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now available in Brussels 5 2012 199 CZK C Pavel Hor k Director of VZP General Health Insurance Company of the Czech Republic Photo Archive of VZP Czech Healthcare will Face Major Challenges www.leadersmagazine.cz incl. electronic version Brno I Ostrava I Plze I Liberec I Olomouc I st nad Labem I Hradec Kr lov I Cesk Budjovice I Pardubice I Zl n I Jihlava I Turnov I Karlovy Vary I Mlad Boleslav Syst m CESR spolehliv ochr n vase podnik n ped nespolehliv mi obchodn mi partnery. The CESR system will reliably protect your business against unreliable business partners. Rating cesk ch ekonomick ch subjekt jednoznacn uk ze na co si u dan spolecnosti d vat pozor a jak rizika pi spolupr ci s n ocek vat Hl d n insolvence program u zadan ch subjekt sleduje zda nebyl pod n n vrh na zah jen insolvencn ho zen a informuje o vsech zmn ch Hl d n zmn v obchodn m rejst ku program sleduje zadan subjekty v obchodn m a zivnostensk m rejst ku a e-mailem zas l informace o zjistn ch zmn ch - nap. likvidaci Registr dluzn k zadejte do syst mu sv problematick dluzn ky a dluhy se az do splacen prom tnou do jejich ratingu Adres subjekt kompletn adres cesk ch ekonomick ch subjekt v nmz lze vyhled vat podle regionu oboru obratu apod. Rating of Czech economical subjects it will show unambiguously what to be aware of in particular company and what risks can be expected when cooperating with it Insolvency watch a program checking selected subjects for information whether an insolvency proceedings was not started against them and informs about all changes Watching for the changes in business register a program watching selected subjects in business and trade register and sends e-mails about noticed changes e.g. liquidation Register of debtors input your problematic debtors here and their debts will affect their rating until they are paid List of subject a complete list of Czech economical subjects where one can search by region field turnover etc. www.cesr.cz politika ekonomika byznys Parlamentn magaz n je seri zn politicko-ekonomick m s n k s aktu ln m a ucelenm zpravodajstv m z oblasti cel st tn spr vy a podnikatelsk ho sektoru. Elektronickou podobu asopisu najdete na www.parlamentnimagazin.cz M me vliv WE PRINTED THIS MAGAZINE WE ARE READY TO DESIGN AND PRINT YOUR BILLBOARD CITYLIGHT POSTER STAND BANNER CATALOGUE MAGAZINE BROCHURE LEAFLET ETC. D&S Design Prague s.r.o. Printing & Design Factory Top Quality Products for Highly Competitive Prices Kounick 957 39 Praha 10 Nov Strasnice 100 00 tel. 274 774 131 fax 274 774 151 gerin bigformat.cz www.bigformat.cz publishers note & contents Dear Readers Time is flying by and we are already in the autumn season and heading towards another winter. After a relatively quiet August everything started in a flash with events conferences etc. It was quite obvious that people were back to their work and it s business as usual. Another thing that seems to be buzzing around are the rumours and questions about who has the best chances to win the upcoming elections for the regions and the Senate mixed with an ever growing list of new potential candidates to become the new president of the CR. A new name and also a dear friend of mine was announced the other day. Ing Karel Muzik President of Comenius and a very likeable energetic charming man with a great spirit for this country is well known among the top level people for his Round Table Discussions and also is the creator of the Czech 100 Best companies and the 20 years old European Banking & Financial Forum. Readers of this magazine cannot have missed all our reportages over these very significant events over the years. Personally I wish him the best of luck to fulfil his aspirations of becoming the next president. In this issue of the Leaders Magazine we are proud to show you a lot of exciting photo coverage the Aspen Institute Opening at the Senate the Dinner at Lobkowitcz Palace the gatherings of all Czech Ambassadors at the Senate the Galileo Project opening the Round Table Comenius with Premier Necas from the CR and Premier Fico from Slovakia the Comenius Conference towards democracy in the post Soviet regions the Bohemia Jazz Fest the Nato Days in Ostrava the various golf tournaments the St. Petersburg Economic Forum the BVV Industrial Exhibition in Brno and the Cesk Posta Art for Peace Exhibition to mention a few. On our front page we are happy to have an interview with Pavel Hor k Director of VZP. Also we managed to include the stories from the new Chief of the General Staff Lt. General Petr Pavel as well as the Director of the State Institute for Drug Control Pavel Bezovsk the Rector of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague Prof. Ji Bal k the President of the Czech Management Association Mr. Pavel Kafka the remarkable woman that survived Terez n Mrs. Ela Weissberger which a fantastic story the Turkish Ambassador H.E. Cihad Erginay the Deputy Minister of Transport of the CR Ji Z k not to mention a few others with many interesting articles from our contributors. My wish for you my dear readers is that now after holidays you have enough energy to deal with the winter season that is still ahead of us and that you remember to be friendly and show respect to each other generating and increasing our civic and our personal endurances for the months in store for us. events 14 18 20 26 30 42 46 50 55 56 64 67 72 74 86 94 96 101 104 120 Crisis as Opportunity Europe and the United States in a Globalized World International Conference on the Occasion of Aspen Institute Prague Official Opening Aspen Institute Prague Gala Dinner at Lobkowitz Palace Important Meetings of Mr. Milan Stch Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Republic 13th Leaders Magazine Advisory Board Dinner Lions Club Prague Bohemia Ambassador Exceptional Ladies Lady Pro Lunch in Support of Mr. Karel Muzik to Become Presidential Candidate Czech 100 Best Grand Golf Prix Round Table of Comenius Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Petr Necas and Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Robert Fico The Presidential CFO Golf Tournament Democracy in the Post-Soviet Territory 20 Years Later Comenius CFO Club Sportsmen in the Role of Managers Wine Tasting Event of ANO Spoiteln druzstvo and Ti zlat rze Sankt Petersburg International Economic Forum 2012 Leadership that Works GSA Inaugurates New Prague Headquarters Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MZV) Charity Golf at Albatross Czech Air Force Day in Ostrava 2012 and NATO Days Air Show Sweden s Minister of Defence Karin Enstr m Meets her Czech Counterpart Alexander Vondra Developers Cocktail Hotel Jalta MSV - International Engineering Fair 2012 the Largest and the Most Successful in Several Years The 23rd CS Z Czech Course has Finished Benke Aikell I benke.aikell leadersmagazine.cz www.leadersmagazine.cz page 18 Aspen Institute Prague Gala Dinner diplomatic events 23 6 Leaders Magazine V 2012 32 80 The President of the Czech Republic Received Czech Ambassadors at Prague Castle Reception for All Czech Ambassadors at the Senate Slovakian National Day contents interviews 10 Czech Healthcare Will Face Major Challenges An interview with Pavel Hor k Director of VZP General Health Insurance Company of the Czech Republic I d Like the Image of the Czech Army to be as Good as Possible in the Eyes of the Public A talk with Petr Pavel Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic Galileo Pushes the Space Industry Forward in the Czech Republic A talk with Ji Z k Deputy Minister of page 110 A talk with Ela Transport of the Czech Republic Stein Weissberger Business and Cultural Cooperation is to be Strengthened A talk with H.E. Cihad Erginay Turkey s Ambassador to the Czech Republic The Global Economic Crisis s Chiefly a Crisis of the Value System A talk with Pavel Kafka President of the Czech Management Association The Future Pension Reform an Opportunity for the Rest of us An interview with Pavel Jir k CEO and Chairman of the Board Penzijn fond Komercn banky Czech Drug Prices Are Still Very Low Compared to Other Nations A talk with Pavel Bezovsk Director of the State Institute for Drug Control Working at University Gives the Added Value of Freedom An interview with Ji Bal k Rector of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Czech-Israeli Relationships Are Excellent No Matter What Happens Czechs Are On Our Side An interview with Dr. Eli Fischer Owner of Art for Piece Collection Hope Is Beyond the Mountains Nobody Believed me When I Saw Hitler in Person A talk with Ela Stein Weissberger the original star of Brundib r in the Theresin Ghetto contributors 38 41 44 53 54 59 68 71 77 78 97 102 Czech Education Aiming for Best in Class Jan M hlfeit Bad Mood in the Czech Economy By Emanuel S p Developing Leadership Certainly. But how ELAI No Real Leadership without Communication Cristina Muntean Quo Vadis the Future of Event Management Jaroslav Skrab lek Anything Is Possible Karin Genton The Good Things in Life - Panama Iva Drebitko Engagement with NGOs Enhances the Reputation of Czech CEOs Jonathan Wootliff We Click Do We Think Ivan Piln How can we Make this World a Better Place by Being Happy Sanjiv Suri The Star-like Move is Finished Evzen Tosenovsk Cosmic Consciousness a Journey to Well-being Happiness and Success Part V Happiness A B James A. Cusumano Ambassadors without Diplomatic Passport Simon P nek and Tomio Okamura Linda Stucbartov Czech Republic A Vain Nation Emil Jimenez 12 24 36 84 88 106 122 90 92 100 110 culture events 60 63 98 112 114 128 129 130 Bohemia Jazz Fest One of the Largest Culture Festivals in Europe Attracted over 80 000 People in July 2012 Helena Kroftov Leisztner Art Exhibition with an Art-Fashion Show Peace Exhibition Art For Peace Collection of Dr. Fischer Dokoupil New Religious Paintings Miro Gallery Miro Gallery Presents Russian-American Master of Painted Poetical Tales Yuri Gorbachev Pelleas & Melisanda National Theatre Amerikana III National Theatre Bl zniv den aneb Figarova svatba National Theatre page 60 Bohemia Jazz Fest EU matters 123 124 Debate on European Semester and Country-specific Recommendations for the Czech Republic Galileo is not only a Showcase for the European Industry but it also Has a Political Dimension Interview with Mr. Carlo Des Dorides Head of the Galileo Agency (the European Gnss Agency or Gsa ) Business News pag page 68 The Good age a The Th ood d Thin s L e Panam Things in Life - Panama h hi a 126 116 117 118 119 info We are pleased to announce that we have considerably extended Leaders Magazine spread to include 80 topnotch restaurants in Prague. Total circulation cca 18.000 bi-monthly including electronic version. Readership total cca 500.000 Leaders Magazine is sent as a compliment to Those who are the most influential powerful and affluent readers in the Czech Republic. To representatives of the businesssphere diplomatic corps and to top goverment and mayor s officials. We cooperate with Prague City Hall CzechInvest Czech Centre The Czech Medical Chamber all Chambers of Commerce Forum Francophone Affaires Cesk Manazersk Asociace CMC Graduate School of Business University of New York in Prague Anglo American School University of Pittsburgh CEELI Institute Lions Clubs Rotary Clubs The Prague Society for Int. Cooperation CZECH TOP 100 Czech 100 Best CEBRE CESES Eurotelegraph The Senate Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministry of Culture Ano pro Evropu VIP lounges at the Prague aiport Zlat koruna CFO Club BLF Czechoslovak Foreign Institute N rodn divadlo OHS Comenius and many more. For sale in Luxor Bookstore at V clavsk n mst . Leaders Magazine is available in all rooms of these top star fine hotels and their restaurants (telephone number for reservation) Alchymist Rezidence Nosticova Alchymist Club Restaurant 257 011 670 Aria Hotel Coda restaurant 225 334 791 Augustine Hotel 266 112 233 Crowne Plaza Harvest Restaurant 224 393 692 Grand Hotel Bohemia U Prasn br ny 234 608 111 Hilton Prague CzechHouse Grill & Rotisserie 224 842 700 Hilton Prague Old Town Restaurant 221 822 303 Holiday Inn Prague Congress Center Esprit 61 175 030 Hotel Hoffmeister Restaurant Ada 251 017 133 Hotel Intercontinental Praha Zlat Praha 296 631 111 Hotel Palace Praha Gourmet Club 224 093 111 Hotel Residence Alchymist Grand Hotel & Spa 257 286 011 Hotel Savoy Restaurace Hradcany 224 302 150 Kempinski Hybernsk Hybernsk 12 110 00 Praha 1 hotel & restaurant 226 226 111 Le Palais Hotel Prague Le Papillon 234 634 611 Prague Marriott Hotel Brasserie restaurant 222 888 888 Radisson SAS Alcron Hotel La Rotonde 222 820 000 Restaurant Alcron 222 820 000 Rezidence Lundborg Praha 257 011 911 Top Hotel Praha Restaurant Bohemiatop Recepce 267 284 111 Audience Decision makers in the fields of business public relations independent professions and diplomacy government officials local officials. Publisher Benke Aikell Head of Editorial Lenka Helena Koenigsmark Office Manager Head of IT Michael Serences Office Assistant Tatiana Fominykh Webmaster Nikoloz Bolkvadze EU Matters CEBRE Czech Business Representation CESES Europlatform Contributors James A. Cusumano Iva Drebitko Joseph Drebitko Karin Genton L Ep e European Leadership and Academic Institute Pavl na Holancov Martina Hoskov Emil Jimenez Zuzana Kas kov Jan M hlfeit Cristina Muntean Ivan Piln Sanjiv Suri Emanuel S p Jaroslav Skrab lek Linda Stucbartov Evzen Tosenovsk Jonathan Wootliff Photographers Tom s Bartos Ondej Besper t Zuzana Dolejs Anna Chlumsk Martin Janas Zuzana Jir skov Jakub Joachim Dalibor Knap Adam Kol Vladim ra Kosickov Michaela Kul skov S rka Kul skov Ivan Mal Anna Peckov Filip Pokorn Marie Schmerkov Jaroslav S cha Kamil Till David Tureck Kamila Weinfurtov Vladim r Weiss Ji Zach Subscription service Leaders Magazine CEPONA s.r.o. Luzick 32 120 00 Praha 2 We appreciate your opinions of Leaders Magazine. Please send them to Leaders Magazine Moravsk 14 120 00 Praha 2 tel. 224 255 277 fax 224 256 172 e-mail info leadersmagazine.cz www.leadersmagazine.cz Leaders Magazine comes out bi-monthly. Licence MK CR E 13147 No reproduction is permitted in whole or part without the express consent of Leaders Magazine. The advertiser is responsible for the advertising contents. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors or persons interviewed and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or Leaders Magazine. All editorial material and photos in Leaders Magazine is digitally stored and may be republished by Leaders Magazine either in printed form or in various digital media. All correspondence to Leaders Magazine may be published. Graphic design and printing D&S Design Prague s.r.o. tel. 274 774 131 prague bigformat.cz www.bigformat.cz You can find the Magazine in these fine restaurants (telephone number for reservation) Ambiente Ristorante Pasta Fresca 224 230 244 Ambiente The Living Restaurants 222 727 851 Aromi 222 713 222 Aureole 222 755 380 Azteca 257 327 389 Bar Restaurace B lkova 13 224 829 254 Barock Bar & Caf 222 329 221 Bellevue 800 123 553 Bugsy s Bar 222 329 943 Cafe La Veranda 224 814 733 Cafe Savoy 257 329 860 Cafe De Paris 603 160 718 Casanova 257 535 127 Clementinum 224 813 892 Casa Andina 224 815 996 Cotto Crudo Four Seasons Hotel Prague 221 426 880 Dm v na U z voje 226 006 120 Francouzsk restaurace v Obecn m dom 222 002 745 Giardino Enoteca con Cucina 222 513 427 Hergetova Cihelna 257 535 534 Ichnusa (Praha 5) 605 525 748 Kampa Park 257 532 685 6 Kav rna v Obecn m dom 222 002 764 King Solomon 224 818 752 Kogo Havelsk 224 214 543 Kogo Slovansk 221 451 259 dm La Perle de Prague 221 984 166 Lamborghini PastaCaff (Vzesk ) 224 813 257 Lamborghini PastaCaff (Vodickova) 222 231 869 Lary Fary 222 320 154 La Truffe 608 308 574 Le Caf Colonial 224 818 322 Les Moules 222 315 022 Luka Lu Restaurant 257 212 388 Lv Dvr 224 372 361 mama lucy 222 327 207 Marco Polo IV 224 819 668 Metamorphis 221 771 068 Mirellie Mediterranean Restaurant V.P. Ckalova (Praha 6) 222 959 999 Nostresscafe gallery 222 317 004 Orange Moon 222 325 119 Osteria Da Clara 271 726 548 776 418 559 P lffy Pal c Parnas Passepartout Perte Pravda 257 530 522 224 216 244 222 513 340 222 521 814 222 326 203 Restaurace Hanil 222 715 867 Restaurant bar Pod k dlem 224 951 741 2 Restaurant Michal 222 222 630 Restaurant Ryb trh 224 895 447 Restaurant U malt zsk ch ryt 257 533 666 Rio s Vysehrad 224 922 156 Ristorante Amici Miei 224 816 688 Ristorante Da Emanuel 224 312 934 Rusalka 224 934 109 Shalamar a taste of India 252 545 018 Sahara Caf Restaurant 774 557 763 Restaurant Kamenn most 224 097 100 U mal U modr kachnicky U Modr ho Hroznu U zlat hrusky U Z voje Z tis Restaurant Zahrada v Opee Zelen zahrada (Praha 2) 257 530 000 257 320 308 222 221 185 220 514 778 226 006 122 222 221 155 224 239 685 222 518 159 Leaders Magazine is member of Leaders Magazine Advisory Board The pos tive reputatio of Leaders Magazine continues to grow however we realize that he positive reputation ve reputat e we must maintain to improve and learn particularly during these times of dynamic change. mus maintain n That is why w have d at y we decided to set up an Advisory Board for the magazine. I am convinced that c eat ng platform of high profile individuals will be an excellent opportunity for the magazine creating a plat g atfor to acquire new idea and define new directions of future development. quir re w ideas Benke Aike enk Aikel nke kell Your Publisher Your Pub isher o r b r There are only few projects started in the Czech Republic by foreigners which I consider he are nly e as useful to this country as Leaders Magazine. The magazine has brought to the Czech ef l c Republic the com public completely new concept of making important people the decision makers be they Czech or foreigners visible and worthy of positive admiration. ey As you might know this is something not very common and perhaps even not very natuu ral in t Czech Republic. It is therefore all the more of an achievement to start and n the succ successfully develop a project such as Leaders Magazine. I understand fully the intention of Benke Aikell the magazine s founder and editor-in-chief to progress further with Leaders Magazine and for this purpose to form a team of experienced Czech citizens o of different backgrounds to create a consulting body which would bring this project to a even higher level. an e I g Ing. Karel Muzik CSc. President of Comenius I was pleased to be invited by Benke Aikell to cooperate on the preparation of the Advisory was pl B Board project. Board projec I personally see one of the main goals of the project in creation of a positive environ environment environment for networking exchange of views presentation of new ideas experiences v n proposals or pr proposals o suggestions. roposal sals I am conv nce that the formation of a platform of highly profiled personalities and potential convinced v nc discuss discussion of different topics in very informal setting will be useful for both sides for the ussio magazi e as well as for the members of the Advisory Board. agazine s w g Ing. Pet Kube Ing. P tr Kubern t g Petr Kub Director of Pekos s.r.o. Con ting Consulting and Training Company onsulti ADVISORY BOARD COMITTEE Benke Aik Benke Aikell Publisher Leaders Magazine en e e In Petr Ing. Pe Kubern t Director PEKOS s.r.o. and former Czech Ambassador to the Netherlands Ing. Petr K et Ing. Karel Muzik CSc. President COMENIUS ng K rel C HONORARY MEMBERS ABROAD AND GOODWILL AMBASSADORS H.E. W Wil William J. Cabaniss former United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic Vince Vi nt Vincent J. Derudder Secretary General The European Federation of Financial Advisers an Financial Intermediaries nd Fin F Fran Frank J. Devlyn Rotary International President 2000 2001 and Rotary Foundation Chairman 2005 2006 H.E. Alexey L. Fedotov former Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Czech Republic t H.E H.E. Richard Graber former United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic HE H.E. Jan Cornelis Henneman Ambassador of the Netherlands to the Czech Republic H.E. Athar Mahmood former Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the Czech Republic H.E. Zdravko Popov former Ambassador of the Republic of Bulgaria to the Czech Republic H.E. Mati Vaarmann former Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to the Czech Republic ja Vrz ov Czech World Champion in Figure-skating Sport Legend H.E. Huo Yuzhen former Ambassador of the People s Republic of China to the Czech Republic ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS PhDr. Zdenk C p Managing Partner Equity Solutions s. r. o. Josef Drebitko CEO D&COMM Prof. Ing. Ji F rek CSc. Professor Technick Univerzita Liberec and former First Deputy Mayor City of Prague 6 Ing. Peter P. Form nek President Canadian Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic Mgr. Marta Gellov Director Cesk pojisovna and Member of the Board AFIZ Michal Heman General Manager Star Communications V clav Hudecek Violinist Plk. Mgr. Vladislav Hus k JUDr. PhDr. Oldich Chodra Lawyer Law Firm JUDr. PhDr. Oldich Chodra & spol. Prof. Ing. Kamil Jan cek CSc. CNB Bank Board Member oa em er mbe and Chief Executive Director Otto Jelinek former Canadian Cabinet Minister and current curr nt current member of numerous international boards Ing. Peter Jusko MBA Partner London Market ket Ing. Petr Kalas Advisor to the Minister Ministry of Agriculture Ag c lture of the CR and former Minister of Environment Ing. Josef Kreuter CSc. former Czech Ambassador to the EU Prof. Dr.h.c. JUDr. Jan K z CSc. Partner Law Firm K z a partnei s.r.o. Ing. Jaroslav Kubista Genmjr. JUDr. Lubom r Kv cala former Director of the Department of Protection of Constitutional Officials s Police of the Czech Republic Ing. Vladim r Lastvka former M.P. Ing. Jan M hlfeit Chairman Europe Microsoft Corporation on Ing. Ji Maceska Chairman of the Supervisory Board Cesk sk posta a. s. and former Czech Ambassador to OECD George Parobek Managing Director Ifield Computer Consultancy S rka Parobek Director Ifield Computer Consultancy Doc. Ing. Anton n Peltr m CSc. Advisor Doc. Ing. V clav Pet cek CSc. Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Chamber SNS Ing. Jozef Piga Member of the Supervisory Board Omnipol a.s. Ing. Lucie Pilipov Partner Via Perfecta s.r.o. Ing. Ivan Piln President TUESDAY Business Network JUDr. Cestm r Sajda MBA former Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs MUDr. Richard Sequens PhD. Head of Surgical Gastroenterology Center Nemocnice Milosrdn ch sester sv. Karla Boromejsk ho raze sv Karla Boromejsk ho v Praze and former Senator ormer Senator PhDr. MgA. Miroslav Smol k Owner Galerie MIRO Mgr. Albin E. Sybera Managing Director Sybera Enterprises spol. s r. o. Brigadier General Ing. Andor S ndor (ret.) Consultant PhDr. Jaroslav Sediv CSc. former Ambassador and Minister of Foreign Affairs JUDr. Josef Sest k Assistant Professor Vysok skola obchodn obchodn v Praze o.p.s. Ing. Radom r Simek Current Member of Numerous International Boards Bc. Vladim r Siska MBA 1stt Deputy Minister Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs Jarom r Sl pota President Ceskoslovensk stav zahranicn Ing. Pavel Stefka MSc 4-star General (ret.) Chief of Defence and Special Programs Tatra Ing. Helena Sv dov HR Director PSG International a.s. Ing. Josef Tauber Advisor to the President Czech Banking Association Ing. Ji V vra Vice Chairman STROJEXPORT a.s. JUDr. Petr Vyroubal Partner Law Firm Vyroubal Krajhanzl Skolout interview An interview with Pavel Hor k Director of VZP General Health Insurance Company of the Czech Republic Czech Healthcare WILL FACE MAJOR CHALLENGES Photo Archive VZP Photo Archiive VZP o rchi e V ZP ch Z Mr. Hor k how is the Czech healthcare system doing Is it expecting a contraction or something even worse I am an optimist. The Czech healthcare system is and will be relatively fine. However as it is said these days it is facing a major challenge. There will not be much extra money left nevertheless our mission is not to skimp but to do more for the health of the people than we used to. Not everything depends on extra income. There are measures that do not cost a lot of money and yet they would mean a big improvement. I am referring to better organisation of the system quality care for patients improved efficiency and mainly prevention. Prevention is the area with which we currently struggle the most. It is not customary to think of this as a matter for health insurance providers. We expect it from the state or see it as a thing of the past. We also hope that people will be more active and take better care of themselves because it is in their interest to enjoy good health. For the majority of us however until we suffer from some disease our health sits unnoticed in a corner and when it is gone it will often not come back when we call it. Does this mean that you will forbid us to smoke enjoy good food and drink and force us to run and those who will not obey will have their insurance costs increased I am certainly not a supporter of such tyranny . The state collects a certain amount of money from the added taxes on cigarettes and alcohol which should suffice to subsidise healthcare. Greater financing of effective and modern prevention however would undoubtedly be beneficial. Not now but in the long-term. On the other hand people do not take advantage of what is already covered. We therefore want to organise prevention directly not by sending letters to invite citizens for their regular check-ups (as was done in the past) but by using the tools of electronic and mobile communications remote access ordering systems and incentives and rewards for those who make use of these opportunities. 10 Leaders Magazine IV 2012 interview Why have you not done this before Today insurance providers cannot choose which prevention programmes they will finance. Prevention which is covered by insurance is determined by ministerial decree and when something has to change there it takes years. And it is not just about preventing heart disease we could also try to eradicate some hugely expensive hereditary diseases by a combination of testing even before people decide to start a family and examination in the early stages of pregnancy. It is a little ironic that as part of the wedding ceremony the bride and the groom assure each other that they are aware of each other s health. In most cases however nothing is known despite modern medicine which today has reached a very high level. For prevention to be effective there needs to be motivation. We do not want to increase the insurance premiums but to reward via discount those who do take care of their health. This is not currently possible. However I do not wish to blame the insufficient activity in this area only on external factors. The truth is that in the whirlpool of everyday problems we as an insurer face the above mentioned only as an extension which we will address only when we solve the big problems that there is no money and that we are libelled in the press. This is quite a significant problem though. What will you do about the lack of funds The VZP (Czech health insurance provider) has a revenue of CZK 150 billion. This should suffice for financing a meaningful healthcare system. It is true that since the beginning of the economic crisis each year we have been missing approximately CZK 6 billion. This is not however a dramatic deficit. If we were able to implement the measures that have been discussed for years this problem would have been long gone. Up until last year we have been covering the deficit from saved money from the boom times. If this time frame had been used to assert some healthcare reforms which would change the situation the problem of the deficit would have been solved. I am sorry that I have no other option than to be firm when asserting a quality and efficiency of financing while dealing with providers and to possibly shift the date of paying invoices. Is it really not possible to save somewhere Several reform steps have already been taken. People can pay for doctors and for any extras these steps must have had an impact somewhere... The only thing that made an impact was the increase of the fee for a day in the hospital to 100 crowns. It truly does lead to a lower level of hospitalisation. It also highlighted the chronic problem of Czech hospitals and their excess of patient beds. Paying extra for a doctor has not been popular so far. It is perhaps beneficial that what before was paid to a doctor can now be put down on an invoice. Nevertheless patients would need to pay at least four times what they pay now to make the provision of the service financially neutral for the doctor being that half of the payment is taken by the hospital and the other half which goes to the doctor is taxed. The time is not right for patients to pay such money. Moreover it is also controversial because top doctors have no desire after all those overtimes and weekend services and even after a regular service to do trivial procedures for those who decided to pay for them. This is a job for younger colleagues or doctors-in-training. Further despite what is said in the media everyone who decides to pay extra logically expects that he or she will not have to queue. And this is not officially permitted (although in practice it is different). The important aspect which we call for is the option of supplementary insurance. It would bring money into the system while the financial burden would spread over the healthy population. Do not forget that fees and surcharges and other such payments fall only on the sick ones and that these still account for a minority of the population. For a supplementary insurance to exist the current package of services which is covered by the basic mandatory health insurance needs to slim down. Politicians are reluctant to push this ahead as it represents a measure which will always be unpopular. This is also why the redundant departments are not cancelled and hospitals are not transformed into much needed social care and follow-up care institutions. We also want to hold auctions for drugs and medical devices so that we could buy them cheaper. Unfortunately we cannot do even this at the moment. Another thing the system of redistribution of insurance premiums between insurance providers the purpose of which is to balance the insurance risk in not based on whether the insurer has healthy or sick patients. Consequently one side of the system is deficient so that the other is in surplus. In short the measures which could be taken to balance the health care system financially are numerous. You spoke about efficiencies in the healthcare system. Should not insurers however be the ones who are saving Are their operating costs necessary at all when taxes are collected all at one place This would also save billions. I am aware of this. It was not easy but we cut our staff numbers by more than 800 employees and we have saved a quarter billion Czech crowns on wages. Furthermore we merged 13 local branches into 6 regional ones. This meant a great reduction in the number of managers on every level. We do therefore what we can. Such changes have not taken place in VZP since its foundation. As regards the common tax collection it is a matter of basic philosophy. As long as the healthcare tax is collected by the state it will be more about budgeting and less about insurance. What is your opinion on the aging population Will this phenomenon require real healthcare reform aside from the pension reform It certainly will and for the reasons that I already mentioned. It is true that the ratio between the economically active population and those who are retired is decreasing. The social system which is funded continuously is not set-up for this I do not however consider it a catastrophe. It is undoubtedly rational to lift the retirement age for a bit nevertheless it is a matter of degree and I would be very cautious in this respect. It would not be difficult for the state to increase the birth rate if the problem were rooted in this area. If the delay of twenty years or more which it would take for the measures to take effect and increase the active population was an issue it would be possible to substitute the young productive and educated via direct immigration. Is this the true problem though Thanks to the maturity of our society labour productivity should be high enough to satisfy the needs of all even with a lower percentage of economically active people. In my view the main problem is rooted in the lack of competitiveness of Europe as a whole and a potentially lower competitiveness of the Czech Republic. There may be plenty of young people but if they are unemployed uneducated and unmotivated to excel then our problem will not be solved but made worse. If we are held back by excessive bureaucratic regulation and political correctness in the bad sense of the words which prevent us from naming the problems and tackling them then even a high birth rate cannot save us. It might actually surprise you that in the context of our aging population and the health expenditure that relates to it the expenditures do not rise as a result of people living longer but because there are expensive drugs and technologies and because we are rich and can afford them. We gain weight we do not exercise and therefore live decades on pills that fight high levels of cholesterol high blood pressure for insulin etc. and we spend most of our resources on long-term almost life-long cures of such chronic diseases of our civilisation. We also spend money when it does not bring a corresponding effect. We pretend all care is free and that everyone is entitled to complete care because as individuals and a society we do not wish to address difficult questions and worry about ethical problems. The reality is of course very different for the majority of us however it is easier to disregard this. I perceive a great role for insurers and for myself in this respect not to surrender to media pressures which highlight only themes that sell and not to forget about those patients who suffer very casually and for the media therefore unattractively so that no one fights for their rights. This applies in particular to seniors. It is they who are impacted more by a thousand crowns than by an expenditure on some technical extravagancy which looks good on TV but in reality does not bring anything so dramatic and useful. And to conclude The key is to pay not for a provision of care but for results thus for improvements in health positive effects and benefits for patients for prevention of diseases and their complications. Only in this way will the health care finances be prevented from collapse. In order to achieve this courage and vision that exceeds one electoral term is needed. I wish for all of us to find this courage and to have leaders who possess it both at home and in Europe. Compiled by LM I cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz Leaders Magazine V 2012 11 interview A talk with Petr Pavel Chief of the General Staff of The Armed Forces of the Czech Republic I d Like the Image Photo Vladim r Weiss OF THE CZECH ARMY TO BE AS GOOD AS POSSIBLE IN THE EYES OF THE PUBLIC Lieutenant General Petr Pavel M.A. (1961) Graduated from the Military Grammar School Opava in 1979 and from the Military College of Land Forces in Vyskov in 1983. In the years 1988 1991 General Pavel successfully completed his Postgraduate studies at the Military Academy in Brno. He also completed the Senior Officers Course Staff College Camberley United Kingdom. In 2005 Lieutenant General Petr Pavel completed the Royal College of Defence Studies in London. In the years 2005 2006 he graduated from King s College London where he obtained a Master of Arts degree in international relations. Lieutenant General Petr Pavel later held several significant positions within the Czech Army and on the 1st of July 2012 he was appointed the Chief of the General Staff. 12 Leaders Magazine V 2012 interview Your predecessor Vlastimil Picek wrote in the preface of the White Book on Defence that although soldiers don t decide the missions and deployment of the army they should be more pro-active in designing how to best organize the military defence of the Czech Republic and its allies. In this respect do you agree that soldiers have been too passive in the past I consider this issue very important as well. Activity or passivity depends to a large extent on the relationship between the Minister of Defence and the Chief of the General Staff of Armed Forces. It is the primary rule in democratic societies that the Army gives professional advice on the fundamental issues of national defence. Then politicians are those who make decisions on the basis of the voters mandate. Hereby a civil control of the armed forces has been ensured. Yet in this respect there is sometimes confusion of the original English expression Civilian Control which has often been mistakenly interpreted as management and very often as micromanagement of a lay nature. Can you be more specific Political and expert evaluations are getting mixed-up. However my main concern is that the Army gives clear recommendations be it our participation in the missions the purchase and management of equipment or the development of particular forces. The Army must submit factual arguments and backed opinions to the political establishment much like explaining it to them explicitly. Here however the Army s role ends and political decision-making begins which either accepts the Army s line of reasoning or doesn t. If the latter case is true they should be ready to justify their decision publicly. It is actually impossible to solve the problem of disagreement between the Army and the politicians as we have seen several times in the past. In addition we have seen re-applied pressure on the Army to change its expert recommendation to suit political task. In what sense do you mean justify Politicians must show the Army that it was wrong in its expertise or otherwise and that it would be appropriate to consider changing its views. Or on the contrary politicians should give their citizens a clear explanation as to why the final decision was based on political motives rather than the professional advice of the Army and the particular reasons should be explained as well. Unfortunately this does not happen in practice. In order to dilute responsibility some military recommendations were adapted to better suit the political assignment. In this respect what is the Army s statement on the future of fighter aircraft and the plans for them within the Czech Army The Army gave a clear opinion on this matter. The entire situation has been analysed in terms of technical operational and partly economic aspects. Thus our recommendation for the Minister of Defence was to continue to lease Gripen. What is the most important thing concerning decision-making in this area The Army does not find it essential in terms of task achievements for the final aircraft to be Gripens F15 F16 or some other aircraft. Both pilots and ground technical staff will certainly be able to re-teach the new techniques. Nonetheless additional time and costs are associated with that. In the best case retraining takes a year or two and the costs of pilot training infrastructure technical and training facilities can reach the tens of millions of dollars. Of course the different aircraft work in different ways from the used models up to the top-of-the-market models. I am chiefly talking about F35 aircraft. It is a fifth-generation aircraft that already has abilities which until recently pilots could only dream of. Yet it is true that we don t need it for our particular needs and tasks. With regard to that the aircraft Gripen sufficiently complies. So do we need the fighters at all Protection of our own airspace is one of the basic attributes of state sovereignty. For a state of our size a variant of assisted protection (Air Policing) is hardly politically acceptable. Each state obviously wants to preserve the possibility of a sovereign decision on how to guard its air space and how to solve an eventual problem or a crisis situation. This is something that often becomes the final obstacle in considering a deepening co-operation within matters of defence. Where is the main danger Sometimes the question arises whether or not to hand over our air space protection e.g. to Germany. Aside from the actual will of Germany to consider such a task there are several other problems. If for instance an airplane with Czech citizens on board were to be hijacked over our territory with the main goal of misusing it similar to what happened in the U.S. eleven years ago there is the chance for considerable losses of life. If it is necessary to decide whether to shoot down the airplane or allow much higher losses would it be permissible for us to allow the Germans or any other foreign politician or general to make such a decision This is too much responsibility for both our population and our political representation to hand over. Decisions for the sovereign territory should be decided by the representatives of the sovereign state. The post-communist transformation of the Czech Army was followed by very unsystematic military purchases which drained considerable financial means. What would you like to change Within ten to fifteen years several acquisitions might seem unsystematic yet at the time they were made they were clearly systematic. This feeling of unsystematic acquisition was largely because the internal and external conditions were constantly changing throughout this period. For instance at the time that 72 pieces of L-159 aircraft were submitted for delivery there was a clear idea for their use. The army was bigger had different tasks to complete and above all the budget was much larger. We were counting on the establishment of several fleets. However if the defence budget decreases by 40 per cent over several years one cannot expect the implementation of all projects as they were set a decade ago. Thus contracts aimed at the Army s modernization can appear unsystematic when looking from the outside. Can you give some other example For example the purchase of the Pandur armoured defence. At the time of request the Army counted on building a new outfit of up to 3 mechanized brigades. The original number of carriers should have been over 400 hundred which was exactly calculated according to the organizational structure. Gradually the requirement of one brigade decreased to 234 pieces and finally we obtained 107. This number however had not been requested by the Army. From the public perspective it seems that the generals don t know what they want as they first ordered 400 hundred and finally were satisfied with only one hundred. Is there therefore a lack of a long-term vision concerning the size of the Czech Army The vision was there the problem is budget stability followed by planning. We have tried to define a minimal threshold a minimum required size for the Czech Army which would still ensure for the completion of tasks assigned by our Constitution our laws and our allied commitments in the long run. The aggregate necessary numbers are higher than we have at our disposal as we soldiers have to expect the worst possible outcomes and therefore an overlapping of crisis situations might be one of the worst-case scenarios. Yet this is still possible. Which military foreign model (or any part of it) do you find most sympathetic There are many models from which we take inspiration. It is difficult to take only one of them. In terms of political decision-making on defence ceilings I definitely admire e.g. the Danish model. Denmark has a strategic document kind of a defence contract signed by all parliamentary parties. Thus defence doesn t become a part of the political struggle. Thereby the state guarantees the Army that the tasks much like the budget won t change at least during the term. I would have wished for such a degree of political accountability for us too. You ve had a very successful military career and now you have achieved the highest possible military position. Is there any goal within the Army which you have not achieved yet and would still like to Concerning the position I cannot reach any higher one because there is simply not any higher position to be achieved in the Army. There are many things I wanted to complete yet did not manage for several reasons. I was for instance lucky I led a group of 601 specialforces in Prostjov but unfortunately not at the time that it was deployed to Afghanistan. On the other hand I was there at other interesting times such as when we formed international co-operation when we introduced new equipment and materials when we implemented new systems of training and recruited new members. Now my other goals relate to the present position. I d like the image of the Czech Army to be as good as possible in the eyes of the public. The Army should not be perceived by the public as the bearer of negative cases like CASA Pandur or Tatra in which it really only has a minimal role. The Army does not purchase does not close contracts and hence cannot take bribes nor corrupt anyone. The Ministry of Defence has very often been replaced by the Army which for the Army is rather harmful. In this respect I would really like to contribute to changing the Army s image. I want the public to know that soldiers are doing very good and professional work under extremely difficult conditions whether it is battling floods at home or operational deployment far beyond our borders. And last but not least I ll do everything possible to stop a dramatic reduction in the Czech Army s budget. Thus I hope that the Army does not become a caricature of itself yet remains a capable component which will be respected as a partner in NATO as well as by its own population. People can be rightly proud of the Czech Army at present. By Pavl na Holancov I cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz Leaders Magazine V 2012 13 conference IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE H.E. Michael Zantovsk Czech Ambassador to the UK and President Aspen Institute Prague The Aspen Institute Prague commenced its operation in Central Europe with an international conference titled Crisis as Opportunity Europe and the United States in a Globalized World on Thursday July 19 2012 in the Czech Senate. Among those in attendance were former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and 20 former ministers of foreign affairs representing the Aspen Ministers Forum. Aspen Prague is a non-ideological and non-partisan platform focusing on Leadership Policy and Public programs. One of its main activities is a continuous development of leadership abilities of young people from diverse areas of civic society and facilitation of their mutual dialogue. 14 The Senate Hall MORE PHOTOS AND ELECTRONIC VERSION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LEADERSMAGAZINE.CZ From left Martin Palous V clav Havel Library Lucie Pilipov Via Perfecta and Tom s Klvaa Director Global Non-Profit Programs of Zdenk Bakala Doc. MUDr. Leos Heger CSc. Minister of Health of the CR From left Andrei Kozyrev former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Lord Peter Mandelson former European Commissioner for Trade From left Radek Spicar Executive Director Aspen Institute Prague and Pavel Kav nek Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO CSOB From left Tomas Kleefuss CEO Net4Gas and JUDr. Kamil Blazek Kinstellar From left Jan Zahradil Member of the European Parliament and H.E. Petr Kol Czech Ambassador to the Russian Federation From left Joseph Barba E.sed USA Sanjiv Suri President Z tis Catering Group Mrs. Eliska Haskov Coolidge and Gabriel Eichler Founder and Senior Partner Benson Oak Capital From left Frantisek Dost lek Chairman and CEO KPMG Central and Eastern Europe and Prof. Jan Svejnar Director Center for Global Economic Governance at Columbia University and potential Presidential Candidate of the CR 15 From left Ira Saul Rubenstein Traficon Tiziano Giraudo Managing Director Ferrero Mr. Marco Sipione and Massimo Bechi Managing Director eni CR From left H.E. V. Ashok Ambassador of India H.E. Toshio Kunikata Ambassador of Japan and H.E. Daniela Anda Grigore Gitman Ambassador of Romania Milan Stch Chairman Senate of the Czech Republic From left Ladislav Cervenka Public Affairs Director Unilever CR and Miloslav Kozler Growth and Emerging Markets VISA EU From left Prof. Ing. Michal Mejst k CSc. Mr. Ji Kasal and Frantisek Dost lek Chairman and CEO KPMG Central and Eastern Europe Ana Palacio former Minister of Foreign Affairs Member of the Consejo de Estado of Spain and H.E. Pascual Navarro Spanish Ambassador 16 16 From left MUDr. Pemysl Sobotka Vice Chairman Senate of the Czech Republic and doc. JUDr. Petr Pithart Vice Chairman Senate of the Czech Republic Sir Malcolm Rifkind Member of Parliament UK and former Minister of Foreign Affairs UK Sir Donald McKinnon Chairman Auckland R.F.Ltd. From left Adam Daniel Rotfeld Co-Chairman The Polish-Russian Group on Difficult Matters Josef Joffe Publisher-Editor Die Zeit Nicolas Burns Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics Harvard Kennedy School From left Pavel eh k CEO Cesk Pojisovna Pepper de Callier Founder and Executive Director PLI Tatiana Le Moigne Google and Sanjiv Suri President Z tis Catering Group From left Vladim r Dlouh International Advisor Goldman Sachs and Presidential Candidate of the CR and Prof. Jan Svejnar Director Center for Global Economic Governance at Columbia University and potential Presidential Candidate of the CR Madeleine K. Albright Member of the International Advisory Board Aspen Institute Prague From left Pavol Demes German Marshall Fund of the US and Mr. Tom s Vrba From left Tatiana Le Moigne Google and RNDr. Ivana Burs kov Director AGORA From left H.E. Michael Zantovsk Czech Ambassador to the UK and President Aspen Institute Prague Radek Spicar Executive Director Aspen Institute Prague and H.E. Norman L. Eisen U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic 17 From left Mrs. Dagmar Havlov and Mrs. Michaela Mal cov Chairwoman of the Board Luxury Brand Management IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE Aspen Institute Prague From right Radek Spicar Executive Director Aspen Institute Prague Petr Sabata Editor in Chief Hospod sk noviny and H.E. Petr Kol Czech Ambassador to the Russian Federation From left H.E. Norman L. Eisen U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic and Jan Fischer Vice President European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Presidential Candidate of the CR From left Jan Fischer Vice President European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Presidential Candidate of the CR and Lord Peter Mandelson former European Commissioner for Trade 18 Elliot Gerson Executive Vice President Aspen Institute US and Mrs. Michaela Mal cov Chairwoman of the Board Luxury Brand Management From right Tom s Klvaa Director Global Non-Profit Programs of Zdenk Bakala Radek Spicar Executive Director Aspen Institute Prague Nicholas Burns Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics Harvard Kennedy School and Director Aspen Strategy Group and Dr. Shibley Telhami Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development University of Maryland From right Marta Smol kov Director V clav Havel Library Jan Mach cek Journalist and Member of the Editorial Board Aspen Review Magazine Frantisek Dost lek Chairman and CEO KPMG Central and Eastern Europe Zdenk Tma Member of the Board of Directors Aspen Institute Prague and Advisor Head of Banking services KPMG Czech Republic and Mrs. Dagmar Havlov From left Ji Schneider Deputy Minister and First Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the CR and Tom s Klvaa Director Global Non-Profit Programs of Zdenk Bakala Madeleine K. Albright Member of the International Advisory Board Aspen Institute Prague and Niels Helveg Petersen former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark Benke Aikell your Publisher and Zuzana Roithov Member of the European Parliament and Presidential Candidate of the CR Karol na Peake Vice Prime Minister and Chairman LIDEM and Zdenk Bakala Businessman Financier and Philanthropist Alexander Vondra Minister of Defence of the CR and Mrs. Michaela Mal cov MORE PHOTOS AND ELECTRONIC VERSION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LEADERSMAGAZINE.CZ From right Martin Palous V clav Havel Library Zdenk Bakala Businessman Financier and Philanthropist Jan Fischer Vice President European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Presidential Candidate of the CR and H. E. Norman L. Eisen U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic The Aspen Institute Prague celebrated its launch by a gala dinner organized in Lobkowicz Palace at the Prague Castle. The welcome speech was delivered by Elliot Gerson Executive Vice President of the Aspen Institute. The toast to the opening of the Institute was given by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The Aspen Prague gala dinner gathered politicians businessmen philanthropists and representatives of civil society and provided a venue where all parts of society can join discussion on key topics of today. 19 senate insight FIA gala evening at Zof n At the end of June Senate Chairman of the Parliament of the Czech Republic (PCR) Milan Stch welcomed the president of the F d ration Internationale de l Automobile (FIA) Jean Todt and the president of the AMK ( stedn automotoklub CR) Odich Van cek in the Wallenstein Palace. The main topic of their conversation was road safety. The Senate Chairman appreciated the enlightening activity of FIA as well as the activities of AMK which significantly contribute to raising awareness of road safety policy among Czech citizens and the youth. The meeting in the Czech Senate was held as part of the FIA conference which took place in Prague between the 26th and 29th of June. That Thursday June 28th was declared by AMK as the Day of Road Safety during which the association organised many events for the public in Wenceslas Square. On June 28th the Senate Chairman also attended a gala evening of the FIA which took place in Zof n Palace. IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE FIA gala evening at Zof n Milan Stch Chairman Senate PCR presenting a book about Wallenstein Palace to Jean Todt President FIA 2 20 Milan Stch Chairman Senate PCR welcomes the representatives of FIA and AMK in Wallenstein Palace. From left Oldich Van cek President AMK Susan Pikrallidas General Secretary for Automobile Mobility F d ration Internationale de l Automobile Jean Todt President F d ration Internationale de l Automobile Brian Gibbons Deputy President for Automobile Mobility F d ration Internationale de l Automobile Milan Stch Chairman Senate PCR Werner Kraus President FIA Region I and Petr Pakosta Senator PCR On July 10th Senate Chairman Milan Stch hosted a conference titled Safety perspective the Czech Republic and Central Europe in the second decade of the 21st century in the seat of the upper parliamentary chamber. Petr Pavel the newly appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces was one of the speakers at the conference. Conference on Safety perspective the Czech Republic and Central Europe in the second decade of the 21st century held in the seat of the Senate. Address of Petr Pavel Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the CR at the conference on Safety perspective the Czech Republic and Central Europe in the second decade of the 21st century Address of Milan Stch Chairman Senate PCR at the conference on Safety perspective the Czech Republic and Central Europe in the second decade of the 21st century On July 19th the Aspen Institute Prague hosted a conference titled Crisis as Opportunity Europe and the United States in a Globalized World whereby launching its activity in Central Europe. The gala conference organised in co-operation with the Senate Chairman of the PCR Milan Stch took place in the seat of the Senate of the Parliament of the CR and was attended by the former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. On the same day Madeleine Albright also addressed the Czech senators during a Senate meeting. Address of Madeleine Albright at the Senate meeting at the Presidency. From left Pemysl Sobotka the First Vice Chairman Senate PCR Milan Stch Chairman Senate PCR and Alena Gajdskov Senate Vice Chairman 21 MORE PHOTOS AND ELECTRONIC VERSION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LEADERSMAGAZINE.CZ At the end of July Senate Chairman Milan Stch Senate Vice Chairman Zdenk Skromach and Senator Ji Dienstbier attended the traditional celebration of the Czech and Slovak brotherhood in Velk Javoina which was dedicated to the XX. Anniversary of the new history of both states. From left Miroslava Nmcov Chairwoman Chamber of Deputies of the CR Milan Stch Chairman Senate PCR and Pavol Paska Chairman National Council of the Slovak Republic at the meeting in Velk Javoina Milan Stch Chairman Senate PCR greets the visitors of the celebration in Velk Javoina From left Milan Stch Chairman Senate PCR and Pavol Paska Chairman National Council of the Slovak Republic at the meeting in Velk Javoina 22 Petr Silar Senator PCR at the opening of the celebratory seminar to mark the entry of gamekeeping on the list of intangible assets of the traditional and folk culture of the Czech Republic which took place in mid-June at the Senate headquarters Pemysl Sobotka First Vice Chairman Senate PCR and H.E. Fayez al-Tarawneh Prime Minister and Defence Minister of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan diplomatic event The President of the Czech Republic Received Czech Ambassadors at Prague Castle On August 29th 2012 V clav Klaus received all ambassadors of the Czech u s h Republic at Prague Castle. He greeted all of them for the last time in his presidency and recalled 8 years of co -operation. a o IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE 23 Galileo Pushes the Space Industry Forward in the Czech Republic A talk with Ji Z k Deputy Minister of Transport of the Czech Republic Photo Archive of the Ministry of Transport of the CR interview 24 Leaders Magazine V 2012 interview How difficult was it to move GSA from Brussels to Prague The entire process took exactly one year. In this respect I d like to emphasize that we have been quite unique among other EU member countries. No other European agency was moved from Brussels within a year. It usually takes five or more years to move other agencies. Of course we don t have so much time. Anyway these twelve months have been very intense and at times adventurous. How many employees does GSA have at its disposal at the moment GSA employs 40 people at present. There are 10 Czechs within this team which I consider a very good number. We need to realize that all candidates had to go through the EU selection process and our candidates were not favoured in any manner. In the future we expect up to 150 employees. When will the navigation system begin to operate We plan to launch the navigation system in two phases. The first phase should be running by spring 2015 and put 18 satellites into operation. During the second phase which should be implemented by 2019 Galileo should have 30 satellites running altogether. What is so unique about Galileo compared to the existing navigation systems such as GPS or GLONAS The main difference is that Galileo is designed as a civil system. In addition if we are to use a system for aircraft and train management junction control the preservation of human life and other applications we need to have a system with certified accuracy. In practice it will mean that we can rely on the system s accuracy up to a half-meter. Thus Galileo will be the only system in the world that can do this. Of course even the existing systems can provide precise navigation but only for military purposes. So what services does Galileo offer Galileo offers several levels of signal. The first level of signal is public. This is the type of navigation we have in our cars and is completely free. Another level of signal is aimed at commercial usage. At this level the navigational accuracy is also much higher. It should be used e.g. for monitoring containers on the road rail or water transport. The third level of signal is intended to save human life. At this level the system is even going to communicate two-way. We consider this a relatively restricted application including special expeditions or cruising under which framework exists a service enabling communication through a satellite phone which informs responders whether there has been an incident. There will also be the PRS (Public Regulated Service) available within the security functions. This signal will be encoded and accessible with difficulty. What exactly is coming to Prague with GSA First of all a contact place for all those who are engaged within the space business. It is obvious In the beginning of September operation of the GSA (European GNSS Supervisory Authority) was launched in Prague s City Centre. GSA provides oversight for managing the European navigation system GALILEO. It is the first EU institution based in the Czech Republic. What does the replacement of this agency to Prague have in store for us What kind of signal is beamed by the navigation system Does the space industry have a future in the Czech Republic at all These and other questions were answered for Leaders Magazine by Ji Z k Deputy Minister of Transport of the Czech Republic. that space technology will not encompass the vast majority of GDP in the Czech Republic. However our country should return to the standing that it achieved in the first 30 years of the last century. At that time the Czech Republic belonged to the European economic elite. And I am convinced that we have a great chance to return to this standing thanks to GSA and to our other space activities. So can we say that the space industry has been well established in our country Yes definitely. In this field an industrial association (Czech Space Alliance) works very well with its main focus on the space industry related applications and technology. It primarily concerns subcontractors whose portfolios contain more than just supplies for satellite navigation. Recently e.g. Frentech Aerospace s.r.o. acquired the main commercial order aimed at the new telecommunication satellites for the American project Iridium Next. It is a completely specific thing and Frentech Aerospace s.r.o. is an absolute world within its field. And there are many companies like that in our country. This has also basically confirmed NERV in its recommendations to the Government in that the space business was named as an activity that needs to be supported and developed in the Czech Republic. In this respect did NERV specify how the volume of investment opportunities would increase Unfortunately this can not be precisely specified. Yet GSA should be understood as one of the chances we can t afford to let pass. Thus GSA coming to Prague attracts many investors and specialists from around the world. We do everything we can to provide them the most liberal environment for the future in order for them to operate develop and employ our people. At the same time we want other Czech companies to be established with this portfolio. Is the Ministry of Transport aiming to support the space industry in any specific way This question has a wider dimension. Before placing an offer to GSA in Prague we had to become members of the ESA (European Space Agency). Particular members contribute by financial means and deal with all space segments. This starts with digital communication satellite phones and TV data broadcasting and even studies of Mars or the whole Solar System. As a member of ESA our country pays a member fee. So far it has been about 300 million CZK and I d like to increase the annual fee to at least 500 million CZK. Is that not too much considering the budget cuts at the moment I don t think so. It needs to be emphasised that 94 per cent of the total fee is returned to the Czech Republic for particular contracts. The average yield coefficient is about 4.5. Moreover we must remember that a company can not live forever from a single project yet needs to be involved in many projects of a similar technology. Thus the Czech membership in ESA is a very positive step and in addition I perceive it as one of the best steps for increasing competitiveness. Thus can one clearly say that the space industry has great potential for the future And in what way It has indeed especially in terms of technological development. In the past space activities were perceived as a purely theoretical discipline. Today the use of specific space technologies finds applications in other areas of daily consumption. There is currently a European competition which should motivate companies and above all young people to come up with new ideas aimed at the best application of the navigation system. Last year the second place finalist was a Czech product which allows the tracking of people with epilepsy. The idea is very interesting for epileptics who may obtain a navigational bracelet . In case of an epileptic fit the patient can be precisely located and the navigation will send a signal to rescuers. There is also a memory chip located within the bracelet which monitors the epileptic fit itself. Thus the doctor might be able to diagnose the problem which would increase the chance for rescue. Another example could be e. g. agriculture however there are many fields of use. Anyway the Ministry of Transport wants to establish an environment that would be competitive in both the Czech Republic and Europe. And as small as the system of space activities may seem within the greater economy the added value for economic and intellectual development is very high. By Pavl na Holancov I cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz Leaders Magazine V 2012 25 ne orking ourmet e networking gourmet ev et or etworking gour etwo event at Alchymist Grand Hotel & Spa t From left Ji Z k Deputy Minister of Transport H.E. Richard W. Graber former Ambassador of the USA to the CR and Vice President Government Relations EMEA Honeywell Michal Hrbata Deputy Minister of Defence and Ing. Fawad Nadri President Czech-Afghan Chamber of Commerce in the CR 13 Leaders Magazine th Among our special guests this evening were H.E. Richard W. Graber H.E. Lembit Uibo Ambassador of Estonia Vincent J. Derudder Ji Z k and Michal Hrbata who were listening together with many more interesting guests to the speach of Mr. Pavel Kafka President of the Czech Management Association talking about his activities including his role within CMA newly established World Business Council for Sustainable Development support to the government within Confederation of Industry of the CR and importance of Forum of the Technical Universities and Industry. 26 MOR MORE PHOTOS AND EL EC TRONIC VERSION OTO AN L EC T N SION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LEADERSMAGAZI CZ L O WW.LEADERSMA ZINE.C W LE A MAGA Crystal Room at Hotel Alchymist networki g gourmet even networking gourmet event etw rking gourmet event tw rking ourme ven ing ourmet nt ur From left Ing. Petr Kubern t Director Pekos spol. s r.o. PhDr. Jana Kozmov CSc. VSE Praha and RNDr. Ing. Peter Kozma DrSc. CEO CRYTEX s.r.o. Mgr. Alena Kopejtkov and MUDr. Jan Mal t Eva Anderov Director Department of the International Relations Ministry of Finance and G. Sukumar Director United Enterprises In front Helena Cack Board Vice Chairman Chief Executive Officer Central Securities Depository Prague and Benke Aikell your Publisher behind on the right JUDr. Petr Vyroubal Partner Law Firm Vyroubal Krajhanzl Skolout From left Josef Tauber Advisor to the President Czech Banking Association Josef C lek PhD. C.E. Vice President for Foreign Relations Czech Chamber of Commerce Ing. Kamil Jan cek CSc. CNB Bank Board Member and Chief Executive Director with his wife Ing. Stanislava Jan ckov Advisor to the President Office of the President and Prof. Ing. Ji F rek Professor Technick univerzita Liberec There are only few projects started in the Czech Republic by foreigners which I consider as useful to this country as Leaders Magazine. The magazine has brought to the Czech Republic the completely new concept of making important people the decision makers be they Czech or foreigners visible and worthy of positive admiration. As you might know this is something not very common and perhaps even not very natural in the Czech Republic. It is therefore all the more of an achievement to start and succes-sfully develop a project such as Leaders Magazine. I understand fully the intention of Benke Aikell the magazine s founder and editorin-chief to progress further with Leaders Magazine and for this purpose to form a team of experienced Czech citizens of different backgrounds to create a consulting body which would bring this project to an even higher level. Ing. Karel Muzik CSc. President of Comenius 27 ne orking ourmet e networking gourmet ev et or etworking gour etwo event From left H.E. Richard W. Graber former Ambassador of the USA to the CR and Vice President Government Relations EMEA Honeywell Peter P. Form nek President Canadian Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic with his wife and Prof. Ing. Ji F rek Professor Technick univerzita Liberec From left Ing. Petr Kubern t Director Pekos spol. s r.o. Benke Aikell your Publisher and Ji Hlavat Group General Manager Golden Well Hotel Jonathan Wootliff former Director of Greenpeace International From left PhDr. Blanka Kemen kov 5K Consulting s.r.o. Vincent J. Derudder Chairman F d ration Europ enne des Conseils et Interm diaires Financiers Brussels and Mgr. Marta Gellov Director Cesk pojisovna and Member of the Board AFIZ From left Michal Donath Donath Business & Media Michal Serences Office Manager Leaders Magazine Jonathan Wootliff former Director of Greenpeace International and Martin Opatrn Advisor on Media and Crisis Communication PR Public Affairs From left JUDr. Ing. Otakar Schlossberger Ph.D Head of Department of Banking and Insurance Faculty of Economic Studies Vysok skola financn a spr vn o.p.s. and Doc. Ing. Anton n Peltr m CSc. Advisor and Director IEI Bankovn institut vysok skola a.s. The Th positive ep tati The positive reputation of Leaders Magazine ion io f eade s agazine ead gazin co nue o row owever e reali th t continues to grow howev r we realize that we es liz m must maintain to improve and learn intai to mp o e nd earn ain n particularly during these times of dynamic articu arly in thes times f ynam c arl s me change. That is why we have decided to set up hange h e why we v ecide to et h ded an Advisor y Board for th magazine I am n dv sor Boar fo the magazine. m o r magazine convinced that creating a platform of high o vinc that eatin platform h h ced ce n tfor prof il i dividu will prof ile individuals will be an excellent opporofil ividual l xcellen ppor llent ore r tunity for the magazine to acquire new ideas uni y or e agazine t cquire ew d ity z r an def e e irections future and define new directions of future development. Benke Aik Your Publisher velop ent. l t ikell bli her l 28 networki g gourmet even networking gourmet event etw rking gourmet event tw rking ourme ven ing ourmet nt ur From left Ing. Fawad Nadri President Czech-Afghan Chamber of Commerce in the CR JUDr. Libuse Schlossbergerov Legislative Department Ministry of Finance Vincent J. Derudder Chairman Generali Tower Business Centre Michal Hrbata Deputy Minister of Defence Mgr. Marta Gellov Director Cesk pojisovna and Member of the Board AFIZ and Jan Jedlicka Executive General Manager United Bakeries From left Tatiana Fominykh Office Assistant Leaders Magazine and Lenka Helena Koenigsmark Head of Editorial Leaders Magazine Ing. Pavel Kafka President CMA at his speach From left Peter P. Form nek President Canadian Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic and Josef C lek PhD C.E. Vice President for Foreign Relations Czech Chamber of Commerce From left Prof. Ing. Ji F rek Professor Technick Univerzita Liberec Dr. Svtla Prokesov Senior Consultant Allied Progress Consultants and Emanuel S p Partner Allied Progress Consultants From left Helena Kroftov Leisztner Fashion Designer and Artist with her husband Roland and H.E. Richard W. Graber former Ambassador of the USA to the CR and Vice President Government Relations EMEA Honeywell From left Michal Hrbata Deputy Minister of Defence Mgr. Marta Gellov Director Cesk pojisovna and Member of the Board AFIZ and Jarom r Sl pota President Czechoslovak Foreign Institute From left H.E. Richard W. Graber former Ambassador of the USA to the CR and Vice President Government Relations EMEA Honeywell and Benke Aikell your Publisher From left H.E. Lembit Uibo Ambassador of Estonia H.E. Richard W. Graber former Ambassador of the USA to the CR and Vice President Government Relations EMEA Honeywell and Michal Hrbata Deputy Minister of Defence 29 networking charity From left JUDr. PhDr. Oldich Chodra Lawyer Charterpresident of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador and former Governor of LCI D122 Czech Republic and Slovak Republic Ing. Frantisek Chaloupeck former President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador Ing. Vladim r P ral Writer and Ing. Ladislav Vasko Commercial Director Prague Bohemia Ambassador From left Ing. Jarom r Kaulfus Enterpreneur Ing. Frantisek Chaloupeck former President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador and Ing. Ladislav Vasko Commercial Director From left Doc. MUDr. Martin Mates CSc. Cardiologist and MUDr. V clav Pol cek CSc. Plastic Surgeon From left Ing. Rudolf Koc Enterpreneur and Ing. Ji M lek former President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador From left Ing. Tom s Jadrn cek Project Engineer MUDr. Ren Vlas k Doctor Ing. Jarom r Kaulfus Enterpreneur and Ing. Ladislav Vasko Commercial Director 30 Miroslav H bal Enterpreneur JUDr. Jaroslav S tral Judge of the Municipal Court in Prague From left PhDr. Ladislav ha Owner CK RI-Tours and former President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador Ing. Frantisek Chaloupeck former President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador JUDr. Jaroslav Novotn Lawyer Membership Chairperson of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador and Ing. Tom s Jadrn cek Project Engineer Ing. Vladim r P ral Writer From left Doc. MUDr. Martin Mates CSc. Cardiologist and Ing. Ji Nejezchleb Tax Advisor From left Ing. Josef Cekal former President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador and Prof. MUDr. V clav Mandys CSc. Head of the Institute of Pathology From left Ing. Pavel Bar k Economist Ing. Jarom r Kaulfus Enterpreneur and Ing. Ladislav Vasko Commercial Director From left Ing. Frantisek Chaloupeck former President of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador Mgr. Petr Gazd k Chairman parliamentary club of TOP 09 and STAN and JUDr. PhDr. Oldich Chodra Lawyer Charterpresident of LC Praha Bohemia Ambassador and former Governor of LCI D122 Czech Republic and Slovak Republic Gues Guest of Honor Mgr.. Petr Gazd k Cha rma or M r e Gazd Chairman r of the par arliamentary club of TOP 09 and STAN a lub and TAN Topi C rrent p Topic Current political situation with con ction to pi situa o w u onnection forthcoming Senat forthcoming Senate and Region Assembly elections hcom g o ssembly ctio o MORE PHOTOS AND ELECTRONIC VERSION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LEADERSMAGAZINE.CZ IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE G 31 Pemysl Sobotka 1st Vice President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic On August 29 Chairman of the Senate n u us 29 Chai man the Se ate airm h of the Parliament of the Czech f he arliamen f he zech rliamen m ech Republi ilan Republic Milan Stch hosted a tradi-public l l oste tradi tion tional meeting of senators with ional eting senators t g na the heads of representative offices h h ads f epresentativ o fic pre ces ce of of the Czech Republic abroad. z publi abroad abroad. IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE FOR ALL CZECH AMBASSADORS AT THE SENATE T Firs Vice hairman f he enat of h arlia n The First Vice Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic s e r nat rli liam ze h publi lic Pemys Pemys obotk and h Firs Depu Pemysl Sobotka and the First Deputy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ji Schneider m k r t Minister Foreig Affair Ji chneider Fore g fa r Ji neid spok o spoke to the diplomatic corps on the ceremonial meeting which was held in oke iplo a i orps on h eremonial meeting hich as el n ploma emon meet n Wallens i G d n Wallenstein Garden. n 32 From left Vladim r Ruml Consul General of the Czech Republic in Canada H.E. Ji Karas Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Belarus H.E. Ivana Grollov Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Mongolia H.E. Michael Zantovsk Ambassador of the Czech Republic in the United Kingdom and Adolf J lek Senator From left Peter Stepanek Managing Director Pacific Leasing Corporation Abdullah AlGhanem Director International Engineering and Architecture Group and H.E. Lubom r Hlad k Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Saudi Arabia From left Benke Aikell your Publisher Marta Gellov Director Cesk pojisovna and Member of the Board AFIZ Ji Uklein Head of the Senate Office and Miluse Horsk Senator Ji Schneider 1st Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs From left H.E. Zdenk Lycka Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Denmark H.E. Petr Kopiva Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Argentina H.E. Mark ta Sarbochov Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Portugal and H.E. Pavel Vacek Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Czech Republic in the Republic of Bulgaria 33 MORE PHOTOS AND ELECTRONIC VERSION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LEADERSMAGAZINE.CZ From left Marta Gellov Director Cesk pojisovna and Member of the Board AFIZ Benke Aikell your Publisher and Petr Pithart Vice President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic H.E. Radek Pech Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Lithuania and H.E. Helena Bambasov Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Hungary From left Ing. Petr Kubern t Director Pekos and H.E. Jaroslav Kantrek Consul General of the Czech Republic in Hongkong From left Jozef Regec Senator and H.E. Jaroslav Zaj c Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Cuba From left Lenka Dimunov Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mgr. Jana Kruz kov Secretary of the Committee on Public Administration Regional Development and the Environment of the Senate and Jaroslav Sonka Director The European Shoah Legacy Institute 34 From left Ji Posp sil Owner Medical Service Miroslav Nenutil Senator Andrea Jzov Secretary of the Committee on National Economy Agriculture and Transport of the Senat Ing. Ji Bis Senator and Ing. Ji Lajtoch Senator From left H.E. Ivo Sr mek Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Belgium H.E. Radek Rubes Representative Office of the Czech Republic in Ramallah and H.E. Jaroslav Kantrek Consul General of the Czech Republic in Hongkong From left H.E. Jarmila Krejc kov Consul General of the Czech Republic in Germany and Petr Pithart Vice President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic Alexandr Vondra Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic From left H.E. Josef Koutsk Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Lybia H.E. Miloslav Mach lek Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Ghana and H.E. Radek Rubes Representative Office of the Czech Republic in Ramallah From left H.E. Jan Koukal Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Austria Pemysl Sobotka 1st Vice President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic H.E. Petr Kol Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Russian Federation and Benke Aikell your Publisher 35 interview A talk with H.E. Cihad Erginay Turkey s Ambassador to the Czech Republic Business and Cultural Cooperation is to be STRENGTHENED Photo Vladim r Weiss H.E. Cihad Erginay graduated in international relations from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. He started his career at the Political Department for Eastern Europe at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in December 1988. Then he worked at several diplomatic posts in Australia NATO Kuwait the United States and Saudi Arabia. Before arriving in Prague he was the Special Advisor to the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs H.E. Ahmet Davutolu. Since April 2011 he has been holding the post of the Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey in the Czech Republic. 36 Leaders Magazine V 2012 interview What made you work in the diplomatic service My father was a diplomat and it was my dream to become one as well. I grew up in this environment and as a result I was educated in many countries from Egypt to London the United States etc. I like living in different places and meeting foreign people. Working for the diplomatic service enables you to deal with different areas of life cultural economic and political issues. You are also in a position of responsibility and if I contribute to something it is very fulfilling. Why did you choose Prague There is a very interesting reason behind this. When I started my career at the end of the 1980s I was appointed to the department that was then called Eastern Europe and we were responsible for the Warsaw Pact countries. It was before the fall of the Iron Curtain. I was responsible for looking after the Soviet Union and some Eastern European countries including Czechoslovakia. We used to receive cables from Prague on the uprising and how the Velvet Revolution was developing. I thus heard about Charter 77 and Havel and other names. And since then I wanted to meet these people and to see Prague. And then the day came when I was to be appointed ambassador. When I was presented the choice I decided on Prague. I had never visited Prague before even as a tourist. My family and I came here to experience Golden Prague Czech hospitality its deep culture and intellectual environment and meet some people whose names were written in those cables. We have not been disappointed at all. You came to Prague in April of 2011. Did you have a chance to meet V clav Havel Fortunately yes. When I first came he was ill and was not meeting people so much. When he got slightly better he managed to see some people and I was very fortunate to be accepted by him. I had a very interesting conversation with him at his office. It was one of the moments I cherish most while being in Prague. So your expectations were fulfilled. Absolutely it was great to meet this legend. Czech-Turkish relations have been very good. What objectives did you come here with What is your mission My mission is very straightforward. I am one of the lucky ambassadors who work in a positive allied and friendly country like the Czech Republic. My mission was to improve mutual relations even further (although they are already very good) to increase trade and to increase interpersonal contact meaning to enhance tourism and cultural relations. Since I have been here I can say that we have achieved considerable progress in all of these fields. For instance our total trade volume in the last two years has grown from 2 billion dollars to 3 billion dollars which is significant especially in times of economic difficulty. So it is very satisfying that the business communities of the two countries are willing to cooperate together more intensively. In what areas does Turkey cooperate with the Czech Republic First of all I would like to say that the amount of export and import between us is very balanced. The main areas of trade with the Czech Republic are in automotive products industrial products such as tubes railway products and lines. From Turkey there are automotive spare parts construction materials household equipment and agricultural products. We hope to maintain this balance of trade between us and we are looking to increase the high-level of trade and investment volume we already have. The Czech government has declared Turkey as one of its priority markets in its export strategy paper 2012. How do you feel about that We are very happy about that and want to capitalize on the visionary attitude of the Czech Republic. And we also look upon Central Europe especially the Czech Republic as our priority market which we want to do more business with and make more investment. That is why we want to establish stronger links in the construction sector because we are very good within the construction industry (number two in the world after China). We hope to do more business in this field in the Czech Republic. What about cultural cooperation In terms of cultural relations there is also growing interest in Turkey. Our aim is to support cultural events and cinema weeks in the Czech Republic. We have been able to achieve this to a certain extent. Last year we had three cinema weeks around the Czech Republic one of them took place at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. We also support the translation of works of Turkish authors into the Czech language. Now we are in the process of opening a cultural centre in Prague. We want to provide more information about Turkey to those who are interested in our culture and history. It will probably be very welcome here because there is a growing number of students focusing on Turkey and learning the Turkish language. I hope so. Students at universities represent another important factor affecting our interpersonal contact. Every time I visit Charles University (Turcology Department) I am always happy to see Czech students speaking even better Turkish than I do. The Czech Republic is one of the top three destinations for our Erasmus students. They come to the Czech Republic because there are many high quality universities here and because of their attitude toward students. Obviously Prague is the main attraction but the students are quite distributed. They also go to universities in Brno or Ostrava for example. Some analysts see Turkey as a role model for the Arab spring countries. What is your opinion on that First of all I would like to say that the Arab spring was something that had to happen it was inevitable. And it should have come years before. People of the region struggled to regain their dignity their rights. We have seen the successful conclusion in some of the countries. Some are still in the process. We look upon them as something which has yet to be completed. It is not easy. And as the international community we have to always be ready to assist with our experience and expertise. In terms of Turkey as a role model for these countries we do not see it that way we can only be an inspiration. We can share the experiences we have had since the 1920s and those which we are still living through. It is a long process. We can only offer our experience as a reference point. How do you deal with the crisis in your neighbouring country Syria It is very sad what is happening there. For us it is of great concern. That is why Turkey is at the forefront of all initiatives for a quick solution in Syria. Another factor which affects us directly as it does other neighbours of Syria is the flow of people escaping from Syria. About 80 000 people are living in camps in Turkey. It is not easy. We try to provide them basic facilities and health care. It is also the responsibility of the international community. So we should work together to take care of these people. The long-term goal of Turkey is EU membership. How do you assess the negotiation process so far EU membership is a state policy. All political parties in Turkey support the country s membership in the EU. We are negotiating in good faith. Negotiations are a very good incentive for us toward reform. There should be no political obstructions after all it is a technical process but unfortunately there are some. Look at our economy in the past ten years. Turkey is one of the countries which has developed most. If the EU wants to look into the future with more confidence and compete with others in the world it needs Turkey. And Turkey needs the EU. Turkey is the only negotiating country in the history of enlargement that has accepted the Customs Union before accession for example. We have assumed more responsibility even before becoming a member. However there are still some fears of for example the cheap Turkish workforce and the very different economic situations of Turkish regions especially in the east. How do you cope with that I think we should look at facts. Turkey is the 6th largest economy in Europe and 16th in the world. We are in the G20. And by 2023 our centenary year we hope to be the 10th largest economy in the world. So this is what we are working toward. Unemployment in Turkey is less than in many EU countries and our economy is not as much affected by the economic crisis as many members of the Union. If you look at the migration trends in the EU you see that many people are migrating back to Turkey and to some places outside of the EU because there are more working and investment opportunities. You mentioned that your economy has not suffered during the crisis. Could you elaborate more on that First of all we have a very young population which is very dynamic. Conditions for more business and investment have been created economic steps have been taken and we can see positive results of these steps. Turkey is not a country of natural resources but we are a crossroads for energy transport such as pipelines for instance. In the past the EU was our prime trading partner. Now the EU is still an important trading partner but we have also increased our economic relations with other regions in the world such as The Middle East Central Asia and China. Now we have more partners in trade and investment. As soon as we have a more stable region then Turkey will progress much easier. What do you do in your free time I travel and being in the Czech Republic I have ample opportunities to do so. I read that you are a big fan of football. Yes I am. I have been to a couple of matches here already. What is your favourite team in the Czech Republic I cannot say it this way. However when growing up I grew up with many Czech football teams Sparta Praha Bohemians Dukla Praha and Ban k Ostrava. These names are very familiar to Turkish football fans. By Zuzana Kas kov I cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz Leaders Magazine V 2012 37 global perspectives Jan M hlfeit Chairman Europe Microsoft Corporation Photo Paul Pacey 38 global perspectives In the EU youth unemployment is currently at 22% up from 15% in 2008. European Commissioner for Employment Laszl Andor estimated that high levels of youth unemployment are costing Europe approximately 2 billion per week. Policymakers clearly recognise that the longer young people remain unemployed the harder it will be for them to enter the workforce. At the same time industry leaders are raising concerns over a lack of young people with the right training to fill their technical positions According to IDC 90% of all jobs will require technology skills by 2015. How has the Czech education system attempted to address this issue so that young people have the proper education and skills to meet and exceed market needs What lessons have we learnt that will benefit our European counterparts And how can Europe as a whole tackle these worrying figures The Czech lands have a lengthy tradition of academic and scholarly pursuits going back to The Middle Ages and the founding of Charles University in Prague in 1348. The reforms introduced by Marie Terezie in 1774 provided a blueprint for the education system in both city and rural communities and importantly made school attendance a legal requirement for all children from the ages of six to twelve. Post1945 the emphasis has been on technical education to support Czechoslovakian industrywhich was dominated by the export of highquality machinery manufactured consumer goods and raw materials. However the industrial sector was hampered by slow technology progress and lack of upgrades leading to inefficiencies and waste of energy materials and labour. Nevertheless industry has consistently been the greatest value-add to the Czech economy compared to the service and agricultural sectors. Is a technical or industry-specific education still attractive for young people in the 21st Century Looking at the decisions of those entering secondary school in the Czech Republic the answer appears to be yes . 15% attend a gymnasium to study a pre-university curriculum whilst 25% go to a technical school and 60% choose a vocational school. One of the current features of Czech technical schools that I believe is exceptionally attractive is the range and relevance of programmes they offer. The Ministry of Education sets the general courses within a specialisation such as electronics then provides narrower courses which mirror market requirements such as light electrotechnics. The Head of the school can then tailor a percentage of the course even further to better fit the local labour market. But we also need excellence at the top. In 2011 in the Czech Republic out of the 76 000 new university students approximately 20% enrolled in technical sciences the second highest proportion after economic science and business schools. However in 2001 out of 46 000 new students more than 30% enrolled in technical sciences. So whilst the proportion has declined the overall number of technical students has increased. Specialised technical education at the secondary level provides a route for students into skilled production processes and a smooth transition from the classroom to the workforce. Tertiary education can boost the number of young people moving into innovative R&D roles and help ensure a new wave of Czech technology start-ups. The private sector s role in this instance is to collaborate and communicate with its public sector counterparts through providing clear instructions on market trends and future employment requirements as well as offering a variety of apprenticeships and on-the-job training opportunities for young people at all levels. Industry and the technology industry in particular can inspire and incite student s interest in a future career. Taking an example close to my heart over the past decade Microsoft s Imagine Cup has invited students to propose technology solutions to the world s most pressing challenges. Current competitions for the Cup challenge students in the areas of cloud computing software design and game design to help alleviate worldwide issues such as poverty famine gender inequality environmental sustainability and access to education and healthcare. Apart from the societal benefit of these solutions students can learn new skills turn their ideas into a business and win cash grants and prizes. Unsurprisingly Czech students have fared well in the Imagine Cup due to the entrepreneurial spirit and ingenuity of our young people. In the 2010 competition for example Czech Team GINA entered the Geographical Information Assistant a software that enables those first on the scene after a natural disaster to use mobile devices to navigate difficult terrain coordinate with other teams and efficiently exchange geographical information. By 2011 Team GINA had become GINA Systems a start-up company. Their software was used following the earthquake in Haiti by field workers to pin the whereabouts of safe water wells onto digital maps coordinate access to these locations in real time and monitor the spread of cholera. The company now regularly supports relief agencies as well as businesses seeking to lower costs for planning logistics and secure the movement of workers and equipment. Company CEO Zbynk Poul cek stated in post-Haiti interviews that his motivation came from wanting to make the world at least a slightly better place and noted that GINA Systems transitioned from a student project to a serious business very quickly . I believe GINA Systems is more than just an example of the business potential start-ups can offer it serves as an inspiration to young people who are considering a technology specialisation and wondering how it can benefit the wider society. Back to tackling that shockingly high (and unsustainable) figure of 22% youth unemployment which equates to 5.5 million under 25s in the European Union. Increasing spending in education has been proven to benefit an economy even during periods of financial downturn. This has been evidenced by Finnish Prime Minister Esko Aho who oversaw greater funding for education amongst massive cuts in other departments following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Two decades later and Finland regularly appears in the world s top three most innovative countries supporting a robust economy. The Finnish strategy emphasised improving the effectiveness of teachers. They achieved this by upgrading the profession - so new teachers had to take a three-year graduate school preparation program free of cost and with an allowance for living expenses. Equally importantly half of the teachers time in school is spent in high-level professional development collaborative planning and working with parents. Effective teachers are the number one predictor of student success so it s no surprise that the Finnish strategy has borne fruit. This is an important lesson for the Czech education system where the quality of pedagogical faculties is on occasion criticised. Remuneration of our teachers must reflect their critical role in society and be commensurate for the best and brightest not just the most enthusiastic. In terms of a private sector example of supporting effective teaching Microsoft Partners in Learning is a 10-year 500M global initiative aimed at advancing schools and educators use of technology. Key features include envisioning workshops to plan and implement a school s educational vision and Virtual Universities to foster peer coaching and teachers leadership skills. Overall tackling youth unemployment means unlocking human potential at an early age through an education system that equips young people with the skills needed throughout their professional careers. We can achieve this by investing in teacher training strengthening the relations between industry and educators and learning from mutual successes across Europe. I believe the Czech education system can capitalise on promoting technical education and am confident that our country s young people can become the source of the next generation of innovators entrepreneurs and leaders. By Jan M hlfeit I Chairman Microsoft Europe cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE Leaders Magazine V 2012 39 Bad Mood The Czech Republic has experienced an economic downturn for not less than four quarters in a row. The gross domestic product (GDP) has fallen according to preliminary data of the Czech Statistic Office by 1.2 per cent on year-to-year basis in the second quarter of 2012. This development got Czechia as to the trend of economic growth nearer to countries like Hungary Italy or Portugal. On the opposite the Polish Slovak as well as Austrian economies grow and also the GDP in Germany which is the most important trade partner of the Czech Republic is rising. The consumption of Czech households stagnates this is the most apparent in foodstuffs and in particular in sales of automotive fuel. The population s propensity to save is soaring the volume of savings of households has grown by a half during last five years. Industrial production has decreased in yearto-year terms by 2.2% as at June 2012 and rather disquieting is also the deceleration of the growth trend of automotive industry and related subcontractor branches. Construction industry finds itself in a serious decline its production has fallen in year-to-year real terms by 8.4 % as at June 2012. According to available data from 1st quarter of 2012 total transport of goods in tonnes decreased in year-on-year terms in road transport by 8.9 % and in railway transport by 6.5 % the main decrease having taken place in national transport. The only positive factor in this economic bad mood (this term coined by Prime Minister Petr Necas) is growing foreign trade where exports grew on year-to-year terms by 5.6 % while imports pushed down by lowered domestic consumption grew only by 0 9 % as at June 2012. But as the growth in the rest of Europe seems to decelerate due to imminent troubles of some eurozone countries it may cause also a change in this so far hopeful result. The response to the question why the Czech Republic is in a continuing recession while neighbouring economies grow is not simple. Of course the main part of the negative development in Czechia is imported from the outside as an effect of global financial and European debt crisis. The Czech economy as a smaller and open one is always more sensitive to external influences and business cycle fluctuations. Nor can it mobilize built-in capacity especially workforce reserves like Poland to feed economic growth. But this is only a part of the overall picture. A good part of the recession can be accounted to austerity measures applied in the public sector. It can be praised that the Czech right-centre government preferred financial stability and did not get lured by the idea of pumping money into the economy to boost growth and resisted also to introduce unsystemic financial tools like scrap money to support industrial production. It showed that the automotive industry did well even without that. The problem is that spending cuts concerned predominantly public investment which heavily hit the construction sector and got it into the crisis. Another factor pressing the industry down was irregularities in the EU fund management system that caused delay with EU repayment. This may bring new tension into the State budget as well as the threat that allotted EU funds of this programming period may not be fully utilized. A very ambiguous measure was raising taxes which is a violation of the schoolish rule to never increase taxes during recession and also of the original Government s programme. Some analyses document that the Czech GDP development began to deviate from that in neighbouring countries just by this very moment. Speaking about the bad mood one should also not forget the symptoms of upcoming political crisis due to multiple revelations of mishandling public funds by prominent politicians and lobbyists searching for their own benefit not that of the country. This problem is closely linked with the somehow suspect system of financing political parties. So as to gain a better mood here it is necessary that the system is profoundly reformed to be more financed from public sources more transparent and more strictly regulated. One can scarcely accuse Czech households of being very careful in spending money especially when hearing so many items of bad news. To some extent it is only a delayed demand that may manifest when times are better. This means a better atmosphere in the economy and society. The Government should not invent specific progrowth measures but concentrate more on the efficiency of its administration which sometimes resembles a car with choked carburettor and infrastructure analysis leaking fuel system. Savings can be relatively big here. Then more money can get into infrastructure investment that is running a good deal of internal debt again. Another point is to continue improving the legal environment for entrepreneurs including a better protection of creditors. It is really controversial whether the Government should raise VAT again both existing rates by one percentage point. This will not reduce the State budget deficit too much and in turn a decline to do so will certainly not cause any special disaster to the budget. But this measure little important as it is is a further bad mood instigator among entrepreneurs and citizens. On the contrary when both external and internal situation stabilizes it may be worth while to prepare a more significant reduction of taxes. By Emanuel S p I Partner Allied Progress Consultants Association cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE Leaders Magazine V 2012 41 new presidential candidate Exceptional Ladies Lady Pro LUNCH IN SUPPORT OF MR. KAREL MUZIK TO BECOME PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE For 17 years Comenius Society has been organizing the competition CZECH 100 BEST of which the LADY PRO award is an important component. The LADY PRO award annually recognizes exceptional women who while achieving outstanding professional political athletic artistic or other work results have been able to maintain their most precious characteristic their womanhood despite professional and time constrains. A number of laureates of the LADY PRO award have gathered in Parnas restaurant on Thursday September 20th for a discussion lunch during which they nominated yet another candidate to run for the 2013 Czech presidential elections. During this unique gathering a group of exceptional women coming from a range of professional backgrounds have stated that they would collectively like to nominate Mr. Karel Muzik senior President of Comenius Society for the next presidential post as he is a mature educated experienced charming strong-minded and at the same time steady person a visionary. The group of ladies came to express their support to a new potential presidential candidate a man who for the past twenty-two years has been in the head of a non-profit organization which he directed in a patriotic manner. The exceptional lady gathering has declared that considering his 72 years of age Karel Muzik is exceptional in his scope of activities speaks several languages and is well-rounded in international business. Although he was a member of the Communist Party before the Velvet Revolution Karel Muzik has never taken any political activity before or after 1989. The decisive reasoning for this nomination is Karel Muzik s rich life experience wisdom his ability to understand and solve difficult life and organizational situations individual integrity innate authority and his deep human dimension which he expresses every day in his help to his wife in her unceasing 24 7 care of their severely handicapped son. Karel Muzik is a congenial humble talk-ative and always elegant senior with a good sense of humor a non-smoking and non-alcoholic man who has convinced us on numerous occasions that he has all the necessary capabilities to well represent our country and to promote the interests of the Czech Republic in the high-level international context. As a President Karel Muzik would with no doubt continue his efforts to support exceptional women like he does with the Lady Pro award and he already knows that his closest co-worker would be a Lady Chancellor of the Office of the President. Besides the common functions of this important position the key mission of this lady would be the fulfillment of three special tasks. The Lady Chancellor would firstly make sure that from the first day of his presidency Mr. Muzik would stand up to his commitment to serve for only one yet intense and fruitful term of office. Secondly during her everyday office the Lady Chancellor would enforce the presidential promise to actively involve common sense and logic in the maintenance of the bureaucracy of the Czech state. With this logic and common sense the potential President would like to boost up the number of capable women in state and municipal administration. The third task would be systematic preparation of terms and conditions for the following presidential post to be taken up by a lady matching the needs of the nation. 42 From left Terezie Fuc kov Deputy Head Institute of Immunology and Microbiology First Faculty of Medicine Charles University in Prague and General University Hospital in Prague Karel Muzik President Comenius and Mother Superior Miroslava Fr deck Convent of St. Charles Boromejsk new presidential candidate From left Zdenka Vostrovsk CEO 1. VOX Miloslava Proch zkov Owner AVANTI and Alena Melkov Chief Zootechnic AC Nc n From left prof. Soa Nevs malov Head of Neurology Clinics Vseobecn fakultn nemocnice and Kateina Cern Secretary Municipal Office Prague 13 From left Martina Cik nov Co-Owner ESO Travel and Marianna Drahotsk Karel Muzik President Comenius From left Kateina Capkov Director Excon and Renata Tel nov CEO Scanservice Martina Hovo kov Architect Prof. Terezie Fuc kov Deputy Head Institute of Immunology and Microbiology First Faculty of Medicine Charles University in Prague and General University Hospital in Prague From left Miloslava Proch zkov Owner AVANTI Alena Melkov Chief Zootechnic AC Nc n and Sylva Tvrd kov Vysok skola obchodn IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE 43 analysis EUROPEAN LEADERSHIP & ACADEMIC INSTITUTE P R A G U E CERTAINLY. BUT HOW The role of leadership in a firm is so varied and dynamic that it is inevitably one of the key components of the company s business success. Great leaders make great companies argues for example Martin Saitz who has been leading the BMW Group CR for several years and currently functions as a lecturer at the European Leadership & Academic Institute (ELAI). According to the AMA study of 2011 titled Developing Successful Global Leaders 12 per cent of the most successful companies spend at least one quarter of their budget on global programs that support leadership (the success was measured by the company s market share revenue and customer satisfaction). Less successful companies on the other hand spent less than 10 per cent of their annual budgets on leadership training. The relationship between educating leaders and the success of companies is truly doubted by few. Which type of leadership education however is the right one How do we make sure that our investment will really bring about a generation of top leaders who will lead their organizations through to major successes In the past few years a concept of 4Cs became one of the key themes of company leadership indicating the direction that leadership education should take Communication skills Critical thinking Co-operation Team work Creativity and innovation. At the same time experts also agree that development in these areas must be supported during the formation of young talent in schools as well as in the everyday working process it is not therefore possible to send leaders to a 2 or 3 week training session each year and expect a 180 degree turnaround. It is necessary to foster a company culture which will support or even demand the personal growth and development of individuals and organisational structures. The basis of such culture may then be a central development of these four areas. Given the complexity of the processes of today s business environment success of individuals depends on whether they are able to navigate themselves in these processes and to set a clear goal along with ways to achieve it. Good leaders will find such ways and withstand them the best will inspire those who follow them. In order to do so they need to be able to critically evaluate a situation and come up with an innovative solution which will take their company a step ahead of its competitors. They also need to communicate the results to their teams and co-operate with them to overcome any potential challenges. In their article for T&D Leadership Is Everybody s Business authors argue that the core of good leadership lays in its unity of being and doing for leaders to be followed they must be trusted both in terms of their personalities and their goals for a particular organisation. Such inner and external integrity must be clear to the whole team. According to Radek Spicar Vice President of the Confederation of Industry and patron of ELAI there is a lot left to learn for the current and future leaders. They need to learn he says that at every moment they have to lead by their own example that they must be trustworthy or else they will not gain the respect of others that power and influence must also be accompanied by humility. And that they might feel lonely once at the top and that the wind there might be harsh. By Kateina Coops HR & Client Manager European Leadership & Academic Institute (ELAI) I cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz Developing Leadership Photos Archive of Autor Almost every day we read articles about leading people we talk about educating leaders. We can find leadership courses in the learning portfolios of every company the social networks are full of tips and tricks on how to motivate our teams. Why is it then that the greatest problem organizations face in reaching their goals is the way their people are lead The problem in fact is generally not the lack of knowledge and specialties of leaders but in the area that is underestimated by many A leaders soft skills. As it has been said and written many times before the pace of change in a company environment and the complexity of decisions which leaders have to take mean that the pressure on leaders performances is greater than ever before. The significance of effective leadership in a company is indisputable. 44 Leaders Magazine V 2012 IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE 24th - 26th October 2012 Lindner Hotel Prague Castle This era of uncertainty in the global market is affecting the role of CFOs. The challenges are coming from debt-driven nd annual CFO Forum. Top 10 Reasons You Should Attend Increase capital via smart choices and new trends Hear the latest strategies for shared services excellence Discuss the value of corporate responsibility Improve your working capital management Learn the trends of forecasting amid economic swings Rethink the outsourcing strategy for nance Review the requirements for nancing from di erent sources Find out how a new EC proposal can impact audit and consulting realities Expand your insights into emerging markets Discover how to make the best of new IT trends gue Join us in Pra ith the most to network w sformative erful and tran pow er experts CFOs and oth al ning and capit aud tax plan fr will ogether they anagement. T m nal ith inspiratio provide you w ond ow CFOs resp guidance on h set of actual to the unique challenges. 2012 We Moved it to the Next Level EBCG CFO Forum aims to be the best platform for CFOs and nancial decision makers in Europe. What distinguishes this event from others 16 Speakers - All industry leading minds Expect ever more interactive and thought-provoking discussions 16 CPD Points - accredited by ACCA (ask for ACCA membership discount) ACCA Quality Seal - Get a Certi cate of Attendance 100 Attendees - Meet your peers from over 24 countries and enjoy the networking 2 Streams - Improve & Protect CFO Thoughts Leaders Panel - Gathering CFO Executives of Fortune Global 500 companies Unparalleled Networking - All inclusive Gala Reception favorite co ee breaks and Q&A hotspot with several quality business leads. That s how we contribute to the business communities we serve. We provide our clients with a serious competitive advantage. The company maintains the highest standards of quality and service in research technology and product development. Our commitment to service and quality are the basis for our reputation as a premier business intelligence provider. Collaborative Partners About EBCG Established in 2010 European Business Conferences Group (EBCG) is a privately owned business intelligence company active in Western and Central Europe creating and promoting strategic conferences professional training in-company training and webinars. Our mission is to provide our clients with premium business intelligence insights to maintain and improve their competitive advantage and business relationships. Our vision is focused on creating a better future through our innovation and creativity. We are experts in helping you brainstorm your way to real results. Participants can expect to come away from one of our conferences with (at least) a couple of big ideas and several new key contacts. If you are a sponsor of our conference you can anticipate leaving our event Tel. 421 2 3220 2200 Fax 421 2 3220 2222 E-mail cfo ebcg.biz or barbora.skvarkova ebcg.biz Web www.ebcg.biz CZECH 100 BEST GRAND GOLF PRIX ALBATROSS CUP 2012 Special thanks to Ifield Computer Consultancy and Laic Aktiengesellschaft for making this reportage possible G bina Partysov Spokeswoman of the tour and Karel Muzik President Comenius IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE Czech 100 Best Grand Golf Prix Joint HCP 0 - 18 1 KOS Pavel HCP 6 8 (before 7 8) 2 GRUBNER Martin HCP 13 2 (before 15 3) 3 SKALICK Martin HCP 5 4 (before 5 6) Joint HCP 18 1 - 36 1 VESEL Ales HCP 24 0 (before 29 0) 2 VIT SEK Pavel HCP 16 1 (before 19 4) 3 LISKA Jan HCP 20 5 (before 22 5) Joint HCP 37 - 54 1 KASPAR Martin HCP 32 0 (before 46) 2 KALA Petr HCP 34 5 (before 42) 3 P LKOV Ivana HCP 51 (before 54) 46 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH IFIELD COMPUTER M CONSULTANCY AND LAIC AK TIENGESELLSCHAFT From left Jan Klas General Director Air Navigation Services of the CR George Parobek General Director LAIC & Ifield Computer Consultancy and Vladek Slezingr General Director IBM Czech Republic czech 100 best grand golf prix tour Winners of the HCP 37 54 category receiving awards from Roman Smucler Owner Asklepion Aesthetic Clinics (on the left) and Vlastimila Reicheltov Co-Owner Golf Gate Importer of JuCad (on the right). In the middle from left Martin Kaspar CIO Veletrhy Brno Ivana P lkov CE Group and Petr Kala Fleet Sales Manager BMW Czech Republic From left Tom s Zeman Owner Zenova Services Tom s Praz k and Petr Hotovec Executive Director Zenova Services Winner of investment diamond Martin H jek Partner H jek&Zrzaveck with Martin Cervencl Investment Advisor Diamonds Investment Corporation and Karel Muzik President Comenius From left Libor Olexa Chairman of the Supervisory Board Media Factory Jarmila Olexov and Jaroslav Olexa From left Milan Slanina Managing Director Personam Jan Tich Chairman of the Board Transfer Energy Jana M kov Product Manager Pados and Benke Aikell your Publisher The exclusive Albatross Golf Resort once again hosted the second tournament of the season from the series Czech 100 Best Grand Golf Prix entitled Albatross Cup. On September 18th Czech 100 Best has thus endured a successful addition to its golf tournament tradition. With this very tournament Comenius Society has had the pleasure to introduce already the fifth continuation of the Czech 100 Best Grand Golf Prix a tournament inspired by Czech 100 Best a competition for leading Czech companies Comenius has been organizing since 1996. The tournament offered a more relaxed and yet at the same time competitive combat to the representatives of companies acknowledged by the Czech 100 Best scale. Traditionally Comenius was once again successful in arranging excellent weather conditions so participants have had the opportunity to join us for a day full of great golf experiences delicious food and a marvelous golf course. The tournament was divided into three categories categories HCP 0 to 18 HCP 18 1 to 36 and HCP 37 to 54. The winners of individual categories (see the results) received prizes from Vlastimila Reicheltov the exclusive importer of JuCad golf carts and Dr. Roman Smucler Owner of the Asklepion Aesthetic Clinics Pavel Bast Executive Head of Invelt BMW dealer and the representative of the Automobile partner and finally S rka Parobek Director of LAIC & Ifield Computer Consultancy companies who represented the Grand partner of the event. Mini Cooper keys which were the main prize of the Hole in One competition have remained in the hands of Invelt company the partner of the adjoined competition. The winner of Super Nearest to Pin competition against Marek Nov professional Czech golf player Radek Dohnal received his prize from Pavel M ka the owner of Pados. Pavla Kahounov partner of the Dolecek Kahounov Sedl ckov law firm was the winner of the female category of another adjoined competition Longest Drive and Pavel M ka was the winner of the male category of the same competition. Both winners were awarded with gift baskets from the hands of Radek Dohnal general director of TOP Hotel Praha and the Vice-Chairman of the Board of TOP Hotels Group. The prize for the chipping competition or the competition hit the BMW Z4 convertible and win it for a weekend was awarded to Pavel Kal sek. The end of the award ceremony was concluded with a rich raffle. The LAIC & Ifield Computer Consultancy were the Grand partners of the event and BMW Invelt was again introduced as the Automobile partner. MORE PHOTOS AND ELECTRONIC VERSION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LEADERSMAGAZINE.CZ 47 Radek Kl ma Mayor Prague 5 CZECH 100 BEST GRAND GOLF PRIX ALBATROSS CUP 2012 Special thanks to Ifield Computer Consultancy and Laic Aktiengesellschaft for making this reportage possible From right winner of the new Huawei Ascend P1 smartphone Milan Slanina with Zbynk Pardubsk Director Huawei Technologies G bina Partysov Spokeswoman of the tour and Karel Muzik President Comenius Radek Dohnal Deputy Chairman of the Board TOP hotels Group and G bina Partysov Spokeswoman of the tour From left Jakub Strnad Chairman of the Board Allianz Vladek Kr mek Director Legal & Compliance Dpt. Fincentrum and Stanislav Benes General Director Infram and Owner of Lucn bouda From left Petr Kala Fleet Sales Manager BMW Czech Republic Pavel Bast Executive Director Invelt Jitka Havasov Chief Financial Officer Cisco Systems and Jarom r H jek General Director Lease Plan From left Petr Krcek Director of Security ICZ Petr Soukup Managing Director Stance Communications H.E. Peter Bro Ambassador of the Slovak Republic and Pavel Kal sek Karel Filip Director Thomayerova Hospital Longest women Super Nearest to Pin KAHOUNOV Pavla DOHNAL Radek Longest men Chipping to BMW Z4 M KA Pavel KAL SEK Pavel 48 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH IFIELD COMPUTER P CONSULTANCY AND LAIC AK TIENGESELLSCHAFT C H Winners of the HCP 0-18 category receiving awards from S rka Parobek Director LAIC & Ifield Computer Consultancy from left Martin Grubner Managing Partner Grubner Legal Pavel Kos Martin Skalick Owner ForGolf and G bina Partysov Spokeswoman of the tour siln a stabiln partner Vseobecn zdravotn pojisovna sv m klientm nab z adu v hod a odmuje je za zodpovdn p stup k vlastn mu zdrav i ke zdrav jejich bl zk ch. Pipravila preventivn programy a akce pro kazd ho z rodiny. KLUB PEVN HO ZDRAV nab z clenstv klientm stars m let. S pomoc klubov karty mohou cerpat zaj mav slevy a bonusy u v ce nez partner klubu. ZDRAV ZIVOT je kreditn program v nmz pojisovna pisp v clenm Klubu pevn ho zdrav na pohybov a volnocasov aktivity nebo na ockov n nehrazen z veejn ho zdravotn ho pojistn . ZDRAV RODINA je p spvkov program d ky kter mu mohou rodice pro sv dti z skat p spvek na ockov n nehrazen z veejn ho zdravotn ho pojistn nebo na pevn rovn tka. ZIJ ZDRAV je edukacn kampa kter rad a pom h v problematice obezity nadv hy a se zdravotn mi komplikacemi s t m souvisej c mi. PREVENTIVN PROHL DKY jsou bezplatn a VZP doporucuje kazd mu aby na n chodil x za dva roky k praktick mu l kai x za rok ke stomatologovi a x za rok ke gynekologovi. networking discussion event Clarion Congress Hotel Prague September 6 2012. Comenius Society entered the new school year with an important discussion Round Table with Prime Ministers of the Czech and Slovak Republics Mr. Petr Necas and Mr. Robert Fico. The debate was commenced with Prime Minister Fico s appreciation of the strong bonds between the two countries and also with his concern about the EU consolidation. Special thanks to Ifield Computer Consultancy and Laic Aktiengesellschaft for making this reportage possible Round Table of Comenius Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Petr Necas and Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Robert Fico At the same time Prime Minister Fico stressed that the stability of the Euro zone is essential for the future of Slovakia. Prime Minister Necas commented on the economical interconnectedness of the Czech and Slovak Republics and supported Robert Fico with his own hopes for the Euro zone. The discussion proceeded with topics such as transportation and the improvement of Czech-Slovak highway connection and also higher level education and mutual accreditation of Czech and Slovak Universities. From left Robert Fico Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Karel Muzik President Comenius and Petr Necas Prime Minister of the Czech Republic 50 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH IFIELD COMPUTER T R CONSULTANCY AND LAIC AK TIENGESELLSCHAFT Y From left Alessandro Pasquale General Director Karlovarsk miner ln vody H.E. Peter Bro Ambassador of the Slovak Republic Ladislav Dr b Chairman of the Board CE Group Robert Fico Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic networking discussion event From left H.E. Peter Bro Ambassador of the Slovak Republic Ladislav Dr b Chairman of the Board CE Group Robert Fico Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Karel Muzik President Comenius Leos Tom cek Vice President Rusatom Overseas Jan Klas Director Air Navigation Services Milan Fio Chairman of the Board and President ECO-INVEST Soa van Deelen General Director Association of Czech and Moravian Production Cooperatives Petr Fajtl Director of the Air Navigation Service of the CR Pavel Hor k Director VZP and Ivo Simco Director CE Group From left Michal Donath General Director Donath Business & Media and Alessandro Pasquale General Director Karlovarsk miner ln vody From left Petr Soukup Managing Partner Stance Communications and Milan Hejl Managing Partner Ami Communications From left Josef Veselka Head of Department of Cardiology University Hospital Motol Ji Vacek Co-Owner Avanti Miloslava Proch zkov Co-Owner Avanti and Tom s Nov k Dach Sales Director Ami Praha From left Michal Lukes General Director National Museum Eugeny Rodin Director of Representation Atomstroyexport and Zdenk S ma Regional VicePresident for Central Europe Rusatom Overseas Jan Tasek CEO and Co-Owner ASE From left Miroslav Pavel Chairman of the Board and General Director Bank institute and Pavel Smutn Partner C sa Ceska Smutn Blanka Kalcsov Chairwoman of the Board and General Director Medis Holding and Michal Donath General Director Donath Business & Media From left Radka Bucilov Director State Environmental Fund Karel Muzik President Comenius and Milana Chamberlain Managing Partner Norton Rose 51 networking discussion event Special thanks to Ifield Computer Consultancy and Laic Aktiengesellschaft for making this reportage possible From left Jan Kleisner Member of the Board and CFO Skoda JS Michal H tle General Director T-systems and Josef Kotrba Leading Partner Deloitte Czech Republic From left Petr Kuch r General Director Prominecon Group and Libor H jek President Eltodo EG From left Tom s C p Executive Vice President Comenius Alice Maar Managing Director Wine 4 You and Ji C p General Director and Vice Chairman of the Board SPRINX SYSTEMS Ivana Sindel ov Sales Manager Webcom and V clav Irovsk Branch Director LOM Praha From right Petr Dvo k General Director Czech Television Roman Cab lek General Director Microsoft Benke Aikell your Publisher and Bohdan Wojnar Member of the Board Human Resources Skoda Auto From left Hana Krbcov General Director CEZ Trusteeship Libor Joukl Deputy Governor Region Vysocina and Albin Sybera General Director Sybera Enterprises Karel Muzik President Comenius and Jana Nagyov Chief Director Cabinet of the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Miroslav Pavel Chairman of the Board and General Director Bank institute in his speech 52 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH IFIELD COMPUTER H CONSULTANCY AND LAIC AK TIENGESELLSCHAFT O C From left Alessandro Pasquale General Director Karlovarsk miner ln vody H.E. Peter Bro Ambassador of the Slovak Republic Ladislav Dr b Chairman of the Board CE Group Robert Fico Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Karel Muzik President Comenius and Petr Necas Prime Minister of the Czech Republic media power No Real Leadership WITHOUT COMMUNICATION The biggest challenge I face as a corporate communication advisor is access to my clients wants and needs. Two questions remain are what is the easiest way to know them and how can an expert turn them into the pitch in order to sell them to the media This task sometimes feels like butting head to head with the client for their benefit. On one hand they want more media visibility to boost business. On the other hand they can t find the time to write a quote or a blurb for an article or to draft an expert article with an up-to-date motif. Even though I sympathise with those with an overwhelming workload which I know exactly how they feel I believe the lack of involvement from these corporate experts in terms of communication comes from somewhere else rather than from a sheer lack of time. Let s take a look at a few possibilities why many companies fail to manage their expertise properly to boost their media visibility. 1. The fish stinks from the head. When the CEO isn t seen in the media thus showing his or her example to the other company reps why should subordinates act any differently CEOs that don t bother to send clear signals about media relations being the key element for success we can t expect these individual experts and board members to come forward with their ideas for their media campaigns or pitches. 2. What is actually a story Even when the CEO is visible and the company reps know media relations are important they don t know how to handle the issue. The company didn t spend time identifying and sharing its key priorities for the media thus even those company reps who might want to assist the PR department can t do it because they are lost in the amount of themes they handle day by day. 3. No training no gain. It is very important that companies invest into creative writing and media relations training for experts. Thus experts gain at least some guidance on what they are expected to deliver. Otherwise when sitting down to write an expert article and looking at that white page without knowing where to start feels more painful than a natural childbirth why bother 4. Take away the shame. Many company reps don t want to be in the media just because they are afraid of making a mistake which would trigger being ridiculed by colleagues or being punished by the management. Instead of seeing media relations as a fantastic opportunity to boost their personal brand they perceive it as a hidden risk and an unnecessary evil. 5. Good outcome no impact. Last but not least many companies fail to leverage on the impact of good media coverage. Even when a rep runs an excellent interview in the media some companies don t have a media section on the website to share the article with the world or they lack a proper client newsletter to share the article with customers and thus bring over palpable business gains. Moreover company reps receive no targeted feedback praise or reward for their media efforts. This leads to a fall in motivation and to even less coverage in the future. What can we do in our companies to boost the know-how flow towards the PR department and thus enhance our chance to receive more free and relevant media visibility 1. Inspire by personal example. Make is absolutely clear to everyone that communication is essential and is a priority for the whole company. 2. Praise praise praise. As soon as a good article is published transform the author into the hero of the day. Share the article across the company and be lavish in your praise. Make sure the author receives positive feedback and clear understanding on how his efforts contributed to grow the company business. 3. Reward positive efforts. It is not farfetched to consider bonuses for communication efforts. I advise clients to include clear reward policies in the labor contracts of major company reps tying communication results to individual performance indicators of the individual and thus making it Photo Jakub Stadler Cristina Muntean is a communication adviser with more than 12 years experience in the Czech Romanian and other international media fields. She is a graduate of journalism from the University of Bucharest Romania. Cristina had worked for the English-language economic magazine Czech Business Weekly (CBW) in Prague from 2005 to 2010 which she had also written over 3 000 business articles features and interviews. In August 2012 she founded Media Education CEE a premium communication advisory and training agency. By 2011 Cristina was elected president of the Czech PR Klub. She later took office as chairwoman of the Marketing Committee for the American Chamber of Commerce in Prague in January 2012. Cristina speaks Romanian French English and Czech and can be reached at cm mediaed.cz. crystal clear that communication is a priority for everybody. 4. Think strategically. There is nothing worse than expectations without clear guidance. Make the business and communication goals of the company clear to everybody. Share with everyone and update regularly the messages that the company is trying to communicate. Assign a clear role for every person involved in the process to make sure people know where they stand and what their duties are in terms of communication. 5. Train train train. Train everyone into becoming better communicators. It will return to you in many miraculous ways even though it might just be an improved atmosphere at the labor place or higher customer satisfaction. It is my belief that without inspiring communication there is no leadership. Yet everyone must start somewhere. Communication is such an obvious a part of leadership that we tend to take it for granted. Many times the difference between a real leader and a manager who is forgotten as soon as he goes into retirement lies into what he brought out to the world into how he shared the lessons he learned on his path and how many people will remember him after he s gone. If you find a way to achieve that without communication let me know. If not make it a priority and start with yourself. It will pay off sooner than later. I cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE Leaders Magazine V 2012 53 QuoVadis The Future Of Event Management Enjoying current stage of ICT development deeply interested in Web 2.0 and modern mobile platforms. Spreading that knowledge with other similarly captivated people at university courses. G Enhancing knowledge in the field of event management and planning while organizing number of professional international events as the UniversityBusiness Forum for European Commission in 2010 or MOBERA conference. G Founding departments designing mobile applications both in commercial and academic spheres Photo Vladim r Weiss since 2008 at organizations Ecommerce.cz Masaryk University (actually first academic laboratory regarding modern mobile platforms in Czech Republic) Acemcee. G Researcher in management of web-based services giving talks at e.g. ISD 2010 SYNACS 2010 or FedCSIS 2011. Actively participating on organization and lecturing various topics of software engineering at Masaryk University (Development of Mobile Applications Project Management Communication & Soft-Skills and more) while cooperating with the Vienna University. G Since 2010 owns an innovative company ACEMCEE focusing on professional event management online event steering and developing solution Takeplace for modern web and mobile platforms. G Skiing and starting to play golf tasting good wine and listening Frank Sinatra. Event management today is a brilliant approach for companies enabling them direct contact with their clients and customers. Unfortunately most of them mistake this opportunity as only another selling outlet. This shortsightedness causes a lot of disappointment for both sides and an insignificant investment return. On the other hand event management well operated increases the clients loyalty and the company s reputation. A properly prepared event (a seminar a workshop a (press) conference or a symposium) can serve as a channel for getting feedback in an agile way in facilitating product customization and adaptation towards the customers needs. Finally it demonstrates company s ability as an opinion maker and an expert in the presented field. Each cited advantage positively influences company s position on the market. Apple is a prime example. Haven t you at least once visited their Apple Store with their free teaching presentations However it is not easy to attract a target group (clients journalists expert audience etc.). Current trends show us the era of a simple event between four white walls with several bottles of sparkling water is finally over. Nowadays attendees to such events are even more demanding for the highest level of service and experience Event managers have to be very creative and innovative while making use of the latest technology and being well connected with our tradition Czech sense of humor. One example is our magenta mobile operator s press conference which was fashioned to resemble a wedding ceremony with a bride and a groom. Another example is the phenomenal anniversary circus party of our leading Internet search engine company which certainly is one of the most unforgettable events. The event managers situation gets to be easier while the people are utilizing the newest technology in their daily routine. Augmented reality and NFC (near field communication) becomes comprehensible and practical not only for the technological specialists but for the general public as well. Applications and e.g. NFC chips are integrated in your pocket through your Android or Blackberry smartphones. Supposedly the upcoming Apple iPhone 5 will install the NFC by September of this year. What could you do with this technology as the company s event manager or attendee Imagine a set of applications for you to answer surveys non-aggressively analyzing your service or product with a significant amount of usable feedback. Picture a huge turnout experience through gamification which typically invol-ves game designs to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging. Everything abides with the aim to satisfy your event s attendees and promote the company s message or mission statement that they will not forget it after two or three seconds. Another aspect that must not be overlooked is the jovial setting for your events. People are gathering to get to know each other which brings them even more opportunities and new business relations for the company. You only have to monitor the networking before during and after the event. Classical badge printing has become obsolete especially since the whole manual process is now very time & cost consuming with registration by email or a displaced webpage. The world is changing and mobile smartphones and tablets are starting to rule how we handle our communication and workload. We are getting use to have all our data available and accessible anywhere and anytime. The small tiny device you carry in your pocket can perform more than your five-year-old laptop thanks to its flexibility and its immediate disposal. But what does that gizmo have anything to do with event management Event Registration can be made at any location even your favorite coffeehouse. It s easier to make quick connections and cuts down check-in time. You can also recognise and connect with other attendees through browsing your LinkedIn webpage at the event itself. And there s more to come. The budget restrictions for PR and marketing departments go hand in hand with the increased complexity of events which demand a more sophisticated solution in helping the people involved with the company the event department or the agency and attendees. Registration and attendance is the most crucial part how do you get prospective members to sign up and come to your event How much effort do you require from your attendees to register Simplification is fundamental and unless the registration can be made in one or two clicks they ll put off their enrollment until the very last minute. Fresh and electrifying companies have taken on these challenges and developed their innovative solutions for event management. Takeplace for example has quickly become a leading Czech platform for business events or communal happenings as well as TEDx. Thanks to these unifying tools event organisers have all the essential data in one safe place can collaborate with each other more and give attendees a richer event experience. Many other details play a major role in excellent event management to give you what you want more satisfied customers and significantly bigger ROI. On the other hand everything begins and ends with common sense if you offer something interesting to both parties and know how to present it then you ll meet and even exceed their expectations every time. In today s virtual reality events connect people and business is still conducted with actual customers. Therefore cliental care pays off and when it comes to organizing events there remains a huge amount of untapped possibilities. By Jaroslav Skrab lek Dr. MBA I cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz future insight 54 Leaders Magazine V 2012 The third annual Presidential CFO Golf Tournament took place September 12th in the Golf Park resort in Pilsen. The tournament began at 10am by cannon start with the presence of VIP guests of the Club of the Financial Directors. The accompanying programme included a fashion show of luxurious sport and lingerie brands. Miroslav Holub senior account manager of the company RENOMIA became the overall winner of the tournament. CFO golf tournament From left Ondej Bal k CEO KREKOM Michal Mejst k Chairman of the Board EEIP Dean Brabec President CFO Club and Managing Partner CEE Arthur D. Little and Martin Herrmann Member of the Board CFO Club and General Director and Chairman of the Board RWE Transgas Winners at the category HCP 20-35 9 men women from left Pavla Topol nkov Chancellor Vysok skola financn a spr vn Rychard Etrych Director Expert Institue NSG Morison and Jitka Havasov Regional Finance Manager Cisco Systems Winners at the category HCP 0-19 9 men women from left Dean Brabec President CFO Club and Managing Partner CEE Arthur D. Little Ondej Bal k CEO KREKOM and Rastislav Vasica Bohemia Sekt Jakub Holubec Partner Dolphin Consulting Pavel Dolezal Director pdMEDIA From left Mr. Tom s Kub lek Jitka Havasov Regional Finance Manager Cisco Systems and Petr Vacul k Head of Clinical Operations PSI CRO Czech Republic IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE 55 international conference The record of the conference can be seen on Special thanks to Ifield Computer Consultancy and Laic Aktiengesellschaft for making this reportage possible www.democracy.cz Comenius Event From left Karel Muzik President Comenius Vaira Vike-Freiberga former President of Latvia and Irakli Alasania Leader Political Coallition Bidzina Ivanishvili Georgian Dream in the Post-Soviet Territory 20 Years Later Comenius Society has organized an international conference entitled Democracy in the Post-Soviet Territory 20 Years Later. The event was under the auspices of Mr. Zdenk Skromach Vice President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic and it took place on September 11 12 in the beautiful Main Hall of the Wallenstein Palace in the Senate. Before the start of the conference itself the welcoming reception preceded on September 10. The reception took place in Cesk spoitelna Palace and it was opened by a speech of one of the conference speakers special guest Mrs. Vaira Vike-Freiberga former President of Latvia. The speakers came from different corners of the world to share their thoughts and opinions. During the first day of the conference we had the honor to hear the contributions of personalities like for example Mr. Irakli Alasania Leader of Political Coalition Georgian Dream Mr. Asim Mollazade Chairman of the Democratic Reforms Party of Azerbaijan or Mr. Ales Michalevic 2010 presidential candidate in the Republic of Belarus. The second day of the conference also brought interesting speeches delivered by distinguished guests. One of them was Mr. Janez Lenarcic Director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) or Mr. Oleksandr Tymoshenko Coordinator of the International Union Fatherland (and husband of Yulia Tymoshenkova). Mr. Fraser Cameron Director of EU-Russia Center and Senior Advisor to the European Policy Center in Brussels together with other speakers enriched the last panel of this conference. The participants had a chance to actively take part in this event as discussions with the audience followed the panels during both days of the conference. Among the participants were ambassadors and diplomats representatives of ministries municipalities nongovernmental organizations representatives of universities and other people interested in topics relevant to the contemporary struggles and challenges Euro-Asian democratic societies continue to face. 56 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH IFIELD COMPUTER CONSULTANCY AND LAIC AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT From left Rauf Zeyni President National NGO Forum of Azerbaijan Alimirzamin Askerov Director of the Department for Human Rights Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Asim Mollazade Chairman Democratic Reforms Party Azerbaijan and Alexander Akulinin Project Manager Russia and CIS Comenius international conference From left Alimirzamin Askerov Director Department for Human Rights Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Karel Muzik President Comenius Rauf Zeyni President National NGO Forum of Azerbaijan Alexander Akulinin Project Manager Russia and CIS Comenius and Elnur Guliyev Embassy of Azerbaijan Lana Gedevanishvili Marketing Director Gedevani and Miroslav Smol k Owner Galerie Miro From left H.E. Souriya Otmani Ambassador Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco and H.E. Kaspars Ozolins Ambassador Embassy of the Republic of Latvia From left Yedige Magauin Director Kazakh Service Radio Free Europe with his wife Natalia Churikova Broadcaster Radio Free Europe Mrs. Bieber and Arnie Bieber EdD Director International School of Prague From left Stanislav Benes General Director Infram and Owner of Lucn bouda Kl ra Sovov Advocate and Tom s C p Executive Vice President Comenius From left Hannu Kasi President and Country Manager ABB Czech Republic and Roman Cab lek General Manager Microsoft From left Aleksi Petriashvili Our Georgia Free Democrats Karel Muzik President Comenius and Mr. Konstantin Abesadze From left H.E. Ivan Grytsak Ambassador Embassy of Ukraine Peter Formanek President Canadian Chamber of Commerce in the CR and Viktor Matsko Counsellor Embassy of Ukraine IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE 57 international conference Special thanks to Ifield Computer Consultancy and Laic Aktiengesellschaft for making this reportage possible First Day From left Konstantin Kosachyov Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Karel Muzik President Comenius Jeff Lovitt Executive Director PASOS Policy Association for an Open Society Asim Mollazade Chairman Democratic Reforms Party Azerbaijan and Ales Michalevic 2010 Presidential Candidate Republic of Belarus Erik Best Publisher Fleet Sheet Zdenk Skromach Vice President Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic Asim Mollazade Chairman Democratic Reforms Party Azerbaijan Irakli Alasania Leader Political Coallition Bidzina Ivanishvili Georgian Dream Second Day From left Oleksandr Tymoshenko Coordinator International Union Fatherland Karel Muzik President Comenius Maren Turner Executive Director Freedom Now Janez Lenarcic Director Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights OSCE Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Alimirzamin Askerov Director Department for Human Rights Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Maksym Brynza Executive Director Ukrainian National-Cultural Center Tevan Poghosyan Executive Director International Center for Human Development Armenia MORE PHOTOS AND ELECTRONIC VERSION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LEADERSMAGAZINE.CZ 58 Janez Lenarcic Director Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights OSCE Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe David Onoprishvili Our Georgia Free Democrats Fraser Cameron Director EU-Russia Center Brussels Rauf Zeyni President National NGO Forum of Azerbaijan the coach s corner Anything Is Possible The Olympics games are an event that I have always followed with enthusiasm and had the privilege of witnessing in person on more than one occasion. I watched France s equestrian jumping team win the gold medal in Montreal in 1976. In 1992 I cheerfully applauded the Dream Team in Barcelona when the USA took the gold in basketball. And in 1996 I got to see the Czech Republic s Jan Zelezn win a gold medal and set a new world record in the javelin throw in Atlanta. This summer however with the runaway commercialism and jingoism many countries bring to the games I was only moderately interested in watching the events. But while it is easy to be cynical about the Olympics the London games offered a phenomenal spectacle with defining inspirational moments. Although all the athletes deserve praise and recognition for their physical prowess and achievements I would like to single out one competitor for a special homage this year. In my mind Michael Phelps embodies a formidable aspect of the spirit of the Olympics. By demonstrating that anything is possible he has confirmed that human potential is just about inexhaustible. Before Phelps victory in the 200-metre individual medley no man had won the same Olympic swimming event three times in a row. Before Phelps no man nor woman had ever collected more than 18 medals. In London he did that by adding four golds and two silvers bringing his already amazing total to 22 medals. When Michael Phelps was in kindergarten his inability to sit quietly prompted his teacher to comment that he was not gifted. School didn t seem to interest him. His poor grades showed a lack of focus and seemed to confirm the diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder given by the family s physician. At the age of 9 Phelps was put on Ritalin a medication used to treat hyperactivity. Luckily he was born to a family of swimmers (at 15 his sister Whitney was ranked first in the US in the 200-metre butterfly). By 10 he was ranked Karin Genton-L Ep e is a business coach with 30 years of extensive professional experience in the United States France and the Czech Republic. Based in Prague since 1995 for the past 13 years she has developed a range of coaching and training programs for mid- and top-level managers focusing on leadership development cross-cultural understanding and effective communication in a global environment. By providing a structured environment that supports people in clarifying who they are and what they want Karin enables her clients to devise more effective strategies to achieve their personal and professional goals. Thanks to her knowledge skills and range of international experience Karin is in demand as a speaker at business conferences and educational institutions on both sides of the Atlantic. She is also a regular contributor to business journals and magazines. She works in English and French and can be reached at karin coaching.cz. nationally in his age group. And when Michael was 11 his swim coach Bob Bowman who still coaches him today detected Michael s potential and predicted an Olympic future. Watching Phelps performances over the last three Olympics (Athens 2004 Beijing 2008 and London 2012) I feel that we can get inspired by his trailblazing successes and learn some useful tips from him both in sport and in business to help us achieve our dreams. VISION Whatever you can do or dream you can begin it. Boldness has genius power and magic in it. Goethe The American architect Daniel Burnham once said Make no little plans they have no magic to stir men s blood. Phelps made big plans for the 2012 Olympic games and followed through with them. His earlier ambition was to outdo Mark Spitz s achievement of seven gold medals earned at the 1972 Munich Olympics. After eight gold medals and seven world records Phelps s next long-term goal was to have the same impact on the sport of swimming that Michael Jordan had on basketball and Tiger Woods had on golf. Phelps was looking to the future when out of determination stamina and a burning desire to transform the image of swimming for children all over the world he put together the most ambitious Olympics program in the history of his sport. I wanted to change the sport and take it to another level said Phelps. And he did he became an inspiration for an entire generation. Gregg Troy the American Olympic men s head coach said that Phelps s phenomenal success has led to a deeper pool of athletes High profile athletes attract younger athletes to emulate. Phelps had to race 46 times counting preliminaries and semifinal over three Olympics. While vision and focus are keys to success discipline is the glue that keeps them together. The most difficult challenge related to discipline is that just telling someone to become disciplined doesn t work. As sports psychologist H.A. Dorfman writes in his book The Mental ABC s of Pitching You can t just urge someone to be disciplined you have to build a structure of behavior and attitude. Behavior shapes thought. If a player disciplines his behavior then he will also discipline his mind. Self-discipline is a form of freedom continues Dorfman. Freedom from laziness and lethargy freedom from expectations and demands of others freedom from weakness and fear and doubt. EXCELLENCE Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. John W. Gardner I didn t want to compete to make history I wanted to compete to be the best said five-time Olympic medalist Nadia Comaneci. That kind of sustained excellence requires a combination of passion and determination. I consider myself a normal human being who has found a passion that I love and I don t give up said Phelps. When Phelps was growing up he had a passion for what many believed they would never achieve. During the London games he showed the world that with passion and discipline any obstacle can be overcome. Anything is possible as long as you want it and work for it. It doesn t matter what everybody else thinks said Phelps. The long-term consequence of his extraordinary performances goes far beyond the Olympic games themselves. When an athlete achieves what was once considered unthinkable it makes every barrier suddenly look vulnerable. Michael Phelps will be remembered for having raised the bar higher and for shattering the notion of what we thought was possible. In doing so he helped the rest of us believe that as long as our dream is big enough and as long as we work hard to make it become a reality anything is possible. I FOCUS Rule your mind or it will rule you. Horace 1964 Olympic gold medalist swimmer Don Schollander once wrote that Psyching out is part of the game. You ve got to be able to take it and you ve got to be able to do it. In Olympic competition a race is won in the mind. Michael Phelps has been described by The Baltimore Sun as a solitary man with a rigid focus at the pool prior to a race. Michael s mind is like a clock said his mother. He can go into the 200-meter butterfly knowing he needs to do the first 50 in 24.6 to break the record and can put that time in his head and make his body do 24.6 exactly. Phelps himself says As soon as I walk in the door everything else that is going in my life doesn t matter it is like my brain shuts off. I don t have to think about anything I am there to swim that s it. DISCIPLINE We are what we repeatedly do excellence then is not an act but a habit. Aristotle At age 12 Phelps willingly got up every day at 6 30 for 90-minute morning practices and would continue to swim two to three hours every afternoon. To earn 22 medals IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE Leaders Magazine V 2012 59 culture event From left Bohuslav Svoboda Mayor of Prague Ji Z k Deputy Minister of Transportation Oldich Lomeck Mayor of Prague 1 Rudy Linka Jazz Guitarist and Petr Bratsk Senator PSP CR IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE ONE OF THE LARGEST CULTURE FESTIVALS IN EUROPE ATTRACTED OVER 80 000 PEOPLE IN JULY 2012 Mayor of Prague Bohuslav Svoboda opened the seventh annual Bohemia Jazz Fest on July 10 at the Wallenstein garden in Prague. The next day President V clav Klaus addressed the audience at the Old Town Square to a crowd of 20 000 gathered to listen to Mike Stern band. But the party was just getting started. Internationally renowned guitarist and Bohemia Jazz Festival founder and Director Rudy Linka expanded the program this year presenting 29 concerts in eight different cities with musicians from 14 different countries. Grammy winning artist Dee Dee Bridgewater Richard Bona Dave Weckl Joe Lovano Trilok Gurtu Palle Mikkelborg the recipient of the 2012 Bohemia Jazz Award Dave Holland and many more performed at beautiful historical squares throughout the Czech Republic. 60 MORE PHOTOS AND ELECTRONIC VERSION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LEADERSMAGAZINE.CZ Rudy Linka Jazz Guitarist Brno July 19th From left Prof. V clav Klaus President of the CR Rudy Linka Jazz Guitarist and Mike Stern Jazz Guitarist On the right Miroslav Nenutil Senator PSP CR From left Mr. Jan Fisher Jr. and Jan Fisher Vice President EBDR and Presidential Candidate From left Nora St brn Recruitment & Training Department Makshaff Services Ltd. the Saudi Arabia Irma Majgaladze Jewellery Designer and Petra Helekalov VIP Private Jets 61 Artvark Quartet from the Netherlands and Rudy Linka Jazz Guitarist Dave Holland Bohemia Jazz Festival Award Recipient Jazz Bass Player Plze July 13th Petr Bratsk Senator PSP CR From left Mrs. Petra Ku kov and Mrs. Michaela Losertov Seznam Mr. Jan Fisher jr. and Mrs. Anna Linka Dee Dee Bridgewater Jazz Singer Grammy Award Winner here performing in Olomouc July 17th 62 From left Joey Baron Drummer Rudy Linka Jazz Guitarist and Joe Lovano Sax Player From left Ing. Jiri Uklein Chancellor Senate of the Parliament and Ing. Jan Fiser Vice President of EBDR and Presidential Candidate From left Mr. Andries Botha husband to the Ambassador of South Africa in the CR H.E. Pascual Navarro R os Ambassador of Spain in the CR Miriam Cecilia Prata Helena Leisztner Artist and George Monteiro Prata Ambassador of Brazil in the CR culture event IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE On the occasion of receiving the International Award of Modern Art-L menarte the artist Helena Kroftov Leisztner presented her exhibition from the collection Venice Infiniti which took place under the auspices of the Italian Ambassador H.E. Pascuale D Avino. The exhibition of swivel paintings decorated with precious stones with a 3D effect was accompanied by a presentation of garments designed in a similar theme. Among the invitees there were prominent diplomats and personalities of the Czech and international political cultural and business sphere including H.E. George Monteiro Prata Ambassador of Brazil with his wife H.E. Pascual Navarro R os Ambassador of Spain Mr. Martin Torres the First Secretary of Mexican Embassy and other guests. From left Helena Leisztner Artist and Iva Drebitko Architect in front of 3D Gondola painting Martin Torres the First Secretary of Mexican Embassy Model and Venetian eyelash painting From left Radom r Nmecek General Director Central Park Praha Project 1st Czech Vicemiss Eva Ceres kov and Helena Kroftov Leisztner Artist The art-fashion show could not be missed by H.E. George Monteiro Prata Ambassador of Brazil and his wife Miriam Cecilia Prata 63 MORE PHOTOS AND EL EC T RONIC VERSION ORE HOTO AN EL ECTRON C ERSION TRON AVAIL ABL ON W W L ADERSMAGA ZINE C AVAILABLE ON W WW.LEADERSMAGA ZINE.CZ A AGA ZINE E.C discussion event From left Ji Z dek former Basketball International and first Czech player in NBA today Vice Chairman of Czech Basketball Federation Sport Manager and CEZ Basketball Nymburk Foreign Affairs Consultant Miroslav Jansta Chairman CSTV and Czech Basketball Federation President CEZ Basketball Nymburk Attorney and Associate Jansta Kostka Kamil Ziegler Vice President Board of CFO Club and General Director SAZKA s zkov kancel Petr B za former Ice Hockey International today Chairman Prague Council for Sports and Chairman of the Board HC Sparta Praha and Ji Sl gr former Ice Hockey International today Member of Parliament and Member of the Board HC VERVA Litv nov Summer thering CF Cl b embe s oo plac on ugus 15 h AUREO Fusion est uran Lounge Prague it Summer gathering of CFO Club members took place on August 15th in AUREOLE Fusion Restaurant & Lounge in Prague City mer ring CFO gust REOL sta ant Loung Prag taur n ity Tower. iscussio that ocused f inancin an persp tiv f urthe Tower. Discussion that focused on financing and perspective of further devel pment of Czech sports was moderated by Kamil Ziegler er. scussi h t s anci cing perspe s urt elopment C l ports oderated K mil Ziegler i Vice esid Vic President of CFO Cl and CEO of SA K A s zkov kancel . Th speake in the discussion were Petr B za former ice hockey Club f SAZK k l The p akers ss ere Petr za form za rmer o ke international oday hair an f ragu Council for Sports international today Chairman of Prague Council for Sports and Chairman of the Board of HC Sparta Praha Miroslav Jansta nt a onal irma ague i hairman airma oard oa p r Praha iroslav an ta Chairman of CSTV and Czech Basketb ll Federation Pr ident of CEZ Basketball Nymburk attorney and associate at Jansta m CSTV d zech k tbal F d i n Presid f k b b k i e sta Kostka. Other speakers were Ji Sl gr fo mer ice hockey international today Member of Parliament and Member of the Board of HC i gr form ockey international oday y dM VERVA Litv nov d i Z dek o e baske ball nternational n irst zech laye VERVA Litv nov and Ji Z dek former basketball international and f irst Czech play r k ernat in NBA today Vice-chairman of Czech Basketball Federation sport manager and or manager and r a CEZ Basketball Nymburk foreign affa rs consultant. Mem of the CFO Club a mb r g ffai s o ultant. ember ant m O u had also great opportunity to debate with another famous guest Jarom r o e a p u it eba e it anot e bate ith anot othe s Jarom Jarom J gr NHL Dallas Stars player and majority owner of HC RYT I KLADNO. SPORTSMEN IN THE ROLE OF MANAGERS 64 Dean Brabec President CFO Club and Managing Partner CEE Arthur D. Little From left Ji Z dek former Basketball International and first Czech player in NBA today Vice Chairman of Czech Basketball Federation Sport Manager and CEZ Basketball Nymburk Foreign Affairs Consultant Miroslav Jansta Chairman CSTV and Czech Basketball Federation President CEZ Basketball Nymburk Attorney and Associate Jansta Kostka and Tom s Koncick Branch Director Bank Gutmann AG From left Mrs. Milena Zieglerov and Petra L vickov Marketing Director RENOMIA From left Tom s Pich Media Consultant EPRAVO.CZ and Jarom r J gr NHL Dallas Stars player and Majority Owner HC RYT I KLADNO From left Jakub Holubec Dolphin Consulting and Petr Vesel Dolphin Consulting From left Dean Brabec President CFO and Managing Partner CEE Arthur D. Little Martin Nov k Member of the Board CFO and CFO Club and Vice Chairman of the Board CEZ and Jan Soukal Marketing Manager SAZKA s zkov kancel Welcome IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE 65 From left Patrik Choleva Member of the Board CFO Club and Vice Chairman and CFO Club Skanska and Petr Br vek Member of the Board CFO Club and Member of the Board Slovensk sporitea From left Jarom r J gr NHL Dallas Stars player and Majority Owner HC RYT I KLADNO and Petr B za former Ice Hockey International today Chairman Prague Council for Sports and Chairman of the Board HC Sparta Praha From left Martin Je bek CEO Havel Hol sek & Partners and Ji Hron Sales Director M.B.A. Finance From left Jakub Mina k Manager Arthur D. Little and Tom s Kouil Director Finance & Investor Relations Telef nica Czech Republic View of the hall 66 MORE PHOTOS AND ELECTRONIC VERSION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LEADERSMAGAZINE.CZ From left Dean Brabec President CFO Club and Managing Partner CEE Arthur D. Little Jarom r J gr NHL Dallas Stars player and Majority Owner HC RYT I KLADNO Kamil Ziegler Vice President Board of CFO and General Director SAZKA s zkov kancel Ji Sl gr former Ice Hockey International today Member of Parliament and Member of the Board HC VERVA Litv nov Ji Z dek former Basketball International and first Czech player in NBA today Vice Chairman of Czech Basketball Federation Sport Manager and CEZ Basketball Nymburk Foreign Affairs Consultant Petr B za former Ice Hockey International today Chairman Prague Council for Sports and Chairman of the Board HC Sparta Praha and Miroslav Jansta Chairman CSTV and Czech Basketball Federation President CEZ Basketball Nymburk Attorney and Associate Jansta Kostka From left Pavel Petkov Vice Chairman Credit Committee ANO spoiteln druzstvo Nikolay Terziev CFO ING Real Estate Development and Bohumil Mach CEO ING Real Estate Development wine tasting IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE ANO spoiteln druzstvo and Ti zlat rze s.r.o. organized a wine tasting event on 12th of September 2012 at ANO spoiteln druzstvo new headquarters in Hilton Old Town hotel V Celnici 7 Praha 1. Sommelier Jakub Pibyl presented ANO spoiteln druzstvo guests an array of excellent white and red wines including Le Sughere IGT 07 from Tuscany which 2009 vintage was included amongst the Wine Spectator Top 100 wines. ANO spoiteln druzstvo will be pleased to invite their members and guests for more interesting and delicious events in the future. From left Soa Ferenc kov Respimed Mari n P calt Owner N bytek MP and Monika Riedlov ANO spoiteln druzstvo From left Josef Havel Director Cesk rozhlas Regina Marta Gellov Director Cesk pojisovna and Member of the Board AFIZ and Radek John Chairman Vci veejn Michal Lukes General Director National Museum 67 7 From left Guiseppe Confessa Owner Ti zlat rze Zora Bl mlov Head Office of the CEO Cesk rozhlas Regina From left Eva Freiburgov CSOB Jaroslav Stj former Director Dopravn podnik hlavn ho msta Prahy and Pavel Pulkr b CEO ANO spoiteln druzstvo PANAMA Loc k Miraflores in the front ock Mira f Joseph Drebitko Joseph Dr ebitk r ebitko bi the good things in life When hearing the word Panama some might think of the famous handmade hats from Ecuador others of the world s largest duty free zone while lovers of architecture will think of the new museum by the famed architect Frank Gehry which has just been opened there. For the majority however the word Panama is synonymous with one of the most colossal engineering works ever built the strategic canal that has parted a continent connected the two largest oceans the Atlantic and Pacific and gave birth to a new state. an agreement on using the canal. The U.S. staged a revolution in the country which lead to Panama s independence in 1903 and succeeded to negotiate the terms under which the rights and obligations to construct the canal were transferred to the United States. Soon after an agreement between Panama and the U.S. followed guaranteeing the Americans control of a 16 km-long belt around the Panama Canal. For this Panama was compensated by the U.S. by a one-off payment of ten million dollars and was promised to be paid a fee of 250 000 dollars each year. In 1904 Americans purchased the remaining French assets and equipment and under the auspices of patriotism continued to build the canal - this time however under entirely new working conditions and ensuring the provision of the necessary health care. Despite many other hardships the Panama Canal was completed in ten years and ceremonially opened on August 15th 1914. It was only after the First World War in 1920 however that the Canal was put into operation. At that time the construction of the canal amounted to 400 million dollars. As a result of the water way the journey between New York and San Francisco shortened by more than half. The Americans re-designed the initial engineering plans so that they became more realistic as regards to the natural-geological conditions of the area and manageable both economically and time-wise. They therefore left the idea of digging a sea-level canal and by damming the river charges gave rise to artificial freshwater Lake Gat n which is situated roughly At the time of its construction the Panama Canal was one of the most expensive and the most demanding engineering works that man had ever built. In two years in August 2014 this huge achievement will celebrate 100 years since its inception and operation which no technical problem has ever halted. THE FRENCH PROJECT The Panamanian isthmus the narrowest point in Central America between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans has long been a vibrant centre for the transit industry. The Spanish were among the first who seriously considered shortening the journey between the two oceans and in the year 1534 conducted the first topographic measurements of the area. At that time however such a project was impossible to realise and consequently the so-called Way of Cross a road paved with stones arose leading through the jungle across the Panamanian isthmus. The road served horse and mule teams packed with tons of Peruvian gold which was then loaded on ships on the coasts of the Atlantic to be taken to Spain. The road was later replaced by a railway and at the end of the 19th century when ship transit became increasingly important and the construction of the Suez Canal in 1865 bore its fruits constructing a canal across the Panamanian isthmus became an inevitable issue. The old dream of sailors started to materialise at the beginning of the 1870 s concrete outlines were drawn for the construction of the Panama Canal. It was again the French led by 68 Leaders Magazine V 2012 the engineer of Napoleon III Baron Lesseps who foresaw the need to take part in such a project and deployed large sums of money for its construction same as they did in the case of the Suez Canal. It was necessary to dig 48 km of the earth s surface. At the beginning of the building of the canal difficult conditions prevailed. The French underestimated the challenge of the terrain which was difficult to access as well as the geological bedrock and the local climate which showed to be significantly more complex than in the case of the Suez construction. The path of the canal between the bays near the capital city of Col n for example cut across continental mountains with 17 different types of bedrock formation with six geological fractures and five groups of rock of volcanic origin. Men were exposed to the worst conditions in the Panamanian jungle. Only half of the 45 thousand workers who travelled to Panama from all over the world for good earnings survived during the eight years of the first Panama Canal construction. They were dying mainly as a consequence of malaria yellow fever beriberi disease snake poison and other complications. In 1889 after less than ten years of construction the company went bankrupt due to excessive expenses. THE AMERICAN PROJECT At that time Panama was still part of independent Colombia. The U.S. watched the French attempt very closely assessed the situation and decided to support the independence of Panama with every means for with an independent Panama it was easier to make IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE the good things in life Locks ks Tr si Tr nsit hip o th Transit ship on the Canal p the nal in the middle of the Panamanian isthmus and which consequently shortened the canal work to a minimum. The lake is nevertheless 26 meters above the sea level and therefore required the building of six equalizing locks where ships can be lifted and lowered down. The whole canal is 81.6 km long 150 to 350 m wide and due to the soil which is difficult to dig it is only about 13 meters deep. The lake with an area of 430 sq. km has a dam three km long 35 m high and 800 m wide. It is connected to the Atlantic with a canal that has three locks and is 11 km long. To the Pacific Ocean the lake is connected by a 15 km-long canal which also has three locks. The locks are filled with water from Lake Gat n. Further upstream there lies another artificial lake Lake Alajuela the outflow P ma Pa ma City Panama City of which is regulated during the year so that the water inflow into Lake Gat n is as constant as possible. The most difficult part of the Canal construction was the 13 km long divide of the rocky area on the Pacific side the so-called Culebra Cut. It took six thousand workers to build the cut and over 28 thousand tonnes of dynamite an amount that exceeded the consumption of explosives in all the wars in which the U.S. took part in to that date. Moreover there were frequent collapses of fragile rocky walls. INGENIOUS SIMPLICITY Even today the three double locks amaze visitors with their ingenious simplicity. The pilot guides the ship to the door of the first lock where it is mechanically dragged into the first of the three locks. The door closes being completely watertight. The blast tubes supply the chamber with water at an incredible speed through opened spaces in the walls using 1500 serial electric motors. The water supply closes once the ship reaches the level of the second chamber. The filling of one chamber up to about eight meters takes only ten minutes. Next the second door opens and the operation repeats itself in the third chamber. In this manner the vessels get lifted or lowered by 26 metres. The locks 304 m in length and with a depth of 13m are closed with doors made of steel plates the largest of them weighing more than 700 tones. The whole operation of the channel can be operated by one person from the monitoring panel the operation and Leaders Magazine V 2012 69 the good things in life Car o sh on h anal Ca go ship on the Canal argo a undergo demanding military training on the Atlantic shore. HANDOVER TO PANAMA In 1977 the American president James Carter and General Torrijos of Panama signed an agreement that established a handover of the Panama Canal. The year 2000 began a new chapter in the history of this architectural marvel. Panama remains an important international centre of finance and trade where the financial sector and the Canal contribute 80% to the gross national product. The international trade is further supported by the fact that the official currency of Panama is the American dollar as well as the local balboa. Today the Canal is a strategic vein that shortens the business route between the American east coast and the west coast of Asia. What was considered a wonder 100 years ago is now becoming obsolete. The Canal became insufficient for growing traffic and new ships and consequently underwent some expansion. Still it cannot allow the navigation of large container ships. There are plans to expand the Canal and to double its passage capacity. Aside from the U.S. the projects are financially supported by Asian countries. The passage through the Canal is a breathtaking and unforgettable touristic experience even today. By Iva Drebitko I Photos authors archive cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz navigation along the whole Canal is ensured by seven thousand operators. For the entire period of the Canal s operation the giant steel doors of the locks were not changed even once. The 1000 watt halogen lights which are placed on 30 m long poles enable good orientation even at night. About 48 vessels pass through the Canal daily the ships transport over 190 million tonnes of cargo each year. The fees for passage represent a profit of about 400 million of USD annually. The journey through the Canal takes approximately eight to ten hours. A large part of the river basin was declared as one of the Panamanian National Parks. Two fixed bridges lay on the Canal Puente de las Am ricas and Puente Centenario. These unite the North and South Americas. STATE WITHIN A STATE Modern military equipment and bases were installed on both banks of the Canal around which a completely autonomous state within a state was created. More than 30 thousand American soldiers and their families were subjected to their own laws and housing shops schools hospitals cinemas golf courses and even chapels were built for them. The history of the twentieth century confirmed the political and military importance of this legendary work. During World War II seventy thousand U.S. soldiers were dispatched from the Panama Canal to Europe and the U.S. Air Force launched its operations from the Canal s seventy airfields. The special American military unit known as the Green Berets also used to 70 Nav ator Navigator Sh p o he Ca a Navigator Ship on the Canal a r e sustainable development Engagement with NGOs ENHANCES THE REPUTATION OF CZECH CEOS Trust is critical to a company s reputation and reputation is arguably the single-most valuable asset of any company. In an age where business is under considerable public scrutiny good corporate citizenship has surely never been more important. For a twentyfirst century commercial entity to enjoy long-success it has to nurture its image and that requires more than skillful public relations. Sustainability is an essential ingredient for any respectable business today. This requires a company to apply the same priority to respecting people and protecting the environment as to generating profit. This so called Triple Bottom Line (People Planet and Profit) management is an approach that wins companies truly credible and invaluable accolades. In the latest Trust Barometer conducted by the international corporate communications consultancy Edelman Czech chief executives score a dismal 38 percent in believability with only government officials ranked lower. This global survey of opinion leaders in which the Czech Republic features for the first time this year clearly shows that the standing of business leaders in this country is in much need of improvement. Without wishing to cause offence I would strongly argue that many Czech CEOs need to take a step down from their metaphorical pedestals of self-importance and engage more with their company s stakeholders carefully striving to gain an incisive understanding of the true expectations of the society in which their businesses operate. One important way to help achieve this is to reach out to the growing community of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). I was privileged to be a director of Greenpeace International one of world s most famous NGOs. During my tenure there I saw some of the world s leading companies have their reputations damaged by the organization. It took years for some to recover if at all in some cases. Jonathan Wootliff a former Director of Greenpeace f International he lives in Prague and works throughout the world as a sustainability consultant to business. He has advised many large corporations including British Petroleum McDonald s Colgate-Palmolive and Whirlpool. With particular expertise in climate change energy policy forestry and supply chains he helps companies to develop sustainability strategies that benefit the environment society and business. Among his many activities he advises companies on stakeholder relationships resolves conflicts between companies and non-governmental organisations and develops sustainability reports. A qualified journalist with a subsequent background in public relations Jonathan commonly assists companies with their sustainability communications. He can be contacted at jonathan wootliff.com. In most instances I believe the damage was selfinflicted. Greenpeace s successes were often down to the ineptitude of the companies that were targeted rather than because of the skills of the group to name and shame. Great companies with highly skilled resources for dealing with the shareholders legislators journalists employees and other specialized audiences would commonly demonstrate a total inability in coping with the rising tide of pressure groups. By no means was Greenpeace always expert in understanding companies it s strength lying in environmental protection not business. But most of the companies that found themselves in the firing line seemed bereft of any ability to find remedies. With some exemplary exceptions the only occasions that companies would have anything to do with Green-peace was when they were under some kind of attack. Rarely would companies try to proactively engage. This has changed but I still wonder just how many companies genuinely believe that NGOs have earned their place at the table. They surely are now legitimate stakeholders. However flawed some of their governance structures may be however misguided are some of their arguments there can be little doubt that these groups have won the hearts of society at large. And while support for the NGOs has increased confidence in business has been waning. Like them or not NGOs are an important factor for business. Many chairman and CEOs would prefer a world without the prying eyes of the media. But they have reluctantly learnt to live with awkward journalists. Indeed it s often the toughest of the breed that get taken to lunch. NGOs reflect the aspirations and concerns of a wide range of difference constituents in society. They are not by any means the same. There s a rich variety to be found within civil society. Some groups are left wing others right wing. Some are alarm raisers while others are research institutions. Some are responsible and others reckless. But companies that ignore NGOs and don t bother to really understand them do so at their peril. Engaging with NGOs gets corporate executives out of their ivory towers . These groups can provide some valuable reality checks. If a group s got something wrong a company will find out about it and have the chance to correct it before it makes the front pages. A successful business needs to meet societal expectations. How on earth can this be achieved without truly understanding what society really wants Talking with the widest possible selection of NGOs will provide the real picture of what makes people tick. NGOs can help companies see in to the future. Embryonic arguments articulated by NGOs that may seem obscure first have a way of expanding in to is-sues of significant concern to broad sections of society. The NGO is the modern-day canary in the mine. Ignore what NGOs are Photo Archive of Author saying and you may well be closing your eyes to invisible dangers ahead. There are many smart people working for NGOs. They should not be underestimated. Constructive dialogue with these groups achieved by the slow and careful building of mutual trust can certainly help companies to spot future trends and provide some luminary glimpses of what might be on the horizon. NGOs provide solutions not just problems. They are not intent of destroying companies. Most acknowledge that they can only be the catalysts for change. They see the companies as the potential engines of change. A company facing tough challenges may well find answers in discussions with the advocacy groups. They also can provide a company will that all-important third-party endorsement. A business that proclaims that it is doing the right thing is far less likely to be believed than one which gains the praise of a leading NGO. And even Greenpeace has been known to publicly applaud companies. The tradition of an active NGO movement in this country dates back to before the Velvet Revolution. The fight for a healthy environment was an integral part of the struggle for liberty and human rights. Today there are more than 600 NGOs in the Czech Republic of all sizes covering a broad range of issues. It s time for Czech business to prioritise its efforts in productively engaging with this important sector. And much of this work must involve CEOs. This will help to improve the way they are perceived. NGOs are not the automatic enemy of business. Companies are often their own worst enemies. As the mainstream business community becomes more adept at dealing with NGOs and truly recognizes the benefits of engaging with these groups so will the unnecessary and derisory divides between commerce and civil society diminish. By Jonathan Wootliff I To be continued... IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE Leaders Magazine V 2012 71 Sankt Petersburg INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC FORUM 2012 LEADERSHIP THAT WORKS From June 21st 23rd of this year the 16th Sankt Petersburg International Economic Forum 2012 (SPIEF 2012) took place and presented a window of opportunities for an exchange of views among the business leaders of today s global economy. Russian business giants such as Rosneft Gazprom Sberbank and Vnesheconombank were partners in this important event. This year key questions focused on the increasing role that emerging economic powers are playing in regional and global economies. There were four important areas of discussion Securing the Future Realizing Russia s Potential Responding to Impact Technologies and a Leadership series titled Conversations to Make a Difference. Due to the ongoing financial crisis swelling national debts the recent and upcoming elections in several major G8 countries political instability in the Middle East and volatile energy prices the economic uncertainty of our time was discussed by representatives of the state private corporations banks universities schools of art and by others who are concerned with Russian political and economic affairs. Some rather optimistic scenarios were presented for the recovering economy in the U.S. while the prognosis for the E.U. nations were less optimistic due to lasting debts and the euro crisis. Therefore participants from highly developed countries advised their Russian counterparts to carry out more conservative politics long-term strategies and to accumulate reserves rather than spend quickly. A most interesting aspect was the participation of global oil and energy companies. In spite of the fact that Russia is today a major player in this area the country was strongly advised to stray from an oilbased economy toward an innovation driven model. Speakers emphasized that both financial assets and human potential are essential to new projects. Regarding the level of Russia s domestic universities it was mentioned that several years ago the educational Sessions Sessions 72 Leaders Magazine V 2012 Sessions Herman Gref Chief Executive Officer Chairman of the Management Sberbank centre Skolkovo was established to thus prepare a new breed of managers. Throughout the event the word innovation was spoken often (note the Open Innovation Forum in Moscow will be held in October of this year) regarding topics such as socio-political issues and citizen s access to elected politicians. An interesting debate on this issue was organized by Sberbank tackling the theme crowd-sourcing or the public s role in the improvement of financial awareness legal obedience and the transparency of political acts. Poverty housing mobility communications and energy were also discussed among the other economic problems of the world today. The role of the Internet and social networks in particular fulfill an informative and educational role for today s population nevertheless social differences remain in the Russian countryside. As an example the situations in Eastern Siberia and the Far East were discussed raising questions such as Is it the forgotten region or the engine of development Even economic tycoons reminded everyone of the importance creating of the SMEs as an opportunity to create thousands of jobs. In the IT area Russian IT companies can fill the gap between European IT service companies and those of South Asia. The use of new technologies was also underlined in areas such as food production healthcare (telemedicine) or the production of universal electronic cards. There is a necessity to promote such start-ups. The main problems of the high-speed development of the Russian economy are knowing how to fight corruption and the necessity to increase the productivity of labour so that the Russian economy will be able to become one of the world s top five highly-developed economies within five years. In the address by Mr. Vladimir Putin the President of the Russian Federation words rang out about new viable rules for international trade and mutual investment positive action from Euro-zone leaders energy security citizens interests and involving public society in the decisionmaking process. The President also mentioned a central role for Russia in the forthcoming G20 Summit and a plan for the privatization of federal property. The Russian economy now registers about 4% growth which in comparison to other countries is a rather healthy rate. In recent years the middle class has tripled in Russia and it needs to manage consumer conditions. Today Russia s task is to attract more foreign investors by creating a more attractive environment for them. There were positive and promising evaluations of cooperation between Russia India Turkey and some of the Arabic countries. The accession of Russia to the WTO undoubtedly led to business development and the country s openness towards world economies. Other topics included the changing approach towards philanthropy and the development of cities architects and historians stated their opinions in light of inhabitant s needs in St. Petersburg Venice Barcelona and Dusseldorf. Problems in pension financing are affecting the Russian population and pension reform has become necessary. An interesting fact was that today s average pension is about 9 300 RUB which is higher than the minimum wage. Suggestions were proposed for state and private funds and the obligatory contributions of future pensioners. During this important event a series of contracts and agreements between airline companies pharmaceutical companies and technological companies were signed in the amount of 360 billion RUB. And interest in this event is increasing more than 5 300 participants and 80 leading Russian and foreign companies participated and thus this event became the second biggest forum following the World Forum in Davos. Compiled by Leaders Magazine I Photos Archive Oleg Deripaska President UC RUSAL and Chrystia Freeland Editor Thomson Reuters Digital FURTHER INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND ON WWW.2012FORUMSPB.COM Leaders Magazine V 2012 73 opening ceremony September 6 2012 the European GNSS Agency (GSA) officially opened its new Headquarters Office in Prague. The ceremony presided by Antonio Tajani Vice President of the European Commission and Pavel Dobes Czech Minister of Transport follows several years of coordinated efforts by the Czech government the European Commission and the GSA to establish the official seat of the Agency the future focal point of Galileo programme management in the fourteenth largest city of the European Union. Carlos des Dorides Executive Director European GNSS Agency IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE From left Jaroslav Hyhl k Chief Operating Officer Tesla Doc. Ing. arch. Milan Rejchl Architect Arching & R Prof. Ing. arch. Josef Posp sil Csc. Architect Molab A Studio and Ing. arch. Martin Perl k Architect AP Studio Perl k & Knytl From left Petr Bares President Czech Space Alliance and Managing Director Iguassu Software Systems a.s. and Prof. Michal Mejst k Chairman ICC Czech Republic Per Tegn r former Chairman European GNSS Agency 74 From left Ing. Karel Koryt Senator and Col. Leos Trzil Director Traffic Police of the CR From left H.E. Peter Bro Ambassador of the Slovak Republic Miroslav Topol nek former Prime Minister of the CR and Ji Nedoma Deputy Minister Advisor Ministry of Transport From left Pavel Dobes Minister of Transport of the CR Antonio Tajani Vice President European Commission Carlos des Dorides Executive Director European GNSS Agency Sabine Dannelke Chairperson of Administrative Board BMVBS Germany and Karel Dobes Government Commissioner for Galileo Dita Schautov Coordinator Air Traffic Control of the CR and Jan Klas General Director Air Traffic Control of the CR From left Zhan Hongqi Counsellor for Science & Technology of the People s Republic of China in the Czech Republic Dr. Jing Guifei Deputy General Director NRSCC and Ingolf Sch dler Deputy General Director MoT Austria From left Jaroslav Dolezal National Executive Czech Republic Honeywell and Josef Kaspar President ALV Czech Republic From left Radom r Simek former Director German Czech Chamber of Commerce and Milan Simandl Ambassadorial Councellor Embassy of Germany From left S bastien Cailliau Principal Roland Berger Strategy Consultants Marco Lisi Systems and Operations Manager ESA and Didier Faivre Director of GNSS Programme European GNSS Agency From left Bohuslav Svoboda Mayor of Prague Vladim r Remek Member European Parliament and Ji Z k Deputy Minister of Transport in front of the row 75 Antonio Tajani Vice President European Commission From left Benke Aikell your Publisher and Ji Z k Deputy Minister Ministry of Transport Jan Klas General Director Air Traffic Control of the CR Martin Kuba Minister of Industry and Trade of the CR From left Sergey V. Saveliev Deputy Head FSA Roscosmos George V. Kovkov First Deputy General Director FSUE TsNIIMashinostroyeniya and Igor S. Plaksin Head of Economic Department First Secretary Russian Embassy From left Sergio Greco Senior Vice President Thales Alenia Space Enrico Saggese President ASI and Giuseppe Virgilio President Telespazio 76 MORE PHOTOS AND ELECTRONIC VERSION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LEADERSMAGAZINE.CZ From left Bohuslav Svoboda Mayor of Prague Pavel Dobes Minister of Transport of the CR and Antonio Tajani Vice President European Commission cutting the ribbon We Do We Think Click cessfully synchronise with each other. Web pages are more manageable they minimize the number of clicks that we need to make and we get quickly to where we needed to complete our intended action. We have a calculator on our mobile phones we no longer need to multiply and divide by heart or by the use of a paper. The search engines lead us to desired information with a minimum number of clicks. We buy and sell on the internet. The computers and their programs can compare and search faces. analysis But what about our brains Do they have a place to play Until recently we needed to find a person s phone number in our diary or in the yellow pages before making a phone call. In this case we would have seen the number (also when noting it down if using the diary) and then had to dial it somehow. Meanwhile the brain and its parts would have been performing a number of activities it was not just a question of motor skills to press a button. Gone are the big books of logarithmic and trigonometric tables. We do not have to think about long text passages for we have text messages and tweets. I remember the time when during my postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics Prof. Vopnka one of our best mathematicians informed us about his fear of primary school pupils losing their ability to concentrate. His fear stemmed from the fact that the manual division and multiplication disappeared from schools. Try to divide two large numbers while performing something else at the same time We are obsessed with our technology toys and we carry them everywhere with us. Luckily they sometimes break down or fail to synchronise with each other. Then our brain or its remainder needs to quickly switch on it needs to solve something and the stress and anger about the producer supply us with a sufficient amount of adrenalin. This situation creates a feeling of a state of an emergency with which our brain is still given its historical constitution able to cope. Ninety percent of our energy is then unfortunately used up to avert this state instead of doing something reasonable. Still there are PIN codes and passwords to access information We are inundated with them and there is more and more of them. For security reasons they lengthen and must contain characters that are difficult to remember. Technology and its rapid progress is a great thing and it makes our lives easier. T he Moor s law states that the performance of computer processors doubles every eighteen months. The amount of data texts photos and videos grows at an unprecedented rate many of which turn from bites into real information. Did you know that almost everyone is able to remember sixteen telephone numbers by heart You did not Then believe that even seventy years old seniors are able to do this after a brief training. Perhaps remembering so many telephone numbers by heart is impractical however it may make sense as a brain exercise. Reaching a state that resembles a state of an untrained body is easier than you think. By Ivan Piln I President of Tuesday Business Network former Chairman of Czech Telecom i f h l We make telephone calls by pressing a single button or by dialling by voice our diaries with meetings and tasks are available to us anytime. Sometimes they even suc- cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE Leaders Magazine V 2012 77 thoughts about alternative ways... BEING HAPPY Photo Archive of Autor How can we Make this World a Better Place by 78 analysis Welcome back from your vacations wherever you were. I was at the beach in the South of France in June when suddenly a severe pain in the lower back got me. I was diagnosed with a case of three severe slip discs and the immediate option was an operation to put two titanium nails along my spine which I refused. The next option was to be on a heavy dose of pain killers which I also refused. The last option was diligent physiotherapy every day and meditation to reduce the pain which is the path I adopted. So during the past two months as I was grounded in Prague I could not travel with Jacqueline and Virat to Ethiopia or with Simon P nek to Afghanistan but I had a lot of physiotherapy meditated a lot and had lots of time to myself so I will share some of the research that I found works successfully in my case and in the hope that some of you may find it useful too. much happier than those who spent the same money on themselves. 4. Leading a meaningful life with a higher purpose (beyond self) leads to Happiness. People who had a purpose in life were substantially happier than those who did not. 5. Leading an engaged life In the flow where we really enjoy doing whatever we do most of the time and do it with passion. People who really enjoyed what they did and did it passionately were much Happier than those who were just doing something to make a living or even make a lot of money but did not really enjoy it. As Mahatma Gandhi said HAPPINESS is when what you think what you say and what you do are in Harmony. The good news is that when we are happy productivity goes up by up to over 50% and creativity by upto 300%. It is a state which we call in the zone or in the flow . I can only imagine what happens to profitability when that happens on an ongoing basis. There is clear evidence in the research that instead of thinking we will be happy when we are successful if we make ourselves happy we will most likely be successful. Now that is great research but how can we use it to make ourselves happy. The good news is that Happiness is a skill that can be learnt just like football or piano or golf and so this set point for each individual can be moved upwards with simple practice. Also when we look for gratitude every day exercise & meditate every day look for positive messages and journaling those positive messages we become much more compassionate people and because the human brain is a single processor it eliminates or takes the place of negative thoughts as a habit and makes us more at peace with ourselves as the Dalai Lama said If I am more compassionate I am the one who benefits the most with inner peace . And BEING HAPPY could become our second nature irrespective of the happenings in the world around us. AT A DEEPER LEVEL WE NEED TO 1. Recraft our life to use our strengths so that we are in the flow as much time as possible. In other words we should do more of the things we are passionate about. 2. Use our strengths for something bigger than ourselves in other words find a higher purpose in life and accept vulnerability instead of pretending to be who we are not. Abraham Lincoln once said People are as HAPPY as they make up their minds to be . And now so many years later there is real research on positive psychology from Harvard and other universities done on successful outliers that actually proves that Abraham Lincoln knew then what we know today scientifically. Can you imagine what could happen if we could all bring it to our companies and further still if we could bring it to our families and to our children and even our schooling system where not just the present but the future generations would grow up happier and lead much happier lives Research shows that happier people are more responsible people more ethical and more morally sound as well as mentally & spiritually more affluent . So finally we as human beings have one thing just one thing TO BE on our agenda besides all the to do lists. If the to do lists were so important we would probably be called human doings and not human beings. My back is now much better & doctors hope that at this rate I will recover nearly fully in the next 6 9 months which is miraculous. But we have to start with ourselves as opinion leaders because as the famous saying goes I cannot hear what you say because I see what you do. If we practice it we will be able to spread this simple message and hopefully one day make this world a better place to live in for our children and grandchildren by simply BEING HAPPY. By Sanjiv Suri sanjiv zatisigroup.cz Leaders Magazine V 2012 79 HAPPINESS Research on positive psychology conducted by Shawn Achor & Dan Gilbert at Harvard Martin Seligman at University of Pennsylvania and others came to the following conclusions 1. Our usual thinking is if I achieve success I will be happy or if I get that promotion I will be happy or if I get to marry a particular person of my dreams I will be happy. Firstly Happiness is a path and not a destination and research shows that money success trophy husband or wife etc provide momentary joy but do not have a lasting effect on the level of Happiness of any individual over the slightly longer period. Secondly and equally importantly the other thing that conditional happiness does is telling us that we are not happy as we are (which is not a true statement). Research also showed that we have spent a lifetime convincing ourselves that we are unhappy and setting targets of conditional Happiness. We are naturally hard wired for Happiness and can easily link into this hardwired Happiness if we decide to. 2. Happiness can be determined by the external environment of individuals by no more than 10 15% and is 85 90% internal to the person. We all have a genetic set point and we return to this set point over time irrespective of the events in our life. Events in our life remaining the same our reaction to those events and to what is happening around us determines our level of Happiness... 3. Money can buy Happiness. But only if used for others or philanthropic purposes. Research showed that teams that asked their members to spend money on their team members became stronger and winning teams and people who spent money not on themselves were RECIPE FOR EVERYDAY HAPPINESS The research at Harvard lays out a recipe for everyday Happiness which should not take more than 30 min everyday 1. Be grateful for 3 things in our life everyday. 2. Exercise for atleast 10 15 minutes. 3. Meditate for atleast 2 5 minutes. 4. Write a positive message to someone (we don t necessarily have to know this person). 5. Start to journal our most positive experience over the past 24 hours. The last piece of good news that comes from research is that if there is anything we do for 21 days it becomes a temporary habit. If we continue to do it for 60 days it becomes a semi-permanent habit and if we continue for 180 days it becomes a permanent habit or second nature. Now trying to get value for money I would say 30 90 hours of our time for a lifetime of Happiness much higher creativity productivity and all the other ripple effects that would come with it may not be such a bad deal especially when it is capable of increasing our longevity by 10 20 years and keeps us younger than our age all through those years. IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE On September 6th the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Prague e p t mb mba the Slov lovak publi in a u lic organ z organized a reception dedicated to a natio holi gani r ceptio dedicate ion dica e a tional oli iday of the Slovak ova Republ Republic Constitution Day. Prime Minister of the SR Robert pu nstitutio Day. rime itution i e te te he e Fi Fico took part in the event orga zed on the occas of the o part the even o ganize t n e h asion 20th anniversar y of adopting the constitution and peaceful 0th ni 0t ann ver ary r dopting h pt n t n div division of Czecho hoSlovakia. Robert Fico Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic in his speech Special thanks to OMNIPOL a.s. for making this reportage possible From left genmjr. Milan Maxim Defence Attach Embassy of the Slovak Republic in the CR with his wife and H.E. Peter Bro Ambassador of the Slovak Republic with his wife From left Mr. Vojtch Jirk and Ing. Ladislav Bodn r Councellor to the General Director Vemex s.r.o. From left H.E. Jos Luis Bernal Rodr guez Ambassador of Mexico and H.E. Norman Eisen Ambassador of the USA 8 80 From left Milos Zeman former Prime Minister of the CR and Presidential Candidate of the CR and Frantisek Mikes First Deputy Minister of Culture From left Jan Wiesner Honorary Chairman Union of Czech and Moravian Production Co-operatives JUDr. Pavel Rychetsk Chief of Justice Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic and Ing. Jaroslav Skor k Owner Koliba Javorn k From left Jeron m Tejc Member Parliament of the Czech Republic Milan Urban Vice Chairman CSSD and Ing. Radom r Simek former Director GermanCzech Chamber of Industry and Commerce From left Mr. Igor Junas Ing. Igor Junas MBA Division Director Kerametal and Mgr. Dalibor Carda Mayor of Cesk Krumlov From left Jan Lembas Director CET Capital and Jan Fischer Vice President EBDR and Presidential Candidate of the CR From left Benke Aikell your Publisher and Petr Kynstetr Secretary General House of Representatives Parliament of the Czech Republic From left Lieutenant General Petr Pavel M.A. Chief of the General Staff of Armed Forces of the Czech Republic Lt.Col. Leon Soroko Defence Attach Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands H.E. Ed. W.V.M. Hoeks Ambassador of Kingdom of the Netherlands and Col. Podlasin Defence Attach Embassy of Poland Singing of the national anthems From left Karel Schwarzenberg Minister of Foreign Affairs of the CR Mrs. Livia Klausov wife of the President of the CR Martin Kuba Minister of Trade and Industry of the CR Mrs. Brov wife of the Ambassador of the Slovak Republic Robert Fico Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic and H.E. Peter Bro Ambassador of the Slovak Republic The reception took place in the area of the Embassy with about 500 attending guests from all spheres of the Czech social life political diplomatic economic academic local cultural and business. Prime Minister of the SR Robert Fico and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the CR both took the floor and delivered 81 a speech. Both of them emphasized close and above-standard relations between the two republics in all spheres and supported further conti- 81 nuation and development of mutual excellent cooperation. From left Ing. Emil Cig nik Vice Chairman Czechoslovak legionnaires community J n Facko Retired Colonel Robert Fico Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic and H.E. Peter Bro Ambassador of the Slovak Republic From left JUDr. Cestm r Sajda former Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Ing. Ivana Mag tov General Director Ministry of Transport Construction and Regional Development of the Slovak Republic and PHDr. J n Skovajsa Chairman of the Board Nadace Smr From left Jan Lembas Director CET Capital and Ivo Klimes General Secretary FENCA From left Dipl. Ing. Pavol Dobias Berater Ing. Zuzana Moravc kov Governor Central Region of the CR and Stefan V tko From left PhDr. MgA. Miroslav Smol k Owner Galerie Miro J n Les k Klinika JL Ing. Mari n Hodos and Pavel C cel Presbyter Curator Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the CR 82 From left Ing. Petr Kuch r General Director Prominecon Group Yvetta Blanarovicov Actress and Ing. Petr Bratsk Senator MORE PHOTOS AND ELECTRONIC VERSION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LEADERSMAGAZINE.CZ From left Vojtch Filip Chairman KSCM Yan Yuqing Counsellor Embassy of the People s Republic of China to the Czech Republic and Jarom r Sl pota President Czechoslovak Foreign Institute Ing. Gustav Slamecka MBA Chairman of the Board CD Cargo a.s. From left H.E. Aurimas Taurantas Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania Mrs. Brov wife of the Ambassador of the Slovak Republic and H.E. Lembit Uibo Ambassador of Estonia From left Frantisek Mikes First Deputy Minister of Culture Mrs. Jindr kov and Mgr. Stanislav Eichler Governor Region Liberec From left H.E. Peter Bro Ambassador of the Slovak Republic Martin Kuba Minister of Trade and Industry of the CR and Mirek Topol nek former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic From left Milos Zeman former Prime Minister of the CR and Presidential Candidate of the CR H.E. Peter Bro Ambassador of the Slovak Republic and Robert Fico Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE 83 interview A talk with Pavel Kafka President of the Czech Management Association ECONOMIC CRISIS Is Chiefly a Crisis of the Value System Photo Archive CMA The Global Annually the Czech Management Association awards the best managers in our country. We talked to Pavel Kafka the President of the Czech Management Association about the chief issues within this branch. 84 Leaders Magazine V 2012 interview What vision have you brought with you to the position of the Czech Management Association (CMA) How do you manage to accomplish it I came to the management of the CMA just when it began the third decade of its existence and at the same time during the global economic recession. These events were followed by other activities. Could you be more specific First of all we d like to strengthen the position of managers within Czech society and have them as those who at times of difficult economic and political tensions are supposed to ensure for fruitful and efficient accord of the main business stakeholders i.e. shareholders owners customers markets employees. Secondly the quality of management in the private sphere in the Czech Republic has increased immensely and it can be compared to the international standard. Therefore we are ready to reinforce our global relations relations much like a transfer of the newest managerial trends to our country. Thirdly as the economic crisis carries a lot of essential questions concerning a smooth running of the market economy we are having a kind of fundamental discussion with regard to this issue within the CMA. What kind of discussion The discussion was initiated especially due to essays by the Nobel Price laureates Porter and Kramer which appeared in the last issue of Harvard Business Review under the title How To Fix Capitalism . In addition our activities within our Czech branch of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) are interconnected with these issues. Why is it so essential I consider the issue of sustainability (economic social and environmental) a main challenge for the current civilization and business environment. Moreover I would like to mention another crucial topic which has been rought bout topic which has been brought about the dramarama tic inefficiency of the Czech public administration which significantly hinders competitiveness of the Czech economy. Thus since the CMA has been engaged in striving for the improvement of management within the private sphere for 20 years we d like to give a hand to the sphere of public management as well. We are looking for allies and partners in this endeavour. You worked as the CEO of Siemens in the Czech Republic for many years. What key managerial skills did you take with you from that position I obviously learned a lot during my fifteen years as a manager of a firm that went through a huge expansion. Yet I consider a key skill the selection of my nearest co-workers. It really pays off to give them as much space as they need for independent decision-making. Of course it needs to be in accordance with the agreed strategy of a company. Can you see the difference in the abilities and skills of those managers working in the Czech environment compared to those working abroad Leaders in Czech management are fully competitive which is apparent from the Manager of the Year competition (now entering its 20th year). What they are perhaps missing most is global experience yet they successfully make up for it with a high degree of flexibility and adaptability. In your view are Czech companies remaining competitive in the present economic recession What type of government support is needed in this respect only concern involvement within the world of trade yet the entire cycle of added value from research to services divided in an optimal way across the globe. It requires completely new management methods and culture. How do you perceive the quality of public administration management in the Czech Republic In this respect what s the Association s strategy I ve already touched on the quality of Czech state and public administration. Our Association gives a hand for project management however the response to it or demand for it is zero. Another aspect of quality relates to managers in general. Do you feel that their quality level has improved since 1989 Or where do you see the main shortcomings of Czech managers Our biggest weakness at both the micro and macroeconomic levels is the absence of a long term vision. Our flexibility i e flexibility i.e. the ability to react to anything happening around us is rather praiseworthy yet it won t save us in today s complex world. The same applies to the non-existence of a macroeconomic strategy based upon specific competitive assets so that many of our companies can survive on a day to day basis while maintaining the competitive advantages of yesterday i.e. low costs. However it is obvious that those who want to succeed in the long term need to have strength to implement the necessary innovation and find or even create new demand and markets with new products and services. The Czech Management Association annually gives the manager of the year award to one man and one woman. This year the event was held for the 19th time. Can you specify what criteria are the most decisive The criteria have obviously been evolving over the decades of our existence. Today in addition to the basic economic results of a managed company ny or of any other body we assess changes and any other body e h d innovations long-term strategy and the personal contributions of any nominated competitor in particular. Evaluation and selection passes through two different commissions. Beyond business socially beneficial activities are also taken into account e.g. support for education in the region. And last but not least what would you wish for managers in the future I wish for managers to have less bureaucratic obstacles and good intuition for both the daily and long-term course of their business. Otherwise the rest is mainly about the craft which one needs to have a good command of. By Pavl na Holancov I cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz I consider the issue of sustainability a main challenge for the current civilization and business environment A Business Europe statement showed that Czech companies have been among the best in Europe in dealing with the economic crisis. And to answer your question the Czech government should not interfere in business yet actively support it abroad both directly in export markets and by eliminating the considerable domestic export bureaucracy . Back to the global economic recession. In your view what is it telling us Is it that companies put their profits above all in the long term Isn t it necessary to transform these values Yes the global economic crisis is chiefly a crisis of a value system. Therefore I am also very much interested in the topic of sustainability for which over 200 big global companies have enrolled in 64 established regional branches over the past 20 years. In this respect I d like to point out that ears his respect d ike oint t t sustainability shouldn t be restricted solely to environmental issues. It is an all-encompassing theme of important developmental issues beginning with research technology economy social values demographics urban planning as well the environment. One of the missions of the Czech Management Association is among other things training in modern methods of management. Could you specify the essentials This is mainly a completely new list of traditional management topics based a new way of life a new level of civilization products technology communication globalization etc. Any such changes have a direct impact on management for instance the new methods of management teams as well as individuals. On top of that the issue of globalization is huge as well. It doesn t Leaders Magazine V 2012 85 sport event Jitka Chizzola CEO DAS and winner of Nearest to Pin and Tom s Dub Deputy Foreign Minister Photos Vladim ra Kosickov IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE From left Libor Nmec Administrative Assistant Embassy of the Phillipines in Prague 3rd in category 37-54 and Tom s Dub Deputy Foreign Minister From left H.E. Xuan Dong Do Ambassador of Vietnam 1st in category 0-18 and Tom s Dub Deputy Foreign Minister From left Tom s Dub Deputy Foreign Minister and H.E. Victor Julian Hernandez Leon Ambassador of Venezuela and winner of Longest Drive 86 From left H.E. Kaspars Ozolis Ambassador of Latvia 3rd in category 18-36 and Tom s Dub Deputy Foreign Minister From left Tom s Dub Deputy Foreign Minister H.E. Ivan Pocuch Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Ukraine 1st in category 37-54 From left Tom s Dub Deputy Foreign Minister and Carlos V. Tienzo Consular Assistant Embassy of the Phillipines in Prague 1st in category 18-36 From left Tom s Dub Deputy Foreign Minister and H.E. Victor Julian Hernandez Leon Ambassador of Venezuela winner of Charity Trouble Shot From left Tom s Dub Deputy Foreign Minister and H.E. Martin Klepetko Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Vietnam 2nd in category 0-18 From left Tom s Dub Deputy Foreign Minister and LtCol. Per R stedt Swedish Defence Attach CR SK and Romania Swedish Embassy 3rd in category 0-18 From left H.E. Kaspars Ozolis Ambassador of Latvia H.E. Martin Klepetko Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Vietnam H.E. Xuan Dong Do Ambassador of Vietnam and H.E. Ed Hoeks new Ambassador of the Netherlands On Thursday the 23rd of August 2012 the first year of the golf tourname t hursday h 3rd ugust 012 the first year the golf ournamen of the Ministr of Foreign Affairs took place at the Albatross Golf Resort. he inistry oreign ffairs ook place g lbatross olf Resort. t Czech and foreign dip mats and invited entrepreneurs measured their e foreign iplomats nvite trepreneurs easure their i prene e strength this 8-hole ours strength at this 18-hole course of the highest European standards. Part of the ighest uropean standard art opea andards. p golf ournament hich golf tournament which was organised under the auspices of the Deputy rganised d a sp ces f eput uty Foreign Minister om s ub was also harity rouble hot hose roceeds Foreign Minister Tom s Dub was also a charity trouble shot whose proceeds i t ceed will go to the School of Jaroslav Jezek for the visually impaired i o chool aros a k e red. From left Pavel ez c Department Director Department of Sub-Saharian Africa Ministry of Foreign Affairs H.E. Victor Julian Hernandez Leon Ambassador of Venezuela and Libor Nmec Administrative Assistant Embassy of the Phillipines in Prague 87 M RE HOT AN E ECTRO C ERSION MORE PHOTOS AND EL EC TRONIC VERSION OTO AND R AVAI AVAILABLE ON W W L ADERSM GA ZINE C AVAIL ABLE ON W WW.LEADERSMAGA ZINE.CZ MAG MA interview An interview with Pavel Jir k CEO and Chairman of the Board Penzijn fond Komercn banky The Future Pension Reform AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE REST OF US Th fu ure n ion eform ffects both e The future pension reform affects both the futu r t both Cz c c i e nd heir omestic empl yers. Czech citizens and their domestic employers. ir es empl I the absence o tate ublici y In the absence of a state publicity In h senc e c tate icity cam aign u efforts a campaign our efforts are to educate every ign fort duca e er y one ab u th ens o reform hile o i atin one about the pension reform while motivating refo them to take some responsibility for hem take ome re ponsibili y or ake m esp their retirement security says Pavel Jir k h i r irement e urity ays avel ir k eme r k a member of the Association of Pension Funds emb embe of he ssociation Pensio Fund ati und CR nd hairman f e oard th CR and Chairman of the Board of the irma a Penzijn on Komercn an y Penzijn fond Komercn banky at jn nd Kome merc th comm ncement h pensions d the commencement of the pensions and he om ment me pe s o eform onferenc pension reform conference. fere c e PENZIJN FOND KOMERCN BANKY With over 500 thousand clients Penzijn fond Komercn banky a.s. which is fully owned by Komercn banka belongs to one of the largest pension funds on the Czech market. Thanks to its conservative investment strategy and professional asset management its yields continuously exceed the rate of inflation. Stable government bond yields and yields of premium corporate bonds enable the fund to increase the value of its clients money while maintaining a minimum level or risk. Penzijn fond Komercn banky differs itself further from its competitors on the Czech market by The prestigious The Best Pension Fund in CR award received in years 2011 and 2012 according to the ratings of the renowned international magazine World Finance and the financial portal Global Banking & Finance Review. The financial stability and strong capital base provided by its membership of the KB Group. The ability to generate yields to its clients above the rate of inflation over the long term. The offer of the discount card Sphere to all its participants which offers discounts varying between 5 30 % and which can be used in more than 9000 stores. The program of spa and recreational treatment. interview Could you then briefly explain what we might expect in 2013 and onwards The pension system today is based on only two pillars. The one of these is the current state pension infrastructure the other is the voluntary pension insurance from the retirement funds administrators that can also be included with state contributions. Starting in 2013 there will be a new pension reform which will offer more pillars in retirement savings with these retirement funds administrators. What will happen with the voluntary pension insurance Your fund has more than half a million of participants... It will continue along with its tax efficiency feature for employers to make contributions towards their employees savings. If however people opt for the voluntary retirement savings after the new pension reform takes effect they will no longer receive the non-negative annual return guarantee. The new customers will also lose the early retirement and survivor pensions which would enable fund withdrawals after 15 years of saving. And what about the new pension reform in 2013 and the funds within it Citizens must be encouraged in taking more personal responsibility in sustaining their quality of life during their retirement. In practice the whole bureaucratic process would be simpler the employer will transfer 3% of the employee s gross salary which will contribute towards their pension savings into the retirement funds administrator. The deduction will then take place in lieu of the taxable social security benefits and the employee is assumed to give an additional 2% of their gross salary. Thus a total of 5% of the employee s gross salary will be invested by the retirement funds administrator from which the employee will be paid an additional pension once they retire. As opposed to the state pension the 2013 pension reform will be at the same level with the saved funds. Employees will also be able to decide how to invest their funds. TODAY NEW The 2013 pension reform has had a sluggish start. The opposition rejects its potential benefits and threatens to veto it in the next electoral session. Do you think it is wise to launch the reforms from January 1 2013 I am sorry that the Czech legislation can t come to an understanding on such an important issue. I am nevertheless convinced that the launch of this new pension system is a correct and a necessary step even though I do object some of its details. There are two reasons why I support the launch of the reform. One is the current state budget in financing the whole pension system especially with its deficit of approximately CZK 40 billion that is very likely to grow significantly in future. The other is the increase in numbers and the extended life expectancy of the retirees that need their pensions. The pension price control if any will have to shrink continuously and the average pension won t be able to cover the ever-increasing cost of living. Only those with personal savings will be able to counteract these negative trends. How many clients do you expect to enter the 2013 Reform According to our analysis we expect about 15% of the working age citizens to enter the 2013 Reform which is about 700 to 750 thousands of participants. Komercn banka Group has already confirmed its interest in offering alternatives for retirement savings even after the reform will take effect. What stage are you currently at That is correct. Penzijn fond Komercn banky has submitted in accordance with the law a request to the Czech National Bank to license the KB Retirement funds administrator s transactions. After a gruelling process of official procedures we are finally receiving our license this September. The sole owner of this retirement funds administrator will be Komercn banka. What are your business objectives We certainly want to remain the leader in the field of savings and investment and provide for the KB Group clients during their retirement. Both the Penzijn fond Komercn banky as well as the parent company Komercn banka are among the referred providers on savings and investments on the Czech market. How do you want to differentiate yourself from your competitors in terms of offerings within the mentioned voluntary pension insurance Has your group considered any new payment plans and do you provide special services for certain clients Once the Czech National Bank approves our request for the foundation of the KB Retirement funds administrator the systematic savings within the 2013 Reform and the Voluntary Pension Insurance will be one of the key services of the Komercn banka Group s individual clientele. For our current clients and those interested in savings we are setting up a complex range of services for a longterm savings and investment for retirement. We are preparing simple and lucid offers with an individual approach for each client which will be ensured through our offer of life-cycle investment plans. The government is trying to decrease the public expenditure. Has this effort had an effect on the rates from the state contributions to the pension fund The success of the pension reform depends on urging our citizens to save up for their retirement for on their own. The retirement funds will therefore become even more interesting from the next year onwards. The appeal will help give huge increases for those saving greater amounts of money receiving increased benefits from the current CZK 1800 to CZK 2760. Thanks to the state contribution increase and the maintenance of the annual tax deductions of up to CZK 12000 the retirement with the assistance from the retirement funds administrators will be one of the most profitable savings and investments on the Czech market. Compiled by LM I cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz PILLAR I THE CURRENT SYSTEM OF STATE PENSIONS PILLAR II OPTIONAL RETIREMENT SAVINGS WITH RETIREMENT FUNDS ADMINISTRATORS (newly created) PILLAR III ADDITIONAL RETIREMENT SAVINGS (Amended continuation of the current voluntary pension plans with state contribution) NOT POSSIBLE TO TRANSFER in the Czech Republic e u POSSIBLE TO TRANSFER interview A talk with Pavel Bezovsk Director of the State Institute for Drug Control still very low Compared to Other Nations Photo Archive of S KL Czech Drug Prices Are Leader Magazine V 2012 Leader s Magazine IV 2012 aga 90 Leaders Magazine IV 2012 interview One of your main priorities is ensuring the stability of drug policy. Can you describe the specific steps First of all we obviously need to ensure effective high-quality and safe drugs for Czech patients. This task is associated with the activities of many Institutes starting with the registration agenda through to the supervision of the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals pharmacies and distribution pricing and reimbursement of medicine and pharmacovigilance activities. Thus the State Institute for Drug Control (S KL) always follows the applicable laws within this area aiming to guaranty all agendas and fulfil the duties assigned by law. In January S KL issued a statement saying that the revision of terms of payment and payment amount has been completed. At what stage is the revision now after your arrival and does it correspond with your vision with regard to the just and fair reimbursement for drugs In this respect S KL continues in proceedings which have been submitted as the appeal for renegotiation. Concerning these procedures S KL proceeds in accordance with applicable legislation much like during previous times. The Institute actively uses all available tools to adjust payments so that the fixed payment corresponds to the public interest as defined in the Act on Public Health Insurance. At present however S KL wants to start another round of the socalled deep revisions . What is the goal here These shortened revisions should ensure full reimbursement of pharmaceuticals within selected pharmacotherapy groups. In addition the shortened revisions should also ensure public health insurance savings after the entry of new generics into the market. These revisions have already started and others will be initiated continuously. How did the system of individual administrative procedure which must be applied in determining the price amount and terms of reimbursement of drugs coming from health insurance prove valid in practice Isn t it both an agonizingly administrative and professional burden for S KL Administrative proceedings initiated at the request of individuals or legal persons or ex-officio under valid legislation is part of the public administration belonging to the jurisdiction of the administrative authorities in the Czech Republic. Competencies within the area of the regulation of pricing and reimbursement which once belonged to the Ministry of Health Care and the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic were transferred to S KL on January 1st 2008. Thus S KL for instance makes decisions on the maximum prices set by producers of drugs and foods which have special medical purposes. At the same time S KL sets the level and conditions for the reimbursement for particular products of health insurance. In these administrative procedures S KL MUDr. Pavel Bezovsk MBA. (1951) graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Charles University in Prague (1977). He started as an intern in the Motol University Hospital in Prague. Until 1984 he progressively passed the ORL attestation of the 1st and 2nd degrees. Until 1996 he was also working as head of the children s Hospital in Motol. Pavel Bezovsk was a Deputy for health activities of the Faculty Hospital in Motol until 2000. In the years 2000 2006 he was the Head of the Department of Health of the Ministry of Health Care. Since 2006 Mr. Bezovsk has worked as the Head of the Czech Transplantations Coordinating Centre (KST). Pavel Bezovsk was appointed the Director of the State Institute for Drug Control in May 2012. He is married and has two grown daughters. acts as an administrative authority and is legally responsible for this type of management. Yet this is not S KL s only agenda which is procedural in nature. Could you be more specific Administrative proceedings are also conducted in case of tort or in other areas that pertain to S KL s function of oversight. However for S KL management of individual administrative procedures which relate to fixing the maximum prices and the amount and terms of payment of health insurance are part of the regular agenda. This is the same for other administrative authorities in the Czech Republic. Thus S KL s work with regard to both its administrative and professional aspects is influenced by the nature of each of the administrative procedures and is therefore directly proportional to the amount of assessed evidence as well the difficulty of obtaining it. Can you shortly outline the main strategy of S KL in the field of pharmacoeconomics Under the current legislation the reimbursement regulations and pharmacoeconomic evaluations (analysis of cost-effectiveness and the budgetary impact of health insurance) are part of the administrative procedures to help determine reimbursement from health insurance. Our longterm monitoring shows a varying quality of submitted pharmacoeconomic evaluations. In this respect we hope to standardize the evaluation process in a transparent way. Thus we want to contribute to a quality consolidation of submitted analysis in the Czech Republic. The global pharmaceutical market is constantly growing. What trend awaits us in the future No matter which direction the pharmaceutical market develops the primary task of S KL is to ensure for effective high-quality and safe medicines. Certain dangers associated with the growth of the market much like in modern technologies include counterfeit and illegal medicines. This is the subject of our main focus in the long run through a Dangerous Drugs campaign (www.nebezpecneleky.cz). It aims to inform educate and warn patients of dangers related to counterfeit and illegal medicines. In your view which target groups should advertising in pharmacy reach out to We deal with advertising aimed at human medicine (except for the advertising in radio and TV broadcasting) rather intensively. S KL evaluates defective advertising issues expert opinions on promotional materials as well as on ad-regulation issues. Yet the issue of medicinal product advertising doesn t affect only contractors processors and disseminators of advertising. It involves health workers participating in sponsored and promotional events the use of promotional samples and the providing of promotional materials to patients on medicinal products. Of course we need to bear in mind that all events including educational events much like other similar events aimed at professionals must follow the rules set by the Act on Advertising Regulation. One of the drawbacks of the Czech pharmaceutical market is that a lot of Czech medication ends up abroad. What measures can S KL establish in this respect S KL sets prices of medicines according to the lowest prices in other EU countries. Thus we are a state where drug prices compared to other states are still very low. Of course this situation is very often taken advantage of by license distributors who export drugs abroad. Medication for Czech patients thus disappears beyond the Czech border and in this way drugs are becoming scarce for the Czech patients. What measures can S KL implement to prevent this situation Again S KL is doing its best within its field of competence. We organize regular checks of distributors in which we pay particular attention to the rigorous regulatory compliance in the management of medicines. These checks are carried out as planned and are performed without notice. So I am talking about both regular and repetitive checks which seek to prevent mistakes (intentional and unintentional) which distributors commit in this area. In addition another measure we take is a systematic co-operation with other drug agencies of the EU member states which helps us to transmit and discuss information within this field. By Pavl na Holancov I cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz Leaders Magazine V 2012 91 interview Ji Bal k Rector of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Photo Vladim r Weiss Working at University 92 Professor Ing. Ji Bal k CSc. graduated from the Faculty of Agronomy University of Agriculture Prague in 1978 where he worked as a lecturer and head of the Department of Agroenvironmental Chemistry and Plant Nutrition. Between the years 2000 2010 he served as a Vice Rector there and in 2001 was appointed Professor of agrochemistry and plant nutrition. Since February 2010 he has held the post of Rector of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. Professor Bal k is married with two children. interview An interview with Ji Bal k Rector of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague What brought you to agriculture Agriculture was my origin. I come from a traditional agricultural family and have always had a close relation to agriculture. After graduation from grammar school I was thinking what to do in the future. My older brother studied medicine and I liked it as well. However my father told me then that someone had to engage in agriculture suggesting that I should try it. So I tried it and I do not regret it. I entered the university and found my field of interest gradually. My younger brother became a doctor too so with agriculture I followed my family tradition. Did you consider restoring your family farm after 1989 and setting up a business in this area After the fall of the Iron Curtain I was firmly established at the university. I was happy that I could travel and be in touch with foreign universities. I liked working at the university and did not think about going to the private sector. I was sure that with hard work at the university it would be possible to earn a living. Moreover I knew at that time that to run a farm of 20 25 hectares was not competitive and that it was not feasible. On the other hand some of my colleagues went into the private sector. M colleague and friend and I agreed to stay at t My ll dfi d d dt t t the university. Although I had several offers from the private sector it was not a priority for me. How did the university win your heart In the course of time I realized that a good working environment working relations and helping to shape the collective are important to me. At our department we created a working team within which we still have very good relations. I see freedom freedom in research and creative work as an added value of the work at the university. My very good friend Professor Verner who held the post of Director of the Agro-environmental Chemistry Institute at the University of Bonn told me once that he never regretted leaving the private sector for the univerg g p ctor niver sity. He emphasised that university freedom was a great advantage and we who had been at universities from the beginning did not even realize that. Academic freedoms became part of the debate about changes in the functioning of universities. Particularly in the context of the potential dissolution of academic senates and their replacement by boards of trustees that would be more interconnected with the private sector. What is your opinion on that I think that it is necessary to maintain the powers of academic senates in the existing form. The responsibility of the management of a university or its individual faculties is very important. It is a control mechanism. A rector y p ontrol echanism. rector has to perceive that he will answer to the academic senate for his decisions. On the other hand a rector should possess more powers in order to promote his visions owever there visions. However there is a problem with univer sity law roblem ith university that gives a rector enormous responsibility which is not in accordance with his powers. According to the law deans are responsible for faculties and a rector for the university. I am not a proponent of a new university law and I took a firm stand against it. Reforms should be carried out through amendments. Law is a very complex issue and if it is conceived in a hurry without sufficient preparatory discussion the outcome can be bad. Boards of trustees in the form they work in now being responsible for property management are beneficial. I am not sure however whether it will be appropriate for them to become directly involved in academic life e.g. in the election of the rector. How do you view changes in the evaluation of research A big disadvantage is the instability of the evaluation system. It is in essence one reform after another. When nothing is stable it brings chaos. At the university we have a very motivational system for publications and research which is very firmly established. The situation is complicated by the fact that we do not know precisely how the evaluations would be conducted in the future. I support the quantification of results although I know that it is difficult. I endorse the evaluation of articles in prestigious Czech as well as foreign journals because they go through a peer-review and a journal s editorial board. It is thus guaranteed that only articles of highquality are published. I am not a proponent of writing final reports. There are soft results in the system maps utility models etc. th t d l t the results of the tilit d l t that devaluate th lt f th whole evaluation. So I support fewer items which can be controlled very well. What is your motivational system based on We go by the number of points in the RIV database (Information record on research results) while allocating the financial resources at the university. That means based upon how many points individual faculties earn for the overall evaluation of the university they get money from the university accordingly. Then the faculties decide how to distribute it. Each faculty has its own system. Different criteria can be found at the Faculty of Environmental Science and at the Faculty of Economics and Management. Management It is an incomparable environment. The ncomparable environment university is very heterogeneous. Although it seems that it is monolith the opposite is true. That is why deans monitor and evaluate the system. For instance at the Faculty of Agrobiology Food and Natural Resources performance is accounted for as follows 45 percent for pedagogical performance 45 percent for research and scientific performance and 10 percent for other activities such as giving lectures for agricultural subjects. In general the proportion of science and research is considerable at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. The performance also serves as a basis for setting the amounts of lecturers positions ndividua departments rers positions at individuall department s and faculties aculties respectively. A department which carries out research does not have to teach so much and vice versa a department in which there are not so many research and scientific results has each ore tific result s has to teach more. Lately there has been an effort to more closely link universities with the private sector. How does your university cooperate with the private sector We try to cooperate with the private sector. However it is generally difficult in the Czech Republic. The private sector here is not used to giving money to education. Unlike in the U.S. and Western Europe the private sector here is reserved. You have been in office for two-and-a-half years. Why did you want to be rector I felt that I could do something for the university. I gained relevant experience during my vice-dean tenure at the Faculty of Agrobiology Food and Natural Resources as well as in my position of vice-rector at the university. I wanted to continue in the trend of building a modern university that will be competitive not only in the Czech Republic but also abroad. What was your vision My objective was and still is to put a greater emphasis on science and research. I know that the source of money for pedagogical activities is limited and is getting smaller. I am trying to enforce mechanisms to ensure that those who receive grants and manage to succeed in competition are rewarded for their activity. Generally speaking my aim is to increase the prestige of the university in particular in the area of science and research because the pedagogical prestige of the university is good already which is reflected in the 20 per cent increase in applicants for admission to our university. I also want to improve university facilities. We try to create conditions for students that are appropriate to university diti f t d t th t i t t i it education. I often travel around Europe and see that the fundamental basis of a good university is quality facilities. Are you successful in fulfilling your vision It is a long-term issue. I try every day to contribute to it. We are especially successful in providing university facilities. We built a new car park finished the reconstruction of the student s canteen and in particular the Centre of Environmental Sciences. Furthermore the construction of new educational pavilions has been progressing. How did you choose your team I chose people who have managed something at the university either rom the pedag gical univer sity either from the pedagogi l or research perh spectives. Their willingness to participate in university management was also an important criterion because it is extra work. I also considered their approval of my vision for university development and I took into account the balance of representation from individual faculties to express my respect for them. It was not possible for all vice rectors to come from one faculty. The post of rector is time demanding. Do you have time to lecture or carry out research I continue to do my lectures. My tenure is limited and I do not like to lag behind in this area. Thanks to this I have feedback from students which is very important. However However I had to reduce my research actiiviitiies. I only d d h supervise my PhD students who I try to meet periodically. What are your hobbies I li sport especially collective sports of which like football is my favourite. I watch it on television and sometimes I go to the stadium. I do sports just for fun most often I go cycling. By Zuzana Kas kov I cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz Leaders Magazine V 2012 93 NATO Days IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE From left LtGen. Petr Pavel Chief of General Staff Alice Undusov CEO Saab Czech Brig. Gen. Ji Verner Chief of Air Force and Daniel Boestad Vice President Saab Czech NATO DAYS AIR SHOW MajGen. Don Ralph USAFE and H.E. Annika Jagander Ambassador of Sweden to CR Alice Undusov CEO SAAB Czech and Michael Hrbata Deputy Minister of Defence Czech Air Force Day in Ostrava 2012 and 94 From left Robert Bj rklund Campaign Director SAAB AB and LtCol. Andreas Meister German Defence Attach to the Czech Republic From left Ji Sediv Czech Ambassador to NATO and Ji Sediv former Chief of General Staff From left Mats Fagerberg SAAB Dynamics Staff Sergeant Ji Toman Staff Sergeant V clav Bergman and Col. Vladim r Barca Chief 25th Air Defence Missile Brigade in Strakonice From left Col. Vladim r Barca Chief 25th Air Defence Missile Brigade in Strakonice and Mats Fagerberg SAAB Dynamics Evzen Tosenovsk Czech MP at European Parliament Anna Hildebrand Communication Manager SAAB AB and Mats Fagerberg SAAB Dynamics From left LtCol. Jaroslav Gyro Mika Commander 211 Tactical Squadron Caslav Air Base BrigGen. Albert S f r Chief Hungarian Air Force and MajGen. Don Ralph USAFE During the NATO days and Czech Air Force Day in Ostrava 2012 Saab managed to attract a lot of people and interest. The highlights were the simulated Air-to-Air refuelling between a French tanker and a Czech Gripen and the scholarship awarded to the two top operators of the RBS 70 VSHORAD System from the 25th Air Defence Missile Brigade in Strakonice. 95 From left BrigGen. Johan Svensson Swedish Air Force BrigGen. Albert S f r Chief Hungarian Air Force MajGen. Don Ralph USAFE and BrigGen. Ji Verner Chief of Air Force MOR HOT AN ELE T RONIC ERSION MORE PHOTOS AND EL EC TRONIC VERSION TOS TO EC AVAILABL ON W W L ADERSMAG ZINE C AVAILABLE ON W WW.LEADERSMAGA ZINE.CZ A LE M INE NATO event Sweden s Minister of Defence Karin Enstr m arrived in the Czech Republic last month for a meeting with her Czech counterpart Alexandr Vondra. The occasion was the Czech Air Force Day NATO Days air show held at the Leos Jan cek Airport at Mosnov near Ostrava an annual event in which all NATO member states participate and which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors over the two-days of flying and military displays. This year s displays included simulated air-to-air refueling of a Gripen supersonic jet fighter by the Czech Air Force. The Swedish and Czech Defence Ministry delegations discussed a number of bi-lateral matters including the Czech Republic s agreement with Sweden for the lease of 14 Gripen fighters which are produced by Saab. Alexandr Vondra Minister of Defence of the CR and Karin Enstr m Minister of Defence of Sweden KARIN ENSTR M Sweden s Minister of Defence Meets her Czech Counterpart Alexander Vondra From left Per R stedt Defence Attach Sweden Zbynk Pavlac k Chairman Jagello 2000 and H.E. Annika Jagander Ambassador of Sweden in CR From left Mikul s Dzurinda former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic and General (ret.) Klaus Naumann former Chairman of the NATO Military Committee 96 From left Zbynk Pavlac k Chairman Jagello 2000 Jan Svtl k Chairman of the Board of Directors V tkovice H.E. Annika Jagander Ambassador of Sweden and Per R stedt Defence Attach Sweden Minister Enstr m was the guest of Minister Vondra at the NATO Days Gala Dinner and also joined in the toast to mark the show s opening Saturday. After the formal gala dinner Minister Vondra took his Swedish counterpart and her delegation for a beer at one of the many pubs on Ostrava s famous Stodolni street. energy analysis THE STAR-LIKE The time has come our capital will be for the first time home to an important European Union wide agency. The Union s agency GSA has commenced its role in the Czech Republic at the beginning of September to govern the European satellite and navigation system Galileo. The building of the former Czech Consolidation Agency located in Prague-Holesovice where the GSA will be based will be responsible mainly for the security and market development of the programme. The United Kingdom and France will host the carefully protected Galileo security monitoring centres and the headquarters for the navigation part of the programme will be in Italy and Germany. Although much has been said and written about Galileo it is worth mentioning what this programme is about. Basically it is the new generation of the well-known American system GPS which was in the past solely used by the army. Apart from the most famous American system Russia has a functioning system called Glonass and China is developing its own system called Compass. Very active are also Japan and India which also want their own satellite and navigation system. Compared to the other programmes Galileo is the only civil project. Therefore there cannot be a situation where the army will block the signal in certain areas or even that the army would decide to temporarily switch of the whole system. Galileo will be an independent system from the American GPS but it will function together in parallel. The portfolio of Galileo services is much wider. For example drivers will be able to obtain information with accuracy of two to four metres. The GPS resolution is around 15 metres. The system is formed to be active thus it will be able to transmit and receive signals which can be practical for example when we will be in a dangerous situation the satellite will be able to locate us. Galileo will offer five different services that range from open services to security and emergency services. Galileo has made its first big step towards its realization in October 2011 when the first two operational satellites were launched using the Soyuz rocket from the twenty-thousand city of Kourou in French Guiana. With this launch the EU has commenced its implementation phase of the long-planned financially and technically complicated project. I am honoured to be the only Czech and the European Parliament representative to be part of this launch event. The other two satellites of the in-orbit validation phase will be launched at the end of September which will enable system validation and it will gather in-orbit experience. According to the recent plans fourteen other satellites will be launched until the end of 2014. In parallel intensive work has been carried out on ground stations of the system and last suitable EU oversees destinations are being selected. In order to complete the constellation of satellites and ensure the optimal functioning of the system 14 other satellites should be launched until the end of 2020. In autumn 2009 as the Vice-Chairman of the Industry Research and Energy committee of the European Parliament I was assigned to consolidate the legislation for the biggest EU project Galileo. The whole process has lasted almost one year. The many difficult meetings have been a school of diplomacy to me. The initial legislative proposal for the governance of the project was to set up a public private partnership. However the business side of the project has pulled out and without the intervention of the European Commission the project would end up in liquidation. However this meant that the European Commission has to pay the full amount for the project and it will need to decide on the ownership structure. New structure together with the new governing mechanisms of the project needed to be set up. Therefore after almost a year of complicated meetings with EU presidency countries Sweden and Spain the European Commission we have succeeded to find an agreement. The total cost of the project including its operation and maintenance will amount to many billions of Euro. The development of the project until the year 2013 will cost for example 3.5 billion Euros and yearly operation cost will be in hundreds million of Euros. In the end the project will be developed by the European Commission the European Space Agency and by other countries which have joined the programme for example Ukraine Israel and South Korea. The project is governed by Photo Archive the administrative board that is composed from the member state representatives and the European Commission. I view it as a success that we have ensured the strong participation of member states. I have also pushed through the mechanism of joint action which every member state can use in case there are security problems with the project. I was not satisfied that on sensitive issues like security there were proposals to vote according the Lisbon treaty which would be unfair to the Czech Republic. The move of the agency to Prague is prestigious. However we should not forget that the most important impacts of the Galileo programme are the applications. Without applications the expectations of the system will not be met. For example the European Commission predicts that during the 2012 2027 period 90 billion Euros can be earned from applications. There are great opportunities for universities and companies that can participate on the implementation of the project. I believe this is one of the areas our universities should focus on if they want to remain competitive in their research because competition is fierce. By Evzen Tosenovsk I Member of the European Parliament To be continued... cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE Leaders Magazine V 2012 97 gala vernisage From left Eli Fischer Owner of the Art for Peace Collection and Ji Maceska Chairman of the Supervisory Board Cesk posta IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE From left Petr Michal Partner Law Office C sa Ceska Smutn Petr Mothejl DEKONTA and Augustin Sobol Director Pramacom Prague Eli Fischer Owner of the Art for Peace Collection Tom s Chalupa Minister of Environment of the CR in his speech with Shahar Shelef First Secretary of the Embassy of Israel in the CR behind on the left 98 From left Yehuda Baruch Ministry of Health of the State of Israel and Petr Benes Vice President CISOK From left Jan Pirk Head of the Cardiology Department IKEM Pavel Smutn President CISOK and Ji Maceska Chairman of the Supervisory Board Cesk posta Shahar Shelef First Secretary of the Embassy of Israel in the CR and behind him from left Pavel Smutn President CISOK and Ji Maceska Chairman of the Supervisory Board Cesk posta Ludmila Pallov Trade Marketing Cesk posta and Jan Hykel Corporate Marketing Cesk posta From left Martin Kult Member of the Board CISOK and Josef Sembera Oracle From left H.E. Oldich Uttendorfsk Honorary Consul of the Principality of Monaco in the CR Mrs. Petra Hofmanov and Jan Pirk Head of the Cardiology Department IKEM On Tuesday evening September 9 an extraordinary exhibition of selected art works from the collection Art For Peace of Dr. Fisher of Tel Aviv was ceremonially opened in the hall of Cesk posta carrying a message of humanity and solidarity. The exhibition was officially opened by honourable guests from Israel and the Czech Republic Rachel Adatto the Chairwoman of Public Health Lobby and Member of Knesset and the United Nation delegation Tom s Chalupa Minister of Environment of the CR Shahar Shelef First Secretary of the Embassy of the State of Israel in the CR Ji Maceska Chairman of the Supervisory Board Cesk posta and Pavel Smutn President of the Czech-Israeli Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Eli Fisher the Owner of the peace collection and the Founder and President of Fisher Pharmaceuticals Ltd. also travelled to attend the exhibition in person. MORE PHOTOS AND ELECTRONIC VERSION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LEADERSMAGAZINE.CZ Cutting the ribbon from left Eli Fischer Owner of the Art for Peace Collection Shahar Shelef First Secretary of the Embassy of the State of Israel in the CR Ji Maceska Chairman of the Supervisory Board Cesk posta Rachel Adatto Chairwoman of Public Health Lobby and Member of Israeli Parliament Knesset Pavel Smutn President CISOK and Tom s Chalupa Minister of Environment of the CR The exhibition Artists Messengers of Peace will present 50 replicas of the famous and extensive collection of Dr. Eli Fischer. These will be displayed in the hall of the Cesk posta s headquarters in Jindissk street in Prague 1 until the end of November this year. The originals from the collection Artists Messengers of Peace will be presented in the Czech Centre Prague in February 2013. During the ceremonial opening twelve original pieces which came from the series of works on the topic of the Israel-Egypt and Israel-Jordan peace agreements were displayed. 99 interview ARE EXCELLENT No Matter What Happens Eli Fischer is the founder and president of Dr. Fischer pharmaceuticals the biggest company in Israel with more than 700 employees specialized in eye and skin protection. Since 1979 he commemorated the Peace Agreement between Israel and Egypt by bringing together the Art for Peace collection with more than 400 works of art. Now after over 40 years this unique art project on the premise of coexistence and peace is exhibited in the hall of the main office post in Jindissk until November 30th 2012. Czech-Israeli Relationships Czechs Are On Our Side Can you tell us how the project Art for Peace began Ever ything egan nce the Peace Agreement between Everything began once the Peace Agreement between Egypt and Israel was signed in 1979. My wife and I took the stamped envelopes of the Peace Agreement sent them to one hundred artists from Israel Egypt Palestine Jordan and asked them to render the envelopes on the following subject of peace. When these envelopes were returned to us we organized their first exhibition. In 1994 with the subsequent Peace Agreement between Jordan and Israel 200 artists made their contributions ORI REISMAN ENVELOPE OF PEACE WITH EGYPT which the exhibition then travelled all over to Washington New York Miami Paris London Madrid Barcelona Tokyo and New Zealand. We also published a book and we gave it to those we believed could endorse and promote peace such as Shimon Peres the former Israeli president Weizman the King of Jordan Abdullah II his father King Hussein bin Talal and the former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Actually you ve had a much stronger relationship with Czech Republic didn t you I was born in Karlovy Vary. Both my grandfather and my father studied medicine here in Prague and then ather studied medicine ere rague and then worked in Carlsbad. Due to the Munich Agreement in 1938 all the Sudetes land was given to Germany and we had to leave to Tel Aviv where we arrived the 14th of March 1939 exactly the same day Hitler came to Prague. Since then I came a couple of times to Prague after the Revolution. Now I am here again with this exhibition thanks to the Israeli-Czech Chamber of Commerce and Industry in cooperation with the chairman of Czech Postal Service the Czech Embassy in Israel as well as the Israeli one in Prague. On the 24th of September the day before Yom Kippur the holiest day for the Jews the exhibition will be on display at the Castle of Oechov Uhersk Hradist where Miroslava Nmcov the head of Czech Chamber of Deputies will open another exhibition on holocaust. What about the Czech-Israeli relations I think that they are excellent no matter what it happens the Czechs are on our side. The Czech Republic is the most European country that supports Israel perhaps even ore than even more than the United St ates The ancestries of this nited States. The ancestries this rapport are very deep-rooted and a part of Jewish history with regards to the Golem legend and then the writer Franz Kafka. There is a possibility these healthy relations are also because of a mutual point of view and understanding which can be based on what had happened between the Czechs and us. By Andreas Pieralli I CHA ED R A CHALED HURAN CHALED HURANI A MAT T ER OF EX ISTANCE H E AN M A TER MAT TE OF E X ISTANC AT ER IS TAN S NC BENNY EFRAT CHILD BENNY EFR AT CHILDREN ABUSING ROYAL MAIL A HILDRE ABUS G R AL MAIL BUSING 10 100 100 AVIV LEVIN YITZHAK RABIN AND CHILD Y G L TU ARK N UT R E O YIG AL TUM ARK IN F UTURE WEAPONS U UM AR U MO MOT IZR AHI RABIN MONUMEN T FOR PE AC MOTI MIZR AHI RABIN MONUMENT FOR PE ACE Z AH AB MONUME FOR ACE A O M O C The very first DEVELOPERS BUSINESS GOURMET COCKTAIL was organized by Hotel JALTA in cooperation with ERSTE PREMIER. Many developers investors and real estate representatives came to enjoy a great audience of the hotel overlooking the Wenceslav square from the hotel s balcony. Guests have indulged themselves in delicious meditteranean finger food menu prepared by Pavel Mencl chef of COMO restaurant and degustation of fine wines spirits tea and cigars. gourmet event IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE Developers Cocktail Vojtch Kacerovsk General Manager Boutique Hotel Jalta From left Albert Oesterreicher Chairman of the Board OCN Orion 001 Andrea Jakub kov Managing Director GPG communications and Roland Leisztner Owner Leisztner Roland Projects From left Ilona Monferini-Manc kov Sales & Marketing Director and Kateina Kv calov Sales Director both FIM Group Petr Casanova General Manager First Class and Petra Ondrusov Regional Director Erste Premier From left Lucie Havl ckov Member of the Board Byrd Tom s Stainbruch Chairman of the Board Byrd and Petra Ondrusov Regional Director Erste Premier Jan Ad mek Owner and Director CENTURY 21 Reality Express and Marie Ad mkov Executive Director CENTURY 21 Reality Express 101 MORE PHOTOS AND ELECTRONIC VERSION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LEADERSMAGAZINE.CZ Cosmic Consciousness James A. Cusumano PhD personal enlightenment A JOURNEY TO WELL-BEING HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS Part V Happiness A B HAPPINESS BASICS Most of us would define happiness as a state of mind or consciousness characterized by feelings of contentment love satisfaction pleasure or joy i.e. personal fulfillment. As I pointed out previously over the millennia people have consistently sought happiness as a destination but that approach never works. Happiness is always an end product the result of something we do and nearly always for someone else or some good cause. Long term happiness never results from a prime focus on money beauty or power. Success along these lines may feel good for a brief while but there is no possibility for long-term happiness and more often than not this approach has the opposite effect long-term discontent and unhappiness. As mentioned in prior discussions I think we must recognize that there is no such thing as constant happiness. Our lives are generally lived somewhere between the poles of joy and sorrow laughter and sighs achievement and disappointment. The key is how to live a happy life on average. At the end of the day a week a month a year when you look back do you feel that deep sense of fulfillment sought by the spirit inside you So what leads to happiness Certainly we must live by our basic values those personal rules and guidelines ingrained in our consciousness that set the arrow of the compass by which we journey through life they set a clear view of our true north. Those values may vary from person to person. However whatever they are when we violate any them we feel stressed unsatisfied and unhappy. But following your basic values is not enough to achieve lasting happiness and contentment. Let s take a look at the results of recent research on happiness3. THE HAPPINESS FORMULA The pioneers of the Positive Psychology movement founded in the early 1990s struggled with the importance of genetics and environmental factors for our state of happiness. Are we born with a certain level of happiness or unhappiness Is there anything we can control to lead to a happier life As biologists uncovered the details of the human genome a more complete understanding of the contributions of nurture versus nature began to unfold. It appears that genes have a significant impact on the range of our natural set point for happiness (Figure 2). If you have happy parents it s quite possible that you too will have a predisposition for a high happiness set point and of course the opposite is true as well. However modern science has shown that genes are often sensitive to environmental conditions. Furthermore you can have a significant impact on your state of happiness by addressing the conditions of your life and by what you do with it. All of this has been somewhat quantified in the following qualitative equation developed by Martin Seligman and others who founded the Positive Psychology movement4. Don t cry because it s over smile because it happened. Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) American Author KEY CONCEPTS I Lasting happiness is always a byproduct and is never achieved as a direct goal. I Although genetic predisposition passed on by your parents has much to do with your innate happiness set point the larger contribution comes from a combination of your environment and what you do with your life both of which are well within your control. I Happiness results by following your true sense of Purpose in all that you do. I Your sense of Purpose must draw on your personal Essence that special attribute that distinguishes you from others. I Purpose leads to Passion which ignites high levels of physical and emotional Energy and unfolds Creativity enabling you to solve challenging problems which generates Innovation. The result is a Return which may be financial emotional psychological spiritual or some combination. The final outcome is deep personal Gratitude the source of lasting Happiness. This Fulfillment Formula expresses one of the most effective means to lasting happiness. H S C V Here H is the level of happiness that you actually experience S is your genetic set point what your parents coded in your DNA C is the environmental conditions of your life how you are raised as a child and the environment you choose as an adult and V is voluntary activities i.e. what you do with your life. So the challenge then since S is fixed is to see what you can do to increase C and V. Although the relative contributions of S C and V to happiness can be argued most psychologists would say that for a normal healthy person the relative contributing weights are approximately S 40% C 20% and V 40%. Therefore beyond choosing the right parents your primary impact potential is on C and V and it can be quite significant about 60 percent. As for C your environment there are several interesting factors that have been found to contribute and which if addressed can have quite a positive impact5. The first is noise level. Research has shown that people who have to adapt continuously to high levels of noise find it difficult to do so and this has a diminishing effect on their level of happiness. The old adage that people living close to an airport or a train station adapt to the noise level is not correct. They basically learn to tolerate the noise at the expense of lower levels of happiness. It s difficult to be happy when you re stressed and annoyed even when it is unconsciously so6. In this modern connected world long-distance commuting also has a negative impact on happiness. A) EDITOR S COMMENT This is the fifth article in a series based on the author s recent book Cosmic Consciousness A Journey To Well-being Happiness and Success. In this little book published in both the Czech and English languages within one volume and with an introduction by internationally-acclaimed author Dr. Deepak Chopra Dr. Cusumano explains in simple terms the connection between Eastern Philosophical Wisdom consciousness and quantum physics. He develops specific practices for living a successful and fulfilled life regardless of your passion of pursuit. B) The author may be reached at Jim ChateauMcely.Com. AUTHOR S NOTE Of all the mail I receive each month the subjects that grab most attention are Happiness Purpose and Passion. Of course the three are closely interlinked. While your happiness is always an end product it depends intimately on your purpose and passion. I have addressed these subjects in two prior articles1 2 however because of continued interest and commentary I thought it worthwhile to revisit these important subjects and expand on our understanding of them. They are arguably the most critical elements to a life of fulfillment and certainly a necessary requirement for Cosmic Consciousness and our Journey to Wellbeing Happiness and Success. The good news is that no matter where you are in your life you can capture the key elements necessary for long-term happiness (Figure 1). 102 Leaders Magazine V 2012 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE personal enlightenment Figure 1 NEVER TOO LATE. No matter what your age you can discover you purpose and live with passion making this a better world and bringing you unparalleled success. I recall when living in the New York City area it was not uncommon for some people who lived on Long Island to travel to work two hours each way in heavy traffic. Research shows that those who do travel extended distances to work exhibit significant stress levels on the job and a diminished state of happiness7. A lack of control decreases the level of happiness to a surprising amount. Haidt and Rodin have demonstrated that changing an institution s environment to increase a sense of personal control among its occupants e.g. patients in a hospital students in school or workers on the assembly line etc. was one of the most effective means to increase their sense of engagement energy and happiness8. For example in a classic study by Langer and Rodin two floors of patients in a nursing home were studied. On one floor patients were allowed to choose flowers and plants for their room care for the plants and to choose a specific movie night each week as well as the movie to view. On a separate floor the nurses chose the plants watered them and chose the movie night and the movie. This seemingly minor manipulation had significant effects. On the floor with increased control patients were happier more active and more alert as rated by both the doctors and nurses and these benefits were still observed even after 18 months. Furthermore during the subsequent 18 months the floor patients with greater control amazingly had statistically significantly better health and half as many deaths 15% versus 30%9. Isn t it amazing what a small increase in the level of personal autonomy can do to increase self-esteem engagement happiness and health Think what this can do for employees. What an opportunity Shame is another controllable factor that impacts your level of happiness. People who remove any physical or emotional trait that is responsible for their feeling self-conscious always increase their level of happiness. A large percentage of plastic surgery is directed at these kinds of patients10 often with quite positive outcomes. And finally and surely not unexpected one of the major factors that is controllable in the C or environmental component of the happiness equation is relationships. This factor is sometimes thought to trump all other components of C in the happiness equation. As may be expected good relationships make people happy and happy people enjoy more and better relationships than unhappy people11. The message here is to immediately do something about any negative relationships in your life. Best is to try to work on them in a mutually constructive manner but if found to be essentially hopeless in any reasonable time scale complete physical and emotional separation is the indicated solution. Once S is fixed by the genetic code and the environmental factors in C are addressed this leaves only V the most significant factor after S to control your level of happiness. If you are in balance with respect to your basic values I think the fundamental remaining requirement for optimal happiness is that you continuously pursue your life Purpose your raison d tre as the French would say (Figure 3). And this means applying your personal Essence to create value for both the world and for you. As proposed previously12 each of us is born with a personal Essence that fundamental capability or skill that differentiates us from others in our social and professional circles. And when we find that special piece of us and apply it in whatever we do it generates Passion an incredible force that evaporates fear unleashes creativity and has been known to change the world. Figure 2 THANK YOUR PARENTS. About 40 % of your happiness is due to your genetic set point. But you have total control over the other 60%. Figure 3 IMMENSE POTENTIAL. When you discover your life purpose you connect with the Fulfillment Formula which provides great power and the ability to achieve success and long-term happiness. that s what starts the ball rolling through Purpose Passion etc. to the desirable effect of HAPPINESS. To be continued... James A. Cusumano PhD I 1 James A. Cusumano Business May Be Your Life But Life Is YOUR Business Part III Finding Your Passion And Purpose LEADERS Magazine II 2010. 142 143. 2 James A. Cusumano Business May Be Your Life But Life Is YOUR Business Part VIII Lasting Happiness LEADERS Magazine I 2011. 90 91. 3 Jonathan Haidt The Happiness Hypothesis Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom Basic Books 2006 p. 90ff. 4 M. E. P. Seligman Authentic Happiness New York Free Press 2002. 5 Op. cit. Jonathan Haidt p. 92. 6 S. Frederick and G. Loewenstein (1999) Hedonic Adaptation. In D. Kahneman E. Diener and N. Schwartz (Eds.) Well-being. The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology Russell Sage Press New York. 7 M. Koslowsky and A. N. Kluger Commuting Stress Plenum Press New York 1995. 8 Jonathan Haidt and J. Rodin Control and efficacy of Interdisciplinary Bridges Review of General Psychology Vol. 3 317 337 1999. 9 J. Rodin and E. Langer Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 35 897 902 (1977). 10 Sonja Lyubomirsky Laura King and Ed Diener The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect Does Happiness Lead to Success Psychological Bulletin 131 No. 6 (2005) pp. 803 855. 11 H. T. Reis and S. L. Gable Toward a Positive Psychology of Relationships in C. L. M. Keyes and J. Haidt (Eds.) Flourishing Positive Psychology and The Life Well-lived American Psychological Association Washington D.C. pp. 129 159. 12 Op. cit. Reference 2. I have seen this kind of passion-based journey played out by essentially all successful people who are content and experience long-term happiness. I like to express this process in what I call my Fulfillment Formula. Following your life Purpose based on your innate Essence and connected to a Need in the world leads to Passion which ignites high levels of physical and emotional Energy and unleashes intense Creativity. This generates Innovation providing you with a Return financial emotional psychological perhaps spiritual or some combination of these four elements. This endows a deep sense of Gratitude which is ALWAYS the source of all lasting Happiness. Essence Need Purpose Passion Energy Creativity Innovation Return Gratitude HAPPINESS This formula has been shown to work numerous times over the millennia. The outcome is more than worth the effort. The key then is How do I know what my Essence is and how do I connect it with a real Need in the world that makes a positive difference After all About the Author James A. Cusumano is Chairman and Owner of Chateau Mcely (www.ChateauMcely.Com) chosen in 2007 by the European Union as the only Green 5-star luxury hotel in Central and Eastern Europe and in 2008 by the World Travel Awards as the Leading Green Hotel in the World. He is a former Research Director for Exxon and subsequently founded two public companies in Silicon Valley one in clean power generation the other in pharmaceuticals manufacture via environmentally-benign low-cost catalytic technologies. While he was Chairman and CEO the latter Catalytica Pharmaceuticals Inc. grew in less than 5 years to a 1 billion enterprise with 2 000 employees. He is coauthor of Freedom from Mid-East Oil recently released by World Business Academy Press (www.WorldBusiness.Org) and the author of Cosmic Consciousness A Journey to Well-being Happiness and Success published in English and Czech by Fortuna Libri 2011. TO BE CONTINUED... Leaders Magazine V 2012 103 Jaroslav Han k President of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic at the opening ceremony Th o y ad ew abou the urr nt ailing The only bad news about the current failing ews ou h ren ailing i economic itua ion hat go eft ehin economic situation is that it got left behind con hn at h ate th s ear Br o xhibition at the gates of this year s Brno Exhibition rno itio o Cen re The u b r exhibitors th MS Centre. The number of exhibitors at the MSV h hibi o s MSV 2012 ncreas d 17 fr m he as ye r 2012 increased by 17% from the last year to 12 ncreased 7% from a number of one thousand eight hundred and numb number on housand e ght hundre an one nd ndre sevent y ee seventy- hree hich h best esult sinc sevent y--three which is the best result since y-th ch best nc 2008. Firm from hirt y tw coun rie 2008. Firms from thirt y--two countries 8 rms m oun untr attend d d he or ion internationa attended and the portion of international orti internat a ternatio exhibito s xceeded f ift percen fo the f irs exhibitors exceeded fift y percent for the first hi tors xcee o ift cen or nt st time in the Fair s history. ime h Fair is or y Fair ry. IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE The firms participation from the BRIC group of emerging economies was particularly impressive. In comparison to last year the size of the occupied exhibition floor increased by eight percent and roughly every other exhibition stand presented some sort of a technological innovation often in top international standard. During the first four days of the Fair the MSV 2012 was viewed by seventy-thousand visitors from fifty countries and according to all expectations the total attendance of this year s Fair will at least be equal to that of the last year. Several prominent guests visited the MSV 2012 the President and the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic the Minister of Government of India Deputy Secretaires (unless Ministers is part of their official title because we don t have ministersor ministries only secretaries and departments) of Trade and Industry of the United States Russia and Belarus and others. Foreign delegations arrived from Russia China Brazil USA Austria Sweden Switzerland Belarus and other countries. Fifteen officialstands representing various foreign countries further confirmed the international dimension of the MSV 2012. 104 MORE PHOTOS AND ELECTRONIC VERSION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LEADERSMAGAZINE.CZ From left Jaroslav Dr bek Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of the CR Tom s Chalupa Minister of Environment of the CR Martin Kuba Minister of Industry and Trade of the CR Karol na Peake Deputy Prime Minister of the CR and Chairwoman LIDEM Petr Necas Prime Minister of the CR and Jaroslav Han k President of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic Pavel Ju cek and Jan Rafaj From left Martin Kuba Minister of Industry and Trade of the CR Petr Vav n Rector Emeritus VUT Brno Jaroslav Han k President of the Confederation of Industry of the CR Ji Kulis General Director BVV Karel Rais Rector of VUT Brno and Roman Dvo k Chief Editor MM prmyslov spektrum From left Anand Sharma Union Cabinet Minister of Commerce and Industry and Textiles of India and Ji Kulis General Director BVV From left Grigorij Kalamanov Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Petr Necas Prime Minister of the CR and Alexander Dianov Director Expocontact From left Martin Kuba Minister of Industry and Trade of the CR and Grigorij Kalamanov Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation had opened the Russian official exposition. The Russian Federation held a status of a honorable guest of the MSV. From left Michal Hasek Governor South Moravian Region Prof. V clav Klaus President of the Czech Republic and Martin Kuba Minister of Industry and Trade of the CR Opening Ceremony of India Show from left Aman Chadha President EEPC India H.E. Venkatesan Ashok Ambassador of India to the CR Martin Kuba Minister of Industry and Trade of the CR and Anand Sharma Union Cabinet Minister of Commerce and Industry and Textiles of India 105 10 105 Simon P nek Simon P nek is the director of The People in Need foundation the second largest humanitarian developmental educational and human rights NGO not only in the Czech Republic but also in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2002 he was awarded the Medal of Merit for Involvement in public affairs. In 2003 he won the European of the Year award and in 2010 he was awarded the Memory of the Nation prize by the Post Bellum Company. The People in Need foundation has four sections Relief and Development Human Rights Social Integration Programs and Informative and Educational Projects. Its activities and contributions were summarised by V clav Havel as follows I appreciate the share People In Need contributes to the humanisation of life conditions in the troubled spots of this world. They are always where they are needed and they always get there as one of the firsts. The idea of human solidarity which organizations such as People in Need give a specific content to will become increasingly more important because no state can substitute for the important role of civil society and its activities. It is more action than words however that speaks for People in Need. Perhaps you bought a goat in the Real Gift event this Christmas or you visited the One World festival with more than 100 000 visitors. Other known events include the involvement of pupils in the project of Let s build a school in Africa and recently People in Need helped people of Burma despite the hostile regime. In the Czech Republic the public may connect the organisation People in Need with help during floods with student elections or with social integration programs. You can meet the workers of People in Need on the streets of Czech cities where they explain the activities of this organisation and ask for donations for their projects. Photos Archive of Simon P nek ambassadors without diplomatic passport I SUPPORT How do you perceive today s world I perceive today s world the one we live in as exceptionally free perhaps the most free in history and full of opportunities. At the same time it is he world that puts a lot of demand on individuals. This world is also full of alienation information technology innovation and even the decision processes have reached a speed that often exceeds our inner capacity to cope with change. On one hand we live a luxurious life full of incredible wealth the term luxury here encompasses both material wealth as well as the luxury of free time. On the other hand however this world which is built on individual careers which can deepen the sense of loneliness and alienation even further is very difficult to live in. I am fascinated by one more thing and will comment on the Euro-American world. In it we do everything possible to make our lives predictable we attempt to erase all of its unexpected turns potential crashes or external dangers. In this way we contribute to the world becoming relatively boring and we do not get surprised by anything. We are usually not exposed to challenges to tests or moments of crisis and here I mean the real moments where life liberty or the decision in which country to live in are at stake. Thus we compensate this by undertaking more free-time activities adrenalin sports and who knows what else so that we get the tension back into our lives. The organisation People in Need is according to the words of Helena Houdov an organisation which increases the reputation of the nonprofit sector in the Czech Republic and at the same time the reputation of the Czech Republic abroad. Your organisation gives the Czech Republic a good name in the countries it helps. www.clovekvtisni.cz ambassadors without diplomatic passport interview A talk with Petr Bendl Minister of Agriculture of the Czech Republic has not changed for the past 20 years. While earnings have increased seven or eight times the price of flights has remained the same or even declined. While a trip to India would have cost one year of savings in the beginning of the 1990s today it is possible to purchase a ticket for almost one Petr Bendl (1966) graduated from the University of Mechanical Engineering and Textile in Liberec in monthly salary. the master program of Multi-Purpose Machine You personally he was a Czech Chairman of Tool Design. In 1994 he became the Mayor of Kladno and remained in this position until 1998. In the years 1997 1998 are you Deputy European or a global citizen I am now 1998. In not only the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic. Petr Bendl was elected into the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic in thinking the years 2000 2008 Petr Bendl held the position of Governor of the Central Bohemia Region. In the year 2009 he in terms Minister of Transport in the Government was the of the European of the Year award but also Bohemia Regional Organization of the Civic of the Prime Minister Mirek Topol nek. In the years 2002 2010 he held the position of Chairman of the Central in terms of the real international dimension of the Democratic Party (ODS). Petr Bendl was appointed the Minister of Agriculture of the Czech Republic in October 2011. People in Need which is financed from European Funds from the U.N. budget or the budget of the U.S. government. costs in detail and the Czech supervisory bodies The opposition criticized the draft budget of reduce competitiveness towards third countries I do not think about this too much. As the feeling would then have to verify them. Moreover if somethe Ministry of Agriculture for 2012 as inadequate. through absurd demands both inside and outside the of identity as not important for me animalperhaps where any mistake occurs the businesses will be In this respect are you going to initiate a change CAP such is strict requirements for I am welfare sanctioned. So the system would entail a large new of the draft budget or global citizen. I do have an intensive relation a greening. administrative burden for both farmers and the goThe government is in a situation where its main task to WhatCzech Republic but moregoing to support the specific measures are you to places and vernment which is not in line with our priority of reis to prevent further indebtedness of our country. So it that willrather the competitiveness of Czech food people help than the construction of the nation. moving bureaucracy. So I along with ministers from is doing so based on various austerity measures and in our market a nation seems to me empty in The concept of the other EU countries am going to act against it. even the possibility of budgeting. The budget of the The marketing support of high-quality European this globalised world especially in theCzech food What are the main priorities of the Ministry of Ministry of Agriculture is inadequate indeed yet it has is obviouslyas I haveTo achieve this Igoal home in the Union. But crucial. already said am we have deAgriculture for the reform of the CAP always been so during all previous years and governsigned Republic and aimed at supporting domestic Czech a programme I like it here. I cook Czech Our priority is to make CAP easier fairer more ments. For 2012 we need to raise it up to 1.9 billion agriculture and applesproduction. Bohemia and dishes harvest food in Central It particularly How is the the national co-financing of the the genuine sympathy and empathy. Real work optransparent and market-oriented. Therefore wewith CZK aimed at Czech Republic perceived inRural involves the Klasa programme and the Regional take my children on trips so that even they know countries where you operate locals is after all more valuable than and a idenpose carrying out the limited payments some proviDevelopment Programme which binds to the payments Food programme. Since 2003 the Minister of Agrithe Czech Republic well. It the EU difficult national additional payments tity limiting sioncard. farmer s market behaviour. Moreover we from is very as well asto generalise. In Caucasus or culture has given the high-quality label KLASA to What would you like to tell the readers in in Chechnya where we functioned In six years The issue of developmental cooperation has are going to require an extension of the current system TOP UP and aids in forest management.for this regard high-quality food and agricultural producers. We conclusion everyone to increase the budget of everyone was long been outside the interest of the media the of direct payment the so-called SAPS. We also strive I will strive knew People in Need my Department. have had a favourable response to this from our conWorking producers. They reality than the labelaware that People Need inadequate of the of government and the public in the deveto maintain or increase funds in the Czech ruralCzech However I supposeinthat anhelps as one amountsesumers and with a different point out thatthe life in the KLASA works as goodin Europe is incredibly veral non-profit organisations there will also come lopment programme. So situation today budgetary requirements of ministers and that V clav ling Czech Republic or advertising. The Ministry Republic. What is the we want fairer conditions so interesting was puts head of the Regional Food Havel always defended sectors. that Czech farmers are not financially disadvantaged forth and increase in other the right of Chechnya for of Agricultureas it at thethe basic existential quesThe interest in developing countries and the tions into a target for granting this label who we compared to farmers from other countries.pastwant The European Commission recently highlighproject. Thewider context the questions ofto highautonomy and self-determination andpresented issue of development has grown for the We five are whether we have it aimed bad small and meto pursue an overall simplification of the EU agricula proposal on the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) quality food products is good orat the what is imported the violations of rights on a mass scale by to six years. This can be seen for example in the tant sized and what as well as work of the protural policy.news stories in the media. Eight years reform. Most EU member other however criticized dium in life producers is not. Ourregionsstraightens the Russian army. On thestates hand people in the number of When pursuing the aforementioned rea person s value system negative outlook of the forms wephraseto co-operate intensively with did want developmental aid almost the it. How is it disadvantageous for Czech farmers as ducts origin. Despite the well it helps to reveal African countries remember Czechoslovakia ago the MEPs particularly the Czech ones. students travel Contrary to promisesthere had close ties withsimon the establishment of the budget we expect to It is a complicated and depseudo-problems. continue both projects. many of the countries not exist there. Current university Comparisons of the economics of Czech agripler and with red tape a less burdened and more Do you consider the and adventurous and manding often fruitful decision of the former communist Czechoslovakia. more they all speak English and meet with the culture and the agriculture of the developed EU transparent CAP the European Commission has proMinister of Agriculture on Thismerger be the Land certainly not boring work. the might of perhaps In other countries we need to explain where it is range of developmental programs at the universimember states show several opportunities for posed a actually lie in the and newof Europe beFund and important Office to choose to be which the most the Land thing from 2013 work desirthat we new bureaucracy middle administrative ties in Western competitiveness of Czech agriculincreasing the Europe as part of their study-abroad measures for instance setting a limit on direct able And are you going to implement it will not bore us but lead us and inspire us. tween Germany and Russia. This is often related programs. The young generation of people below payments of enterprises and so-called greening ture. In this respect what steps are you preparing Yes it actually regards the implementation of to local customs whether geographical or ethnic 30Increasingin a competitiveness of Czech agriculture is living the world that is globalised and they which requires that farmers do not farm seven per the government resolution particularly from March Written by Linda Stucbartov I names are important. The extent to which we are mentally closer to Africa or Asia than my gecent of their land at all. It would mean a loss of revenue is my priority. Yet we have to distinguish several levels. 2008. The decision to merge both institutions by improve four or five the Czech per year. The Czech neration. It might be because only use the internet of about the name ofbillion CZK Republic is difficult Czech farmers currently receive they a portion of pay2013 was made by thenaleznete v elektronick verzi cesk peklad former Minister of Agriculture for me rent the majority of lands and thus assess. magaz nu na a clear task and a clear on a to which they or that the price of air tickets farmers as a director of the organisation to paradomentsregular basis are entitled. They are not going to and measures taken have www.leadersmagazine.cz Nevertheless it is true that we land received xically they would have to pay rent forhave which the receive one hundred per cent of the subsidy until 2013 development of the new institution setting including several international prizes andlacks any logic and and it isStucbartov graduated from the Institute ofin at the Territorial EU would not allow them to farm. It commendations Linda a crucial handicap. Another factor is that Internationallegislative and organizational levels. It actually during trip the competitiveness of Czech farmers. many countries a one year scholarship atNetherlands concerns the emergence of a new organizational part it wouldour functioning a fact which is valued even Studies. After of the EU e.g. in the the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and by So could you explain in more detail what limits Czech diplomacy. Belgium Studies she obtained a Diplome d tudes sup rieures from the Denmark and Germany far-mers receive of government called the State Land Office which is Jewish more moneyInstitute of International Studies in Geneva. going to be based on a system of land offices. After per hectare than farmers in our country forDo your employees have any special passport subsidy determined by the size of farms would Graduate or identity card which and I would like to reduce these inequalities. Richer EU transformation of the Land Office and the terminamean for Czech farmers provides them with inBetween the years 2002 and 2006 she worked in senior positions at the countries also fund their farmers from state regional or tion of his activities by December 2012 respectively It will security creaseddepend on the final agreement of the EU inDiplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 2006 she local budgets and compared to competition of poorer the residual agenda goes to the new office. Regarstitutions. Thethe card of People in Need which They have EC proposes to restrict direct payhas functioned in the private sphere and lectures at the ding the transformation of the Land Office it involves Anglo-American countries the richer states thus favour their farmers. ments aimed works. I already mentioned thatthan surprisingly at farmers so that if it is more our University where this this advantage. I will striveChair of the Department year she was named the to the gradual agenda takeover of detached workSo I d like to eliminate 150 thousand euro per year a part of the money authority in given countries is not guaranteed but of Diplomacy. She Republic makes the system of learning and coaching regional workplaces. We have at ensure that the Czechworks on an internal most effecwould be deducted and is accomplished along the generally the farmers could places by fourteen gained by work which in the Servodata a.s. hands the EU agricultural poltive usage of tools in thecompany where she is the director of learning andanalysis of results of existing organinot get more than 300 precaution in Afghanistan is thousand euro a year. Yet it our disposal an way. Our best security development. icy especially rural development measures from would be possible understand this work as benefito increase our amount by the zational changes of the Office it shows that its opethe fact that locals In addition to training in negotiation and communication of clientsnot in any way disturbed to clients. which it is possible to facilitate investment into modern wage costs of and they want it.company. It is alocal employees in the Local elders betration was from cial to them technologies consulting and education differentiater option than the previous ones and for the total the private public and non-profit sector she regularly collaborates leaders and regional authorities value our honest Photo Archive tion of activities the projects of the International Global Young Leaders 890 million euro per year proposed for the Czech By Pavl na Holancov I with NGOs in and other things. So I support anyand meaningful work. The key to relatively high sething that helpsand the WomenYet the point is that the Republic for the period of 2014 2020 the effects Conference Czech farmers. and Leadership Programme. Linda Stucbartov is a member of the Rotary curity in even the more dangerous countries is to effort must come from their side as well. Last but not were a half to four per cent. However a new adminisClub Prague International. cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi rely on for locals to communicate to show staff magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz least I will also promote the factathat the EU does not tration the businesses would have with them in(Eng. Ambassadors without Diplomatic Passport ). clude them in a team and to approach them with TO BE CONTINUED WITH OTHER AMBASSADORS WITHOUT DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT Leaders Magazine V 2012 107 ambassadors without diplomatic passport Tomio Okamura Tomio Okamura was born in Tokyo in 1972 and has Japanese and Korean ancestors. As a child from a mixed marriage he was raised alternately in Japan and communist Czechoslovakia. He considers himself to be Czech even in his native Japan he says of himself that he is Czech. His life story seems incredible as late as in the early 1990s he worked as a dustman in Tokyo and sold popcorn and CocaCola in a Tokyo cinema. After finishing high school Tomio s future was not very bright. Schooling is expensive in Japan and Tomio s parents already struggled to finance high school for their three sons. He tried to set up his own business and sell Czech crystal which is so highly regarded in Japan. Without the right contacts however he did not stand a chance in the conservative Japanese culture. He left for Prague at the age of twenty where he initially taught Japanese. The real break-through in Tomio s career however brought him work as a tour guide for a travel agent followed by his attendance at a travel fair in London where he managed to persuade the two largest travel agencies from Japan to do business with him. At the beginning he did not even have his own office or telephone. Today his travel agency brings to the Czech Republic more than 120 thousand tourists a year. Tomio Okamura is also a co-owner of a traditional Czech restaurant and every Saturday you can meet him in his shop with Japanese food. For two years he acted as a commentator for the Czech BBC. His affection for journalism also carried over into his further role of a spokesperson and vice-president of the Czech Association of Travel Agents. He repeatedly points to the problems in the sphere of tourism which not only concerns the Czech capital. While he organises popular Japanese weeks in Prague he also aims to attract foreign tourism to other places in the Czech Republic. You might have also seen Tomio Okamura in his role of a potential investor on the show Cesk televize Den D. Tomio Okamura speaks fluent Czech Japanese and English. With his former wife with whom he still runs a business they have a sixteen year old son. http okamura.blog.idnes.cz ambassadors without diplomatic passport Mr. Okamura many could perceive your success as a result of not only your diligence and ambition but also of the opportunities that the 1990s offered in the Czech Republic for starting up a business. In developed western countries and especially in Japan a career progression is firmly given. How do you view today s world in terms of opportunities I am convinced that there is a space for successful business even in today s world. When you want to be successful you must work educate yourself have dreams and mainly have a unique idea. In this respect the situation has not changed. At a first glance it may seem that it is difficult to come up with some totally revolutionary idea that everything has already been conceived. The situation in the field of unique ideas does not change. Perhaps there was less competition before on the other hand only the successful businesses have remained on the Czech market for the past 20 years. I myself launched two new projects in 2010. The first project was a travel agency for stuffed toys incidentally there are around 1.2 billion of them and until then no such offer existed for them. And recently I opened the first Lolita boutique in the Czech Republic. I would argue that the situation today is in many ways easier in comparison to the 1990s. Increased law enforcement better legislation better payment morale well-functioning information technology that allows much greater accessibility of a territory and thus a greater internationalization of business are some of the large advantages. Moreover it is now easier to gain access to financing for new projects. I used the example of Lolita boutique as it is an investment of hundreds of thousand of crowns and yet this type of project can already help to earn a good living. The key is to not seek problems in the current time or environment but to solve the problems within ourselves. We live here and now and only once. Your strength was the experience that you gained in two countries. Would you recommend taking business abroad for acquiring experience I certainly do recommend a foreign experience. The Czech Republic is such a small country so it is important to have a comparison with the world. I can confirm from my own experience how important the mental grasp of the size of the globe was for me. I achieved this at the age of 21 when I first circled the globe. Three twelve hour flights were enough for me to find myself at the same place where I originally started. It was at that moment that I understood how small and vulnerable our planet is. Until then I had considered myself a mere individual in Japan with 130 million habitants or one person of the total six billion on the Earth or even a tiny particle of an infinite universe. This thinking however leads to a feeling that there is no point in trying to achieve something because nothing can be changed. If someone therefore brings an appreciation of the existence of other cultures from his travels or as I recommend the mental grasp of the size of the globe and its vulnerability then it is necessary to apply these findings into daily life in a way of having a global perspective in the attitude to work life and other people. With this Photos Arch Photos Archive o rchive of Tomio Okamura Tomio Okamur mura perspective a person gradually becomes bigger . I consider getting to know other cultures an enriching experience for all age groups be it children young people or seniors. You say about yourself that you are Czech. Nevertheless you also act as a propagator of Japan in the Czech Republic. Could you tell the readers which culture is closer to you When I was growing up in Japan nobody considered me to be Japanese. I remember how my classmates never accepted me to their circle and how they even refused to share a place at a table with me. In the Czech Republic I was considered to be Vietnamese for the whole of my childhood and constantly laughed at for my different appearance. Because I could never claim to be Japanese in Japan I propagated Bohemia and the Czech culture there instead. For the same reason I propagate Japan in the Czech Republic. I do not however aim to popularise the Japanese culture as such this is done by others and perhaps better. My goal is to deepen the understanding and the peace between individual countries in the whole world and so I picked the Czech Republic and Japan for my start as they are the closest cultures to me. It is a matter of chance that these two are at a first sight such different nations. The greatest reward for my efforts is the look from the audience after a successful beneficial concert of Japanese artists which I often organise in the Czech Republic. The majority of the concerts end with standing ovations and a subsequent meeting of Japanese artists with the Czech audience. During these moments when two sides understand each other without words and when the atmosphere is full of positive emotions the human solidarity reveals itself. It is proof for me that people are able to communicate with each other without words that it is only necessary to want and to have an open heart. Final word what would you recommend to young people as far as how you would like to motivate them What would you tell them to do I have this inner rule or rather a saying Envy wastes time Do not forget that without envy you will not only be happier in life but you will also get rid of one of the major obstacles on the road to success. Written by Linda Stucbartov I cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz Linda Stucbartov graduated from the Institute of International Territorial Studies. After a one year scholarship at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies she obtained a Diplome d tudes sup rieures from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. Between the years 2002 and 2006 she worked in senior positions at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 2006 she has functioned in the private sphere and lectures at the Anglo-American University where this year she was named the Chair of the Department of Diplomacy. She works on an internal system of learning and coaching in the Servodata a.s. company where she is the director of learning and development. In addition to training in negotiation and communication of clients from the private public and non-profit sector she regularly collaborates Photo Archive with NGOs in the projects of the International Global Young Leaders Conference and the Women and Leadership Programme. Linda Stucbartov is a member of the Rotary Club Prague International. Articles are extracts from her book Velvyslanci i bez diplomatick ho pasu (Eng. Ambassadors without a Diplomatic Passport ). TO BE CONTINUED WITH OTHER AMBASSADORS WITHOUT DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT Leaders Magazine V 2012 109 interview A talk with Ela Stein Weissberger the original star of Brundib r in the Theresin Ghetto Nobody Believed me when I Saw Hitler in Person Photo Vladim Weiss Photo Vladim r Weiss ad m s HOPE IS BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS Ela Stein Weissberger was born to Jewish family. Her father had a thriving porcelain business and her mother s family had been wealthy owners of a glass factory. In 1938 they lost everything. Her father was arrested and was never seen again. We will never forgive them for this the only thing they could ever take from us says Ela Weissberger. She was just 9 years old when she was forced to leave her beloved home in the middle of the night with her mother and her older sister. She didn t know at that time she was one of the many victims to what was ultimately planned as the Final Solution (Endl sung). Millions of Jews were dispersed across the Europe (mostly in the east) from the ghettos to the concentration camps. Out of the approximate 6 million casualties merely a chosen few were spared which she had never forgotten her experiences with this travesty. In fact she usually depicts her story of living in the Theresienstadt as the Theresin Ghetto was called by the Germans with incredible enthusiasm and vigour. Tens of thousands of Jews were murdered in this ghetto and over 150 000 others (including children) were finally sent through the death trains to the extermination camps in Poland Treblinka and Auschwitz. However Hitler was still in desperate need of a place to show how well he presumedly treated the Jews in oder to fool the Western allies such as the Red Cross. Ela Stein Weissberger now shares the story of the Girls in Room 28 with us... 110 Leaders Magazine V 2012 interview Germany. We were obviously living under terrible conditions and our lives were in constant jeopardy. However our cultural life was highly in tuned. The visual artists there were making drawings and paintings even though there were also writers professors musicians actors etc. We even had a library in Theresin where there were merely up to 60 000 books. Were you allowed to cultivate your creativity such as drawings for instance We were obviously not allowed to draw in ghetto this had to be done in secret. Yet someone like Friedl Dicker Brandeis a famous Austrian artist at that time had brought with her some materials for painting and drawing. She was more of a conceptual artist that had originally came from the Bauhaus school in the Weimar. She might as well have been one of the greatest artists in the 20th century. She was always asking her friends to send pencils for the kids and she was allowed to come to our classroom to entertain and educate us Thus some of the us. Thus most beautiful children s poetry were written by children of Theresin including the most famous and the most touching poems by Pavel Friedman entitled Butterfly and The Butterflies Don t live in the Ghetto. For us butterflies were a reminiscent towards freedom. But going back to Brandeis she presumedly had hidden hundreds of her paintings in one of the walls in Theresin. There are several published books about Theresin right Yes there were but at present I would like to make my contribution with a new movie about my life and the others who survived Theresin so that at least the children of Theresin shall always be remembered. This movie is about them what their lives were like and what they did to survive. My idea is to put everything I have experiendea put ever ything ave experien ced into this movie so that it affects future generations. Could you give us any specific details There was this one time when we were doing a musical number on stage and we were enjoying our efforts so much that we d forgotten where we actually were how hungry we d been and what was actually happening to us. We were the original cast of the children s opera Brundib r by the Jewish Czech composer Hans Kr sa and we were the first to be touched by its lovely music. Where is the filming going to take place It will be probably shot in different places wherever it would be cheaper than in Hollywood. However I hope they would consider finishing the production in Theresin since we already did some shooting there. And has the cast for this movie been picked yet I ve requested that I wanted to be involved in this production but not as an actor. Angelina Jolie herself said that she would like to play From left Hanka Wertheimer and Ela in Prague after Liberation 1946 How can you recall the first day you had to leave your home I was born in Lom u Mostu in Sudetenland. When the Nazis came my father was already arrested and was presumed to have been murdered by the Gestapo. We had to leave our house and finally arrived in Prague. Our apartment there was very small so my mother sent me to Brno to live with my grandmother. I have one significant experience over there I met Adolf Hitler. They took us from school to go and greet him while he was visiting the former Czechoslovakia. Didn t you know who he was I knew of him because my father was Czech and we both were listening to his speeches when we were still living in Sudetenland. My teacher g a teacher advised us not give him the Nazi salute. My sister who was four years older than me was also in the same school but her teacher was a Nazis sympathiser and her class had to give him the Nazis salute. Nobody believed me that I saw Hitler when he was in Brno. He was coming from Vienna and he only stopped in Brno to greet its citizens. What did this experience felt like for you It was awful and I was only nine at that time. Anyhow his speeches on the radio were so loud I remember that I was covering my ears when he kept shouting out Juden Juden... . What year were you deported to Theresin It was 1942 in February when we came to Theresin from Prague however the ghetto was not yet accessible for living. We only had the barracks. Slowly but surely other Jews were arriving in this smalll garriison. his l Were there many prominent artists that were deported to Theresin Yes there were many renown artists that were mainly from Czechoslovakia Austria and Brandeis. Jolie also said that she really felt for Friedl since she was so devoted to the Children of Theresin that she taught art to them and loved them as if they were the children she never really had her love for the children shows in their paintings and pictures. What was your relationship with Friedl Brandeis I was her student and I think I remember her fondly most of all. She was telling us things that would have touched a lot of other people. When we were performing Brundib r we allowed to take off our Jew Stars since she said to us that we were not just our identification numbers but that we had names even though it was forbidden to use those names but only use those names but only ID numbers. So th b then whenever we were drawing and we did draw almost everywhere in that place we were to write our names in German or in any other language and our birthdays even our assigned identification or room numbers. She often talked to us through the windows of the Children s House and tell us to come and look outside since it was a beautiful Spring day. I also remembered her telling us The mountains are surrounding Theresin and the sun is above those mountains but what is more important is that behind these mountains is hope that you will survive and live on. So I always say Here I am I survived... By Pavl na Holancov I End of the Part I... cesk peklad naleznete v elektronick verzi magaz nu na www.leadersmagazine.cz Leaders Magazine V 2012 111 Open n Cer o y Geor Opening Ceremony Ji Georg enin n re eorg D koupil Dokoupil New Religious p e elig o s Paintings in the MIRO Galler y ainti g i ti ing IRO al er Prag Prague on August 24th 2012 and a u u t 4 h 0 an af e pa r af terpar ty in LINDNER Hotels L NDNE ote s NER & Resorts. e s or t s . Ji eorg oko pi Ji Georg Dokoupil r oupil is the Czech painter and s he e h a n d em g a h s ceed emigrant who has succeed on cee the rld ar scen . works the world ar t scene. He works h e in Rio de Jainero Berlin Madrid o Jaine erlin dri in lin and at the moment also in n t he omen lso ment Prague A catalogue was gue. catalog e wa a publ e published to this exhibition. b his exhibition biti i From left J.G. Dokoupil Painter and Miro Smol k Founder and Director MIRO Gallery Prague From left Michael Haas Owner and Director Michael Haas Gallery Berlin Z rich Halina Nowack Art Consultant Berlin Petr Stp n Art Historian Miro Smol k and Andrea Caratsch Owner and Director Andrea Caratsch Gallery Z rich Alena Miro Soprano Soloist The State Opera Prague and J n Lest k Owner Eye Clinic JL From left Petr Vr na Professor Kunsthochschule Kassel-Universit t J. G. Dokoupil Painter and Milan Kunc Painter 112 From left JUDr. Jan Olejn cek Law Office Olejn cek with his girlfriend Marie and MUDr. Alan Olejn cek Tomayer Hospital Prague with his wife Hana From left S rka Nespchalov Office Director AGEL a.s. J n Lest k Owner JL Eye Clinic Prague Pavel C cel Evangelical Church and Zuzana Nespchalov student From left Richard Kuc k Owner Miura Hotel Celadn Michael Haas Owner and Director Michael Haas Gallery Berlin Zurich Andrea Caratsch Owner and Director Andrea Caratsch Gallery Z rich and Karin Polyanina Business Manager Vladivojna La Chia Painter Music Composer and Singer and Miro Smol k Founder and Director MIRO Gallery Prague From left Volkan Tanyildiz Second Secretary Turkish Embassy and Mgr. Katarina Bohac Linares Director Latin Art Gallery Prague From left Luis Galindo Galecio Minister Counsellor Embassy of Peru and Juan Braun Journalist Writer and Shaman Argentina From left Jan Test k Prinz Prager Gallery Jana Dolezelov Miss of the Czech Republic 2004 and Doctor of Pharmacy J n Lest k Owner JL Eye Clinic Prague and Pavel C cel Evangelical Church From right Genc Pecani Head of Mission Embassy of the Republic of Albania with his son From left Pavel Opocensk Sculptor with his partner and J.G. Dokoupil Painter Magdal na Dokoupilov mother of J.G. Dokoupil From left Jakub Spahel Painter and Petr Moravec ETIC s.r.o. film production with his partner From Left Zuzana Nespchalov student Mgr. Katarina Bohac Linares Director Latin Art Gallery Prague and Jose Labrada Terna Singer Bassoon Symphony Orchestr Santiago de Cuba 113 From left Robert Kopeck Embassy of the Czech Republic in Arab Republic of Egypt Renata Talackov Art Manager and Ivan Novesk Prezident Afog o.s. OF PAINTED POETICAL TALES YURI GORBACHEV Miro Gallery Presents Russian-American Master IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE From left Georgi Ignatov Deputy Regional Governor District Administration-Plovdiv PhDr. MgA. Miro Smol k Owner and Director of MIRO Gallery Prague Vihra Grigorova Art Historian State City Gallery Plovdiv Ivan Totev Mayor of the city Plovdiv (the oldest city in the Europe ca 7000 years) Ing. Dimitar Georgiev General Director and Owner of Rosa Impex Plovdiv Honorar Consul of Ukraine in Plovdiv General Partner of the Exhibition Yuri Gorbachev Artist and Krasimir Linkov Director of the State City Gallery Plovdiv From left PhDr. MgA. Miro Smol k Owner and Director of MIRO Gallery Prague Kamen Shishmanov Director of Art Gallery Romfeia -Plovdiv Dimitar Atanasov Ombutsman of Plovdiv City and Ing. Dimitar Georgiev General Director and Owner of Rosa Impex Plovdiv From left Tsviatko Siromashki Bulgarian Sculpture and Ing. Dimitar Georgiev General Director and Owner of Rosa Impex Plovdiv Albena Kazanlieva Director of Al Property LTD Plovdiv and Yuri Gorbachev Artist 114 From left Yuri Gorbachev Artist Stefan Maletzov Art Collector Director and Owner of the Art Gallery & Museum Philippopolis Plovdiv and Kiril Kirev Art Collector From left PhDr. MgA. Miro Smol k Owner and Director of MIRO Gallery Prague Katerina Churta Eva Director of the Czech Cultural Centre in Sofia and Georgi Stojanov Bulgarian Artist living in Prague with his wife From left Ivan Totev Mayor of the city Plovdiv Yuri Gorbachev Artist and Viktor Markov Deputy Director US Universal Service Odesa Ukraine Yuri Gorbachev Artist and Mariana Imreorova Assistant to Honorar Consul of Ukraine in Plovdiv From left PhDr. MgA. Miro Smol k Owner and Director of MIRO Gallery Prague Georgi Ignatov Deputy Regional Governor District Administration-Plovdiv Arh. Ilko Nikolov President of the Plovdiv Municipal Council Dimitar Georgiev General Director and Owner of Rosa Impex Plovdiv and Yuri Gorbachev Artist From left Dimitar Georgiev General Director and Owner of Rosa Impex Plovdiv Ivan Totev Mayor of the city Plovdiv and Yuri Gorbachev Artist From left Ivan Totev Mayor of the city Plovdiv Ing. Dimitar Georgiev General Director and Owner of Rosa Impex Plovdiv Yuri Gorbachev Artist and Krasimir Linkov Director of the State City Gallery Plovdiv during his opening speech Yuri Gorbach ( 1948) u chev ch Bor in Uglovka near orn a a St. Petersburg USSR P Since 1990 he lives i in 9 h i and works in New York n orks n w r E xhibits in prestige x ibit estig ige galleries all over the world aller e a v erie e orld d He is one of the most e the m s famou r i famous artists in the world o the w rld 115 OLD TOWNfirmly again HALL will stand Time is relentless and impartial. Hence age may put a burden on an inanimate object as well as on humans. Especially when that age counts for more than seven centuries as is the case with the symbol of the Moravian metropolis the Old Town Hall in Brno. This heritage sight through which passed the history of our city represents a complex of buildings that emerged gradually since the 13th century. The core of the oldest secular building in the city was built sometime before the year 1250. In 1511 the Town Hall was adorned by Pilgram s decorative portal with its famous crooked spire. In the 1570s and 80s rebuilding of the Town Hall was conducted by Italian architects the brothers Gabri (the gallery and the vestibule of the Fresco Hall) and at that time the unification of the whole compound in its present form was probably completed. The Town Hall was damaged during the siege of Brno by the Swedes and then repaired in the second half of the 17th century. The finishing of the interiors was done by Giovanni Battista Erna one of the halls now carries his name. The tower the portal and other parts were repaired in the 18th 19th and 20th centuries. At the end the 1960s a large-scale and not really careful renovation of the entire compound took place. In 1991 a rescue archaeological survey was conducted during reconstruction work in the courtyard. Additional surveys followed in 2003 and 2005. Due to expanding cracks in the town hall buildings several structural surveys have been carried out on the sight since 1998 and some partial repairs were done. According to expert opinions structural disruptions are caused by complex and long-term construction development overloading of the footing bottom change in the nature of the subsoil and inadequate characteristics of load-bearing structures. Based on established facts it became increasingly apparent that reconstruction of the Town City Hall was necessary. Although times are not economically favorable the city s leaders managed to find the necessary funds in an amount of 19 919 737 crowns for the rescue of this major heritage sight. Since January this year the Old Town Hall has been under renovation using a selected group of maximally careful technologies for the recovery of damaged building structures of a similar nature as the Town Hall. Construction works that exiled even the famous Brno dragon into Dietrichstein Palace pushed are roughly in their half progressing to schedule and the construction company Komfort which is doing them promised an advance completion by as early as December 2012. Fresco Hall and facades of buildings will get a brighter look The foundations of the sight were stabilized by underground capture through steel micropiles using reinforced with steel tubes with cuffs which transferred the load into deeper layers of the foundation soils. Currently restoration of disturbed spatial rigidity is being performed with steel frames made of Historical Fresco Hall will also be adapted rolled steel that follow the perimeter of load-bearing walls and are continuously anchored to the surrounding load-bearing walls. Concurrently with this work bracing also takes place with steel clamping elements. Cracks in the walls will be deeply rejoined on all sides and subsequently filled with cement grout. Damaged frescoes in the Fresco Hall will also benefit from the repairs. At the conclusion indoor and outdoor spaces of the Town Hall will be finished including coating and painting of the facades. Archaeological survey came up with new findings In connection with work on the structural safety of the Old Town Hall the company Archaia has been conducting an extensive and detailed archaeological survey which covers also historical interiors and their structures i.e. the building s construction history. Among many others archaeologists made an interesting discovery in the Fresco Hall. Found here almost all the paper tag on which an accompanying message is recorded for a gold-plated object in a box intended for His Imperial and Royal Majesty. Theoretically it could be a gold-plated key to the city gates intended for the Emperor Rudolph II. In another room in a fireplace fragment traces of a small predator were found perhaps a marten. In the Middle Ages these animals were domesticated and used for hunting other rodents. The results of this demanding reconstruction will not be obvious at first glance as all the essence is hidden in the walls and floors. Next year however all visitors will be able to make sure that the old lady stands proudly and firmly again. By Roman Onderka I Mayor of the City of Brno Photo Archive Th no gon ymbol Th Brno dragon symbo of e ci y The Brno drag a symbol of the cit y has been gon city been mo mov d out the Old Town al f one e Du ing moved ou of the Old Town Hall for one year. During d n the econst tion the re onstruction has temporary reside e the reconstruction he has a tem orary residence in h s e emp ra dence th lobby t the lobby of the Museum in Die he ietrichstein Palace se c in the Veget able Market. Veget ab Market e ar 116 IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE STAR RADNICE bude opt st t pevn Photos M. Schmerkov Cas je ne prosn a nestrann . A tak mze i na neziv objekt stejn jako na clovka dolehnout vk. Obzvl st kdyz ten vk c t jiz v ce nez sedm stolet jako v p pad symbolu moravsk metropole brnnsk Star radnice. Tato pam tka j z proch zely djiny naseho msta pedstavuje komplex staveb kter vznikaly postupn od 13. stolet . J dro nejstars svtsk stavby ve mst bylo vystavno nkdy ped rokem 1250. V roce 1511 ozdobil radnici dekorativn Pilgramv port l se zn mou kivou vzickou. V 70. a 80. letech 16. stolet prov dli pestavbu radnice italst architekti brati Gabriov (ochoz peds Freskov ho s lu) a v t to dob doslo zejm k sjednocen cel ho are lu do dnesn podoby. Radnice poskozen za obl h n Brna Sv dy byla opravena ve 2. pol. 17. stol. Interi ry upravoval Jan Ktitel Erna jehoz jm no nyn nese jeden ze s l. Vz port l i dals c sti pak byly opravov ny v 18. 19. i 20. stolet . Na konci 60. let 20. stol. probhla rozs hl nep lis setrn rekonstrukce cel ho objektu. Roku 1991 se pi rekonstrukci n dvo uskutecnil z chrann archeologick v zkum. Dals n sledovaly v roce 2003 a 2005. Kvli zvtsuj c m se trhlin m v budov ch radnice bylo od roku 1998 ucinno nkolik statick ch przkum pam tky a byly provedeny i jej d lc opravy. K p cin m statick ho narusen dle posudk pat slozit a dlouhodob stavebn v voj pet zen z kladov sp ry zmna charakteru podloz ci nevyhovuj c parametry nosn ch Old Town Hall welcomes the visitors again at the end of 2012. A 63 m high tower with a Renaissance dome and an observation gallery will be made available as well. konstrukc . Na z klad zjistn ch skutecnost bylo st le zejmjs ze rekonstrukce radnice je nezbytn . Ackoliv doba nen ekonomicky p zniv podailo se veden msta na z chranu v znamn pam tky naj t potebn financn prostedky ve v si 19 919 737 korun. Od ledna letosn ho roku proch z Star radnice rekonstrukc pi n z je vyuz v n vybran soubor maxim ln setrn ch technologi pro obnovu narusen ch konstrukc objekt obdobn ho charakteru jako je radnice. Stavebn pr ce kter do exilu v Dietrichsteinsk m pal ci odsunuly i proslul ho brnnsk ho draka jsou zhruba v polovin prob haj podle harmonogramu a stavebn firma Komfort kter je prov d sl bila ze je ukonc s pedstihem tedy jiz v prosinci 2012. I Freskov s l a fas dy budov prohl dnou Z klady pam tky byly stabilizov ny hlubinn m podchycen m pomoc ocelov ch mikropilot vyztuzen ch ocelov mi trubkami s manzetami kter penesly zat zen do hlubs ch vrstev z kladov ch pd. V soucasn dob se prov d obnova narusen prostorov tuhosti ocelov mi r my z v lcovan oceli kter sleduj po obvodu nosn zdivo a jsou prbzn kotveny do okoln ch nosn ch zd . Soubzn s tmito pracemi prob h tak ztuzen pomoc ocelov ch sp nac ch prvk. Trhliny ve zdivu budou ze vsech stran hloubkov pesp rov ny a n sledn tak vyplnny cementovou sms . Opravy se dockaj i trhlinami poskozen fresky ve Freskov m s le. Na z vr budou upraveny vnitn i venkovn prostory radnice vcetn pravy a n tru fas d. The Old Town Hall building has been under reconstruction. It is based on the building s structural safety. Nov poznatky pinesl tak archeologick v zkum V souvislosti s pracemi na statick m zabezpecen Star radnice prov d spolecnost Archaia Brno rozs hl a podrobn archeologick v zkum kter se dot k i historick ch interi r a jejich konstrukc tedy stavebn historie objektu. Krom mnoha jin ch ucinili archeologov zaj mav objev ve Freskov m s le. Nalezli zde takka celou pap rovou cedulku na kter je zaznamen n doprovodn vzkaz k njak mu pozlacen mu pedmtu v krabicce urcen mu Jeho c sask a kr lovsk milosti. Teoreticky by se mohlo jednat o pozlacen kl c od mstsk ch bran urcen c sai Rudolfu II. V jin m stnosti pak byly ve fragmentu topenist nalezeny stopy drobn selmy snad kuny. Ve stedovku se tato ochocen zv ata pouz vala k lovu hlodavc. V sledky n rocn rekonstrukce nebudou patrn na prvn pohled nebo to podstatn se skr v ve zdech a podlah ch. P st rok se vsak budou moci vsichni n vstvn ci ujistit ze star d ma uz zase stoj hrd a pevn. Roman Onderka I prim tor statut rn ho msta Brna 117 moravian-silesian region FOR ME CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY The Region s Award for Social Responsibility Contest was established in 2009 in the Moravian-Silesian Region after prior discussions with the representatives of the Quality Council of the Czech Republic at the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic. It is based on the concept of a National Quality Policy that seeks to influence the quality of products services and activities delivered by the national economy and the public administrative services. The outcome of these efforts nationally is the Czech National Quality Award. on care and consideration for the environment and social responsibility shifting the perspective to our larger role in society in other words moving away from Profit Only considerations to the wider context of the three Ps People-Planet-Profit . The President of the Region s Award for Social Responsibility as already mentioned was previously prepared with significant help from the Quality Council of the Czech Republic. They provided their know-how free of charge to support the launch of this Award. The Quality Council also helped in the evaluation and assessment of entrants through the help of their certified CSR managers. However each project needs to be considered on the basis of the level of development of an entrant s efforts regardless of how good the submission and accomplishments may appear to be. That is why before the announcement of this year s 4th annual President of the Region s Award for Social Responsibility there was a change in the rules for the competition. They changes were made based on the input and recommendations of municipalities businesses with activities in the Moravian-Silesian Region in accordance with agreements reached with the Quality Council of the Czech Republic. One of these changes was a requirement to carry out the competition using just the resources available from public authorities at a city and region level. It would therefore reflect a greater degree of local objectivity due to the independence of these public bodies. Additionally a new category was set up which is dedicated to recognizing isn t just a popular or less-than-important-and-meaningless catchphrase Photo Archive The purpose and objective of these activities is to imbue a commitment on the part of Czech organizations businesses employer associations and public authorities to make quality a concomitant important and necessary part of all social and economic undertakings in the Czech Republic. Quality besides other important considerations and benefits is one of the key elements of a successful member of the competitive global economy. The objective of the National Quality Policy and the National Quality Award programs is to create an environment in Czech Republic in which quality and the effort to achieve quality products and services is a natural part of everyday (private) life. Unfortunately this President of the Region s Award in the Moravian-Silesian Region stands out as a singular and unique project. Despite the positive message it conveys and its positive reception by the public this award is still waiting to be introduced in other Czech regions. The main reason for also organizing this competition at a regional level has been to promote interest in the principles behind the term corporate social responsibility . The goal here is to put a greater emphasis in the award the achievements of municipalities within our Region. The competition now also puts a greater emphasis on environmental issues which has been and will continue to be for a long time an undoubtedly important one in our region. We listen to and take into consideration the common interests shared by our municipalities and the business community. When we work together we are usually able to peacefully resolve apparent conflicts for the mutual benefit of all involved. Taken on their own an unbridled or blind devotion to business and the profit motive can stand in conflict with local quality of life issues and the health of the environment. We need to keep in mind the need to find balanced solutions to these potential conflicts where no party is an abject loser and in the end both parties win. Our region needs a healthy balance between the supply of jobs and the quality of life we can offer residents. Simply put we want to make the region not just a birthplace but a location where people want to live out their lives. Simply put we want to continue to build up our region with the help of market-successful businesses and municipalities that people want to live in. We want to be good stewards of the resources provided to us and at our disposal demonstrating our care not just in words but through our actions Correctness and politeness do pay off and truly care for the environment also brings economic benefits . Jaroslav Palas I Governor of the Moravian-Silesian Region 118 IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE SPOLECENSK ODPOVDNOST Soutz Cena hejtmana kraje za spolecenskou odpovdnost vznikla v Moravskoslezsk m kraji v roce 2009 po pedchoz m projedn n s pedstaviteli Rady kvality Cesk republiky pi MPO CR. Vych z z koncepce N rodn politiky kvality kter se zab v ovlivov n m kvality v robk sluzeb a cinnost v r mci n rodn ekonomiky a sluzeb veejn spr vy. Jej m odrazem je N rodn cena kvality CR. teprve cek . Hlavn m dvodem pro po d n soutze tak na krajsk rovni bylo podpoit z jem o principy spolecensk odpovdnosti. Pedevs m pak drazem kladen m na problematiku zivotn ho prosted a soci ln odpovdnosti posunem pohledu na vlastn (firemn ) spolecenskou roli z rovn Profit only (pouze zisk) k sirs mu pohledu kontextu t P People-Planet-Profit (lid -planeta-zisk). Soutz o Cenu hejtmana kraje za spolecenskou odpovdnost byla jak jsem jiz uvedl pipravena za v znamn spolupr ce s Radou kvality CR kter bezplatn poskytla na jej realizaci sv know-how a k objektivn mu posouzen a hodnocen soutz c ch tak certifikovan managery CSR. Kazd projekt vsak potebuje odr zet poteby konkr tn doby a v voj bez ohledu na sebeleps pvodn obsah a formu. Pr v proto ped vyhl sen m letosn ho jiz 4. rocn ku soutze o Cenu hejtmana kraje za spolecenskou odpovdnost doslo ke zmn m podm nek soutze. Byly provedeny na z klad vn m n pozadavk a n mt obc firem a vlastn cinnosti Krajsk ho adu Moravskoslezsk ho kraje po dohod s Radou kvality CR. Jedn m z nich byl i pozadavek realizovat soutz vlastn mi silami veejn spr vy v centru a regionu. Dodat j tak jest vts d l objektivity dan nez vislost veejn spr vy. Vznikla proto i nov kategorie urcen obc m naseho kraje. Soutz nov tak v ce akcentuje ekologickou problematiku kter je a dlouho jest nepochybn bude siln m t matem naseho regionu. Existence spolecn ho z jmu obc a podnikatelsk sf ry o tuto aktivitu vyuz v me v praxi. Da se n m jsme-li o to poz d ni spsn moderovat esen stet mezi z jmy obou stran ve prospch vsech. Je totiz jasn ze ekonomick aktivity a jejich rozvoj mohou st t v konfliktu se z jmy kvality zivota v obci s obavami o zdrav zivotn prosted . Tyto tec plochy vsak mohou nach zet vyv zen esen u nichz nen nikdo porazen m a vsichni maj dostatek prostoru k naplnn sv ch poteb. N s kraj potebuje zdravou rovnov hu mezi nab dkou pr ce a kvalitou zivota. Prost proto aby n m byl nejen rodistm ale i trval m domovem dnes i v budoucnu. Zjednodusen eceno i nad le budeme touto cestou s pomoc trzn spsn ch firem a s del s vysokou rovn pr ce o obcany a sven zem propagovat myslenku dobr ho hospod e kter nejen slovy ale zejm na prax dokazuje Korektnost a slusnost se vypl c nebo Opravdu ekologick je zpravidla vzdy tak ekonomick . Jaroslav Palas I hejtman Moravskoslezsk ho kraje PRO MNE NEN JEN L BIV HESLO Smyslem a c lem tchto aktivit je vytvoen z vazku cesk ch organizac podnikatelsk ch zamstnavatelsk ch svaz a veejn spr vy psobit tak aby se kvalita stala prvodn m jevem spolecensk ch a hospod sk ch proces v cesk m prosted . Kvalita je tak mimo jin tak vymezena jako jeden z trval ch faktor konkurenceschopnosti. C lem programu N rodn politiky kvality a N rodn ceny kvality CR tedy je vytvoit v Cesk republice prosted ve kter m je kvalita pirozenou souc st zivota spolecnosti. Na zem Moravskoslezsk ho kraje prob h soutz o cenu hejtmana jako zat m ojedinl a osamocen projekt. Na sv n sledovn ky v ostatn ch kraj ch naseho st tu pes pozitivn obsah i ohlasy veejnosti 119 CS Z HAS FINISHED At the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute the month of July is traditionally connected with the courses of Czech language history and geography for students of Czech studies. For the 23rd time in the recent history of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute participants interested in improving their Czech language skills and learning more about our country visited Prague where their ancestors were born. The first year of the programme (1990) was attended by students and representatives of fellow countrymen exclusively from organisations in the USA. The following year the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute invited five fellow countrymen from Banat Romania two students from Czech communities in Poland and Ukraine as well as students from the Netherlands and France. At that time the course truly became international. Over the next 23 years several hundreds of students participated including important personalities entrepreneurs and ambassadors who worked in the Czech Republic but mainly students who later found their jobs in the Czech Republic. This year the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute invited two students from various European universities where Czech language and literature are taught Moscow State University of International Relations St. Petersburg Kyiv Lvov and Minsk state universities and two students from Czech schools in Vienna and Croatia. Four fellow countrymen came privately from the USA. It was not an easy course. Nature brought dramatic weather which turned the hot days cool bringing several hailstorms. Despite the weather all of the students from the youngest to the oldest (who celebrated his 82nd birthday) participated in all aspects of the demanding programme without any reservations. The programme was opened by a reception in the seat of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute in the Vrtba Palace followed by two performances in the National and Estates Theatre and a trip to Karlovy Vary during the International Film Festival. The following week offered sightseeing of the Lesser Town Old Town City Hall the Municipal Hall and a two-day trip to Mikulov Valtice and Lednice. When dining in Mikulov on the terrace of the wine cellar participants experienced a thunderstorm and while in Students during the reception at the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute. At the back from left International Member of the Institute Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) President Prof. Karel Raska Chairman of the Institute Jarom r Sl pota Vice Chairman Ing. Vladim r Kubis Member of the Managing Board and Doc. PhDr. Ivana Bozdchov . The 23 CS Z Czech Course rd Leader Magaz e 201 Leader s Magaziine I 2012 120 Leaders Magazine I 2012 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE CS Z Lednice they walked in 36 degree heat in the park. The last week brought a dance party in the dorm where students usually begin to talk and open friendships that last for years. The final week was dominated by sightseeing of the representative halls of Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral including a special opportunity to visit St. Wenceslas Chapel. During the trip to the Liberec region students tried to find their own Czech garnets and learned about the production of garnet jewellery. They were excited by the musical performance of Kiz k s Fountain as well. Within the whole programme practical Czech language classes took place in the mornings and conversation in the afternoons. As a matter of fact there was not much free time for students since they had to study and do difficult homework. Students were left tired yet full of beautiful experience during the final boat trip on the Vltava River where they received their diplomas. After returning home several of them wrote back Those were three of the most beautiful weeks in my life... This year students were motivated and diligent. They all approved of the saying The more languages you speak the more times you become a human being which they learned of in their homework. A 5th year student from the Philological Faculty in Minsk wrote Acceptance of the surrounding world is influenced by the language which we are thinking and speaking. Language forms certain boundaries of our thinking. And when we learn a new language and one starts to understand his own perception of the world he is able to analyse and compare diverse cultures and accept them for himself. Teaching a new language is always connected with teaching culture and history and by absorbing it we obtain another nationality subconsciously learning to be someone else than whom we were brought up to be in our own country . She approved in her way saying that the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute s courses aimed at spreading Czech and Czech culture abroad have achieved their meaning. HEBR I The end of the course and the traditional festive diploma award ceremony took place during the boat trip on the Vltava River 121 marketing analysis IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE Emil Jimenez started working in the communications industry in 1998 as a web designer in NYC. After graduating Rutgers University with a degree in Psychology he moved to Miami where he continued his education and received a Masters in Creative Communications from Florida International University and the renowned Miami Ad School. In 2009 he opened Passion Communications a full service communications agency which specializes in bridging traditional media with the digital world managing client such as Staropramen Holmes Place and Hard Rock Cafe. emil passioncommunications.com On September 15th 2012 Passion Communications will release the Czech Republic s first ever Passion Report. This study measures what industries and brands people are most passionate about in the Czech market and tries to define the touch points which trigger passion for a brand also knows as Passion Points. The study found that the Czech Republic can be construed as a Vain Nation in that people are very passionate about brands which enhance their external appearance making them appear modern trendy and preserve their youth. However when it comes to brands that they consume such as food and beverages the most Passionate brands were those which were steeped in Czech tradition. It is as if the Czech Republic wants the world to know that modernity and progress are paramount yet when it comes to food they are very traditionalists and prefer the tried and tested local brands. Looking at the communication landscape in the market one can see that the top brands were those that had either a very interesting communication strategy or were deeply traditionally ingrained in the market. The number one factor which made people passionate about the brand was its quality perception. People want to feel passionate about something that they can trust and which will deliver on the brand promise constantly. Many brands have strategically developed this trust over time while new ones are working desperately hard to build this trust. Jerry Della Famina once said Nothing kills a bad product faster than good advertising. Everyone tries the thing and never buys it again. This is true of many brands that have come into the market with creative advertising and positioning yet the product failed because it was of inferior quality. Brands that have been around in the market for a long time and continue to deliver have a tremendous advantage because they have established a passion for the brand in its consumer to the extent that the purchase becomes habitual. The study also tried to define what Passion really means to the consumer. One of the most interesting insights from the qualitative section of the research came when we asked people what Passion means to them. According to one respondent Passion is when I see something I have to have it another one stated When I feel passionate about something I feel like jumping and dancing and sharing it with others . The last one was quite interesting because it suggests that Passion is also contagious which leads to the tremendous power social media manage- ment can play in the communication strategy. According to a Neilson study people are 54% more likely to make a purchase based on a recommendation of a friend. When asked what exactly brands do to make them passionate respondents claimed that it was when brands 1. Reward them for their loyalty 2. Engage with them in interesting ways 3. Understand them and their needs. It is also no wonder that many of the brands featured in our study were those that had loyalty programs interesting promotional activities and were innovative enough to constantly adapt to consumer needs. Passion is a very interesting emotion because it is tied to some extent to an unsatisfied desire. In the words of Shakespeare s Hamlet Give me that man that is not passion s slave and I will wear him in my heart s core . Although passion is an emotion that we often cannot control it is however one which we can develop. No one is born with a passion for a brand or even their spouse but over time it can be developed. Often the passion is lost because the novelty engagement trust and the loyalty seem to fade into the mundane of everyday life. Yet if we are able to communicate reward loyalty comfort and innovate people will remain passionate about you and your message. We began this study in order to enter the minds of the Czech consumer and why they are passionate about products yet what resulted was more of an understanding about humanity in general. We are all creatures of habit who want to feel accepted by our community special and unique. Deep down in our core we also want the comfort and convenience of what is familiar and which we trust. One of Passion Communications motto is that Passion is what keeps persistence in the face of adversity and although what you feel passionate might change over time I like to think that Passion is what keeps moving society forward. Passion has a unique place in our lives because it drives the desire to follow our dreams no matter the obstacles yet according to this study Passion must also be constantly reinforced. By Emil Jimenez CEO CCO Passion Communications I Emil Jimenez Photo Brian Fleming 122 Leaders Magazine V 2012 To download the report visit www.report.passioncomm.com Ten years ago nobody would imagine that the European Commission and other Member States could look under y a ag ob u ssio and o her Memb r tates coul o m uld t ood othe M the hood of other Member States ref her eform plans and give advice on its budgeting and basic reform steps n f ms p definitions This year is the second yea when the Commission assess how EU Member States achieve the goals ef n tion his ear the second ear ons. e b o e r p 0 0 tra g and consolidate their pu c funding. So-called European Semester helps to coorof the Europe 2020 Strategy and consol i public unding. o calle E p a ding e r helps oordinate economic policy and leads governm s to imp ement national reforms i.e. to balance expenditures and in conomi pol c i eads o e nments o im mpl n at onal fo ms i e balance expe iture l a a c pe end growth measures. Is the growth a right medicine How to boost the growth in time of crisis These were the topics rowth asu es h ro ight dicin h ine o s the grow h t m cri s Thes were he opic h owth cris hs e of the discussion among representatives of the European Commission Czech Parliament Czech Government s f h s ussion amon eprese tative f o ong esen uro urop an Comm i m h Pa liam nt Cze e nment s t Offi Off e to econom sts d epresen a ives v iou interest o p held J Office top economists and representatives of variou interest groups held on June 26t 2012 in Prague. conomis sent e ous e e 6th 1 ag e g IN COOPERATION WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE Debate on European Semester and Country-specific Recommendations for the Czech Republic From left Elena Reitano Head of Unit DG ECFIN European Commission Jan Michal Head of the Representation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic Michal Pr Czech News Agency Ludk Niedermayer Director Deloitte Consulting Czech Republic Jan Kr l Head of European Policies Coordination Department Czech Government s Office and Tom s Sedl cek Chief Macroeconomic Strategist CSOB From left Jan Kr l Head of European Policies Coordination Department Czech Government s Office and Tom s Sedl cek Chief Macroeconomic Strategist CSOB 123 The participants of the debate EU matters interview IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LEADERS MAGAZINE FOR THE EUROPEAN IT ALSO HAS A POLITICAL DIMENSION Photo Archive of Mr. Des Dorides GALILEO IS NOT ONLY A SHOWCASE Industry but Interview with Mr. Carlo Des Dorides Head of the Galileo Agency (the European Gnss Agency or Gsa ) 124 Leaders Magazine V 2012 EU matters interview The Czech Republic lobbied hard for moving Galileo s administrative base to Prague. It will be the first EU agency with its seat in the country starting from September 2012. Have you already had a chance to get used to Prague We have been working very closely with the Czech authorities. They have made us feel very welcome. We have been truly impressed with their professionalism and commitment in making the relocation of the office a success. Indeed it was not obvious the Hosting Agreement which defines the terms and conditions for the hosting of the Agency by the Czech Republic due to its novelty presented a number of regulatory issues which had to be tackled with a high level of engagement and in the right time by both parties. I have had the opportunity to begin to discover Prague. It is a wonderful city and I am really looking forward to discovering more. The 3.5 billion euro project of Galileo is one of the most expensive programs by the EU in its history. What are the expectations Galileo is expected to bring significant improvements to the use of satellite navigation. This will drive new markets and applications. The economic benefits that are expected are a multiple of the investment. The project is not only a showcase for the European industry enhancing European growth and job creations. It will also prove that the EU has the capacity to develop a true pan-European infrastructure. Such a political dimension of the Galileo program is also very important. The first two operational satellites were launched in the year of 2011 followed by the launch of the third and fourth satellites on October 2012. The fully deployed system should consist of 30 satellites and the associated ground infrastructure. When can we expect to see the Galileo system in its full operational capability We expect to deliver early services in 2014 2015 when 18 operational satellites should have been launched. The objective of these early services is to already improve on current satellite navigation performance and to give the industry a chance to test the new signals and learn how to exploit the full benefits. The full constellation of 30 satellites is expected to be operational by 2018. This constellation allows users to navigate using only Galileo and will deliver significantly enhanced performance if used in conjunction with other satellite navigation systems. Let me also remind you that another component of the European GNSS programme EGNOS is already fully operational and offering an open service a safety-oflife integrity service as well as an advanced commercial service. With EGNOS the second operational Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) in the world together with the American Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) we are already reaping benefits in sectors such as aviation agriculture road and ITS mapping applications and more. Galileo will deliver real-time positioning accuracy down to the metre range. When we will use it in our car navigation In which other fields could be Galileo used We expect Galileo to be adopted very quickly in mass markets as it will bring clear benefits at almost no extra cost. Depending on local conditions receivers will use Galileo satellites in combination with other visible satellites such as GPS. This will result in a more accurate position even in difficult conditions such as so-called urban canyons . We also trust professional markets to adopt Galileo as soon as it is available. The industry for professional GNSS users is continuously seeking to improve the accuracy and reliability of their products. Galileo is an obvious technology to incorporate. In summary we expect Galileo to be rapidly adopted in all current market segments from mass market to professional including market segments as road transport logistics maritime aviation mapping and agriculture. In addition we expect Galileo to create entirely new segments between mass market and professional applications. For instance some farming techniques require reliable and robust high accuracy positioning which is today depending on the region where you live only available at a substantial cost. Galileo will contribute to the availability of affordable yet highly reliable and accurate solutions all over Europe and beyond. Finally through the Commercial Service one of the five services provided by Galileo we expect to provide high accuracy coupled with an authenticated signal which will open up new user segments. There are other similar systems in World such as unbeatable GPS or Russian GLONASS and Chinese Compass. Why do we need to create and invest in another system when there is a financial crisis These systems are not rivals. All the systems will work together to ensure highly accurate and reliable positioning for users. In particular Galileo and GPS were designed to be inter-operable even if Galileo has its key differentiating factor being a civil system under civil control. In these times of austerity it is also important to remember that economic growth is absolutely needed to resolve the financial crisis in the long run. Achieving economic growth requires the EU to be competitive and leading technologically. In the longer term projects like Galileo could therefore contribute to solving the crisis. By increasing Europe s technological edge and by making Europe s (mobility) infrastructure more efficient it will increase Europe s competiveness. Note that the market for global satellite navigation applications will reach 240bn by the end of the decade with 7% of gross domestic product (equal to 800bn in Europe) is reliant on satellite navigation services. Europe has to be part of this development. Eventually the investment in Galileo is very limited compared to the size of the European economy and the expected direct and socio-economic benefits. Studies show that Galileo could contribute to 90bn to the European economy in its first 20 years. How do you want to ensure the inter-operability with other existing systems How do you ensure that Galileo will successfully compete Inter-operability is a priority for Galileo. By engaging in bilateral agreements with other GNSS providers we ensure that the different systems work well together. Compatibility with GPS is most advanced in terms of frequency allocation and signal characteristics so that we expect future receivers will use satellites from both constellations interchangeably ensuring maximum accuracy and reliability. Could you tell us more about the administrative headquarters in Prague What s the main task of this centre And how many people are you going to employ The Prague office of GSA is the headquarters and will host all the centralised functions and the top management. Some operational units like the Galileo Security Monitoring Centre (GSMC) will be located in France and the UK and for an initial period the GSMC operations team will remain in Brussels. We expect our current headcount of about 60 to grow to over 160 180 over the next few years. The large majority of our employees will be located in Prague. What kind of opportunity brings the Galileo project to businesses and especially to the small companies How can they be a part of it Will be there any information campaign across the EU Small businesses are the engine of the European economy and we expect them to lead the way in taking advantage of the Galileo and EGNOS projects by developing new products and services taking advantage of the improvements in satellite navigation infrastructure provided by Galileo. This will bring a boom to the industry of satellite navigation applications which in turn will drive improvements in many sectors from transport to agriculture. Small businesses will again be among the first to benefit from improved transport and more efficient logistics. The location of the seat of the European GNSS Agency (GSA) to Prague will offer new cooperation opportunities leading to business development for Czech firms and research institutions. For example meetings seminars and workshops will regularly be organised by the GSA which will increase opportunities for Czech organizations to meet counterparts from other EU countries. The GSA will also obviously increase Prague s visibility in the field of satellite navigation potentially attracting EU organizations that could open offices or set up business incubators in Prague. The European Union is organising information campaigns on a continuous basis with initiatives aimed at specific industries or at a more general public. I would like to draw your attention in particular to events like the European Satellite Navigation Competition that is sponsored by the GSA and offers prizes to the best business idea in satellite navigation. Another example is the European Space Expo a state of the art interactive public exhibition showcasing the many benefits that they European space programmes bring to Europe which is touring Europe. This will be presented in Prague in 2013. More details can be found on the GSA website www.gsa.europa.eu. Last but not least we do manage the European Galileo research programme within the Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development (FP7) where we focus on small businesses and have an above average share of them benefiting from European funds. Source CEBRE I 125 Amsterdam Athinai Berlin Bratislava Bruxelles Bucureti Budapest Dublin Helsingfors Kobenhavn Lefkosia Lisboa Ljubljana London Luxembourg Madrid Paris Praha R ga Roma Sofia Stockholm Tallinn Valletta Vilnius Warszawa Wien - BUSINESS NEWS DID YOU KNOW THAT... ...the Commission proposes new instrument for quick response to VAT fraud VAT fraud costs the EU and national budgets several billion euro every year. In some serious cases vast sums are lost within a very short timeframe due to the speed at which fraud schemes evolve owadays scheme s evolve nowadays. A proposal for roposal for a Quick Reaction Mechanism (QRM) that would enable Member States to respond more swiftly pond sw and efficiently to VAT fraud was adopt by adopted the Commission at the end of July. U Under the QRM a Member State faced with a serio case aced serious of sudden and massive VA fraud would be ssive VAT aud wou able to implement certain emergency measures merg in a way which they are currently not allowed to ren under VAT legislation. ...a better waste management is needed within the EU A new report on how Member States manage their municipal waste shows startling differences across the EU. The report grades the Member e grad States against 18 crit ia in ar criteria areas such as total waste recycled pricing of w f waste disposal and infringements of European legislation. On the Europea top of the table are Austria Belgium Denmark e Germany the Netherlands a Sweden which and have omprehe ive aste ollection systems have comprehe sive waste collection systems ensiv and landfill less than 5 % of their waste. The ss Member States with the largest implementation gaps are for example Bulgaria Cyprus Greece Italy Lithuania Latvia Malta Poland Romania or Slovakia. Failings include poor or non de non-existent waste prevention policies a lack of incentives s to divert waste from landfills and inadequate ndfills waste infrastructure. The Commission will use re. Commiss this report to prepare Roadmaps fo the ten for worst performing Member States which will mber be discussed with nat onal authorities at bilaiscussed ith nat onal uthorities bila tio o teral seminars this autumn starting in Prague on 19 September. ...it is possible to advice the EU on obstacles to cross-border venture capital investment At the beginning of August the European Commission has launched a public consultation to collect factual examples of direct tax problems that arise when venture capital is invested across borders and feasible solutions to address any such matters. Due to mismatches between the th t ax systems of the EU Member St ates t f U s b t venture capital funds can face problems of double taxation as well as legal and administrative uncertainty when they invest across borders. On the basis of this consultation the Commission will be able to decide if there is a need for EU-level solutions to remedy the 126 problems and develop the most appropriate oblem oblems policy respons policy response by 2013. The Commission has i onse therefore invited all interested parties to provide fore i their views by November 5 2012. vie ...the Commission tabled a strategy to boost the potential of low energy buildings Low energy buildings with high CO2 and energy cost aving potential still have imited arket cost saving potential still have a limited market uptake despite their economic and environmental advantages. Construction comprises of more than 10% of total employment in the EU. Therefore to promote the construction sector as a driving force in the creation of jobs the European Commission tabled at the end of July a strategy to boost the sector. Its main elements include stimulating favourable investment conditions in particular in the renovation and maintenance maintenance of buildings. uildings ...EU rules to ease cross-border successions are now a law The new regulation on cross-border successions formally adopted by EU Member States in June will make it easier for European citizens to handle the legal side of an international will or succession. The rules published in the Official Journal at the end of July will bring legal certainty to the estimated 450 000 European families dealing with an international succession each year. With over 12.3 million EU citizens resident in another EU country the rules are likely to be of interest to many more. Member States now have three years to align their national laws so that the new EU rules become effective. ...almost three quarters of Europeans live in cities consuming 70% of the EU s energy One of the greatest challenges facing the EU is how best to design and adapt cities into citi smart intelligent and sustainable environments. intellige vironments. s Congestion costs Europe about 1% of its GDP ongestion % GD every yea Most of it is located in urban area ry year. ed areas. By laun nching a Smart Cities and Communities es European Innovation Partnership (SCC) the an p (S European Commission aims to boost the deveC oos l lopment of smart technologies in cities by pooling research resources from energy transport and ICT and concentrating them on a small number of demonstration projects which will be implemented in partnership with cities. For 2013 alone 365 million in EU funds have been earmarked for the demonstration of these types of urban technology solutions. f b h l l i ...companies do increase R&D spending despite crisis According to the EU Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends carried out by the European Commission in the first semester 2012 top EU R&D businesses expect their investments in research and development to grow by an average of 4% annually over the period 2012 to 2014. The figures show the importance that these companies place on R&D as a key factor for their future growth and prosperity despite the current economic difficulties. The front runner is the software and computer services sector which expects R&D inve stment which ex pect s R&D invest ment to gr ow by grow 11% per year on average. In-house R&D is seen as the most relevant driver of innovation by the surveyed companies followed by market research and related activities for new product introduction. ...CT must withdraw its plans on wholesale broadband services Mid-August the European Commission has ruled that the Czech telecoms regulator (CT ) must withdraw it plans to include wholesale t ithd its l l d h l l broadband services based on cable and Wi-Fi platforms into its definition of the wholesale ale e broadband access product market. The Com Commission considers that CT failed to provide sufficient evidence that cable and Wi-Fi platforms over which no wholesale offers exist would be substitutes of the prevalent copper and fibre technologies on the wholesale market in the current Czech context. The Commission also oes not accept CT geographic market also does not accept C T s geographic market T s eogr p definition which is based on its product market sed pro definition and results in the finding of two s fi separate geographic markets The decision ic mark markets. means CT must withdraw its proposed measure. LET S TALK NUMBERS... Requests for Commission documents increase for tenth year in a row The latest annual report on public access to documents released at the beginning of August shows 447 requests ere made shows 6 447 reques ts wer e made for Com ommission documents in 2011. This compares to 6 361 in 2010 and just 450 when the current rules entered into force in 2001. The relatively small increase compared to previous years suggests that requests are starting to stabilise perhaps as the right to access documents becomes firmly established in the public mind. Another factor may be the ever increasing size of the Commission s permanent public register of documents making ad hoc requests less necessary. Anoth 19 956 documents were ther 956 t added to the public register in 2011 a 7% increase on the 18 661 documents added to the register in 2010. Business investment rate nearly stable at 20.6% in the euro area and down to 19.9% in the EU27 Amsterdam Athinai Berlin Bratislava Bruxelles Bucureti Budapest Dublin Helsingfors Kobenhavn Lefkosia Lisboa Ljubljana London Luxembourg Madrid Paris Praha R ga Roma Sofia Stockholm Tallinn Valletta Vilnius Warszawa Wien In the first quarter of 2012 compared with the fourth quarter of 2011 the business investment rate remained nearly stable in the euro area and fell lightly fell slightly in the EU27. In the euro area the ghtl U27 7. the euro rea a business profit share rose slightly as wage costs remained stable while value added increased slightly. These data come from a detailed set of seasonally adjusted quarterly European sector accounts released by Eurostat and the European Central Bank. In the first quarter of 2012 the gross investment rate of non-financial corporations was 19.9% in the EU274 compared with 20.1% in the fourth quarter of 2011. In the euro area the investment rate was 20.6% in the first quarter of 2012 compared with 20.7% in th t f 012 d ith 7% the previous quarter. In the EU27 the gross profit share of non-financial corporations was 38.1% ations 3 38 in the first quarter of 2012 compared with 2 37.8% in the fourth quarter of 2011. In the euro area the profit share was 38.3% in the first t quarter of 2012 compared with 38.2% in the mpared previous quarter. Europeans are becoming less pessimistic about the crisis Europeans broadly support the initiatives for growth stability and jobs put forward by the EU according to the Spring 2012 Eurobarometer. People s views on strategy Europe 2020 which is the EU s growth strategy are encouraging h a particularly in relation to the importance of the ation im initiatives and the level of ambition. Overall he o 40% of Europeans take the view that the EU eans is heading in the right di ng direction to emerge from the crisis and face new global challenges. Although her Al though t her are s ig nificant var iations re igni ficant aria tions between countries there are signs that Eurotri peans are becoming less pessimistic with more people saying that the worst of the crisis is behind us. 30% of Europeans think that the crisis impact on the job market has already b reached its peak. Tourism in the EU27 Number of holiday trips remained stable while number of business trips fell by 11% In 2011 residents of th EU27 made 1020 the million holiday and 165 million business rips million holiday and 165 million business trips. 65 After a significant increase between 2006 and 2008 the total number of trips has since nce remained almost stable with a minor decline ecline in 2010 followed by a slight upward trend in 2011. Examining holiday and business trips separately business trips were more affected by the financial crisis than holiday trips. Trips for professional reasons registered a continuous decline of 11% by 2011 from the peak of 2008. The largest decreases were found in Bulgaria (-60% f rom 2008 to 2011) and t he C zech 60% 008 011) d h Republic (-51%) and the highest rises in Estonia ( 50%) and Sweden ( 25%). Czechs are more demanding when choosing food More than 90% of EU citizens find quality and price as an important factor when buying food even more important than origin (71 and (71%) brand (47%). According to the data released ased by Eurobarometer in July Czechs are eve even more emanding hen choosing ood more demanding when choosing food. 98% of andi oosi d. Czech respondents take quality into consideration 96% lo for price and 80% for ion look country of origin As for the brand while new y origin. member member states r ember respondents indicated brand as an important fac t (62% which is also Czech nt factor acto average) for other respondents it is important age) only fro 43%. from Euro area annual inflation stable at 2.4% Euro area annual inflation was 2.4% in July 2012 stable compared to June. A year earlier the t th rate was 2.6%. Monthly inflati was -0.5% 6% thl f l tion 0 5% in July 2012. EU annual inflation was 2.5% in July 2012 also stable compared to June. A year earlier the rate was 2.9% and monthly inflation was -0.4% in July 2012. In July 2012 the lowest annual rates were observed in Sweden (0.7%) and Greece (0.9) and the highest in Hungary (5.7%) and Malta (4.2%). The Czech Republic with 3.3% is ranked as the eighth country with the highest inflation. IN THE WORLD Four million people in Tunisia will have a better access to healthcare thanks to the EU The European Commission has adopted a new project worth EUR 12 million to reduce inequalities in access to healthcare in the 13 most disadvantaged regions in southern and western Tunisia. These regions account for 40% of Tunisia s population. The project will be direct benefit for four million people by signific antl incr easing cces s signif ican tly increa sing acc ess to b as ic asic healthcare improving its quality and creating better conditions in healthcare centres. The project s main actions will cover purchasing equipment for patient services acquiring new medical transport vehicles and building capacity for the Health Ministry. Support for health is one of the priorities of EU-Tunisian cooperation. EU to fund improvement of transport and the environment in Eastern neighbourhood The European Commission has adopted the Europ th first p of th 2012 Regiionall Action Programm t part of the 2012 g cti tion ro amme for the Eastern Neighbourhood (Armenia he bourhood Azerbaija Belarus Georgia the Republic of jan e Rep Moldova and Ukraine) which will foc on the a focus a areas of environment and transport. In terms of or the environment it will encourage partner countries to move towards green economies by promoting sustainable production and consumption processes. It will also enhance forest protection by supporting forest law enforcement and governance. On transport the funding will support t he Eastern Part ner ship di g ill t t t hi and Central Asian countries implementing a Regional Road Safety Action Plan which will help make the road infrastructure safer for vehicles and road users in these countries. EU maintains its leading position in providing Aid for Trade to developing countries Th The EU and its Member Sta States have once again been confirmed as the llargest provider of e Aid for Trade in the world despite the current economic risis ccording economic crisis according to a new monitoring onom sis ordi new monitori nitoring report presented by the European Commission. In fact the EU accounted for around a third of total worldwide Aid for Trade in 2010 maintaining the all-time high registered the year before and totalling some 10.7 billion committed. On Trade Related Assistance the EU and its Member States had already met their 2 billion target committed in the 2007 s EU Aid for Trade Strategy both in 2008 and in 2009. Aid for Trade helps countries to develop trade strategies build trade-related infrastructure and improve ild d l t d f t t d their productive capacity in order to encourage growth and reduce poverty. Over 100 million fake goods detained at EU borders In 2011 EU Customs detained almost 115 million products suspected of violating intellectual property rights compared to 103 million in 2010. The number of intercepted cases increased by 15%. The value of the intercepted goods represented nearly 1.3 billion compared to 1.1 billion in 2010 according to the Commission s annual report on customs actions to s enforce IPR. Today s report also gives statistics i i on the type origin and transport method of IPR infringing products detained at the EU s external borders. The top categories of articles stopped by customs were medicines (24%) packaging material (21%) and cigarettes (18%). Products for daily use and products that could be potentially dangerous the health and safety potentially dangerous to the health and safety ealth of consumers accounted for a total of 28.6% ted tot of the total amount of detained articles t det eta compared to 14.5% in 2010 The increase in % 2010. 010. number of detained postal packa tained packages continued in 2011 with 36% of the detention concerning f detentions medicines. EU-Algeria green partnership The European Commission has approved an ambitious 34 million environmental programme in Algeria. This programme which will be carried out out in par tner ship with the Algerian authori artnership ith the Algerian uthorities will focus on protecting the Algiers coastal region and aims to put the environment and efforts to tackle the impact of climate change at the heart of the country s development policies. Support will be given for example to a national climate plan an ecological monitoring system for the coast management plans for protected areas and studies of public investment costs and recurrent costs including maintenance. The private sector and civil society will be closely involved in th pr ogramme s ill l l l d the g implementation. I Brought by CEBRE Czech Business Representation to the EU (kindly supported by CzechTrade) www.cebre.cz Amsterdam Athinai Berlin Bratislava Bruxelles Bucureti Budapest Dublin Helsingfors Kobenhavn Lefkosia Lisboa Ljubljana London Luxembourg Madrid Paris Praha R ga Roma Sofia Stockholm Tallinn Valletta Vilnius Warszawa Wien 127 opera UV D ME V N RODN M DIVADLE PELLEAS & MELISANDA Premi ra 30. 9. 2012 Dirigent Jean-Luc Tingaud Rezie a sc na Rocc Kost my Rocc Miroslav Sabo Claude Debussy balet UV D ME VE ST TN OPEE AT THE STATE OPERA George Balanchine Theme and Variations Hudba Music Petr Iljic Cajkovskij FOTO PAVEL HEJN DESIGN PETR HUML FORMATA VZ ZAPJCIL CADILLAC CLUB CR JAN VESEL William Forsythe In The Middle Somewhat Elevated Hudba Music Thom Willems Jerome Robbins Cesk premi ra Czech premiere 25. 10. 2012 2. premi ra 2nd premiere 26. 10. 2012 Tanc s list a soubor Baletu N rodn ho divadla The Czech National Ballet Hraje orchestr St tn opery The State Opera Orchestra www.narodni-divadlo.cz Fancy Free Hudba Music Leonard Bernstein hraj Richard Krajco Pavla Beretov Miroslav Donutil Kateina Winterov a dals rezie Michal Docekal www.narodni-divadlo.cz