ESTIEM Magazine | Spring 2012 | Dynamic Management

Dynamic Management

Redefining Corporate Survival Skills

European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management Issue 42 2012/1 | ISSN 0874-5242 | Price 0 Euro | www.estiem.org

Pursue your Industrial Engineering Master’s Program in the Netherlands?

4 5 6

What about the masters Innovation Management or Operations Management & Logistics at Eindhoven University of Technology?

www.tue.nl/masterprograms/oml www.tue.nl/masterprograms/im

Where innovation starts

ESTIEM Alumni is about staying in contact with fellow ESTIEMers to further foster friendships and develop new connections. www.alumni.estiem.org

36

INSIDE ESTIEM Back in 1990 The Board 2011 Interviewing the Board 2012 Let’s Train Your Brain Looking Good!

Financial and Legal Committee - We are the Law What’s happening in Madrid?

Business Booster - Keep on Boosting Motivation and Fear of an ESTIEM Entrepreneur From Former Committee Leaders From a Retired ESTIEMer EPIEM Symposium in Groningen Harmonization of Industrial Engineering within Europe A ReCoMendable Event in Skopje Tug o’ War Activity Week Experience The Magic of the ESTIEM Spirit Let us Entertain You Digital Trends in Public Relations Vision is Spreading the Knowledge Our Work is the Presentation of our Capabilities TIMES Semi-Final in Lund - A Project Leader’s Perspective A Short Story from an “HR Point of View” Training Advanced Trainers Eindhoven - A brief insight

INTRODUCTION Editorial President’s Speech Projects & Committees

8 9 14 15 16 17 18 21 22 23 25 26 27 28 29 31 32 33 34 35 FOCUS Mastering Environmental Turbulence The Philosophical Foundations of Sustainability Ready for Uncertainty Dynamic Management - Organisations’ Full Potential 45 Agile Project Management - Building the bridge while you walk on it

37 40 41 42

CAREER Get your career off to a successful start 47 with Carl Zeiss AG The beautiful world of Vision 50 EXPLORE EUROPE

51 My Year in Paris 53 Studying and Surfing for One Semester 55 Northern Experience - Studying in Trondheim Agenda

ESTIEM Alumni Meeting

25th-28th May 2012 Darmstadt | Germany

58

4

INTRODUCTION

IMPRINT

Dear ESTIEMers,

Project Leader Jelena Bajšić Editorial Staff Jelena Bajšić Victoria Martínez Layout Anne-Laure Ladier

Advertisement Acquisition Victoria Martinez Contact magazine@estiem.org ESTIEM Permanent Office Paviljoen B-6 P.O.Box 513 5600 MB Eindhoven The Netherlands Fax: 0031-(0)40 2473871 info@estiem.org www.estiem.org Disclaimer The contents may not always reflect the opinion of the publisher.

Any reproduction or copy is permitted only with the permission of the editors.

Our Partners

What has proven to be effective in this dynamic business world is to be what the world is – dynamic. And to be dynamic, one has to accept the nature of the same and then reach synergy or harmony. This is why dynamic management was introduced to leaders – it is a way of going through the corporate jungle and ending up on the top. It is flexible, adaptable, modern and unpredictable. But, what methods and strategies should it be consisted of? What is the recipe for dynamic management?

How is it redefining urban survival skills and helping companies reach full potential?

Find out in the 42nd issue of the ESTIEM Magazine!

You will have the chance to read about what the experts think of this topic, how they see dynamic management and not only that, but also what has been going on in ESTIEM. Next to this, you will find out which events took place and what participants said about them, personal experiences about being a part of this organisation, stories from exchanges, what the digital trends in today’s business world are and much more!

Enjoy reading!

President’s Speech Dear Reader,

For an organisation with 25 different countries, with different cultures and working styles, where its members have an average active lifetime of 2-3 years, working on a voluntary basis with different levels of commitment… It is hard to think of a more adequate focus topic for our 42 nd issue of the ESTIEM Magazine, which is Dynamic Management.

Wit h t he capability of studying Macroeconomics one day and Thermodynamics the next, who is more capable of practicing dynamic management than Industrial Engineering and Management students? Our transversal study background allows our minds to be rational and flexible, which is the perfect combination in my eyes.

The world is becoming smaller and ever more often companies compete on a global scale.

However, this makes the future even more uncertain for them, so the management needs to be flexible and skilful at making well timed decisions.

This is the essence of dynamic management.

I happily invite you to read this edition of ESTIEM’s Magazine, after a quick sneak peak I can tell you that it is going to be a good read!

Unfortunately, in almost every recent publication there is some reference to the economic crisis that plagued the world during the last years. This one will be no exception. The truth is that because of this crisis, our generation of Industrial Engineers and Managers is accustomed to the notion of an uncertain economy and we will have the need for dynamic management very present in our minds.

We know that long term planning is necessary, but it cannot be written in stone since you cannot know what tomorrow will bring. Scenario planning is definitely needed when making decisions and action plans need to have some “wiggle room” so that managers can continuously adapt and improve their organisations’ course of action.

In high ESTIEM,

XAVIER AZCUE

Article Acquisition Jelena Bajšić Sorana Ioniţă Darija Medvecki Igor Jovanović Victoria Martinez

JELENA BAJŠIĆ

Design Dunja Sekulić Sebastian Mohr Anne-Laure Ladier Jelena Bajšić Bojan Galonja Melania Mateiaș

Today’s world of economy is a hectic environment which is constantly changing its attitude – it can be peaceful and friendly and then, all of a sudden, it can turn hostile and become hardly predictable. In order to deal with it and ensure both survival and profit, companies are searching for a key strategy which will help them reach their goals. Sometimes, this strategy can be a path to success and sometimes it turns into a slow walk towards illiquidity and eventual shutdown. This is why leaders of these companies have to possess the right knowledge and experience to implement the right methods. They have to agree upon the fact that change is inevitable and that their company has to expect it, recognise it, embrace it and adapt to it.

5

INTRODUCTION

6

ESTIEM Projects BrainTrainer

BrainTrainer is a Project designed to develop leadership, presentation, business and human skills of the participants through professional trainings lasting one or two days. Its aim is to coach and develop the participants to become more professional and successful in their organisation as well as in their own future career.

Europe3D

Within a 5-day seminar series the participants get a basic picture of the hosting country. A special focus thereby lays on national characteristics in politics and economy. Lectures given by experts from politics, science and economy shall provide the participants with a theoretical insight. On the other hand the Project’s aim is to integrate our guests actively in this seminar. Especially to include the practical aspect, the Project cooperates with companies for excursions and lectures.

ESTIEM Magazine

The official publication of ESTIEM provides the perfect platform to reach a target group of approximately 50 000 students of Industrial Engineering and Management at universities all over Europe.

The ESTIEM Magazine is published twice a year and distributed among IEM students, graduates and also professors and companies across Europe, through the ESTIEM network.

Summer Academy

Through the Summer Academy Project, ESTIEM recognizes the importance of and takes responsibility for providing knowledge of ethics and sound leadership among future leaders of Europe. It was set up to bring international students together during summer holidays to engage in open discussion, group work, debate and private study under a senior Academic Leader.

Student Guide

Student Guide is ESTIEM’s guiding service provided to students who are interested in studying Industrial Engineering and Management in Europe.

Through an online database full with academic and practical information on cities/universities, ESTIEM promotes intercultural and academic exchanges within Europe. All the information is provided by students in our database. Student Guide also shares the experiences of the students who have been abroad for studies by collecting articles.

TIMES

T h e Tou r n a me nt I n M a n a g e me nt a n d Engineering Skills (TIMES) is the largest pan-European case study competition solely for the students of Industrial Engineering and Management.

This prestigious, highly acclaimed event is the flagship project of ESTIEM. It has successfully been organised since 1994 and attracts around 1000 top European students every year. After Local Qualifications in 66 different universities and 7 Semi-Finals in selected cities, the winning team of the Final is awarded the title of Europe’s “IEM Students of the Year”.

Vision

Vision Seminar Series aims to improve the personal skills and capabilities of the Industrial Engineering and Management students in Europe.

The seminars contain a balanced mixture of academic lectures, workshops and company visits, which are combined with cultural and free-time activities of the organising city. Through those activities the participants of a Vision Seminar develop themselves both personally and professionally. Each year’s Vision Seminar series focuses on one main topic to which all Vision seminars are connected.

The current main topic is Vision - Crisis and Change Management.

& Committees Corporate Relations Committee

The Corporate Relations Committee coordinates the relations between ESTIEM, companies and universities jointly with the Board. The Committee’s work covers a number of fields with the aim of improving and simplifying ESTIEM’s relations with companies and universities, such as updating cooperation proposals, creating and gathering results for different surveys or training people on how to approach companies and universities. The Corporate Relations Committee also plays an active role in supervising and supporting Projects and other Committees with regards to sponsors and academic supporters.

Public Relations Committee

The aim of the Public Relations Committee is to take care of ESTIEM’s outer appearance. The Committee is responsible for communicating the brand of ESTIEM and increasing the awareness both inside and outside of ESTIEM. The PR Committee works with several different tools to achieve this, for instance designing PR material, creating design templates and guidelines, as well as working on press and social media visibility.

Information Technology Committee

The IT Committee maintains the mail, intranet, and web servers of ESTIEM and coordinates all IT-related development in the organisation, such as regarding the IT backend system (.NET platform/C#). In addition, its members offer troubleshooting services and technical advice to ESTIEMers.

Grants Committee

The Grants Committee supports ESTIEM’s applications for EU Grants and aims to establish and develop knowledge on public funding opportunities and their application procedures. It also wants to share the existing knowledge with as many ESTIEMers as possible and to support more and more Local Groups apply for an EU Grant for their events.

7

Members Committee

The Members Committee supports the members and provides information for those students interested in joining the ESTIEM organisation by forming their own Local Group. They guide them through the whole process, starting from establishing contact – via the guest and observation period – until fully pledged membership. Also, Members Committee takes care about Local Group Exchanges, Requirements that Local Groups are expected to fulfill, tutors Local Groups that are already members of ESTIEM and tries to figure out what Local Groups need on local level, cooperates with the Trainers on Tour to fulfill these needs that have issues about any possible topic (HR, PR, Recruitment, Fundraising) and fosters connections between Local Groups.

Financial and Legal Committee

The Financial and Legal Committee’s role is to ensure ESTIEM’s compliance with all laws and regulations. It supports the Board, other Committees, Projects and Local Groups in all financial and legal matters. On one hand, it consists of experienced ESTIEMers and ESTIEM Alumni, who are motivated to provide advice whenever requested. On the other hand, active Committee members work on creating and updating Best Practice Documents, trainings, templates, etc. for all related topics. Since many people are unexperienced with finances and regulations, the Financial and Legal Committee aims at helping them to deal with them correctly.

Furthermore, the Financial Controllers, who perform every year the audit of the financial books of ESTIEM, are part of the Committee.

Knowledge Management Committee

The Knowledge Management Committee does three things. First, updating/creating Best Practice Documents – from organising a Project to how to be a Leader, available online on the ESTIEM Portal – by documenting the collective experiences of ESTIEMers throughout time. Second, collecting feedback from the ESTIEM events participants in order to make Quality Reports, showing the development of ESTIEM’s Projects. Third, providing trainings on the ESTIEM events and on local level to stimulate a continuous development of ESTIEM and ESTIEMers. n

INTRODUCTION

8

INSIDE ESTIEM

9

The Board 2011

Back in 1990,

interviewing

students from five different countries founded an organisation, which they named ESTIEM: European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management. Its aim was and still is to establish and foster interrelations among European students of Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM).

After 22 years, it has grown into an organisation bringing together 50 000 students from 66 universities in 25 European countries, and is still growing.

All these universities offer courses in IEM. Based on this structure, ESTIEM forms links between students, academics and companies in order to create a Europe-wide, multi-level IEM network. ESTIEM has continuously increased the number of its activities, thus being able to offer a great variety of events to IEM students and an opportunity to experience different cultures, take part in international projects and become friends with other ESTIEMers from all over Europe.

The decision-making body of ESTIEM is the Council, which meets twice a year, in autumn and in spring. Each university, represented by its socalled “Local Group”, sends two student representatives. The six members of the Board of ESTIEM are elected during the autumn Council Meeting.

The Board is responsible for the management, coordination and administration of the association.

Besides taking leadership positions in the Board and as Project Leaders, ESTIEM members can also take up more responsibility by working in one of the Committees.

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. The students involved in ESTIEM incorporate both the skills required for modern business and an open-minded approach towards other people and cultural issues.

For more detailed information about our organisation and its activities, please visit our website at www.estiem.org. Here you can also find everything you need to know if you want to get involved. So don’t hesitate and start moving… you will not regret it! n

the Board 2012 Xavier Azcue President

Interviewed by Berna Bas, President 2011 What made you run for the presidency of ESTIEM?

Sometimes I still can’t believe I did it. If you had asked me half a year before the election if I would run I would tell you: “Definitely not, I’d love to, but I’ll be in my last year of studies and I just can’t”. So what changed then? I’m still a last year student, but I came to realise that in the Board this year would be the year of my life, and it’s definitely worth taking half, or even a full extra year, to be able to dedicate myself to this organisation that I love. I mean a full year of the ESTIEM Spirit... now I ask myself why I ever thought twice.

What do you think will be the greatest challenge for ESTIEM in 2012?

Well, apparently some people are calling us “Doomsday Board”... so I’d say dealing with the end of the world will be the challenge. Seriously though, ESTIEM faces challenges every year and 2012 will be no different: dealing with a high rotation of actives, activating weaker Local Groups, being socially and environmentally sustainable... but if I had to highlight one, I’d go for ensuring financial stability in the midst of this (seemingly never ending) economic crisis.

In two words for each, please describe your co-Boardies and your leadership style.

Victoria: The babysitter

Gregor: German Latino

Henrique: Magician (in a) box

Jean-Yves: Omellete de... (See Henrique’s reply)

Marc: Decently unlucky

Leadership style: Laid-back and challenging If your Board were to be remembered with one major achievement, what would you like it to be?

There’s not one goal I can emphasise more than another, if we are to be remembered by one thing, I hope it is that we gave everything we had during one year to take ESTIEM one step further, and that we were available and approachable to any ESTIEMer. What is your favourite hobby and why?

I was asked not to write anything ESTIEM related. So here are a few of the things I like to do (and why): playing football (it’s my favourite type of exercise, it relaxes me), reading (ever since I was little I can escape for hours into a book) and by far my favourite is being with people that I love, family, friends and girlfriend (it’s what makes life worthwhile). Though, technically, the last one was ESTIEM related since I have many ESTIEM friends. ❱❱❱

INSIDE ESTIEM

10

11

Henrique Cruz Vice President of Finance

Interviewed by Maria-Alexandra Bujor, Vice President of Finance 2011 If ESTIEM were to have its own currency, how would you name it?

A very interesting question to start with. I think I would name it IEMlar. I believe this would easily be one of the strongest currencies in the world, surpassing the American dollar as the chosen currency for the reserves of the main countries of the world.

Representing the ESTIEM spirit, our European background and our thirst for development, it could well be the missing piece for the final stage of cooperation between all European countries.

If you could have one entry in the Budget entirely up to you and nobody would ever question it, what would it be for?

Having in mind the current ESTIEM budget, I think I could squeeze some money to annually rent a caravan for a summer road trip across Europe (how awesome would that be, right?).

Now, if this entry could have allocated a big sum of money, I would use it to buy a Simpsons episode where Homer finds out he was chosen as Regional Coordinator for the American region and goes across country fostering cooperation between East and West.

Characterise your co-Boardies with one adjective for each.

Marc - FunFact (If you spend a couple of days

with him, you will get it) Gregor - El Warrior (he is pretty much more

Latino than me) Jean-Yves - Fromage

Victoria - Maternal

Xavier - Canadian

Jean-Yves Lemelle Vice President of Administration

Interviewed by Alexander Peters, Vice President of Administration 2011 Although you were involved in the Public Relations Committee, you ended up as VP of Administration.

What happened?

On a completely unrelated note, I just had the urge to Skyscanner to look for the best flights to spend a weekend in Istanbul.

Long story short, I joined ESTIEM in 2009 and at that time I wasn’t that good in IT hard coding. On the other side, I was really interested in designing so I took the opportunity to develop myself in that field. Then during 2 years, I’ve been Vice President of my Local Group, I’ve got involved more centrally in 2010 & 2011, I’ve travelled to Colombia to develop my other interests. And 6 months ago, when I started my last academic semester, I’ve figured out that my university would enable me to postpone the last steps of my studies to support ESTIEM as much as I’ve been inspired by this amazing association. All in all, if I didn’t first jump in IT, that’s because I wanted to use that great playground which ESTIEM is as much as possible. Now it’s time for me not only to be involved, not only to be engaged but to inspire ESTIEMers.

How will the ESTIEM Budget look like in 25 years from now?

Now the new Portal has been released, what keeps the new Vice President of Administration busy?

In 25 years from now, I believe that the ESTIEM budget will increase, as the network and our understanding of it grows as well. I see it being over a 100 000 €, with an even greater focus given to our Projects and Committees. The expansion of the network and the number of projects will consequently increase our travel costs and support to these new activities.

If you are an active ESTIEMer, you have probably figured out that Portal 5 is not only great but amazing. However it happens that you point out some bugs. Obviously, I have this great IT Committee to support my regular work and without them I couldn’t do so much. On the other hand, this tool is now strong enough to support further development which could be regarding the organisation part or the event portfolio. To ensure a sustainable growth of ESTIEM, we should implement a proper communication among every single part and every single member of the organisation. During the past years, the association has already achieved good results,

What is the best dish you have ever tried in one of your ESTIEM travels?

I would have to say that the brunches that I had at Nar Cafe in Istanbul were amazing. It offers a fantastic view over the Bosporus, high selection of fruits and cheese and to top it off, fluffy pancakes with whichever syrup you want (Nutella included).

Together with refreshing lemonade with mint and the Turkish well-known hospitality, it is one of the best ways to start the day.

Furthermore, I also see our budget and income basis to be less dependent on public funding, and more on the opportunities that exist in the corporate level, and all the possibilities that we, as a network, can offer to our partners.

what about going even further?

Although France is not a small country, we only have two Local Groups there. Do you see possibilities for expansion in France?

French high education system is as particular as in any other European country. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help ESTIEM at all to establish more Local Groups and maybe also because, I guess, it was really hard for the past generation to understand all this complexity. One of our goals of this year is to establish new Local Groups in an underrepresented country. I’m already looking for some university which could add value to our network. Several cities have high potential like Strasbourg, Troyes, Toulouse, Nancy, Lille and maybe Paris. Who knows who will be the fastest new French Local Group?

What do you like to do in your free time, after working for ESTIEM?

I love music. I play trumpet and some other instrument. So when I have some free time, I join some band to perform music with my friends.

Recently, I heard about a really great idea in our network which could be an ESTIEM Band. I would really like to join but I’m not sure if it will be feasible as it will happen during the Council Meeting and you might know that a Boardie has a lot to do on that time.

Trying to get some stereotypes confirmed here: how often do you actually have croissants and jus d’orange for breakfast?

(Smiling) A lot of stereotypes are really funny and this one, unfortunately, might be true… As a student, you don’t really have enough money to buy this great French delicacy often. When you are working during the week it’s always nice at least during the weekend to have some good croissants for breakfast. So as a student I would say not often but be sure that later I will stick to the stereotype and have this breakfast almost once a week. ❱❱❱

INSIDE ESTIEM

INSIDE ESTIEM

12

13

Marc Hedler Vice President of Education

Interviewed by Ilka Petersen, Vice President of Education 2011 What do you find most challenging about being in the ESTIEM Board so far?

The most challenging so far is the fact that you can barely stay “offline” for a longer period of time.

Despite giving priority to incoming emails during a Board Meeting or Coordination Meeting incoming emails lead quickly to a bursting inbox. My inner will to answer all emails as soon as possible is not really helping during these circumstances. The challenge is not to loose your personal long-term goals over the big amount of daily operational work.

In the future, which country would you like to live in and why?

A few years ago I would have answered this question, with a definitive “in the United Kingdom!”.

Although having a German passport I can currently not really state whether I found my final place to live happily ever after yet. The globalized world and Europe with almost no borders are too tempting to live / spend my life somewhere else than in Germany.

Which place you travelled to so far was the most memorable one?

The most memorable place I have been travelling to was, to be honest, not ESTIEM related. Back in 2010 I spent two months in East-Java, Indonesia for a development internship. A totally different culture and mind-set of the Indonesians keep this experience till now at the top-ranked position of my travel memories.

Please share one crazy ESTIEM memory!

Travelling to Council Meeting Ankara-Bilkent starting from Lappeenranta, Finland, with a 3 hours stopover in Riga, where I eventually missed my flight. Including accidently ending up in a women’s restroom, booking a new flight with a wrong departure date and spending one night in an Estonian hostel….

What is your vision for development that can be achieved through the Vice President of Education?

How do you describe the perfect host, because you will be hosted quite often during this year?

Which countries are you looking forward to visit during your Board year?

My long-term vision for Vice President of Education is that ESTIEM is not only recognized as a student organisation of extraordinary IEM students all over Europe, but also as an institution when it comes to representing European IEM students in educational matters.

The perfect host should be always very relaxed, flexible when it comes to delays – I am no stereotype of a German in this matter – and he should be open for some beers from time to time.

I don’t have any country in mind that I would prefer to go. Every country and every city is different and has its charm. I would like to discover all of Europe and meet all ESTIEMers, they are the ones who make each trip special! At the end of this year, the memories that I want to keep are the stories that I live in each country and how ESTIEM made it special.

Gregor Herr Vice President of Activities

Interviewed by Max Steinmetz, Vice President of Activities 2011 Which events, experiences and decisions have you brought to this position?

Even if I joined Local Group in Munich already in 2008 I first got in touch with ESTIEMers early in 2009, when some Swedish from Gothenburg visited the strong beer festival in Munich and I was supposed to host a guy called Andreas Flödström. I got along with them quite well and was easily convinced to join the re-exchange in spring. Some weeks later I attended my first Council Meeting in Grenoble.

I was fascinated by all of the active and motivated ESTIEMers around, the Board which invests a full year to shape this great student organisation and the indescribable ESTIEM spirit everybody was living.

With every event I attended my enthusiasm for and involvement in this organisation increased and over the years, I realised that I gained plenty of invaluable experiences and a deep insight of ESTIEM which I would like to share with all the ESTIEMers now.

Therefore I decided - when it comes to the Mayan prophecies - to dedicate the last year of my life to ESTIEM! As you might know the workload as an ESTIEM Boardie is tremendous and very stressful, what is your trick to relax?

In the past years I always had two ways to deal with stressful periods. Either I went for a walk in a remote area or used the spare time to book a plane ticket to the next ESTIEM event. Since I am doing the second method now almost professionally, I try to keep up the jogging from time to time.

From all the goals and changes you’re going to implement which one should hopefully remain at least for 5 years?

I hope that all the ideas I am going to implement this year will be further developed in the next 5 years, since it turned out that they have been major improvements and it has been worth developing them further.

At which ESTIEM event have you found your ESTIEMSpirit and how are going to spread it to other ESTIEMers

That’s easy. At each of the events I participated in I was able to experience the ESTIEM sprint, every time in a slightly different way and how am I going to spread it? Well, I just need to be myself.

Victoria Martinez Vice President of Public Relations

Interviewed by Melania Mateias, Vice President of Public Relations 2011

You are the only girl in a 6-person team. How does it feel?

At the beginning, when we were elected I wasn’t worried that I would be the only girl in the Board.

Day after day everyone was asking how I was feeling being the only girl so I started to get worried but it wasn’t until our first Board Meeting in Istanbul when I realised that there was no such a problem!

They are really nice guys that threat me like an equal. Sometimes I raise topics that they didn’t even consider but we are a balanced team that worked pretty well until now.

I have to admit that being the girl of the Board also has its benefits. For example, every time we travel I don’t have to carry my luggage up stairs or I get the nicest place to sleep!

What do you consider to be the biggest challenge for ESTIEM in 2012?

What is the most exciting thing you’ve learned about ESTIEM since you are in the Board?

I believe that this year many challenges are waiting for ESTIEM. For me and my position, one of the biggest challenges is to create an idea of fundraising within ESTIEM. Highlight the importance of contact companies and simplify the process to make everyone able to help.

I think that my answer to this question would be different now that if you ask me in 6 months.

Every day I learn something, normally they are small things from how to work with my co-Boardies until how to manage myself. It is really challenging to know how to fit your ESTIEM life next to the personal one, travelling and answering emails on your road make really difficult to put your mind somewhere else and your conversations are suddenly focused in ESTIEM.

What are your personal goals (not ESTIEM related) for this year?

Actually every year at the beginning of January I write down a list of New Year resolutions. This year was mainly focused on ESTIEM and my goals there but I also have other things that I want to achieve in my personal and professional life. For example, I want to look for a job outside Finland for my time after my Board year or I would slowly continue with my ideas to start my own business.

Which drink characterizes your personality best and why?

I guess it would be Baileys. It is a girl drink, sweet, nice colour but strong in alcohol that you can’t recognise until the end of the sip. n

INSIDE ESTIEM

INSIDE ESTIEM

14

15

BrainTrainer - Let’s train your brain!

My name is Daniel Brinkert, I am from Local Group Ilmenau and since the previous Council Meeting I am the BrainTrainer Project Leader and therefore responsible for the newest and greatest Project of ESTIEM. For this year our main goals are to improve the Project’s visibility as well as the training structure of our events. Why did we establish especially these goals?

All ESTIEMers should have the chance to develop their personal skills and benefit from highly professional trainings. In order to reach this, it is necessary that everybody knows about the opportunities they have and the way they can make use of them.

The main stakeholders of the BrainTrainer events are, of course, the participants. For them the most important thing is to gather experiences and develop during training sessions as efficiently as possible. The best control variables to realise this are the trainings and their structure.

BrainTrainer is a remarkable ESTIEM Project designed to develop hard and soft skills of IEM students through professional trainings lasting one or two days.

BrainTrainer events are special since participants are not only facing educational challenges but experiencing the essence of teamwork in a charming cultural environment for a week.

We also improved the trainings concept: at the next BrainTrainer event we will have three training modules with different topics of which the participants can choose their favourite. Each module will include two trainings which are complementary to each other.

And when do you have the chance to join the next event? During the first week of June (1st-7th) in Ankara-Bilkent! If you have time, and also even if you do not, come and experience how 25-30 ESTIEMers will explore their inner traits, real identity and hidden skills.

Are you interested in joining the Project team?

Do not hesitate to contact me as the Project Leader (daniel.brinkert@estiem.org). Also in case you have any other questions, just let me know! n

Who is responsible for maintaining the positive image of ESTIEM? Who communicates our organisation’s values to public audiences? Who is taking care of ESTIEM’s means of visibility? - It’s us, the Public Relations Committee. And we need you, to help us spread the word!

How do we want ESTIEM to look like? This is a question which members of our Design Task Group deal with. They are the creators of the official posters and brochures you get during every Council Meeting, the T-shirts for the Committees and Projects and various other tasks. It is all about creativity and you probably know the phrase - “an image says more than a thousand words”.

Closely connected to them is the Gadget Task Group. People are often not aware that by using gadgets, the brand of ESTIEM is subconsciously transferred to their heads and it stays there as an image. Plus, gadgets can be as simple as a bottle opener, a sticker or a pen.

Nowadays, the best way to reach millions of people out there is the Internet. Thanks to the Online PR Task Group, ESTIEM is present on all major platforms. Whether it is about Facebook updates and Tweets, the newest ESTIEM blog entry on Tumblr, the latest promotion video for an event on Vimeo or check-ins of ESTIEMers all over Europe, the number of our followers is increasing rapidly.

If I were asked to describe the Committee’s job in a short, simple sentence, I would say “we are informing the public about the existence of this great organisation and thus increasing the awareness of ESTIEM”. The Media Relations Task Group is making sure that this is done in an efficient way through various channels. They cooperate with our media partners, manage ESTIEM’s media communication strategy and support Local Groups and Projects in terms of media relations.

Are you interested in these topics? Do you want to join and work with an amazing team and help give ESTIEM the attention it deserves? Then send an email to leader.prc@estiem.org! n

Financial and Legal Committee The Financial and Legal Committee started out as a centrally driven Committee where only the active people in the budget making and checking process were involved. But after we realised that financial and legal issues are not only relevant on the central level and that it might be a good idea to have a broader knowledge on these topics, the Financial and Legal Committee started to grow in the beginning of 2009. After two years of development, I can now say that we did create more awareness about the importance of financial knowledge and that this knowledge needs to be transferred to every new generation of ESTIEMers.

We are the law!

The Financial and Legal Committee is nowadays not only an advice organ for the Vice President of Finance, but it also helps shaping the financial and legal future of ESTIEM. We have been building up a page with resources that can help Local Groups to create their own budget. We also created an organiser’s package which contains handy templates for basic things such as Visa invitations, budgets, disclaimers; we also organise two Coordination Meetings each year to discuss the current issues, to make sure the books are checked on time and to discuss the future legal and financial policies. ❱❱❱

ROMBOUT KAMPEN

And what have we achieved so far? In the beginning of the year, new ESTIEMers volunteered to join the Project and we now have a highly motivated team. From January the 27th to the 30 th we had our Coordination Meeting in Tallinn, which was highly efficient and created a lot of outcomes, for example the new vision and mission of the Project.

Its aim is to provide a unique cross-cultural experience where the students can learn how to develop themselves in order to become more professional and successful in their future lives.

Looking good!

SEBASTIAN MOHR

DANIEL BRINKERT

Close your eyes. Imagine you are at a wonderful place in the nature. Far away from noise, stress and hurry.

Birds are singing and the wind is rushing. Around you there are only a few other ESTIEMers and a trainer.

All are highly motivated to discover a new country, meet some new people and develop their personal skills. Can you guess where they are? Right! At a BrainTrainer event!

Public Relations Committee

INSIDE ESTIEM

INSIDE ESTIEM

16

17

businessbooster more knowledge is created on how to solve certain issues.

This way, the Local Groups with these issues can be helped by telling how other Local Groups with similar problems overcome these. This is how the Financial and Legal Committee is there for all ESTIEMers. n

Watching how time passes by...

What’s happening in Madrid?

The lyrics of a very popular song in Madrid say something like “look at Alcalá’s Gate, watching time passing by”. There is a special monument in the city, one of the oldest and more representative, always in an observing position in the middle of the peak hour rushes. That is no longer the situation of Local Group Madrid! Thanks to the approval by our fellow Local Groups, we are finally full members, looking for the chance of offering more, bigger and better events to the ESTIEMers abroad.

On the other hand, we also have some plans for the immediate future: we will hold a semester-long Training New Trainers seminar in cooperation with our university, with the aim of boosting knowledge management and ensuring proper continuity of the Local Group.

So, is there any special event in mind? Yes! Since Tara Mountain experience, the idea of organising a Summer Academy has been occupying our minds like some kind of desired goal for a distant future. However, some recent issues have put the idea back on the table and, if the wheels turn properly, we will be eager to confirm it in the next months. Until then, we will keep watching.

But actively watching. n

At Business Booster, we don’t believe that there is one great idea that would make a difference and last forever. Think of the world as a lake and your idea as a rock. You would like your rock to make a big splash, right? Let’s say you throw a large stone into the lake and you make a big wave that lasts a short time. People will most probably miss it.

However, if you take many little rocks and throw them in the lake one by one, the whole lake will be moving for a much longer period of time. And that’s how we like to keep things – moving! An environ-

ment where ideas are freely shared, exchanged and discussed about is the perfect soil for any ambitious young person to flourish.

Whether it is testing and launching an interactive platform, creating a new business-oriented event or an international marketing project with our TIMES sponsor, Arkwright, we’re sure that you will have the chance to prove your skills in the Business Booster.

The best thing is you don’t have to join any team or adopt anybody’s idea – on the contrary, you’re encouraged to start your own team and share your idea. And, who knows, that idea might make the world a better place. Or make us all millionaires.

Or both. Keep on boosting! n

Motivation and Fear of an ESTIEM Entrepreneur Why become an entrepreneur? That is probably a good question. But I never asked it myself.

Like many other students, I was engaged in a lot of projects during my studies. We had many ideas and we wanted to make them real. It was not like working, organising events, building a website or writing a book – it was about being together with your friends. We wanted to reach a common goal and have fun while doing it. That alone was motivational enough. Somehow it felt like it was the most natural thing to do. If you had a good idea and others thought so too, you would just do it.

Stephan Eyl is the CEO and Founder (Customer Service, Product Management, Marketing & Sales) of Tasqade GmbH, a software developing company based in Berlin.

When the university is over, the ideas do not stop. Only the time to put them forward is gone, unless you are overwhelmed by one of them. Then you take the time to make it real and suddenly you are an entrepreneur. Although it’s just doing what you always did. Personally, I do not think you can become an entrepreneur. You are either a person who likes making your dreams come true or you are not.

However, there is one small difference when it comes to university projects: the financial component in the evaluation of an idea. The idea needs to have the potential to create a substantial cash-flow.

I strongly believe that doing what you like will eventually lead to a good product and a good product will eventually lead to a reasonable income. It might take some trial and error and it might fail. But the worst thing that can happen is that you need to abandon one idea and start working on another. Doesn’t sound too bad for an entrepreneur, does it? n

STEPHAN EYL

PABLO BRETONES JAIME LÓPEZ

Perhaps you wonder about the whereabouts of our plans from now on, don’t you? Well, for now we’ve been able to organise minor events such as Coordination Meetings, which we think can be still easily performed. Not just in order to help the related Committee or Project, but also to introduce the ESTIEM work to those local participants interested

in getting involved.

We can never have too many great ideas. But great ideas don’t come around often. Maybe it is because people are too constricted in one mindset or just haven’t thought about a specific thing long enough, who knows why...

Keep on boosting!

DIMITAR GRČEV

Apart from the resources that are online, we decided to form up a group of people who will help Local Groups with creating and checking the budget. This way, even the most inexperienced ESTIEMers can start creating it and be more confident that it is responsible and healthy. In the future, the Task Group will continuously change its composition to optimise the knowledge transfer within it. As more Local Groups contact this Task Group,

INSIDE ESTIEM

INSIDE ESTIEM

18

19

INSIDE ESTIEM

From a Former Committee Leader Susanna Nurmio Could you introduce yourself briefly, please?

SUSANNA NURMIO

My name is Susanna Nurmio and I come from Local Group Lappeenranta, Finland. I originally got interested in ESTIEM in the fall of 2008, when I went to my first ESTIEM event – ReCoM Tallinn. I was the Committee Leader of Corporate Relations Committee from November 2010 to November 2011.

Why did you decide to become a Committee Leader?

After around twelve events in two and a half years and central level activeness in the Magazine and the Corporate Relations Committee, I thought I have had enough of the ESTIEM spirit that this was going to be it, as I was already getting closer to my graduation. I was still part of the organising team of the Council Meeting Finland and strongly believed that it was going to be my last ESTIEM event. But little did I know. After hanging out a lot with the Vice President of Public Relations, Terhi Marttila, in the fall of 2010, I had somehow delivered my application on the CRC Leadership and at the end of the Council Meeting Finland I was announced to be the Corporate Relations Committee Leader in the front of the General Assembly.

There must have been some difficult moments. Your worst experience, please.

At the same time in November 2010 when I started my CRC Leadership, I had also accepted a job offer abroad in France. So the starting point of my new Committee Leadership also involved me moving to a totally different culture and country, learning a new job that I was getting paid for and leading the Committee at the same time. Now when thinking back – I should have probably thought about it twice, because the year had been the busiest year of my life so far! On top of that, I also finished my Master’s thesis and managed to graduate in the same year. I guess the lack of time could be somehow called the worst challenge throughout the year.

“Great, I became a Committee Leader!” What was your best experience during your term?

The highlights of the year were definitely the events. Even though something uncomfortable might have happened, they were life experiences, which you will have for yourself for the rest of your life.

We had two unforgettable Coordination Meetings: one in Bucharest and the other one in Brussels. In Brussels, for example, we slept on a covered terrace for one night with Melania, and it was around +2 degrees. We were so cold! Another funny thing happened on my way back from ESTIEM College from Bulgaria, where I took a bus at 6.00 a.m. from Rila mountains to Sofia airport. I had to sit down on the floor of the bus for 3 hours, during which the bus broke down once (people were asked to go out for around 30 minutes) and after we got to go back in to our ´seats´, a baby less than one year old puked all over my jacket and my bag. But the event itself was really unforgettable - we got to meet the most active ESTIEMers and plan the strategy of ESTIEM. During the PR-CR school in Seville, I learned a great lesson of what the teamwork can be at its best: we had seven trainers and 22 participants and fantastic settings in 25 degrees in the warmest place of Europe. Good experiences were, of course, the two Council Meetings in Karlsruhe and Ankara-Bilkent, where you as a Committee Leader get to see all the people you have been working with, get to lead Working Groups and get to present your Committee’s work in front of the General Assembly. It is always extremely nice to get feedback, learn new things about yourself and see the new people around you getting excited about this great organisation!

What did you gain from being a Committee Leader and what did you add to your Committee?

What was your favorite activity or unforgettable moment in ESTIEM that made you become such an active member?

The first event in ReCoM Tallinn in 2008 and the first Council Meeting 2009 in Grenoble: after being in a Council Meeting, you either love it or hate it. Being the social person that I am and having a strong will to develop myself internationally, I of course loved it! Also being part of the organising team of the Council Meeting Finland 2010 was an experience, where I realised I still want to continue and devote more to this organisation.

Is there anyone you want to thank for their support during your time as a Committee Leader?

Definitely the great motivated team who stuck with me during the whole year. Special thanks to Melania Mateias, Nur Özlem Öz, Victoria Martinez, Han Che, Sami Vaittinen and Asbjörn Friederich – without you it would have not been possible! Thank you also to all the people who worked for the Committee during the year 2011.

Is there any advice you would like to give to the younger ESTIEMers?

Get active now! The sooner you start the more you can accomplish. The work is hard, but when you give some, you also get some. For me, ESTIEM gave a boyfriend – wide global perspective and flexible understanding towards life and the situations we meet daily. That kind of experience is hard to gain anywhere else! n

What I gained from being a Committee Leader was quite thrall explained in the previous question “What I added to the Committee”. I would say the biggest accomplishment in Corporate Relations Committee’s work was creating the Central Fundraising Team and gathering self-motivated and highly intelligent Committee members around me.

©Lauri Anttila

INSIDE ESTIEM

20

21

From a Former Committee Leader

Memories from a Retired ESTIEMer

Selin Temel

Isidora Štrboja - ESTIEM Magazine Project Leader 2009

Could you introduce yourself briefly, please?

I am Selin Temel from Local Group AnkaraBilkent. It is my last year as an I ndustrial Engineering student. I was the Public Relations Committee Leader in 2010 - 2011.

Why did you decide to become a Committee Leader?

There must have been some difficult moments. Your worst experience, please.

Being an ESTIEM Leader means leading a team of people from all over Europe. Although it has lots of delightful moments, it is sometimes really difficult. Before Council Meeting Karlsruhe, everything was going smoothly regarding the preparation of Working Groups, design of posters, brochures, and t-shirts, until the last moment when the print shop cancelled the agreement and we could not print the t-shirts.

“Great, I became a Committee Leader!” What was your best experience during your term?

Whenever active members from the Committee approached me with a question: “How to become a Public Relations Committee Leader?” and thanked me for giving them the chance to be a part of the team.

©Lauri Anttila

I created a new structure by dividing the main tasks of the Public Relations Committee and created Task Groups for each of them (Design, Media Relations, Online PR, Gadgets, Proofreading and Video), assigning Task Group Leaders to each one and building teams. However, I gained much more from that. I learnt how to manage my time efficiently, how to assign the right people to the right tasks and to motivate them. But more importantly, I gained many friends and had many unforgettable memories.

What was your favorite activity or unforgettable moment in ESTIEM that made you become such an active member?

I was not an ESTIEMer before I got selected as the Project Leader of ESTIEM College in 2009 by our Local Board. It was during the College that I met the 30 most active ESTIEMers including the current and future Board of ESTIEM. It was my first contact with ESTIEM, and I got the highest level of motivation, which never declined!

Is there anyone you want to thank for their support during your time as a Committee Leader?

I would like to thank my dear Board Responsible, Melania Mateias, who always supported me when I was stressed, my Board (the Barbie Board), my Task Group Leaders Jean-Yves Lemelle, Milan Djordjevic, Sebastian Mohr and Jelena Bajsic, and my former Committee Leaders Terhi Martilla and Anne-Laure Ladier; whenever I needed help, they were always there to provide their valuable assistance. Also, I would like to thank all the other members who contributed to the Committee’s work and who were there for me whenever I needed support.

Is there any advice you would like to give to the younger ESTIEMers?

Everything you do for ESTIEM will help you as a person. Never give up, never stop, just go further, believe in yourself and enjoy being an ESTIEMer! n

Will you please introduce yourself to ESTIEMers?

I guess it might be hard for anyone to introduce themselves in only a few lines, but I will still try.

Hello ESTIEMers, my name is Isidora Strboja. I am a cheerful girl from Local Group Novi Sad, a junior Alumna and among other things, a former Project Leader of the ESTIEM Magazine.

Could you describe the role of ESTIEM in your life in three words?

Fun Fellowship with a Perspective.

What was your favorite activity or unforgettable moment in ESTIEM that made you become such an active member?

I think that every ESTIEMer can say that it is hard to pick a single event or moment that was the groundbreaking one – you either become active or you don’t. For me, it was all about second chances – at first, I thought I wouldn’t stick around for long (and now it has been... To keep my dignity, I’ll just say, a while since then). Later on, I missed my first opportunity to run for Project Leadership, but when I was given the second chance, I decided I wouldn’t make the same mistake again. As for events, I guess those were definitely the Council Meetings in Hamburg and Famagusta.

How did ESTIEM contribute to your professional/personal development?

My engagement within ESTIEM helped me set some basic values in the beginning, in terms of com-

munication, teamworking, handling pressure and deadlines. This was improved later on, of course, but it definitely helped me find out more about my personal strengths and weaknesses as a professional and a person. At some point, I also noticed that the difference between active ESTIEMers and colleagues who weren’t members of ESTIEM was incomparable, almost unbelievable. It is as if the non-ESTIEMers are missing a whole dimension in their education.

Is there any advice you would like to give to the younger ESTIEMers?

My advice to them is to never take anything for granted, especially people. I have met some of the greatest, funniest, most inspiring and meaningful persons in my life thanks to this organisation. Also, in ESTIEM you learn that nothing is as difficult as it might seem, once you invest a bit of effort and will in it. And just when you think you’ve seen it all, someone or something might change that point of view. But I don’t want to „sell“ corny lines, the best piece of advice I could give to ESTIEMers is to try everything by themselves! ESTIEM is what you make of it. n

ISIDORA ŠTRBOJA

SELIN TEMEL

When I first met Terhi Martilla during the ESTIEM College in Izmir in 2009, she was very enthusiastic about Public Relations and she motivated me to attend one of the Working Groups at Council Meeting Zurich. Then I became the Media Relations Responsible in the Public Relations Committee.

During the ESTIEM College in Berlin in 2010, we had been chatting with Berna Bas, our former President, and Gülfem Karcı. Gülfem was the Members Committee Leader and she always motivated me. There was also Anne-Laure, who was the Public Relations Committee Leader. She told me how they were pleased about being a leader in ESTIEM. It was during the city tour in Berlin that I decided to apply for the position of the Public Relations Committee Leader.

What did you gain from being a Committee Leader and what did you add to your Committee?

INSIDE ESTIEM

INSIDE ESTIEM

22

23

EPIEM Symposium in Groningen On November 18 and 19, 2011 a symposium on “integration of business and engineering in education and research” was held in Groningen. The participants were professors from the EPIEM network (European Professors of Industrial Engineering and Management).

On Saturday, the second day started with a keynote from Klaus-Dieter Thoben from the University of Bremen on „Experiences of how to make an integrated curriculum“. After further discussions on this topic, sharing of best practices continued with „Aspects of problem based learning curriculum organisation and results“ from the University of Minho and „Best practices on making an integrated curriculum“ from the University of Novi Sad. Finally, the group was split again for the purpose of discussing further in small groups, before coming back together to discuss the next steps for EPIEM and their relation with ESTIEM. Teams of different people were set up to work on publishing four papers as outcomes of the meeting that will create added value to the network and EPIEM meetings. The papers will be published in the „International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management” (http://www.ftn.uns.ac.rs/ ijiem/) that is published by the University of Novi Sad. If you have any questions about the meeting or EPIEM in general, don’t hesitate to contact vp-education@estiem.org! n

Harmonization of Industrial Engineering within Europe Is it true that “a rose by any other name is still so sweet?” In a recent study comparing programs of study at seven European universities, the divergence in education about the topics was noted as extremely diverse. In fact, a second survey that I personally conducted revealed numerous different names for the “rose” that I call industrial engineering.

Consider a sampling of the names that European universities use to describe the program of studies that goes by the name of industrial engineering in most of the rest of the world: Industrial Engineering

Manufacturing Engineering

Production Engineering

Systems Engineering

Mechatronics

Management Engineering

Industrial Management

Technology Management

The International Labor Organization (ILO) has published a model of Industrial Engineering Education Programs (IEEP) that defines four ar-

eas which support a core program of Industrial Eng ineer ing studies: Ma nagement Systems, Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Operations Research, and Human Factors Engineering.

However, it is possible to get a degree in this discipline without having the same degree of depth or balance of study in these areas. What is the impact of the use of such diverse program names and curricula on the IE profession, its application throughout the European region? What does this mean for students? What does this mean for their prospective employers?

Think of the discipline that you study as a brand – much like Mercedes or Nokia is a brand. Just mention of the name raises a certain expectation.

This means that we have come to associate certain features or characteristics with that name. It has come to stand for something of value and people share a focus in the implied meaning of that brand.

How does one create a coherent brand that has meaning? Consider the experience of Nokia in the early 1990s. At that time Nokia did not have any value as a brand and, in fact, most people thought the company was Asian. The company had a ❱❱❱

GREGORY H. WATSON

ILKA PETERSEN

After a warm welcome by Jasper Knoester, dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and an introduction of the symposium from Bart Kooi from the University of Groningen, who was chairing the first day, the group went right into sharing experiences and best practices in short presentations. The topics covered were „Managing live-cases and examination portfolios in industrial engineering and management education“ (KTH Stockholm), „Application of business cases in the curriculum of University of Novi Sad“ and „Best practices from University of Groningen, and possibilities for academic research“. After lunch, Tom Ridgman from Cambridge University held a keynote on „Gaining accreditation for integrated teaching“.

The rest of the day was dedicated to discussions in two parallel groups, one focusing on integrating business context into academic IEM research, the other on including it within IEM education. The day was closed with a nice dinner in a relaxed atmosphere, some beer of the house and enjoyable talks.

Looking back

INSIDE ESTIEM

INSIDE ESTIEM

24

25

INSIDE ESTIEM

A ReCoMendable Event in Skopje

What have we wrought in the European community with respect to industrial engineering? There is no common brand name, nor is there a common description or definition of services. Thus, by the diversity of programs our community has sown confusion in the meaning and application of the educational experience that I call industrial engineering.

This undermines the value that we receive from what the rest of the world perceives as a valuable profession.

What should be done about this? We should demand that the European educational administration system settle on a single name and a unified curriculum for the practice of industrial engineering, much as they have done for other engineering disciplines for emphasis on the chemical, civil, electrical, and mechanical applications of engineering. It is my hope that the ESTIEM Council will take a position on this issue and present it as a unified proposal for the advancement of the industrial engineering profession – declaring their rights to an educational program that has been defined as commodity with value – the rights of educational consumers to obtain a program of study that has coherent meaning everywhere in the world and where all students can be evaluated based on their achievements in a common program of studies. n

Gregory H. Watson Gregory H. Watson is a Fellow and Senior Vice President, International of the Institute for Industrial Engineers (IIE). He is also a Fellow and Past-President of the American Society for Quality (ASQ ) and an Academician and Past-President of the International Academy for Quality (IAQ ). Mr. Watson is an adjunct professor of engineering management at Oklahoma State University and consults through his Finland-based firm, Business Excellence Solutions, Ltd. He may be contacted at greg@excellence.fi.

REFERENCES 1. Timothy Byrne (2011), Industrial Engineering Standards in Europe, (Waterford, Ireland: Irish Institute of Industrial Engineers) 2. Jenny Mackewn, Nowhere group, UK, trainer on systemic constellations, 2010 3. George Kanawaty (1994), Introduction to Work Study, 4th edition (Geneva: International Labor Organization)

When talking about a Regional Coordination Meeting, you usually have two sides of the story: the official/ formal/objective short one, defined by something like “the aim of this meeting is to recruit new active members for the organisation, increase the awareness on ESTIEM related matters, provide opportunities for training and deepen the cooperation between the present Local Groups” and of course the purely subjective part that comes from an ESTIEMer who had tons of fun, while also learning a lot.

Now comes my side of the story. The South-East Regional Coordination Meeting, also called Balkan ReCoM took place in Skopje. The first thing I noticed, while passing through Romania, Serbia and Macedonia during the 3-day train trip (who knew it takes the Romanian and Serbian Railways that long to reach a neighbouring country) was the incredibly strong resemblance between people, in the way they act towards life. Their minds are freely making connections between everyday activities and easing the process as much as possible. They take it slow, they do, undo or redo activities unhurried, at the same pace, this probably being one of the biggest advantages of the Balkan people, i.e. having rested minds.

We reached Skopje eventually. We were accommodated at a very nice hippie hostel, called Shanti, where we were not allowed to feed Mumly, the “voluntary” dog of the place, no matter how cute he was acting. Petting it was enough. The hostel people were incredibly helpful and friendly and made us feel like home. Actually, the entire trip made me feel like I hadn’t left my country at all. The streets and the urban landscapes were incredibly similar.

Throughout the week we went to different fancy clubs every night, unusually crowded, the contrast between the extravagance of the inside and outside surroundings being quite high (club design vs. estimative human development index). I love how you can find so many show-off girls dressed with expensive clothes and wearing expensive purses, just like in Romania. The last night we had a Gala Dinner

where some National TV guys came and started interviewing our ex-Boardie Max about the monuments in Skopje. Priceless.

Next up, what makes a ReCoM unique and different from other ESTIEM events? We had trainings on rightfully chosen subjects (the main problems we needed to focus on, as countries from the Balkan region), like Fundraising, Motivation and Recruitment and a nice double-simulation of a company meeting, from the point of view of the seller and also from the point of view of the buyer. During these days, each of us had to make a presentation about our Local Group, then do a SWOT analysis, to determine the good and bad points, the advantages we could hook on in order to improve and the empty spaces or gaps that we need to fill within our organisational process. Afterwards, sketch an action plan of the Local Group with SMART goals and do a thoroughly developed one for next year as homework and send it via e-mail when it is done (during the next weeks). After going through each step and finally writing the action plan, I can say I went through a really in-depth investigation process and could never have imagined that I can approach the problems of Local Group Bucharest from so many sides.

What I enjoyed most about this experience, nonetheless, is having one of the best combinations of people in one place. In my opinion, this is mainly because of the compact mentality they have.

Nowhere else will you find people that actually understand each other’s Local Group problems that derive directly from the social-political-economic background of that particular country. Most of the times you, unfortunately, simply have to accept those problems and find another way of approaching the cause, while taking a short detour from it.

I encourage every ESTIEMer who wants to become active on central level to attend a ReCoM; it is the best way to start their involvement. n

SORANA IONIȚÃ

variety of phones with many diverse names, but there was no product that was referred to as a Nokia phone. Thus, the company, by its own actions confused its customers as to what to expect when they bought a phone from them. In order to create a coherent brand, it is essential that the brand be clearly and consistently developed and communicated so customers can share in that expectation.

INSIDE ESTIEM

26

Tug o’ War Activity Week

A Personal Experience

While we were laughing, getting to know each other, having fun and singing ESTIEM songs, someone suddenly initiated to ask for a so-called “dunk”.

As we hesitated a little bit, we all unexpectedly started singing about it: “Where is the dunk, shalalala!”. We sang louder, harder, heavier; the energy of the ESTIEMers was at the fullest. This being my first ESTIEM event, all I could do was to sit there, totally amazed by the ESTIEM spirit that was so new to me. Was it really possible to be here with so many different people from so many different countries, that I had known for hardly a day, and have so much fun?!

After three days of training for the competition, our coaches told us we were beginning to fight like a real Tug’o’War team. We had already seen other teams training, sweating and they had done so for weeks. So frankly, we didn’t have very high hopes, and we didn’t take it all too seriously, but we were having fun. We had also spray-painted white t-shirts with the ESTIEM logo in order to look like a team.

The theme of the whole competition was Africa, so we added some zebra stripes.

After having breakfast with the other teams on the big day, we got ready for the parade (yes, we were about to represent ESTIEM in a traditional student parade in Linköping). We were singing and laughing with the other teams. It was one of the most absurd situations I’ve ever been in. We even performed “Shoemaker” to the marching band for the parade (they loved it, of course).

The parade took us to the Tug’o’War “arena”, a huge, muddy pit surrounding a small lake. The idea was that the opposing teams were to stand on each side of the lake, and the losing team got pulled into the water. We were thrilled.

We got ready for our turn, which was against the Somalian Pirates, feeling nervous, muddy and excited. As the game started, we did everything we had practiced for – pulling for our lives. To our astonishment, we actually managed to pull the team into the water. Wow, we had won a game! We screamed with excitement, and discovered we were going up against the Penguins next (the team we had spoken the most with). This was a team that had been training for weeks, so we were ready to be pulled into the water. But amazement strikes again – after a tough round, the Penguins were the ones that were wet!

When we were up (for t he semi-final!), the Penguins were on our side supporting us.

Unfortunately, in this round the opposing team slowly pulled us into the water, one by one. We definitely didn’t expect more at this point, so we were all still happy as we splashed around in the dirty water with the Penguins who had joined us.

The commenter on the speaker even said it seemed like the ESTIEM team thought they had won, because they were so happy. Come on, we were having the time of our lives!

After the competition, we were picked up by cars with waterproof seats and taken directly to the sauna where the party continued. We warmed up and then headed off for the gala dinner.

It was an absolutely incredible week: new impressions, new friends, and an extraordinary first impression of ESTIEM. I was breathless. n

INSIDE ESTIEM

A Personal Experience by Stefan Krstevski 2010 was a horrible year for me. I had very bad personal and family issues and I felt depressed and lonely. There were times when I was walking down the streets with headphones in my ears and big sunglasses on my face so that no one would see that I was actually crying. Then, September came and so did my first year at the university. To be honest, Industrial Engineering and Management was not my choice. I wanted to study history, but my parents were against that, so I followed their advice. As that made me disappointed, I was sinking deeper into sadness.

I was expecting to deal with new places, unfamiliar faces and boring lessons about something I was not interested in. This way of living was taking away all of my energy. Even though some people were encouraging me, telling me to be strong, that the sun always rises after the storm, the situation was still the same and I could not make any progress.

A month later I started visiting classes. One day, at one of the exams, some guys came and informed me about a particular presentation and said something about ESTIEM, a students’ organisation which offers lots of interesting things and which could help us. I was confused at first, but in my head there was only one thought: “Why not?” I was impressed by the presentation. I became a part of the organisation and could not wait to attend the first meeting. It was nothing special at the beginning. I needed some time to adjust to the other members, but I knew that I had to be persistent if I wanted to make progress. And after some time, I became really close to the other members. Whether it was working on a project, singing ESTIEM songs or studying, we were all there together, sharing unforgettable moments, building friendships and that unique spirit. We became a real family.

I could feel that the smile, slowly but surely, was coming back to me. I was happy again. What a wonderful feeling it is when you know that you have friends who will help you no matter what, who are there for you at any time, any place. At the New Year’s Eve I had only one wish - to forget the year 2010, and continue my progress within ESTIEM. That is how it all began…

In February 2011, I was a part of the exchange between our Local Group and Local Group Istanbul-Yildiz, which actually was my first ESTIEM event. Everyone was excited. Those days were like a fairytale. We had the most interesting agenda any one of us had ever seen. We came back from Istanbul full of energy and we couldn’t stop talking about those few days we had spent there together.

Just when I thought that everything was perfect and that nothing better could happen, a special invitation from our Local Board came to me. I was asked to be a delegate at the Council Meeting in Karlsruhe. I could not believe it!

I spoke to my parents, who had noticed how happy I was for being a part of ESTIEM and how my life had dramatically changed overnight, so I had their support for going to Karlsruhe and having a wonderful time there.

I was counting the days, and finally the time for the Council Meeting came. Young people from all over Europe; presentations, skills, experience, visiting factories, new extraordinary friendships - it was like a dream.

This summer I was in Novi Sad to visit my friends Jelena Bajsic, Dunja Sekulic and Darija Medvecki, whom I met in Karlsruhe. It was a confirmation of the friendship born there and from that point on, we have shared wonderful moments. ❱❱❱

STEFAN KRSTEVSKI

SOFIA OMMEDAL

We were all from Karlsruhe, Istanbul, Eindhoven, Stockholm, Ilmenau, Groningen, Ankara, Bucharest, Darmstadt, Berlin, Enschede, and Trondheim. We were at the Tug’o’War Activity Week in Linköping. We were sitting in the sauna after a ”long” day of training training for a Tug’o’War competition that apparently was going to happen on Saturday while not really having a clue of what was waiting for us.

The Magic of the ESTIEM Spirit

27

INSIDE ESTIEM

28

29

Digital Trends ESTIEM changed my life a lot. I learnt to be a responsible, persistent person. I learnt to make smart decisions and finish the tasks given to me on time. It taught me how to be patient with other people - something which will help me a lot one day when I become a successful manager.

Let us

I am a new person now - stronger and more motivated than ever before. It is what the ESTIEM spirit does to all of us. Wouldn’t you agree, fellow ESTIEMers? n

ENTERTAIN

you!

TOBIAS ROSSBERG FRANCISCO SCHLÖDER

Do you remember what happened in the year 1982? Probably not. To your excuse, this was most likely before you were even born. Well, in 1982, Madonna released her first single, Canada became fully independent from Great Britain, the first computer virus was spread and Michael Jackson published his famous album Thriller. This list could be extended as long as wanted. But there was something else in that year that most people do not know: students in Karlsruhe founded the “VWI Hochschulgruppe Karlsruhe”. It was the birthday of what is today known as Local Group Karlsruhe.

from the 4 th till the 8th of July we want to gather about 100 ESTIEMers and members of VWI to live up the unique ESTIEM spirit in different activities of all kinds. Many people reaching the age of fifty might complain about first back aches and so on, but definitely not us. We are feeling as young as ever, and maybe even a little better. So come to Karlsruhe in early July and you will not only have the chance to discover the Fächerstadt (“fan city”), as Karlsruhe is called according to its unique layout, but also to get a taste of the south-western German culture including the famous beer and wine.

Ten years later, in 1992, this student group actually joined the ESTIEM network. So today, in 2012, we can look back at thirty years of membership in VWI and twenty years in ESTIEM. With a little cheating, if we combine those two figures, that makes in total FIFTY successful and interesting years of learning and coming together in both organisations. And we want to take this occasion as an opportunity to celebrate with YOU! Presumably

And although not every little detail of the agenda is fixed yet, there are already some activities you can look forward to. For example, there will be a charity event in the style of OlympiXX, a Gala Dinner and needless to say, the one-of-a-kind StraBa-Party.

If you do not know what that is or have only heard rumours about it, you should immediately apply to find out! Remember fifty – looking forward to seeing you all in Karlsruhe! n

WhyamIhere.com

A few years back, when MySpace was still just a photo uploading service, many of my friends asked me what had been the point of sharing my photos with everyone. Back then, I tried to explain it’s not “everyone”, or “anyone” for that matter. I admit I didn’t have a complete overview of the Internet, or the social media and the importance it bore. Over the next few years, with my growing interest in Public Relations and anything that could “go online”, many others grasped the importance of sharing, not only photos, but any relevant information.

Why? Because they would all soon discover sharing is caring.

New Age PR

Traditional concepts of doing Public Relations stood on a one-way communication pedestal for far too long (obviously neglecting the core meaning of the word “relations”). Media relations were used as a tool of communicating one’s message without getting the necessary feedback. But with the introduction of blogs, social networks, and freeware mobile software, the “common” people got their chance to speak out. Suddenly, everyone became a stakeholder.

Target audiences were broadened, messages had to be simplified, more generic, but they were clearer than ever. Internet gave average customers the power to be heard. It is of utmost importance to realise Public Relations have become a two-way function, and the other side has a very relevant saying in every business decision, directly, or indirectly.

Tools

Being online was a topic for discussion in the ‘90s. In the beginning of the 21st century, the questions was: “How do we get online?”. The year 2012 brings only one question: “Is being online enough?”

Public Relations Even though many try to answer the question with a “no”, the truth is that the dynamic surroundings suggest otherwise. Being passively online is not enough and the only way to be competitive is to be as dynamic as possible. Real time updates, active presence, business personification and demystification, and most importantly, successful integration of online into offline (or vice versa) will give companies, organisations, and individuals the opportunity to build a successful online brand.

With all of the above stated, it is high time to dive into the endless list of possibilities of being virtually competitive in the “real” world, as well. Social networks have given the opportunity to humanize all business activities, and get necessary feedback. Bloggers empower the voice of the “common”, geolocation services provide the already mention integration of online into offline, and the emerging market of open-source software offers numerous possibilities of nearly… well, everything.

Numbers and figures

Yes, Facebook is fun. So is Twitter. But in the world of business and management, evaluating a tool is a matter of digits. Nobody cares if you have a Facebook page of 100 000 fans. If you have no interaction with them, it’s like a shop window. You come, take a look, and continue to the next one.

Key word: Insights.

Analytical data is essential to evaluating your success in creating a great online brand. Facebook offers a great variety of information about users and interactions on a page. ❱❱❱

MILAN ĐORĐEVIĆ

Now, while writing this, I realised that last year, at this time, I was alone, depressed and disappointed. After one year in ESTIEM, I can say

that I am happy again. I enjoy my life. I am doing great with my exams. I have friends who are like my brothers and sisters. I am full of energy. I have close friendships with people from all over Europe.

in

INSIDE ESTIEM

INSIDE ESTIEM

30

31

INSIDE ESTIEM

Vision is Spreading the Knowledge Google has taken a step forward with their Google Analytics - a service that does all the work for you (in case you know what you need). Have a blog? No problem, see where your visitors come from, how long they stay reading your late night ramblings and what the topics that should be discussed the most are. Don’t be afraid of the numbers. In the digital world, you are one of them.

The fundamental key of success when talking about blogs and their authors is the empirical factor. No matter how arrogant bloggers are, no matter how supreme they think they are, they know.

And even if they don’t, no one will really care. They have taken some time to put everything on paper (or to secure enough supplies of Red Bull and chips to survive the night of keyboard and mouse flapping), and the public recognises that. Bloggers have experienced products and services, and their word easily overthrows some neat guy in a suit saying: “Ours is the best, trust us!”

Learn more about Crisis and Change Management ESTIEMers! - This is a quick glance to what is happening in the Vision Project - Crisis and Change Management before we elect the new Vision topic in this Council Meeting.

1,2,3 - Androidify!

See those creepy looking dudes checking-in at Starbucks? Well, they have just earned their free Frappuccino for using the Foursquare Special. The power of reward is still as useful as it has been for the majority of human civilisation. Geolocation services have successfully integrated into Android, iOS and Windows mobile platforms, and it’s getting nearly impossible to resist Google Maps, Foursquare, or Glympse.

Having your venue tagged on Foursquare or Google Maps makes it visible. If you decide to reward those eager enough to walk into your premises “because an application told them so”, be sure to make it a worthwhile walk from the bus stop.

With the help of a great team - the so called Vision Team - and devoted organisers, six very well organised Vision seminars have taken place by the time you read this article. More than a hundred ESTIEMers participated in these seminars, devoted their time and energy to learn the topic Crisis and Change Management from many different aspects, also discovering different cultures and cities and gaining great friends. From the academic point of view, they attended lectures, visited companies, had debates and solved case studies. They worked in groups, reflected their understandings at the end of each event and for the rest of the ESTIEM network, they summed up what happened during each session!

Mobile operational systems have enabled mobility, accessibility and a display of creativity. What to eat, drink, watch, listen to; where to buy, borrow, sell; how to create, destroy, find, accomplish. It is the online in your hands. It is online in offline. It is the final stadium of 2012 brand building.

So this is the visible part of the Vision Seminars.

Organisers make great events, participants travel there, great fun happens, but who delivers you all these detailed Vision reports afterwards? The reports that you can read and learn about the topic from, without actually travelling?

Left or right?

The heroes of this part of the story are the devoted Vision Team members who read all the outcome that the Seminar participants create after each Seminar and prepare the interesting reports. We have a team of 6-7 enthusiastic people that enjoy transferring these events to your knowledge!

Both ways. If the relevant public is on both sides (and in the digital age it is), you have to target everyone. The simple idea is to create a platform that will satisfy everyone’s hunger for being taken care of: kids on Facebook, the “experienced” bloggers, super demanding Twitter folks, Android geeks, Apple freaks, Windows loners.

Explore, analyse, create, digitise, communicate, measure and remember: Online, everyone’s your key account. n

Quoting a team member, Andrés from Local Group Seville: “ I can say that being a part of the Vision Team is a great opportunity to develop myself in different issues like working in group, learning about academic topics and ways to present them to people,… but above all, I think it’s the best way to contribute to the ESTIEM community as much as I like to do, and be a part of the group of people that makes every ESTIEM event possible.

I’m not a passive person, and furthermore, Vision is strongly related to capabilities such as leadership, social engagement, personal growth, expressing yourself… I’ve been working on these subjects, so it’s a great motivation for me to work in a Team which applies them to this year’s topic, and analyses the thoughts of people about it.

Moreover, it’s an unique experience to get even more involved in ESTIEM, and help improve our amazing association. “ Vision 2011-2012 now has two more events before starting to finalise a great year of Crisis and Change Management events. Check the ESTIEM Portal to learn more about the Vision Project, and drop me (bahar.akinci@estiem.org) a line if you are interested in being a part of this team. Also join us in the Final Conference in Vienna in the end of May! n

BAHAR AKINCI

Blogging your way to the top

Tips and tricks: Bloggers love to be in the center of attention during events. Give them a tweet wall so they can be heard even though it’s not their seminar. Free food and drinks are optional, but highly recommended.

INSIDE ESTIEM

32

33

INSIDE ESTIEM

An Insight into the Human Resources of ESTIEM

“Our work is the presentation of our capabilities”

BETÜL DOĞRU

Human Resources…Wasn’t it something related to career days, job fairs or internship offers? Yes, this is what I was able to say about this before - it was only about companies for me before ESTIEM. However, if you asked me right now what Human Resources was, you would have to listen to me for hours because I have lots of things to say since I was appointed as the first Human Resources Officer of ESTIEM (we prefer using HR Officer, as ESTIEMers like abbreviations a lot!).

On the other hand, implementing new ideas is not as easy as it seems and if you try to make them come true in an international organisation, it is even more challenging. You have to take into consideration all kinds of comments, listen to other people’s ideas and make compromises. It requires some time even if you would like to see the outcomes directly.

Additionally, I have learnt that you can be in favour of an idea and you think that it will work effectively, but the reality is not always as what you anticipate.

Human Resources Department was created in April 2011 under the Members Committee, which is responsible for taking care of Local Groups and ESTIEMers in different aspects. Thus, this department is an indispensable part of not only for Members Committee, but for all ESTIEM. Human Resources Department is responsible for the activeness and recruitment at the central level of ESTIEM. This includes informing ESTIEMers about open positions, motivating new members to get active in ESTIEM and helping Local Responsibles with their own recruitment strategies.

We also discovered that even the smallest and simplest ideas can be powerful when it comes to making big and effective improvements. I hope that the future initiatives of ESTIEM can realize similar small vacancies and make a huge effect on this big organisation.

Analysing our organisation and creating new ideas for satisfying our needs was very exciting and interesting to me and thanks to this initiative; I was able to use all my creativity. I believe that having such freedom might not be this possible at an actual job. Therefore, I am glad to have this experience as a university student.

Thursday evening, January the 26th, seven cabs rolled down the streets of Lund with a song Avicii – Levels blasting from the speakers. The TIMES Semi-Final had just finished and with untied ties and hair let down, the participants, together with the organisers and company representatives, were about to enter the largest night club.

Looking back, it had been an intense week with long case days and company visits. Except for a couple of minor irregularities such as a team getting stuck in an elevator for an hour, everyone agreed that it had been a great week.

From an organiser’s perspective, it was a memorable experience. During my first Council Meeting in Zurich, TIMES struck me as a really cool project and it got me involved in ESTIEM. Now, after I was given the opportunity to arrange a Semi-Final, I can say that it really is a high-quality case tournament.

As a Project Leader of an event like this, you develop yourself in various aspects. You are faced with the challenge of putting together a local team that is going to work together in order to make the event possible on an operational level. Also, you are a part of the TIMES team on the central level, making strategic decisions concerning the Project as a whole. In addition, you get to meet teams from all over Europe, which won the Local Qualifications, and have a great time with them.

The casework, company contacts, teamwork and above all, fun; being involved in the TIMES Project is a great opportunity – one which I recommend to everyone whether it is as an organiser or a participant.

After a long Thursday night, it was time to say goodbye. Thanks goes out to everyone involved in the Semi-Final Lund for making it a very fun and successful week! n

SIXTEN BJÖRKEN

Human Resources is very significant for every company and organisation in order to achieve efficiency and sustainability. However, ESTIEM as a great organisation did not have any kind of such department. Because of that, my mission was just to complete the missing part of the puzzle.

Besides that, we love spending some time and working together as central ESTIEM addicts. We are learning from each other. This position is a great way of working with many different people, such as the Board, Leaders, Local Responsibles, Committee/Project members and so on. It is also a great opportunity to learn from their various perspectives. There is a really great atmosphere at the central level and I am glad to be the Human Resources Officer as I am able to introduce central ESTIEM to more people. I highly recommend taking a step forward to the central level to whoever is reading this article right now and has not experienced this atmosphere yet. I am sure you will also enjoy and improve yourselves just like me and other active ESTIEMers, who always welcome you to join the team. Lastly, I would like to say that the definition of Human Resources in ESTIEM includes friendship and entertainment and I would like to thank everyone who has supported and worked for the Human Resources initiative while enabling me to be part of this friendship and entertainment. n

TIMES Semi-Final in Lund A Project Leader’s Perspective

INSIDE ESTIEM

34

35

TIMES Semi-Final in Ilmenau A Short Story from a “HR Point of View”

HAN CHE

Why did we want to participate in TIMES? Obviously there was the dream of winning, updating a particular Facebook status and adding a few lines in our CV, no denying in that. Are these, is winning, really the only aims we had in mind? Yes, at first, it was all about doing our best, giving everything and finally becoming the best.Honestly I think at a time we grouped our team not because we were the best buddies and just wanted to do it for fun. Of course I liked my teammates, knew them already for quite a while and also wanted to see how we would fit working together. I can only say it for me but the major feeling was actually “yeah this team has a high potential of winning the tournament”.

Assume you are – and people told you to be – the “creative” type. Someone with a resourceful nature who enjoys working in rather unorthodox ways and detests bureaucracy. Maybe also a little dominating when it comes to hold sway and a slight tendency to volcano out with emotions. Now imagine a brilliant team consisting of three and a half male wannabe alpha whelps described just like above. That is how Team PoliMiKa set out to compete in the so called “prestigious flagship Project” of ESTIEM. For those who are familiar with some team role theories (Myers-Briggs, Belbin,…) and for those

However after successful passing the Local Qualification and the Semi-Finals, these experiences I have gained, to me, are already worth the whole tournament. Since I was not majorly involved anymore in actually solving the case my priority was not to give an endless stream of inputs but rather enabling my teammates to focus on what they can do best. The victory feeling became less about rocking the case and more about providing the best means for the team to perform their best. In a sense, while I was still rewarded with the satisfaction of winning in addition I had the chance to gather experiences in the much more subtle and intangible art of invisible leadership.

Now back to you, why am I telling you this or what am I trying to say? In my opinion case study competitions are one of the best opportunities for us to apply the information we learned and to transform it to knowledge during our study time, next

You might have noticed that I’ve put prestigious flagship project between quotes earlier. This means that TIMES still has a lot of potential for developing and getting better known in the corporate world.

Even if the title “IEM Student of the Year” might be a certificate, what will truly be of use are The Invaluable Meanings of Enabling Skills.

Thank you Local Group Milano, Local Group Ilmenau and finally TIMES for giving me this wonderful and unique experience. n

Training Advanced Trainers Eindhoven - A Brief Insight At the very end of September 2011, eight student trainers gathered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands for a fantastic event: The first Training advanced Trainers (TaT) of ESTIEM. The idea for the event was born already quite some time ago and now was the time to make it real! The aim of the TaT was to provide a platform for ESTIEM trainers in order to develop their training skills, exchange experiences with trainers from other student organisations and learn from professional trainers. The event focus and concept was developed in close cooperation between all participants and trainers, which made the event very flexible and fitting to the needs of the participants. Next to trainers from ESTIEM there were also trainers from other student organisations like BEST, EPSA and IFSMA, which were supporting the event by, either participating, or delivering trainings.

The event started with a highlight – a one-day training of Arjan Rooyens, an ESTIEM alumnus.

He shared his vast experience in professional training delivery, trainer behaviour and psychology. The second day was used for discussions about training development, experience sharing and some PowerPoint karaoke! This made people hungry for the next training sessions which followed on the third event day. The topics were Visualisation and Advanced Facilitation spiced up with many nice stories, tips and tricks of Lies and Herve, two very experienced student trainers.

Summing up: interesting training insights, fruitful discussions and a lot of fun made this event a great success! A big thanks goes to Local Group Eindhoven for perfect event organisation and to Mari Haga Rimestad for her constant commitment to the event coordination and creative ideas! n

JUDITH MARESA HARTL ALISE LEZDINA

So it was about personal gains. Now if you think I will proceed to write about “but there are more important things than that”, well in a sense you will be right, yet it will not be about friendship, trust and blah… it will still concern YOUR personal gain in participating in TIMES – just form a different perspective.

who just have common sense, it is easy to see that this team might have a higher potential of generating conflicts. Even if three out of four agree on a solution (assuming we have fair democracy) the fourth overruled person will be much worse off. Since that person then has to work with an impose creation that was not his own, this might as well lead to a huge emotional blockade of creativity. To ensure that this team will work and to enable everyone’s creativity we needed a clear structure and governance of our team. Now it is not that I volunteered… hell no... I somehow slipped into that position. The tasks I got were like preparing slides, solving disputes, keeping the whole team on the ground, etc.

So actually quite the opposite of what I used to do.

to a comparably long internship. The framework of such an event simulates and covers quite a variety on what we will encounter out there in a smaller but manageable scale. The great advantage here is not only to experience which of the hard skills we learned we can apply, but actually to test our abilities in soft skills as well. Last ones are not easily spotted, since we are often in the very midst of that process. To notice these intangible soft factors more easily, one possibility is, as I’ve mentioned, to position ourselves outside the frame. To enhance keen sense for noticing, I can also recommend you joining the ESTIEM Summer Academy.

INSIDE ESTIEM

36

FOCUS Dynamic Management Redefining Corporate Survival Skills

37 Mastering Environmental Turbulence

Can anyone actually “master” turbulence? In research with my colleague, Professor Joe McCann, we have found that no one can overcome turbulence once and for all, but managers can work at it with discipline and skill. Mastering turbulence is about developing the capabilities which make a difference in performance. It’s also about working smarter – investing in new technologies and using new ways of thinking and managing.

Here I offer a research-based framework for developing adaptive capacity to cope with turbulence in business environments.

JOHN W. SELSKY

John W. Selsky is an Associate Professor of Management at University of South Florida Polytechnic in Lakeland, Florida, USA. Dr. Selsky is a well published author in the fields of collaborative strategies in turbulent environments and cross-sector social partnerships. This article is adapted from his forthcoming book with Professor Joseph E. McCann, Mastering Turbulence: The Essential Capabilities of Agile & Resilient Individuals, Teams & Organizations.

Jossey-Bass/Wiley. To be published mid 2012.

The new contours of change

Rapid change has been a feature of our world for decades, driven by technological innovation and the growth of trade in the globalising economy.

Managers used to view periods of more rapid change as deviations from normal operating conditions. But today’s managers face not only fast change, but also “black swan” events which are almost impossible to anticipate, which arrive sporadically and from unexpected sources. Such disruptive change upsets plans and strategies and also threatens the survival of organisations. There may be no return to “normal.”

We may be entering what PIMCO’s Bill Gross calls the “New Normal” – a period of prolonged high unemployment, blocked credit and lower asset returns resulting from the Great Recession and rippling out for a generation. This prospect is unsettling because it means facing new shocks from an already weakened position. If we are entering a period of more disruptive change combined with continuous rapid change, then we need to expand the repertoire of adaptive strategies and capabilities quickly. ❱❱❱

JOHN W. SELSKY

The global economy and the business world are beset with disruptions and shocks of many kinds – economic, cultural, political, ecological. Yet, as Fareed Zakaria points out, the global economy overall has displayed remarkable resilience in the face of great volatility over recent years. While some companies have been greatly challenged by these disruptions, others have “thrived on chaos”.

FOCUS

38

How can some companies view these dynamic operating conditions as an opportunity, a source of competitive advantage, while others are reeling from them? The impact of such change depends on a company’s adaptive capacity, the amount and variety of resources and skills available to maintain viability and growth relative to what the environment requires.

The race for agility & quest for resilency

Adaptive capacity has two aspects – agility (the capacity for moving quickly, flexibly and decisively in anticipating, initiating, and taking advantage of the opportunities inherent in change) and resiliency (the capacity for resisting, absorbing and responding, even reinventing, in response to fast or disruptive changes).

The “race for agility” is a response to the increasing pace of change in globalised competition in many industries. This is a necessary but dangerous race since it can destroy a company’s buffers and boundaries, “lean” the company too much (remember Toyota’s massive recalls in 2009?) or create undermanaged interdependencies (think of the financial services sector when it was impossible to decipher what was contained in globally traded bundles of toxic assets). Overly agile companies can become fragile – they are prone to “break” as operating conditions intensify beyond their adaptive capacity.

They may have slow responses to situations, empty new product pipelines, or high executive team turnover. This is why the “quest for resilience” has become so important. It helps to stabilise individuals, teams and organisations in the face of threats or setbacks.

Curiously, agility and resiliency have rarely been considered together. We believe that both – “AR” – are needed to build adaptive capacity.

39

Five high ar capabilites

We have identified 5 critical capabilities of “High AR” individuals, teams, organisations and ecosystems. They are Purposeful, Aware, Action Oriented, Resourceful, and Networked.

Purposeful means cultivating positive identities grounded in a core set of values and beliefs about who one is and what one wants to accomplish.

Wellness, a healthy physical, psychological, and social life that supports the pursuit of purpose, is highly valued. A High Purposeful leadership team frequently communicates and manifests the company’s shared values within a compelling, sustainable vision of the company within society. Stephen Covey calls this an organisation’s “significant contribution.” It is essential for employee engagement and fulfillment.

Aware means sensitivity to the environment, actively scanning and sensemaking of what one perceives and experiences, and the ability to form action hypotheses about opportunities and risks detected. High Aware people are active learners, open to new ideas to improve performance, and willing to experiment in ways contrary to prevailing practice.

High Aware companies have well-developed information gathering, filtering, sharing and collective decision making processes that support sensemaking and strategy. These processes are ingrained in information system platforms that all can access and use.

Action-Oriented means having a “forwardleaning” posture and an openness to change made possible by appropriate resources for supporting quick movement. High Action-Oriented managers create an adaptive design mindset. A firm’s design is an expression of its preferred choice for adapting to its environments for greatest impact through its business strategies. Structure is viewed as a set of interdependent capabilities that are grouped and bundled together in certain ways to support specific goals and strategies at a particular point in time.

Resourceful means behaving like an entrepreneur seeking the resources, talent and support from multiple sources that are required to grow a big idea despite setbacks. A High Resourceful company has an innovating mindset and culture. It is creative in how it deploys its financial, physical and human assets to meet novel situations. It uses different innovation “scripts” to take advantage of opportunities or minimise setbacks. Examples are the Improvisational Innovation script, appropriate for low-impact situations and short timeframes, and the Strategic Corporate Innovation script, geared to high-impact situations and long timeframes.

Networked means building and sustaining valued relationships to leverage opportunities and secure a life-line when one’s own capacity is overwhelmed. High Networked people and systems balance the value and risks associated with their relationships, for instance ending relationships which pose excessive risks or costs. The networks of High Networked companies are supported across all parts and levels of the firm, and engage important external stakeholders. Managing networks such as global supply chain networks and strategic alliances requires strategic boundary management to leverage opportunities and repel threats.

Conclusion

Companies need not be victimised by rapid and disruptive change. High-performing firms have recognised the competitive advantage in building the 5 capabilities described. Some of these ideas require a lot of time, attention and investment, so establishing a strategic plan to address those resource concerns is crucial. Since AR involves nearly every functional area of a company, many executives play different roles in developing it. The Chief Human Resource Officer should have primary AR leadership responsibility because developing High AR capabilities centers upon individuals and teams. n

REFERENCES 1. Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World. (New York: Norton, 2009).

2. American Management Association/ Human Resources Institute, Agility and Resiliency in the Face of Continuous Change: Report of a Global Study of Current Trends and Future Possibilities 2006-2016 (New York: American Management Association, 2006); Joseph McCann, John Selsky and James Lee, “Building Agility, Resiliency and Performance in Turbulent Environments,” People & Strategy, 32/3 (2009): 44-51.

3. Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. (New York: Random House, 2007).

4. Donald Sull, The Upside of Turbulence: Seizing Opportunity in an Uncertain World.

(New York: Harper Business, 2009).

5. McCann et al., 2009, op. cit.

6. Shona Brown and Kathleen Eisenhardt, “The art of continuous change: Linking complexity theory and time-paced evolution in relentlessly shifting organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42/1 (1997): 1-34.

7. Gary Hamel & L. Valikangas, “The quest for resilience,” Harvard Business Review, 81/9 (2003): 52-63.

8. Stephen R. Covey, The 8 th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness (New York: Free Press, 2004).

9. Rosabeth Kanter, “Collaborative advantage: The art of alliances,” Harvard Business Review, 72/4 (1994): 96-108.

10. Joseph McCann & John Selsky, “Boundary formation, defense and destruction: strategically managing environmental turbulence,” Presented at Academy of Management national meetings, Seattle, August 2003.

FOCUS

FOCUS

40

The Philosophical Foundations of Sustainability

In the history of industrial engineering and management, there have been essentially two waves of teaching about quality control. The first was “Scientific Management”, developed by Frederic Taylor, that was all about control, control, control premised on the belief that, within a factory, you were in control and could not only make people do what you said (and much pain and unhappiness has flowed from that assertive stance ever since), but also on the belief that you could make things do exactly what you said. Arrogance wall-to-wall and potentially the downfall of the human race. Because the world is not like that.

The second strand of thinking, however, is very different. You will know it as coming from Taguchi, but what you need to understand is not only what the underlying philosophy was, but where it came from. Because, instead of believing – and insisting – that we are in charge, Taguchi analysis begins with the premise that we are absolutely not in charge and that the forces acting on us are huge and not in our control. We are only able to do little things. And we have to understand what little things we can do that will improve our chances of survival in the teeth of the big forces of nature. And I say nature, because that is where the story started. Here is the story.

Ready for Uncertainty Preparing future business leaders for dynamic environments

Fisher was an ag ricultural researcher at Rothamsted in the UK in the 1930s who focused on using the few parameters a farmer has (choice of type of wheat, time of planting, fertilising etc.) to survive the variations in the weather and soil which he is unable to control. Deming was an agricultural statistician in the USA in the dust bowl period in the 1930s and tried to apply Fisher’s understanding to the devastating conditions in American agriculture in that decade. When he went to Japan in the late 1940s to help redevelop Japan’s manufacturing industry he took with him the understanding that you only had control over small variables and the large variables you had no control over. Thus he established an approach to quality control which is in many respects the reverse of Taylor’s, where you are inclined to think you are in control of what goes on in a factory and call what you do “scientific management”. Taguchi put statistical method to the thinking Deming introduced and created an approach to quality control which is based on reducing “noise” in the system, so that machines are working in their most stable ranges and the whole system is robust against uncontrolled variation. Taguchi met Fisher in India during a sabbatical year and completed his understanding and development of the statistical method.

Faster, higher, stronger. These three words that represent the Olympic motto can easily be used to describe how business worlds work. The strive for improvement embodied in those three words is the main force behind the constant change process that we are witnessing today. Quick adaptation is one of the main skills necessary to survive in today’s global market. However, the ones that want to stand on top at the end of the day don’t just adapt to changes, they create the changes. And changes always lead to uncertainty, at least to some extent.

Now forget the clever mathematical parts, look at the core philosophy. When the dynamism cones from outside what you need is resilience. And understanding how to survive is based on humility, not on arrogance. And learn how to say enough.

Some might wonder why playing as an activity should be implemented in science institutions such as universities. Playing is not strictly limited to children and it shouldn’t be considered just as frivolous.

Most of the social scientists recognise engaging in arts or science by adults as an act of play. The most important characteristic of an activity that could be recognised as playing is that it must be voluntary.

The pressure can exist as a part of the game, but it can only be internal pressure, coming from the one who is engaged in the act of play. For example, the wish to win the game can be considered as internal pressure, but the act of play cannot. The second most important characteristic of playing is that it’s not necessarily a goal-orientated activity.

While there can be general goals of the game, there

Start there and you are unlikely to go wrong. n JIM PLATTS

Jim Platts, a lecturer (Manufacturing Engineering Tripos) and examiner (Manufacturing Leaders’ Programme) from the university of Cambridge, spent 23 years in industry, was a partner in the consulting engineering practice Gifford and Partners, 19816, MD of Composite Technology Ltd 1986-9 and is now a lecturer in the Institute for Manufacturing. His interests are design and manufacturing, particularly skill-based manufacturing, and a concern for ethical leadership.

FOCUS

The businesses today don’t want to waste precious resources on training new employees. They expect that they already have the skills and the knowledge needed for successful task execution.

Since universities are preparing the future employees and leaders, the employers should be regarded as one of the most important stakeholders when it comes to implementation of new teaching processes in the universities. To prepare for the business world full of uncertainties it is not enough just to learn, not even to learn how to implement the knowledge that students gain during the courses.

Universities must be turned into creativity factories, and one of the best ways to do that is through the activity of play.

should be different ways through which those goals can be achieved.

Besides classical methods of teaching, there are two other recognisable models that are used in different universities: The so called Learning-while-doing model is

quite in use together with the learning-whilelistening model and it enhances the quality of the courses. The students are given problems that they must solve, thus, they must implement what they learned. The good side of this model is that the knowledge is processed better and students can see how to implement the knowledge gathered during the course. Two major issues which this model is dealing with are related to the fact that the outcome is usually already known, it is the same for everybody and it is obligatory.

Learning-through-play also interacts with the

learning-while-listening model, but it eliminates the two traits of the learning-while-doing model. The outcome of the game is never known and it is up to the student not to find a result, but rather to create one. This way students practice their creativity in the context of the course instead of just repeating what they learned in lectures. It also gives the student a choice. Only the students who wish to devote part of their free time to the game should be involved in playing.

Other students can stick to the other models if these suit them better.

The higher tempo of changes in the business world and the uncertainty that it brings, calls for future employees that are already trained in those kinds of situations. The learning-through-play model offers that type of training since the in-game situation can be changed, thus teaching the students how to cope with uncertainty that exists so often in today’s business world and not only that, but also to recognise where they must make the changes in business processes. Only then they can be called the leaders of the future. n

MIROSLAV FERENČAK

JIM PLATTS

It is far too easy – and a big mistake – to think about “dynamic management” as a go-go style of management where the dynamism comes from inside. The real problem facing us is how to survive on a rather angry planet, fed up with us messing it about, and the problem here is how to survive in a context where a continuous and uncomfortable dynamism is coming from outside. Surprisingly, there is a good source of philosophical guidance for managers already in existence, but it is a little known story, so it is worth telling.

41

MIROSLAV FERENČAK

Miroslav Ferencak is a fulltime teaching associate and a PhD student since 2011 at the University of Novi Sad, the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management.

His current interests cover corporate finance, public finance, financial markets and portfolio management. He was the president of ESTIEM Local Group Novi Sad and the Project Leader of ESTIEM Summer Academy in 2008. Currently he is an associate at the Center for Financial Engineering in Novi Sad and an ESTIEM Alumni.

FOCUS

42

43

Dynamic Management Enabling an Organisations’ Full Potential

MARLIES VAN LAARHOVEN

Times are changing. The future is uncertain. What worked in the past may not work today. Then how do you know what is the right thing to do? How do you manoeuvre your organisation towards the best possible results? We can’t just rely on our experience and skills. We must tap into our full potential. Therefore, what we need is leadership that maintains healthy organisations in which all elements function to their full potential.

Of course, you might say, isn’t that what we are already doing? Well, let’s look into it and reflect on it.

Human beings First and foremost, we are all human beings. All roles and functions in an organisation are performed by human beings. If I leave half of myself at home, only half of my potential is available to the organisation.

To be good leaders, we need to be good people.

Tex Gunning, board member of Akzo Nobel, emphasised in a conference [1] the need for leaders to feel human, to feel connected, and reminded of the importance of relations and caring. That’s why he focuses his leadership training on the human being and organises quarterly themed gatherings throughout the organisation to deepen connections.

Ways of knowing We are all trained to use our intellectual powers to find answers and take action. In unknown circumstances, however, our intellectual mind cannot grasp the answer. Luckily we have the potential for different ways of knowing, which we can access and add to the analysis (see figure - Four ways of knowing). [2]

Open will – I connect to the bigger whole of

The way we feel in terms of emotions and sensations in our body gives a lot of insights. We only need to learn to be aware of them and listen to them. How often do we discard them, just because we cannot immediately interpret them or do not dare to share them? Furthermore, if we build in quiet moments, intuitive thoughts that provide sudden insights can pop up out of the blue. These types of insights touch on a deep truth.

Hidden dynamics

Asking yourself or your team the question: “Does this seem right?” may be a low key way to allow these insights to surface. As you learn to acknowledge the information and start trusting the insights, they will start working for you.

Listening How are you listening to your colleagues? Your team? Your clients? Are you just looking for confirmation of what you know or do you open up yourself to hear everything that comes to you?

Consider these four ways of listening [3]: Downloading – I look for confirmation of what I

already know, everything else I discard;

Open mind – I look for new insights that I can

understand and that suit me, everything else I discard;

Open heart – I open up to the others and I am

able to look from the other person’s point of view;

which we are all parts and listen to everything that comes to me.

Sometimes it is right just to download, but be aware that only when you listen with an open will do you tap into the full potential that’s offered to you.

An organisation is like a living organism. The total is more than the sum of the parts. An organisation has a past, a present and a future, and it consists of elements that have relationships with each other.

There are a lot of dynamics going on between these elements, often unseen, but nevertheless felt as positive energy (e.g. ‘I am in the right place here’, ‘I like working for this organisation’) or negative problems (e.g. ‘it’s not working’, ‘I don’t feel engaged’). They may be hidden under the surface, but nevertheless influence the ability of the organisation to perform to its full potential[4].

Disorders

Your plans and ideas may be brilliant, but if something in the organisation is not in order, the energy cannot flow freely and reaching your goals will take great effort, if that can be achieved at all. Consider, for example, a company that was acquired. The acquired company has a history of its own, and employees will remain loyal to their old company until that history is acknowledged and respected. Only then can they give their best for the future in the new setting.

A topical example in this time of reorganisations is how people may feel lost about their role and position which paralyses them in their work. At the same time, people who are made redundant often feel unrecognised for all their years of dedication and as a result lack the strength to move on. Until it’s resolved, sub-consciously the previous manager

and colleagues may tend to stay loyal to their fired colleague, which in turn affects their work.

In general, four (invisible) orders underlie any organisation: History: the recognition of an origin, of what has

been, of what previous people gave;

Belonging: the sense and clarity of being part of

a team or group;

Place: everyone has its own rightful position in

terms of hierarchy, seniority, expertise or contribution;

Exchange: the balance between giving and tak ing, effort and reward.

Disturbances in these orders cause hidden dynamics. Acknowledging what is, is the most essential step in resolving disorders. A lack of acknowledging an obstacle gives it power. If, as a leader, you can be aware of disorders, you help your organisation to be healthier and its full potential can unfold [2, 4]. ❱❱❱

FOCUS

FOCUS

44

Agile Project Management

45

FOCUS

Building the bridge while you walk on it.

Resource

For this, it is important to keep resourcing yourself and your organisation. Some managers use sports, meditation or a regular retreat to stay close to their true self. And Tex Gunning of Akzo Nobel takes managers to do community service in India and uses the quarterly gatherings to resource his organisation.1 As change becomes a way of life, we better learn to live in harmony with it.

Note from the author: this article only gives a brief introduction into what I consider to be essential aspects of organisations, and is meant as a trigger to the interested reader to further his insights in this area. I welcome your thoughts at Marlies.vanlaarhoven@live.nl. n

1. Tex Gunning, key note speaker at a VNONCW conference on leadership, November 2009 2. Jenny Mackewn, Nowhere group, UK, trainer on systemic constellations, 2010 3. C. Otto Scharmer, Theory U, Harvard Business School, USA 4. Jan Jacob Stam, Fields of Connections, 2006

MARLIES VAN LAARHOVEN 1969 Born in Oirschot, Netherlands; 1987 Studied IEM in Eindhoven, Netherlands; 1990 Founded Interactie, co-founded ESTIEM; 1993 Joined Global Purchasing at Procter & Gamble, London/Brussels; 1999 Joined Arthur D. Little, strategy consulting; 2001 Co-founded Quintel strategy consulting; 2008 Took career break to resource herself and gain new insights; 2010 Started training on systemic dynamics of organisations.

Marlies lives in Amsterdam with Marc and their two sons.

A novel approach to project management is gaining critical mass. It offers a flexible development method which enables project sponsors to adjust their plans during development based on new insights or changed market conditions. Agile project management has arrived and is here to stay.

Doomed IT -projects Agile management started in IT-projects which have a troublesome reputation. Especially larger projects tend to either completely fail or just deliver poor quality software too late and for too much money. Quite some research has been done to identify the root causes. The Dutch Court of Audit, which checks governmental expenditures, has looked into the project dynamics that take place in such failed projects. The resulted can be summarised as a ‘circle of doom’ which is visualised in figure 1 Ambitious politicians initiate an IT-project to solve a social problem. Apart from the question if IT is actually capable of solving the problem, such a project tends to be poorly prepared and is likely to involve quite a number of different organisations.

This implies that a lot of changes will occur during development and the project is likely to deviate substantially from its original goals and objectives.

This requires management attention, but reporting and acting on the findings are usually not well developed in political circles, which ultimately causes the project to derail. Unfortunately, similar dynamics happen in companies.

Figure 1 - The ‘Circle of Doom’ of failed governmental IT-projects (based on report Dutch Court of Audit, 2007)

Agile - a new paradigm One of the problems that underpin the circle of doom is that a project is done in sequential steps, starting with the gathering of all requirements, development and concluding with ending implementation of the complete software package. The result is that some large problems will surface (too) late in the project. The huge pile of failed IT-projects eventually led to a grass roots movement of developers that resulted in the agile approach. This approach has the following key characteristics: Openness to changing requirements;

Focusing on making the software, which is de veloped in cycles of a few weeks work;

Self-organising teams at a single location to take

care of the development;

Close cooperation between business people and

developers.

Micro management The short development cycles, also known as sprints or iterations, create the rhythm towards a shippable product that customers can use (see figure 2). The influence of the business is strong, because they determine which features must be developed first. They are also the ones to accept or reject the software that is delivered during the demonstration a few weeks later. This makes it immediately clear if the team has understood the requirements correctly and usually gives the principal or product owner new insights towards what he or she really wants and how the software should work exactly.

This instant feedback is one of the big advantages of the agile team.

Another advantage is the fact that the team members themselves have to determine to a large extent how the work is done and who does what.

Usually a list of tasks is made and each team member picks tasks to work on and list it as completed once the tasks are done. Sticky notes on a wall visualise the progress. Also daily meetings where ❱❱❱

BART JUTTE

It’s easy to come to work and stay focused on your intellectual skills all day. We all have a tendency to do that and in many ways are stimulated to do so. But you are not just your head. You will miss out much of what is available to you. I have found out that accessing your other resources is powerful. Especially in uncertain times using all your resources and enabling your team or group to do the same will give insights that guide the way. If all the members feel good and can work effectively in the positions they have, you are set to be strong and withstand difficult situations.

REFERENCES

FOCUS

CAREER

46

each team member explains his or her work in progress and the issues that he or she encountered can be used. This makes difficulties instantly visible and fosters coordination. Also, if the product owner is present, business decisions can be made on the spot and clarifications can be provided where necessary.

Figure 2 - The rhythm of an agile project: quick developments cycles focused on creating a shippable product

suggestion is to pick the best of both worlds: start developing the features which are the riskiest and an absolute must-have for your product and make a trade-off for the other feature based on added value, costs and risks. This enables you to abandon a project without losing a lot of money if a key feature is not feasible and helps you make wise business decisions when demanding additional features. Figure 3 shows the declining added value of features and the importance of incorporating risks in the trade-off.

Figure 3 - Prioritising product features based on added value and risk (the example shows a fictional feature list of a ministry)

BART JUTTE Bart Jutte is the founder and managing partner of Concilio.

He has worked as a business analyst and risk management specialist for a number of multinationals, including Royal Dutch Shell, ING, Philips Crédit Agricole and AkzoNobel, but also advised a number of startups on their new ventures.

Bart Jutte has studied IEM in Eindhoven and Karlsruhe and was Vice President of Activities in 1993-1994.

Email: bart.jutte@concilio.nl Website: www.riskportal.net

Management at project level The agile approach, if taken seriously, solves a number of key problems with IT-projects. The feedback loops create a strong alignment between business representatives and the development team.

Quality and progress are quickly visible and the team can make adjustments during the start of each new development cycle. Agile management also offers the possibility to control costs more closely.

Each team has a certain speed to develop new features. This speed or velocity is usually pretty steady over time. This means that you are able to make quite accurate cost estimations of the entire project after a few iterations if you have tracked and estimated the product features that are realised. This enables you to determine the economic feasibility of your project relatively early and drop features quickly if your budget is not sufficient.

Deciding which features to build is an art itself and different approaches exist when it comes to agility. The Scrum philosophy is based on the principle of delivering the most valuable features first, whereas RUP aims to develop the most risky parts. My

Silver bullet Is agile project management the silver bullet, the one-size-fits-all-solution for the mentioned project problems? Unfortunately not. Agile management has no clear answers for the coordination issues of large projects that involve multiple teams. Also the applicability of agile management is difficult if the team members work in different countries, a reality in lots of companies that outsource work to lower their labor costs. Besides that, the unwillingness and difficulty to change old routines, risk aversion of key staff and unsuitability of existing sourcing contracts may hamper the agile management efforts. However the results in both businesses and governmental bodies have been promising so far: they show a greater satisfaction of customers and project sponsors and the number of project teams that finished their tasks on time and the budget that has increased. And in the end, it is the results that count! n

Get your career off to a successful start with Carl Zeiss AG Carl Zeiss started its cooperation with ESTIEM in April 2011 as the main sponsor of Council Meeting Karlsruhe. The company took active presence in the event participating in Working Groups and the General Assembly. This gave ESTIEMers a natural way to find out more about Carl Zeiss as an employer. The event was found successful by both sides. Consequently, the cooperation between ESTIEM and Carl Zeiss will be expanded in the following months as the company will gain more visibility for its career opportunities.

Carl Zeiss provides innovative products in the areas of medical, scientific research, industry and consumer goods. The company has presence in more than 30 countries and employs approximately 24 000 professionals. Carl Zeiss is continuously offering career opportunities for talented individuals seeking to become part of an inspiring international company.

TOP Trainee Program

You have great ambition, interest, and enthusiasm to complete your studies in the area of applied sciences, industrial engineering, or applied economics. Possibly, you already have acquired the doctorial level. In your studies and/or during your graduation you had clearly defined questions and themes. Now you want the beneficial career chance to work with one of the most innovative leaders in technology.

With our TOP Trainee Program, we enable you to approach multi-discipline and cross-departmental themes and tasks for your later function in the company. You place your qualification on a broad foundation. The program lasts for 15 months. Within this period of time, you will become qualified in a challenging subject area with interface characters - your exit position for an outstanding specialty career or leading career at Carl Zeiss.

After 15 months in the Carl Zeiss TOP Trainee Program, you will have gained great insight about the structures, processes, and technologies within the company. You will have become broadly acquainted with one of the divisions. You are now in the situation to complete your desired and end function, as well as to use the acquired professional and personal qualifications in your own area of responsibility successfully. ❱❱❱

47

CAREER

48

Our TOP Trainee Program is right for you if: You have an above-average high school gradua tion in natural sciences, industrial engineering, or applied economics studies;

Your resume shows interests and enthusiasm for

exceptional activities;

You possess distinct cooperation capacity and

team capacity as well as a structured and results oriented working method;

You are ready and flexible to be deployed to dif ferent job locations world wide;

You have a good knowledge of English.

49

This general profile serves you at the orientation. We value your professional and personal qualification in every single case.

The Beautiful World of

You will be measured by the requirements of the respective. After the examination of you professional qualification in the respective division, and after you have successfully attended our AssessmentCenter, you will stand at the entrance into the toplevels of the Carl Zeiss core as well as have worldwide developmental potentials open to you.

Vision

Internships and Graduate Work

A contact partner is available at all locations with whom you can speak about the duration of your internship or graduate work.

Training

At Carl Zeiss, you will find interesting perspectives on precision optics, precision mechanics, and electronics right from the start. Here you have the opportunity to actively shape and contribute to the future, for example: Microscopy in medicine and research helps to

better the quality of life; Dream cars become a reality with metrology;

With high performance optics from Carl Zeiss,

come better microchips for cell phones, PC and many other electronic devices and technological equipment.

We will educate you about the legal content in the technical and commercial jobs and in doing so, lay down the basics for your future career. n

The eyes are our most important sense organ; in effect, they are our “gateway to the world.” It is not until we see badly and therefore need glasses that it becomes obvious how important our eyes are for the quality of life we enjoy. Finding the ideal pair of eyeglasses is no easy matter. First and foremost, they must improve vision, but they should also make the wearer look good and, of course, they should be affordable. Being spoilt for choice does not only mean being confronted by a vast selection of colourful frames. What is even more difficult, and indeed more important, is the choice of the right lens. Very

few people know what lens can solve their personal visual problem. Usually, they know nothing about the advances that have been made in technology or about the possibilities offered by modern eyeglass lenses.

Expert advice. The days when eye care professionals used to have a large number of low-price frames and only a handful of expensive frames for well-heeled clients, or one test chart and one instrument for measuring visual acuity, are well and truly gone. Nowadays, eye care professionals who are contractual partners of Carl Zeiss have numerous systems for a wide variety of different tasks: the i.Profiler® uses wavefront technology and automatically measures sphere, cylinder and axis, the i.Polatest® measures visual acuity, three-dimensional vision and the interaction of the eyes, and on the i.Terminal® the eyeglasses are exactly centered, as even the smallest centration error can lead to a loss of over 40 percent in visual performance. ❱❱❱

URSULA WALTHER

Within the Carl Zeiss Group, we offer you, at all locations and in our foreign market, the opportunities to use your theoretical knowledge in practice and with that, learn implementation within a business and how to actively participate in it.

T he B eaut i f u l World of Vision “ Z E I S S Experience” is a new marketing strategy. Since May 2009 Carl Zeiss Vision has been offering analytical, training and marketing tools under the motto “See more. Live more.” Eye care professionals use these to communicate the importance of good vision to their patients and the need to select the right eyeglasses for their eyes.

CAREER

CAREER

EXPLOREUROPE

50

51

My Year in Paris

Street artists, churches, parks, colourful macaroons, street fairs and the Seine! convinced of the benefits offered by the lenses beforehand. They want to obtain detailed information and a customized solution for their personal visual problem.

One important field is, for example, progressive lenses that initially require a certain adaptation process from the wearer. Here, not only careful consultation but also ongoing support is required.

Comfortable vision. Lenses precisely tailored to the wearer’s needs help avoid eye fatigue.

Impairments of vision are minimized, and customized lenses for work, leisure or sport offer maximum visual comfort. n

People purchasing eyeglasses want to know exactly what they can expect from the advice and care offered by an expert. A current survey of eyeglass wearers in ten countries showed that they are very prepared to invest in high quality eyewear if they are

The lens brand has a considerable inf luence on the decision they make, but only if the patient knows it and has learned to value it.

MORE INFORMATION ON

www.zeiss.com/career

“Parlez-vous anglais?” I found myself asking the first person I met. I felt like a poor tourist, lost in a foreign country. The reality was that I was a French philology student from Finland, about to begin my exchange year in Paris, France.

I don’t remember the beginning so clearly, since I wasn’t sure what was going on. Was I really in Paris? I unpacked in my home-to-befor-the-next-twelve-months and headed out to find out.

I felt unsecure and lost at first, even though I was equipped with a pepper spray and a map.

The streets were narrow and the traffic was a disaster. After hours of strolling with no clear destination, I had seen street artists, churches, parks, colourful macaroons, street fairs and a river, the Seine. Yes, I walked all the way down

to the Seine from Montmartre, where I was going to live. Sitting by the Seine, with the view of Notre Dame, I only had one thing in mind: “I could get used to this”.

The university. I passed café de Flore every morning as I was walking to the University from the metro station. Even if I was in a hurry and terribly late, I slowed down my tempo at café de Flore, just because it was nice to see how people were having their expensive breakfast outside the café, while reading the newspaper or a fashion magazine and smoking a cigarette.

There were couples, tourists and loners that looked like everything else but miserable. They were in their natural habitat and took their time. Time was stopped in cafés in general here, since the point of being in a café is neither thirst nor hunger. ❱❱❱

TIMEA SLAVIC

Patient wishes. As technological advances have now been made that were totally inconceivable just a few years ago, the patient is reliant on the expert advice provided by the eye care professional. He or she must explain the examination methods and the special features of the lenses to provide patients with factual criteria as a basis for selecting the lens that best meets their requirements.

EXPLORE EUROPE

52

As you probably figured out, my university was at the 6th arrondissement, in Saint-Germain.

This is the quartier of the rich and the noble, so to say. Designer clothes and fancy sunglasses were not avoidable in this area. The university was an old huge building, not far from the Seine. As I didn’t come here for courses or credits (although it was cool to say: “I go to the Sorbonne”), what I remember the most are the breaks by the river and lunch picnics at the Jardin Tuileries on the other side of the river, near the Louvre. Those were memorable times, which no lecture can beat.

The metro. I was a morning and an afternoon traveller – the worst time ever to take the metro (or any other public transport, for that matter). The major mass (or better said “mess”) of people living in this city was packed in tiny space of an underground metro and could hardly breathe, not to mention move. It is also true what they say about the French and striking.

When the metro is on strike, and only a few ones still go according to schedule, the situation is even worse. Thank God for these two feet, because these feet were made for walking. I preferred the view from above ground anyways and therefore, did a lot of walking in the city. It is amazing how many miles you can walk before even realising how far you’ve gone.

You’re just charmed by the view and distracted by the city and its wonders.

I would have spent all my days just doing nothing in a park and drinking café crème at my favourite café, but I also had other things to

do – and no, I am not talking about school. I was babysitting for a family in my street. It was a job I got coincidently and still think it was one of the best things to remember back at.

I took care of a 4-year-old French boy in the afternoons and he was a true angel. We spent a lot of time together and I learned a lot of new French vocabulary. It’s amazing how much you can learn from a child, things that no university can teach. Practice makes all the difference.

It was also nice to get into the everyday life of an ordinary French family. It made me realise, that it actually is possible to live a normal life in this hectic large city – a nice life indeed.

Finally, it took me about six months to realise I was in Paris. Really. I always knew where I was, but I couldn’t believe I was in Paris. It all seemed so surreal and over before it even started. Why did I go for a full year? This is exactly why. The students, that were there for only six months, hardly found out what was happening and where they were. They never got used to the metro and the huge amount of people, or anything else about Paris either.

Unlike me, who had her own boulangerie and her own favourite spot by the Seine, they never fully integrated and got inside the city. I consider myself lucky in that matter.

How do you mentally get ready? You don’t.

You just close your eyes and go for it. Because if you think too much you might get scared and chicken out and trust me, you do not want to miss this. You want to experience what I did during my year. Because it’s worth the effort. n

EXPLORE EUROPE

Studying and Surfing for One Semester

in Bilbao

When reading this headline, most of you will probably ask themselves, why did I even bother writing the first two words and I guess I should admit right away that I had some extensive surfing sessions, which is, by the way, also offered as a course for university students. But being in Bilbao for one semester offers so much more than just surfing. Don’t get me wrong, if you ever get the chance to be in this region or even in Bilbao, learning how to surf should definitely be on your to-do list, even though there are many more activities to participate in.

I guess I should probably start with my arrival. After doing a two week trip through Spain with a friend visiting big cities like Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid, I arrived in Northern Spain – Bilbao, at end of August. First thing I learned, after not even being there for more than two hours: this is not Spain anymore, this is the Basque country. Basque people are really proud of their region and their heritage. They even have their own language, which really, really doesn’t have anything to do with Spanish.

But the Basque people are all very nice and helpful people.

During the time of my arrival a big city festival took place, which lasted for a whole week.

Amazing fireworks, concerts, outside bars and dancing spaces all over town. It seemed like everyone was on their feet every evening. It was a really great time to get to know the city.

Bilbao itself is not the biggest (it has a population of around 350 000), but it is a great city to live in, with many amazing sights, parks and, of course, the famous Guggenheim Museum.

One of the best events actually took place once every month in the museum: The “Art after Dark” Party. For three hours you could go to the museum and dance on the dance floor in the atrium with famous DJs and at the same time take a look at the gallery and all the other works of art. That’s what I call partying with style. ❱❱❱

TORBEN SCHÄFER

The sales. Trust me, you might not want to go to Paris if you have a shopping addiction.

As I spent most of my free time at Galleries Lafayette, or the Champs-Elysées, I also spent most of my money there. Sales were pulling me in even more, and I just couldn’t get enough. Luckily, I sometimes managed to have a walk in a park, instead of a mall or a shopping street. Flea markets were also charming and tempting to buy French vintage.

53

EXPLORE EUROPE

54

After the first couple of weeks of getting to know Bilbao and its surroundings, the university started. One of the biggest differences was that all of the courses where taught in classrooms and not in big auditoriums. Therefore, most of the courses had more of a school character and were more interactive.

Majority of the courses are taught in Spanish and most of the time they are also offered in Basque. There are also quite some courses in English and even some Masters programs; at the Department of Economics they are entirely taught in English. During the semester, I have to admit that I was quite surprised by the workload we had. I would even go so far that the workload during the semester was actually bigger than at

55

EXPLORE EUROPE

my home university. We always had seminars, tests, papers to hand in, but overall it balanced itself out through the smaller amount of studying for the final exams.

The region around Bilbao is really beautiful and doing one-day trips to cities like San Sebastian or other small fisher villages along the Atlantic Coast is amazing. Within one or two hours you can reach the coast, but at the same time go hiking in the mountains. Next to that, I had the opportunity to travel all over Spain and got to meet ESTIEMers in Seville and Madrid. Probably my favorite trip was my trip to Andalusia, Southern Spain. Hosted by two ESTIEMers, I experienced Andalusia in a very special way and I just loved the “tapas” there because in Bilbao, they are a little different and are called “Pintxos”. While my friends back in Germany were freezing, I was sitting on the beach in Malaga with 23 degrees at the beginning of December.

Studying in Trondheim It has been a while since I came back from Trondheim and unfortunately memories sometimes get mixed in my head. But I still remember a lot of things. My story in Trondheim is completely linked to ESTIEM, as it was because of ESTIEM that I decided to apply for an Erasmus scholarship in that city. After I applied for Vision of Responsibility and got a place, I decided it would be cool to get to know a city where I could live afterwards for a year. When I went to Trondheim for Vision, I already knew I would go there the year after and even though I got sick, I had a great time, a prelude of what my next year would be.

I arrived during a weekend in July, but the regular lectures started in August. I went earlier to do a summer course in Norwegian language and the city was really empty. Trondheim is a student city, it gets full of life during the academic year, but at summer the population reduces a lot. I met people from everywhere in Europe and started learning a bit of Norwegian, a really difficult language to pronounce if you are from a country whose official language has only 5 vowels, and most of the words sound how they are written.

Due to arriving earlier I was able to get a room in a flat in Moholt, a neighbourhood full of students that is not far from NTNU, one of the city’s uni-

versities. People that arrived near the beginning of the semester had some difficulties in finding where to live, and the places they finally found were much more expensive. I found Moholt a really nice place to live, it has supermarkets nearby and a lot of students live there, so it has a good environment. At the basements of the block of flats there are some rooms where parties are held and cheap beverages are served. There is one international basement and the rest belongs to student organisations. They have private and thematic parties. There is also a cafe where you can have as much coffee/tea/chocolate and pancakes as you want for only 10 NOK. It is a really nice and cosy place for going with your friends one or two evenings a week.

Attending the Norwegian summer course offered me the possibility to also do several activities. We went for a weekend to Oppdal, another town in the mountains, where we were hiking and sleeping in a traditional hut. We received a lecture on Norwegian peculiarities (for example, how can sunny weather be predicted every day of the week in Trondheim, but when the day actually arrives, it will probably rain, or snow). We also swam in three lakes near the city, proving how real Vikings we were. It was three weeks of fun. ❱❱❱

LAIA GÓMEZ VALLE

All in all, I really enjoyed my semester in Bilbao and I can say that, if you ever have the chance to go there, you should do it - and not just because of surfing. n

Northern Experience

EXPLORE EUROPE

56

After that, the courses started and I found out that it won’t be as hard as I thought to study in another language (luckily it was English and not Norwegian, which might have been a lot harder). I also realised that winter will be difficult, as during September the weather was exactly like December and January in Seville, or even colder.

As I said before, Trondheim is full of students and student life the whole year. For example, every second year a festival organised completely by students takes place. It is called UKA and it lasts around three weeks in autumn. The next one is in 2013. Well known musicians, like David Guetta, AQUA or Jay-z have already performed there.

There is also a competition on the river, with each

57

student organisation building its own ship using a bath tub and attempting to win a race. And Studentersamfundet is a really big student organisation which is run by students; they have a radio station, they publish their own newspaper and do a lot of other activities.

I will always remember the first day it snowed, the day I had to come back to Spain for Christmas. It was so beautiful. I think I’ll never forget the peaceful sensation I got every time I saw snow falling outside my window. It is one of the things I miss most from Norway. For me, that year Christmas was especially warm, I passed from -10 degrees to 15 degrees in Seville. And I remember that coming back to Norway after Christmas felt like coming

back home, which was a really good feeling.

A fact is that Norwegians love the countryside.

Almost all of them have a second house in the mountains or in the forest, where they go with family or friends on special occasions. During Easter, for example, the city of Trondheim is a like a ghost town of what it really is any other week. They just love nature. Students find it easy to do sports, as there are really good and not too expensive sport facilities. Norwegians love winter sports and they practice skiing even in summer, using long skates that look like skis.

Something a bit funny that surprised me a lot is that exams are invigilated by retired people. It

is a way of earning extra money for them, and the teacher just comes a couple of times. If you need to go for a coffee or to the toilet, the old lady or man will go with you (to the door in case of the toilet).

And the exams are taken in a sports centre.

I was really lucky with my flatmates, as they were all great to live with. In the second semester an Italian girl moved in and we did a lot of things together. Her pizzas were amazing as she cooked really well. The two of us, with our South Korean flatmate, went out a couple of times during the night in April, seeking Northern lights. I will never forget when I saw them. That night I was out until 4 or 5 A.M., watching those wonderful green figures in the sky. The memory will be with me my whole life.

Another thing you should not miss if you go to Norway in general, if you have the chance, is being there on their national day, the 17th of May. A lot of people go out with traditional outfits, Bunad, made out of wool. There are parades, where usually people all ages, that are part of any association, participate. It is really nice, as it is the official ice cream day and all the kids can have as much ice cream as they want. In other countries the national day is celebrated with military parades, but in Norway it can be considered a day for children.

Before returning home I had the great chance to visit Bergen and Oslo, thanks to the hospitality of two good friends that hosted me. If you visit Norway you should definitely go to these two cities, they are really nice.

All that I wrote above are like sneak peeks of what my year was; I could go on and on about it.

Sometimes I wish I could come back to Trondheim, to that year, and live all the experiences again. n

EXPLORE EUROPE

AGENDA AUGUST 2012 MAY 2012 9th - 13th Vision Crisis and Change Management | Famagusta 14th - 19th Local Responsible Forum | Eindhoven 22nd - 27th Vision Final Conference | Vienna 25th - 28th Alumni Meeting 2012 | Darmstadt

JUNE 2012 30.5. - 3rd Ruhrpott Activity Week | Dortmund 1st - 7th Brain Trainer the 1st | Ankara-Bilkent 15th - 19th Nordic Regional Coordination Meeting | Vaasa 18th - 22nd Siegen visits Famagusta | Famagusta Mid Jun Vision Coordination Meeting

JULY 2012 25.6. - 1st Training New Trainers Event | Barcelona 3rd-8th Remember 50! | Karlsruhe Jul 2012 Baltic Regional Coordination Meeting Jul 2012 Balkan Regional Coordination Meeting

29.7. - 12th S ummer Academy | Riga 11th - 18th ESTIEM Alumni Sailing | Stockholm Mid Aug ESTIEM College

SEPTEMBER 2012 19.8. - 2nd Sep 2012 Sep 2012 Sep 2012

S ummer Academy | Sofia Corporate Relations Committee Coordination Meeting Europe 3D Coordination Meeting Oktoberfest Activity Week | Munich

OCTOBER 2012 30.9. - 5th Oct 2012 Oct 2012 Oct 2012

R-CR School | Brussels P TIMES Coordination Meeting Braintrainer the 2nd Europe 3D Greece | Chios

See you somewhere in Europe!

Aachen

Ankara-Bilkent

Ankara-METU

Aveiro

Barcelona

Belgrade

Berlin

Braunschweig

Bremen

Brussels

Bucharest

Budapest

Cambridge

Catania

Chios

Darmstadt

Dortmund

Dresden

Eindhoven

Enschede

Famagusta

Gdansk

Gothenburg

Graz

Grenoble

Groningen

Hamburg

Helsinki

Ilmenau

Istanbul-Bogazici

Istanbul-ITU

Istanbul-Yildiz

Izmir DEU

Izmir Economy

Kaiserslautern

Karlsruhe

Kragujevac

Lappeenranta

Linkoping

Lisbon

Luleå

Lund

Lyon

Madrid

Milan

Moscow

Munich

Novi Sad

Oulu

Paderborn

Porto

Poznan

Seville

Siegen

Skopje

Sofia

St. Petersburg

Stockholm

Tallinn

Tampere

Trondheim

Vaasa

Vienna

Warsaw

Zagreb

Zurich

NOVEMBER 2012 Mid Nov XLV Council Meeting | Belgrade 26.11. - 2nd Europe 3D Nordic

If your university wants to become a member contact membership@estiem.org!

The moment you set foot on solid ground and realize you can always spread your wings.

This is the moment we work for.

// INNOVATION MADE BY CARL ZEISS

Carl Zeiss is one of the global leaders in the optical and optoelectronic industries with 24,000 employees. At Carl Zeiss, you will have the opportunity to work on trendsetting technologies together with the best minds in your field. Carl Zeiss employees passionately strive to create something that makes the world a better place.

Start your career with us: www.zeiss.de/karriere