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Theodor Valentin PURCĂREA
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Victor GREU
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George Cosmin TĂNASE
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Theodor PURCĂREA
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Vlad BUDU, Laura MIRANCEA, Alexandra SCHNAIDER, Ioan BULESCU
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Editorial: Empowering People in the New Age of Image and Information
Context-Aware Communications and IT – A New Paradigm for the Optimization of the Information Society towards the Knowledge Based Society (Part 2)
The Value Contribution of Service Capacity Management to the Company’s Operations and Performance
Art Therapy and Alternative Medicine with Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier and Marie-Christin Hallier
The Evolution of Quality of Life in the Oncological ENT Patients
Theodor PURCĂREA
Hall of Fame of the European Retail Academy, Honored Personality 2015: Professor Léon F. Wegnez
Gabriela ALBA
The Gifted Education: an Essential Step toward Viable Solutions for Global Multiple Crises
Irina PURCĂREA
A Short Presentation of Our Partner Journal „Contemporary Economics”,Vol. 8, Issue 1, 2014, Quarterly of University of Finance and Management in Warsaw
The responsibility for the content of the scientific and the authenticity of the published materials and opinions expressed rests with the author.
Editorial:
Empowering People in the New Age of Image and Information
At the beginning of 2014, it was underlined that: “The drought in consumer technology is about to be replaced by a deluge”.1 In this respect, a first example was that of Apple’s attempt to redefine an entire product category (as it did in 2007), this time being the case of wearables (instead of phones), but not forgetting to mention that on the groundwork laid in the years before we could see major upgrades to many other kinds of consumer technology that could quickly reach the hands of regular users, not just in those of early adopters. And this while the so-called “Code Halos” (term coined by Cognizant to describe the new capacity for making meaning from both, data generated by the personal activities, as well as all the code that surrounds people and organizations we interact with) is now creating “a whole new ecosystem of interconnected technology enablers and business opportunities for enterprises” (the “Code Halos” being seen as the essence of the competitive advantage of these enterprises).2 According to this last point of view, the challenge is to be smart enough to create, share and derive meaning from all of the halos around organizations, places, and things we creatively interact with. The end of this year brought to us the invitation (launched by Michael Stelzner by interviewing Paul Rand, who told us what he discovered at his first encounter with Stew Leonard’s, a popular East Coast grocery chain building sociability into their business from the very beginning)3 to learn how to build a business that’s highly recommended, starting from two evidences: people love to share something that they think might help someone else; the dramatic influence (bigger reach than face-toface recommendations) of online implied (e.g. liking a Facebook page or sharing a post) or explicit (e.g. through a post or from an online review that something is great) recommendations, considering the importance of targeting the right influencers online. It is well-known that social media always knew how to exploit word-of-mouth recommendations (“the Holy Grail for marketers”), by right using their potential for reaching millions of people. That is why is it is considered to be very important to ask yourself to get more positive recommendations for your brand, by: focusing on how people talk about you in everything they do and achieving the right balance between providing relevant information related to your brand and promoting your products or services; making sure your customers are truly satisfied with their purchase or find out if they have any questions; using post-sale actions to encourage recommendations.
1 Christopher Mims - Why 2014 could be the most interesting year in technology in a long time, January 6, 2014, available at: http://qz.com/293377/how-a-sea-of-red-ceramic-poppies-captivated-britain-and-brought-wwi-to-life/ 2 Ted Shelton - 2014 Year of the Code Halo, January 10th 2014, available at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/2014-year-code-halo 3 Michael Stelzner - Becoming Recommended: How to Build a Business Others Love Recommending, November 21, 2014, available at: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/becoming-recommended-with-paul-rand/
But as we are both in the “Age of the Image” (being no doubt that our brains are more efficient at processing images than words), and in a “New Age of Information” we also have to consider: - the popularity of the images overlaid with text (“Internet memes”, which are used by brands to reach their audiences), the wide-scale practice of sharing them, and to create our own marketing images for distribution.4 Within this context it is recommended to follow three steps: selecting the right images to use; adding the accompanying copy; using social networks to spread the message; - the recent move toward curated content made by prestigious publishers (such as the New York Times and the Financial Times),5 this natural, logical, and customer-centric move (for publishers and brands alike) being seen as “a seismic shift in consumer expectations of information” by the integration of selected third-party content (of the consumer) meaningful to consumers and ultimately valuable to the business; - the “reshare test” (seen by Guy Kawasaki as being the most important test of all of social media, and the so-called (by the same Guy Kawasaki, who consider social media as a marketing platform and uses it as a business tool ) “NPR model” (National Public Radio - as a marketer you should think of yourself like NPR) now in full “renaissance of marketing”.6 And coming back to the old good habits,7 as we are now at the end of 2014, let us finally take a look at the 14th annual Edelman Trust Barometer, the largest exploration of trust in institutions, industries and leaders.8 It is worth to underline that the authors consider that this year barometer showed the largest ever gap between trust in business and government since Edelman began this study in 2001, and that now there is an opportunity for business (which has recovered trust from the crisis period) to push for deregulation. As Richard Edelman argued: “In a world of constrained resources and growing stresses, compromise and choice are required for forward progress, based on values and with the commitment of greater societal value”. Theodor Valentin Purcărea Editor - in - Chief 4 Elizabeth Victor - How to Use Internet Memes to Market Your Content Your Products and Your Brand, December 12, 2014, available at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/print/2014/26678/how-to-use-internet-memes-to-market-yourcontent-your-products-and-your-brand 5 Christian Jorg - Why Curation Matters to Content, December 10, 2014, available at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/opinions/print/2014/26662/why-curation-matters-to-content 6 Michael Stelzner - Content Sharing: How to Build a Following Using Other People’s Content, December 5, 2014, available at: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/content-sharing-with-guy-kawasaki/ 7 Theodor Valentin Purcarea - On the Path to Greater Trust While Going Through a Major Transformation, available at: http://crd-aida.ro/RePEc/rdc/v4i4/1.pdf 8 Richard Edelman - 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer by Edelman, available at: http://www.edelman.com/insights/intellectual-property/2014-edelman-trust-barometer/about-trust/executive-summary/
Victor GREU
CONTEXT-AWARE COMMUNICATIONS AND IT – A NEW PARADIGM FOR THE OPTIMIZATION OF THE INFORMATION SOCIETY TOWARDS THE KNOWL-
EDGE BASED SOCIETY (Part 2)
1. Learning from context-aware communications and information technology development steps After we have gauged the actual amazing premises of developing the information and communications technologies (ICT) in the Part 1 of the article, now a further and deeper analysis of the context-aware communications and information technologies (CACIT) may be done, having in mind the purpose to reveal CACIT dimensions and perspectives of leveraging the potential of ICT to drive the information society (IS) toward knowledge based society (KBS), based on the incommensurable expansion force of digital space [6]. In the middle of `80-s I used to tell to my students that the evolving technologies forecast a World where every cm3 (on land or water, in air or underwater) could be known and controlled, including nonmilitary purposes. Now we are living in a World where people may communicate from any place, on land or water, accessing a diversity of powerfull ICT services which are exponentially developing with continuouslly expanding limits. As we already analyzed the complex context of ICT development from this point of view [8], it is necessary to understand which are the long time perspective and possible optimization mechanisms of the associated processes, first aiming CACIT. More than this, we recall [12] that ICT key developing concepts (including Network Centric) extend their impact on IS/KBS in a diversity of processes outside ICT and strongly contribute to people’s education and generally improve their lives and creation potential.
Abstract
The paper continue the analysis (made in Part1) of an emergent field of the information and communications technologies (ICT), the context-aware communications and information technology (CACIT). Important results of the analysis include the identification of the main CACIT development purposes/applications as expansions/ additions for human senses (including vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch and sensation of temperature, gravity, acceleration , magnetic/electric field, approach of environment objects), health (vital signs, health parameters, mood, schedule, habitus etc.) or social relations (available relations/persons, group activity, communication etc.). Results refer also to the most important and dynamic fields for IS/KBS, where CACIT applications will continue to be extended with the exponential pace of ICT, will include available interesting applications context (hot spots, emergency, health, commercial, financial, entertainment etc.). The paper also presents CACIT main evolution steps, starting from the early human context-aware communications based on the five senses and ends to the most complex applications where the borders between CACIT and ICT are blurring, as the added information they collect from environment (context) dramatically improves this way the force (efficiency) and the development potential of the original CIT resource. The main conclusion reveals the improvement of humankind perception by the smart behaviour in any nature context or activity, enabling adaptation, intelligence and efficiency, but, on the other hand, shows that CACIT has a huge potential to improve intrinsic ICT applications, as communications or computing-aware systems. Keywords: context-aware communications and information technology, humankind perception, sensors, information society, knowledge based society, Internet of Things. JEL Classification: L63, L86, M15, O13, O33
That is why it is worth to observe some of the main components of CACIT development, starting from simple communications and IT objectives and identifying future sophisticated applications. Initially, CACIT purpose was to use the changing information which is associated with people’s context (location, environment, timing etc.) in order to facilitate people’s interactions. To be more clear, in this case the „interactions” refer to the communications (including equipments and services), as the location information has long been used as a way to route voice calls, for example at Xerox PARC and Olivetti Research Labs for routing telephone calls [3]. Besides, the CACIT early applications included addressing individuals or groups in terms of identitity/ avalability, in order to improve communications by context data. Eventually such applications included context data acquisition and communication added measures. A major step in CACIT objectives and applications evolution was adding a diversity of context data refering to persons by using the amazing advances in sensors technology. The complex integration of sensors in CACIT provides access to new context based fields of applications as[5]: - complete physical context data (location, time, speed, acceleration etc.); - environmental context data (weather, lighting, sound, air, radiations, electromagnetic field etc.); - personal context data (vital signs, health parameters, mood, schedule, habitus etc.); - social context data (available relations/persons, group activity, communication etc.); - available interesting applications context (hot spots, emergency, health, commercial, entertainment etc.).
These advances open a new era in optimizing CIT on one hand and all humankind activities, leveraging education and creative potential in IS/KBS, on the other hand. Here we have to remark the exploding volume and potential of the applications with impact on humankind everyday lives, including their power to induce subtle consequences on people’s education, skills, ways of thinking and generally to percieve, react and use the environmental reality and generally the information/knowledge – as concrete features of living in the IS/KBS [11]. It is also important to observe that the development of these features are based on complex processes of learning, deliberately or not, from the algorithms and logical approaches CACIT/ICT applications bring indirectly along with their offered services and products. Perhaps the most relevant CACIT example is again the smartphone, which evolved from a simple communication tool to a complex device including now almost all PC features, but bringing amazing facillities for GPS services, emergency, weather, transportation, commerce, banking, entertainment etc. With a little imagination effort we could oberve that along with every above mentioned facility, our daily friend (the smartphone) is changing our life and our personality by the way it educates us to think about, understand and use not only every one of its features, but the logical skills and added knowledge to approache the reality. 2. Beyound context-aware communications and information technology One of the most important features of CACIT is their exponential development pace, as a legacy from mother ICT, but here we have to observe that interesting similarity with the genealogical tree. The observation has deep implications because this way we may understand one of the reasons ICT is such an amazing phenomenon in IS/KBS. As we already have mentioned [10], the IT fundamental feature is its „multiplication” structure and operation, which build new hardware, software or functions by combining „modules” and exploit their „perfect” digital rules. Coming back, it is now obvious how ICT benefit from perfect „multiplications” of their ”branches” in a planetary „tree”. The news CACIT bring come from the added information they collect from environment (context), improving this way the force (efficiency) and the development potential of the original CIT resource. We have just arrived this way to an interesting image and conclusion, which will be useful for understanding one of the present factors and future solutions to develop ICT in the apogee/decline scenario we already have mentioned [8]. The „added information” we just have mentioned above could be compared with the new roots we may observe in the vegetal world at the most lively and „expansive” plants, which spread their branches all over the land and when they find good terrain, they „implant” a new root to extract more resources as the distant origine root could not supply the whole potential development of the „giant” tree! This natural but impressive „comparison” not only illustrates the actual case of CACIT, but it is a brilliant example of the way ICT development challenges could find solutions learning from the mother nature’s million years „research”, as we already have mentioned [4] and it is also confirmed by other authors [1]: „The nature is ahead of us:We should develop our new technologies by learning from nature (Antonio Manzalini)”.
Considering the above premises and the emerging evolutions of CACIT, along with other prominent fields of ICT like cognitive networks and cloud computing, it is difficult to forecast the edges or percieve the limits of CACIT/ICT applications, but some „iceberg tips” could be seen. As a main trend of CACIT general development is the integration of all available information, on an application demand basis, but globally the research effort is to cover as many fields/purposes as the technology and regulations permit. This way the purposes, applications and technologies draw an impressing „picture” of present or emergent CACIT „tree”. First, as a humankind perception oriented field, as we above mentioned, CACIT will leverage the smart behavior in any nature context or activity, enabling adaptation, intelligence and efficiency [2]. The perception will include expansions/ additions for human senses, including vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch and sensation of temperature, gravity, acceleration , magnetic/electric field, approach of environment objects (including water, snow etc.), body parts position etc. CACIT will continue to extend applications for major purposes like health (vital signs, health parameters, mood, schedule, habitus etc.) or social relations (available relations/persons, group activity, communication etc.). For IS/KBS development, the most important and dynamic fields where CACIT applications will continue to be extended with the exponential pace of ICT will include available interesting applications context (hot spots, emergency, health, commercial, financial, entertainment etc.). Of course, last but not least, for ICT itselves, CACIT (as communications or computing-aware systems) will be a relevant branch in connection with cognitive and cooperative communications, aiming electromagnetic spectrum efficiency and network costs reduction, but not only. In the same field of communications or computing-aware systems, a promising application for „green” ITC is going to be the simultaneous wireless transfer of information and (low) energy, which could benefit from using context information in order to increase power transfer efficiency. Even a short approach of CACIT development would be superficial without observing the influence of probably the most dramatic actual trend of ICT, which will affect not only humankind but the entire image of IS/KBS. In fact it is about one of the fundamental trend of IS/KB, actually called „Internet of Things” (IOT). We consider the name of this phenomenon only „actual” because the future will probably change it in „World of Things”. Of course, IOT would be the topic of an other paper, but shortly it is worth to observe that people are no longer the main users/actors of Internet, as billion of „things”, other than smartphones (security devices, drones, robots, actuators, intelligent machines etc.), are conected and their number will exponentially increase every year. The consequence is that CACIT will not be used only by the people, but by the „things” too, as generally the communications systems already are used. For the accomplishment of the above purposes and features, CACIT will more and more benefit from the amazing advances in sensors technology and their integration in ICT devices and systems. The typically sensors cover almost all useful domains: electromagnetic field, proximity, light, GPS, acceleration, temperature, pressure, chemistry etc. A very special interest and perhaps the most impressive development has the health field, which could be implemented only with special technologies, including ICT and sensors. Here the context information
includes health care, prevention, emergency etc. Obviously, even a „short” analysis of CACIT/ICT is always far for being complete, but it is worth to reveal a trend that could provide a general frame for the complex processes of ICT development. This trend could easily be associated with the term „integration” and CACIT is also a „branch” that may be seen in an integration process inside ICT. The interesting feature here is just the fact that CACIT present one of the most relevant examples for the mentioned trend, i.e. a such deep and complex integration of CACIT in the ICT networks, as the borders between CACIT and the rest of the network are progressively fading. This obervation is in fact only the „iceberg tip”, as many other examples present the same trend, situation being similar with the above „tree” picture, as increasing the number of branches it is more difficult to distinguish them (each of other). Again we could analyze the smartphone, as initially it was a „mobile phone” in a communications system, but now it is perhaps the most complex device integrated in ICT and soon it will almost „eat” the laptop and the tablet too. We have already and many times [10] mentioned that IT and Communications Technology convergence is the most important process and the fundamental feature of ICT in the last decades, with dramatic consequences for the IS/KBS and generally for humankind and planet Earth. Now, on one hand, this convergence (borders blurring) is more and more confirmed, but on the other hand, starting from CACIT basics, the general ICT „branches” convergence will lead [9] to the new concept of „ambient reality”, where information and ICT devices/services (and more!) will be „everywhere” around us!
Conclusions The high technological level of CACIT along with their complex and fast spreading applications include knowledge and learning steps useful for humankind, as generally the ICT key developing concepts extend their impact on IS/KBS in a diversity of processes outside ICT and strongly contribute to people’s education and generally improve their lives and creation potential. After a deeper analysis, the paper identifyed some relevant features of CACIT, including the improvement of humankind perception by the smart behavior in any nature context or activity, enabling adaptation, intelligence and efficiency. The analysis led to the main CACIT development purposes/applications as expansions/ additions for human senses (including vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch and sensation of temperature, gravity, acceleration , magnetic/electric field, approach of environment objects), health (vital signs, health parameters, mood, schedule, habitus etc.) or social relations (available relations/persons, group activity, communication etc.). The most important and dynamic fields for IS/KBS, where CACIT applications will continue to be extended with the exponential pace of ICT, will include available interesting applications context (hot spots, emergency, health, commercial, financial, entertainment etc.) and intrinsic ICT applications, as communications or computing-aware systems. Finally, but probably most important from an economic/financial point of view, CACIT will be influenced by IOT because people are no longer the main users/actors of Internet, as billion of „things” are already conected.
REFERENCES [1] Prachi Patel, Advancing the softwarization of networks for a digital society, IEEE The Institute, Dec. 2014. [2] Albrecht Schmidt Context-Aware Communication and Interaction University of Duisburg/ Essen -Tutorial Day at MobileHCI 2008, Amsterdam (http://www.pervasive.wiwi.unidue.de/) [3] Bill N. Schilit, David M. Hilbert and Jonathan Trevor, Context-aware communication, IEEE Wireless Communications, October 2002. [4] Victor Greu, Information and Communications Technologies are Learning from Nature’s “Research” to Push the Performance Limits, Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, Volume 5, Issue 1, Year 2014. [5] Anand Ranganathan, Hui Lei, Context-Aware Communication, IEEE Computer April 2003. [6] Victor Greu, Context-aware communications and IT – a new paradigm for the optimization of the information society towards the knowledge based society (Part 1), Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, Volume 5, Issue3, Year 2014. [7] Hariharasudhan Viswanathan, Baozhi Chen, and Dario Pompili, Research Challenges in Computation Communication and Context Awareness for Ubiquitous Healthcare, IEEE Communications Magazine, May 2012 [8] Victor Greu, Searching the right tracks of new technologies in the earth race for a balance between progress and survival, Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, Volume 3, Issue1, Year 2012. [9] Paul McFedries, Technologically speaking-The ambient is everywhere, IEEE Spectrum, Dec.2014. [10] Victor Greu, The Exponential Development of the Information and Communications Technologies – A Complex Process Which is Generating Progress Knowledge from People to People, Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, Volume 4, Issue2, Year 2013. [11] *** Towards a knowledge based Europe The European Union and the information society, European Commission Directorate General Press and Communication, October 2002. [12] Victor Greu, The network centric and cloud - a new paradigm for the optimization of the technical and human information systems, Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 2, Year 2011.
Prof. Eng. Ph.D. Victor GREU
George Cosmin Tanase
The Value Contribution of Service Capacity Management to the Company’s Operations and Performance
Abstract
by George Cosmin Tanase
For producing and delivering a specific service unit, certain service resources are necessary. The service capacity describes the amount of service resources which are available for service production and delivery. Due to the direct contact between these service resources and the customer (or their objects), which are integrated into the service process, a service provider can only deliver as many service units as service capacities are available. However, in every service setting there are often situations where there is a gap between demand and capacity, meaning the gap between the number of potential users of the service and the amount of service resources available. Keywords: demand level, service capacity, resources, perishability, revenues, customer perception, highly competitive market, predictability, demand patterns JEL Classification: D24, L80
There are many examples which describe situations where service demand and capacity do not match. Actually, for most services it is unlikely that demand and capacity will match exactly. The underlying reason for this is that the characteristics of services are derived from the customer integration into the service process. This main characteristic results in a so-called perishability of service capacity. Service capacity management has various significant effects on value: • When service capacities are not used, certain parts of fixed costs are not covered. A hotel potentially pays interest on loans financing the hotel facilities and rooms. When rooms are not used, a portion of these costs are not covered by the revenues generated by stays at the hotel. • Vice versa, when a service provider’s capacity is not enough to satisfy the existing demand, the firm ‘realises’ lost sales and revenues. When a hotel has enquiries for 200 stays, but can only offer beds to 150 guests, the potential revenues of the 50 inquiries are lost. • Moreover, not being able to provide a room possibly results in dissatisfaction of these potential customers and this negative experience thus prevents them from approaching the hotel in future. • Customers currently using a service might perceive a bad service quality when there are not enough service resources available. According to this comprehensive value relevance of service capacity management there are many links to other elements of the Service Value Chain. Regarding the primary value processes, the interaction process where the customer meets the service resources in order to produce and deliver a service is negatively affected when the service capacities are overcrowded or overused during periods of high demand. In consequence, a bad service quality is perceived by the customer. In an extreme situation, an interaction with a specific customer cannot take place at all. On the level of the customer relationship, this can lead to an impeded customer acquisition when a prospective customer planned to try a service for the first time and was not able to use it because of capacity constraints. Also, customer retention can be affected when a customer is annoyed because of not receiving a service due to capacity constraints. While the service capacity and consequently capacity management affect the primary value processes of a service provider, conversely, the secondary value processes are utilised by service capacity management. Regarding the service product, service providers apply value-added services in order to facilitate reservations or waiting times. Service pricing and communications are used in order to manage service demands according to existing patterns of demand. Finally, service resources compose a service provider’s capacity. Depending on the service, this capacity is constrained by the number of employees or the tangible or technological resources of a provider. Consequently, managing the amount of these resources is the object of service capacity management. Gaps between service demand and capacity Service capacity problems are determined by the existing service capacity on the one hand and the current service demand on the other hand. By contrasting these two variables, two generic forms of capacity gaps can be described which have different causes as well as different consequences for customer and provider. These forms are: • demand gap; • capacity gap. When there are more capacities than are requested by consumers, the service capacity exceeds the demand and a demand gap results. The consequences are vacant service facilities (e.g. empty hotel rooms) or non-occupied service employees (e.g. train conductor waiting for more people to enter the train at the next stop). Vacant fa-
cilities result in fixed costs which are sunk without a respective revenue. Moreover, variable costs are generated because the service facility possibly still has to be maintained. An aeroplane has to be checked for technical problems regardless of whether the plane is fully booked or not. A hotel room which was not in use for several days probably is cleaned more than it is used. Unoccupied employees tend to feel underutilised, resulting in lower employee motivation, satisfaction and productivity. Conversely, a capacity gap is the result of demand exceeding the service capacity available. In this case, there are more prospects for a specific service delivery at a certain time than can be served by the provider. A capacity gap has consequences on two levels. On the level of core service, a capacity gap leads to the inability of the respective customers to use the service. When a flight is booked on a certain day and at a certain time, then prospects who would like to use this flight cannot be served. Either this results in lost revenues because the prospect then books the flight with another airline or – given a certain time flexibility of the prospect – the customer reorganises their time schedule with dissatisfaction: as a consequence at the need for schedule reorganisation or at least the effort to do it. On the level of a partial process within the whole core service process, a capacity gap results in waiting times for the customer (e.g. waiting to order drinks in a crowded bar) and possibly also customer dissatisfaction. The tricky thing for service providers with these gaps is that they are dynamic. For any service, there might not always be a capacity gap or a demand gap. Unfortunately, the dynamics are often unpredictable. Consequently, the optimal service level is a central objective of service managers. The service level describes the percentage of capacity utilised compared to the capacity available. Because of the profit relevance of the service level – both from a cost and a revenue perspective – service firms aim at realising a high utilisation of service resources. For example, for the call centre channel it was found that an aggregation of demand (e.g. concentrating demand in a few, large call centres) and the absolute staff number, positively affect service levels. More spe-
cifically, service providers aim at managing the dynamics of the gaps between service demand and capacity. The starting point for doing this is the knowledge of the factors which influence these gaps. Determinants of service capacity management Based on the general reasons for the capacity problem, like the perishability of capacities and the heterogeneity of service demand, the determinants of service capacity management, the factors which influence the opportunities and decisions of capacity management, can be identified. Regarding the demand-related determinants, it is principally the demand level that influences capacity management decisions. Knowing the demand level or at least having some knowledge of the demand level is a basic requirement in order to be able to determine service capacities. As service demand is uncertain in services, providers define the optimal service capacity satisfying the service demand to be lower than the maximum capacity. This is because, if a service location is too busy, service quality is perceived as being poor, but if it is too slow, often the atmosphere suffers. For the most part, service demand is not constant over time. In contrast there can be strong demand dynamics due to seasonal, daytimerelated or weekday related differences between demand levels. There are various reasons for these variations in time, such as habits and culture (e.g. lunch at noon as a determinant for restaurants) or external influencing factors: patients contracting more colds in winter, as a determinant for doctors. When there are specific reasons for the demand dynamics, so-called demand patterns are identifiable and are utilised by capacity management. However, there still remains a relatively distinct degree of accidental demand dynamics. Options for managing service capacity As the capacity problem in service production and delivery is determined by the two factors, demand and capacity, these represent the levers for managing service capacities systematically by managing demand and/or capacity. Managing demand means applying measures in order to influence the customers’ percep-
tions and behaviors, while managing capacity concerns changes in the amount of service resources available. A further fundamental differentiation of capacity management activities is the point in time when the measure is applied compared to the time of the service usage. Following the concept of the interaction process, capacity management activities can be applied in two of the three phases: before the service interaction starts (preprocess; e.g. reservation system) and during or at the beginning of the service interaction (in-process; e.g. providing a waiting room). Crossing the time dimension with the object of the measures (i.e. demand versus capacity) results in four types of service capacity management activities: • determining the capacity level; • short-term capacity adjustments; • demand adjustments; • waiting time management. Determining the capacity level A service provider’s long-term capacity management defines the quantity and the quality of service capacities to be employed by the service firm. This decision concerns the number of employees employed, the dimension of the service facilities, etc. and concerns especially capacities which can only slowly be modified, extended or downsized, such as hotel building, or the general level of the workforce. The determination of the long-term capacity is affected by the following influence factors: • expected demand level; • expected demand dynamics. The expected demand level plays a role in determining the long-term capacity because the capacities are established in order to satisfy the demand. The relevant demand level is composed of the number of customers as well as the expected service usage of these customers (e.g. number of flights per year, number of nights in a hotel, level of utility usage). Furthermore, the expected number of customers is affected by the customer segments targeted by the service provider and their own expected market share. Consequently, the market structure affects the ability to assess
the expected number of customers. In a monopoly (e.g. state utility provider), the demand level is much easier to determine than in a highly competitive market with a lot of customer churn (e.g. mobile communications, airlines). Furthermore, the expected service usage is a component of the expected demand level. Independent of the number of customers, the expected demand varies with the amount of services used by a specific customer. For example, telephone companies target two customer segments, private and corporate clients. In general, a telephone provider serves more private clients than corporate ones in number but the single corporate customer generates more revenues than the single private customer. Overall, often, it is easier and more valid to forecast the expected demand by many small customers compared to forecasting the demand by a few big customers. A further determinant of the long-term capacity is the expected demand dynamics. For most services, demand is heterogeneous and varies over time according to certain patterns. Ski lifts are used frequently in the winter time, flower demand increases on days like Valentine’s day and Mother’s day, many entertainment and leisure services are used more frequently at weekends, and generally, most services are used more frequently in the daytime compared to night-time. Because there are many reasons influencing demand dynamics which are known by service providers from experience or logic, demand dynamics can be forecast to a certain extent. Although there still remains a more or less dynamic demand which can not be foreseen, service providers have some indicators of the probable demand patterns.
Conclusion Capacity problems and consequently service capacity management are determined by the demand level, demand dynamics and the adaptability of service resources. Even if a service provider estimates the probable demand and demand dynamics, it is unrealistic in most service industries to expect that the exact demand and demand dynamics can be foreseen. A bank cannot forecast exactly how many clients will visit a branch at a specific time on a specific day for every single day. And even if the bank knew the customer behavior exactly, it cannot hire new employees for hours with a lot of client traffic and release them in hours with less traffic. Therefore, in many service industries, providers realise short-term capacity adjustments. By installing capacities in a flexible way, the generally given capacities can be adjusted flexibly to short-term, predictable or accidental demand dynamics. A flexible capacity utilisation is principally concerned with the assignment of employees, but there are also other aspects of how tangible or technological resources can be utilised flexibly. For predictable short-term demand patterns, service providers employ approaches of short-term workforce scheduling. By considering the expected appearance of customers in a service outfit, the tasks of service employees are planned according to the demand pattern. References Adenso-Díaz, B., González-Torre, P. and Garcia, V. (2002) ‘A capacity management model in service industries’ International Journal of Service Industry Management 13 (3/4) pp. 286–302. Hur, D., Mabert, V.A. and Bretthauer, K. (2004) ’Real-time schedule adjustment decisions: A case study‘ Omega – The International Journal of Management Science 32 (5) pp. 333–44. Klassen, K.J. and Rohleder, T.R. (2001) ‘Combining operations and marketing to manage capacity and demand in services’ Service Industries Journal 21 (2) pp. 1–30. Klassen, K.J. and Rohleder, T.R. (2002) ‘Demand and capacity management decisions in services: How they impact on one another’ International Journal of Operations and Production Management 22 (5) pp. 527–48. Lovelock, C. and Wirtz, J. (2004) Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice-Hall. Liljander, V. (1994) ‘Modeling perceived quality using different comparison standards’ Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior 7 pp. 126–42. Martin, C.R. and Horne, D.A. (1993) ‘Services innovation: Successful versus unsuccessful firms’ International Journal of Service Innovation Management 4 (1) pp. 49–65.
Theodor Purcarea
Art Therapy and Alternative Medicine with Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier and Marie-Christin Hallier
Abstract
Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier is the “designer” of the European Retail Academy. He always proved to be a personality displaying a real passion for transparency of the market and trends discovery, for promotion of the benchmarking in retail education and for one of the most internationalized markets, the Art market. Two years ago, we highlighted a wonderful new picture of Marie-Christin Hallier: “Antikomposition Kosmos” at Alanus University. We recently saluted the team’s international initiative - of Prof. Dr. B. Hallier and Marie-Christin Hallier - related to “Mental Health aspects: Art Therapy and Alternative Medicine”. Marie-Christin Hallier reminded us recently that Art Therapy has three options, and Self-Portraits in Art Therapy might be a first step for participants/patients to get an insight into himself/herself and might be followed by a second step: changing life. Keywords: European Retail Academy, Art Therapy, Alternative Medicine JEL Classification: A12, D83, I10, L81
A personality proving a real passion for transparency of the market and trends discovery Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier, an Honorary Member of the Romanian Distribution Committee, and distinguished Member of the Editorial Board of “Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine”, is the President of the European Retail Academy (ERA), Member of the Board of AIDA Brussels, and Member of the Astana Economic Scientists Club. Professor Bernd Hallier is the “designer” of the European Retail Academy (Romanian Distribution Committee has awarded Professor Bernd Hallier in 2006 the title of “Designer of the Year”), a virtual platform that brings more transparency about retail-research and retail-education and promotes the international transfer of know-how between business and universities. European Retail Academy is the home of the European Competence Center for Vocational Training (for Retail) – EuCVoT, and its partners. Initiators besides ERA are EuCoCo and EUREMA - both EU-
programs for e-learning and organizers of retail-events like ASPERO Kompetens/Sweden, Blue Events/ CZ, Dublin Institute of Technology/Ireland and PROFAT/Lithuania. In his current or former positions (such as Managing Director EHI Retail Institute - former EuroHandelsinstitut, Chairman of the Advisory Board of EuroShop – world’s largest capital goods show in the retail sector etc.), Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier always proved to be a personality displaying a real passion for transparency of the market and trends discovery, for promotion of the benchmarking in retail education and for one of the most internationalized markets, the Art market. It is worth to mention that, for example, Dr. Hallier was since 1985 Managing Director of EHI Retail Institute based in Köln, Germany (responsible especially for business units such as ORGAINVENT, FOODPLUS etc.), a well-known scientific institute having also well-known challenging publications (such as „Marketing Monitor“, „rt-retail technology“, „stores+shops“, „PR in Retail“, „Energy Monitor “, „POS Systems 2010“). He had significant participations abroad as a distinguished keynote speaker, at International Congresses and Scientific Symposia, including at SANABUNA International Congress (beginning with October 2011), being personally and successfully involved, for instance, in November 2010 in the three EUHearings of the Social Dialogue project “Establishing a European Network for Anticipating skill needs in the commerce sector”(a significant project implemented with the financial support of the European Commission; EuroCommerce, and Uni-Europa Commerce, supported by European Retail Academy). He has received numerous awards and diplomas in Germany, as well as abroad, including in Romania. Recently, Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier was a Member of the Judging Panel of Asia-Pacific Retailers Awards 2014. Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier visited Romania for the first time in May 1998, on the occasion of the International Congress of AIDA Brussels. As we have remembered on other occasions, at the heart of our basic human experience there is our brain’s ability to preserve or alter our memories, which are transformed each time we revisit them. Within this context, allow us recalling some challenging memories: the Volume “Sammler, Stifte und Maezene des Handels” (Bernd Hallier); the Volume “Praxisorientierte Handelsforschung” (Bernd Hallier); the Volume “Kultur und Geschichte des Handels” (Hans-Jorg Bauer und Bernd Hallier); a Letter from Dr. Bernd Hallier to Theodor Purcarea, immediately after the International Congress of AIDA in Bucharest, in May 1998.
From “Antikomposition Kosmos” to Art Therapy and Alternative Medicine On July 20, 2012, the Romanian Distribution Committee official website highlighted a wonderful new picture of Marie-Christin Hallier: “Antikomposition Kosmos” at Alanus University, while arguing (and recently remembering) that Marie-Christin Hallier’s way of artistic expression also means at least two things: Marie-Christin (Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier’s daughter; please remember the Closing Statement of Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier on the occasion of the First International Congress SANABUNA: http://www.crd-aida. ro/activitiespartnership/sanabuna-2011/ ) continues her family tradition of innovation and offering solutions in a world thirsty for ideas; what we have seen in 2011, in the Journal – albums from Hallier family library continue to flourish. And that is the real satisfaction (http://www.crd-aida.ro/2012/07/wonderful-
picture-marie-christin-hallierantikomposition-kosmos-10-2meters-alanus-university-bonn/). Knowing that team initiatives are results oriented, we recently saluted the team international initiative - of Prof. Dr. B. Hallier and Marie-Christin Hallier - related to “Mental Health aspects: Art Therapy and Alternative Medicine”. In Germany, due to rationalization under economic aspects, hospitals are becoming more and more specialized on segments of medical care. On the other hand, Mental Health has to go beyond separated body diseases. How can Art Therapy improve Mental Health? A new Foundation for Art, Therapy and Geomancy/Esoteric Feng Shui wants to help in interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogues (www.european-retail-academy.org/KTG ). Marie-Christin Hallier reminded us recently that: Art Therapy has three options (just to analyze the causes of illness – or trying to influence the illness/patient – or like in palliative medicine to help to accept the destination); Self-Portraits in Art Therapy might be a first step for participants/patients to get an insight into himself/herself and might be followed by a second step: changing life!
This second step (“changing life”) underlined by Marie-Christin Hallier allows me to conclude on a personal note that I see here a powerful link with three quotes of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “In art the best is good enough”; “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do”; “In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm... in the real world all rests on perseverance”. And I am convinced of the perseverance of Marie-Christin Hallier, within the well-known best tradition of the family, in applying Goethe’s teachings.
Vlad BUDU, Laura MIRANCEA, Alexandra SCHNAIDER, Ioan BULESCU
The evolution of quality of life in the oncological ENT patients
V. Budu1), Laura Mirancea1), Alexandra Schnaider1), I. Bulescu2) 1) ”Prof. Dr. Dorin Hociotă” Institute for Phono-Audiology and Functional ENT Surgery, Bucharest, Romania 2) Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest Abstract The article presents the predisposing and favouring factors for ENT cancers, which play a decisive role in the development of head and neck malignant tumours. The stages of acceptance of this devastating disease are reviewed with no significant difference from other cancers. Modern therapeutic approaches are emphasized with positive results, which lead to an increase in the quality of life of oncologic ENT patients. Keywords: ENT cancer, quality of life, oncologic surgery Cancer is the second leading cause of death among EU countries, Romania included. It is difficult to formulate a simple definition that can cover decades of research in the field. However, cancer must be seen as a chaotic, uncontrolled and fast cellular multiplication, which emergences in a mass of (tumour) tissue that does not resemble the normal tissue. ENT cancers have several unique features: - In rhinology the tumours develop from the nasal and sinuses structures, initially causing damage to normal functionality (nasal obstruction, purulent nasal discharge, nasal bleeding) and then they can cause deformities of the nose, face and orbital-frontal zone. - In pharyngology, tumours can arise in the nasopharynx (behind the nose) usually causing unilateral nasal obstruction and epistaxis, or in the oropharynx associating pain in the tonsillar region and hypopharynx, causing difficulties in swallowing. - In laryngology, cancer starts with hoarseness (dysphonia), which, over time, is associated with dyspnea (respiratory failure, shortness of breath) and whose resolution involves the performance of an emergency tracheostomy. Another important feature of ENT cancers is the large number of nerves and blood vessels in the area, leading to a rapid growth and development of tumour tissue and possibly to very frequent metastasis. All of these affect the patient’s quality of life both preoperatively, but especially after the oncology treatments have been established. The key to a successful oncology therapy is staging the cancer correctly and implementing the appropriate therapy for each stage. However, the decisive role in ENT oncology treatment staging is stated by: - the histopathological type of cancer (the most common is the epithelial cancer)
- tumour staging (from stage I to stage IV leads to an optimal treatment (modern medicine has managed to adequately encode an effective oncology treatment for each stage) - the anatomo-clinical type of tumour (vegetative, infiltrative, ulcerative, etc.) that can determine the extent of the surgery and the adequate prognosis. In staging the ENT cancer (and not only) what should be considered in the first place is the primary tumour (size, shape, consistency and neighbourhood extensions), local metastasis (nodal) and the distant metastases (in lung, liver, brain, bones), all these leading to a proper oncologic treatment and prognosis of cancer. The evolution of the quality of life in ENT oncologic patients aims the following: - a better knowledge of the aetiology in ENT cancers. - removing the predisposing and favouring factors for ENT cancers. - early diagnosis of the cancer as much as possible during the first stages. - careful counselling of cancer patients until accepting the idea of the disease. - establishing adequate oncologic therapeutic management for each type of ENT cancer. - social reintegration, which is perhaps the most important element to increase the quality of life in cancer patients. Etiology and predisposing factors of ENT cancer Knowing the cancer’s etiology will obviously lead to the improvement of therapeutic modalities, to a better prognosis and to increased quality of life. When being asked the question “Why did I get cancer?”, you will find yourself in a tough spot and the answer is often difficult to give. Studies carried on for decades have discovered a genetic determinism for cancer (we are/ are not born with the chance of occurrence of cancer at a given time, in a particular organ), oncogenic genes (genetic mutations with a leading role in oncology determinism). Studies also revealed a more intense involvement of viruses even in ENT cancers etiology (cancer of the nasopharynx, some types of laryngeal cancer, etc.). One of the most harmful factors in the determination of ENT cancer is smoking. There have been many anti-tobacco campaigns worldwide and recently also in Romania based on the abovementioned idea. These types of campaigns should
be conducted more and more decisively because all studies state that smoking is a very important factor in the appearance of ENT cancers. Along with smoking, excessive alcohol consumption predisposes to cancer and the association of these two factors leads to an increasing carcinogenic effect, with a fast evolution of the illness. Environmental factors, hazards and toxic substances from certain professions, unhealthy diet, ionizing radiation and certain drugs can all be incriminated in cancer development. Keeping them out of the patient’s lifestyle can help increase the quality of life. Another incriminated factor in the development of cancer is the immune status of the patient. We live in a world of constant motion, with economic, social and political changes that can determine a grater or a smaller amount of stress from an individual to another. Stress affects the immune system (the body’s ability to defend itself) and once the immune deficiency is installed, the normal function of the cellular systems and organs is disturbed and the development of cancer is inevitable. As long as the immune system is affected the evolution of the cancer cells is unpredictable. A highly important element in the fight against this terrible disease is the detection of cancer in early stages. In fact, this is the key to a successful treatment, with good results in developed countries and with disastrous ones in the third world countries. Ultimately, the disease is ”statistical“ and therefore the early detection of ENT cancers leads to high rates of survival (80% at 5 years). Stages of acceptance of the cancer disease Once the disease was diagnosed (biopsy, histopathology), the patient is labelled as an ”oncologic patient“. In the watershed moments, like when he discovers he has cancer, the patient first needs an accurate, honest opinion regarding his illness, the treatment he needs to follow and information about the prognosis under the appropriate treatment. Some patients accept the diagnosis with confidence, hope and desire for healing. Unfortunately, most patients cross acceptance stages of cancer diagnosis and the psychological counselling can increase their quality of life. The first reaction of oncologic patients is denying strong emotion, the shock created by the diagnosis, the fear that life will change radically. The second phase is when the intellect dominates denial and is represented by anger against oneself or the loved ones, sometimes even against
divinity. Once the anger is consumed the intellect moves towards accepting the disease. Then the negotiation with himself, the others and even the doctor starts. This stage is short and impossible to solve the illness just by searching for answers or the guilty ones. After discussing with the oncologist (or an oncologic surgeon) and once finding out the proper therapeutic options, prognosis and life expectancy, depression starts to settle in. This is the most important psychological interference with the restoration of confidence, strength to fight the disease and reach the final stage – accepting the disease. At this time, the disease is understood and accepted as part of life, so that cancer treatment should be started immediately, leaving the patient to choose, after having been properly explained and presented all the options. Treatment in ENT cancer patients A very important principle of ENT oncology (and not only) is the partial preservation (where oncologic possible) of the organ with a functional restoration. The most common therapeutic modalities used in ENT cancers are the following: - surgery - with multiple repercussions on the quality of life after surgery (aesthetic, nasal breathing, swallowing, mouth breathing, tracheal stoma, etc.). - radiotherapy - also difficult to bear for patients, reducing the quality of life. - chemotherapy with all signs and symptoms of post chemotherapy administration. - immunotherapy treatments - non-specific (immune stimulators) or specific (monoclonal antibodies on tumour markers) in the first phases, but with a significant effect on increasing the quality of life. Social and professional reintegration of the ENT cancer patients Social reintegration represents the desiderate after a successful oncologic treatment, causing the decisive element on increasing the quality of life after therapy. In ENT oncologic patients, the evolution of the quality of life is mainly determined after surgical treatment. Thus, in rhinologic oncologic surgery (nose and sinus cancers), the quality of life was observed at several levels: - the first rhinosinusitis endoscopic investigative techniques were developed (nasal
endoscopic examination or fiberscope), helping with the early detection of tumours and the correct assessment of surgical indications. - radiological investigation methods, especially CT and MRI helped to establish the exact diagnosis, the tumour staging and thus choosing the optimal surgical solution. - in the last two decades, endoscopic surgery has become extensively used, replacing conventional surgical techniques, external, open, which led to a faster recovery after surgery and an increase of the quality of life. One of the elements that affect the rhinologic patient’s quality of life is the nasal packing. The posterior painful nasal packing (behind the nose) has been almost completely abandoned and now expandable sponges (even breathable) with quick unpacking (at 24-48 hours) are used with an obvious increase in the quality of life. In oncologic surgery of the pharynx, the evolution of the techniques and therapeutic technologies has led to a remarkable increase in the quality of life. Multiple endoscopic approach techniques have been developed for cancers of the nasopharynx (inoperable until now) using tissue destruction techniques with radiofrequency ablation, a fast surgery with minimal bleeding and with good oncologic results (if it is applied with proper indication). Although the surgery techniques are mutilating in the cancer of the oropharynx, they have been improved with surgical reconstructive elements, the operations being most often performed in mixed teams (ENT, plastic surgeon, OMS surgeon). Special attention should be paid to laryngeal cancer. Total laryngectomy leaves the patient with no voice and bearing tracheal stoma. In this case, the patient has a double handicap underlined by the lack of communication, but also by the presence of tracheal stoma (“hole in the throat“ or ”throat button“) with devastating effects on the psyche and aesthetics of the patient. For these reasons, the patient’s quality of life is very low. However, in recent decades, medicine has been trying and succeeded to accomplish a significant improvement in the quality of life of laryngeal cancer patients. In the first place, anti-smoking campaigns and the increased level of medical culture and civilization led to a better understanding of the risk factors and early consult to an ENT specialist (from the first symptom - hoarseness). The paraclinical methods of larynx investigation (pharyngo-laryngeal videofibroscopy, and imaging investigations - CT, MRI) led to an early
diagnosis and staging of cancer with an immediate onset of a sustained oncology treatment. The quality of life has been increased by the possibility (because of the factors mentioned above) of transition from the classical mutilating surgery (total laryngectomy, total pharyngolaryngectomy, ”radical neck dissection”), to the partial operations (where oncology was indicated) with the partial preservation of the organ and its function (breathing, phonation, swallowing). In the modern approach of cancer treatment, an important role was held by the implementation of laser surgery in laryngeal cancer, resulting in faster operations, less bleeding, short-term hospitalization and reduced convalescence. Oncology results of laser surgery have made it to impose the approach of laryngeal cancers (depending on staging, lymph nodes, metastases) and thus led to increased quality of life for cancer patients. Passing over aesthetics, the surgical technique and repeated admissions, the difficulty of carrying radioand chemotherapy treatment, the most difficult to bear for the total laryngectomy patient is the lack of communication. Although, at the time of acceptance of the disease and the decision to fight, the cancer patient has to choose the ”voice or life“, once the oncology therapeutics are completed, the patient would like to communicate more than anything. Currently, the patient without larynx (the organ of speech) can communicate with others in three ways. First he can try (and the results are really impressive) to learn the oesophageal voice or erigmophonation. The patient learns to “swallow” the air into the oesophagus and afterwards to eject it; after phoniatrics classes he will manage to make an initial phonation and, in time, will reach the performance of exceeding all (mental and phoniatrics) complexes given by the lack of voice. Another way, which is easily accepted by the patients, is the use of the laryngophone. This is actually a microphone positioned in the region of the mouth floor that manages to capture and amplify the voice created in the mouth. Using this device led to the possibility of an immediate communication (maybe ”robotic“ voice) with apparent increases in the patient’s quality of life. The best way to make a patient without larynx to speak is to use voice prosthesis. This is a titanium device mounted between the trachea and pharynx that allows air to pass from the trachea into the pharynx and does not allow saliva and food to pass from the pharynx in the trachea. By using this device, the patient’s voice can sound almost normally
and he can be reintegrated quickly in the society without having the complex of not being able to speak. Thus, with regard to radiation, several methods of radiation with targeted oncology effects and reduced side effects have been developed, which led to an increase in the quality of life of ENT cancer patients. In patients undergoing chemotherapy (curative, neoadjuvant, adjuvant or palliative), side effects (asthenia, anorexia, nausea and vomiting, hair loss, bleeding, anemia, recurrent infections, bowel disorders) are managed and improved by the development of modern chemotherapy with less side effects, leading to improved quality of life. As a conclusion, two important ideas should be pointed out: • although methods of investigations are improving and cancer treatment is becoming more advanced, millions of lives are lost to this insidious and devastating disease in the world (and obviously in our country). • although studies of billions of dollars have been made during the last decades and the best, most modern therapeutic approaches have been established with positive results and statistically there has been an increase in the 5-years survival rate in cancer pathology, the total number of cancers reported annually to WHO is constantly increasing. And we ask ourselves trying to keep optimistic: ”Why is the number of cancers steadily and alarming increasing?” We often try to find the answer in the following: - environment - nutrition - population growth - increasing lifespan - stress - decreased immunity - or there are some elements that are still unknown...?
Theodor Purcarea
Honored Personality 2015: Professor Leon F. Wegnez
We all know that honor bespeaks worth, honor being the reward of virtue (according to Cicero), presupposing to live with Honor by being what we pretend to be (according to Socrates). Honoring people who really deserve to be honored is a great task. European Retail Academy and his leader Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier assumed yearly this great task, within a process of profound reflection.
It is well-known that the European Retail Academy (ERA: http://www.european-retail-academy.org/ ) is appointing each year one outstanding Professor for the Hall of Fame of ERA. According to the recent announcement made by ERA, the distinguished Léon F. Wegnez is the 2015 “Man of the Year”. Allow us to remember the distinguished personalities who have been honored by ERA in the last four years: Romano Prodi, Klaus Toepfer, Robert Aumann, and Mikhail Fedorov.
The highly-respected “Diplomatic Gazette” (at present “La Vie Diplomatique”, as the new
official publication of the Diplomatic Club of Belgium), Brussels, No. 77, August 2013 provided an elaborate description (pp. 26-28) of a memorable Doctor Honoris Causa award ceremony that took place on February 15, 2013, at “Château Sainte-Anne”, Brussels, the headquarters of Diplomatic Club of Belgium. On this very special occasion, the honorable Léon F. Wegnez, Administrator Secretary General of the Diplomatic Club of Belgium, and Secretary General, International Association of the Distributive Trade, A.I.D.A. Brussels, was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the prestigious National School of Political Science and Public Administration (SNSPA), Bucharest, Romania.
of information) in meeting the demands posed by globalization and adapting to the new requirements and challenges, highlighting the importance of the relationship between imparting knowledge (which can be applied to decisionmaking) and developing skills so as to transpose the list of obstacles to diplomatic communication. He constantly pledged for networking and teamworking in building a collaborative environment leading to the creation of adequate knowledge, by understanding the political context which frames diplomacy (including economic diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, public diplomacy, digital diplomacy and so on) into a competitive context, by sharing values, by respecting and valuing differences, by engaging and educating. It is also worth to mention that Professor Léon F. Wegnez is one of the Speakers of SANABUNA International Congress.
Professor Léon F. Wegnez (also General Manager of the Royal Belgian Committee for Distribution, Member of France’s Academy of Commercial Sciences, Co-Founder of the Diplomatique Gazette, General Manager of the Inter-
national Association of Urbanism& Commerce, Administrator & Director of the Association for Prevention & Safety) is a well-known personality with a vision and commitment, knowing what to do with the time and having the power to give his life a meaning, with a real vocation for spreading knowledge about the distributive trade, pledging for the right decisions, the right choices and the progress of business life, through a better understanding of consumer value and consumer journey leading to successful marketing. Léon F. Wegnez understood, for example, the nature and role of diplomacy (as an intellectual activity based on the on-going processing and analysis
By courtesy of Professor Léon F. Wegnez
we present below the article “Léon F. Wegnez, Personnalité de l’Année 2015de la European Retail Academy” published in the prestigious “Distribution d’aujourd’hui” (55ème année, Octobre-Novembre-Décembre 2014, Bruxelles).
Gabriela Alba The Gifted Education: an Essential Step toward Viable Solutions for Global Multiple Crises
Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 3, Year 2012, was emphasizing the fact that the author of the lines below challenged our mind and feelings to a reflection on spiritual regeneration through love for the beauty, through education and culture. We also underlined remarkable evolutions of the brand “Gabriela Alba” (while introducing the article „Photography as a Spiritual Path”), confirming the words of Andre Maurois: “If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.” The article below is allowing us to add two more quotes: „Wherever smart people work, doors are unlocked” (Steve Wozniak); „Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are” (George Santayana).
hunger, thirst and extreme poverty on the other hand, then innocent people dying in petty wars, severe financial and spiritual crises – they all are somehow part of our daily life. Nature’s regenerating capacity is overwhelmed by the unmerciful anthropic actions. The global situation is so frightening, that some scientists even claim that only alien civilizations could save the Earthlings from self-destruction at this point. Or maybe humanity is just starting to give their best, as a natural response for balancing their worse...
Nowadays, we do not afford such losses anymore… “The Earth has enough resources for our need, but not for our greed”, asserted Mahatma Gandhi, one of the famous Nobel Peace Prize winners. Life threatening pollution, abusive exploitation of natural resources on one hand,
Researches show that 2% of the global population is represented by gifted persons – people with excellent intellectual potential and special abilities. Although a developing country, Romania is twice as rich in intelligence as the global average: it is estimated that 4% of its population would score high IQs. Archimedes, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Mozart, J.S. Bach, Goethe, Einstein, Tesla, Charlie Chaplin, the Romanians George Emil Palade, Justin Capra, Nicolae Paulescu and Traian Vuia are just a few of the auspicious minds that brought their light into the world throughout history. Highly intelligent people have been admired. But they have also been envied, dreaded, mocked,
Abstract
Nature’s regenerating capacity is overwhelmed by the unmerciful anthropic actions. Researches show that 2% of the global population is represented by gifted persons – people with excellent intellectual potential and special abilities. Although a developing country, Romania is twice as rich in intelligence as the global average. Romanians George Emil Palade, Justin Capra, Nicolae Paulescu and Traian Vuia are just a few of the auspicious minds that brought their light into the world throughout history. The gifted and talented children growing up near us are right now the only available chance for a dignified future. A tailored set of teaching methods, along with a specific preparation of both teachers and parents, are major necessities for the harmonious development of highly intelligent kids. Gifted Education Center is a Romanian non-profit organization in Bucharest, an academic program created in 2010 by educational professionals to discover children with superior intellectual attributes and to nurture their special needs. In 2015, Gifted Education Center launches a new project: Leonardo Gifted School – a primary international school with normal schedule. Key words: Gifted Education, Global Multiple Crises, Multiple Intelligences, Teaching Methods JEL Classification: A20, D64, I21
marginalized and sometimes even murdered by those who could not rise at the level of their revolutionary thinking and atypical way of being. Nowadays, we do not afford such losses anymore, for “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them” (A. Einstein). The gifted and talented children growing up near us are right now the only available chance for a dignified future, being eager to manifest their native gifts into healing discoveries and inventions, or into powerful artistic manifestations that would bring back beauty and harmony among our main concerns. The very beginning of a new educational era… In spite of the common myth that such children would certainly find success on their own, the reality reveals the opposite. The lack of early recognition and appropriate education most often leads to a tragic waste of potential: according to international research, more than 50% of gifted children become unfulfilled adults who do not express or do not even acknowledge their brightness. Some of them never find their place in the social puzzle and collapse under the burden of their rejected gifts.
Not only classic school does not feed the emotionality and the curiosity of the gifted, but it also inhibits natural creativity, disables divergent thinking, and lowers self-esteem and adaptability. A tailored set of teaching methods, along with a specific preparation of both teachers and parents, are major necessities for the harmonious development of highly intelligent kids. Gifted Education Center (www.giftededu.ro) is a Romanian non-profit organization in Bucharest, an academic program created in 2010 by educational professionals to discover children with superior intellectual attributes and to nurture their special needs. The students are selected with internationally validated psychological tests, while the curriculum includes a novel mix of classes to improve multiple intelligences, with necessary highlights on the emotional intelligence, higher order thinking skills, accelerated learning, and creativity. The essence of the educational methods used here is the deep respect for the divine spirit of a child, defined by playfulness, high curiosity and need for unconditional love. Each
personality is appreciated for their uniqueness and systematically nourished. Parenting courses are essential complementary activities which improve the relationships of the students with their own families.
Children can have their IQ tested all along the school year. The ones who pass the tests, that is coring an IQ of 130 or more, may choose to be enrolled in the academic program of the Gifted Education Center.
In 2015, Gifted Education Center launches a new project: Leonardo Gifted School – a primary international school with normal schedule. It will incorporate a mentoring program of enrichment supported by numerous Romanian personalities and teachers in various fields of activity: arts (theatre, music, painting, and dance), personal development and science. This is the first initiative of its kind in Romania and the very beginning of a new educational era, where authentic values are supported and promoted, preparing superchildren to become the super-humans able to make a better world.
Irina PURCAREA
A short presentation of our partner journal „Contemporary Economics”, Vol. 8, Issue 1, 2014, Quarterly of University of Finance and Management in Warsaw
A short presentation of our partner journal „Contemporary Economics”, Vol. 8, Issue 1, 2014, Quarterly of University of Finance and Management in Warsaw Irina PURCĂREA
JEL Classification: Y30
“Contemporary Economics” is an academic quarterly addressed to academicians, economic policymakers as well as to students of finance, accounting, management and economics. In particular, the quarterly contains academic manuscripts on problems of contemporary economics, finance, banking, accounting and management examined from various research perspectives.
The first paper of this issue, entitled „CEO Emotional Intelligence and Firms’ Financial Policies. Bayesian Network Method ” (Mohamed Ali Azouzi, Anis Jarboui), explores the determinants of firms’ financial policies according to the manager’s psychological characteristics, looking at the link between emotional intelligence, decision biases and the effectiveness of firms’ financial policies.
The paper entitled „Age and gender effects of workforce composition on productivity and profits: Evidence from a new type of data for German enterprises” (Christian Pfeifer,Joachim Wagner) documents the relationship between the composition of a firm’s workforce (with a focus on age and gender) and its performance (productivity and profitability), for a large sample of enterprises from manufacturing industries in Germany, using newly available , unique data. „Advantages and disadvantages of fiscal discipline in Bulgaria in times of crisis” (Vasil S. Petkov) is a paper that examines the benefits and drawbacks that the fiscal policy offers to Bulgaria, emphasizing the need for more active state support in the view to stimulate a pickup in consumption and production activity. Another paper, „Evaluation of factors influencing job satisfaction” (Barbara A. Sypniewska), presents the results of a study meant to identify and assess the significance of individual factors influencing satisfaction and dissatisfaction with work. The study confirms the raised thesis concerning the validity of research in the factors affecting the general feeling of satisfaction by the employees. One of the papers included in this issue, „Parametric meta-technology frameworks to study technical efficiency and macro-economic effects in the European banking system” (Bilel Jarraya), studies the effect of macro-economic heterogeneity on banking technology development. The results prove the influence of macro-economic heterogeneity on banks’ efficiency and technological development. The paper „Determinants and perceptions of social mobility in Poland, 1992-2008” (Katarzyna Sokolowska) investigates the factors affecting social mobility in Poland, based on the results
obtained from the estimation of logit models for the year 1992-2008. Another paper, „Influence of quality of life on the state and development of human capital in Latvia” (Zhanna Tsaurkubule), poses the following research question: how to preserve human resources in the state? Based on an analysis of post-crisis socio-economic processes taking place in the society, recommendations are made to improve the socio-economic policy in ways that improve the welfare of the population of Latvia. The final paper of this issue of “Contemporary Economics”, entitled „Implications of financial transaction costs on the real economy: A note” (Matthias Pelster), shows how transaction costs lead to a less competitive market and that prices increase as the producers limit their output.