Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 3, Year 2022 by Romanian Distribution Committee

Editorial

From Overcoming Adaptability Paradox to A New Dimension of Performance

In our last RDC Magazine issue we recall (Purcarea, 2022) what we wrote 12 years ago regarding the fact that life forces us to nurture hope (as a state of mind) in the production of knowledge for wisdom so as to become architects of the conversation that generates responsible action. We also highlighted recent lessons to learn under the current changed circumstances with regard, for instance, to adapt the organization’s management structure and processes accordingly, and to continuously live up to valuable philosophy and principles.

The current VUCA times made us now also think to McKinsey’s representatives opinion (Brassey et al., 2021) that in order to solve the so called adaptability paradox (not succeeding in what you are trying to achieve on proved ways just when needing innovative thinking and decisiveness, so as to select your best possible option under radically changed circumstances) it is necessary to take responsibility for learning both flexibly and efficiently, applying new knowledge when you face complex situations, maintaining control over change and uncertainty based on an adaptive mindset (both investing in scaling well being, and improving employee experience; valorizing the strong link between well being and purpose; being open to ask the right questions and collect information in new and productive ways, as well as to consider self awareness and reflection; building strong interpersonal relationships, including by recognizing personal qualities and stimulating honest contribution; cultivating a new culture of psychological safety). At the present time, it is interesting to start from the latest McKinsey Global Survey on economic conditions (Condon et al., 2022), which revealed that: inflation was cited as the main

risk to growth by respondents in most regions, while the most often risks to growth cited in Europe were volatile energy prices, inflation, geopolitical instability and/or conflicts, rising interest rates, and supply chain disruptions, as shown in figure below; respondents’ expectations (about half of them) regarding global conditions are pessimistic. And as we all know, expectations are always important drivers of the economy, by influencing decision making, the aggregate economy being impacted by pessimism (Bhandari, Borovicka and Ho, 2021).

Figure no. 1: Inflation remains top of mind as a risk to respondents’ economies, except in Europe and Greater China

Source: Condon, J., Kwiatkowski, K. and Singer, V., and Smit, S., 2022. The coronavirus effect on global economic sentiment, September 2022, p. 2 (work cited)

On the other hand, while highlighting the real need for revising the traditional roles of fiscal and monetary policy in order to optimally stabilize the macroeconomy, Korinek and Stiglitz (2022) stated as follows: “… recent events have highlighted that monetary policy is too blunt to target specific drivers of inflation such as supply chain disruptions, labor market shortages, or shocks to energy prices”.

An article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) showed that based on rigorous research were identified the numerous international treaties encouraging the development of global cooperation, and research findings revealed, among other aspects, that with the only exception of the treaties governing international trade and finance, the greater part of treaties was not successful, consequently being raised specific doubts (Hoffman et al., 2022). Recently, Brahima Sangafowa Coulibaly, Vice

President and Director Global Economy and Development, The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, brought to our attention the imperative to strengthen global cooperation commensurately by radically reimagine the multilateral system, taking into account the more likely impact of apparently unrelated shocks given due to the world economy becoming more interconnected. He showed, for instance, that as the global commerce is now (at the confluence of global shocks and crises) affected by the current transport and shipping logistics problems there is an obvious need to fully restore the disrupted global value chains, economies being now highly dependent on them (Coulibaly, 2022). It was also interesting to note another opinion of an author coming from The Brookings Institution who focused on the amended and strengthened European Union (EU) Code of Practice on Disinformation released by the European Commission (EC) on June 16, 2022 (the original EU Code being created by EC in 2018), by analyzing the clearer and standardized terms used to better communicate the goals of the new Code, the various recommendations, the compliance of the very large platforms with the risks mitigation legal obligation etc., the current signatories of the new Code, and what EC will have to further assess (Tanner, 2022) This is the larger context in which we express, for instance, the regret to be unable to attend the live event organized on November 1 3, 2022 by the reputed MIT Technology Review (2022) MIT Technology Review’s flagship event on emerging technology and trends, EmTech MIT 2022 where Frank McCourt, Civic Entrepreneur and CEO of McCourt Global, will be one of the great Speakers. The promotional e mail received from MIT Technology Review made reference to a valuable real quote that truly provides meaningful insights and perspectives with regard to by what is “a culture of toxic inequality” driven, and what is threatening “the resulting lack of trust”.

Five years ago (Purcarea and Purcarea, 2017), we showed that the reputed Peter Drucker underlined that innovation must be understood as change that creates a new dimension of performance, and how another reputed great economist (also a Peter Drucker’s Family friend in Wien), Joseph Schumpeter (having a tremendous influence on Peter Drucker), coined the term creative destruction. Recently, a French Professor (at the College de France and at INSEAD) Philippe Aghion, invited at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (where Peter Drucker was Professor), had the occasion to discuss about creative destruction (seen as the replacement of an old product or idea with a new one) in relation to innovation (Meier, 2022). At the heart of the growth process

Professor Philippe Aghion (who see innovation as a cumulative process, as involving incentives, and as tending to displace old technologies) identified a contradiction, being needed innovation to motivate innovation, and yesterday’s innovators (trying to avoid to be subject to creative destruction) being tempted to prevent subsequent innovators

Let us conclude by citing again the wise words spoken by the famous Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi: “What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things.”

Theodor Valentin Purcărea

Editor-in-Chief

Bhandari, A., Borovicka, J. and Ho, P., 2021. Macroeconomic Effects of Household Pessimism and Optimism, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Economic Brief, January 2021, No. 21 03. Views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond or the Federal Reserve System. [online] Available at: <https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/economic_brief/2021/eb_21 03> [Accessed 8 October 2021].

Brassey, J., De Smet, A., Kothari, A., Lavoie, J., Mugayar Baldocchi, M. and Zolley, S., 2021. Future proof: Solving the ‘adaptability paradox’ for the long term. [pdf] McKinsey & Company, Organization Practice, August 2021, pp. 1 10. Available at: <future proof solving the adaptability-paradox-for-the-long-term.pdf> [Accessed 25 September 2021].

Condon, J., Kwiatkowski, K. and Singer, V., and Smit, S., 2022. The coronavirus effect on global economic sentiment, September 2022. [pdf] McKinsey & Company, Strategy & Corporate Finance Practice, September 2022, pp. 1 3. Available at: <the coronavirus effect on global economic sentiment september 2022_final.pdf> [Accessed 5 October 2022].

Coulibaly, B.S., 2022. Rebooting global cooperation is imperative to successfully navigate the multitude of shocks facing the global economy, The Brookings Institution, September 16, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.brookings.edu/essay/rebooting global cooperation is imperative to successfully navigate the multitude of shocks facing the global economy/?> [Accessed 18 September 2022].

Hoffman, S.J., Barala, P., Rogers Van Katwyka, S., Sritharana, L., Hughsam, M., Randhawa, H., Lin, G., Campbell, S., Campus, B., Dantas, M., Foroughian, N., Groux, G., Gunn, E., Guyatt, G., Roojin Habibi, R., Karabit, M., Karir, A., Kruja, K., Lavis, J.N.,, Lee, O., Li, B., Nagi, R., Naicker, K., Røttingen, J. A., Nicola Sahar, N., Srivastava, A., Tejpar, A., Tran, M., Yu qing Zhang, Y., Zhou, Q. and Mathieu J. P. Poirier, M.J.P., 2022. International treaties have mostly failed to produce their intended effects, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), Vol. 119, No. 32, pp. 1 9. Edited by Douglas Massey, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; received December 20, 2021; accepted May 17, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2122854119.

Korinek, A. and Stiglitz, J.E., 2022. Macroeconomic stabilization for a post pandemic world, The Brookings Institution, Monday, August 29, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.brookings.edu/research/macroeconomic stabilization for a post pandemic world/?> [Accessed 31 August 2022].

Meier, M., 2022. Where Does Capitalism Go Next? A conversation on “creative destruction,” growth, and designing a more equitable capitalist future. Based on insights from Benjamin F. Jones, Philippe Aghion, Kellogg Insight, Jul 5, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/creative destruction future capitalism post covid?> [Accessed 7 August 2022].

MIT Technology Review a, 2022. “It is long past time to move beyond a technology infrastructure that generates profit from harm.” MIT Technology Review <promotions@technologyreview.com>, September 10, 2022.

References

MIT Technology Review b, 2022. Leading with innovation, EmTech MIT, MIT Technology Review’s flagship event on emerging technology and global trends, November 1 3, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://event.technologyreview.com/emtech-mit-2022/> [Accessed 8 October 2022].

Purcarea, T., 2022. Today’s Biggest Problems Facing a Country, Differences Between the Economic Pessimists and Optimists, Society’s Priority, and the Social Impact of Business, Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, vol. 13(2), pp. 10 15, June.

Purcarea, T. and Purcarea, A., 2017. Services marketing in the era of disruption and digital transformation, Romanian Economic Business Review, 2017, vol. 12, issue 4, p. 11.

Tanner, B., 2022. EU Code of Practice on Disinformation, The Brookings Institution, Friday,

Prof. Eng. Ph.D. Victor GREU

Abstract

The paper analyses the dynamic context of the dramatic World changes, where Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has to adapt its services, products and applications in order to support Information Society (IS) on the way towards the Knowledge Based Society (KBS), even if we see and face emergent crisis by crisis, or even the spectrum of poli crises.

The practical question, beyond any philosophy, is if we have to try to deeply understand the information we receive, or just wait the facts which usually confirm (later!) the trend or the crisis. There are a lot of approaches, between these extreme points of view, but the right way is to refine the knowledge, which is by far something more than understanding the information we receive. This means to continue to responsibly think and analyse the (ICT) World context, even by changing the paradigm in many domains, including, if necessary, ICT areas.

As a starting point, it is a clear necessity to carefully analyse the unprecedentedly World changes/crises, even if we will continue to keep close only with the ICT context, but not ignoring the complex and crucial ways this is linked with the IS/KBS and generally with Earth ecosystem and humankind evolution. From Ukraine to USA and China, the World is dramatically changing, by events having the potential to completely change not only our habits and lives, but the whole Earth ecosystem and even humankind chances of sustainable evolution.

The ICT sustainable progress is crucial, but we have to also consider the changing context, where the ICT advances, like artificial intelligence (AI), Cloud, Internet of things (IoT) or Big Data must be further developed properly, while the new directions could appear. The basic support of all these areas is strongly

Developing information and communications technology to provide more intelligence and leverage more wisdom for a dramatically changing World

-Part 3-

depending on innovations which have to answer to the inherent challenges and crises (semiconductor crisis is just one of the relevant examples, but energy and food could be also soon prominent, along with climate changes consequences).

The difficulty of any analysis is given by the fact that all these challenges are connected (not independent) processes, in the already very dynamic context of ICT/IS/KBS.

In addition, the most challenging features of the actual dramatical World changes could come from the deep levels of the turbulence in most of domains, which sometimes make not appliable the previous approaches. A simple recall of the crucial approach of the green ICT, we also analysed [11], seems to be not sufficient/suitable for the emerging new normality, but this aspect could be extended, without doubt, to the green deal strategy, where the situation is more complicated and not only at the EU level of decision. Another challenging feature of the analysed ICT context is fundamental as it arises from the unprecedented high level of performance, complexity and pace of ICT we are looking from for expected improvements and progress [14]

As we also presented [3], many of the ICT achievements, but sometimes even ones of the challenges, are “copied” or lent to other domains due to the proliferation and crucial role of ICT in IS/KBS. This way we could observe the similarity of the challenges, coming from the high level of the World development and humankind wellbeing, which began to trouble the incumbents and people when facing the emergent restrictions and savings that the energy crisis could ask.

Consequently, the paper reveals, by analysing relevant examples, some of these processes and pointing how the knowledge is generated and eventually how, generally, it should be refined, considering the complicate mechanisms by which the exponential pace of ICT influences all the Earth ecosystem. As the best start of such analyses, communications remained the basic point, being the reliable bridge for all new approaches, leveraging the knowledge refining and, again generally for Earth ecosystem, the expected unity of efforts against crises turbulences Approaching innovation and optimization should consider the communications reliability and quality/performances as the necessary media (Internet being only the most relevant example). This observation will be more and more relevant as the World crises will generally require more connectivity, solidarity and mutual understanding, but technically speaking this will be in fact the need for quick response and awareness in all domains, including critical infrastructures and decision centres.

On this way, the paper analysed the case of the 4 prestige high tech companies which joined efforts to realize a new 170 GHz / 220 GHz Broadband Vector Network Analysis. The analysis revealed some important features/issues, which are relevant for the actual ICT context. The concretization of the idea of unity of efforts, for facing unprecedented difficulties, is here translated in the technology language and industry politics, as it also confirms the specific challenges which are inherently induced by the high level of performances involved. The high level of expertise/prestige for each component/partner, along with the unique selection involved in order to reach this new frontier of ICT, are proving the importance of collaboration/solidarity for facing the actual challenges (in all critical domains of Earth ecosystem). Using higher and higher frequencies is not a goal itself, as, for wireless communications, increasing the carrier frequency the useful bandwidth will also increase, which is one of the main objectives in the future broadband mobile communications systems 5G and 6G, in order to respond to the unprecedented needs of data transmission flows (i.e., broader bandwidth).

The communications/ICT development picture is much larger, as proved by another case, a performant system of analysis and simulation of ICT circuits and systems, which is focusing on the concrete implications of processing the new signals of high speed digital standards, used at ICT advances as 5G, AI, IoT, virtual reality or autonomous vehicles. The degradation of high speed signals should be considered as a new challenge, as its level of complexity has unprecedently increased, being one of the sides we have mentioned as being given by the high level of starting/reference performances, which already are approaching the physical limits of technology. The optimal solution is a new and very performant system of analysis and simulation, i.e., the proper instrument needed by the actual and future very complex ICT equipments. It is important to recall also here that the main area of communications is no more separable of the digital processing, as the last decades confirmed the inseparable convergence of communication and IT issues inside of the new ICT products, equipments and systems, but things are far more complex as the cost and time implications will have dramatical effects in the actual race for adapting to crises and urgences, along with the increasing need for reliability and trust in operation.

All these, mainly technological issues, in the dramatical actual context, could lead clearly to the appropriate and extended system approaches, based again on knowledge refining and new criteria consideration, at Earth ecosystem scale.

For the holistic understanding of the knowledge refining, in the actual dramatic context of World changes/crises, we propose to also consider the implications of the new normality, which is the term more and more used to suggest the implications of the World emergent dramatical changes. We agree, from the beginning, that the new normality is just a generic term, far from being defined or concrete, considering the dramatical changes of the World and the necessity to refine the knowledge in order to find a new balance, in most of activity domains, aiming a sustainable development or at least a surviving approach of Earth ecosystem. The word normality could have special resonance in the

dramatical changes of the World context and we think it was not a simple coincidence that this word was found the most appropriate, from the beginning, to express the actual phase of incertitudes and turbulences the humankind has to face, as it also suggests the urgent necessity of crucial but appropriate changes of our rules and behaviour, everywhere.

Considering the huge theatre where all this context is changing and the subsequent approach, we should imagine to be next changed, it is clear that systemic approach and refined knowledge will be key features of appropriate solutions we have to imagine and apply. It is obvious that generally applicable principles, methods or solutions will not be found, although the idea of optimization will be fallowed everywhere and every time. This way, the systemic approach will lead us to consider the most affected/influent domains of the dramatical changes we face and inherently the energy is prominent, as the physical support of any process/action.

Although we already presented the impressive weight of ICT carbon footprint [11], confirmed also at the Paris Agreement on climate changes (2015), there are domains which still have higher contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, as the shipping industry, which was largely analysed by a relevant example (ammonia, [2]). Starting from this case, we also revealed some relevant elements to be considered at holistic approach and knowledge refining for facing the actual crises and dramatic changes of the World. First of all, the energy crisis implications should be considered at planetary scale and notice that they started before the pandemic war context, being linked with Earth resource fading and the unsustainable development in the last decades, as we also presented [11][18]. Then, we should analyse with priority the activity domains where the consumption and carbon footprint are prominent for Earth ecosystem and here ICT is also visible and perhaps more important due to its exponential pace which must also to be among refined knowledge, while the time to react at planetary scale could be critical as the implied processes are more and more complex and interdependent. Among many other elements, the social, technical, operational and security/geopolitical issues have to be analysed in a holistic approach when searching the solutions for the new normality everywhere. In the ammonia case also, we observed that humankind/community joint efforts (generally including countries, industries, companies or scientific groups) are important, as the implications are global, but also the difficulties are higher and higher and need solidarity/unity and complementary/interdisciplinary contributions.

Returning to ICT development’s global role and context, another relevant example (software testing) could reveal the diversity of the new challenges and point new criteria for refining knowledge. In fact, ICT sustainable development is one of the most complex problems and to optimize it is a very difficult aim, which is now even more complicated by the dramatical changes/crises, which induce incertitudes and unreliable data for decision processes, even when using the advances of AI. On the other side, it is not a new observation that software is a crucial resource for ICT sustainable development, but, naturally, new challenges come to reconsider it and again to refine knowledge, including the area of intelligent automation. AI is a prominent ICT advance, but, as it is penetrating everywhere, its design and optimization for software testing need to be carefully conceived, because of the systemic critical consequences of software reliability in the actual and future ICT complex systems. When designing new software for complex systems, rigor and imagination are mandatory for covering any possible and relevant scenario/case of use in operation and user’s experience, but now open design and holistic approaches have to be added features for ICT sustainable development. This way, the perpetual competition between AI and human intelligence (HI) become crucial when imagination is pointed to cover all challenges. For reaching such high performances, AI must include new techniques and algorithms, which also have to be designed by a holistic approach and include refined knowledge to reflect updates for a diversity of criteria. Beyond other limits of the AI performances, it is worth to observe that, while the AI algorithm learns, for improvements it has to use new data, i.e., updates reflecting the refined data which inherently must contain the way the incumbents and people think over the dynamic and dramatic World changes, meaning, in fact, refined knowledge This way, the whole complexity and difficulty of holistic understanding of the knowledge refining in the new normality could be, at least, suggested along with some elements for orienting the appropriate directions to search the needed solutions/actions among the diversity of options which the democracy, the market economy and the (relative) liberty could generate in time steps.

As a main conclusion, for a systemic and holistic approach of knowledge refining in the new dramatic change’s context, around the World, the role of ICT is essential, first as the link between all processes, having the connectivity features which proved salutary in pandemic, but beyond these, having the potential to speed and optimize the sustainable development of all activity domains of IS/KBS, with its advances like AI, Cloud, IoT, Big Data etc.

Keywords: World crises, new normality, knowledge based society, knowledge refining, greenhouse gas emissions, intelligent automation, broadband vector network analysis, degradation of high speed signals, decarbonizing cargo ships, ammonia fuelled shipping

JEL

Classification: L63; L86; M15; O31; O33 18

1. Developing ICT new solutions in the new crises’ context

Looking every day for news is for many of us a way for trying to keep the pace with World changes, in order to orientate our thinking and actions, although, obviously, this is not a general philosophy of the most people, which will rather continue to do what they usually do and think on a traditionally basis.

Without intending to enter philosophy issues, behind such dilemmas we could observe that, anyway, the World changes, reflected apparently by the information we receive, have to be considered, especially when they become dramatic, like we see and face today, as emergent crisis by crisis.

The practical important question/issue, beyond any philosophy, is if we have to try to deeply understand the information we receive, or just wait the facts which usually confirm (later!) the trend or the crisis.

We think that, obviously there are a lot of approaches, between these extreme points of view, the right way is to refine the knowledge, which is by far something more than understanding the information we receive, as we already presented [13][18]

It is surethat this is just astartingpoint fortheactual clearnecessity to carefullyanalyse the unprecedentedly World changes/crises, even if we will continue to keep close only with the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) context, but not ignoring the complex and crucial ways this is linked with the Information Society (IS) and the Knowledge Based Society (KBS) and further, generally, with Earth ecosystem and humankind evolution.

From Ukraine to USA and China, the World is dramatically changing, by events/crises having the potential to completely change not only our habits and lives, but the whole Earth ecosystem and even humankind chances of sustainable progress.

It is already known that, facing such dramatically World changes, the most important is to not panic, but to continue to responsibly thinkand analyse, even by changing the paradigm in many domains, including, if necessary, ICT areas.

This way we understand that ICT sustainable progress is crucial, but we have to also consider the changing context, where the ICT advances, like artificial intelligence (AI), Cloud, Internet of things (IoT) or Big Data must be further developed properly, while the new directions could appear. The basic support of all these areas is strongly depending on innovations which have to answer to the inherent challenges and crises (semiconductor crisis is just one of the relevant examples, but energy and food could be also soon prominent, along with climate changes consequences).

The difficulty of any analysis is given by the fact that all these challenges are connected (not independent) processes, in the already very dynamic context of ICT/IS/KBS [3]

Perhaps the most challenging features of the actual dramatical World changes come fromthedeeplevels oftheturbulencein mostofdomains,whichsometimes makenot appliable the previous approaches.

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”

― Isaac Asimov

A simple recall of the crucial approach of the green ICT, we also analysed [11], seems to be not sufficient/suitable for the emerging new normality, but this aspect could be extended, without doubt, to the green deal strategy, where the situation is more complicated and not only at the EU level of decision.

AnotherchallengingfeatureoftheanalysedICTcontextisfundamental asitarisesfrom the unprecedented high level of performance, complexity and pace of ICT we are looking from for expected improvements and progress [14]

As we also presented [3][14], many of the ICT achievements, but sometimes even ones of the challenges, are “copied” or lent to other domains due to the proliferation and crucial role of ICT in IS/KBS.

Here we actually could observe the similarity of the challenges, coming from the high level of the World development and humankind wellbeing, which began to trouble the incumbents and people when facing the emergent restrictions and savings that the energy crisis could ask.

Consequently, we could only continue to try to reveal, by relevant examples, some of theseprocesses and understandhowthe knowledge is generated and eventuallyhow,generally, it should be refined, considering the complicate mechanisms by which the exponential pace of ICT influences all the Earth ecosystem.

When searching for the best start of such analyses, communications remain the basic point, as the reliable bridge for all new approaches, leveraging the knowledge refining and, again generally for Earth ecosystem, the expected unity of efforts against crises turbulences

With other words, any approach of innovation and optimization should consider the communications reliability and quality/performances as the necessary media (Internet being only the most relevant example) [7][15][8][10].

Obviously, this observation will be more and more relevant as the World crises will generally require more connectivity, solidarity and mutual understanding, but technically speakingthiswillbein facttheneedforquickresponseandawareness inall domains,including critical infrastructures and decision centres.

Under such generic observations, ICT and IS/KBS provide and will continue to provide a high diversity of complex products, systems and services, which, of course, now have to be fast adapted to the World dramatic changes.

Withthesepremises, the complexroleof5Gsystems could appear evenmoreimportant and of course more difficult to implement and improve, as it is also presented by [1]:

“Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: KEYS), a leading technology company that delivers advanced design and validation solutions to help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ: FORM), a leading provider of essential test and measurement technologies along the full IC life cycle; DMPI Inc., a leading developer of millimeter wave and terahertz probe technology; and Virginia Diodes, Inc. (VDI), who designs and produces millimeter wave and terahertz devices, components and systems, have joined forces to deliver a new 170 GHz / 220 GHz Broadband Vector Network Analysis (VNA) Solution that shortens design and verification cycles for 5G and emerging 6G applications”

Before other details, we have to observe the concretization of the mentioned idea of unity of efforts, here translated in the technology language and industry politics millimetre, as

it also confirms the specific challenges which are inherently induced by the high level of performances involved:

“Keysight, FormFactor, DMPI and VDI have jointly developed this new VNA solution to provide on wafer millimeter wave component characterization under various conditions. It offers an advanced dynamic range, high output power and maximum stability. As a result, designers can efficiently characterize on wafer devices and circuits, enabling the creation of highly accurate process design kits (PDKs) used to design integrated circuit models that shorten the design and verification cycle. Additionally, it enables rapid deployment of devices for the emerging 5G and 6G monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), a type of integrated circuit (IC) device that operates at microwave frequencies. The joint solution, Keysight's new 220 GHz Broadband Network Analyzer, enables customers to address the needs of 5G and future 6G technologies that will have a significant impact on communications through the internet of things and ubiquitous wireless connections.“

For an accurate image of such technological achievement and effort, we have to recall that only in the last decades the large use of the frequencies above 60 GHz became practical and the 200GHz frequency were still a target.

A more comprehensive dimension of such remarkable projects is further detailed by their main components and with the corroborated efforts, as:

<<The fully integrated solution is comprised of:

Keysight's N5291A 125 GHz broadband VNA a single sweep solution with compact frequency extenders, that delivers accurate leveled power.

DMPI / FormFactor T Wave GSG Dual band probes which provide wafer level electrical measurement on FormFactor wafer probing solutions of millimeter wave (mmW) devices and materials up to 1.1 terahertz (THz).

VDI's specially designed sub THz frequency extenders which allows for high accuracy measurement of on wafer device under tests from 900 Hz to 170 GHz or 220 GHz in a single frequency sweep.

"We worked closely with Dominion MicroProbes on the probe design and our solution partners, VDI and FormFactor, to deliver the highest performance 170 and 220 GHz single sweep solution for testing on wafer devices and circuits," said Joe Rickert, vice president and general manager of Research and Development at Keysight. "Keysight's new solution will enable customers to shorten design and verification cycles for 5G and emerging 6G applications and allow them to deliver new solutions to market faster."

"We've designed sub THz extenders that allow users to leverage their existing N5291A systems to support a single sweep to 170 or 220 GHz," said Jeffrey Hesler, chief technology officer at Virginia Diodes.>>

More than these combined technological arrangements, we can observe the high level of expertise/prestige for each component/partner along with the unique selection involved in order to reach this new frontier of ICT, proving the importance of collaboration/solidarity for facing the actual challenges (in all critical domains of Earth ecosystem):

<<Equally critical to the new capability are a new line of broadband micromachined T Wave® dual band probes developed by Dominion Microprobes Inc. and marketed by FormFactor. Each partner in this new broadband solution brings a unique set of technology and talent to solve these measurement challenges," said Jens Klattenhoff, vice president and

general manager of the Systems Business Unit at FormFactor. "Through close collaboration, we can now provide customers an integrated solution that allows continuous broadband sweeps up to 220 GHz. >>

For our further analysis it is important to observe also here that the main area of communications is no more separable of the digital processing, as the last decades confirmed IT&C crucial convergence, but in this case the novelty is given by the processing of signals at unprecedented high frequencies (it enables rapid deployment of devices for the emerging 5G and 6G monolithic microwave integrated circuits), which is one of the featured performances of the future broadband mobile communications systems 5G and 6G.

It is also worth to notice that using higher and higher frequencies is not a goal itself, as, for wireless communications, increasing the carrier frequency the useful bandwidth will also increase, which is one of the main objectives in 5G and 6G, in order to respond to the unprecedented needs of data transmission flows (i.e., broader bandwidth) [16][17][15].

As a relevant expression of the mentioned convergence of IT&C, considered in the actual context of ICT development, another example is given by [4]:

“High speed digital standards are quickly evolving to keep pace with the data demand from emerging technologies such as 5G, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and autonomous vehicles. Each generational change of high speed computing standards provides new signaling features, faster data transfer rates, and smaller design margins. Faster speeds create new design challenges that require higher accuracy simulation, new software tools, and more efficient workflows. As a hardware engineer, your job is to design, verify, build, and test electronic products. Fail to adopt new design methodologies and you risk product failure caused by degradation of high speed signals in your printed circuit board (PCB). You also risk project delays, a skyrocketing budget, or jeopardizing your stellar reputation. Avoiding this dilemma requires new design tools and a holistic design methodology that connects the workflows of multiple disciplines. With this approach, you can design for the myriad interface standards, without increasing design and verification time.”

In fact, here we find one of the complex challenges in developing ICT advances, although it could seem a natural technology/industry usual problem. The optimal solution is a performant system of analysis and simulation of ICT circuits and systems, i.e., the proper instrument needed by the actual and future very complex ICT equipments.

Still, the degradation of high speed signals should be considered as a new challenge, as its level of complexity has unprecedently increased, being one of the sides we have mentioned as being given by the high level of starting/reference performances, which already are approaching the physical limits of technology:

“Signal integrity (the quality of an electrical signal) is all around us. In a digital communication channel, signal integrity analysis is the study of electrical signals as they traverse PCB traces, vias, connectors, and other components. Signal integrity problems can cause havoc for digital designs, including performance issues, lower yield, and possible failures in the field. These are costly problems as they often go undetected until late in the design and test cycle. The best time to simulate a PCB for signal integrity is after layout and before fabrication. Taking the time to simulate becomes more important as speeds increase.”

Beyond other technical intimate details, we have to observe the inseparable convergence of communication and IT issues inside of the new ICT products, equipments and systems, but things are far more complex as the cost and time implications will have dramatical effects in the actual race for adapting to crises and urgences, along with the increasing need for reliability and trust in operation.

2. Holistic understanding of the knowledge refining in the new normality of the World

We have to agree, from the beginning, that the new normality is just a generic term, far from being defined or concrete, considering the dramatical changes of the World and the necessity to refine the knowledge in order to find a new balance, in most of activity domains, aiming a sustainable development or at least a surviving approach of Earth ecosystem.

The word normality could have special resonance in the dramatical changes of the World context and we think it was not a simple coincidence that this word was found the most appropriate, from the beginning, to express the actual phase of incertitudes and turbulences the humankind has to face, as it also suggests the urgent necessity of crucial but appropriate changes of our rules and behaviour, everywhere.

Considering the huge theatre where all this context is changing and the subsequent approach we should imagine to be next changed, it is clear that systemic approach and refined knowledge will be key features of appropriate solutions we have to imagine and apply.

Anyway, it is obvious that generally applicable principles, methods or solutions will not be found, although the idea of optimization will be fallowed everywhere and every time. This way, the systemic approach will lead us to consider the most affected/influent domains of the dramatical changes we face and inherently the energy is prominent, as the physical support of any process/action.

<< “For most people, the shipping industry is out of sight, out of mind," Gallucci notes. “But it's a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. I wanted to look at what kinds of tech will be needed to decarbonize the industry." She's spent the last three years doing exactly that. She's written about ships that run on hydrogen fuel cells and batteries and maritime biofuels. And in this issue, she reports on one of the most promising efforts: engines and fuel cells that run on ammonia, which has low environmental impact when produced using renewable energy.

“I first heard about ammonia at the conference in Bonn," Gallucci recalls. “It almost seemed like an aside at the time, so I was surprised to see the industry starting to coalesce around ammonia." Among other big developments, the International Maritime Organization has set a goal of halving shipping's greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury.

“That's the reason ammonia is getting all this attention," Gallucci says. “Before it was just a few companies trying different initiatives. Now there's a real sense of urgency.">>

From the beginning, we should notice the subliminal excellent observation that our World arrived in the actual difficult situation also because of the fact that there are processes and factors/contributions that (for long time) seem to be out of sight, out of mind.

Before analysing ammonia importance, it is also worth to notice the confirmation of the crucial feature of the context/crises we are in for the last few years, as now there's a real sense of urgency, i.e., leading to the necessity of appropriate changes of our rules and behaviour, we have above mentioned.

In fact, for such complex and complicate processes, the expected solutions will come naturally from some evolution phases (Before it was just a few companies trying different initiatives), but surely they will be leveraged by the last dramatical evolutions of the World context, as in this case is further detailed:

<<Maritime shipping contributes nearly 3 percent of annual carbon dioxide emissions, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations body that regulates the industry. In 2018, delegates agreed to reduce emissions by 50 percent from 2008 levels by 2050. Meeting that target will require swift and widespread development of diesel fuel alternatives and new designs for freighters, tankers, and container ships.

Shipowners and industry analysts say they expect ammonia to play a pivotal role in decarbonizing cargo ships. But there's a crucial caveat: No vessels of any size today are equipped to use the fuel. Even if they were, the supply of renewable, or “green," ammonia produced using carbon neutral methods is virtually nonexistent. Most ammonia is the product of a highly carbon intensive process and is primarily used to make fertilizers and chemicals >>

Now it is clear that ICT is only more visible, but not higher carbon contributor (estimated with around 2%) than maritime shipping (having around 3%) and this way the IMO agreement in 2018 has built good premises for combating the actual urgency.

Unfortunately, if a problem/crisis is an obvious urgency, it does not mean the solution is simple or fast applicable, as in this case is proved:

<<…Finland's Wärtsilä plans to begin testing ammonia in a marine combustion engine in Stord, Norway, by late March. Germany's MAN Energy Solutions and Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries are part of an initiative to develop the first ammonia fueled oil tanker by 2024.

The supply vessel Viking Energy is being retrofitted with a 2 megawatt ammonia fuel cell system. Ammonia has only half the energy density of traditional fuel, so storing it on board requires much more space.

Also by 2024, the Viking Energy is poised to become the first vessel propelled by ammonia fuel cells. The Norwegian energy company Equinor (formerly Statoil) charters this offshore supply vessel, which currently runs on liquefied natural gas. Chemical giant Yara will provide the green ammonia, which it plans to produce at a plant in southern Norway.

The initiative “will open up a completely new option for zero emission shipping," says Henriette Undrum, Equinor's vice president of renewable and low carbon technology. “We are not just solving one small problem for one ship. It's part of the bigger picture. It will be a starting point to build up the market for zero carbon fuels.>>

More than these, the financial costs for such huge projects should be considered, even the advantages are also obvious:

<<Still, industry experts say that revamping the global shipping fleet will be extraordinarily expensive. Researchers estimate that up to US $1.4 trillion will be needed to achieve the IMO's emissions reduction target. And fully eliminating emissions will require an additional $500 billion, according to a January 2020 study by a panel of maritime experts.

A number of climate friendly technologies are being considered to reach that goal, including fuel cells, hydrogen storage systems, and large battery packs. Spinning metal cylinders, towing kites, and other propulsion methods are already helping to curb diesel fuel consumption by harnessing the wind. But ammonia will likely dominate among ocean crossing vessels, which sail for days or weeks between refueling and rely on common infrastructure worldwide. For such ships, “ammonia is the lowest cost zero emission fuel that we could find," says Tristan Smith, a researcher at University College London's Energy Institute, which evaluated more than 30 different shipping fuels.>>

The relevance of this example, for our analysis, is also given by the planetary scale of the project, along with the global consumptions and the technical, operational and security implications:

<<For ammonia fueled shipping to become a reality, though, several things need to go right. Manufacturers and engineers must overcome key technical hurdles and safety issues in the design of ammonia engines and fuel cells. Port operators and fuel suppliers must build vast “bunkering" infrastructure so ships can fill ammonia tanks wherever they dock. And energy companies and governments will need to invest heavily in solar, wind, and other renewable energy capacity to produce enough green ammonia for thousands of ships. Globally, ships consume an estimated 300 million tons of marine fuels every year. Given that ammonia's energy density is half that of diesel, ammonia producers would need to provide twice as much liquid ammonia, and ships will need to accommodate larger storage tanks, potentially eating into cargo space.>>

If things appear complicated, perhaps the further details would show the real picture size and difficulty of producing green ammonia:

<<To make ammonia, hydrogen and nitrogen are reacted with a catalyst at high temperature (about 500 °C) and high pressure (20 to 40 megapascals) via an industrial process developed by the German chemists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch more than a century ago. To be stored in large quantities, ammonia can be liquefied by putting it under pressure (about 1 MPa at 25 °C) or refrigerating it (to 33 °C). All told, the Haber Bosch process accounts for 1.8 percent, or half a billion metric tons, of human caused global CO2 emissions each year.

If ammonia is to play a part in reducing maritime emissions, the fuel must be made in a cleaner way. For example, the hydrogen can be made through electrolysis, splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity from a renewable source such as wind or solar power. Renewable energy can also be used to separate nitrogen from air.

A trial plant at the Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute in Japan [top] uses solar power to produce up to 50 kilograms of green ammonia a day. A demonstration system [bottom] at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in England is powered by a wind turbine and makes up to 30 kg of green ammonia daily>>

Now, counting the example implications and details, we could observe relevant elements to be considered at holistic approach and knowledge refining for facing the actual crises and dramatic changes of the World.

First of all, the energy crisis implications should be considered at planetary scale and notice that they started before the pandemic war context, being linked with Earth resource fading and the unsustainable development in the last decades.

Then, we should analyse with priority the activity domains where the consumption and carbon footprint are prominent for Earth ecosystem and here ICT is also visible and perhaps more important due to its exponential pace which must also to be among refined knowledge, when the time to react at planetary scale could be critical as the implied processes are more and more complex and interdependent [10][12].

Among manyotherelements, thesocial,technical, operational andsecurity/geopolitical issues have to be analysed in a holistic approach when searching the solutions for the new normality everywhere.

Here, the presented humankind/community joint efforts (generally including countries, industries, companies or scientific groups) are important, as the implications are global, but also the difficulties are higher and higher and need solidarity/unity and complementary/interdisciplinary contributions.

Returning to ICT development’s global role and context, another relevant example could reveal the diversity of the new challenges and point new criteria for refining knowledge.

In fact, ICT sustainable development is one of the most complex problems and to optimize it is a very difficult aim, which is now even more complicated by the dramatical changes/crises,whichinduceincertitudesandunreliabledatafordecisionprocesses,evenwhen using the advances of AI.

On the other side, it is not a new observation that software is a crucial resource for ICT sustainable development, but, naturally, new challenges come to reconsider it and again to refine knowledge, including the area of intelligent automation, as it presented by [5]:

“Organisations are increasingly embracing intelligent automation to deliver efficiencies and free up resources. These solutions are applied to various tasks across industries, with artificial intelligence (AI) providing vital brainpower.

Automation aims to create processes that think, learn and adapt independently, and the technology replaces humans carrying out repetitive tasks with intelligent software robots.

AI assisted automation will deliver tangible business benefits, and in a digital first world, the need and demand will continue to grow. By 2024, Gartner estimates organisations will lower operational costs by 30 percent by combining advanced hyper automation technologies with redesigned operational processes. One area that intelligent automation is transforming is software testing. ”

It is not a surprise that, in the new context, AI is a prominent ICT advance, but, as it is penetrating everywhere, its design and optimization for software testing need to be carefully conceived, because of the systemic critical consequences of software reliability in the actual and future ICT complex systems [17][12][6][9]

<<Intelligent automation applies innovative technologies like AI, machine learning (ML), and robotic process automation (RPA) to scale and streamline decision making and

processes to deliver operational efficiencies. The AI assists in the automation of processes to deliver better and faster results...

Intelligent automation uses technologies like AI to evaluate systems and auto generate previously resource intensive assets (such as scripts), analyse the results to predict bugs, and adjust the automation logic to improve test coverage and overall quality. This is a profound change from the testing environment of a couple of years ago.

Then, software testing was perceived as a box ticking activity to ensure that a product or system passed pre defined and largely static tests.

Manual testing provides the "intelligence" but is too slow for modern systems and isn't comprehensive, making it obsolete and there are more effective ways to use your workforce. Similarly, legacy test automation didn't incorporate intelligent technologies and relied on running the same script every time software was released. >>

In fact, as we also expressed, when designing new software for complex systems, rigor an imagination are mandatory for covering any possible and relevant scenario/case of use in operation and user’s experience, but now open design and holistic approaches have to be added features for ICT sustainable development [12][15][6][9][8]

This way, the perpetual competition between AI and human intelligence (HI) become crucial when imagination is pointed to cover all challenges, as it is further detailed by [5]:

“These approaches fail to spot new bugs, do not proactively find weak points in a system, and lack the brains to identify what is critical to test from a user's perspective.

In a digitally dependent world, it's no longer sufficient to rely only on verifying that a system meets the requirements. Instead, organisations must also be able to validate that their solutions meet users' needs; it's essential to understand and gauge the digital user experience. This requires continuously testing real user journeys across all touchpoints, browsers, devices, and systems. And the only way to do this is by integrating intelligent technologies that automate testing from the user perspective and garnering insights to optimise the experience. Intelligent automation is like unleashing an army of AI powered bots onto applications, websites, and processes that behave like real users and explore (and experience) the workflows (or user journeys) as real users would. The automation needs to encompass more than functional testing and blend in performance and usability aspects. This accelerates the release of high quality software because you find meaningful problems and defects in those real world flows. The result is a smarter, more cost effective way of continuously testing software and apps.”

For reaching such high performances, AI must include new techniques and algorithms, which also have to be designed by a holistic approach and include refined knowledge to reflect updates for a diversity of criteria:

“

AI enables testing to move beyond simple rule based automation. It utilises algorithms to efficiently train systems using large data sets (and there is a lot of data available in the testing world). It can mimic human behaviour through the application of reasoning and problem solving and works by executing automated test routines that reflect the actions of real human users. The AI hunts for user interface errors, bugs, and performance glitches and then auto fixes issues before they can impact the user experience.

The automation increases coverage by considering every potential user journey and predicting and identifying any bottlenecks that may affect performance. As the AI algorithm

learns, it continuously improves the quality and performance of systems and software, providing a competitive advantage.”

Beyond other limits of the AI performances, it is worth to observe that, while the AI algorithm learns, for improvements it has to use new data, i.e., updates reflecting the refined data which inherently must contain the way the incumbents and people think over the dynamic and dramatic World changes, meaning, in fact, refined knowledge.

This way, the whole complexity and difficulty of holistic understanding of the knowledge refining in the new normality could be, at least, suggested along with some elements for orienting the appropriate directions to search the needed solutions/actions among the diversity of options which the democracy, the market economy and the (relative) liberty could generate in time steps.

Inaddition,wehaveto noticethat,forasystemicandholisticapproachofknowledge refining in the new dramatic changes context, around the World, the role of ICT is essential, first as the link between all processes, having the connectivity features which proved salutary in pandemic, but beyond these, having the potential to speed and optimize the sustainable development of all activity domains of IS/KBS, with its advances like AI, Cloud, IoT, Big Data etc.

3. Conclusions

We consider that this analysis could and need to be further continued/detailed, but some conclusions should count the most important ideas of the above presented issues.

Between ignoring and panic about the World changes, reflected apparently by the information we receive, we think these have to be carefully considered and analysed, especially when they become dramatic, like we see and face today, as emergent crisis by crisis, or even as poli crises. The practical question, beyond any philosophy, is if we have to try to deeply understand the information we receive, or just wait the facts which usually confirm (later!) the trend or the crisis.

Obviously, there are a lot of approaches, between these extreme points of view, but the right way is to refine the knowledge, which is by far something more than understanding the information we receive, as we already presented [13][18]. This means to continue to responsiblythinkandanalysethe(ICT)Worldcontext,evenbychangingtheparadigminmany domains, including, if necessary, ICT areas.

As astarting point,itis aclearnecessity to carefully analysetheunprecedentedly World changes/crises, even if we will continue to keep close only with the ICT context, but not ignoring the complex and crucial ways this is linked with the IS/KBS and generally with Earth ecosystem and humankind evolution. From Ukraine to USA and China, the World is dramatically changing, by events having the potential to completely change not only our habits andlives,butthewholeEarthecosystemandevenhumankindchancesofsustainableevolution.

That is why the ICT sustainable progress is crucial, but we have to also consider the changing context, where the ICT advances, like artificial intelligence (AI), Cloud, Internet of things (IoT) or Big Data must be further developed properly, while the new directions could appear. The basic support of all these areas is strongly depending on innovations which have to answer to the inherent challenges and crises (semiconductor crisis is just one of the relevant

examples, but energy and food could be also soon prominent, along with climate changes consequences).

The difficulty of any analysis is given by the fact that all these challenges are connected (not independent) processes, in the already very dynamic context of ICT/IS/KBS.

This way we could observe the similarity of the challenges, coming from the high level of the World development and humankind wellbeing, which began to trouble the incumbents and people when facing the emergent restrictions and savings that the energy crisis could ask.

As the best start of such analyses, communications remain the basic point, being the reliable bridge for all new approaches, leveraging the knowledge refining and, again generally for Earth ecosystem, the expected unity of efforts against crises turbulences.

With other words, approaching innovation and optimization should consider the communications reliability and quality/performances as the necessary media (Internet being only the most relevant example). This observation will be more and more relevant as the World crises will generally require more connectivity, solidarity and mutual understanding, but technically speaking this will be in fact the need for quick response and awareness in all domains, including critical infrastructures and decision centres.

On this way, the paper analysed the case of the 4 prestige high tech companies which joined efforts to realize a new 170 GHz / 220 GHz Broadband Vector Network Analysis

Starting from this remarkable case, the analysis revealed some important features/issues, which are relevant for the actual ICT context.

The concretization of the idea of unity of efforts, for facing unprecedented difficulties, is here translated in the technology language and industry politics, as it also confirms the specific challenges which are inherently induced by the high level of performances involved.

The high level of expertise/prestige for each component/partner, along with the unique selection involved in order to reach this new frontier of ICT, are proving the importance of

collaboration/solidarity for facing the actual challenges (in all critical domains of Earth ecosystem).

It is also worth to notice that using higher and higher frequencies is not a goal itself, as, for wireless communications, increasing the carrier frequency the useful bandwidth will also increase, which is one of the main objectives in the future broadband mobile communications systems 5G and 6G, in order to respond to the unprecedented needs of data transmission flows (i.e., broader bandwidth).

In reality, the communications/ICT development picture is much larger, as proved by another case, a performant system of analysis and simulation of ICT circuits and systems, which is focusing on the concrete implications of processing the new signals of high speed digital standards, used at ICT advances as 5G, AI, IoT, virtual reality or autonomous vehicles. The degradation of high speed signals should be considered as a new challenge, as its level of complexity has unprecedently increased, being one of the sides we have mentioned as being given by the high level of starting/reference performances, which already are approaching the physical limits of technology The optimal solution is a new and very performant system of analysis and simulation, i.e., the proper instrument needed by the actual and future very complex ICT equipments.

It is important to recall also here that the main area of communications is no more separable of the digital processing, as the last decades confirmed the inseparable convergence of communication and IT issues inside of the new ICT products, equipments and systems, but things are far more complex as the cost and time implications will have dramatical effects in the actual race for adapting to crises and urgences, along with the increasing need for reliability and trust in operation.

For the holistic understanding of the knowledge refining, in the actual dramatic context of World changes/crises, we proposed to also consider the implications of the new normality, which is the term more and more used to suggest the implications of the World emergent dramatical changes.

We agree, from the beginning, that the new normality is just a generic term, far from being defined or concrete, considering the dramatical changes of the World and the necessity to refine the knowledge in order to find a new balance, in most of activity domains, aiming a sustainable development or at least a surviving approach of Earth ecosystem.

Anyway, it is obvious that generally applicable principles, methods or solutions will not be found, although the idea of optimization will be fallowed everywhere and every time.

This way, the systemic approach will lead us to consider the most affected/influent domains of the dramatical changes we face and inherently the energy is prominent, as the physical support of any process/action.

We should notice the subliminal excellent observation that our World arrived in the actual difficult situation also because of the fact that there are processes and factors/contributions that (for long time) seem to be less visible (out of sight, out of mind). It is also worth to observe the confirmation of the crucial feature of the context/crises we are in for the last few years, as now there's a real sense of urgency, i.e., leading to the necessity of appropriate changes of our rules and behaviour. For such complex and complicate processes, the expected solutions will come naturally after some evolution phases (Before it was just a few companies trying different initiatives), but surely they will be leveraged by the last dramatical evolutions of the World context. Starting from this case, we also revealed some relevant elements to be considered at holistic approach and knowledge refining for facing the actual crises and dramatic changes of the World.

Then, we should analyse with priority the activity domains where the consumption and carbon footprint are prominent for Earth ecosystem and here ICT is also visible and perhaps more important due to its exponential pace which must also to be among refined knowledge, while the time to react at planetary scale could be critical as the implied processes are more and more complex and interdependent [10][12].

Among manyotherelements, thesocial,technical, operational andsecurity/geopolitical issues have to be analysed in a holistic approach when searching the solutions for the new normality everywhere. In the ammonia case also, we observed that humankind/community joint efforts (generally including countries, industries, companies or scientific groups) are important, as the implications are global, but also the difficulties are higher and higher and need solidarity/unity and complementary/interdisciplinary contributions.

imagination are mandatory for covering any possible and relevant scenario/case of use in operation and user’s experience, but now open design and holistic approaches have to be added features for ICT sustainable development. This way, the perpetual competition between AI and human intelligence (HI) become crucial when imagination is pointed to cover all challenges. For reaching such high performances, AI must include new techniques and algorithms, which also have to be designed by a holistic approach and include refined knowledge to reflect updates for a diversity of criteria

Inaddition,wehaveto noticethat, forasystemicandholisticapproachofknowledge refining in the new dramatic changes context, around the World, the role of ICT is essential, first as the link between all processes, having the connectivity features which proved salutary in pandemic, but beyond these, having the potential to speed and optimize the sustainable development of all activity domains of IS/KBS, with its advances like AI, Cloud, IoT, Big Data etc.

REFERENCES

[1]***, Keysight, FormFactor, DMPI and VDI Join Forces to Deliver a New 170 GHz / 220 GHz Broadband Vector Network Analysis Solution, May 24, 2022, https://www.keysight.com/zz/en/about/newsroom/news releases/2022/0524 nr22069 keysight formfactor dmpi and vdi join forces to d.html?elq_cid]:

[2]Maria Gallucci, The Ammonia Solution, IEEE Spectrum, Volume 58, Issue 3, March, 2021

[3]Victor Greu, Developing information and communications technology to provide more intelligence and leverage more wisdom for a dramatically changing World (Part 2), Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade” scientific association A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine(international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 13, Issue 2, Year 2022.

[4] ***, Four Considerations for High speed Digital Design Success, February 2022, https://www.keysight.com/zz/en/assets/7120 1027/ebooks/Four Considerations for High speed Digital Design Success.pdf

[5]Gareth Smith, Demystifying intelligent automation, May 2022]: https://www.enterpriseitworld.com/demystifying intelligent automation 2/

[6]Florin Enache, Victor Greu, Petrică Ciotîrnae, Florin Popescu, Model and Algorithms for Optimizing a Human Computing System Oriented to Knowledge Extraction by Use of Crowdsourcing, 2020, 13th International Conference on Communications (COMM), (Politehnica University of Bucharest, Military Technical Academy, IEEE Romania), (COMM 2020 is covered in IEEE Explore Database and ISI Web of Science in the Conference Proceedings Citation Index)

[7] Bayan Towfiq, The Internet's Coming Sunny Days, IEEE Spectrum, Volume 58, Issue 11, November 2021

[8]Michelle Hampson, This RISC V Powerhouse Goes Light on the Power, Volume: 59, Issue: 1 Jan 2022

[9]Victor Greu et all, Human and artificial intelligence driven incentive operation model and algorithms for a multi purpose integrated crowdsensing crowdsourcing scalable system, Proceedings of International Conference Communications 2018, (Politehnica University of Bucharest, Military Technical Academy, IEEE Romania), June 2018(COMM 2018 is covered in IEEE Explore Database and ISI Web of Science in the Conference Proceedings Citation Index).

[10]Samuel K. Moore, What Intel Is Planning for The Future of Quantum Computing: Hot Qubits, Cold Control Chips, and Rapid Testing, IEEE Spectrum, Volume: 57, Issue: 8, Aug 2020

[11]Victor Greu, Information and communications technologies go greener beyond IOT behind is all the earth Part1, Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade” scientific association A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine(international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 7, Issue 2, Year 2016.

[12]Raj Kumar Hansdah, Scientific Progress Without True Wisdom Will Cause More Harm Than Good, https://www.beaninspirer.com/scientific progress without true wisdom will cause more harm than good, Updated: October 21, 2021

[13]Victor Greu, Information and communications technology is merging data science and advanced artificial intelligence towards the core of knowledge based society (Part 3), Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade” scientific association A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine(international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 12, Issue 3, Year 2021.

[14]Victor GREU, Information and Communications Technologies are Learning from Nature’s “Research” to Push the Performance Limits, Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade” scientific association A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine(international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 5, Issue 1, Year 2014.

[15] Victor Greu, Communicate on … Communications From a Conference every 2 years to the need to communicate everyday and everywhere, Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade” scientific association A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine (international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 5, Issue 2, Year 2014.

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Vaclav Smil, Numbers don’t lie by data world: racing toward yotta, IEEE Spectrum, Volume: 56, Issue: 7, Jul 2019

[17]Robert W. Lucky, Deep Complexities in EE, IEEE Spectrum, May 2018

[18]Victor Greu, Searching the right tracks of new technologies in the earth race for a balance between progress and survival, Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade” scientific association A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine(international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 3, Issue1, Year 2012.

Circular Economy in the Agri-Food Sector: Opportunities and Challenges

by Cosmin TĂNASE

ABSTRACT

The Agri Food sector globally faces food resource scarcity and food waste challenges throughout the food supply chain. Thereare substantial food losses andfood wastes in supply chains globally, from farm gate to table, mainly due to lack of required market infrastructure, ignorance and lack of safe transport, improper packaging, lack of standardization and grading, underdeveloped cold chains, and insufﬁcient processing. The increasing population demands more food and, in several ways, adds to more food waste, too. Adding to this is the scenario where agriculture is facing resource scarcity, degradationofnaturalresources,andhumanhealthhazards duetotheadoptionofunsustainableagricultural practices. All this is exerting adverse effects onthe ecosystem.

Keywords:SupplyChain, Ecology, Agriculture,Digitalization,Sustainability, Waste,PublicHealth

JEL Classification:L15, L66,L81, M31, P46, Q01, Q02,Q13, Q53,Q55,Q56

Differenttypesoffoodwastescausevariousdegreesofadverseexternalitiestothesociety,economy,andtheenvironment. Whilecircularagriculturesupportsthecompleterecyclingofmaterialsandimpliesacompletereorganizationofthesupply chainsystem,immediatestepsareneededtomitigatewasteandlosses.Acirculareconomyisbasedonindustrialecology’s theories and principles. Circular economy looks for solutions towards food traceability, transparency, integration, and, eventually, sustainability. Eradicating waste by applying circular models of business may lead to enormous beneﬁts. Althoughcircularagricultureis anew concept yet, thereis an excellent opportunity fortheAgri Food sectorin developed and underdeveloped economies to encourage the sustainable practices of the food chain. Such an approach would help in attaining several sustainablegoals globally.

CircularEconomylookstoremovereasonablewastewithinthemarket.Ifwelookthroughtheangleofacirculareconomy, waste doesn’t discuss the same old meaning of “junk”, but it describes any insufﬁcient use of resources or assets. There aredifferent types ofwastethat circularmodels designedtoremove:

Wasted resources Material andenergy thatis unutilized efﬁciently.

Wasted capacities Products andassets that cannot beutilized effectively.

Wasted lifecycles Products reaching serviceperioduntimelyor earlywithout asecond leaseofscope.

Wasted embedded values Constituents, material,andenergy unrecovered from theresidual current ofproducts.

In a circular economy, food products are derived from a healthy production system to provide healthy nutrition rich foodstuffs. Food loss and waste can be designed in a way in the entire food supply chain to minimize food wastes and losses. Theconcepts of6R Reuse,Recycle,Reduce,Recover,Remanufacture, Redesign areessentially associated with thecirculareconomy.Buildinguponthefoundationalframeworkof6R,thecriticalelementsinacirculareconomyinclude designing for the future, the inclusion of digital technology, preservation, and extension of existing resources, prioritizing regenerative resource use, utilizing waste as a resource/raw material, revisiting business models, and collaborative efforts to create value. The majority of the population does not realize that food waste is a signiﬁcant problem globally. About one thirdofall thefood producedworldwideis wastedforvarious reasons,equivalent to1.3 billion tons annually.

Waste generated from food also leads to wastage of various resources like water, land, labor, energy, and capital. Apart from natural resource loss, greenhouse gas emissions lead to global warming and climate change, thereby causing environmental and ecological degradation. Additionally, an essential factor of this concept is the need to lower resource consumption and waste discharge into the environment. Basic principles of the circular economy remain the same in the agriculturesectortoo.Themajorityofthestudiesonprinciplesfocusontheenvironmentalfactorsofthesustainablesystem. Still,the other factors like social and economicarenot discussed, following a rathertechnical approach. In many theories, different social system elements like equity, inclusiveness, and gender remain implicit. Many sectors of the agricultural industry can be described under the circular agriculture concept,which involves agro ecology. The innovative aspect of circularity is its application to the entire food framework, including handling and utilization. This perspective offers numerous choices forreusing supplements, components,andnatural wasteona basiclevel.

Opportunities and Challenges

Several challenges surface on various facets in the food sector, including resource scarcity, uncertainty, high wastages, product quality, unremunerated prices to farmers, exploitation and environmental impact, no information sharing, and extendedchannels.Inthesamelines,circulareconomyadoptionfacesseveralchallengesatvariousfoodproductionstages, food consumption, and food waste & surplus management. Simultaneously, there is a paucity of reliable parameters for

measuringanddocumentingprogressintheacquisitionofcirculareconomyprinciples Thereexistsagapinunderstanding and perceiving thepotentialbeneﬁts oftechnological solutionstowards food wasteprevention.

Lack of understanding further leads to a lack of guidance towards an advanced technological approach towards circular economy solutions. The current global food production and consumption system have necessitated for change towards circularity in the economy and the agriculture sector. There is a huge wastage of resources and raw materials to produce food globally. The circular agriculture system’s primary purpose is to judiciously use the resources along the lines of controlled measures to reduce waste by closing the resources’ loops. In circular agriculture, waste can be used as organic material to enhance and develop newer and better products, including food crops, vegetables, fruits, feed, energy, and livestock.Circulareconomyadoptionattheindustrylevelmayﬁndanopportunityingreenproductdesign,businessmodel innovations, digitalization, andreverselogistics.

Green Product Designing

The increasing legal, social, and economic pressures for adopting sustainability measures in the business make industries focus on designing sustainable and eco friendly products. The majority of product attributes ﬁxed at the time of product designitselfdecideitscontributiontowardswaste.Thatisthereasoncompaniesarefocusingonproductdesignfeaturesto be such that they should not violate the requirements of reuse, recycle, return, remanufacturing, etc., at the end of the life cycle.Designingtheproductsforalonglifecycleanddesigningfortheproduct lifeextensioncanhelpdevelopsustainable productstowardsacirculareconomy.Thefundamentalideabehindadoptinggreendesignforproductsistohaveacritical consideration at the designing stage itself for environmental impacts of the product in later phases of its life cycle. The product,oncemanufactured,sold,used,andscrapped,shouldnotcontributetowardswastages.Theparametersofresource conservationwhileprocuring,production,anddistributionstagesoftheproductareconsideredalongwitheco friendliness.

The Digitalization of Agri-Food Supply Chains

The long supply chains from farm to fork have resulted in making the consumers ignorant about the origins of their food andtheimpactoftheirproductionandconsumptionchoicesontheoverallenvironmentandsociety Digitalizationenables food supply chains to be highly integrated, effective and responsive to consumerdemands and regulatory requirements. Digitally driven supply chains are powerful and more successful. They are enhanced with a new information technology infrastructure that substantially affects supply chains and ﬁrm performance. The application of digital technology, blockchain,robotics,cloudacquisition,andartiﬁcialintelligence,enablesthesupplychaintobecomemoreresponsiveand proactivebytheimplementationofembedded chips,sensors, andsoftware.Transparency,traceability,environmental and socialimpacts,legalculpability,ande marketaccessibilityleadtoahigh valuepropositionintheAgri Foodsupplychain.

The blockchain and big data technologies shorten agricultural supply chains making them more efﬁcient, offering social beneﬁts to the rural and deprived section of theworld. It provides visibility, traceability of food products, transparency, authenticity, andqualityofagri products.

The diffusion of digital technologies in Agri-Food supply chains results in enhanced efﬁciency and productivity as the technologies like big data and blockchain bring transparency to food supply chains. Also, it results in increased yield, reducedfoodwastage,tapschangesinconsumerpatterns,andfulﬁllingthesustainabledevelopmentgoals.Theclouddata acquisition-based supply chains aretransformed from fragmented andambiguous ones to integrated andtransparent ones. Atthesametimeimplementation ofdigitaltechnologiesis quitechallenging as well. Differentimplementation challenges fordigitaltechnologies facedbyAgri Foodleaders andcompanies as mentionedin theliterature are:

1. Training ofexistingstaffand recruitment ofaskilled workforce

Financial constraints

Lackofgovernment support andpolicies

Lackofdigital culture

Lackofinfrastructure andinternet basednetworks

Lackofintegrationoftechnologyplatforms

Lackof coordination andcollaboration

Unclear economicbeneﬁts bytheimplementationofdigital technologies

Reverse Logistics

Reverse logistics related activities are crucial for creating closed loop supply chains for the industry. Recall, return, recycling, review, and repair included in reverse logistics have signiﬁcant environmental and economic impacts. Due to the dynamic and complex nature of reverse logistics activities, they are actively considered while calculating circular economy initiatives impact. Reverse logistics activities strongly correlate to green performance management by reducing food wasteandloss,therebynecessitatingcloseexamination.

System Transition: A Way Forward

To begin with the circular agriculture system, more emphasis is needed on environ mental and health concerns. More farmers and consumers are to be convinced about the possible health and environmental benefits of circular agriculture. Formakingcircularagricultureasuccessfulventure,thereis aneedtoencouragetheproductionofexportableagricultural commodities and liberal policies globally. For proper execution and business development, more emphasis has to put on better marketing strategy, managerial expertise, access to a world wide learned organization, and being in the position to receive funds forinvestment. Moreinvestment needs tobedoneinthepublic privatepartnership(PPP)model todevelop the necessary market infrastructure. Significant constraints and risks identifying with various new circular agricultural businesses arespecified at theproduction andsystem level.

Therearetedious andexpensiveregistrationmeasures fornewproducts attheproduction level, an absence ofinformation about new products among new customers, and tedious cycles to get the new circular model adopted. Winding up not so important cycle will help achieve minimum economic or environmental advantages at the system level. It may be a cumbersometasktobring therequired changes in themindset ofproducers and consumers.

In contrast, other linear processes involving waste streams and others in the food system can be continued to be used as it doesn’t include external factors. Risk factors at the system level consist of organic waste, which contains toxicsubstances or pathogens and circulates in the food system, which needs to be addressed through suitable research and extension interventions. Along with these, it is to be noted that only technical or economic aspects such as recycling of nutrients or building the business can affect and create negative implications for other vulnerable groups to promote circularity. It is suggested for governments globally in general and developing countries in particular and their public and private accomplices to advance circular agriculture to improve various purposes, including better environmental monitoring, climatemoderation, publichealth, andrevenuegeneration at thesametime.

The social, ecological, and financial measurements should be considered for designing circular initiatives, assuming a proper observing framework. Those social perspectives, such as comprehensiveness, value, youth, and gender, are not

adequatelyintegratedintomanycircularideas.Besides,itisprescribedtoincorporatetheprivatesectorfortheadvancement ofnewactivities.Likewise,itisprescribedtoencouragecircularinitiativestogainfrom existingactivitiesandextrapilots. This is expected to additionally investigate the capability of the promising idea of circularity in farming and food in low and medium countries in particular. In developing economies, food wastage of food can be observed mainly during the food value chain’s early levels, primarily responsible for financial, management, and technical constraints in harvesting, transportation, packaging, storage, cold chain, and processing facilities. Food waste issues can be tackled by making a massive investment in the early stages of the supply chain at the level of farmers through direct support in terms of technology, machinery, etc., and in the creation of lacking transportation, marketing, cold chain, modern storage, and processinginfrastructure.

Ontheotherhand,thewastageoffoodcanbeobservedatlaterstagesofthesupplychainindevelopedcountries.Consumer behavior plays a vital role in developed countries, which is not similar to developing countries. Many studies recognized failure to coordinate among various parties concerned in the supply chain as major contributory factors. Farmer buyer agreements are often helpful to extend the extent of coordination. Furthermore, increasing perception among industries, retailers,andconsumersandfindingvaluablebenefitsforfoodthatgetswastedmayreducethenumberoflossesandwastes in developed countries.

The unutilized fund, especially at the consumer level, is one of the most significant contributors to food waste generation. There are possibilities for minimizing and reusing the food waste at the consumer level by smart shopping in the sense of planningmealsfortheweekandtakingintoaccountthefooditemsintherefrigeratororin storetoavoidoverbuying.This will reduce food waste and spoilage. Various old preserving techniques to preserve fresh foods have been developed over ancient times as there was no technology like refrigeration system. Pickling and sun drying techniques have helped to preserve foods over a long time. The fresh food may be preserved to reduce spoilage. Around 40% of waste is generated from peeling the outer layers or removingtheinsideseeds. Food wastage can be avoided if the apples or cucumbers peels containing lots of nutrition are utilized. Even seeds from melon, watermelon, or pumpkin can be sun dried and roasted to havethese as nuts that contain various minerals andvitamins.

Perishableitemslikemilk,fruits,orvegetableswithadifferentlifecycleneedtobeusedsmartly.Adeepfreezerismainly for fish, meat, and other non veg items. Keeping in other areas will spoil these items and cause more food waste. In most households, people throw away previous meals leftovers as they think it is harmful to consume previous meals causing infection. Right ways to preserve and usetheprevious meal leftovers forthenext meal can savemuch food from goingto the dustbins. Restaurants and hotels mostly throw away their leftovers, causing a huge pile of food wastes. Recent trends to give away leftover food to homeless people and beggars who cannot afford to buy food can reduce food waste. Health drinksfromfruitshelptopreparequickrecipessavingtime,effortandhaveanutritiousdiet.Theservingsizesontheplate needto becheckedto avoid food waste.

Customers generally order more than their capacity in restaurants and hotels and throw away food. Governments in differentcountrieslikeSingaporehaveputtaxesonfoodwaste,helpingthehospitalityindustrykeepacheckonfoodwaste. Local food banks can be promoted by different private agencies or government funding to establish different localities where supervisors can redirect avoidable food waste for distribution among various institutions or apply other solutions. Before buying in stores and markets, the date of expiry must be noted by customers for packaged foods. It is essential to avoid spoiled food from buying. Even if the food is purchased with a brief period of the lifecycle, it must be consumed to prevent spoilage and food waste. Developing and underdeveloped countries have inferior food product maintenance after harvesting,andrulesandregulationsmustbedevelopedtoreducethisfoodwaste.Thoughmostfoodcompaniesstockout

those lots that are nearing expiring dates, malpractices can be observed to resell the expired products with different labels and expiry dates.Strict measures bygovernment agencies cankeepa checkonthesemalpractices.

A kitchen garden on a terrace is a prevalent scenario in metropolitan cities where the urban population is developing their smallgardensoveraterraceorsmallpatchofland.Compostingoffoodwastewhichisorganicmanureforplantsprovides natural nutrients for their growth. This reduces the waste load in landfills and is utilized very efficiently within the cycle for food production. Various Non Governmental Organizations provide various terrace farming solutions for composting at their home. From plate leftovers like fish or meat, bones can be feed to stray dogs. Commercial and household food waste can be used to generate energy, whichgenerallyfills up thelandfills. Municipal wastewatergenerated from organic waste in industrial areas such as food and beverage manufacturing, biodiesel production, electricity generation has found immenseutilizationoftheseresources.Non eatablefoodwastemayproducemethanegasforkitchensinbiogasplantsthat do not requirecomplexsetups andcanbebeneficial andcheap utilization of resources.

Conclusions

Thereisahighpotentialforcircularagriculturegloballyandlowandhigh incomecountriestogenerateadditionalincome and gainful employment. There are endless ways to reduce, reuse and recycle huge food wastes globally. Circular agriculture can save natural resources as well as the ecosystem and reduces wasteful expenditures on foods. Unnecessary health expenditures can be curtailed by improving the environment, thereby lesser health hazards to humankind. Considering more about our food wastes generated from each household, we can help make a specific transformation to preserve a portion of the world’s most significant assets. Indeed, even minimal changes to how shopping, cooking, and consuming food help reducing the adverse effects on the environment and ecosystem in a big way. With little effort, food wastagemaybereducedsignificantly.Thiswouldhelpaccomplishdifferentobjectivessimultaneously,viz.lessecological contamination, environment relief,improved public health, better revenue for farmers and other stakeholders, and finding newworkopportunities in thecircularAgri Foodsector.

Circularagriculturebeinganewconcept,hasmanylocalpracticesandinnovationsfollowedbylocalpeopleforgenerations globally. These practices and innovations are found to be economically feasible as most of this created additional income and gainful employment for the local population. The social benefits of circular agriculture can be observed in improved living conditions and new openings. The ecological advantages incorporate better waste administration, a diminished utilization of regular sources, lower fossil fuel byproducts, less natural contamination. Additionally, due to the utilization ofnatural composts, soil qualityandsoil biodiversity can improve.

References

[1]Ciccullo F,CaglianoR, Bartezzaghi G,Perego A(2021). Implementingthecircular economy paradigm intheAgri food supplychain: theroleoffoodwastepreventiontechnologies.Resour ConservRecycl 164:105114

[2]Hecklau F, GaleitzkeM, FlachsS,Kohl H (2016).Holisticapproachforhumanresourcemanagement in Industry 4.0. ProcediaCirp 54:1 6

[3]Jawahir IS,BradleyR (2016) Technological elements ofcirculareconomy andtheprinciples of6R based closed loop material flowin sustainablemanufacturing. ProcediaCirp40:103 108

[4]Jurgilevich A,BirgeT, Kentala LehtonenJ, Korhonen Kurki K,Pietikainen J,SaikkuL,SchoslerH(2016) Transition towards circulareconomyinthefood system.Sustainability 8(1):69

[5]KambleSS, Gunasekaran A,GawankarSA (2020) Achieving sustainableperformancein adata driven agriculture supply chain: areviewfor researchand applications.Int JProd Econ 219:179 194

[6]SalmanW, Ney Y, NasimMJ,BohnT,JacobC (2020). Turningapparent wasteintonewvalue: up cyclingstrategies exemplified byBrewer’sSpent Grains (BSG).

[7]SharmaP, GaurVK, Sirohi R, Varjani S, Kim SH,Wong JW (2021).Sustainableprocessingoffood waste for productionofbio basedproducts forcircularbioeconomy.

[8]SindhuS,Panghal A(2016)Robust retail supply chains thedrivingpractices.Int J Adv OperManage8(1): 64 78

We are witnessing a significant evolution of the digital twins, from testing and refining physical assets, as well of helping achieve the vision of bionic company, to appropriate applications of There is no doubt about the trending large jump into the the Metaverse Index, and how Web3 applications and use cases

Further research is needed to shed light on the fine linkage between value innovation, retail highly competitive market with e commerce as its flourishing segment, and successful innovation.

Keywords Digital twins; Web3; Metaverse; Value innovation; Retail market; e commerce; Successful innovation

JEL Classification: D83; L21; M21; M31; M37; O31; O33

Digital twins, from testing and refining physical assets, as well of helping achieve the vision of bionic company, to appropriate applications of Internet of Things in the metaverse

Focused on the future of e commerce impacted by the disruptive technologies we looked, in our last RDCM issue, out the window of opportunity represented by the metaverse (Purcarea, 2022). As demonstrated by Krasnokutsky’ (2022), businesses’ competitivity involves to develop

Digital Twins, Web3, Metaverse, Value Innovation and E-Commerce retail Drd. Ioan Matei PURCĂREA

new applications for their customers with the help of the metaverse development powered by various technologies better understood, critical to innovation being to recognize where these technologies intersect while continuously advancing (web3 development being driven by these technologies) on the path to create their own applications. Within this framework, it was underlined, for instance, that digital twins are representing appropriate applications of Internet of Things (IoT) in the metaverse, allowing the creation of virtual representation of an environment using IoT sensors. By re creating the physical world in the digital field, the digital twins make it possible the closely imitation (as digital counterpart in real time) of systems, devices, places, things, and people (AI, Data & Analytics Network, 2022).

It is worth recalling that:

• Digital twins were developed in the beginning in manufacturing settings in order to enable engineers to both test, and refine physical assets, currently organizations already building digital twins of various business processes (IAN, 2022).

• Digital twins ( e ine as “a virtual supply chain replica that represents hundreds of assets, warehouses, logistics and material flows, and inventory positions”) help achieve the vision of the so called Bionic Company (Schuster, Nath and Mitjavila, 2020), as shown in figure below (Hutchinson et al., 2019).

Figure no. 1: The Company of the Future is Bionic

Source: Hutchinson, R., Aré, L., Rose, L. and Allison Bailey, A., 2019. The Bionic Company, BCG, November 07, 2019 (work cited)

•

In case of application of digital twins (which can take many different forms) to products, manufacturing processes, or value chains, enterprises must choose their appropriate form of digital twin, whose design can vary across the dimensions shown in figure below (Brossard et al., 2022). According to this approach, digital twin technologies are seen usually as a core strategic capability by the most advanced enterprises.

Figure no. 2: The design of a digital twin can vary across three dimensions

Source: Brossard, M., Chaigne, S., Corbo, J., Mühlreiter, M. and Stein, J.P., 2022. Digital twins: The art of the p p v p [p f] M ’ Op P , Ap 2022, p. 5 (work cited)

The trending large jump into the metaverse, the Metaverse Index, and how Web3 applications and use cases are built

In the above mentioned last RDCM issue we underlined among the various key technologies shaping the future of e commerce, according to CB Insights (2022), the role of metaverse shopping in driving increased customer engagement and purchasing behavior, the early adopters being younger users and gamers. In the same time, we also made reference to Azeem Azhar (2022), who brought attention (among other aspects) on co panies’ planning for an expansion of both Web3, and the Metaverse (which is not a new phenomenon, but which has not yet so developed).

Focusing on Augmented Reality (AR) trends of 2023, another representative of MobiDev (Makarov, 2022) underlined from the very beginning the trending large jump into the metaverse, making reference, among other aspects, to avatars, as well as spatial audio (being well known metaverse technologists’ preoccupation with including in the process the five senses). On the other hand, the retail giant Walmart is known as making various moves in the metaverse,

designing experiences while thinking about shoppers’ next generation and looking to learn from significant partnerships (Repko, 2022).

It is worth remembering that among the 16 tokens launched up to the present time by Index Coop (a decentralized autonomous organization/DAO that powers structured decentralized finance/DeFi products and strategy tokens) is also the so called Metaverse Index (MVI) which includes projects developing virtual environments in entertainment, gaming, and sports (Team Blockdata, 2022). And considering the well known linkage between the metaverse and Web3 (having as main distinctive feature the decentralization of business models), it is useful to take a look at the technology fundamentals on which are built Web3 applications and use cases, as shown in the figure below (Banerjee et al., 2022)

Figure no. 3: Web3 applications and use cases are built on top of three technology fundamentals: blockchain, smart contracts, and digital assets

Source: Banerjee, A., Byrne, R., De Bode, I. and Higginson, M., 2022. Web3 beyond the hype. [pdf] McKinsey & Company, Global Banking Practice, September 26, 2022, p. 3 (work cited)

As shown by Abovitz et al. (2022), there is a real need to gain a vigorous understanding of what is happening at the confluence of the new tools and assets of a Web3 enabled environment with traditional and virtual digital assets, as we as wit co pany’s business strategy, in order to obtain success, users’ new and unprecedented value being created by the combination in rich ways of multiple technologies with the proliferation of data and content on which the metaverse is based upon. To begin working on building such a vigorous metaverse strategy and capability, BCG analysis recommends companies to consider key components as those described in figure below, where we can see, for example, including a digital-win strategy

or the importance of proceeding along metaverse customer discovery, building metaverse customer trust, and providing personalized attention with AI.

Figure no. 4: The Key Components of a Metaverse Strategy and Capability

Source: Abovitz, R., Banerjee, S., Gilliland, G., Liu, C., Sackey, E., Timashkov, A. and Trollinger, R., 2022. How the Metaverse Will Remake Your Strategy, BCG, July 13, 2022 (work cited)

The opportunities created by the above mentioned combination on which the metaverse is based upon was also more recently confirmed by the second annual Technology Trends Outlook, published by the McKinsey Technology Council, which identified 14 leading trends, the 2022 edition introducing Web3 and immersive reality technologies (such as: Spatial computing, AR, VR, Mixed reality/MR, On body and off body sensors, Haptics, Location services) among the five new trends (together with industrializing machine learning, the future of mobility, and the future of space) a e to t is year’s e ition (Yee, Roberts and Chui, 2022). McKinsey’s representati es shared thoughts with regard to the research findings highlighted the potential role as ‘constrainin ’ resource of creativity (as the way of using together the new technologies) in giving birth to both new experiences and modes of interaction in a truthful way based on new tec no o ies’ working together (advanced connectivity, cloud computing, applied AI, immersive reality technologies and Web3) and seen as included into the metaverse. The new consumer experience built within this framework coming from blending creativity, with design, engineering, and data science. For example, the risk of customers’ churn or dropping a service can be predicted with the help of advanced industrializing machine learning.

Conclusions: Value innovation, retail highly competitive market with e-commerce as its flourishing segment, and successful innovation

It is well known that the enabling technology, the innovative business model, and the coherent value network are considered key elements required by an effective disruptive innovation, while among the familiar examples of disruptive innovation can be mentioned the smartphones, the online shopping, or the streaming services (Indeed Editorial Team, 2022). The reputed Professors (of Strategy at INSEAD) Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne (authors of the remarkable books Blue Ocean Strategy and Blue Ocean Shift) who developed the concept of value innovation (accomplished only at the moment that the whole system of utility, price, and cost is aligned) as the cornerstone of market creating strategy (Blue Ocean, N.D.), recently stated: “V v , v , w launches commercially compelling w ” (Kim & Mauborgne, 2022).

According to Kachouie, Mavondo & Ambrosini (2022), in order to create superior value for customers organizations operating in highly competitive markets need to engage in the disruptive type of innovation, operational marketing capabilities having a mediating role in the significant connection between value innovation and organizational outcomes. A highly competitive market is, for instance, the retail market (a key indicator of its health being consumer spending) that is reshaped by the disruptive technologies, online shopping being a major driver (the growth of the retail market being influenced by the price variation between online and offline stores), while e commerce (the fastest growing segment in the retail industry) channel is driven by the rising smartphone penetration across various countries (Mordor Intelligence, 2021).

And last but not least, allow us to cite David Schonthal (2022), Clinical Professor of Strategy, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University: “T f f innovation is focusing more on the progress people seek to achieve than on the product that gets . ’ w w w , t they can most certainly tell you what they are hoping to accomplish. This is much easier to do when we pay attention to f , , v , “w ” “w ,” the friction that almost always stands in w f p .”

References

Abovitz, R., Banerjee, S., Gilliland, G., Liu, C., Sackey, E., Timashkov, A. and Trollinger, R., 2022. How the Metaverse Will Remake Your Strategy, BCG, July 13, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.bcg.com/publications/2022/impact of metaverse on business?> [Accessed 5 August 2022]. AI, Data & Analytics Network, 2022. Webinar invitation (October 4, 2022) Join us for Parallel Worlds, How Digital Twins Propel Enterprise, November 08th, 2022. Azhar, A., 2022. The economy of the metaverse, Exponential View <azeem.azhar@exponentialview.co>, 21.04.2022 18:38.

Banerjee, A., Byrne, R., De Bode, I. and Higginson, M., 2022. Web3 beyond the hype. [pdf] McKinsey & Company, Global Banking Practice, September 26, 2022, pp. 2 3. Available at: <https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial services/our insights/web3 beyond the hype?> [Accessed 20 September 2022].

Blue Ocean, N.D. Value Innovation, Blue Ocean Strategy Tools and Frameworks. [online] Available at: <https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/tools/value innovation/> [Accessed 7 October 2022].

Brossard, M., Chaigne, S., Corbo, J., Mühlreiter, M. and Stein, J.P., 2022. Digital twins: The art of the possible in product development and beyond [pdf] McKinsey’s Operations Practice pri 2022 pp 1 2, 5 6. Available at: <digital twins the art of the possible in product development and beyond vf> [Accessed 4 May 2022].

Hutchinson, R., Aré, L., Rose, L. and Allison Bailey, A., 2019. The Bionic Company, BCG, November 07, 2019. [online] Available at: <https://www.bcg.com/publications/2019/bionic company> [Accessed 6 October 2022].

IAN, 2022. Reinvent Business Processes with Digital Twins, Intelligent Automation Network (IAN). The Agent

Powering Business Intelligence, 06/07/2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.intelligentautomation.network/business intelligence/articles/reinvent business processes with digital twins?> [Accessed 14 June 2022].

Indeed Editorial Team, 2022. What Is Disruptive Innovation? Definition, Importance and Examples, Updated March 1, 2022, Published April 26, 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.indeed.com/career advice/career development/innovation disruption> [Accessed 7 October 2022].

Kachouie, R., Mavondo, F.T. & Ambrosini, V., 2022. Value innovation and marketing capabilities in dynamic environments: a dynamic capability perspective, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Volume 30, Issue 5, Published online: 29 Sep 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254X.2022.2129748.

Kim, C. & Mauborgne, R., 2022. The Rising Importance of Value Innovation for Creating New Growth, Blue Ocean Blog, First published in INSEAD Knowledge, May 18 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/blog/the rising importance of value innovation for creating new growth/> [Accessed 7 October 2022].

Krasnokutsky’ E 2022 Meta erse pp e e op ent Gui e or usiness Lea ers Mobi e Jun 13 2022 [online] Available at: <https://mobidev.biz/blog/metaverse technology business application development> [Accessed 3 October 2022].

Makarov, A., 2022. 12 Augmented Reality Trends of 2023: New Milestones in Immersive Technology, MobiDev, Aug 2, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://mobidev.biz/blog/augmented reality trends future ar technologies> [Accessed 3 October 2022].

McKinsey & Company, 2022. McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2022. [pdf] McKinsey & Company, Research overview, August 2022, p. 21. Available at: <mckinsey tech trends outlook 2022 research overview.pdf> [Accessed 5 October 2022].

Mordor Intelligence, 2021. Retail Industry Growth, Trends, COVID 19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 2027), Industry Reports. [online] Available at: <https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry reports/retail industry> [Accessed 7 October 2022].

Purcarea, I.M., 2022. The Future of E Commerce, Technology Priorities and the Challenge of Metaverse, Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, vol. 13(2), pp. 40 50, June.

Repko, M., 2022. Walmart enters the metaverse with Roblox experiences aimed at younger shoppers, CNBC, Sep 26, 2022. [online] Available at: < https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/26/walmart enters the metaverse with roblox.html?> [Accessed 28 September 2022].

c ont a 2022 W at’s t e ecret to uccess u Inno ation? Ke o Insi t Inno ation, Aug 2, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/secret successful innovation?> [Accessed 2 October 2022].

Schuster, R., Nath, G. and Mitjavila, L., 2020. Conquering Complexity in Supply Chains with Digital Twins. [pdf] BCG, January 23, 2020, pp. 1 2. Available at: <Conquering Complexity In Supply Chains With Digital Twins _ BCG> [Accessed 18 October 2021].

Team Blockdata, 2022. Thematic Exposure to Web3, With A Click Bringing the Indexing Formula to DeFi, the Metaverse, and More, Blockdata, Aug 11th, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.blockdata.tech/blog/spotlight/thematic exposure to web3 with a click bringing the indexing formula to defi the metaverse and more> [Accessed 23 September 2022].

Yee, L., Roberts, R. and Chui, M., 2022. Latest McKinsey tech outlook identifies 14 key trends for business leaders, McKinsey & Company, October 4, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.mckinsey.com/about us/new at mckinsey blog/latest mckinsey tech outlook identifies 14 key trends for business leaders?> [Accessed 5 October 2022].

Different Strategies, Path of Uncertainty, New Mind Set, Promoting Life-Style, Acceleration by Disruption, Economic Storms, Mental Leadership, and Indonesia Prof.Dr.BerndHALLIER

Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier, President of the European http://www.european retail academy.org/), an Honorary Member of the Romanian Distribution Committee, and distinguished Member of both the Editorial Board of “Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine”, and the Editorial Board of RAU “Holistic Marketing Management” other great events happening in the last time, and allowed us to present them. It is also worth remembering that: immediately after visiting Romania for the first time on the occasion of the 24th International Congress of the International Association for the Distributive Trade (AIDA Brussels), Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier sent us, in May 1998, a memorable letter we have referred initially in the Journal of the Romanian Marketing Association (AROMAR), no. 5/1998, and also later, in 2010, in the first issue of the Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine. The Romanian-American University (RAU) has awarded Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier a “Diploma of Special Academic Merit”. The “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, has awarded Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier a “Diploma of Excellence”.

Different Strategies

The roots of tobacco products being distributed by wholesales goes back in Germany in the case of tobacco land till 1845 and in the case of the DTV Group till 1883.The market strategies in the 70ies/80ies of the last century then made the difference of its development. While the owners of tobacco land step by step took over other local/regional wholesalers to become the shooting star in West Germany other wholesalers wanted to keep their regional exclusivity but needed to bundle their market power: they did choose in 1984 the model of a cooperation called DTV.

“The one reason was the national growth of food retail chains starting in the 70ies: the tobacco industry did pay high bonuses to be distributed and promoted at the cash zones on the national level. A similar situation happened after the petrol crisis in 1974: the big petrol players started to diversify at the petrol stations by little convenience shops to earn an additional profit. On top they also wanted to participate on the POS activities of the tobacco business. Insofar a competition for national demand and national supply started” Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier remembers being at that time responsible for channel strategy within Rothmans Germany and editing later as CEO of EHI Retail Institute brochures about the history and marketing of those wholesale players.

Path of Uncertainty

The Rector of the Romanian American University/Bucharest Prof. Dr. Costel Negricea together with the Chief Editor of the Holistic Marketing Management Journal, Prof. Dr. Theodor Purcarea kicked off a debate about the effects from the Covid 19 pandemic on mental health and wellbeing, defining the psychological and social obstacles to continue life and studies as before 2019 (see: HMM, Volume 12, Issue 2, 2022, pages 4 ff).

Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier welcomes this new field of research of RAU under the headline “Path of Uncertainty”. He states that not only the parameters of wellbeing changed due to the disruptions of Corona but also the challenges for trade globalization due to the Russian invitation for a picnic at the river Dnepr in Feb.2022 and the worsening of the water/harvest problems due to the warming up of the Globe. “Many parameters of our thinking and knowledge/philosophy belong to the past; the wish for a Global House of Harmony is diminishing” he claims. “We have to create new platforms for holistic research about tomorrow's world; at the moment we do not have solutions neither for our students nor for the politicians who urgently look for decisions to save the future for the next generations. We need new categories for dreams/visions” he concluded.

New Mind Set

“The dream for an Integration of the whole world into One World Model with common values in all factettes of life in a Global House of Harmony has crashed in 2022” Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier stated in a letter to his ERA-professors and -students “Perhaps the Future Model is Living together in Diversity Learning to accept Differences”! He saw this slogan as an exchange student in 1973 at the Higashi Hanganji Temple in Kyoto which had been built in 1602 by the Shogun Ieyasu who united Japan's aristocrats.

“The claim of common values is as long a fake as already in the United Nations there is still a Veto right for super powers which is a remaining tool of Colonialism when many African States had not been independent further on it is not acceptable if in a World of Equals governments of big powers like Russia and the USA do not accept The International Court of Justice as a joint decision maker! If we are honest those are parameters of a philosophy which belong to geopolitical power plays and not to a Global House of Harmony. If we are not ready to change these basics, we should be modest to accept limited agreements between nations or between local tribes as a Unity of Diversity: not more but also no less” Hallier concluded for a new Mind Set.

Promoting Life-Style

According to Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier, since about the year 1875 department houses with their big textile assortments and accessories took over the lead to determine for nearly 100 years the fashion for the urban life style communities in Europe. In the beginning the windows of the top players down town have been the anchors of public strolls through the malls in the European capitals and other big cities as for example the painting of August Macke from 1914 shows.

After World War II the American Way of Life enlarged with key words like marketing, promotions and events the scope of possibilities to catch the eyes of consumers. In Germany Sabina Wansart prepared for two decades this field of activities for the Kaufhof Group, one of the big players in the category of department stores. Her oeuvre is collected by Dr. J. Moch, himself famous for running one of the oldest tailor and display mannequins factories with customers globally founded in 1907. He together with Prof. B. Hallier and two trainees from Finland and Vietnam selected the material for a YouTube Introduction for a time travel through the period 1970 1990: see more: YouTube

Acceleration by Disruption

Acceleration by Disruption Reviewing innovation rhythms of the last 200 years the world can be divided according to Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier between those countries which mainly provided raw materials like coal, oil, gas or grain and those countries which created profits by processing those raw materials. Mostly those two categories could be defined also as developing countries in terms of its industrial power and developed countries which have the know how of gaining added value by the production for industry or consumers. In the last decades some countries additionally experimented with Special Economic Zones like China or India or they started to diversify in tourism like Dubai or Quatar; they are called transformers by Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier.

The radical global disruption of the worldwide total supply chain since February 2022 will shake up the path of common growth of those three Panels: Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier sees a set back for the next three to five years for the affluent societies in the West; but in the medium to long term prognosis accelerating innovations and profits in the Category C. “Consumers are forced to learn adaption to the financial and political changes to save energy and to switch to sustainable solutions; industry is speeding up its research to survive the energy and total supply chain crisis in an effort of industrial Darwinism; national governments and international agencies support speedily the changes by dropping administrative restrictions and providing financial incentives for modernization like for example a developing alliance between Canada and Germany in the sector of hydrogen. All those activities will boost the economies of Type C in the Cycle 2025 2050" Hallier expects. “The gap between Model A and C will become greater than in the beginning of this decade” Prof. Hallier concludes.

Economic Storms

Within the first half year of 2022 in Germany the number of exhibitors at fairs has declined by roughly 30 percent - the number of visitors by 45 percent. Main reason was Covid which is still a limitation for travels from Asia. As an indicator for the effects of Covid on national growth is China: the growth of GNP has declined from 5.5 percent to 0.5 percent. For the second half of 2022, as well as for 2023, Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier expects an additional worldwide decline due to the Disruption between East and West, the delays within the global Total Supply Chain and the Energy Crisis in Western Europe in Winter 2022/23 which according to Hallier will lead to the collapse of businesses in diverse sectors with the result of an increase of unemployment and a low level of consumer spending.

“We have to prepare for heavy seas sailing through those economic storms” Prof. Hallier states in a preview about EuroShop in February 2023 “but being the Number 1 worldwide within this sector we will remain the Light House of orientation! Nevertheless, adaptation will be the stress test for all players at the supply and demand side: the speed of selection (Darwinism) will increase with mixing traditional offers in shopfitting with omni channel concepts and even entertainment and gaming with avatars in a Metaverse. Nevertheless, Retail will remain a modern element of urban life style” Prof. Hallier forecasts. “But the time for the ROI might be delayed till the economic upswing in 2024/2025. But those who miss the Lighthouse in 2023 will be taken out of the global race automatically when the sky clears again” Prof. Hallier states.

Mental Leadership

Mikhail S. Gorbachov was during his time as a president of the SU not only the topexecutive of the Communist Party but a real Leader with his own inspirations Glasnost and Perestroika. He understood the miners of Kemerovo who had not been paid decently and he realized the wishes of the different people of the COMECON for a better life style. In the eyes of Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier, it was less a political but mainly an evolution/revolution driven by Consumerism. The break down of the SU and the COMECON which followed made Mr. Gorbachov in Russia a persona non grata: in Germany he became a Hero of the Hearts because he enabled a Peaceful Reunion of East and West Germany. For Hallier this was the beginning of an emotional Love Story between Germany and Russia, because it created the dream of a global House of Harmony with the strategic aims to balance economics, ecology and ethics worldwide. “And judged in terms of macroeconomics it was also the basis for an extreme growth of the Wealth of Nations internationally since the beginning of this Century” Prof. Hallier claims. “The theoretical background for those effects can be found already in the work of Adam Smith and David Ricardo about national and international specialization of work processes/sourcing” Hallier taught.

Therefore, the last 30 years of cooperations with Russia have not been in vain or subject to be discredited in total even when strategic or tactical tools seem in a review to have been partly wrong - but they have been also a proof for our followers who expect real Leadership from their professors: Trial and Error belong to the tool-box of innovation in a market-economy. Mr. Gorbachov is a benchmark for such an attitude of a mental Leadership in applied sciences to change markets for the better! In 50 years, the history-books will praise also in Russia and other countries of the former SU the importance of that outstanding Game Changer” Prof. Hallier summarized.

Indonesia

With 274 million inhabitants Indonesia is one of the big players in Asia. Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier visited several times since 1974 the Indonesian Islands either as a holiday destination or in his capacity as EuroShop president or as a Jury Member of the magazine Retail Asia. Now he agreed with the Gunadarma University /Jakarta (www.gunadarma.ac.id) to contribute together with Dr. V. Nencheva to write an article for the Reader “Perspectives and Strategies of Family Business Resiliency in Unprecedented Times” edited by Prof. Dr. Hotniar Siringoringo and Prof. Dr. Ravindra Kuruppuge.

Indonesia is in 2022 organizer of the bi annual Asian Pacific Retailers' Convent (APREC) which had to be delayed for one year due to Corona. The Pic in this News shows the retail leaders during a special session "Peace Circle Chair Collection Certificate" in 2019 at the last Convention in Chongging/China. Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier for more than two decades attended those events which were rotating during this period to the Asian metropoles like Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, Manila, Singapore. “Each country gave its special flair to those extraordinary Conferences and Exhibitions,” Prof. Hallier summarized his experiences. “It showed also the diversity of ethnic groups between those countries but also even in each country itself. Living together in diversity is one of the ambitions/learnings of the cooperation of APREC,” Hallier states.

● Nicolaie MIHĂIESCU Prietenul meu Peter (My Friend Peter)the Editor-in-Chief Nicolaie Mihăiescu, Vice President of the Romanian Distribution Committee, is a man of remarkable moral and professional status – The essence of teaching professionalism, always thinking about “architecture” and balancing thought and action. Founder member (1996) and Honorary member (1998) of the Romanian Distribution Committee, Nicolaie Mihăiescu was an active presence since the first National Seminar organized at the Romanian Academy House in Bucharest in October 1996 by the Romanian Distribution Committee (in partnership relation with the Romanian Foreign Trade Center), a seminar on “The distribution of goods in Romania in the context of integration in the European Union” (see the “Adevarul economic” journal, No. 47 (245) / 22-28.XI.1996, the AROMAR’s “Marketing-Management” journal, No. 6 / 1996 and the “Romanian Trade Monitor” No. 6/1996).

Nicolaie MIHĂIESCU

În viaţa de zi cu zi, la serviciu, la o bancă, la restaurant, la instituţiile statului însărcinate cu rezolvarea problemelor tale, la nivel mai înalt noi toţi trăitorii acestui spaţiu ne am lovit de felurite greutăţi sau situaţii penibile sau comice dacă s au întamplat altora... Le am suportat fără să ne dăm seama ce mecanisme stau în spatele lor.

Oamenii au tendinţa naturală de a privi setul de probleme ce ne întunecă existenţa cu umor dacă se întamplă altora şi cu accente dramatice dacă li se întamplă chiar lor. Nu cred că există individ să nu poată acuza de incompetenţă pe cineva care i a cauzat necazuri în obţinerea unui produs, document, serviciu sau poziţie socială

Considerăm de multe ori că unele greutăţi de genul celor amintite pot apropia oamenii sau chiar imprieteni... Eu am crezut că cele suferite de mine sunt similare celor semnalate de Peter motiv pentru care il consider prietenul meu. Este vorba despre un Peter special, aş putea spune genial. Numele lui este Laurence J. Peter. În 1969 el a scris o carte punând in circulaţie celebrul său Principiu şi semnând certificatul de naştere a unei ştiinţe numită ierarhiologie. În perioada în care cartea a pătruns în conştiinţa publică au fost şi alte câteva încercări de a explica comportamentul uman în exerciţiul unei ocupaţii sau funcţii.

În zodiacul chinezesc există un capitol special destinat icompatibilităţilor încadrate în diverse zodii. Am reţinut câteva dar faptul că un şarpe nu se poate înţelege cu o maimuţă este notoriu. În perioada anilor 70 multe firme vestice alegeau componenţa unui colectiv de lucru mai mic sau mai mare dupa compatibilităţi. Nu mai ştiu dacă în prezent cineva mai acordă atâta importanţă preceptelor ierarhiologice sau de compatibilitate dar dupa mulţi ani petrecuti în „câmpul muncii” sunt convins că ambele se verifică în practica muncii, adică merită să fie luate în considerare.

Prietenul meu Peter

În primele capitole ale cărţii mai sus amintite Peter relatează întâmplări cotidiene care de care mai inexplicabile sau greu de interpretat în contextul relaţiei cu indivizii puşi să rezolve preblemele tale, poşta, transportul, institutii publice. Nu îmi amintesc toate cele relatate de el dar m am distrat citindu le şi apoi înţelegând că singura explicaţie se regăseşte în principiul său. Peter susţine că pe măsură ce un individ este promovat pe treptele superioare ale scării sociale el tinde să atingă nivelul maxim al competenţei sau mai bine zis devine incompetent. El ţine să sublinieze că acest sindrom al incompetenţei poate surveni la orice vârstă. Mulţi am fi tentaţi să zicem că ar fi o boală a bătrâneţii dar nu este aşa. Intrarea în incompetenţă nu înseamnă că individului i se cer rezolvări savante ale problemelor meseriei sau ocupaţiei, ci este vorba de imposibilitatea de a urca pe scara socială având în portofoliu însuşirile native, inteligenţa, perseverenţa, capacitatea de a anticipa. Sunt comune exemplele cu meseriaşi foarte buni, să zicem în construcţii, care devin apoi şefii celor cu care au lucrat, capotând lamentabil în funcţii de comandă

Mi am amintit de Peter şi principiul său găsindu mă eu însumi în situaţii comico dramatice în contactul cu cei din sfera serviciilor. Trebuia să obţin un document auto şi m am prezentat la două instituţii. Prima abia la adoua convocare mi a spus că un act din mapa mea este depăşit şi trebuie refăcut de a doua instituţie la care m am dus apoi. După aşteptări normale de 1 2 ore am obţinut respectivul act. Era vineri şi zâmbind mă şi vedeam luni la cealaltă instituţie curios să văd ce motiv vor mai gasi.

Ajung acasă şi cercetez mai atent apoi pulsul meu o ia razna. În textul respectiv era o greşeală imensă. Am stat ca pe ace şi luni dimineaţa mă prezint la acelaşi ghişeu arătând ce eroare gravă s a comis. Actul e smuls de figura de după plexiglas care dispare spre birouri unde probabil un personaj a ajuns la limita descoperită de Peter. Reapare zâmbind şi îmi intinde noua versiune. Cercetez din nou hârtia şi spre stupefacţia mea şi a doamnei de la ghişeu găsesc aceeaşi greşeală... Eu cu pulsul spre 100 văd că doamna făcandu şi cruce pleacă din nou spre autorul erorii. Reapare dupa cca o oră triumfatoare şi plec şi eu cu ce mi trebuia...

În altă situaţie, petrecută cu cca 3 luni în urmă, primesc de la taxe şi impozite o somaţie că nu am plătit ceva ce datoram statului. Constatând că nu datorez nimic mă prezint la departamentul cu pricina, stau la coadă disciplinat şi întind depeşa primită oficiantei. Se uită în calculatorul său şi zice: Da, aveţi dreptate, nu datoraţi nimic Atunci de ce îmi trimiteţi aşa ceva, îndrăznesc eu, iar răspunsul doamnei e stupefiant: Atunci când mai primiţi aşa ceva nu mai veniţi aici şi rupeţi somatia. Oare avea dreptate Peter?

Necazul este că sindromul atinge toate palierele sociale... şi sunt temeiuri să dai dreptate prietenului meu... Dacă o ţinem aşa în curând Peter va avea o mulţime de prieteni... sau am ajuns şi eu la limita competenţei mele. 20 august 2022

● Tudoriţa ALBU Glasul Pământului Cronică de Eveniment (The Voice of the Earth Event Chronicle) the Editor-in-Chief

It is already well known that Dr. Tudori her passion for both the recovery of these values obvious. That is why it is our pleasure great topic to talk about: The Voice of the Earth 2022, a special publishing event took place at the Cultural Home of Comăna commune, Brașov county, a book launch. The authors of the "Monograph of the villages Comăna de Jos and Comăna de Sus" are part of a family of of the native plains. Among the guests was Prof. Dr. Tudoriţa Albu, who participants' attention to the main character of th the Romanian Peasant, making reference to the reception speech of the great novelist Liviu Rebreanu entitled "Praise to the Romanian Peasant", and presented in the solemn public meeting from May 29, 1940 at the Romanian Academy. to take responsibility for the village where eternity

Prof. Dr. Tudoriţa ALBU

Despre valoarea lucrării, care cuprinde informații prețioase, de natură istorică și etnografică, ordonate după tehnica monografică consacrată, a avut bunăvoința să vorbească, prefațând lucrarea, prof.univ.dr.Ion Ghinoiu, secretar științific al Institutului de Etnografie și Folclor „Constantin Brăiloiu” al Academiei Române.

Autorii lucrării au avut avantajul cunoașterii directe a realităților, au cules informații de la bătrânii satelor, au cercetat arhive, au studiat materiale bibliografice importante și au consemnat cu acribie datele, alcătuind o valoroasă monografie a celor două localități învecinate și înrudite din punct de vedere cultural. Răsfoind monografia, ai sentimentul că devii părtaș la viața satului de odinioară, retrăiești, cu fiecare informație, evenimentele, că totul pare viu și actual. Lucrarea cuprinde date despre încadrarea geografică (relief, climă, vegetație, faună), alcătuirea geologică și bogățiile subsolului. Apoi,este studiată populația localităților, enunțându se considerații importante despre onomastica familiilor și aspecte demografice. Istoria localităților este prezentată din perioada preistorică până în prezent, evidențiind descoperiri arheologice importante, care reprezintă dovezi clare ale continuității culturii materiale și spirituale. Sunt prezentate în amănunt tipuri de case și gospodării, ocupațiile oamenilor, evoluția instalațiilor tehnice și meșteșugurile țărănești, transporturile și schimburile comerciale. O importantă parte a monografiei se ocupă de arta populară și de obiceiurile specifice zonei, incluzându le pe cele care au jalonat momentele importante din viața omului. „Monografia satelor Comăna de Jos și

GLASUL PĂMÂNTULUI Cronică de Eveniment

Comăna de Sus este un respectuos și pios omagiu adus generațiilor ascendente, moșilor și strămoșilor ai căror descendenți sunt locuitorii de astăzi din cele două sate”, spune distinsul Profesor Ion Ghinoiu, subliniind statutul documentar al lucrării, apreciind consemnările corecte și în detaliu, autenticitatea, alegerea cu grijă a textelor folclorice, care sporesc valoarea documentară și estetică a cărții.

Motivația muncii de cercetate

Vorbind despre motivația și resorturile interioare care l au determinat să cerceteze trecutul celor două sate, dr. Lucian Comșa spunea: „Frumusețea locurilor, a costumelor populare, a cântecelor, jocurilor și colindelor, a oamenilor și a artei populare locale, o istorie care se pierde în negura timpurilor, precum și onoarea de a ne trage rădăcinile din cele două sate, ne au făcut să ne dorim să explorăm trecutul celor două așezări și să consemnăm tradițiile și obiceiurile din vechime.”

Participanți la eveniment, alocuțiuni inspirate

Lansarea Monografiei s a bucurat de prezența autorităților locale domnul primar Viorel Grusea, doamna Elena Băjenaru, director al Muzeului Țării Făgărașului „Valer Literat”, doamna înv. Eugenia Roșală, preot Emanuel Stupu, precum și de prezența unor invitați speciali domnul Alexandru Boeriu, fiu al satului Comăna de Jos și doamna Eugenia Nistor, fiică a satului Comăna de Jos.

Sala Căminului Cultural a devenit neîncăpătoare, localnici din ambele sate precum și persoane interesate participând la acest eveniment. Manifestarea a fost completată cu un

scurt program literar artistic, susținut de elevii din comună și de Ansamblul Junii Cetății Rupea, condus de dr. Gheorghiță Radu, taragotist valoros, discipol al Maestrului Dumitru Fărcaș.

Printre invitați s a aflat și prof. dr. Tudorița Albu, care a adus în prim plan personajul principal al acestui studiu monografic, Țăranul Român. Făcând referire la discursul marelui romancier Liviu Rebreanu, „Laudă Țăranului Român", din 29 mai 1940, în ședința publică solemnă de primire în Academia Română, vorbitoarea constată veridicitatea și actualitatea acestuia:

➢ Pentru noi, țărănimea este izvorul românismului pur și etern. La noi, singura realitate permanentă, inalterabilă, a fost și a rămas țăranul

➢ Țăranul nu are nume, pentru că nu e nici clasă, nici breaslă, nici funcție, ci poporul însuși, omul român.

➢ Țăranul e începutul și sfârșitul, numai pentru că am fost neam pașnic de țărani am putut să ne păstrăm ființa și pământul.

➢ Pentru țăranul nostru pământul nu e un obiect de exploatare, ci o ființă vie, față de care nutrește un sentiment straniu de adorație și de teamă.

➢ Pământul nostru are un glas pe care țăranul îl aude și l înțelege. Pământul acesta parcă nici nu poate produce decât numai Români.

➢ Chimia etnologică nu a ajuns și nu va reuși să fixeze într o formulă cu repetiție misterul formației unui popor nou, din două sau mai multe vechi. Dacă s ar fi descoperit rețeta, în vremurile acestea de produse sintetice s ar fabrica poate și popoare în serie pentru soluționarea sau complicarea conflictelor internaționale.

➢ Glasul pământului trebuie să fie auzit și înțeles și de orășeni, pentru a deveni marea lege a neamului, pe care nimeni să n o mai înfrângă și nici să o nesocotească.

➢ Țăranul român este conservatorul trecutului și tinereții noastre, de aceea azi și încă multă vreme, spre țăranul român trebuie să ne întoarcem necontenit.

➢ Destinul nostru ca neam, ca stat și ca putere culturală, atârnă de cantitatea de aur curat ce se află în sufletul țăranului. Dar mai atârnă, în aceeași măsură, și de felul cum va fi utilizat și transformat acest aur în valori eterne!!!

Realitatea istorică ne impune însă, dacă vorbim despre întoarcerea noastră către Țăranul Român, să vorbim și despre întoarcerea Țăranului Român spre noi, cei de acasă. Contemporanul nostru, poetul Adrian Păunescu, în inegalabilele sale versuri, realizează acest îndemn:

„Apleacă ți fruntea de stăpân / Spre brazda noastră milenară / Reînviat țăran român / Și făcătorule de țară // Te așteaptă brazda s o nflorești / Și grajdul să l îndeși cu vite / Și vechi colinde românești / Te mustră, parcă, părăsite.”

* * * 63

„Eu cred că veșnicia s a născut la sat. / Aici orice gând e mai încet, / Și inima ți zvâcnește mai rar, / Ca și cum nu ți ar bate în piept, / Ci adânc, în pământ undeva.”

(Lucian Blaga, „Sufletul satului”)

* Arc peste timp, Monografia se constituie ca parte a istoriei naționale, demonstrând continuitatea românilor pe vechea vatră a Daciei străbune și năzuința de secole a poporului român pentru unitate națională.

* Vorbind despre Monografie, doamna Eugenia Nistor, fiică a satului Comăna de Jos, mărturisea, vizibil emoționată, faptul că a citit o „bucățică cu bucățică”, dorindu și să nu se termine și a savurat o așa cum ai savura un desert delicios. Să recunoști într o lucrare oamenii, locurile, obiceiurile, înseamnă să retrăiești cu emoție totul și, lăcrimând, să ți regăsești viața, să te re creezi, practic să te naști a doua oară, obținând „al doilea certificat de naștere”, înseamnă că lucrarea „a adus o înapoi, în sat”.

* Odată cu finalizarea lucrării de cercetare, prezentând lumii Monografia, dr. Liviu Comșa a înfăptuit un act de restituire, lăsând generației tinere modele excepționale, adevărate și valoroase repere de viață, iar din punct de vedere moral un gest de prețuire și recunoștință față de bunicul său.

Nouă nu ne rămâne decât să îl felicităm și, citându l pe Tudor Arghezi, să spunem „Carte frumoasă, cinste cui te a scris!”

(Ex libris).