the professors and company representatives. Lectures were divided into so called theoretical and practical ones. We started with professors who clarified the concept and continued with the company representatives who showed how innovation marketing strategy could be implemented in real life. Workshops held after the lectures proved that the chosen issue was really an urgent and essential one for business development in Russia. The next day featured a visit to a company which produces ceramic tiles. The guided tour concerned the process of ceramic tiles production. The problems of promoting finished products were also discussed among the visitors and the company’s representative. That kind of discussion fitted the Vision seminar topic quite well. Besides, on that day we had a special party devoted to Fool’s Day! Lots of jokes and tricks were played at the club as well as during the day. By the way, ALL parties and dinners during the entire week were free

Great pictures and kind responses I keep receiving do not let nice memories die. Thoughts of those friendly days spent together still live in our hearts. Seriously, all sleepless nights of organizing do

EVENTS

From the very beginning, we wanted our participants gathered from all over Europe to see Russia from all different possible sides so they could really experience this mysterious country. On Monday, we had organized a tour around the city, which we always do to show how beautiful and gorgeous St. Petersburg is. That day our participants also got the opportunity to visit a Russian company that produces beer. At the end of the day, a party at the biggest nightclub METRO made absolutely everybody dance and have fun!

ing one of the Russian theatres and attending the opera became a really nice ending of that exciting day.

The farewell party was held in Revolution Club. The interior of the club is designed in a Soviet style and has the portraits of Soviet leaders as well as old flags and slogans all over the walls. Six floors allow everyone to choose a dance floor they like best. Since it was our last party together, nobody wanted to leave really soon and the strongest ones stayed until early morning…

Ksenia Vidyagina ksenia.vidyagina@estiem.org

Unfavourable weather forecast and visa barriers did not scare the bravest ESTIEMers to fly to St. Petersburg. And here they were, all thirty of them, ready for new challenges!

not seem to be such a big deal after all in comparison with what all of us get in return thanks to ESTIEM. I really want to thank EVERYONE who came to the seminar and made that event the most special one. On behalf of Local Group St. Petersburg Ksenia Vidyagina Project Leader of the seminar

Whatever you assume to be true, whether it is true or not, will become real for you

GDANSK

TIMES FINAL

he door opens and we enter a room filled with expectation. We present ourselves as consultants from Lund Consulting Group and observe the well-dressed, earnest company of men sitting in front of us. They claim to be the management of a major global oil-company and their sole purpose is to listen to what we have to say about improving their logistics operations in Europe. Michael puts the first slide up on the projector. This is itâ&#x20AC;Ś

EVENTS

On a rainy day in November 2003 our team was put together by four class-mates who had not spent that much time together before but were all interested in a new challenge. In the local competition we were eager to compete against our fellow classmates and were happy when our structured solution gave us the victory. In retrospect we can conclude that we made several mistakes in the local competition, e.g.: did not recommend a company to build an extra factory when it was suffering from a reduced level of demand. Also we did not try to trick the jury by answering another question that was asked.

We felt honored to be the first team ever to represent Lund in TIMES and were now excited to go to Gothenburg for the semi-finals. On the train to Gothenburg, which took a couple of hours, we had the opportunity of getting to know one another better. Through an open discussion we were able to define the roles of all the members of the group. Probably this discussion was one step in creating our genuine team spirit and focused goal orientation. The arrangements in Gothenburg were very nice. We were accommodated in the flat of a student and the competition was held in the beautiful buildings of Chalmers Technical University. The competition consisted of two cases; one about Ericsson and one from Semcon, a Swedish technical consultancy agency. At the end of the weekend we were the winners after a tough contest. Our main learning experience gained from these cases was not to put too much emphasis on the opinions of the members of the jury, but instead to believe in ourselves and the solution of our team. Now we were to represent our school in the final in Hamburg and people were starting to show their appreciation of our achievements. To learn more before the final, we met with representatives from Accenture, Sydkraft and McKinsey. They gave us useful

advice and models of thought that were to prove very useful in the upcoming final.

The final consisted of seven teams from all over Europe, primarily Scandinavia, who were to compete over an entire week. During the week we were to solve three cases. These concerned SMI, a daughter company of Philips Semiconductors, IKEA and a client of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. The case-sessions all started with a presentation of the case and then we were given a four-hour preparation time, and our final presentation was limited to 20 minutes. Throughout the entire competition all the presentations had to be prepared using overhead-slides only; no computers or books were allowed. After completing all of the three cases we had to solve during the week, we were given feedback from the jury regarding both our solutions and our presentations. This was something that often gave us confirmation of the weaknesses that we had ourselves also perceived during the respective presentations, and thus helped us to improve even more. Every second day was a day for well-needed relaxation and among the highlights of the events planned for us were a tour of the harbor, a guided visit

People concern themselves with being normal, rather than being natural

WIEN

TIMES FINAL logistics provider. This added an extra dimension to the competition and the teams preparing the best questions were immediately given an advantage.

to the Reeperbahn and a visit to the newly opened planetarium. These proved excellent opportunities for getting to know our fellow competitors as well as the city of Hamburg.

time an opportunity was given to all of the teams of interviewing a manager from either the oil company or from a major European

After the feedback and the presentation of the preferred solution from the jury, dinner was served in one of the hotel dining-rooms. This was an enjoyable event although most of the teams were probably quite nervous since the winning team had not yet been presented. So, after dessert had been served the moment we had all been waiting for had arrived and the winning team was presented. We were thrilled when they announced that Helsinki finished second which meant that we were the winners. At the same time the organizing committee from Hamburg was also properly thanked for preparing a truly enjoyable week. At the end of the night most of the teams seemed to be quite content with what they had achieved and the atmosphere was great. We believe everyone had certainly had a great week in Hamburg and at the same time had made a lot of new friends. The TIMES competition is really an event that can be recomFear prevents us from hearing our intuition

During the TIMES competition we have also experienced the importance of good team-spirit, an effective division of work and enthusiastic and well-structured presentations. We all feel that we have improved our skills within these areas and feel more confident in addressing complex problems and using English when working within a wide array of industries.

Lund, 2004-08-01 Carl Andersson Martin Dahlberg Erik Gunnarsson Michael Sjรถholm

EVENTS

The last day, which was also the day for the last case, was to be held at a beautiful and fancy hotel in the center of Hamburg serving as a nice change of scenery from the university. The case was, as previously mentioned, sponsored by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants who also contributed with three members of the jury. The case dealt with improving the business of an oil producer in Europe and one of the main topics was to decide their depth of co-operation with a number of logistic providers throughout the continent. During the preparation

The session of questions following this last presentation was more extensive than on the earlier occasions and we felt we had to work quite hard defending our solution to the problems. The Q & A sessions after all of the presentations are in general quite challenging and you get a good opportunity of evaluating your own argumentative and persuading skills.

mended to all who enjoy a good challenge while at the same time having a lot of fun and meeting a lot of interesting people.

Epilogue: Carl is to start working on his thesis at SMI in Hamburg in autumn. Martin has just finished his thesis at Sony Ericsson in Lund. Erik is working on his thesis in co-operation with Semcon in Gothenburg and will begin his internship with Roland Berger in Munich in January. Michael is starting his thesis in the near future at Malmberg Original in Yngsjรถ.

CALABRIA

UPCOMING ACTIVITIES Here you can see the variety of ESTIEM events taking place around Europe within the next six months – which ones will you participate in? Check out the latest updated information at www.estiem.org and register yourself for your favourite events through the ESTIEM Portal. See you somewhere in Europe!

November 31st October – 5th November: Autumn Council Meeting, Istanbul 16 – 17 November: Bosch Workshop, Stuttgart th

February 8th – 13th February: Vision of Change Seminar, Tampere: “Facing the New EU-Countries” 14th – 18th February: Vision of Change Seminar, Tallinn: “Tallinn Business Partnerships and Technologies Transfer on the Baltic Sea” 23rd – 27th February: Vision of Change Seminar, Trondheim: “Better off alone?”

“Business Communication within the new EU” 12th - 16th March: Vision of Change Seminar, St. Petersburg: “Russia and the EU” 30th March – 5th April: Vision of Change Seminar, Bremen: “Solutions for logistics” April 3rd – 9th April: TIMES Final, Zurich 8th – 11th April: Vision of Change Seminar, Skopje: “Managing resistance of change” 11th – 16th April: Spring Council Meeting, Lyon

17th – 22nd November: Vision of Change Seminar, Berlin: “VISIONary Chances in the new EU”

18th – 21st April: Vision of Change Seminar, Porto: “Environment Policies - A Challenge for the Future”

23rd – 27th November: Vision of Change Seminar, Dresden: “Consequences of the expansion for Energy and Ecology”

22nd – 24th April: Manufacturing Leadership Workshop, Istanbul: “Meaningful Manufacturing: Transformational Work”

26 – 28 November: Newcomer Weekend, Hamburg

INFO

28th November – 2nd December: Vision of Change Seminar, Kaiserslautern: “New countries, new customers” December 2nd – 5th December: Vision of Change Seminar, Karlsruhe: “Exploring new markets”

January 13th – 18th January: Vision of Change Seminar, Cambridge: “Risks and Opportunities for the expanded European Union”

28th February – 4th March: Vision of Change Seminar, Clausthal: “Integration of regional structures”

24th – 28th April: Vision of Change Seminar, Lund: “Eastern Europe - the Hub of Change”

March 4th - 7th March: Vision of Change Seminar, Gdansk: “Change of Technology in Europe”

May 13th – 16th May: Alumni Meeting, Sofia

5th - 10th March: Vision of Change Seminar, Lisbon: Even the mice makes three holes

17th – 21st May: Vision of Change Seminar, Warsaw: “Change your ways in the EU”

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