THE ACADEMY OF BUSINESS STRATEGY - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

TEDDY LANDRY (SGP) MEng BS
SENIOR GLOBAL PARTNER (SGP)

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: Fort Worth (United States of America)
HISTORY
Fort Worth’s economic history is tied to 3 major industries – cattle, oil and aviation. Fort Worth’s slogan, where the West begins, derived from an Army post established here at what was that time the start of the West Texas frontier. In the late 1800’s Fort Worth was a favorite stopping place on the Chisholm Trail as cattle were driven to the Northern railheads. The cattle business became the first dominant driver of economic development as several meat packing plants were established and Fort Worth became a meat packing center of the Southwest, earning the city its nickname, Cowtown. The second major industry developed in the first part of the twentieth century, with the discovery of rich oil and gas fields just west of Fort Worth. The city served as a base of operations for exploration companies, and refineries were built in Fort Worth to process the crude oil. World War I provided the initial sparks for development of Fort Worth’s aviation industry. In the early stages of WWI. Canada built 3 air fields around Fort Worth to take advantage of the warmer weather which allowed year round training for their pilots. When the United States entered the war, the United States took over the fields, thus setting the stage for the growth of aviation as part of Fort Worth’s economy. During World War II, additional air bases and an aircraft manufacturing plant with a mile-long assembly line were built. Consolidated-Vultee operated the aircraft plant during the war, and this plant produced more than 3,000 B-24 Liberator bombers with a peak employment of 32,000. The facility would change hands over the years to various defense contractors – Convair, General Dynamics and, currently, Lockheed. After World War II, Fort Worth’s aviation industry grew rapidly. Local companies such as Bell Helicopter and American Airlines combined with companies in nearby Dallas such as Vought and Braniff to form a major aviation center. These companies provided a large customer base for many smaller companies who produced parts, tooling and related services for the aviation industry.

CURRENT POSITION
Fort Worth ranks as the 16th most populous city in the United States with a population of over 745,000. It has been recognized as one of America’s Most Livable Communities of the decade. The city embraces and maintains its rich Western heritage, and its pioneer spirit. Fort Worth is part of the Dallas Fort Worth metropolitan area which has over 6,526,000 residents and ranks as the 4th largest metropolitan area in the US, and it is the largest metropolitan area in the South. The Dallas Fort Worth area has grown by about 1 million people since the last census in 2000. Fort Worth’s economy continues to support vibrant activity in its traditional industries of oil and gas, and aviation. In fact, Fort Worth is situated over large portions of the Barnett Shale and gas exploration has provided a new source of growth in the energy sector over the last few years. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics is designing and building the F-35, known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), which is the largest current weapon system development program. This is a unique program in that the countries of the United Kingdom, Italy, The Netherlands, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Australia and Turkey have formally joined the US in the development phase. The city’s economy has diversified greatly, and now includes substantial employment in transportation, healthcare, construction, technology and manufacturing. Fort Worth is home to a number of major corporations including D. R. Horton, Pier 1 Imports, Radio Shack, Alcon (a subsidiary of Novartis), TTI, BNSF Railroad, Justin Boots, Acme Brick, AMR Corporation (American Airlines and American Eagle) and Cash America International. General Electric recently built a new locomotive manufacturing plant in Fort Worth, and is ramping up production. The City of Fort Worth formed an public/private joint venture and opened Alliance Airport in 1989 for industrial and general aviation use only – no commercial airline service. It is a Free Trade Zone and has grown into a major transportation hub with nine 3PL companies operating on-site. Major tenants include BNSF Railway, Bell Helicopter, Drug Enforcement Administration, DynCorp International and FedEx Express. Fort Worth continues to rank as one of the fastest growing cities in the US. While many states in the North and East have experienced a net decrease in population from inter-state migration, Texas, and Fort Worth, have enjoyed a net increase. This trend is continuing as the country recovers from the recent recession. The warm climate, low cost of living, low taxes, low unemployment and a business environment favorable for business growth make Fort Worth and Texas a destination for people and new business.

FUTURE OUTLOOK
The overall outlook for Fort Worth is a continuation of recent trends and economic growth at a faster pace than most of the country. All of the underlying drivers that have fostered growth and diversification over the last decade remain in place – low cost housing, available labor, low taxes and warm weather. Pro-business leadership at the city and state levels is very secure and is expected to maintain the tax, labor and regulatory policies that have contributed to growth in both Fort Worth and Texas. While the recession has dampened economic activity, Fort Worth and Texas continue to be affected less than other parts of the country as evidenced by lower unemployment numbers, continued population growth, and increasing activity in the housing sector. Fort Worth is expected to continue seeing relatively high levels of population growth as people migrate to Texas. Fort Worth continues to be a center for oil and gas businesses, both in exploration as well as related services. The growing use of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling technology will drive continued growth in the energy industry as well, though debate continues on the environmental safety of these techniques. These new drilling technologies are driving a renewed interest in both oil and gas, and, in fact, recent drilling permits in Texas for oil exceed those for gas. The aviation industry is also expected to continue growing. Lockheed Martin’s JSF Program (F-35) is still in the low rate initial production phase and has many years of production ahead of it. Bell Helicopter’s V-22 Osprey aircraft is operational and the company continues to bring new products to market and also expects future growth. Both Lockheed and Bell have focused their operations more on development, test and assembly, as they increasingly rely on suppliers for component manufacturing. Continued growth at the two airframe manufacturers will drive a stream of work for local suppliers. American Airlines’ merger with US Air will make for a stronger airline and the largest airline in the world. American’s vast flight schedule in and out of the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport will also continue to drive the need for maintenance, repair and overall parts and services, thus, adding growth to the local aviation industry. Alliance Airport provides infrastructure and available capacity to support continued growth in transportation to Fort Worth, though growth may be slowed somewhat in the near term by the overall slow US recovery. As the economy grows, Alliance Airport is expected to increase its role as a transportation hub and business center. Fort Worth will also benefit economically from continued advancements in university level education. Texas Christian University (TCU) continues to grow with respect to enrolment and programs, and many of its programs are gaining in recognition at the national level, notably the Neeley School of Business. Texas A and M University recently acquired the law school at Texas Wesleyan University and will expand that program and attract new talent. Also, the University of North Texas Health Science Center continues to grow and expand. This graduate level facility already includes programs in osteopathic medicine, biomedical sciences, and pharmacy. It also houses research centers and institutes in a number of therapeutic areas which support a strong medical ecosystem in Fort Worth.

PERSONAL DETAILS:
Teddy Landry
Global Partner status (Associate – Executive – Senior): Senior
Country of registration: United States of America
City of registration: Fort Worth

SERVICE SKILLS:
Product Development
Supply Chain
Manufacturing Strategy
Manufacturing Operations
Aftermarket Services
IT Strategy and Planning
IT Governance and Value Management
Business Process Improvement
Project Management

INDUSTRY SECTOR EXPERIENCE:
Industrial Manufacturing
Aerospace and Defense
Automotive
High Tech
IT Services

QUALIFICATIONS AND EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT:
Masters of Engineering – Texas A and M University
BS – Texas A and M University

CLIENTS OR EMPLOYERS:
Ernst and Young
A.T. Kearney
HP
Deloitte Consulting
Lockheed Martin

LANGUAGES
English

PERSONAL PROFILE:
Mr. Landry has developed and utilized an effective blend of skills and knowledge in the critical areas of engineering, business and information technology. Mr. Landry earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics and a Masters of Engineering in Industrial Engineering / Operations Research. Both of these degrees were awarded from Texas A and M University in College Station, Texas. Mr. Landry augmented the technical requirements of these degrees with business classes including accounting, cost accounting and finance, as well as classes in information technology. Upon leaving Texas A and M, Mr. Landry began his professional life working for General Dynamics in Fort Worth, Texas, which is now Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. Mr. Landry’s role was to reduce manufacturing costs through the application principles of group technology and cellular manufacturing to machining, sheet metal and electric harness fabrication. This effort was part of a unique program between General Dynamics and the United States Air Force (USAF) called Technology Modernization. This Program was designed to provide incentives for USAF contractors to reduce costs by sharing both the costs and the savings from manufacturing operations improvements. The Program was very successful and the USAF and the Department of Defense (DoD) decided to expand the Program to both prime contractors and subcontractors. Mr. Landry left General Dynamics to work for Theodore Barry and Associates, a management consulting firm, where he provided consulting services to over 20 defense contractors in their Technology Modernization programs. These clients included large prime contractors as well as a wide variety of smaller subcontractors. Mr. Landry’s role was to analyze manufacturing operations, identify cost reduction opportunities, document the improvement opportunities, and develop a business case to secure DoD funding and associated business contracts. While working for Ernst and Young, Mr. Landry began to provide consulting services in product development and information systems. Mr. Landry addressed opportunities for overall business improvement through improved integration between product development and manufacturing, and he began to work with manufacturing clients in the A and D and industrial sectors to better integrate manufacturing and engineering during the product development process to reduce costs and cycle time. Mr. Landry also achieved certification in SAP. Mr. Landry used this detailed knowledge of how SAP works to help companies achieve greater business value from their ERP investments by helping supply chain and manufacturing people communicate better with IT analysts who implemented ERP. Over time Mr. Landry developed a niche capability of working with business and technology people to stream-line business processes, improve cultural change and design ERP solutions that drive business value. Eventually, Mr. Landry led several ERP (SAP, Oracle, QAD) implementation projects with a focus on effectively using ERP to drive tangible business value. While working for A.T. Kearney, Mr. Landry led IT-enabled business transformation programs at large A and D manufacturing companies in the areas of product development, manufacturing and aftermarket services. In these roles, Mr. Landry worked with his clients to design and implement high value business process changes enabled by ERP and other IT systems. These programs resulted in significant reductions in both cost and cycle time for product development and manufacturing. During these large-scale business transformation programs, Mr. Landry began to help clients effectively position themselves for a new aftermarket approach called power-based logistics (PBL). PBL is an operational concept whereby a prime contractor provides a defined scope of product support services at a fixed cost while guaranteeing a defined service level such as overall system availability, and it requires a distinctly different approach. Mr. Landry had the opportunity to work with a number of companies to transition their current aftermarket operations for success in PBL contracts. Mr. Landry’s experience in manufacturing, supply chain, product development and ERP proved to be a valuable knowledge base for this work. Mr. Landry’s experience at Deloitte Consulting provided him the opportunity to spend time on helping clients realize greater value from their ERP investments. Mr. Landry helped clients to define their expected value and prepare business cases, and he also worked with clients after implementation to accelerate benefit realization. Mr. Landry brings this knowledge and experience with him to the Academy of Business Strategy to help clients create tangible business value through strategy, operational improvements and effective use of information technology.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
Fort Worth – United States of America
Houston – United States of America
San Diego – United States of America
Atlanta – United States of America
Chicago – United States of America

Global Partner preferred location
City: Fort Worth
Country: United States of America

CONTACT
To contact Teddy Landry (SGP), please forward an email to the Academy of Business Strategy.

THE ACADEMY OF BUSINESS STRATEGY - CHINA

FRANK CHEANG (EGP) MBA MSc BASc
EXECUTIVE GLOBAL PARTNER (EGP)

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: Hong Kong (China)
HISTORY
In Asia, Hong Kong is the best structure for conducting business, especially for mainland China. Hong Kong is an unlimited port that does not apply any customs tariff and has minimal excise duties. Its effective rule of law and admiration for property rights make it a strategic location for U.S. firms, particularly small and medium-sized companies, interested to do business in Asia. Hong Kong’s enterprises enjoy direct relationships to mainland China and other parts of Asia. According to Hong Kong Government statistics, there are 1,328 subsidiaries of U.S. parent organizations in Hong Kong, making the United States the largest source of subsidiaries in Hong Kong. Basically, Osaka was the development of commercial centers, and one of its most interesting aspects is the success of the trading class in the social hierarchy. As proof of the impressive development of Japanese industry and its growing self-sufficiency, a large number of well known and international foreign companies have been forced to stop operating in Japan. Recently, the Japanese have the capacity to provide for themselves what until a few years ago they were obliged to import from overseas. Japan has well exceeded the achievement of becoming suppliers of their own desires. In certain industries, the Japanese are exporting in large volume and at a lower cost than other nations can manufacture them, particular things which until a few years ago Japan was forced to purchase abroad at a high cost. Furthermore, Japan’s effective capacity in shipbuilding is clear evidence of this.

CURRENT POSITION
Hong Kong provides as a pilot marketplace to appeal to foreign investment to the U.S. By Executive Order of the President, SelectUSA was formed in 2011 as a government-wide solution to promote foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States to generate jobs, encourage economic development, and stimulate American competitiveness. SelectUSA collaborates in partnership with state, regional, and local economic development institutions to encourage FDI into the U.S. and collaborates on behalf of the whole country, implementing strict geographic neutrality. SelectUSA has selected 10 pilot marketplaces, including Hong Kong, to implement the program in 2012. With the territory’s unique position as a commercial and financial hub, more than 60 percent of mainland China’s overseas investment flows through Hong Kong. The tankan report, an essential standard for Bank of Japan policymakers, emphasizes the belief that Japan’s economy is slowly reviving from last year’s recession and going towards a medium sized recovery fueled partly by an increase in global demand. Moreover, the report reassured corporations that prices of their goods and services were reducing less than they were three months ago, while a comparison of opinions on sales price moves enhanced for both manufacturers and non-manufacturers. Large corporations intend to reduce capital investment by 2.0 percent in the current fiscal year, the tankan demonstrated, proposing that the positive mood needs to be sustained longer before firms are convinced to increase spending. Analysts believe the world’s third-largest economy to have increased 1.0 percent in the year that recently ended in March, and to grow 2.2 percent in the current fiscal year.

FUTURE OUTLOOK
The existence of wealthy Chinese mainlanders purchasing real estate in Hong Kong has fueled property prices to unbelievable amounts. For rich Chinese mainlanders, Hong Kong real estate is viewed as a safer long-term investment than China’s still to some degree risky housing market and unpredictable stock market. A seriously limited land supply combined with the fact that a powerful real estate oligarchy controls the market for new development means that prices will most likely remain high preventing another economic crisis. The way of urban development in mainland Chinese cities is influenced to a great degree by Hong Kong. Until now instead of powerful organizations, State-Owned Enterprises (SOE), large government owned entities, control urban development related deals. China’s land auctioning system is certainly not without fault, with well-documented situations of corrupt land seizures and the unfair advantages government backed SOEs possess in the bidding process over private developers. Although with nearly no property taxes in mainland cities, land sales continue to be the main source of revenues for local governments to support infrastructure development. There is increasing fact that indicates China intends to shift the direction of its development model in the coming years by consolidating and privatizing its SOEs. Already, Hong Kong real estate developers are active in the mainland property market with Chinese firms keen to learn from their expertise. The comfortable partnership between Hong Kong developers and mainland SOEs is a reason for concern by Hong Kong citizens, as they view their local developers as more eager in appeasing Beijing authorities than providing affordable housing for its own citizens. According to the recently appointed central bank governor, Japan’s economy has neutralized and should demonstrate signs of recovery by midyear, as weaker-than-expected retail sales for February emphasized the challenge he faces in regaining consumer confidence. He quoted, “with regard to the outlook, the increase in Japan’s economy is expected to become more evident around mid-2013.” However, statistics from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry demonstrated retail sales decreasing 2.3 percent from a year prior in February, worse than the 1.2 percent fall predicted by many analysts. Sales increased 1.6 percent from the month before. By raising inflation, Japan’s policymakers hope to convince consumers to spend more at the present time in expectation of price rises in the future. According to the head of the Japan Research Institute and a member of a government economic advisory council, that could prove to be a discouraging challenge given a decrease in real wages over the past two decades and a weak job market. Based on the Bank of Japan Chief’s assessment, prices are unexpected to increase for the next few months although following that Japan would see some progress toward its inflation objective as the economy moves toward a “moderate recovery path.” The central bank asset purchases and other strategies accepted at this particular time have been insufficient to achieve the inflation objective restating his determination to manage market anticipations and “make clear that we have adopted the uncompromising stance that we will do whatever is necessary to overcome deflation.”

PERSONAL DETAILS:
Frank Cheang
Global Partner status (Associate – Executive – Senior): Executive
Country of registration: China
City of registration: Hong Kong

SERVICE SKILLS:
Education management
Corporate skills management
Human resource management
Project management
Hospitality management

INDUSTRY SECTOR EXPERIENCE:
Automotive manufacturers
Academic institutions – education
Electronics manufacturers
Casualty insurance
Life insurance
Restaurant industry
Wholesale and retail food

QUALIFICATIONS AND EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT:
MBA – Swiss Management Center University
MSc – The University of Liverpool
BASc – Peru State College in Nebraska

CLIENTS OR EMPLOYERS:
Kwansei Gakuin University
Kobe City University of Foreign Studies
SEICO
Akashi-Kikai Industry Co Ltd
Daihatsu
Daikin Industries Ltd
Toyota Motor Corporation
All Nippon Airways
INTERAC
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

LANGUAGES
English
Cantonese

PERSONAL PROFILE:
At the family owned and operated House of Cheung Restaurant, I started developing effective communication with patrons. I earned personal tips as a server which was a measurement of my performance. My responsibilities soon expanded to catering manager for large parties ranging from fifty to three hundred people. In catering to a large group of customers, I constantly built on self-management and interpersonal skills learned on the job. With minimal training, I was self-taught to manage inventory and expenses. The individual service, people skills, and managerial duties came naturally to me. In the transition from House of Cheung Restaurant to Sun Life of Canada, I applied my interpersonal skills to earn the trust of handling clients’ liquid assets. I was immediately exposed to and became familiar with the legal contracts required in life insurance portfolio management. During my experience at Sun Life of Canada, there were no web based presentation software or Internet access to assist daily sales activities. I self-managed how to monitor appointment-to-call conversion ratios, set daily goals, and conduct ethical behavior principles. Field life underwriting representatives required extensive training and knowledge in assessing life risks particularly the pre-qualifying of prospective applicants. To lower the possibility of cancellation by prudent decisions, I developed skills in assessing debt-to-income ratio and client needs analysis. Early success in field underwriting with life insurance products presented me the opportunity to acquire a mutual funds license endorsed by Spectrum Investments of Sun Life of Canada Group. As a licensed mutual funds agent, I applied the needs analysis approach to prospective candidates. The process involved considerably more prospect meetings in handling rejections and extended decision making time due to large liquid asset portfolios. Building on performance success as a field life underwriter and mutual funds agent, my duties expanded to Assistant Trainer of new recruits. The goal was to mentally prepare newly licensed field underwriters the importance of daily sales activities in order to meet and exceed weekly or monthly sales objectives. The next transition was to begin a teaching career in Japan. The teaching contracts were focused on corporate clients such as the well known conglomerate Mitsubishi. With my solid background at Sun Life and Spectrum, I established good credibility early and developed experience quickly. Teaching through various corporate contracts was the key to my development and building on experiences. Then I returned to the insurance industry in 2004 to acquire the Registered Insurance Brokers of Ontario (RIBO) insurance license. RIBO issues two levels of licenses. I obtained the Level I license which allows brokers to provide insurance services under the supervision of a Principal broker with a Level II license. The RIBO license requires ongoing education in the areas of Management, Technical, and Personal Skills. As a RIBO licensed broker, I specialized in commercial risks and serviced personal risks. Regarding commercial risk, a common example was only insuring the business operation of a local storeowner or including coverage for the building. Daily personal risks were insuring a car or a home. Seasonal risks included a cottage, a boat, a motorcycle, or a snowmobile. During my time at Trigon Insurance Brokers Ltd, I participated in the following twelve training programs: Fastrax Online Browser, Pilot Insurance Company – August 1, 2006. This training concentrated on an Internet based management tool for efficient quotations on commercial property. RIBO credited 1.5 hours to Personal Skills training. Errors and Omissions Loss Control, IBAO – May 16, 2006. This intensive course focused on the liability of brokers’ professional competence and business strategy. RIBO credited six hours to Management training. Commercially Speaking, IBAO – May 11, 2006. This intensive course focused on marketing, communication, and business strategy. RIBO credited three hours to Personal Skills and three hours to Management training. Commercial General Liability (CGL) Loss Control, ING – November 30, 2005. This training reviewed the essential principles in CGL. RIBO credited two hours to Technical training. Portal Training, the Dominion of Canada – November 2005. This training provided instructions on efficient use of the Internet based management tool. RIBO credited 1.5 hours to Personal Skills training. CGL, Aviva Insurance Company of Canada – November 4, 2005. This intensive course focused on essential communication in CGL. RIBO credited three hours to Technical training. Regional Broker Meeting, Pilot Insurance Company – April 29, 2005. This meeting reviewed the communication of general insurance products and business strategy. RIBO credited 2.5 hours to Technical and one hour to Management training. RCT EvaluRater, Marshall and Swift/Boekh – November 23, 2004. This seminar provided skilled functions to efficiently and accurately calculate a quotation. RIBO credited two hours to Technical training. TravelWell, Can Am Insurance – November 23, 2004. This workshop focused on the necessary principles of travel insurance. RIBO credited one hour to Technical training. MVS Commercial, the Economical Insurance Group – November 8, 2004. This course provided key principles in underwriting commercial risks. RIBO credited two hours to Technical training. Personal Lines Property, ING – November 23, 2004. This course focused on essential principles in underwriting personal property risks. RIBO credited 1.5 hours to Technical training. PropertyRater Tips and Tricks, Compu-Quote – November 23, 2004. This course provided essential functions to effectively and accurately calculate property quotations. RIBO credited one hour to Personal Skills training. Trigon Insurance Brokers Ltd provided an opportunity to develop my professional knowledge and skills in order to perform competently and ethically. My final transition was returning to a teaching career in the Japanese corporate industry. Due to the economic recession, I decided to pursue academic lecturing at Japanese universities. Presently, I am an English communication skills lecturer at three universities. In order to expand my knowledge in the academic field of language teaching, I became a member of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT). After graduating from The University of Liverpool, I achieved my goal of being directly hired by two Japanese universities. Now, I am a certified Executive Global Partner with the Academy of Business Strategy which is a great opportunity to establish a consultancy career.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
Hong Kong – China
Osaka – Japan
Tokyo – Japan
Ottawa – Canada
Toronto -Canada

Global Partner preferred location
City: Hong Kong
Country: China

CONTACT
To contact Frank Cheang (EGP), please forward an email to the Academy of Business Strategy.

THE ACADEMY OF BUSINESS STRATEGY - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

EUGENE WILLARD (AGP) MA BA
ASSOCIATE GLOBAL PARTNER (AGP)

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: Washington DC (United States of America)
HISTORY
Washington D. C. is situated midway along the eastern seaboard of the United States between the States of Maryland and Virginia and about 233 miles south of New York City. The city sits on the northern banks of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. Divided into four quadrants – Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast – the city spans approximately 61 square miles. At the center of these four quadrants is the Capital building. Early History Founded in 1791, the city was named after George Washington and Christopher Columbus. Congress directed the selection of a new capital site and George Washington appointed three commissioners to plan and lay out the city – Major Pierre L’Enfant, an engineer, Major Andrew Ellicott, and Benjamin Banneker, a free born black man and self-taught astronomer and mathematician. The seat of government was transferred from Philadelphia to Washington on December 1, 1800, and John Adams became the first President to occupy the White House. During the War of 1812, British forces burned the Capital and the White House. The Macmillan Plan of 1901 returned to the vision of Pierre L’Enfant to emulate the grandeur and beauty of European capital cities and present an architectural plan for the redevelopment of the Mall and the elimination of tenement slums in that area of the city. Progress Towards Home Rule And Statehood – The District of Columbia is not a state nor is it part of another state but rather a unique district created specifically to serve as the seat of the federal government. The District was administered by three commissioners appointed by the president until November 3rd, 1967, when then President Lyndon Baines Johnson appointed a mayor-commissioner and a nine-member Council. Congress approved a Home Rule Charter on May 7th, 1974, allowing the District to govern its local affairs for the first time in a century. As a result, the District also gained one non-voting member in the House of Representatives and the ability to elect its own Board of Education. Since then, the District has continued to push for full statehood, starting with a constitutional amendment in 1978 that would give voting representation in Congress. This amendment failed to gain ratification by the minimum 38 states. Two other petitions and bills introduced in 1983 and 1993 also failed to realize statehood.

CURRENT POSITION
Demographics and Cultural Heritage – The population within the district is approximately 600,000, but the Washington Metropolitan Area, which includes the city of Baltimore to the north, seven nearby Maryland counties and five nearby Virginia cities, is about 6.7 million. Ethnically diverse, the city attracted free blacks before, during, and after the Civil War era. More recently, large communities of Latinos from Latin and South America, Ethiopians fleeing political unrest in their native country, and many other smaller groups from diverse countries have settled in the District and opened up restaurants and other small businesses. Fifteen percent of the city’s residents speak a language other than English as their primary language. The city is home to 11 colleges and universities, including Catholic University, George Washington University, American University, Georgetown University, Howard University, and Gallaudet University, and these institutions host 20,000 international students – more than the city of Boston. Major cultural attractions include the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the Folger Shakespeare Library and Theatre. The Smithsonian Museum’s National Air and Space Museum earned the claim of being the most popular museum in the world after attracting 219 million visitors in the first 25 years following its opening. Forbes Magazine has noted that the National Mall is the third most frequently visited destination in the United States after Times Square, New York and the Las Vegas strip. Commercial History – The founders of Washington D. C. always intended the city to become a major commercial center in addition to serving as the seat of government. During the 19th century, the existing ports of Alexandria and Georgetown functioned as commercial centers for trade of tobacco and wheat. Construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio (C and O) Canal commenced in Georgetown in 1828 but by the time it reached Cumberland Maryland in 1850 it was all but rendered obsolete by progress in building the Baltimore and Ohio (B and O) Railroad. During the Civil War, Washington D. C. became an armed encampment and many buildings were turned into hospitals visited by the likes of Walt Whitman. During the Depression Era and the Second World War, women flocked to the capital city to staff government positions vacated by men who were drafted or volunteered for military service. The federal government has tended to grow as a result of wars and increases in population and has attracted a transient community of government officials, lobbyists, foreign embassy workers and delegations. There is one lawyer for every 19 DC residents and 74 lobbyists for every U. S. Senator. Over 170 embassies and international culture centers grace the city. Since the Depression Era and the Second World War, an increasing number of consulting and contracting firms have appeared and flourished servicing government contracts. The federal government and tourism are the two principal anchors in the economy of the entire metropolitan area. In addition, many unions, non-profit, business, and professional organizations are headquartered in the District. During the 1990’s, the District lost residents to the surrounding suburbs but an urban revitalization program that included expansion of downtown housing, office space, and entertainment venues has reversed this trend. Rail and bus mass transit systems now connect the city to the surrounding suburbs, and three major airports – Reagan National Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, and Baltimore Washington International Airport – enable outbound travel worldwide and facilitate both domestic and international inbound travel. Several developments during and after the Second World War influenced the District’s commercial trajectory. The Pentagon, one of the largest office buildings in the world, was completed in 1943, ushering in a build-up of military defense industries and many new jobs within and outside of the federal government. By 1957, Washington became the first city in the United States with African Americans as the majority population. In the 1960’s, the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War elevated the District as a national stage for protest marches, keynote civil rights speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King, mass demonstrations, and destructive riots that sent many middle class white and black residents searching for new housing and neighborhoods in the surrounding suburbs. The growth of suburban malls also led many businesses to vacate the city until the urban revitalization and mass transit programs were introduced in the late 1990’s.

FUTURE OUTLOOK
Fortress Washington – A series of high profile terrorism and security incidents during the first decade of the 21st Century changed the face of Washington to that of a city fortress vigilant towards a variety of threats. Washington was one of two main targets for the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. One hijacked airplane that crashed into the Pentagon killed 64 people on board the plane and 125 people on the ground. A second hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed in Pennsylvania but was thought to have as its targets either the White House or the Capital. Additional terrorist threats and security incidents followed that included attempts in 2001 and 2004 to send anthrax and ricin contaminated mail to prominent politicians, the Beltway Sniper attacks in 2002, which resulted in ten deaths and three others wounded, and a serial arsonist who set over 40 fires in 2003 and 2004. New security measures to combat these threats included screening devices for biological agents, metal detectors, and vehicle barriers surrounding prominent Washington government buildings and transportation centers. Future Economic Prospects – Although still a majority, the black population in the city is steadily declining as many African Americans continue to migrate to the suburbs or to other urban centers in the South to reconnect with family and to pursue a lower cost of living and job opportunities. A 2011 Gallup poll on economic confidence among states and the District, however, evidenced Washington D. C. as the only participant with a positive Economic Confidence Index, with the states of Maryland and Virginia also in the top ten. Many experts argue that this economic optimism stems from the insulating effects of the federal government and its supporting economy, dampening the adverse effects of the recession. Unlike state and local governments, the federal government continues to grow. An economic outlook drawn from a report prepared by J. P. Morgan Chase Commercial Banking, with much of the source data for the report provided by the U. S. Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor, predicts a relatively bright future for the region amidst the aftermath of the recession: Based on forecasts of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the District’s economy is expected to speed up in FY 2013 and 2014. Real GDP growth in the District is keeping pace with national averages. Bankruptcy filings by District businesses increased during the height of the recession but have fallen back to normal levels. The District’s economy is driven more by information and services versus credit centric industries like housing, providing insulation from the recession. In the decade starting in FY 2000, The District’s economy grew at a faster pace than the national economy and this growth is accelerating. Since Q 4 of FY 2000, when the previous business cycle peaked, there has been a 2 percent decline in the nation’s employment, but the District has seen a 7 percent increase, indicating that its job market is insulated from the recession. Unemployment peaked at 10.5 percent but has since decreased to 8.5 percent. Although the District’s housing prices are expensive relative to other markets, housing prices are firming and benefiting from the economic stability provided by the federal government. Although home building activity has been volatile in the region, it has not been as depressed in the District compared with other markets. Commercial real estate vacancy rates also are improving. Although the overall immediate economic picture looks rosy for the Washington Metropolitan Area, ongoing debate about the growth of the federal government and its impact on the long term economic prosperity of the nation continues to take center stage in Washington politics. How this debate plays out in the Congress, the Senate, the White House, and the nation will have a direct bearing on the 2016 election and the longer term economic trends for the region.

PERSONAL DETAILS:
Eugene Willard
Global Partner status (Associate – Executive – Senior): Associate
Country of registration: United States of America
City of registration: Washington DC

SERVICE SKILLS:
Business and IT Strategic Planning
Program and Project Portfolio Management
Services Oriented Software Architecture (SOA)
Software Design and Development
Mission Critical Transaction Processing Systems
Business Intelligence Systems
Predictive Analytics and Artificial Intelligence
Technology Infrastructure Design and Development
Mergers and Acquisitions
Data Security Compliance

INDUSTRY SECTOR EXPERIENCE:
Chauffeured Transportation
Hotels and Hospitality
Passenger Rail
Distribution Marketing
e-Commerce and Mobile Commerce
Multi-Channel Consumer Marketing
Rational Pricing and Revenue Management
Loyalty Marketing
Intermediary Marketing
Industry Consolidations

QUALIFICATIONS AND EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT:
MA – University of New Hampshire at Durham
BA – SUNY at Stony Brook
Project Management – Project Management Institute (PMI)

CLIENTS OR EMPLOYERS:
North Wind Solutions LLC
Carey International
Marriott International
Amtrak
Booz Allen Hamilton
Computer Sciences Corporation
Duke University

LANGUAGES
English

PERSONAL PROFILE:
Eugene Willard is an accomplished business and IT transformation professional who has strategically managed risk, achieved breakthrough process changes, and delivered substantial competitive advantage for over 20 years. He possesses a proven ability to build and lead high performance teams to solve complex business and technical issues. He is a seasoned strategist focused on implementing tactics that drive business results with experience across all aspects of IT service delivery. His business and IT competencies include business development, mergers and international acquisitions, reservations, revenue management, dynamic pricing, corporate and consumer marketing, customer service, and transportation logistics. Earlier in his career, Mr. Willard served as Senior Director of Information Systems for Marriott International, after which he was promoted to become Corporate Group Director of IT Strategic Planning. In these roles, he developed a comprehensive information systems strategy for all of Marriott’s Lodging Units. He led the design of a lodging information warehouse intended to improve decision-making in several marketing and operations disciplines. He also led the integration of 152 acquired Renaissance Hotels (USD 1B plus) into Marriott’s centralized distribution and marketing systems. In addition, he was responsible for all development and support of Marriott’s Reservations, Travel Industry, Marketing Distribution, Reservations Reporting, Revenue Management Systems, and Loyalty Marketing Program Systems with oversight of 125 software development professionals. His accomplishments in these roles included contributing USD 150M plus in annually recurring incremental revenues by designing and leading the roll-out of the first revenue management systems in the hospitality industry to 1100 hotels across three brands. He delivered USD 3M in incremental annually recurring revenue from the travel industry segment with a Centralized Travel Agency Commissions System (CTAC) and subsequently contributed an additional USD1M in recurring annual revenue as a result of an enhancement to CTAC. He also directed the development of a seamless, direct connection between Marriott’s reservation and inventory management system and United Airline’s Apollo Global Distribution System. He spearheaded the Red Flags expert system to increase room revenues by detecting and reporting mistakes in managing hotel room inventory controls in the Reservations System. In addition, he achieved the most advanced revenue management systems in the hotel industry to increase room revenue and profitability. Mr. Willard then joined Carey International to serve as Senior Vice President of Technology Strategy and Planning, and was later promoted to serve in his current role as Chief Information Officer. He was responsible for IT strategy and planning, business application development and support, technology infrastructure development and support, field services delivery, and end user services. He spearheaded the execution of a multi-year business process and IT reengineering program, the Carey Enterprise System (CES). He migrated the organization from a highly decentralized IT architecture and legacy platform to a highly centralized IT architecture built using a Services Oriented Architecture (SOA). He also provides overall program management and technical leadership to IT and business efforts in the area of non-discretionary corporate compliance programs (PCI and PII compliance) and remediation efforts to include a credit card tokenization and network segmentation program. While at Carey International, Mr. Willard delivered USD2M in recurring annual savings by leading the development of a Reservations Consolidation Portal that enabled the centralization and consolidation of Carey’s eleven local reservation centers. He was instrumental in the design and roll-out of CES, a major business and IT transformation and centralization program, achieving the first (and only) centralized business process and IT architecture in the chauffeured transportation industry. This program produced an additional USD1.5M in recurring annual savings and included the development of three new mission-critical systems, including a Mobile B2E Two-Way Messaging System, which streamlined job assignments, tracking, closeouts, pricing, and billing processes. This program also entailed the roll-out of standard desktops and LAN servers, the design and construction of new primary and back-up data centers, and the completion and successful testing of a written disaster recovery plan. In addition, he led the comprehensive re-branding and enhancement of Carey’s internet sites, developed an XML web services based B2B integration software architecture based on standards published by the Open Travel Alliance (OTA), and used this architecture to integrate the CES reservation system with the GGA and GroundRez industry switches and their 14 booking channels. He further led the installation of the PeopleSoft Financials applications. Since April 2013, Mr. Willard has been an independent consultant and sole proprietor of North Wind Solutions, LLC, a business and IT strategy and management consulting firm. Mr. Willard received his Bachelor of Arts in English from SUNY Stony Brook. He also received his Master of Arts in British and American Literature from the University Of New Hampshire.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
Washington DC – United States of America
New York – United States of America
London – United Kingdom
Charleston – United States of America
Atlanta – United States of America

Global Partner preferred location
City: Washington DC
Country: United States of America

CONTACT
To contact Eugene Willard (AGP), please forward an email to the Academy of Business Strategy.

THE ACADEMY OF BUSINESS STRATEGY - EGYPT

HASSAN ABOU KHATWA (EGP) MBA BSc
EXECUTIVE GLOBAL PARTNER (EGP)

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: Cairo (Egypt)
HISTORY
Egyptian history dates back to about 4000 BC, when the kingdoms of upper and lower Egypt, already highly sophisticated, were united. Egypt’s golden age coincided with the 18th and 19th dynasties (16th to 13th century BC), during which the empire was established. Persia conquered Egypt in 525 BC, Alexander the Great subdued it in 332 BC, and then the dynasty of the Ptolemies ruled the land until 30 BC, when Cleopatra, last of the line, committed suicide and Egypt became a Roman, then Byzantine, province. Arab caliphs ruled Egypt from 641 until 1517, when the Turks took it for their Ottoman Empire. Napoleon’s armies occupied the country from 1798 to 1801. In 1805, Mohammed Ali, leader of a band of Albanian soldiers, became pasha of Egypt. After completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, the French and British took increasing interest in Egypt. British troops occupied Egypt in 1882, and British resident agents became its actual administrators, though it remained under nominal Turkish sovereignty. In 1914, this fiction was ended, and Egypt became a protectorate of Britain. Egyptian nationalism, led by Zaghlul Pasha and the Wafd Party, forced Britain to relinquish its claims on the country. Egypt became an independent sovereign state on Feb. 28, 1922, with Fu’ad I as its king. In 1936, by an Anglo-Egyptian treaty of alliance, all British troops and officials were to be withdrawn, except from the Suez Canal Zone. When World War II started, Egypt remained neutral. Egypt as a republic country was ruled by Gamal Abdel Nasser who came a president from the early 50th till his death in 1970, followed by President Anwar El Sadat from 1971 till his assassination in October 1980. Hosni Mubarak took over from 1980 till the revolution in January 25th, 2011 where he was forced to step down.

CURRENT POSITION
Egypt faces huge economic and political challenges. The current situation in Egypt is difficult. Protests and violent clashes have taken place in Cairo and other major cities. The country is divided between supporters to President Morsi and resistance groups not accepting Morsi’s actions. Egypt is working on a with the IMF where it must be secured and finalized. The IMF arrangement will allow Europe to allocate 500 million euro to Egypt. Egypt must respect and protect the fundamental human rights of all citizens. Stop police abuse, torture, and impunity, freedom of expression and belief, women’s rights, improve working conditions and the promotion of economic and social rights. All Egyptian citizens are asked to work, each in his field or domain. All revenue sectors have been affected, especially, the touristic and exportation/Importation sectors to prevent the drop in the stored foreign currency in the CBE (Central Bank of Egypt).Egypt can’t rely only on revenues coming from Suez Canal.

FUTURE OUTLOOK
Although Egypt’s stock market has received several hard blows in the past few months where the market is still unable to recover as the government’s economic policies and current political stalemate make the stock market undesirable for future investments, Experts remain optimistic and see that certain market segments will continue to recover and boom such as the real estate sector in Egypt, which has the potential to boost the market as a whole; Telecom market is another market that will continue to grow. Egypt’s telecommunications sector has continuously performed well, through various Economic crises. However, the political and social upheaval in early 2011 has had some impact on the performance of telecom companies in the country. The most populous country in the Arab world boasts a world-class telecommunications infrastructure that provides extensive coverage and connectivity. It was again ranked fourth among African countries in the Networked Readiness Index of the Davos World Economic Forum’s 2011/12 Global Information Technology Report. Egypt’s mobile market is fairly competitive; with three existing mobile operators all backed by major international players. However, the government is considering issuing a fourth mobile license for a full network operator or a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). While this move could increase competition in the mobile market, as well as generate much needed funds for the state treasury.- The mobile market grew by 1.3 percent q-o-q in Q312 to bring total growth in 9M12 to 12.5 percent. The number of internet users increased by 1 percent q-o-q in Q3-12, according to regulatory data. Mobile operators continue to invest in their network expansion plans, hence, providing more room for increased customer base and therefore, more revenues. Egypt currently has 92 million mobile subscribers with a mobile penetration rate of 114 percent.

PERSONAL DETAILS:
Hassan Abou Khatwa
Global Partner status (Associate – Executive – Senior): Executive
Country of registration: Egypt
City of registration: Cairo

SERVICE SKILLS:
Sales
Management
Key Account Management
Coaching
Telecommunication Knowledge
Wireless Knowledge
New Business Development
Customers Relation
Results Oriented and Sales Quota Achievement
Self Motivated

INDUSTRY SECTOR EXPERIENCE:
Telecommunications – Mobile Sector
Information Technology
Business Consultancy

QUALIFICATIONS AND EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT:
MBA – Missouri State University
BSc Electrical Engineering – Cairo University

CLIENTS OR EMPLOYERS:
Vodafone Egypt
Etisalat Misr
Tunisiana Tunisia
Orange Tunisia
Meditel Maroc
INWI Maroc
IBM Egypt
AVAYA Telephone Systems
Mobilink Pakistan
Djezzi Algeria

LANGUAGES
Arabic
English

PERSONAL PROFILE:
Being graduated from Faculty of Engineering – Cairo University in July 1986 as an Electrical engineer, I travelled to Italy for a 1 year training on computers hardware, software and gaining some computer knowledge before entering into the real work career life. I have been trained in 2 Italian companies from which I understood the Computer hardware’s concept and methodology. I returned back to Egypt in 1987 where I joined Egyptian Computer Systems (ECS), the authorized dealer for IBM personal computers in Egypt at the time, I joined ECS as a field service engineer (Maintenance engineer). I spent 2 years in this position till one day during the year 1990 where a seminar was arranged by ECS to its clients, my boss observed that I had excellent selling skills in providing detailed information on the IBM PC products, also being exceptional in building rapport, understanding customer needs and having the ability to close some deals with few prospects; he then asked me to join the sales team and focus on the sales business. This was my starting point in the sales career. I spent 1 more year in ECS and then decided to expand my experience and computer knowledge outside Egypt from which I joined Memorex Telex – Saudi Arabia as a Sales representative in November 1991 in Riyadh. During my work for Memorex Telex, I was able to gain more experience in Sales, Account Management and Customers relation. Worth to say that I had a major achievement with Memorex Telex where I was able to close a large deal with one of the big and well known banks in KSA at the time, selling them 2 IBM refurbished AS/400 machines large in configuration and in dollar deal value. The beauty here is that my competitor in this deal was IBM KSA (SBM).I was then promoted to handle the Jeddah region selling to the customer and prospects base in Jeddah where I spent around 3 years in Saudi Arabia till 1994. Later in 1994, I joined IBM-Egypt as an Account Sales Manager responsible for selling IBM products and solution to the Government sector, followed by Public sector. During 1995, IBM provided me with a huge dose of trainings related to Negotiation and Communication skills, Pre-Sales School in IBM UK and Sales School in IBM UK. I have also attended the Top Gun Technical Sales Training in Washington DC – USA in 1998 and 1999.Working with IBM Egypt for 6 years, provided me with the ability to enhance my skills set and capabilities in the following areas:- Sales, Account Management, Technical Sales and Customer Relations. I had a record of selling 5 IBM Main Frames in 1 year from which I was awarded the achievers certificate for sales quota in the yearly IBM convention in Malta in 1999. As a highlight on some of my customers; Al-Ahram Organization, Dar Al-Maaref, Meteorological authority, Arab Contractors and more. I joined AVAYA Communication in 2000 as a Channel Manager responsible for sales through Channels like Orascom and more. I was able to position AVAYA in the Egyptian market where I have been promoted to be the Egypt Country General Manager. Achieving my yearly sales targets, provided me with another promotion where I became the Regional Channel Manager for Egypt, North and West Africa in addition of keeping my position as a Country General Manager for Egypt. During my work for AVAYA, not only achieving all my assigned sales targets, Business tasks and increasing my Channel base; but also, enhancing my sales management skills, New Business Development skills, Team Management skills. I then joined AVIT (Aviation Information Technology) in 2003, a company specialized in IT solutions for the aviation sector in Egypt, as a Sales General Manager where I was fully responsible for selecting the suitable products and solutions and selling them to the different companies in the aviation sector. In 2005, I decided to make a career change from the IT field to the Telecom field where I joined Alan Dick North Africa as the Regional Sales Manager for Egypt and North Africa followed by adding the Levant region in 2008. I was responsible for selling GSM towers, Camouflage solutions like Palm trees…etc and also, managing a group of sales and pre-sales team in Egypt and Algeria. Major clients are: Vodafone Egypt, Mobinil Egypt, Etisalat Misr, Ericsson Egypt, Huawei Egypt, Orange Jordan, Wataneya Algeria and more. During my work for Alan Dick, I was able to over achieve my sales targets for 4 consecutive fiscal years. I proved to execute my job tasks with excellent skills in Sales, Sales Management, Coaching, Team Management, New Business Development and Key Account Management. In 2010, I joined Serta Telecom as the Regional Sales Manager for Africa region, where I was responsible for selling wireless solutions like Antennas, Repeaters, Power Boosters…etc. to Mobile operators. My major achievements from 2010 till 2012 were selling more than 2500 antennas in North Africa region to Tunisiana Tunis and Orange Tunisia. Also, selling more than 3000 antennas, 45 Power boosters, 400 Repeaters to Vodafone Egypt, Mobinil Egypt, and Etisalat Misr. Meeting my yearly sales targets was one major objective that was achieved, in addition, gaining experience in Telecommunication, Wireless Technology, GSM Technology and the ability to close large volume strategic deals. During 2012, I was able to bundle business focus with post studies where I was able to finish my Mini MBA program and have the certificate from Missouri State University – USA. As a summary; For more than 24 years, I have gained excellent experience in sales and business understanding in both IT and Telecom fields, this includes; dealing with international business, understanding multi-national cultures and connections at the CXO level. I also have excellent sales experience within the North Africa Telecom market. I have worked with many multi-national organizations from which I gained my set of skills. Working in multi million dollar deals with my skills to close those deals, provided me with a great value to my career success.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
Cairo – Egypt
Riyadh – Saudi Arabia
Rabat – Morocco
Tunis – Tunisia
Algiers – Algeria

Global Partner preferred location
City: Cairo
Country: Egypt

CONTACT
To contact Hassan Abou Khatwa (EGP), please forward an email to the Academy of Business Strategy.

THE ACADEMY OF BUSINESS STRATEGY - ITALY

GIANLUCA BALSAMO (AGP) MA ACCA
ASSOCIATE GLOBAL PARTNER (AGP)

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: Milan (Italy)
HISTORY
Milan is the Italy financial and economic capital as well as New York in the USA or Frankfurt in Germany. Historically speaking, it gained this ranking since the industrial revolution in XIX century when plenty of industries started establishing there to increase their commerce with boundaries countries by exploiting its geographical position (the name Milan in fact comes from the Latin Mediolanum meaning in the middle of land and in fact Milan is in the middle of a macro-region, someone calls Padania). Different kinds of industries and firms were born and grew up there at that time to support and benefit from the intensive agriculture and craftsmanship – with its ancient roots since the Middle Ages. Especially after the Second World War, with the reconstruction, Milan become the heart of the Italian miracle. But the town has not been the lung of the Italian heavy industry only, given that in the second half of the last century it became and still is the centre of (i) publishing, as several newspapers and magazines headquarter in Milan, totalizing 4,754, with 700 editors, and making up the 21 per cent of the national total; (ii) fashion, as some of the most renowned fashion company in the world are Italian and based in Milan (Armani, Trussardi, Valentino, just to cite some of them). Milan has even dedicated a couple of weeks during the year to celebration and events linked to fashion, becoming one of the world capital in this field (iii) industrial drawing (there are some specialized schools, such as Scuola politecnica di design, Scuola del design del Politecnico di Milano, Istituto Europeo del design). Milan is also one of the most important fair of Europe, and even more if considering the forthcoming EXPO 2015 that should be worth in total 3 trillions (awaited 20 millions of visitors, 130-150 exposing countries,7,000 events organised during the 6 months the EXPO lasts). Without considering the Italian leadership in (i) music (Milan hosts the famous theatre Alla Scala with its incredible seasonal offer of operas and concerts) (ii) culture (thanks to the contribution of the local different universities and schools such as Bocconi, Politecnico, IULM, Cattolica, Statale, the Arts Academy of Brera and the Conservatorio Verdi) (iii) information technology (Milan is the most cabled city in Europe with 275,000 km of optical fiber and hosts the biggest number of private commercial radios) and of course, as aforementioned, (iv) finance.

CURRENT POSITION
Due to its status somebody has named Milan as the locomotive of Italy: it is impossible to deny that. In fact with its 1.324 millions of inhabitants with about 700,000 families, it is the second biggest town of Italy, but considering the whole suburbs (it borders on 23 municipalities, often getting mixed up and being even difficult to spot the boundaries) it gets up to more than 3 millions of people. The town keeps the record for the Italian highest income per person (about 35K Euro pro capite) and considering the GDP of the metropolitan area ranks eleventh in the world, contributing to 10 per cent of the Italian GDP. There headquarter 2,000 international corporations, 45 per cent of all companies resident in Lombardia region (the region Milan is the capital of) and 8 per cent of all Italian ones. It hosts the Italian Stock Exchange (among the first 5 European Stock exchanges) and the major Italian banks of which just in Milan there are 1995 branches. The total number of firms registered in Milan is about 220,000 and 160,000 are the sole traders. Most of the formers operates in the services field, especially the financial one. In fact there are about 120 leasing companies, 17 factoring ones, more than 50 asset managers and more than 100 financial intermediaries. Moreover the town is the capital of the biotechnology, hosting about the 50 per cent of all Italian firms operating in this field. Milan is also the no-profit capital, with 10,000 organizations. The towns is also leader in the invention field, the 22 per cent of all Italian application of inventions being registered there. 11 per cent (in value) of all Italian companies operating in the energy field is filed in Milan. Regarding the new IT technologies, 1 company on 8 headquarters in Milan, providing a wide range of services (social network, web portal, web hosting, etc.). No one would think of that but apart from finance business and other value added fields Milan represents the second largest agricultural town in Italy (2,900 hectares on 18,000 in total) but the first one for productivity. Despite the national data, the average age in Milan is just 45.1. The density of its residents (about 7,300 people per square km) reveals interesting possible developments in the construction field even considering that is one of the Italian cities with the largest number of divorced people and single ones (obviously this leverages the need of houses and flats even if smaller than those fitting for families). On the other hands Milan denotes a birth rate higher than the rest of Italy. It is renowned that every year a large number of Milan families have great troubles to find a public pre-school for their infants. Apart from the pre-school business, still not well exploited by the Milan population, and in general by the Italians (this has a historical explanation: (i) until last 2 decades women rate at work in Italy has been low and it is still one of the lowest of EU (ii) Italian families have demonstrated a very little rate of mobility (except in the years just after the II War) (iii) a young family can count on grandparents taking care of children. The (i) (ii) and (iii) have generated a low demand for pre-schools. Nowadays there are more women at work not able to look after (at least for a large part of the day) their children, people move much more than in last years so they are on their own, several pension reforms have put back the age of retirement with the result that grandparents have to work themselves and are not able to take care of their nephews. In other words this means that children consumer goods remains a very significant lucrative market, especially that in the services field to families and infants. Milan is also the hope of work for young workers: in fact the large number of companies present in Milan generates a significant offer in internships. One third of all Italian internships are there and regard people resident elsewhere. This produces an interesting market of services related to satisfaction of needs of people coming from elsewhere. This opens to business possibilities in transportation (coaches and trains overall), laundering and ironing shops, housework firms and of course house renting. It’s no by chance that entire buildings are property of real estate companies renting residential houses to people working in Milan (rents are often subscribed with companies granting their executives a pied-a-terre). According to international studies Milan reveals to be the cheapest town in Italy for investments and operating a business. The city ranks nineteenth in the world (ninth in Europe) for international business travel costs (512 Euro per day). But on the other end it is the most expensive market in office renting. The value reveals the strong demand of offices as location (as someone says location, location, location) is an important condition in doing business. And although it is the economic capital of one of the G8 nations, Milan is only the twelfth most expensive city in the world.

FUTURE OUTLOOK
All Milan economic indicators show a great potential for the city and its region, Lombardia. However the European financial crisis has depressed the Italian economy and had a certain impact on the economy of the region. Inevitably in 2012 industrial demand and production have decreased in absolute terms, sustained only by a rise of export (plus 4.9 per cent with respect to 2011) – although slowing down with respect to 2010 when the increase was plus14.3 per cent and 2011 (plus 10.8 per cent) – due to a contraction of sales within EU markets, counterbalanced by export to extra UE countries (plus 12.7 per cent). Have contributed to this increase fields related to machines, metal products and transportation means. In 2013 only foreign orders are to expected at an more encouraging level. Unfortunately one of the most important field of the Italian economy, such as constructions, has lived another terrible year. Despite of the bear year, in 2012 the rate of work force in Lombardia remained stable. This may be explained by the fact that the economy in the region is reactive and able to face difficulties, just to use an euphemistic word. Another interesting factor denoting a solid regional economy, and of course solid financial statements, is that of public binders: in 2012 their whole value has remained the same as in 2011. Major public works still in construction (BreBeMi, Pedemontana and Outer Est Milan motorways ) are proceeding even if with some delays. Bank credit in 2012 in Lombardia has decreased dramatically for two reasons: lack of liquidity (or better banks have used liquidity to increase their core tiers) and fear to grant credit to companies. While credit to families has remained at the same level with a little reduction of consumer credit. This may mean that Lombardia families stand by: their wealth (in absolute terms and as a whole, probably with an increase of differences between social classes and families) has not been impacted significantly by the crisis (otherwise in some ways loans would be expected to rise to keep consumption at the same level). Presumably once the crisis is over people will return to spend their money, more money and in fields now are suffering from the crisis (food, entertainment, holidays and wear). As for Italy 2013 tends to appear still weak, although the feeling is better than in the previous year. Export (especially to extra UE countries) continues contributing in a significant way to the economy, but unfortunately unable to arrest the decline in the workforce rate. Inflation seems to keep on a low level , due to the weakness of the demand. Some good signals come from (i) retail money collection which is increasing as well as the liquidity of banks and core tier 1 of most important Italian financial institution is now more robust (ii) Italian public finance balances are becoming more sustainable and in 2014 are expected to generate an interesting positive primary balance (net of interests). However projections show a worsening of the GDP in 2013 with a weak rise in the last part of the year. Apart from economic conditions and indicators, most of which are hexogen from Italy, a lot will depend on political conditions in Italy: if the 3 (in part) winning parties are able to generate a stable and strong government focused on real problems, the Country will be able to get out of the crisis in a better and fast way, because the wealth in people, industries, culture, ideas and even in financial instruments (despite the huge public debt) of Italy can do this miracle as it already demonstrated it could do after the II World War.

PERSONAL DETAILS:
Gianluca Balsamo
Global Partner status (Associate – Executive – Senior): Associate
Country of registration: Italy
City of registration: Milan

SERVICE SKILLS:
Operational risk
Real estate risk management
Process re-engineering
Internal audit
Fraud audit
Anti-money laundering
Dlgs. 231 2001
L. 262 2005
Corporate governance
SOX 404

INDUSTRY SECTOR EXPERIENCE:
Financial Services
Utilities
Manufacturing
Construction
Health
Food
Pharmaceuticals
Automotive

QUALIFICATIONS AND EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT:
MA – University of Palermo
ACCA – Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

CLIENTS OR EMPLOYERS:
Prometeia SpA
KPMG Audit SpA
Aica srl
G and C Tourwise Ltd
INSTMC
AcegasAPS
Cimbali
Humanitas
Parmalat
Robbins and Myers

LANGUAGES
Italian
English

PERSONAL PROFILE:
My career started just before enrolling University when I initiated a form of collaboration with a little accounting firm in the town where I lived while attending the high school in humanistic studies. I managed the IT hardware infrastructure of the firm and developed for it software to manage some new taxes the Italian Government introduced at that time. Meeting up with several clients of the firm was also an opportunity to develop other application software tailored made for them. This experience enhanced my IT abilities and at the same time contributed to acquire the first soft skills to deal with clients. During university courses I continued developing managing software for several firms operating in the area of my town. Soon after graduation in Economics at the University of Palermo, at the beginning of 2002, I started working as stagiare at a bigger accounting firm to become a chartered accountant. In the middle of 2003 I realized I would need to become fluent in English to orient my career in a more successful way. So with a basic knowledge of English (my strong determination in this sense was decisive) I went to live in London where I attended two intensive English courses and in few months I was ready to look for a job there. After a while, starting from April 2004 I was temporary employed in the accounting department (accounts payable) of the branch of a multinational company operating in the UK and Ireland (Globus and Cosmos – Tourwise of London Ltd – London). My contribution was much appreciated in particular because I helped the department improve significantly the processing, checking, recording and paying all coming in suppliers’ invoices, by preparing complex worksheets with macros engine . As the position was seasonal I was offered to return there the following year but in the meantime I found a position within the accounting department of the Institute of Measurement and Control (London) an English body of engineers. Nevertheless brief, that experience gave me some insight of how an English account receivable department works. Also there I could contribute to expedite and validate some checking and recording transactions into general ledger by adopting structured (with macros) excel files. I resigned at the beginning of 2005 as I was offered the position of management accountant at one of the most important firm (Aica srl), in terms of size, in my native town. In few months I managed to help the organization make the internal controls more robust, structure a KPI system to monitor budget vs. actual and performance, set up the new IT application system and introduce the culture of control and in particular of IT automated controls. Few months after an unexpected proposal came from KPMG that I could not refuse and I joined them at the beginning of 2006. I was part of the advisory group providing industrial clients (in KPMG exists a dichotomy for which not “financial” companies are considered just industrial) with management assurance services. There I acquired and enhanced my knowledge and my experience in a wide range of subjects such as corporate governance (e.g. drawing up of company procedures, codes of ethics, internal committees regulations and job description, analysis of corporate proxy and power systems, etc.) carrying on risk assessment and gap analysis, implementation of 231 Italian Law organizational models, testing and enhancement of internal control over financial reporting (ICOFR) as per SOX 404, internal audit special projects, scoping, assessment, implementation and testing of ICOFR as per 262 2005 Italian law. During KPMG employment I gained a notable experience in fields such as utilities, manufacturing, construction, health, food, pharmaceuticals, automotive, being all my clients industrial. In KPMG I used to work in team, even multicultural ones, and soon after started coordinating and overseeing people. Several times I was involved in projects where teams were across different locations (sometimes different nations and continents). After 4 extremely intensive years (with projects in Australia, Brazil, England, Ireland, etc.) in February 2010 I was given the great opportunity to change field being employed by a financial institution (GDP Asset Management SIM SpA) providing advisory to asset managers. In particular the company provided its clients – several primary Italian real estate asset managers– with full outsourcing of risk management functions (as per Bank of Italy rules). At the beginning I was in charge for the activity regarding clients’ operational risks, developing for them a proprietary framework based on Basel II and COSO ERM. After few months I succeeded my boss becoming responsible of the whole service (with my CV registered at Bank of Italy and my name at CONSOB, the equivalent of the UK FSA or US SEC). In 2011 the advisory branch was acquired by Prometeia SpA, my present employer, a financial risk consultancy company. In Prometeia GDP clients, duties and activities have remained the same as previous ones, while my expertise and skills are being broaden by dealing with a wider range of clients (private equity and hedge fund managers, institutional investors, insurers, etc.). Other services have been developed by me and my group such as anti-money laundering functions and controls (as per Bank of Italy directive), operational due diligence, fraud audit activities, solvency II operational risk control model, etc. All the aforementioned activities and duties expose me to a large scale of problems I have to find a solution for and make me liaise with board members to report on my activities. During these years I have sat (and continue sitting) several exams to improve and extend my qualification and attended (and continue attending) courses and workshops to keep up-to-date in matters related to my job. I have obtained degrees and certificates in fraud auditing, operational risk, anti-money laundering and the target is broadening more and more my professional background and knowledge, even with a specific master in next years. In the meanwhile next months I will be sitting the last CIA (Certified Internal Audit) exam to obtain the certification released by the International Internal Auditors association.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
Milan – Italy
London – UK
Rome – Italy

Global Partner preferred location
City: Milan
Country: Italy

CONTACT
To contact Gianluca Balsamo (AGP), please forward an email to the Academy of Business Strategy.

THE ACADEMY OF BUSINESS STRATEGY - FINLAND

MIKKO HENTTONEN (EGP) MSc BSc
EXECUTIVE GLOBAL PARTNER (EGP)

RELATED LINKS
Mikko Henttonen – Certified Business Specialist (CBS) Professional Articles

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: Helsinki (Finland)
HISTORY
Finland started out as a relatively poor country that was vulnerable to shocks to the economy such as the great famine of the 1860s. Until the 1930s, the Finnish economy was predominantly agrarian, and, as late as in the 1950s, more than half the population and 40 percent of output were still in the primary sector. After World War II Property rights were strong. While nationalization committees were set up in France and the United Kingdom, Finland avoided nationalizations. After failed experiments with protectionism, Finland eased restrictions and concluded a free trade agreement with the European Community in 1973, making its markets more competitive. Local education markets expanded and an increasing number of Finns also went abroad to study in the United States or Western Europe, bringing back advanced skills. There was a quite common, but pragmatic-minded, credit and investment cooperation by state and corporations, though it was considered with suspicion. Support for capitalism was widespread. Savings rate hovered among the world’s highest, at around 8 per cent until the 80s. In the beginning of the 1970s, Finland’s GDP per capita reached the level of Japan and the UK. Finland’s economic development shared many aspects with export-led Asian countries. In 1991 the Finnish economy fell into recession. This was caused by a combination of economic overheating, depressed markets with key trading partners (particularly the Swedish and Soviet markets) as well as local markets, slow growth with other trading partners, and the disappearance of the Soviet bilateral trade. Stock markets and housing prices declined by 50 percent. The growth in the 1980s was based on debt, and when the defaults began rolling in, GDP declined by 13 percent and unemployment increased from a virtual full employment to one fifth of the workforce. The crisis was amplified by trade unions’ initial opposition to any reforms. Politicians struggled to cut spending and the public debt doubled to around 60 per cent of GDP. Much of the economic growth in the 1980s was based on debt financing, and the debt defaults led to a savings and loan crisis. A total of over 10 billion Euros were used to bail out failing banks, which led to banking sector consolidation. After devaluations the depression bottomed out in 1993. Liberalization-Like other Nordic countries, Finland has modified its system of economic regulation since late 1980s. Financial and product market regulations were modified. Some state enterprises were privatized and some tax rates were altered. European Union Finland joined the European Union in 1995. The central bank was given an inflation-targeting mandate until Finland joined the Euro zone. The growth rate has since been one of the highest of OECD countries and Finland has topped many indicators of national performance. Finland was one of the 11 countries joining the third phase of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union, adopting the Euro as the country’s currency, on January 1, 1999. The national currency Markka (FIM) was withdrawn from circulation and replaced by the Euro (EUR) at the beginning of 2002.

CURRENT POSITION
There’s not much good news coming out about the current economy. This is certainly the case if you look at this year’s forecasts. Europe is predicted to show almost zero growth in 2013. However, Finland’s outlook is slightly better, and mild growth is expected. To see a good forecast, turn to the end of 2013. By then, trends for the European and the Finnish economy should already be looking up. Let’s take a look at the state of the Finnish economy right now, at the beginning of 2013. There is good news, but there are also some challenges. Among the good news is the solid purchasing power in Finland’s most important export markets, the low unemployment rates, the good state of the economy and the AAA credit rating. Challenges include the uncertain outlook for the global economy, which means that industries are hesitating to invest and consumer confidence is low. Strange turn in the autumn. Finnish metal industry exports can benefit from a weak Euro. In autumn 2011, indicators took a turn for the worse in the global economy and particularly the European economy. The crisis in Greece went from bad to worse and dark clouds gathered over the entire European single currency system. The atmosphere was grim, and Finland also felt the impact. Trust indicators fell and forecasts were adjusted down. At the very end of 2011, the Finnish Ministry of Finance published an economic review. The review estimated Finland’s GDP growth rate at 2.8 percent in 2011 and only 0.4 percent in 2012. The OECD’s growth estimate for Finland was slightly better. The state of the global economy, and particularly the European outlook, is poor. On this basis, some Finnish forecasting institutions, such as Nordea and Tapiola banks believe that Finland’s GDP will develop along with that of the rest of Europe. The Ministry of Finance’s more optimistic figures are based on continued domestic demand and the expected better-than-average economic development of the country’s most important trading partners, such as Russia, Sweden and Germany. Weak Euro, brighter outlook. The Finnish retail sector in particular has benefited from the spending spree of Russian tourists. Statistics indicate that they are the largest tourist group in Finland, spending half a million hotel nights here each year. Russian visitors are a familiar sight in Helsinki, but tourism is still not a significant source of national income. Russians are not the only ones who have discovered Helsinki, the 2012 World Design Capital. The New York Times lists Helsinki as the second-most-interesting destination in its article The 45 Places to Go in 2012. Major export product groups include electronics, and the products of the metal and paper industries. All these have suffered from the strong Euro. Within a year (2011), the Euro has weakened nearly 20 percent against the dollar. This has improved the competitiveness of Finnish companies. This may not show up in the statistics immediately, but it will benefit export operations. The Euro and the crisis in Greece-Finland’s participation in the single European currency has already raised significant discussion. In the spring 2011 election, Timo Soini of the True Finns party achieved victory after criticizing the EU and the ECB for supporting Greece. After the election, Soini opted out of the government coalition, but Jutta Urpilainen, chair of the Social Democratic Party, which suffered a major setback in the election, adopted parts of Soini’s agenda. Urpilainen became the Minister of Finance, and she led Finland’s negotiations for collateral when the latest support package was prepared for Greece. The collateral arrangement received no praise from financial experts, but the episode may have contributed to Urpilainen’s credibility. She did well in the Financial Times list of Best Ministers of Finance. Urpilainen was listed as number seven, but she was first out of the new ministers on the list. Not bad for a schoolteacher without an economics degree. Fast drop, quick recovery. Reaching for the heights again: Finland bounces back when the global economy takes a hit. The financial crisis of 2008 and the resulting standstill in global trade formed a shock for Finland. Gross domestic product dropped by 8.7 percent, more than in any period since the civil war of 1918. Economies suffered across the entire world, but Finland’s drop in GDP was the steepest in west Europe. The reasons for the drastic drop can be found in the structure of the Finnish economy. Export is a major GDP building block. When world trade halted in 2008–09, ships stopped setting sail from Finnish ports. Generally, a steep drop in the GDP predicts a drastic increase in unemployment. However, this wasn’t the case in Finland. The unemployment rate briefly rose over 9 percent, but a positive turn soon followed. Finland’s unemployment rate is clearly lower than European average. In December 2012, the monthly rate was 7.2 percent. In Finland, the employment situation is alleviated by the large number of people leaving the job market. In other words, record numbers of Finns are retiring. The generation born just after the Second World War is the biggest in Finland, and this group is now reaching retirement age. The phenomenon creates an increased need for jobs. Finland still a member of the AAA club. The Finnish government was forced to prepare a budget in which expenses exceed income. Most European countries have the same challenge. Most are also carrying heavy debts, and these continue to increase. The market or the government bond investor, ranks European states each day. Market confidence in Finland is only slightly lower than it is in Germany. Finnish government bonds belong into a European elite. In early January, Standard and Poor’s lowered the credit rating for most countries that use the Euro, but Finland, together with Luxembourg and Germany, retained the highest rating of AAA.

FUTURE OUTLOOK
The conditions for economic growth and positive employment developments in Finland have benefited in recent years from strong confidence in the responsibility and long-term perspective of economic policy decisions. The financial behavior of households has reflected strong faith in the future. This confidence is also reflected on the international financial markets, where the availability and price of funding for the Finnish public sector and banks have remained favorable. In this regard, Finland’s position since the onset of the international financial crisis has differed from that of many other countries. Confidence is based on the fact that the Finnish Government and other social partners have managed to agree sustainable solutions when circumstances have been difficult. Continued confidence is rooted in the expectation that decisions will continue to be responsible in the future. Important decisions were taken in spring 2012, particularly in regard to balancing central government finances, but also to help extend the number of years people spend in working life. The economy is, however, performing more weakly than expected in the spring, and this casts a shadow over the outlook for the public finances. Thus, the decisions taken in the spring are proving to be insufficient. At the same time the outlook for exports and the foreign trade balance has remained weak. According to the Bank of Finland forecast, the objective set out by the Government of turning the trend in the debt ratio of central government downwards by the end of the current parliamentary term will not be achieved without additional measures. Moreover, the central government deficit will contract less than targeted. At the end of the parliamentary term, the deficit is forecast to be around 2 percent of GDP, while the target is 1 percent. At the same time, the local government deficit will actually be growing. Particularly after 2020, the increase in age-related expenditure will lead to the general government deficit deepening again, if extra steps are not taken in time. The general deterioration in the economic situation since the spring has wiped out the effects of the decisions taken then to reduce the sustainability gap in the public finances. On the estimate of the Bank of Finland, the sustainability gap currently stands at 4 percent of GDP. This is, therefore, the scale of expenditure cuts or taxation tightening required to stabilize the public debt, if structural reforms to improve sustainability are not undertaken. The public finance sustainability problem could be significantly eased by structural reforms to boost labor supply. Central to this are measures to lengthen working life. These can be implemented both by raising the effective retirement age and by encouraging earlier entry to working life among the young. Employment can also be increased by providing incentives to those of working age to offer their labor. The effects of population ageing in weakening the balance of the public finances and GDP growth will increase gradually during the present and next decade. They pose a challenge for economic policy that will require a determined grip on policy from both the present and future governments. Finland’s export performance in recent years has been weak, and there are no signs of any rapid improvement. In addition to sluggish growth internationally, exports have also been weighed down by special problems in Finland’s electronics and paper industries. In addition to the above, the faster pace of pay rises in Finland than in many other countries has pushed up the costs of Finnish output. Relative to other countries, labor costs grew particularly in 2008 and 2009, due to large pay rises, and the loss in competitiveness has not yet been recovered. The growth in labor costs is one of the factors that have in recent years weakened Finnish exports and the foreign trade balance. When measuring the international competitiveness of the open sector of the economy, the focus is often on changes in unit labor costs, i.e. by how much labor costs have grown relative to the volume of production. In Finland’s case, however, this measurement gives an overly positive picture of the situation, as average price developments in Finland’s manufacturing have been much weaker than in competing countries. The value of production has, in fact, declined relative to the volume of production. Growth in production volume does not enhance a company’s capacity to pay wages unless it also boosts the value of production. The exceptional price trend has also been reflected in a weakening in the terms of trade, i.e. the fall in export prices relative to import prices. Value added in manufacturing is still approximately one fifth lower than before the onset of the international financial crisis in 2007. Profitability and companies’ average capacity for paying wages have both declined. At the same time, the upward trend in wages and other costs has continued. Improving employment in the open sector and the foreign trade balance require that the weakened situation be taken into account in the next round of pay agreements. Economic growth in recent years has been largely based on the accumulation of debt in both the household and public sectors. The confidence enjoyed by the Finnish economy has allowed the level of debt to grow. The debt-fuelled growth of recent years cannot, however, continue much longer. That would lead sooner or later to erosion of confidence. With early measures, Finland’s public finances can still be strengthened in a controlled way. Even then, the general economic outlook is not bright, and there will still be a great deal of uncertainty. If measures are delayed too far, the rise of pressures for sudden and hasty policy action will grow considerably. The economic and social costs would then be much higher.

PERSONAL DETAILS:
Mikko Henttonen
Global Partner status (Associate – Executive – Senior): Executive
Country of registration: Finland
City of registration: Helsinki

SERVICE SKILLS:
Strategy
Value Chains
M and A
Post Deal Integration
Operational Efficiency
Management Accounting
Financial Accounting
Program Management
Project Management
ERP systems

INDUSTRY SECTOR EXPERIENCE:
Mechanical Engineering
Pulp and Paper
Telecomms
Retail
Wholesale
Tyre Manufacturing
ASPs
Postal Services
Media and Entertainment
Financial Services

QUALIFICATIONS AND EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT:
MSc – University of Jyvaskyla
BSc – University of Jyvaskyla

CLIENTS OR EMPLOYERS:
KONE Plc
PwC Ltd
KPMG Ltd
Tieto Plc
Nokia Plc
TeliaSonera Plc
UPM Plc
StoraEnso Plc
International Paper Plc
General Electric Plc

LANGUAGES
Finnish
Swedish
English

PERSONAL PROFILE:
My education majored on business economics, with the minors on IT-systems and production economics. Additionally, I also have degrees both in applied mathematics and statistics. This formal learning inspired my early professional interests on improving organizational efficiency and effectiveness through the use of IT and management information systems. As I gained more experience, my work has increasingly focused on the utilization of IT-systems to support business processes and organization strategy that affect organizational purpose and change as well as the success of individual firms instead of just implementing them for client’s purposes. My career to-date features: more than 10 years devoted to management consultancy and some four years in a top management role in organization with extensive global operations. Due to my work experience and background I do actually have quite extensive global work experience in various cultures. This has led to a situation where it is a lot easier for me to list the countries where I have not been working instead of listing countries where I have been working. My primary objective is to help develop organizations to be profitable and to operate in competitive global markets with successful strategies. My first professional experience (starting 1997) was gained with Tieto Group (then TietoEnator), the Helsinki-based consulting, application service provider and ICT-infrastructure service provider. I was recruited into Enterprise Resource Planning implementation project team, which implemented Dutch Baan ERP system for paper machine division of major Finnish mechanical engineering company. This was quite fantastic opportunity for freshman to get a chance to be involved in the first wave of ERP-system implementations and see the difficulties as well as successes when system with such extensive functionality is brought in to organization’s operations with well established organizational culture. My role in the implementation team was to specialize on finance accounting and management reporting related matters with special emphasis on customized reports development both in Baan and Business Warehouse environments. Now after words thinking I do believe this period of time gave needed basic understanding of complete man machine/system integration and it’s necessity in finance function in order to be able develop world class finance processes which support decision makers with fact based information. In the latter part of 1999 the project team’s implementation phase became to an end and project mode switched more or less into operational system maintenance services, this is when I turned my eyes towards new challenges. I was one of the lucky ones to receive personal invitation from Finnish subsidiary of KPMG International Network to work in their Information Risk Management team. At KPMG my perception of commercial organizations operations developed profoundly, compared to previous experience I gained insight of matters which matter most to the shareholders. My clients included major Finnish and Swedish publicly listed companies and this brought some extra into content and responsibilities of my work, i.e. the assurance of system platform controls from financial reporting perspective. Previously I had worked with operational solutions for operative management but now Corporate Governance requirements were brought in and I began gradually understand the ‘big picture’ of corporate operations. At KPMG my position was senior consultant and besides of assurance work also some advisory assignments were carried out. The work at KPMG was made of IT General Controls reviews (IT-strategy, change controls, system security, – development as well as system operations) and ERP systems application controls reviews (management and user controls, system configurable controls, authorizations and user profiles), the system platforms included were SAP, Oracle and Baan. Also worth to mention is that during this period of time I was included in KPMG’s IFRS task force, i.e. preparing instructions to publicly listed companies for their transfer to IFRS based financial reporting. I was then asked 2002 to join the PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory services at their Helsinki office. The predominant difference between previous experience and PwC was that now almost all customer assignments were advisory or consulting cases. Customers were mainly publicly listed companies both in Finland and abroad. In the early part of 2003 the accounting scandals led to a situation where I was quite heavily involved with Finnish NYSE listed companies SOX development processes. These assignments were quite large and involved a lot of travelling both in Europe and in the US giving me an opportunity to learn differences in organizational cultures and attitudes between these two continents. I was positioned in Finance Function Efficiency team and work included due diligences, post deal integration advisory and off course pure Finance function consultancy from reporting development to processes streamlining. At PwC my position was manager bringing some responsibilities into my work in the form of projects management as well as program management which were related to major ERP implementation projects and related strategic change (processes, technology, organization and people). In 2007 I was headhunted to Finnish based Elevator & Escalator firm KONE and asked as and if I was keen on of possibility to work for company at corporate internal auditor position. By answering yes I had a chance to experience from close range how decision making processes actually operate in global organization. This is something which I truly believe differentiates my professional profile amongst management consultants, i.e. job required close relationship and understanding of Board of Governors risks perceptions and at the same time gave me an authority to act as their eyes and ears all over the world while assuring corporations strategy execution (with M and A), operations, financial reporting and compliance related activities. All works have their negative sides and in this job it was extensive travelling (plus 120 travel days on global basis), so therefore I departed the company in late 2011 to pursue my own consulting ventures. My current consulting work brings together my unique combination of experiences, encompassing diverse investigations into the effects of globalization, technology, sustainability and other critical socio-economic developments on international business strategy. And journey still continues…

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
Helsinki – Finland
Stockholm – Sweden
Oslo – Norway
St. Petersburg – Russia
Berlin – Germany

Global Partner preferred location
City: Helsinki
Country: Finland

CONTACT
To contact Mikko Henttonen (EGP), please forward an email to the Academy of Business Strategy.

RELATED LINKS
Mikko Henttonen – Certified Business Specialist (CBS) Professional Articles

THE ACADEMY OF BUSINESS STRATEGY - JAPAN

KENICHIRO HOKUGO (EGP) MBA BA
EXECUTIVE GLOBAL PARTNER (EGP)

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: Tokyo (Japan)
HISTORY
Tokyo has been the (official) capital of Japan for almost 150 years, although the government has been set in Tokyo since 1600. As with other big cities in the world, Tokyo has long and rich history and the cityscape shows the good mix of past and present. Needless to say, Tokyo has been the business center of Asia for a long time. It showed to the world its surprising come-back from the devastation of the WWII and kept on growing as the Leader of Asia. While the leadership in manufacturing business was truly impressive, there was actually the mix of true evolution and illusion thanks to the Plaza Agreement in 80s that ultimately took the whole country into the bubble economy. As well-known and now has become a text book topic, the bubble most certainly DOES burst someday, Tokyo’s property price, stock price, and whatever got inflated by too much liquidity have had to endure the long and painful path, trying to get back to normal. That having been said, Tokyo’s contribution to the technological advancement as well as the soft trend for the past few decades was truly remarkable. It must have been amazing that such a small country was the world’s No. 2 in terms of GDP only next to USA, but seeing is believing. The hard workers and the attention to details attitude would make a convincing case.

CURRENT POSITION
Now Japan is No. 3 in terms of GDP and Tokyo is still the No. 1 city in Japan. It may be true that Tokyo has lost some of its attractiveness or competitive edge to other Asian countries. There are many reasons behind it but things in Tokyo may not be as bad as it may look and other markets in Asia may not be as rosy as it may look, relatively speaking. First of all, Tokyo has lost its attractiveness as the consumer market simply because people already have what they need. But, Japanese have been so spoiled by the sophisticated products and services, foreign products and services seldom appeal them. Sometimes Japanese are blamed to be too picky or sometimes it is considered like non-trade tariff, but if you want to sell products in Japan, you have to understand that it is not because your products are foreign, but simply because it is not attractive to Japanese taste. Sure, it may be easier to sell to other Asian countries, but Japan or Tokyo still has attractive pool of consumers who are willing to spend on what is good. Look at the success of iPhone, iPad and failure of Japanese cell phone or smart phone brands. iPhone/iPad were designed by Steven Jobs who loved Zen – Japan’s simplistic approach. Not the problem for Japan is the inside parts of those iPhone or iPad are becoming more and more non-Japanese brands and something has to be done about it. From the consumer market angle, there are more areas attractive to non-Japanese brands – high end cars, high end luxury goods. Fortunately or unfortunately, Japan is becoming more and more like US – accelerated capitalism, meaning the difference of rich and poor are becoming more prominent. So, average Japanese may not look like your target consumer, there are certainly the pool of wealthy individuals who would be willing to spend for the luxury goods and services. Also, do not forget the sophistication of the Japanese consumers. Being well connected to the luxury industry, they did learn a lot from Japanese consumers and still look at what is trendy in Tokyo because other markets will follow Tokyo’s evolution.
On the other angles of the business in Tokyo, there are still lots of attractive area. If you look closely, Tokyo’s strength is still there – craftsmanship. You have no idea what a small almost bankrupt factory in the suburb of Tokyo can do, for example. Attention to details is in Japanese and Tokyo DNA, and the quality of the products, innovativeness, creativity, and ingenuity are still all there, which other emerging markets cannot offer. The key to extract such quality is idea, capital, and motivation. And the key to find such talent is human connection. Ask around and you will find one.

FUTURE OUTLOOK
From macro perspective, honestly, it may take Tokyo a while to really re-emerge as the Center or the Leader of Asian economy. But as mentioned above, Japan is still and will still be for a long time the leader in the quality of the products and sophistication of the consumers. Also, the OVERALL environment is and will be far better or the best in Asia – in terms of safety in daily lives, sophistication as people, cleanness of the city, and friendliness. Regulation, tax or law may not be the best in the world, though. Asset price will stabilize after two decades and the environment for investing in the hard asset may be attractive again, while the interest rate will be kept low for a while. The low interest rate right now is not for the wrong reason like 80s, but to stop deflation. But, majority of the consumers are actually happy with this deflation because things were just more expensive than they should be and now it is getting closer to the global standard price, so there will be no stopping to this deflation for a while and the interest rate will be kept low for a while. With the mix of stable asset price and low interest rate, there would be a good investment opportunity and this time there won’t be the bubble burst. As the consumer market, Tokyo will still be an attractive market for the luxury goods brands as well as well-thought consumer products which can convince the tech savvy or sophisticated consumers in terms of quality. From the angle of manufacturing, craftsmanship will remain the strength of Tokyo and the brains which were bought out by China and Korea will come back. Tokyo will again be the leader in the manufacturing or rather creating or designing or innovating the products. Manufacturing may be shifted to non-China emerging markets, but then again, like many US companies are doing now, Tokyo’s manufacturing may come back to Tokyo again in the near future. It will be a myth that manufacturing in Tokyo is too costly. And again, Tokyo will remain the safest place and most comfortable place to work and people are very nice and polite to work with. Promise is kept in Tokyo, just like other major western cities.

PERSONAL DETAILS:
Kenichiro Hokugo
Global Partner status (Associate – Executive – Senior): Executive
Country of registration: Japan
City of registration: Tokyo

SERVICE SKILLS:
Investment Advice
Portfolio Management
Post Merger Integration
Solution Provide
PE fund, Venture capital
Asset Management
Global Corporate Finance
Securitization and Structured Credit

INDUSTRY SECTOR EXPERIENCE:
Financial Services

QUALIFICATIONS AND EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT:
MBA – Columbia University Graduate School of Business
BA – Keio Gijuku University

CLIENTS OR EMPLOYERS:
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

LANGUAGES
English
Japanese

PERSONAL PROFILE:
Mr Hokugo was born and grew up in Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan. He worked for Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC also Sumitomo as it was Sumitomo Bank when he joined in 1988) until March 2012, as SVP of the Investment Banking Unit. Prior to that, he had been assigned to SMBC’s New York operation for 15 years, having experienced almost everything – from private equity fund investment, acquisition and post-merger integration of another bank, securitization of its own loan assets, securitization of insurance risks, structured credit products, leveraged loans, to strategic planning and implementation. During his tenor in New York, he focused on providing solution to the clients as well as the Bank and new frontiers for the Bank. His first assignment was with the project team to acquire Daiwa Bank’s US operation in just under 90 days (Daiwa Bank was ordered by FRB to leave the country in 90 days, and Sumitomo Bank decided to help Daiwa). He was the most junior in the team and was assigned to administrative aspect of PMI as well as personnel issues in addition to other due diligences. His next big project was to securitize Sumitomo’s loan portfolio to major US corporations to reduce the Risk Capital, i.e. to raise the regulatory capital. Then, he also was in the negotiation team when Goldman Sachs decided to be incorporated and IPO with respect to the terms and conditions to convert Sumitomo’s Partnership Interest to Stocks. He is also knowledgeable about the insurance/reinsurance world as he and his team invested in the first Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) and then visited Bermuda to interview several re-insurers, and finally structured ILS product to sell on to other investors. His biggest project was to structure the Credit Risk Protection Program for Goldman Sachs as the New York Team Leader when, in turn, Goldman decided to invest in SMBC’s new equity. It is structured like securitization vehicle and the expected size was USD55 billion. It took 7 months from conception to execution including very tough negotiation with Goldman team, as well as FIVE financial regulators – Federal Reserve Board in Washington D.C., Federal Reserve Bank of New York, State of New York Banking Department, State of New York, Insurance Department, Cayman Monetary Authority, and Financial Supervisory Agency of Japan. He also was innovative in providing solution. He came up with an idea to hedge the loan credit risk, which is not marked to the market, with the credit derivative which generally must be marked to the market, under Financial Guarantee Agreement to satisfy Accounting regulation by having an investment bank who will transfer the risk internally from loan desk to derivative risk – this was the first ever created structure and awarded internally the Deal of the Year. Another example of his innovative mind was to set up a vehicle in Cayman which buys and sells loans – syndicated leveraged loans, generally rated BB plus or below. The Bank was a foreign bank and did not have expertise in the non-investment grade credits – but the leveraged loan market has been attractive and naturally entered several times and lost money and got out. There never was home-grown expertise for the asset class. Naturally, solution and his own motto was to outsource whatever you cannot do by yourself. He talked to various loan fund managers or CLO managers who know a lot about the non-investment grade loans and the market. He finally found a suitable manager who was willing to comply with the rigid, non-flexible Bank’s regulation and rules. The project was a success, the Bank’s Credit Department was relieved from the burden of tough judgment for the low grade loans and the Bank enjoyed the benefit of the attractive asset class. After a few years, the Bank issued CLO using the assets in the vehicle and the program grew. Aside from the work, he is interested in classical music and its sound reproduction, i.e. building the audio system and enjoying it. The room is the most important instrument in the audio system and it is very impossible to reproduce the concert hall. Also he is very interested in watches and photography. He is a moderator for one of the world’s largest watch enthusiasts’ internet community. He enjoys cityscape, landscape photography. He is MBA of Columbia Business School, BA of Keio University, Department of Economics. He also went to Keio High School.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
Tokyo – Japan
New York – United States of America
London – United Kingdom
Geneva – Switzerland
Berlin – Germany

Global Partner preferred location
City: Tokyo
Country: Japan

CONTACT
To contact Kenichiro Hokugo (EGP), please forward an email to the Academy of Business Strategy.