European Business Forum articles from December 2002

European Business Forum archives from December 2002

1992 going on 2010.(Letter from the editors)(Editorial)
December 22, 2002... It is always better to be forward looking than to hark back to what has happened (or not happened) in the past. But as the European Union sets its sights on the goal of becoming the most competitive knowledge-based economy by 2010--an ambition...

Does Europe have a single market ten years on?(EBF Debate)(Cover Story)
December 22, 2002... It was meant to be the decade that launched Europe as a global economic superpower. Companies operating inside the EU would achieve new economies of scale as internal trade barriers tumbled, cross-border competition would hasten the...

Outsourcing--the last bone of contention between IT and finance: outsourcing is often viewed by the finance department as a short-term cost-cutting exercise. But to view outsourcing in purely financial terms could be a risk, warns Brian Hadfield, Managing Director Unisys, Ltd.(Advertorial)(Advertisement)
December 22, 2002... On most big business issues it is encouraging to know the views of the IT and finance directors are aligned, according to a recent Unisys survey. In the main, the results showed a positive and cooperative relationship between the IT and finance...

European Shareholder Value Award 2002 winning entry: professionalism or incarceration--what future for boards?(Debate reopened)
December 22, 2002... The following article was the winning essay in the third PricewaterhouseCoopers Annual European Shareholder Value Award held in partnership with EBF and Financial News. The competition attracted submissions from a wide variety of authors, among...

Equity culture at risk: efforts to restore public trust in the governance of corporations are hampered by abuse of power at board level and the neglected rights of shareholders.(Debate reopened)
December 22, 2002... Prosperity in the Anglo-American world since World War II has in large measure been due to the success of the equity culture. Those willing to take ownership risk in exchange for the ownership rewards of investment in public companies have...

Corporate Governance ... Lisbon stirs the debate.(EBFlive)
December 22, 2002... Sir Adrian Cadbury, chairman of the UK Committee on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance (popularly known as the Cadbury Report) and currently chancellor of Aston University, Birmingham and Antonio Borges, a former deputy governor of...

Corporate university challenge.(Debate reopened)
December 22, 2002... EBF's Debate in Issue 7, Autumn 2001--Does Executive Education really improve business performance?--highlighted the growing role of corporate universities (CUs) in business education. As business rather than government increasingly provides...

Does humour travel?(Cartoon)
December 22, 2002... FRANCE "Napoleon?" "Oil rig?" PLANTU--L'EXPRESS [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BULGARIA CHRISTO KOMARNITSKI [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] UK BARBARA SHORE [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ITALY "The purpose of this...

Hard times in the executive suite: US experience shows that changing the chief executive is not necessarily a panacea for improved company performance. Europeans should take note.(In-depth: CEO firings)
December 22, 2002... Lacklustre financial performance followed by dismissal of the CEO. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's a familiar story these days with WorldCom, Ford, Gillette, and Coca-Cola just a few of those which bear witness to the experience. No...

In my opinion ...(In-depth: CEO firings)
December 22, 2002... Margarethe Wiersema reports on a recent study of CEO successions in large US companies which shows that the practice of CEO dismissals has increased dramatically and that over 70 per cent of all CEO successions are not voluntary. This practice...

Managing the risks behind sudden shifts in value: new research relating to 'extreme events' should help senior executives to capitalise on sharp upward movements in their share price--and counteract falls.(In-depth: risks that matter)
December 22, 2002... How can Chief Executive Officers use risk management techniques to 'encourage the upside' and 'mitigate the downside' in their business activities? In the course of recent research which examined the events surrounding sudden and major...

Integrating electronic commerce in SMEs: the pace of change associated with the 'new economy' has left many organisations wondering how to harness the benefits of the internet. A French study of small and medium-sized enterprises highlights the key points firms need to consider if they want to successfully combine e-commerce and their traditional business practices.(in-depth: e-commerce)
December 22, 2002... New internet and web-based applications--and more generally information and communication technologies (ICTs)--have grown exponentially over the last five years. But the speed of change has often confused companies, provoking widespread...

Euros break the EU's own rules.(Did you know?)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2002... The currency adopted by most of Europe at the beginning of 2002 can release up to 320 times the amount of nickel that European Union (EU) regulations say triggers skin reactions in people allergic to the metal. This is one of the highest...

Old-boy network's power exposed.(Did you know?)
December 22, 2002... It is well known that cliques of well-connected businessmen can easily corrupt or distort corporate board decisions. But now a team of scientists say they can predict how much power old-boy networks have over boardroom meetings. Almost 100...

Companies cut back and drop holiday parties.(Did you know?)(holiday festivities )(Brief Article)
December 22, 2002... Hard-pressed companies are cancelling their office parties, and others are requiring employees to provide entertainment or food. The cutbacks are mostly due to the slow economic recovery. The number of companies hosting holiday parties dipped...

Cards deal blow to market theory.(Did you know?)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2002... Conventional economic theory does a fair job of predicting prices in simple buying and selling transactions. But it fails to account for the influence of traders' experience on a market's efficiency when it comes to redistributing goods. These...

Lunch breaks are off the menu.(Did you know?)
December 22, 2002... The office desk is becoming the 'in' place to eat, as the idea of taking a proper lunch break moves out of fashion. A report from Reuters Business Insight suggests that throughout Europe the lunchtime meal is being reduced to a hasty sandwich...

Researchers have found Britons spend more than three hours of every working day gossiping, emailing friends and flirting.(Did you know?)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2002... * Researchers have found Britons spend more than three hours of every working day gossiping, emailing friends and flirting. Despite the time spent avoiding work the survey also found that 49 per cent of people manage their finances for an...

So what do leaders lack?(Did you know?)
December 22, 2002... A research initiative by Krauthammer International conducted in six European countries amongst a group of 219 managers has yielded some challenging notions on leadership. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The main findings of the research were:...

Open-market innovation.(Did you know?)
December 22, 2002... As companies open their R & D process to vendors, customers, and even competitors, they can build a competitive advantage by improving the speed, cost and quality of innovation. Bain's October/November 2002 report suggests that companies...

How the Medici Bank became the world's most powerful business: the challenges faced by Cosimo and his managers would horrify most modern managers.(Sounding Board)(Company Profile)
December 22, 2002... The Medici Bank was the largest business organisation of its day. It had operations across Western Europe and the Middle East, and agency relationships stretching from Iceland to China. Its diversified operations included financial services,...

Time for a radical new look at teams: effective teams aren't just task-focused. They balance task, learning together and attention to behaviour.(Sounding Board)
December 22, 2002... Teams are back in fashion. It is not that organisations have done without them, but the see-saw between motivating and developing the individual, on the one hand, and teams on the other, is swinging noticeably back towards the latter. One...

Europe's different levels of employee 'engagement': a new study shows that the best employers achieve a virtuous high-performance circle.(Sounding Board)
December 22, 2002... Europe's top performing employers see people as a vital strategic asset. In a survey undertaken by Hewitt Associates in France, Germany, UK and Austria (see box) top performers ranked human resources (HR) first when asked what would have most...

Sarbanes-Oxley: a guide for Europeans; Companies listed in the US would be wise to understand, and prepare for, the new world of corporate governance.(Sounding Board)
December 22, 2002... The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was signed into US law on July 30, 2002, in response to corporate accounting and financial reporting scandals such as Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, Global Crossings and a host of others. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

Two summits, one city, and the big fudge: insights from research in the automotive industry suggest that competition rules are not yet working in Eastern Europe.(Sounding Board)
December 22, 2002... Eastern Europe's candidate countries must have functioning market economies in order to join the EU, according to key conditions for enlargement laid down by the Copenhagen Council in 1993. Yet, as another important EU summit in Copenhagen...

Trading bloc with a difference: the Commonwealth transcends geography, enjoys a unique cultural advantage and challenges conventional thinking on regional trading groups.(Sounding Board)
December 22, 2002... Almost by definition, trading blocs are made up of expanded neighbourhoods of nations--contiguous states that share regional interests and can trade efficiently without incurring heavy transport costs. This is an attractive model in the global...

Linking employee policies to new forms of value creation: the challenge for organisations is to work harder to demonstrate the link between employment policies, practice and value creation.(Sounding Board)
December 22, 2002... In responding to calls for greater Corporate Social Responsibility, many companies initially focused on the environmental aspects, largely because they had been actively managing and reporting on their environmental impact well before the term...

Peter Drucker--man of the past, man of the future: the celebrated management thinker turned 93 in November 2002. This personal homage traces the source of his genius to a Europe that has long since disappeared.(Sounding Board)
December 22, 2002... The closing sentence in Peter Drucker's Management Challenges for the 21st Century, which appeared in 1999, reminds readers that what the book actually deals with is: 'The Future of Society'. The future has always been of particular interest to...

From milk bottles to MBAs: EBF talks to Professor Hans Rausing, retired president of TetraPak.(View from the top)
December 22, 2002... In 1997, a quiet revolution in Russian business management training began when Stockholm School of Economics opened a campus in St. Petersburg, (SSE SPb). The new MBA course was principally funded by donations from Swedish industrialist Hans...

Energy consolidator: EBF talks to Gyorgy Mosonyi--Group Chief Executive of Hungary's MOL.(View from the top)(Interview)
December 22, 2002... MOL (Magyar Olaj-es Gazipa ri) is Hungary's biggest company by turnover (HUF1.1bn) as well as the most active regional player in the current consolidation of Central and Eastern Europe's fragmented oil and gas industry. Listed in Budapest and...

A clouded crystal ball.(The Future of Retail Banking in Europe: A View from the Top)(Book Review)
December 22, 2002... The Future of Retail Banking in Europe: A View from the Top. By Oonagh McDonald and Kevin Keasey. John Wiley & Sons Ltd September, 2002 ISBN: 0471892777 208 pages. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Banking, it has to be...

A new world order.(What's Next? )(Book Review)
December 22, 2002... What's Next? By Eamonn Kelly, Peter Leyden and members of Global Business Network. John Wiley & Sons Ltd September, 2002 ISBN: 0470849584 368 pages. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] You might think that in today's highly...

Scandinavian model which others can learn from.(The Information Society and the Welfare State: The Finnish Model)(Book Review)
December 22, 2002... The Information Society and the Welfare State: The Finnish Model by Manuel Castells and Pekka Himanen. Oxford University Press October, 2002 ISBN: 0199256993 212 pages. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Finnish economy...

Keeping the customers satisfied: existing business clients continue to have a positive effect on the growth of our entrepreneurs.(Entrepreneurs)
December 22, 2002... Scouting out new territory WordAppeal is a London and Paris-based online corporate communications consultancy. In past contributions to EBF, I've continuously announced our efforts to communicate to the market. Now, after nearly three...

Common thread--uncommon viewpoint: we need leaders who can weave opposing transatlantic opinions into one worldview.(Letter from Boston)
December 22, 2002... When it comes to politics and world events, Americans--after crossing the pond a few times--are often amazed at how much their European counterparts know. Everyone in Europe--by that I mean everyone from cab drivers to waiters and...

News from EBF founders.(comparative economic performance )
December 22, 2002... PricewaterhouseCoopers is active in developing new ideas for business and disseminating them through a variety of channels. Here are some recent initiatives: European Economic Outlook January 2003 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This...

CEMS is officially acknowledged by the European academic community as the "best practice" model for international management education.(News from EBF founders)(Community of European Management Schools)
December 22, 2002... In an effort to support European higher education and to increase its competitiveness worldwide, the European University Association (EUA) is working with the European Commission on the development, monitoring and dissemination of examples of...