The Battle of Waterloo

The Battle of Waterloo reenactment is an annual recreation of the 19th Century Battle of Waterloo on the original battlefield in Waterloo, Belgium. I am usually not a fan of the military, but I didn't want to miss this historic re-enactement of the Waterloo battle, with ca 1,200 re-enactors coming from some 15 countries. I hadn't heard about the event until late last Friday night at a diner table full of American expats who always seem to know more about your country than you know about it yourself.

The historical society who organizes the re-enactement is so concentrated on the historical side of the event, that they tend to forget to think about the comfort of the visitors. I think there must have been at least 10.000 people lined up along the battlefield, in the burning sun, many of them on a steep slope to be able to see something over the heads of the people in front of them. Tip for the society next time: MOW the slope!

I developed an interest in the army because of the specific leadership culture in such an organization. I am planning to roll out a 'WSJE Management and the Military Lab' in a couple of months at The Wall Street Journal Europe. It will be a research project looking into the transfer of coaching techniques from the military commanders to the industry.

The Battle of Waterloo took place at 18 June 1815, 15 years before Belgium came into existence in 1830. The Battle ended the Napoleonic era. Napoleon's dream to unify Europe under French leadership died at Waterloo after his troops were beaten by an alliance of UK and Prussian troops under the command of Lord Wellington. It was actually the second time that Napoleon was defeated. In 1813 he lost the Battle of Leipzig and also some campaigns of 1814 in France after which he was exiled to the Island of Elba. Ironically, the EU has nowadays her headquarters about 8 kilometers from the battle field.

The Wall Street Journal Europe

Sad day today. My boss Rick Zednik decided to leave The Wall Street Journal Europe. He will join the Brussels based EU policy website Euractiv. Today he organized a farewell lunch. Instead of giving a farewell speech he wrote a short play featuring a 'normal' working day at WSJE and the daily actors he had to work with as a boss. Brilliant. He managed to capture the essence of each and one of us and put it in the script. One of my new -higher up- bosses captured the 'essence' of RZ and called him a true 'gentleman'. I couldn't agree more. RZ made our quaterly meetings more interesting by inviting guestspeakers from other departments. I will never forget how RZ pointed out what was happening with the 'Randy Paush' story on the internet after he invited a Dowjones.com editor to come and speak about our .com endeavors. I haven't had many bosses in my life, so it is difficult to compare, but I have learned a lot from this man. His email follow up on all my requests and ideas, and his general 'care' for our company, brand and people was exemplary.

About the obsession with detail by great leaders.

From the book: "Allan Leighton on Leadership".
See further for more posts about this book.

Following testimony from Allan Leighton explains about his first meeting with Rupert Murdoch and the obsession with detail to be found in truly great leaders.

Allan Leighton: "The voice on the other end of the mobile phone is friendly, but immediately comes to the point. "Allan, it’s Rupert. l’d like to meet with you tomorrow to discuss your joining the board of BSkyB."
"Id love to see you," I replied, doing my best to hide my amazement at the call from this business icon who, until then, I’d never met. "But I’m going to be in Hull visiting an ASDA store."
"Fine, I’ll see you there," came the reply. Then he added, "Is it OK if I get there at lunch time?"

Rupert Murdoch, the most powerful media baron in the world, immediately put a line through his obviously frantic schedule to walk the aisles of a supermarket in northern Britain. He had made a decision about the BSkyB board and wanted to act on it immediately. His action that day encapsulates everything I admire about good leadership -seizing the opportunity, focusing and getting the job done.

But when Rupert walked into the ASDA supermarket that day, much to the shock of all the store staff who recognised him, the first thing he did was not to bend my ear. Instead he strode over to the newspaper display. Seeing that the Sun, the flagship title of his publishing empire, had sold out he picked up his mobile and phoned the then editor, David Yelland.

"I’m in an ASDA in Hull, it’s lunchtime and there are no copies of the Sun," he barked. "Find Out why."

You can only imagine the head-scratching at News Corporation’s HQ in London’s Wapping. What could Rupert Murdoch, presumed to be safely ensconced in his London base, possibly be doing at a supermarket in Hull counting, or more to the point not counting, copies of tabloid newspapers? But it isn’thard to guess the effect.

You could call this an obsession with detail! And it certainly is. Whenever I visit a store or a depot, I never fail to pick up the phone to the office with a question for the man or woman who is responsible for something that isn’t quite right. Not only does it get the problem sorted — and fast — but it also lets everyone know I don’t miss a thing. It’s also part and parcel of getting things right for the customer.

EDHEC Institutional Days, Paris

Topic: "Bringing research insights to institutional investors."

EDHEC is a famous French business school known to put a lot of emphasis on research. Meeting with EDHEC executives. EDHEC has a campus in Nice and Lille, but they want to expand internationally. I learn they will start a Phd course in London as of September 2008. Contrary to Belgium it is possible in France and the UK to enlist for a Phd in a faculty you do not already have a master degree from.

EDHEC–Wall Street Journal Europe Institutional Investor Forum:
Friday, 13 June, 2008: 08:45-11:00

The inaugural edition of the EDHEC–Wall Street Journal Europe Institutional Investor Forum proposes to bring together the foremost representatives of European pension schemes, insurance companies, and regulatory authorities to debate the key issues affecting the pensions and investment industry.

Subject:
"Insurance Companies, Pension Funds, and the European Regulator: Reconciling short-term prudential requirements with long-term economic performance".

Leadership Lessons from an Allan Leighton book

I am immensely enjoying a paperback I bought in an ASDA store in the UK a few weeks ago: "Allan Leighton on Leadership".

I hadn't heard of Mr. Leighton before, but I understand he is a popular turnaround CEO in the UK, having worked for Mars, The Royal Mail and ...ASDA.

He interviewed a series of CEO colleagues and asked them about all sorts of leadership issues, which he compiled in a book. What made me buy the book was the fact that also Rupert Murdoch was among the CEO's who were interviewed by Leighton.

Here are a few leadership ideas from Mr. Murdoch taken from the book from Allan Leighton:

Leighton: "Incidentally, one very useful trick I've learned from Rupert Murdoch is to use meetings as a way to keep people on their toes. He (Mr. Murdoch) reckons that he is given so many papers and board minutes to wade through that he may not always have time to read them all. Instead, he will simply flick to, say, page 56 and focus on a detail that no one has really considered. Quite nonchalantly, he will then refer to the item and ask a detailed question. Of course, unless the rest of the executives have taken care to be exceptio0nally well briefed, they are left open-mouthed and floundering. It's a very clever, effective way to ensure that everyone consistently stays on the ball."

Rupert Murdoch about communication:
"Build a reputation for openness, honesty and good ethics in a company. You must have that and do everything you can to stamp out any politics that might be going on behind you."

Rupert Murdoch Leadership Lessons:
- Keep in touch with details
- Get involved
- Capitalise quickly on changing opportunities

James Murdoch (son of) Leadership Lessons:
- Be inclusive, but at the same time decisive.
- Constantly change and show a willingness to change.
- When everybody says we're crazy, that's when we feel best about our direction.

Leighton: "Rupert Murdoch clearly loves new technology and anything that enables him to open up entirely new markets. His approach shows a passionate engagement with the newspapers that created his empire, and a clear-sighted acceptance of the necessity and inevitability of change. When I spoke to him, he talked generally about technological innovation, and then specifically about how it is affecting, among other things, politics and the reporting of politics."

Rupert Murdoch: "The internet will have a huge role in the political process in future. At the last election, people set up websites, usually to oppose something and News Corporation's MySpace could play a terrific part in the next one. The whole thing about sites like MySpace is that people contribute every word. It can be hugely powerful at spreading stories that otherwise might go unnoticed. For all that, newspapers are still going to be around, very strong and very influential for a long time. In Britain we consider ourselves to have the best quality daily and we certainly have got the most successful Sunday newspapers. At the very least we will be the last ones left standing."

European Regional Economic Forum - Slovenia

Test
Mr. Gert Van Mol was invited to speak at the EREF 2008 conference in Slovenia.

by Charuta Vaidhyanathan

Mirko Brulc, mayor of Nova Gorica, explains to Gert Van Mol how the Europa Square came into existence. Gert is standing with his left foot in Italy and with his right foot in Slovenia.

Gert Van Mol and major Brulc talk about The WSJE Future Leadership Institute after Gert gave a speech at the European Regional Economic Forum hosted by the city of Nova Gorica.

"The Business of Football", result of new sponsor strategy

from Dow Jones Corporate Communications Department:

THE BUSINESS OF FOOTBALL HOTLY CONTESTED AT LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL/WALL STREET JOURNAL EUROPE EVENT
European football champions Manchester United went head to head with Premier One league side Millwall at the London Business School last night – but in the lecture theatre, rather than the football field. Thanks to the efforts of The Wall Street Journal Europe’s VIP programme manager Gert van Mol, more than 50 of the School’s MBA students came together with selected Journal Europe readers to hear views on the business of football from Sameer Pabari, director of media at Manchester United, and Andy Ambler, COO and director of finance at Millwall. They were joined by Jo Swinnen, professor of developmental economics at the Catholic University of Louvain, who is currently studying the effects of football on developing economies, and international football journalist Ben Lyttleton, who moderated proceedings. With Manchester United the most profitable club in the world – and arguably also the most popular – its business model dwarfs that of Millwall; making more money in a couple of games than the lesser-ranked side does in a year. The Journal Europe is looking at rolling the inaugural event out to a seasonal series of moderated discussions, focusing on the business of sport.
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The combined discussions with the members of the Football Club of London Business School, and the Lisbon Agenda specialists at Itinera and EREF (European Regional Economic Forum) last year led me to believe we should completely rethink our sponsoring strategy. Traditionally a university or a student club would apply for some sponsorship money. We would pay a certain amount and in return we would receive our logo on a flag, t-shirt or website.
I completely abandoned that idea.

In the future we will carefully select some student clubs and only give them money if they agree on becoming our co-organizer of small, manageable, quality seminars, preferably on school grounds. Together we then select a topic, we invite specialists (from the industry) and organize an afternoon or evening seminar, extra curricular (or part of the curriculum in case of some Business Schools). This effectively reflects the set up of the WSJE Future Leadership Institute, the virtual institute we created January 2008, with ultimate goal to bridge industry and university.

“The Business of Football” seminar is the first seminar we set up this way.

Guy Levy, President London Business School Football Club

Panel Front left: Sameer Pabari, Director of Media Manchester United, Director Man U TV

Prof. Dr. Jo Swinnen, Director LICOS Center for Institutions and Economic Performance KULeuven Belgium

Andy Ambler, CFO Millwall Football Club

Preparing Seminar at The London Business School

I'm working together with the Football Club of the London Business School (LBS) to organize a WSJE-LBS Seminar on Football and Business. The seminar is part of the further development of The WSJE Future Leadership Institute. We originally planned to have the 'event' at the final of the Champions League, i.e. May 21, so we could have ended the event with a live session of the final on a big screen. However one of the key note speakers is attached to a club that might end up playing the final. If that would be the case the speaker wouldn't be able to attend. Therefore we moved our seminar to May 29.

In working towards the final the students of the football club asked me to sponsor the games (quarter finals, semi finals etc) leading up to the final. They asked money for each game. I asked why they needed money for each final. "To buy beer", they said. Our policy is not to pay cash for sponsorship deals. But I understood their 'need'. It led me to contact a friend at a Belgian brewery to discuss sponsorship with Belgian beers. I quickly closed a deal, until the moment it became clear the beer had to be delivered in London. The taxes to be paid to import the beer in the UK were so hefty the brewery decided against the sponsoring. But I already had promised the Belgian beer to the students. I had no other choice than to call in a favor of another friend at a beer wholesale factory, hide a superb collection of Belgian beers in the trunk of my car, and deliver the beer myself. In the past, UK customs never ever inspected my car when I used the Eurotunnel so I thought it to be a safe strategy. Indeed, it worked. On the way back to Belgium however I was asked to pull over at Eurotunnel, five custom agents came out and strip searched the car. They even took a drug sample from the seating. Luckily my car was clean...and empty.

(Picture: The President (r) and his team of the London Business School Football Club receiving a collection of Belgian beers)

25th anniversary The Wall Street Journal Europe at the Gherkin

Two events in 1 go (April 16, 2008):
1. The Wall Street Journal Europe invited clients, readers and other VIPS to celebrate the 25th anniversary at the Gherkin in London. We rented both top floors, to accommodate the guests. Spectacular 360° view on London. A bit noisy because of the dome effect but certainly a place to impress your guests with.

2. For first time in history of The Wall Street Journal, the US version will be printed in London. At the moment WSJ will only be sold in the financial district of London. That means that in that area both WSJ and WSJE will be sold as separate products. In the rest of Europe we will still be selling WSJE.

Les Hinton, the new CEO of Dow Jones (former The Times) joined the party. He said we could be printing and selling WSJ also in other financial districts across Europe in the future.

4th Annual Oxford Private Equity Forum, Said Business School

January 18, 2008: WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, Valendar, Germany. The student body organizes their Campus for Finance. At the event I meet an MBA student from Said Business School Oxford University, Sebastian Wilde. He explains to me that the students at Oxford Business School organize a yearly
Private Equity Forum in April. He invites me to collaborate with the WSJE Future Leadership Institute. I end up sponsoring the event with copies and attention in my daily educational box in the newspaper. It is for the first time I see the box work like it was intended to work. In the upper part of the box I can highlight a seminar that perfectly fits the goal of the WSJE Future Leadership Institute, i.e. bridging university and industry, and in the below part I can publish the logo of Vlerick Business School as supporters of our Future Leadership Program. The box looks great.

About the event: Again I am so fortunate to be able to attend such events. My blood itches in my veins when I see students put together a quality event. It reminds me of my days at University. The audience (275) could listen to some very good speakers in the Nelson Mandela Lecture Hall, one of them Khaled Said, son of Mr. Said who gave his name to the Oxford Business School. There were only 2 sponsors, Deloitte and The Wall Street Journal Europe, both of which received a sufficient amount of attention and exposure. All details were being taken care of. The synergy between the WSJE brand and the Said Business School brand is so obvious when you look back at this event.

INSEAD Leadership Summit 2008

In the last 8 weeks I met 3 business men who referred to their Insead past as part of their current success. The most interesting story came from the entrepreneur who found a 3 million Euro investment for one of his new companies thanks to the Insead Alumni society.

I feel privileged that my work for The Wall Street Journal Europe leads me to attend such venues as The INSEAD Leadership Summit (invitation only). I don't think I attended an event the past year with an audience of this magnitude. Insead clearly attracts the c-suit to come and spend the day together in Fontainebleau. Keynote speakers, food, drinks, auditorium: all from an exceptional level. The event ended with a gala diner at the Chateau of Fontainebleau in a setting that looked like a movie stage.

Paris Jungle

Meeting the extremely well connected TF again in the heart of Paris. Besides the fact he is interested to help me develop the Future Leadership Institute by opening a few doors to people, he is also a connoisseur of Paris' history and architecture.
He is the sort of person that knows the owners and staff of all good shops in his neighborhood by name.








He invited me to his home office built on the roof of a prestigious appartment block in the center of Paris. He has a small terrace attached to the office, and when you step outside and look down, you look on the roof of the house of ... d'Artagnan.

One of the entrances of his building leads to a small alley, and ends up in a piece of South American jungle with an old wooden construction, a former house of a painter, dating back to the days the regio was in hands of poor artists. Suddenly the sound of the city has vanished. You only hear the wind in trees and birds. Today it is one of the most expensive areas of Paris, where you not only find the appartment of Katherine de Neuve, but also the best baker of Paris, Mulot.

Wonderful meeting at Access MBA Tour Brussels

The current sponsor of my ETP (Executive Travel) Program is the Paris based company Access MBA. They organize one-to-one meetings between candidate MBA students and potential business schools across Europe. Imagine a big room in a splendid hotel, 8 tables representing 8 business schools and a line-up of potential MBA candidates visiting the business schools matching their profiles best.

Today one of the Access MBA tours landed in the Stanhope hotel in Brussels. When I visited their event I noticed two gentlemen representing the Louvain School of Management, an upcoming business school based at the University Catholic de Louvain (UCL)(not to be mistaken with the Catholic University of Leuven, KULeuven).

I also noticed the Louvain School of Management with a big stand at the European Business Summit in Brussels a few weeks ago. They are clearly on the move.

Tonight I met one gentleman of this business school at a coffee table, exhausted from an afternoon filled with interviews. He clearly thought I was another MBA candidate, waiting to be interviewed. But when I told him I actually worked for The Wall Street Journal Europe, and that I came to support a partner, his face lit up like a flare.

"The Wall Street Journal Europe ??", he asked.
"Yes", I responded.
“Sir”, he said, “The Wall Street Journal Europe is the best business newspaper I know. I am a subscriber since I don’t know when, probably since 1989 I think."

The man turned out to be Professor Charles P. Van Wymeersch, Professor of Accounting and Finance at The University of Namur, part of the UCL.

He told me the following things about his love and fascination for WSJE:

• He reads the the paper every day, that is ....when he receives it. He lives in Namur, Belgium, and sometimes he gets the newspaper only after 2 or 3 days, thanks to the 'efficient' Belgian postal system. But still then he loves to catch up with the business news because of the particular WSJE angle.
• The compact format is a big plus.
• He likes WSJE because we have longer articles that tend to dig deeper than articles in other papers.
• FT he finds 'irrelevant' when you have read WSJE.
• He learned about the WSJ in the US when he studied there for his MBA.
• If he had to chose between the WSJE and the WSJ (US version) in Europe, he would definitely chose for the current WSJE. The WSJ (US) version is 'irrelevant' for a European audience.
• He spends about 30 to 50 min reading the WSJE every day although he would love to have more time to read the paper.
• He almost always starts his lessons at the University with The WSJE. He uses the WSJE as his most important education tool in the classroom.
• He absolutely dislikes reading newspapers on a screen.
• Unfortunately he will be forced to buy an online subscription when he retires in a few years time because he will not be able to pay 400 Euro’s for a normal print subscription (today he says he has a ridiculously cheap university subscription).
• A quote we should frame in our offices: “ I always tell my students it is better to read The Wall Street Journal Europe for 2 hours, than to come to class and listen to me for 2 hours. You probably learn more by reading this newspaper.”
  
  

Pictures:

Top: Access MBA Tour at Stanhope Hotel Brussels

Bottom: Professor Van Wymeersch, long time WSJE subscriber

1 week in Austria

I remember Vorarlberg from my distribution days at The Wall Street Journal Europe. It was a region our Austrian distributor asked permission for each year to open up in wintertime for possible WSJE readers on the ski slopes. I am here with 6 children and two women and sometimes I understand the pitifull look I get from other men.

Management-, Children's-, and Self Help Books

When I am not entirely happy at my work, I tend to go shopping, more specifically I will buy books for my children, M, friends and myself. In that order. Today I bought books for at least 250 Euro.

"There is a saying, creativity starts when you take a zero off the budget."
(Sent to me by a Dow Jones VP who just left the company.)

Christian Salez CEO of Delvaux

Excitement. I just heard that Christain Salez became the new CEO of Delvaux, the luxury leather brand my mother and father regularly refer to as one of their dream brands. My father speaks about buying a Jaguar for years now, but he will never buy one. My mother speaks about my father buying her a Delvaux since last century, but she will never receive any. Products without price tags in the showroom tend to have that effect on 'normal' people.

Salez and I come from the same school. And we had a strange 'affair' in the last year of high school. We both wrote and produced a theater play. He hired Arenberg theater, I hired Elcerlijck. He wrote a French play. I wrote a Flemish play. He wrote a sort of musical. I can't sing. He had a full house, or at least that is what I remember of it. I had a three quarter house. His play was smooth and mature. Mine was experimental -very-. Everybody expected him to end up in the Arts but he became a successful entrepreneur instead. TBWA, Vicindo (bought Artis Historia and terminated it!), Vincotte, Delvaux. He also created a remarkable non profit for sick children in hospitals "Simon and Odil".

(Christian Salez, third from the left)

Europe Unlimited

One of the new sponsors of The WSJE Future Leadership Institute is Europe Unlimited, a Brussels based company bridging SME start ups with venture capital. Today they organized their "Benelux Venture 50" a venture forum where they selected 50 promising companies to present their case to a panel of venture capitalists. It was a good event, a good day, but the day became memorable because of a black suitcase.

At the end of the day Europe Unlimited organized an Award Ceremony. High-growth companies selected from each of the parallel sector review sessions were honored and invited to comment on their key factors of success. While the 9 winners presented themselves I suddenly noticed an abandoned black suitcase against the wall of the auditorium. It was not the suitcase that attracted my attention but the newspaper that was sticking out of one of the side pockets: a folded WSJE!!

After the ceremony I met the owner of the suitcase: Dr. Herbert Koentges, Business Development Director at Medical Device Works NV. It is always awkward to step up to unknown people, but if they carry a WSJE in their suitcase, it creates the perfect excuse to start a conversation with a stranger.

Dr. Herbert Koentges turned out to be an old WSJE subscriber. I had a wonderful conversation with him about the newspaper industry. Just a few elements to highlight the profile of a WSJE subscriber:

Dr. Koentges (ca 55 - 60 years):
- PhD physical chemistry from TU-Berlin
- MBA INSEAD 1973
- Involved in Cordis MBO
- Member of start-up teams 3 medtech companies with IPO on Nasdaq
- Private investor in several medtech ventures
- Funded the start up of Medical Device Works NV together with the current CEO.
- Succeeded in landing 3.5 m Euro from venture capitalists mainly through his INSEAD network.

I asked him if WSJE was his first newspaper of choice:
When I asked this he took the folded WSJE copy from his suitcase, rolled it out and....a IHT copy popped up. IHT is his first newspaper of choice. WSJE is number 2. He reads both newspapers every day.

For world events he reads IHT.
For world business he reads WSJE.

Where does he read the newspapers ?
In the morning in his car, they both lay on the passenger seat and every time he has to stop for a red light he reads a part on the cover pages. In the daily traffic jams around Brussels he continues to read parts of the other stories.

About WSJE:
He likes the compact format, the short and precise articles, the view on world business.

About the IHT:
He is a IHT subscriber for 30 years now. In a former post I wrote about the Paris' soul of the IHT, Dr. Koentges actually doesn't like the Paris link too much. It brings him too much fashion he says. He likes the opinion pages of the IHT the most.

About other newspapers:
He would never subscribe to Financial Times, it is too British, and the articles are too long. He says "most of the FT articles are so big, but of so little importance".

France, Paris, Catherine Deneuve and The Da Vinci Code

Sometimes you meet people who have something mythical over them. Today I met T.F. again, a man who once worked for the American Embassy in Brussels. He retired with his wife in Paris. We met at Place Saint Sulpice. Standing at the foot of the fountain he pointed out a nice apartment at 76, Rue Bonaparte, 6th floor. "The apartment of Catherine Deneuve", he whispered. "Once in a while I see her in this neighborhood; she is not very well dressed most of the time."
I will work with Mr. F. the coming months. I am very curious. He has the tel. nr. of Richard Branson in his agenda.

Before leaving Paris I quickly visited Église Saint Sulpice. I knew the church had two things I was interested in. One was the world renowned pipe organ from Aristide Cavaillé-Coll and the other was the gnomon described in The Da Vinci Code. In the church you will find a meridian line of brass running across the floor, ascending in an obelisk. A ray of sun will pass a lens in a south transept window and will move along the brass line.

(Picture: 76, Rue Bonaparte, 6th floor, floor with balconies: Home of Catherine Deneuve)

With IHT in Paris

It is a bizarre situation when one of your best team members leaves your team to work for the competition. I found myself in this situation when Belgian scientist Davy Drieghe came to work for The Wall Street Journal Europe (WSJE) as an intern beginning 2004. He grew from a non paid intern to a full time team member and always showed great interest in the publishing business. He left WSJE middle 2005 for an adventurous life in Paris at The Herald International Tribune.

We still keep in contact and every time we see each other we have a clear off the record (the friendship's part) and a clear on the record conversation (the business' part).

Davy invited me to a French “steak tartare”, and he showed me how IHT is in origin and soul a French newspaper. Apparently the Paris IHT staff is convinced that moving IHT out of Paris (for example to parent company New York Times in New York) would be the beginning of the end of the newspaper. Not that this is playing at IHT headquarters (don't want to start a rumor this way!!), Davy just wanted to make a point about the 'soul' of a newspaper. He tried to prove the point by taking me to the unofficial Diana memorial near the Seine. Everybody thinks the statue (a flame) at the tunnel where Princess Diana died was erected to commemorate her life and death. So people will leave flowers and cards at the foot of the statue all the time. The truth is that the flame statue is an IHT statue. It was given by American people to the French to celebrate the centennial of IHT (1887 - 1987). The flame is therefore an exact copy of the flame held by the statue of liberty in New York.

We agreed that a city, especially a city as Paris, could act as an anchor to feed the soul of a newspaper. Which brought me to realize "shutting down Brussels" (as subject of a lot of rumors around WSJE) wouldn't hurt the soul of WSJE at all.

(pictures from left to right: Steak Tartare, Mr. Davy Drieghe (IHT) at 'Diana' memorial,
IHT centennial plate at so called 'Diana' memorial)

France, Fontainebleau, INSEAD

I am aiming to visit at least 30 universities or business schools this year, that are part of The Future Leadership Program of The Wall Street Journal Europe. Today I visited INSEAD.

The values of INSEAD:
- Diversity as a source of learning and enrichment
- Independence as a governance principle
- Rigor and relevance in teaching and research
- Closeness to the international business community
- Entrepreneurial spirit

I like companies or institutions which communicate their values or mission in their entrance hall (as INSEAD does). I actually doesn't happen that much. Most companies will put their mission and values on their website, which is a good start, but it misses out on impact when visiting their premises. When I visit companies with a written mission statement in the entrance hall, and I haven't met physically with my counterpart of that company before, I always play a mindgame imagining the person who I am goin to meet based on the written mission statement on the wall.

INSEAD inside.

When wandering around the INSEAD campus we saw a funny "The Path to Cubicle Heaven" sign.


I googled Insead's correct address and stumbled upon a blog from an Insead MBA student, that upset my evening. The blog starts in 2003, the year the student started her MBA at INSEAD (http://www.worldmbawire.blogspot.com/) and sadly turns into a blog about the student getting cancer (http://financemonkeyvsalien.blogspot.com/). Reading her blog is a terrible exercise in putting life into perspective.

The first post on her INSEAD MBA BLOG -she calls herself "Finance Monkey"- , dated November 24, 2003, was actually a joke:
A survey company decided to do a world survey on a very important issue. The question was the following: ”What is your opinion on lack of food in the rest of the world?”
The survey was a total disaster as the question was not properly formulated. Too many words were ambiguous:
- In Africa, people did not know what food was.
- In Western Europe, people did not know what lacking something meant.
- In Eastern Europe, people did not know what an opinion was.
- In the United States, people did not know what the rest of the world was.

One of her last posts in 2007 describes how she founded a non-profit to help beat her disease (http://www.beatsarcoma.org). She also refers to her INSEAD alumni network to help her translate her blogs in different languages.
Hi everyone -Sorry for the delay in posting an update. I am actually maintaining a private blog and it took up a lot of my time. I am still in treatment and still chatting with a bunch of doctors, fighting off the nasty Alien but I have some news. I also founded a non-profit to help with sarcoma research since it currently gets less than 1% of funds available for cancer research. Still very early stages but it looks promising!

Science + Industry = Sciendustry

The Future Leadership Program of The Wall Street Journal Europe contains now 165 top universities and business schools or 180 campuses. It is by far the newspaper with the strongest campus penetration in Europe. To create extra value on top of the physical distribution of our newspaper into universities, I created The WSJE Future Leadership Institute.

The WSJE Future Leadership Institute is a virtual institute that acts as a bridge between university and industry. More and more I see and experience the differences between the world of science and the world of industry. The difference between both worlds is primarily based on different rewarding systems. He who wants to score in the universitary world has to produce articles, he who wants to score in the industry has to sell products.

It is clear that there is a growing industry to be found on the border of university (science) and industry, bridging both worlds. It is the playing field of the "Sciendustry". (To my surprise the domainname was still for sale, so I quickly cornered the term :-)

More about the "Sciendustry" in posts to follow.

Busy Day on the Networking Front

I attended the "10+2" Security Filing Seminar from De Lloyd in Antwerp. A seminar I highlighted earlier in my daily educational box (The WSJE Future Leadership Institute) on the back page of The Wall Street Journal Europe. Although I am not an expert in customs policies, the speech of Carey T. Davies, attache from the US Customs and Border Protection, US Department of Homeland Security, was very explanatory. He claimed that 9/11 was bad, but it could have been worse if the terrorist attacks had been targeting the shipping lines between the US and the world. That probably would have led to standstill of the import and export between the US and the world, which would have led to a worldwide recession. The fear for this kind of terror has triggered severe security measurements and legislation which is now beginning to be seen on the field. The new measurements to scan every container entering the US by 2012 were met with extreme opposition from all over the world.

From Antwerp to Brussels to attend a seminar on the topic: "Russia after the elections - analyses and perspectives". I also highlighted this seminar in The Wall Street Journal Europe. Very interesting speakers. The event was co-organized by a powerful female Belgian consultant living in Wiesbaden who recently created "Partners-For-Public-Affairs.com", specialised in Russland-Ukraine-Belarus and Kasachstan. The event itself was hosted by the "Representation of the State of Hessen to the European Union". I must say I have never seen such quality food and customer care at a seminar (there was vegetable soup !!). When Germans do something, they tend to do it good. It is not a myth.

CEO of Inbev, Carlos Brito on Management and Leadership

Our boss at The Wall Street Journal Europe, a Harvard alumnus, invited his sales crew to participate in a Harvard alumni diner in Brussels. Main attraction of the evening was a speech of the CEO of Inbev, Mr. Carlos Brito, between first and main course.

Normally speeches of CEO’s are hard to swallow especially between courses, but the speech of Mr. Brito was an exception. A true motivational speaker, Mr Brito concentrated on management and leadership issues in his company.

Here are a few notes on what he said:

The culture of Inbev should be the unified culture of Ambev and Interbrew. Ambev had a well defined uniform-like culture, based on organic growth. Interbrew had a patch work culture, based on growth by acquisitions. The unified Inbev culture is what Brito calls the “DreamPeopleCulture”

Dream:
Inbev’s dream is to become the best, most profitable beer company in the world.
Inbev doesn't just have "a" dream, it has a "stretch-dream". The dream can only be achieved by over-achieving. Only then will Inbev grow from the biggest to the best. "A company with a dream" sounds a bit strange these days, admits Brito, but it doesn't mean that Inbev is an ‘adventurous’ company.

People:
The dream can only be achieved if Inbev has the best people. Brito believes that great companies are formed by great people and that great people attract more of the same. (Brito advises to read: “Good to Great” by Jim Collins)

Culture:
Inbev will adopt the highest standards of integrity in their business. The difference between a good company and a great company is that a great company doesn’t use short cuts. Inbev will never use short cuts even if it means losing a sale. It also means that one has to be patient from time to time.

A truly great company is defined by three elements:
1. Meritocracy: best will be treated best. The Inbev culture is a culture of hard work. The only reason why Inbev is bigger than others is not because Inbev has better people, it is only because the people at Inbev work harder. If the best are not treated best, they will not want to stay in the company. People = sustainable competitive advantage.
2. Candor: be honest
3. Informality: talented people don’t need formality. Brito explains by telling about his own office. Actually he doesn’t have an office. Uppermanagement sits around 1 very big table. It is noisy, it is electrifying, it is like working on a trading floor. Uppermanement seldom schedules meetings with each other; by sitting at 1 big table they have like 30 micro meetings a day by just talking to each other over the table.

About changing the company's culture:
If you want to impose a new culture to a workforce of 85.000 employees, you can’t just talk to all 85.000 employees individually. It is actually not required to talk to all 85.000 employees to start changing a culture. You only have to talk to 20 % of the employees. Because in a group of 100 people you have 20 leaders, 60 followers and 20 anarchists you have to get rid off, because they don’t agree with anything.

Management team:
At Inbev only 200 – 300 people make a real difference (out of 85.000). These 300 people are considered the super talents who will create the future of Inbev.
Brito likes people who are more entrepreneurial. They tend to take more care of the company and will try to come home with successes.

Brito's favorite quotes:
“If you are not at the table, you’ll be on the menu” (especially regarding alcohol legislation. Inbev wants to be involved in regulatory issues. If Inbev is not involved it will bear the consequences and it will find itself at the loosing side in the future.)
“We don’t need consensus, we need alignment”
“We are not smarter, we work harder.”

What is a leader ?
A leader:
- must deliver results
- with the team
- in the right way

Leaders must put pressure in the system, like in sports. Ever seen an athlete relaxed ? No, athletes are focused, they are under pressure.

CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility:
4 elements:
1. A company must be profitable to do good for employees
2. A company must obey the law
3. A company must act ethical, do what is right
4. A company needs a fair amount of voluntarism, involve in community

Balance between life and work:
In the old days: you had 2 lives (1 at work and 1 at home)
Today: you have 1 life. Due to emerging technologies employees are living and working in a mix of work + home.

Targets:
Brito works with 3 year targets: Inbev will focus on 3 elements the coming 3 years:
- focus on people
- focus on regulatory issues
- focues on commodities

-------------------------
Carlos Brito cv


Born in 1960 a Brazilian citizen - joined Brahma in 1989. His first role was Financial Analyst followed by 2 years as a plant manager. From 1992 to 1996 he was responsible for the Soft Drink division of AmBev. From 1997 to 2001 he was Head of beer sales organization in Brazil followed by 2 years he was in charge of Operations (supply Chain and People functions) and was appointed AmBev's CEO in 2003. After the combination Carlos was promoted to Zone President for North America with Headquarters in Toronto- Canada in January 2005. Brito holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and an MBA from Stanford University. He has extensive experience in the beer industry throughout Northern, Central and South America.

The WSJE Future Leadership Institute

To build further on our physical distribution program towards the universities and business schools I created The WSJE Future Leadership Institute, a virtual institute acting as a bridge between university and industry. With the Future Leadership Institute we target students as well as managers who have come to the point they feel the need to re-educate themselves to be able to move to the next level on the corporate ladder.

For this audience I highlight every day a seminar or educational event that could be of interest to them, in a specially designed educational box on the back page of our newspaper. Except for Thursday's that is, because on Thursday's I am giving away management books via a little book contest. The book to win this week is 'Grande Expectation' about the rise of Starbucks.

The book contest enables me to come into direct contact with our customers. It is one of the best things I did working for The WSJE to reach out and learn about our customers.

Because our audience (at least the managers responding to the contest) is Blackberry-proof it is often very interesting to see how responses come in from countries we are not delivering to. I dare then to ask where they picked up the copy, what is of interest to them in the newspaper, etc... (for example an Amercian COO responding from the US, who picked up a copy at Davos, or a CFO responding from Iraq (!) who picked up a copy on an airline...). Personally it is a lively reminder of my former function at the WSJE where I was responsible for the distribution operations. Back then I knew exactly where the copies were going, but I didn't know who was picking them up.

More details about The Future Leadership Instute will follow in later posts.

Adding 7 Turkish Universities to The WSJE Future Leadership Program (end)

Right, Turkish Airlines TV advertises with "Turkey: 300 days of sunshine per year". I must

have chosen the other 65 days to come to Turkey. So far I have seen rain, fog, (some)

sunshine, and last but not least "snow". It was both cold as well as very warm. I experienced 4 seasons during 3 days in Istanbul.

Bosphorus bridge changes color all the time.

To be good I should keep my agenda free for at least the same amount of days I was on business trip
to follow up with the administration upon my arrival back in Belgium (to take care of the reports,
offers, thank you notes, proposals, business cards, contracts etc)

Turkey, Istanbul. Adding universities to The WSJE Future Leadership Program.

The Wall Street Journal Europe is now present in 7 Universities in Turkey.

Today I visited 3 of them. First stop: Istanbul Ticaret University. Private University funded by a Commerz Association. Department of Communication has its own tv and radio broadcast equipment. The students make 2 news editions a day for local television. Impressive.

Turkish distribution company Dunya is helping me in a fenomenal way. 2 managers, 1 car and 1 driver are at my disposal for 3 days. Originally I had rented a car to drive around in Istanbul myself. Dunya convinced me that was a bad idea. I cancelled the car... very very glad I did that now I have seen how people drive in Turkey. Let's say that Turkish drivers haven't reached the era of enlightment yet. Pictured: Mrs Elvan A. explaining me how Turkish people examine the coffee pulp in their cups to determine the future (if the pulp resembles a fish you will win a lot of money, if the pulp resembles a man on a horse you will be married soon).

Marmara University with The Wall Street Journal Europe cardboard
stand in the reception area of the central library. The university has about 60.000 students. 40.000 of them follow classes in buildings around the central library. In front of one of the buildings we saw a genuine fighter plane.

Koc University. Private University. Clean. Modern. Marble.
Koc University is part of the Koc Holding funded by the Koc Foundation.
The Uni is situated in the mountains, in the woods, 40 min from Istanbul center.
They seem to have a very interesting Executive MBA progran.
Makes you want to start studying again.

Open air bookshop in Ortakoy region, couldn't help myself, bought 2 English management books.

Taksim district, appealing walking area.
Sat down in corner of the Golden Horn street restaurant eating
things I can't pronounce.

Turkey. WSJE Future Leadership Program.

Turkey. Grey. Rainy. Cold. I added 7 Turkish Universities to our Future Leadership Program. For the first time The Wall Street Journal Europe will be available to students and professors in the following Turkish Universities:
- Metu University
- Marmara
- Kadir Has
- Bahcesehir
- Istanbul Commerce
- Koc
- Sabanci
I am in Turkey to follow up on the program and to establish relationships with potential partners and sponsors. All my meetings have been set up by our Turkish printer and distributor Dunya.

Around midnight after the first day in this strange country: my brain tries to cope with a busload of impressions. How many people did I meet who told me bluntly they feared for the future of this country ? Most of the people I met today (Am I meeting representatives of a minority or a majority ?) How many people expressed irritation even anger about the apparent move of the government to establish a religious state ? All the people I spoke with today. Somebody actually told me that the desire of the Turkish government to become a European memberstate is to be considered nothing less than a devious strategy to keep political correct Europe at ease while silently moving away from the secular inheritance of Ataturk. A Turkish businessman looked at me with tears in his eyes when I showed him some copies of The Wall Street Journal Europe. I lived in the US for 16 years he said. I read the WSJ every day. In 1996 I had the choice to move to Seattle or to Istanbul. Because of the kids my wife and I chose Istanbul. It was the biggest mistake in my life. I realise now I lost 12 years of my life. I should have built my carreer in the US, not here. I long to go back to the States when my children are old enough. I miss the freedom, I miss quality of life. I miss 'business'.

Picture: Koc Holding. A Turkish multinational founded in the 1920's.

A Fortune 500 company built over 3 generations.

They also have Koc University in their portfolio.

Impactroom: 50.000 visits

The Impactroom blog rounded the cape of 50.000 visits this week. Most visitors arrive via Google search. Most pages visited are related to management theories, MBA's, executive education and management guru's. There is a small core of visitors that visit Impactroom daily, a group probably just big/small enough to invite them all over to a middle sized party with affordable drinks and foods, although their number is steadily rising since September last year (don't know why). Thank you very much for your visits and growing number of comments via mail. I don't have the time anymore to answer them all within 24h, (a standard I set for my day time job at The Wall Street Journal Europe), although I do try to come back to requests within a week.