Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2022 i The European Business Review

Q It’s a great honour to meet you, Ms Prins. Thank you for your time. Could we begin with what drives you as a CEO? A What gets me up in the morning is my belief that we can still make a positive change to this world. I believe that this can be done with vision, collaboration and setting the right priorities at every level in society, and as individuals, communities, cities, industries and governments. In the end, I feel that it is optimism that makes the difference. The satisfaction and joy of being able to transform, together with my colleagues, customers and business partners, by planting the seeds of the new, and realise the resulting changes. And, of course, this goes hand in hand with challenges and frustration. What…

VidaXL was founded in 2006 and since then the business took off remarkably well. The brand is popular for its eclectic and affordable selection of home and garden furniture, toys, sporting goods, and baby products, among other items. Proudly based in Venlo, in the south of the Netherlands, today vidaXL, and its dropshipping platform, dropshippingXL, operates in 32 countries across the globe, including the US, the UK, and Australia. LIVE IT UP, FOR LESS Enjoy more, without spending a fortune. The concept behind vidaXL is to provide online shoppers with the biggest assortment of items at the best possible price. Customers of the brand love the amazing value for money they get on trending and fashionable products. Buyers can style their first flat, enjoy a new outdoor sport, refurbish their…

Christoph Burger is an affiliate senior lecturer at ESMT Berlin. He joined ESMT in 2003 and worked before in industry at Otto Versand, as vice president at Bertelsmann Buch AG, in consulting practice at Arthur D. Little, and as an independent consultant focusing on private equity financing of SMEs. His research focus is on innovation/blockchain and energy markets. Burger studied business administration at the University of Saarbrücken (Germany), the Hochschule St. Gallen (Switzerland), and economics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (US). Edward W. Boon works for Promote International as consultant and lead facilitator of the Brinkerhoff Certification for High Performance Learning Journeys program. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, he has nearly 20 years’ experience designing, developing, and delivering soft skills training to international clients. Edward is co-author of Improving…

Stephen K. Klasko, MD, is Executive in Residence with General Catalyst, Distinguished Fellow for the Digital Economy at the World Economic Forum, and Global Innovation Ambassador for Sheba Medical Center, Israel; and he served as dean of two medical schools and as president of Thomas Jefferson University and CEO of Jefferson Health from 2013 to 2021. Michael Useem is Faculty Director of the Leadership Center and McNulty Leadership Program of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; and he is author of Investor Capitalism, The Leadership Moment, The Edge: How Ten CEOs Learned to Lead , and The Leader’s Checklist . He offers MBA courses and programs on leadership and governance.…

The Cambridge Spy Ring passed information to the Soviet Union during the Second World War and was active in the UK from the 1930s until at least the early 1950s. None of the known members was ever prosecuted for spying. The number and membership of the ring emerged slowly from the 1950s onwards. The public first became aware of the conspiracy after the sudden flight of Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess to the Soviet Union in 1951. Suspicion immediately fell on Harold “Kim” Philby, who eventually fled the country in 1963. Following Philby's flight, British intelligence obtained confessions from Anthony Blunt and, much later, John Cairncross, who have come to be seen as the last two of the group of five. The term “Cambridge” refers to the recruitment of the…

Dr Hongqin Li is Dean's Research Fellow at Nottingham University Business School. Previously she was a Research Fellow at Aston Business School and a lecturer at Portsmouth Business school. Her research focuses on leadership, reputation, identity, and elite interviews. William S. Harvey is Professor of Leadership at the University of Bristol. He is an International Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Corporate Reputation and Chair of the Board of Libraries Unlimited, which is a charity that represents 54 public libraries across the UK. Jonathan V. Beaverstock is Professor of International Management at the University of Bristol. He has published widely on global talent mobility, financial services clustering and the competitiveness of the City of London, and world city networks. Jonathan is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences…

• Horizontal dataspace, MELLODDY, aims to enhance predictive Machine Learning models on decentralised data of 10 pharmaceutical companies, without exposing proprietary information. MELLODDY aims to create new ways of working that can reduce the current average time and cost of 13 years and €1.9 million of investment to bring any new drug to market.5 • Mobility in Harmony is a vertical dataspace launched by Foxconn in 2020 which brings together more than 2,000 members in over 60 countries in its MIH Open EV Platform with the ambition to significantly reduce time to market for electric vehicle design and production. The Platform comprises key technologies and reference designs and standards to build connections between members resulting in a lower barrier to entry, shorter development cycles and more innovation.6 • Catena-X is…

Dr. Öykü Işık, Professor of Digital Strategy and Cybersecurity, is an expert on digital resilience and the ways in which disruptive technologies challenge our society and organizations. Named on the Thinkers50 Radar 2022 list of up-and-coming global thought leaders, she helps businesses to tackle cybersecurity, data privacy, and digital ethics challenges, and enables CEOs and other executives to understand these issues, which she believes are too important to be left to technical specialists alone. Dr. Tawfik Jelassi is Professor of Strategy and Technology Management at IMD. He has been since 2016 Co-Director of the Orchestrating Winning Performance (OWP) program in Lausanne and Singapore/Dubai, which is IMD’s largest executive education program with over 600 participants enrolled per year. His major research, teaching and consulting interests are in the areas of digital…

Oleksii Tsymbal, Chief Innovation Officer at MobiDev. We run a software engineering company with offices in the US, Ukraine and Poland. I’m a part of the business team and in charge of marketing and innovative technologies. I lived in Kharkiv, a great city that today is under Russian attack. So had to move to safety along with our Kharkiv office. Today I’m working in Chernivtsi, missing my native city and recently renovated apartment. But most of all I miss my family as I had to send them abroad, and my parents who refused to leave Kharkiv.…

Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi, Ph.D. (Econ.), is a Senior Advisor, a former Managing Director at Accenture, he is based in Boston Olga Nissen, Ph.D. (Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics), Director of Center for Data-Driven Management at Skolkovo Business School, Moscow, a former Partner at McKinsey Digital and Accenture’s Head of European technology M&A and Private Equity practice, she is based in Copenhagen Alexandra Oborina, D.Sc. (Elect. Engineering), MBA, PwC’s lead of Intelligent Procurement, and a former strategy senior consultant at Danske Bank and Accenture, she is based in Helsinki…

Richard S. Hawkes is the author of NAVIGATE THE SWIRL: 7 Crucial Conversations for Business Transformation, published by Wiley. He is the CEO and Founder of Growth River, an international consultancy with offices in the United States and Germany that guides leaders and teams to create higher performance in businesses and organizations. Clients include Edward Jones, GENEWIZ, Hitachi, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Mars. Hawkes received a B.A. in Computer Science and German Literature from Hamilton College and an M.B.A. in Marketing and Organizational Development from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For more information, visit: www.growthriver.com…

Priva is a high-tech company that develops hardware, software and data-services in the field of climate control, energy saving and optimal reuse of water. With almost 500 colleagues, 16 local offices in 13 countries and over 450 international installation partners Priva delivers sustainable solutions and services in more than 100 countries. With its activities in Horticulture, Building Automation and Indoor Growing, Priva wants to contribute to the cities of the future: where people can enjoy a healthy working and living environment and have access to safe and nutritious food.…

2006 The company is founded 2008 Launch of the first online shop, www.koopgoedkoop.nl 2012 The opening of vidaXL's distribution centre and offices in Venray, the Netherlands 2013 The launch of vidaXL's own-brand products 2015 Expanding the selling market to over 30 countries worldwide 2017 The "vidaXL dropshipping" program is launched. In the same year, the biggest distribution centre in the Netherlands was built by vidaXL 2018 Headquarters and distribution centre relocate to the Dutch city of Venlo 2019 vidaXL started manufacturing its own products 2020 vidaXL becomes the official shirt sponsor of the Dutch premier league football club, VVV Venlo 2021 "dropshippingXL" replaces "vidaXL dropshipping." A new warehouse is opened in Poland.…

https://executive-education.essec.edu/en/program/embas-en/essec-mannheim-emba-modular-track/New approaches to corporate learning can be found at ESSEC Executive Education, through its ESSECExecutive MBA , the ESSEC and Mannheim EMBA programme, the Global MBA, the MSc in HospitalityManagement , and the EMiLUX (Executive Master in Luxury Management & Design Innovation) programmes. These programmes demonstrate a humanist and socially aware educational philosophy, while also training students for entrepreneurial projects and goals. For over a century, ESSEC has been developing a state-of-the-art education programme that gives the individual pride of place in a learning model that promotes freedom, openness, innovation, and responsibility. Preparing future managers to reconcile personal interests with collective responsibility, giving consideration to the common good in their decision-making, and weighing economic challenges against the social costs are some of the objectives ESSEC has set for itself and…

“At our next meeting, he [Gordievsky’s previous case officer] introduced me to my new mentor, Jack, who was brilliant, the best minder I had ever had. Young…, and besides being highly intelligent had all the warmth of a true family man. He was a first-class intelligence officer, but also truly kind, full of emotion and sensitivity, honest both professionally and in his principles. As the expression goes in Russian, he had a fine structure of soul…. “Joan was older, about 55, with ash-blonde hair, and a face that seemed to embody all the traditional British qualities of decency and honour. Over the next few years, another wonderful confidante. Not the least of her virtues was her skill as a listener.” (Gordievsky 1995) These are the kind of relationships every handler…

Svenja Falk is Managing Director and leads Accenture Research Europe. She also is deputy chairwoman on the Council on Digital Sovereignty in Germany and honorary professor at the Justus Liebig University Giessen. Surya Mukherjee is a Senior Principal at Accenture and Head of Technology Research in Europe who explores the transformative impact of technologies on industries, companies, and brands. Laura Wright is a Research Manager and leads Europe Thought Leadership at Accenture Research.…

Gilles Paché is Professor of Marketing and Supply Chain Management at Aix-Marseille University, and Director of Research at the CERGAM laboratory, in Aix-en-Provence, France. He has more than 500 publications in the forms of journal papers, books, edited books, edited proceedings, edited special issues, book chapters, conference papers and reports, including the recent two books La distribution: organisation et stratégie (2020) and La société malade de la Covid-19: regards logistiques croisés (2021).…

It’s common for leaders and change-management experts to talk about organizations as if they were machines or computers. Machines have parts, which either work or break down, in which case they need to be repaired or replaced. Sometimes, they need tune-ups, new engines, or software updates. It’s a convenient metaphor, pleasingly concrete. There’s just one problem: actual organizations don’t work like machines. Businesses are not body shops. And people don’t respond well to being treated like parts that either function well or are deficient. If you think simply replacing all your dysfunctional parts or installing the latest trendy management theory like a software update is the answer to building a high performing organization, you will be in for a long, difficult journey. One of the central shortcomings of the mechanistic…

Meiny Prins is CEO and co-owner of Priva. She is dedicated to promoting business sustainability and the international development of sustainable solutions in the horticultural and construction sectors. She is a recognized reference in this field. With her clear and inspiring message on sustainability, she is able to bridge the gap between businesses, governments and other sectors of society. In 2014, Meiny Prins created the “Sustainable Urban Delta” initiative. This initiative is based on the intrinsic quality of people who know how to deal with problems in an integral way. By adopting an integral perspective, it is clear that the close relations between the city and the "green belt" will create new relations at a social, ecological and economic level. This will ensure social cohesion, an ecological environment, job opportunities…

A TYPICAL STORY Jane is a manager at a large telecom company. Three months ago, she was promoted to head up a regional service center. As part of her development plan to take on this more challenging role, her manager has enrolled her in the organization’s mid-level manager training program. Jane is a believer in personal development, so she is pleased that she will be provided with training. Her motivation is high, but it’s unclear to her exactly how this training will support her new role; perhaps that will become clear later, she thinks. Jane attends the training program and thoroughly enjoys it; the faculty is both entertaining and inspirational. She learns a lot. Back at work, though, her new role is consuming a lot of time and energy. Jane…

Acknowledging that there can be “a fine line between crazy and visionary,” if “you are willing to be called crazy,” he told himself, “people will call you a visionary once you are successful.”Stephen K. Klasko The search committee for a new chief executive of the Jefferson health system in 2013 had narrowed the field to three candidates. Each qualified, all respected, the recruitment ought not go wrong whoever the finalist. Yet as an afterthought, the search committee retrieved an unlikely CV for an outlier named Stephen Klasko, an obstetrician-gynecologist serving as dean of a Florida medical school – and co-author of this article. Like the frontrunners, he came with many of the givens for running a healthcare enterprise, including thinking strategically, communicating persuasively, and acting decisively. Solid though not standing…

Fabrice Thomas has been Vice-President of Global Supply Chain in various industries (Transport, Robotics and Healthcare) for the past 15 years, where he design and lead the execution of Digital Transformation Strategies in Supply Chain, leveraging on Adaptative Operating Model and Digital technologies principles. He is based in Singapore, where he lead a Global Supply Chain organisation. He hold a Master from EM Lyon, a MBA from HEC and several certifications from Columbia University. Hervé Legenvre is Professor and Research Director at EIPM. He manages educational programmes for global clients. He conducts research and teaches on digitalisation, innovation, and supply chain. Lately Hervé has conducted extensive research on how open-source software and open hardware are transforming industry foundations.…

Every company’s strategy aims to grow revenue, profit, and market capitalization. When global economy was accelerating, these ambitions were feasible. However, COVID-19 urged companies to re-think their strategic priorities and to take immediate actions to keep promises. We analyzed 1,963 public companies in Nordics (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) through their top line, profitability, and market capitalization over 2016-2020. Nordic countries, characterized by export driven economies, were following a global economy trend with a GDP growth rate of 2% in 2016-2019 and 2.1% GDP drop in 2020.…