The Multinational

I have an intern from the American University Brussels in my department. I tried to explain that a multinational is not just a company you work for. It is everything but a company. First of all it is a stage. People who survive more than 5 years in a multinational have proven to be worthy actors. Secondly it is an animal, a beast. It devours your character and personal life. Thirdly it is a ghost with an incomprehensible logic and a peculiar set of ethics. Fourthly it is woman, more caring and careful than you, neater, richer, seductive and lethal. Fifthly it is a sanctuary, an escape from every day life, your own private formicary.

Mission Statement - Dow Jones & Company's Mission and Core Values

Always a good reminder. Curious to see what will stay and what will go the coming months when the influence of new owner Murdoch will start to redirect the ship.

Our Mission

To be the world's best provider of high quality, premium branded, indispensable and conveniently accessible business and related content and information services across all consumer and enterprise media channels, consistently generating superior value to all our customers and shareholders.

*****************

Our Core Values

Make it Personal - all commit to make DJ one of the world's most respected, admired and financially successful companies

Commit to the Virtuous Circle - excellent journalism, business and people are mutually reinforcing drivers of success

Live our values - quality, integrity and independence, everywhere and always

Build Value - for our customers, shareholders and employees

Constantly Innovate - content, products, technology and business processes; purposeful change and smart risk-taking

Build Top Talent - attract, develop, motivate and retain the best diverse talent; insist on teamwork; abhor silos

Get Results, Now - commit to action and results

*****************

Bob Proctor on Wealth

So American, so funny.

(At seventy years of age, Bob Proctor is widely considered one of the world's greatest authorities on attracting wealth! ....His teachings come from Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, and other sources)

10 Ways to Innovate

1. Innovation Starts with “And”:
All innovation starts with the word “And.” If you really want to innovate, take two statements that can’t possibly go together and join them with “and.” Like “Jump off a high cliff” and “Land light as a feather on the bottom.” It doesn’t matter how ridiculous the two statements are - just pick two and mash them together.

2. Not Just Smart, But Always Focused:
Now get a couple of really smart AND creative people in a room and start asking questions about how to make it happen.

3. Make Sure You Have the “No But” Critic in the Room:
You need one critic (and preferably only one) in the room. This is a way to keep from flying off into the ether.

4. Build Crappy Prototypes Fast:
Innovation is like hoping you’ll find a gold coin at the bottom of a pile of manure - you don’t know whether it’s worth the dig until you are covered in the stuff. You quite literally want to guard against getting the prototype right.

5. Don’t Listen To Customers, Watch Them:
Now get your idea in front of a potential customer. Always get in front of the customer as fast as possible. …. watch them. How much time do they spend with your prototype? Do their eyes light up?

6. If It’s Right, Change It.
Challenge it by changing it.

7. Sell it Like you Play It:
….don’t sell it like work. Sell it like play.

8. Iterate 'Till You Drop':
Just keep on going. Iterate the hell out of thing.

9. Appoint One Person Bad Cop and Follow Their Command:
…you have to ship something to really have been “innovative.” (Real innovators ship.) So have one person responsible for calling it quits.

10. Innovation Is About Learning, not Genius:
…the most important thing to remember is that most of innovation is learning, not inspiration.

http://www.talentism.com

WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management: Campus for Finance: Valendar, Germany

We were welcomed by Sebastian Pollok. A very young looking university staffer, ...I thought. He wore a red badge reading the words 'core team'. I was advised a few weeks ago by other Wall Street Journal Europe employees to check out the Campus for Finance conference at the WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany.
Topic of this year's 2 day conference (8th edition already): "New Horizons for Financial Markets - Investing in a Changing World". I quickly learned that the organization of the conference was completely in hands of students. Key note speaker this year: Dr. Josef Ackermann, CEO Deutsche Bank. Our contact person, Mr.-Core-Team-Sebastian-Pollok, turned out to be student, responsible for the press.

I organized some events in my time as a student, but nothing compared to this event. My admiration for the organizing student team at WHU grew whole day long.
Some small facts:

• They booked my hotel. When I arrived after midnight, I ended up in a beautiful castle overlooking the Rhein under my window.


• 2.000 students from 83 countries from approx. 600 universities applied for a ticket to the event.


• only 160 students were selected. As such the event is not that big, 250 participants top (of which 160 selected students)


• all attending students had to pay 70 Euro entrance fee upfront


• at the event, all students - except those living in a 30 km circle around the WHU school- were reimbursed a significant part of their transportation costs, all food and all boarding was...free


• 2 days about financing with top level speakers


• impeccable organization ('core team' -red / last year students- and 'team' - green/3rd year- students)


• whole day long free cold buffet and drinks


• Audi limousine service to escort all guest speakers to trains, hotels and airports ... manned by students


• complete video captation unit ... manned by students


• when I checked out and wanted to pay, hotel-reception told me WHU conference had already paid
  

Only one conclusion: the students must have raised a enormous amount of money to organize this event. It is a pity that the key note speaker, the CEO of Deutsche Bank, informed them Thursday night he would not come. I heard some very unhappy comments about this amongst the organizing and attending students.

I am sure that we will be seeing some of the students of this year's 'core team' as CEO's or well known politicians in Germany in about 20 years.

(Pictures: Top Left: arrival at Schloss Engers.

Top Right: my room under the roof, no television !

Bottom Left: seminar picture at WHU venue.

Bottom Right: Prof. Michael Brennan (Oxford, Pittsburgh, MIT):

look at the formulas on the screen,

I had not a clue what he was talking about)

Flexicurity and the Lisbon Strategy: Lessius University College Antwerp

Since I created The WSJE Future Leadership Institute I have to match my search for sponsors with a search for content. My battlefield: the universities and business schools In Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia where The Wall Street Journal Europe has been made available to students and professors the past couple of years. I am traveling all over Europe to strengthen our relationship with these temples of knowledge, often green paradises in the city centers of the capitals of their countries.

Meanwhile by attending numerous conferences in these universities I have the feeling I am following my own private MBA. At the same time I am receiving lessons on how to, or how not to organize events (never organize an event in an auditorium where the entrance door comes out behind the speaker)

Today I learned about 'flexicurity'. It represents the pursuit of a balance between flexibility and security as a key target of the European economy, taking into account the mission of the EU Lisbon strategy. Flexicurity has been defined as a "policy strategy that attempts, synchronically and in a deliberate way, to enhance the flexibility of labor markets, the work organization and labor relations, and to enhance security -employment security and social security- notably for weaker groups in and outside the labour market."

The flexicurity seminar was organized by Lessius University College Antwerp (Belgium), the Leo Tindemans Chair, in cooperation with the Jean Monnet Chair.

I learned most from a Danish PHD researcher, Mrs. Anna Ilsoe (picture), who compared the higly acclaimed Danish flexicurity model with the US model (she was very pregnant and about to go on maternity leave, for 6 (six!) months > kind of living proof of the Danish model she was talking about).

(Picture: Mrs. Anna Ilsoe, Danish PHD researcher, speaking about 'Flexicurity'

at the Lessius University College in Antwerp, Belgium.)

Downside of Chinese Wall between 'News' and 'Business'

"There is a Chinese Wall between 'News' and 'Business'", I was told when I started to work for The Wall Street Journal Europe. As a mantra I repeated the phrase to other people the past couple of years. Sometimes people with a certain interest asked me if I could help them get an article in the newspaper. It had always been very easy to answer this question, it was sufficient to talk about the 'Chinese Wall' and people understood I -or anybody else from the 'business' side- was not the right person to talk to.

News is also physically separated from 'the rest'. They occupy the second floor. 'The rest' occupies floor 1 and 3. The only reason we had to go to the second floor in the past was the 'big' meeting room situated on the second floor. But this meeting room has been remodeled. The biggest meeting room is now at the third floor, which will lead to even less visits to the island of news. (There is one exception, there is 1 guy from the opinion pages who has an office at the first floor, but that is being done deliberately as the op-ed people are not considered journalists, they are considered the 'soul' of the newspaper, they have nothing to do with the 'objective' side of the news, they won't even sign their articles with their names most of the time. Usually they occupy page 11 to 13 in the newspaper).

Anyway, today I was asked to host a group of students from The Missouri school of Journalism. I was suggested to ask 3 people from the news side to come up and talk to the students. I didn't know any of the journalists/reporters, although we probably work already for years in the same building for the same company. I introduced all 3 journalists clumsily because of my lack of knowledge about them. One of the reporters was Charles Forelle.

It was only after he spoke to the students that I understood from my boss that Forelle was actually a Pulitzer Price winner. How stupid can one be ? Forelle had been too modest to bring it up himself. And I was the badly prepared organizer who didn't know. To conclude, we failed to tell a class of journalism students they were interacting with a Pulitzer Price winner. I blame myself for my ignorance, I blame the Chinese Wall that prevent us from interacting with each other in a normal way.

Charles Forelle won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in journalism in 2007 for a piece which uncovered stock option scandals at some US corporations. It seemed that several business executives had rewarded themselves millions of dollars by backdating stock options. Forelle's articles for The Wall Street Journal, written and edited with James Bandler, Mark Maremont and Steve Stecklow, prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate more than 140 companies, and at least 70 top executives have lost their jobs since then.

(Picture: Charles Forelle, right, seated, speaks to students of The Missouri School of Journalism at The Wall Street Journal Europe)

Cover Reference Concept The Wall Street Journal Europe

I had a very interesting year end at the company. It all had to do with the fact I came up with an idea. I've learned the past years that ideas in a multinational have the least chance of survival if they come from inside, and from bottom up. In fact I now understand the tremendous value of using an advertising agency rather than enter the swampy stages of allowing ideas to come from inside (despite what multinationals put in their objectives about cultivating and growing ideas, thinking out of the box, creativity etc). But here I was, holding an idea in my hand, looking around for help in massaging the situation in such a way that the idea would have at least a minimal chance of survival.

The way the idea had to travel upwards, like a ball in a pinball machine bouncing from department to department sometimes gaining momentum, sometimes being cornered for a while, was so fascinating and educational it could easily illustrate some chapters in famous management books on creativity. The idea as such was not too far sought in our line of business. Instead of putting expensive stickers on our front-page for all newspapers going to four and five star hotels in Europe, I proposed to actually print a sponsor reference in the left margin of the front-page of our newspaper (hence the name "cover reference").

Since the "cover reference" is not printed on all copies but just on a specified amount of 15.000 copies every day, this requires a plate change in our most important printplants. Our production, technology and distribution department worked very hard in bringing the idea to life. I am glad to say that we succeeded in printing the cover reference on the front-page of our paper as of our first issue in 2008. We are still waiting for the final results after a few weeks of testing this life in the market, before we can say it is a new standard for our executive travel program sponsorship. But so far all signs indicate we are on track to be able to sell the cover reference in the future to new clients.

(picture: the cover reference, a sponsor tag on the front-page of The Wall Street Journal Europe printed only on a specified part of our total circulation)

"New Ideas from Dead Ceo's"

As of 2 January 2008 I have a daily educational box in The Wall Street Journal Europe, highlighting quality seminars and conferences that could help you excel in your job or study. Except for Thursdays that is, because on Thursdays we will give away managementbooks via a book contest. First book we are giving away is: "New Ideas from Dead Ceo's"

This book starts with a brilliant asssignment:
"To the millions of men and women who wake up to the blare of an alarm, hug their children tight, and then go off to make CEO's look good."



The book is from Todd G. Buchholz and is published by Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Interested to win management books? Turn to the back page of The Wall Street Journal Europe every Thursday.

A splendid and successful 2008 to you all!

In 2008 Impactroom will reach the cape of 50.000 visitors. Much more than anticipated when I started the blog. Most visitors tend to come via Google Search I have noticed lately. Most of the time the searches are targetting management theories and management guru names.

I hope that 2008 will bring to you what you expect from it. My New Year started in our German printplant DMG (Dogan Media Group) where I was following up on the implementation of 2 projects I created the last couple of months in my new function. More about this in a later post.

Think about yourself, and the others closest around you.
(left: picture of our garden from my home office window a couple of days ago when the world suddenly turned wite)

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." (Dale Carnegie)

Ben Tiggelaars "MBA in 1 day": Covey's concept of 'greatness' explained by YouTube Video Paul Potts

I attended a conference called "MBA in 1 day". Keynote speaker and inventor of the concept is Ben Tiggelaar, a man from The Netherlands. He claimed to have summorized at least 8 meters of management books, especially the books from contemporary management 'guru's'. The most important elements were brought together then in a conference lasting only 1 day. I will come back about the event in a later post.

At a certain moment Tiggelaar touched the thoughts and findings of management guru Stephen Covey. Based on his book 'The 8th Habit. From effectiveness to Greatness', Tiggelaar tried to explain what 'greatness' is all about.

Covey himself talked about becoming 'great' in the following way:

"To achieve greater heights each person must be challenged to find their voice - their unique personal significance and purposeful meaning - and help others to find theirs. Voice lies at the nexus of talent, passion, need and conscience. When anyone engages in work that taps into their talent and fuels their passion - that rises out of a great need in the world that they feel drawn by conscience to meet - therein lies their voice in life. The 8th Habit is all about how to find your voice and help others to find theirs."

"Once you've found your own voice, the choice to expand your influence, to increase your contribution, is the choice to inspire others to find their voice. Inspire (from the Latin inspirare) means to breathe life into another. As we recognize, respect and create ways for others to give voice to all four parts of their nature--physically, mentally, emotionally/socially, spiritually--latent human genius, creativity, passion, talent and motivation are unleashed. It will be those organizations that reach a critical mass of people and teams expressing their full voice that will achieve next-level breakthrough in productivity, innovation and leadership in the market place and society."

And then Tiggelaar illustrated the above with a video he found on YouTube. It is a videofragment taken from the UK television show 'Britain's Got Talent' where a mobile phone salesman, Paul Potts, baffles the jury and the audience with a stunning performance (look at the faces of the jury!). This man, this Paul Potts, found his voice, literally, on the stage of this show, inspired his audience, inspired the UK, and is now inspiring, via YouTube, the world. I hadn't heard about the video yet, I must have missed the news, already more than 17.000.000 people looked at the fragment on YouTube. If you haven't seen the video yet, enjoy ! (it calls for a new management book, "The business of the Voice" :-).

To Manage a Message. The 2010 Soccer World Cup. South Africa is NOT safe.

I haven't written about it yet because it felt too personal. But because of football (soccer) last weekend I decided a more personal post wouldn't hurt the Impactroom blog. The thought chain started somewhere last week when Belgium lost from Poland with a smashing o to 2. Poland qualified for the first time in its history for the European Championship. Bear in mind that the coach of Poland is actually a Dutch guy, Mr. Leo Beenhakker. Believe it or not but Mr. Beenhakker is my...neighbor (living across the Dutch border in Belgium, profiting from a friendly tax-on-wealth law in Belgium). But this is not about him. I was looking after some more info about the European Championship when I accidentally read and realized that the 2010 Soccer World Cup will be organized in South Africa. And that brought me to my brother... and this where the story starts... My brother Jan and family (wife and 2 children, 7 and 6) moved to South Africa 9 months ago. It is a non typical case of emigration in which the husband follows his wife, supporting her carrier in a multinational environment (DuPont). My brother ran a communication lab, Ad!dictlab.com in Belgium, before they left. Because of the fact Addictlabs' prime asset consists of an international database of creative minds and because his clients operate primarily transnational, he managed to keep the business alive, steering the company out of Johannesburg.

A small team of dedicated employees still operate from their exiting warehouse-design like office in Brussels. My brother is a visionary; he is an expert on 'creativity', making him more famous in Australia than in Belgium. Lately he tours the world giving speeches about industry and creativity. My brother is also a man who consistently believes in art, commercial creativity and in the intrinsic good of human mankind. I've read some newsletters about his whereabouts in SA, written by other expats, who ask themselves out loud who this Belgium man is that dares to leave the compounds and visit streets and city parts in Johannesburg where a normal expat wouldn't dare to be seen. In this so called 'dangerous' places my brother looks for and links with the local creative scenes. After 9 months in SA the stories about my brother sounded warm, colorful, exiting and caring. If he had been a priest I could have sworn he was converting SA into a better place single handedly and more importantly without him noticing it himself. Vanity trickles down from this man as oil of a salad. Until 2 weeks ago. In the sanctity of their compound, in their own house, my brother and his family, as well as his mother in law who just happened to be visiting, became victim of a hold up at gun point. 3 young black men broke into their house around midnight, after having tricked the alarm system of the compound and having passed a barbed wire defense barrier. Via the master bedroom they forced their way into the house, brutally waking up parents and children, waving guns, shouting, ordering to cooperate. All grown ups were tied down; hands tied behind their backs with shoe laces while threatened to be shot and killed if they didn't obey. They were ordered to point out all the cash in house as well as to reveal where the vault was hidden (they have no vault, and had very little cash in house). The men, an important detail, didn't carry masks, so my brother, himself an artist by education, knew he would be able to draw their faces as if pictures were taken from them. Robbers not wearing masks are the worst. Or they are professionals knowing upfront nobody will live to reveal their identity after the facts, or they are the worst kind of amateurs, most of the time operating on drugs to overcome their own fears, not realizing their own stupidity, suppressing whatever form of empathy they might know when not on drugs. After one hour of antagonizing fear the men found car keys and remote controls to open the gates of the compound from the inside out. They took all the money they could find, all the electronically equipment they could carry (6.0000 digital pictures on my brothers laptop) they took the Mercedes of my brothers wife and forced them to explain exactly how the remote and security devices worked. They left my brother and his family behind, tied down, in another bedroom that could be locked from the outside. They left the house and the compound with the Mercedes which enabled them to pass the gates of the compound without questions asked. I can assure you that time stood still when my brother called in at a family party we had in Belgium the day after the event. I can imagine that what happened to them comes close to the worst nightmare of expats in countries with a higher security risk. I don't think my brother revealed all details to us, as to protect our parents. Between the lines however I understood there had also been some rough physical contacts, although and thank-god-for-that the women in house were not violated. After the men had left my brother managed to bring his hands in front of him, and cut his ropes with a razor blade. After having freed his family he alarmed the compound. Heavy armed private security officers responded immediately. A wave of sympathy has engulfed his family since then. Security experts told them they have been very lucky.

Ironically my brother's wife is in South Africa with a DuPont team to teach their client, the biggest SA energy company, about the famous security ethics of DuPont. DuPont is known throughout the world for its achievements on the field of safety management, ethics and secure controlled processing environments. DuPont built a commercial model around these achievements and started to export their 'safety' knowledge to other companies and continents. On a more elevated political level, the impact of this incident is enormous for a country as South Africa. You might laugh with this conclusion, but the circle wherein my brother lives and works is the circle of the pioneering minds and bodies. (Where do creative hotspots invariable pop up? Exactly, the downtown area's of city towns) (What triggers exponential value in property development? Exactly, downtown area's that become populated by free spirits building small companies, re-designing their turf, I would even say 'lofting' their venues, attracting little resto's and bistro's, until real estate prices become unaffordable for this kind of inspirational city developers). In the case of the hold up at my brothers house, and because of his Addictlab.com network, thousands of these inspirational people have received 1 message, although not communicated with the purpose to hurt SA, that is not the way these creative minds work, but still, subconsciously the message sent was: South Africa is NOT safe. One sentence struck me when reading an article on the Addictlab.com forum, it stated -and this concludes my thought chain- that the South Africa of today is NOT ready to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

CEO Wisdom

"First, no one will follow you if you don't treat them with diginity and respect. No one will follow you if they do not trust you; therefore, you must be honest at all times. You must communicate the bad, as well as the good." (Errol B. Davis, Jr, CEO Alliant Energy)

"To have big success, you must have big dreams, and you must be willing to take a chance." (Summer M. Redstone, CEO Viacom)

"There was no single turning point for me in becoming a leader, but a gradual recognition that I could have an influence on the direction of an organization or a project if I stepped forward and took responsibility." (Sharon A. Smith, CEO Girl Scouts of Southeastern Pennsylvania)

CEO Wisdom

"Hard work, of course, is critical. But you have to balance that with time for your family and friends. One-dimensional people are rarely successful over the long haul." (G. Richard Thoman, President Xerox Corporation)

"Education will prepare you for anything in life, honesty is one of the primary and necessary ingredients, and a sincere love of what you're doing is the fuel that makes it all run." (Summerfield K. Johnston, Jr, CEO Coca Cola Enterprises)

"People follow people who care about what they are doing. You've got to show people you have passion. You've got to be prepared to open up and say, 'I believe this'." (Mark Harris, Country General manager, IBM South Africa)

TOM.PETERS.IS.ANGRY!!! video fragment

Tom.Peters.Is.Angry. He also just turned 65 last week.

Management Guru Tom Peters came to Antwerp, invited by the Flanders District of Creativity. More than 1.000 managers, most of them men, came to be impressed and entertained by the 65 year old Tom Peters on a Monday evening.

The slides of the presentation are to be found on his website and show the graphical equivalent of a speaker shouting outloud (because he is angry).

Tom Peters had 2 new million dollar messages for his audience:
1. The Future is in hands of Women. Hire them now!
2. The Future is in hands of people over 50. Make them your clients now!


On a less dramatic level Tom Peters gave away his 10 P's on leadership:
- Purpose
- Passion
- Potential
- Presence
- Personal
- Persistence
- Priorities
- People
- Potent
- Positive

Tom Peters' quote on business schools:
Q: What is a business school ?
TP: Putting of reality for another 2 years

Vlerick Business School - The Wall Street Journal Europe - HR Executive Round Table

My first event in the new function at The Wall Street Journal Europe. I inherited the WSJE educational platform which includes the exciting possibility to build strong relationships with top universities and business schools all over Europe. The Wall Street Journal is currently delivered to some 170 universities and business schools across Europe. As part of our Future Leadership Program I hosted a Human Resources Round Table for international MBA and master students at the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, campus Leuven. It was for the first time I experienced the strength of our brand when contacting several companies with the question to participate at the HR Round Table. Finally HR executives from 6 major companies agreed to join the event. For me it was a step back in the past because I used to study in Leuven and right on the spot where the Vlerick school was recently constructed, was in fact a famous student theater. I remember vividly how I witnessed the introduction of modern dance in Belgium, in that student theater, some 20 years ago.

Today it is a famous building again, but this time because of the Vlerick brand. What I learned from the students was that they questioned the big companies on their work-life/family balance. The 6 speakers agreed that their personal balance was not exemplary for a healthy work-life/family balance. But all companies assured that they had programs in place taking into account the desire of contemporary employees to strive for a healthy mix of work and family time. The extreme difference in amount of holidays between the European and American companies at the table caused a sigh from the international audience. Another thing I learned from the HR execs was that it was not the Vlerick brand on the student's CV that was going to favour someones candidature (extreme silence in the audience and here and there disbelief), on the contrary, most important factor was and is the student's personality.

From right to left:
Gert Van Mol, standing, for The Wall Street Journal Europe, introducing the speakers
Pierre Devillers, Electrabel-Suez, HR manager Belgium-Luxembourg
Flor Boeckx, Dupont, HR Manager Belgium - The Netherlands
Romain Verdurmen, 3M, HR, Legal Affairs & Facilities Manager
Avinash Chandarana, MCI, Director of Talent and Development
Robin Koopmans, Borealis, HR Area Manager
Philippe De Bock, Telenet NV, HR Talent Management and Recruitment
(Picture: ©Mary Roll, Vlerick)

Milan, Monocle & le Meridien

Milan. Normally I have no problem sleeping in a 3 star hotel. Unless, they shut down the internet at 11PM, while you arrive at 10.30PM. The concierge suggested me to go to an internet cafe around the corner, at the square in front of the central train station. The internet shop has been closed for months as proven by the graffiti covering too many walls, doors and windows (It reminds me of the Broken Windows theory of the criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling). I know now (after having joined a 5 star hotel congress in Rome earlier this week) that the only place were one can find an internet connection at night must be a 5 star hotel. I end up hiding in the deserted lobby of Le Meridien Gallia, strategically seated in a dark corner, half way behind a green leaf lobby plant. At 3 am a night guard asks me to leave the hotel. I had just been able to send my report to my boss and colleagues in Brussels. Mission accomplished. I walk back to my 3 Star hotel to catch a few hours of sleep.

Newsstand on Square before Milan Train Station. The team of Monocle really did a good job in branding their relatively new magazine (see posters around the newsstand, portraying a women reading a newspaper on the cover -not the WSJE unfortunately!!-). I guess Monocle works with country managers to help them grow the business in clearly defined markets (Milan being a fashion centre seems the right place to have a local country manager). As a matter of comparison, The Wall Street Journal Europe abandoned their network of country managers a few years ago in a cost cutting round by then CEO Rien Van Lent.

Self Managing your Game. Geocaching.com

An exciting discovery. While walking in the Ardens, visiting the "cailloux de Mousny" ("stones of Mousny"), we stumbled upon a white plastic cylinder. Although the cap of the cylinder indicated at first sight it was a marijuana stash, it turned out to be something completely different. It was a treasure! A real treasure!
In the cylinder we found a diary, an explanatory letter in 4 languages, and a bag of toys.
(pictures line 1 from left to right: "Stones of Mousny, a small local attraction", "content of the treasure", "hidden cylinder between the rocks")
We learned that the treasure was part of a worldwide GPS/Internet-game. Worldwide more than 450.000 "caches" or treasures are hidden. All of them registered at geocaching.com. Typically people will look for a treasure on their holidays and check on the site if a cash is hidden on their way (structured by country by postcode). If interested in a "cash" in a certain area, the site will provide the GPS coordinates of the treasure. Armed with a travellers GPS, site-members set out to find the hidden gem where the GPS will lead them. When the treasure is found the dairy is completed and one takes out a toy, to replace it with another toy. Some toys however are more than just toys. Some site-members have bought geocaching branded coins and "traveller bugs".

These coins and bugs are registered on the site and have been given an extra goal in life. We were lucky to find such a collectors coin in our treasure in the Ardens. Imagine the excitement of the children when they realised they could choose the heavy qualitative coin to take out of the treasure. There was a label attached to the beautiful coin. The label stated a reference number and a wish from the founder of the coin. Not living in Europe the founder wrote on the label he had difficulties collecting all Euro coins. Via his geocaching travel bug he hoped that people finding his bug/coin would help him with his collection. He brought his coin in the game in 2005! The coin travelled already more than 3.000 miles.

I didn't know such a marvelous application of Internet and GPS existed. During the weekend we actually met a team looking for the treasure. Normally treasures are well hidden, people not taking part in the game are not supposed to find such a treasure by accident.
(second line pictures from left to right: "teams looking for the treasures leave a pre-designed label in the diary when the treasures are found", "explanatory letter", "last entree in the diary before we found the treasure by accident, indicating a site-member left a much sought after geocoin - or traveller bug in the toybag of the treasure", "the geocoin in the treasure bag".)