- Petr Majerik, CEO, ZenithOptimedia: when the GDP is going down, ad expenditures are copying the trend, only that much more abruptly. In 2009, the CEE adspend decreased the most worldwide (-24.5%), but it also has the highest potential to grow by 2013 (31%). In 2011 the Czech ad market forecast is growth around 5%. In CEE, the TV and Internet market will grow at the expense of print media. Let’s hope the overall growth trend will be stable and sustainable in the Czech Republic, despite the small size of the market and the already high prices of ad space in this country;

- Istvan Leko, founder and editor in chief, Ceska pozice (www.ceskapozice.cz), the newest media project launched in Prague in December 2010: we know that, if we want to go for “clean” advertising only, we can’t be profitable. Our finances are covered by sponsors we won’t reveal in their and our own benefit so that we can preserve our neutrality. We want to focus on delivering highly valuable content and contribute at reducing vital problems in the Czech Republic such as corruption, poor educational, healthcare and social systems and achieving better ecology;

- Adam Zbiejczuk, social media expert, Ataxo Czech: if you canʼt be a love brand, be a trustful partner and a helping friend. If your employees don’t like their work and can’t engage and support your efforts, don’t go on social media. Everyone in a company needs to be involved and engaged in the conversation with customers. Ignore trolls and deceiving metrics such as the number of fans. And if you need to lie, do it with style. There is definitely a lot to learn in the field of social media in 2011;

- Martina Kemrova, senior head of corporate communication, T-Mobile: the biggest challenge in setting up a proper PR strategy isn’t the media, but the internal factors. If managers don’t understand the need for communication, the external factors are less relevant. However, if Czech journalists were less mobile and would spend more time in the same newsroom, it would also help building more trust between the media and the corporate sphere. Indeed, if Czech media managers were aware that staff fluctuation is harming their products and would put a higher price on quality staff, the Czech media market would grow on quality (my comment);

- Vladimir Bystrov, strategic planning director, Bison & Rose: bear in mind five letters:

One of the trends emphasized is that, on the one hand, clients are asking for more efficiency and accountability from their advertising and communication agencies. On the other hand, clients aren’t always willing to pay for the services they receive. More and more clients learn to do things internally – which isn’t bad if they bothered to invest in hiring more people for communications and training them properly. But that’s not always the case.

Another trend is that paid digital content is becoming the norm on the Czech market. More and more publishers go for it and even the Publishers’ Union is carrying discussions about how to support publishers in their approach. Information is not for free, publishers agree. Now it’s the time to see whether the market is ready to confirm or infirm that trend.

With or without paid content, readers, listeners and viewers are customers and the level of customer care is lousy in the Czech Republic, some publishers agreed. Not a surprise, if one compares with the level of services in other industries in this country. The gloomy mood was boosted by Erik Best, the publisher of the Fleet Sheet and The Final Word, who said that the wind blowing from the West isn’t encouraging; the level of customer care will probably go even lower in the future – if that’s possible.

For an attentive eye, most of the discussion panels were made of men. This reflects a reality of the Czech media world (and not only) – from newsrooms to media agencies women work and men run the business. This empirical statement needs to be enforced with figures, but this is an aspect of the Czech media market no one bothered to research yet.

If there was something missing at the Forum it was the lack of impact of the economic crisis on the level of arrogance and self-sufficiency of the Czech media gurus. Despite the changing trends, many of the speakers sent a silent message. It doesn’t matter what the clients want and how the market is changing; we are here, we have a pretty strong and comfortable market position and if you want the job done, you’ll have to work with us – and follow our rules. When one is looking for a reason for this self-sufficiency, maybe it wouldn’t be bad to look at the gender composition of the top management of media agencies. However, it’s a pity this crisis didn’t bring a wake-up call for the Czech media specialists. Quality services done in an open and honest way, with a respectful approach towards the client and the market, aren’t here yet. This isn’t valid for the media market only – it’s valid in general. It could be said that, from this point of view, the Czech media market missed a damn good crisis.

1.      Don’t hang up. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a conversation with the president of the country. If you didn’t bother to switch off your mobile before the meeting and you picked it up, you better talk. Otherwise, hanging up will only add to the frustration and anger of the journalist.

2.      Breathe. Take deep breaths that will help you oxygenate your brain and retain self-control during the conversation.

3.      Listen. Let the journalist tell you the whole story before you jump to conclusions.

4.      Don’t lose your temper. Ask questions with a calm voice and try to get all the information the journalist has. This will help you put the situation in a better picture.

5.      Don’t jump into anything. Apologies, the blame game, revealing information to make the journalist feel less angry – don’t. Just try to evaluate the whole situation and its impact in cold blood and get yourself ready for the next steps.

6.      Ask for a solution. Ask the journalist what solution for the problem he would see as satisfactory. Many times you will have a surprise that people will ask for far less that you were ready to offer to fix the damage.

7.      Gain time. Tell the journalist: “Ok. I understand. Would you give me half an hour to discuss this with the people in charge to see how this mistake occurred? Then let me get back to you with an answer and a solution.”

8.      Get PR involved. Call in your PR advisors and let them take a look at the situation. It’s important to analyze the media the journalist represents and its target group – tabloid versus high quality economic reporting. The outcome of a poorly managed crisis situation can be anything, including a huge scandal that could kneel down your business. Maybe your PR advisors know the journalist personally and can tell you what works to pacify him or her. While some journalists just want things fixed with a chance they won’t repeat again, some others take it personally and make a crusade against a business case. You might want to know whom you’re dealing with before you call back. For that, an intelligent PR advisor is more needed than ever in this type of situation.

9.      Reach a solution. For the journalist like any other client who suffered because of your services, find a solution that works. Define the solution, find ways to deliver it, add a bit of something to compensate for the annoyance and then return the call.

10.  Call back with a sincere apology. The client is always right. This might sound a bit too American for the quality-fragile Czech service market, but it’s the truth. Call back the journalist and offer a sincere apology. Sincere. Then tell him what solution you reached and how you plan to deliver it.

11.  Invite the journalist in. Why don’t you use this crisis situation as an opportunity to get the journalist familiar with your business? Say: “Look, I’m sorry this happened, but maybe if you come over and take a look at our facilities and processes, you could get a different feeling about what happened. I’ll be happy to explain all that to you tomorrow morning.” Push for a direct meeting that could take place as soon as possible. Like this, you gain time and an extra-safety belt that the journalist won’t actually run a story before meeting you personally.

12.  Manage the meeting. Explain your company processes and put a light on the spots that might have led to the mistake. Then, add something for the journalist – some news, maybe something on an incoming acquisition or company expansion plans. That ‘something’ will make the journalist write a story on a different tone. Even though some negative accents might still get into the story, they will be nicely counterbalanced by your positive news.

13.  Be pro-active and care. Journalists have long memories – they don’t forget sources that lied to them instead of treating them with respect. So, take things into your own hands. Treat the journalist as if he was your most lucrative client. If you offer respect and consideration, you have a higher chance of getting the same in return. If you manage this crisis communication well, you’ll sleep better at night. For many years, as many years as your business will keep on prospering and not going bust on some ridiculous oversight.

Copyright © Cristina Muntean, MediaIntel, 2010. All rights reserved.

Some 80 percent of the cases of blindness now existing in the world can be treated. For a surgery that takes 15 minutes in Prague and costs much more, those people need only what we leave one evening in a restaurant or one Saturday in a supermarket. I have a feeling that this is a good cause worth of our consideration.

http://www.svetloprosvet.cz/

1.      The audience is the secret. You will talk to a journalist, but the journalist is there to represent an audience. He mediates communication between you and a group of people who can be anyone, from tabloid-hungry readers to financial investors. That audience includes your stakeholders: your clients, business partners, bankers, etc. When you talk to a journalist, you are actually addressing your stakeholders. Bear that in mind and it will help you shape your message much more clearly.

2.      Be on time. Would you be late if the journalist you’re meeting is your most lucrative client? Probably not. Respect the journalist and you will be respected.

3.      Be polite, open and helpful. When you enter a room, greet the people in there – the journalist, his staff (photographer, operator, sound assistant) etc. This includes your own PR staff, if present. If the encounter takes place within your premises, make sure you treat the media crew as your guests. Help them get some drinks, make them feel comfortable. This would create a relaxed atmosphere that will help you during the interview.

4.      Rule the rules. If the journalist doesn’t start by telling you the rules of the interview, take initiative and do it yourself. Ask once more about the section / broadcast time where the story will go and restate what you are ready to talk about. If you agree to talk about your company’s performance, don’t go and speak about your last summer holidays. It might be appropriate for an informal meeting, but during the interview it might be a waste of time.

5. Say ‘no’ with a reason. If any of the rules the journalist tells you is not all right with you, feel free to say so. Yet, make sure you give a good reason for your refusal – for example, you can’t speak about your latest financial results because you’re listed on the stock exchange and your results haven’t been published yet. Make sure you only oppose rightful things. Nothing is more annoying than a source who behaves like a bride in her first wedding night. For example, if you’re not properly dressed for a photo session and the journalist has come with a photographer, it’s very annoying to refuse the photo session. Journalists want to takes pictures of you as you speak and saying ‘no’ to pictures means saying ‘no’ to the whole interview. Make sure your image represents you before you meet the media and say ‘no’ only when you have a solid reason to do so.

6.      Listen. Listen. Listen. Listen to the question carefully and answer to the point. Don’t digress. For radio and TV, stick with answers around 15 seconds. For the print, stick with answers around two minutes. If you don’t, you run the risk to be cut and the final outcome might surprise you – unpleasantly.

7.      Don’t get lost into details. The journalist isn’t there to take over your job. He doesn’t need to know all the details your work involves; he just needs a good story. If he needs more details, he can simply ask for them.

8.      Avoid professional slang. You’re not talking to a technical engineer; you’re talking to your stakeholders. Directly, you’re talking to a journalist who has most probably written stories on politics, energy, finance, ecology and maybe lifestyle for the last two weeks. His job isn’t to be a specialist, but to know whom to call when he needs special advice. Even if the specialist in you is screaming with frustration, let your professional slang for your colleagues and use a human language for the media.

9.      Don’t patronize. The journalist might not know all the details of your business, but that doesn’t make him dumb. That’s why he’s there, to get some information from you. Even in extreme cases when it’s obvious the journalist isn’t prepared for the interview, don’t patronize. Use the opportunity to inform, educate and pass your key messages through. If you patronize, you run the risk of facing an aggressive and suspicious journalist. That’s not the atmosphere you want to create for your media talk.

10.  Use concrete facts, figures, funny stories, comparisons, metaphors and anything else that helps you illustrate your point. Such colorful statements will most probably be the ones that will carry your messages out to the audience.

11.  Don’t take it personally. During the interview, a journalist must take notes, listen to you, check on the technical equipment and keep an eye on time to make sure he’ll make it for the next job assignment. If he’s not maintaining eye contact with you all the time, don’t take it personally or as a sign of ignorance. He’s just doing his job. As for you, try to maintain eye contact all the time.

12.  Never ask for authorization. There is nothing more annoying for a professional journalist than a source who doesn’t trust his work. By the contrary, if the journalist is fast to offer you an authorization, beware – the journalist is most probably too lazy or too busy to check the details by himself. In that case, do help with a story check. Make sure you only change incorrect facts and figures and stay away from changing the text into an unpaid advertisement. Plus, send the authorization in time. Otherwise you might have the surprise that the wrong version of your story hits the stands the second day in the morning because your proof-read version got to the editor too late, after the story had already been sent to the printer.

13.  Stay open and helpful after the interview ends. Tell the journalist he can call you anytime to clarify names, figures and events. Short text messages (SMS) are a great fast tool to avoid little mistakes getting into the story. Offering your mobile number to a journalist isn’t a sin after all – it’s much better to get a phone call at an inappropriate moment than to be confronted with an article that distorts your speech and make you look ignorant or incompetent to your colleagues, bosses and business stakeholders.

Copyright © Cristina Muntean, MediaIntel, 2010. All rights reserved.

What makes the difference between a great media speaker and a source all journalists would strive to avoid? Most usually, it’s preparation. A media-aware leader always knows what he’s doing, whom he is going to talk to and what exactly he’s going to tell the journalist and, through the media, to his stakeholders. Basically, a media-aware leader always does his homework before meeting a journalist. That homework starts with the very first moment when your phone is ringing. You pick it up and guess what? It’s the press.

1. Who’s calling? From the very first instant you pick up the phone, you must find out with whom you are speaking. If the journalist is calling you directly, ask for his / her name, the name and the type of the medium (print, radio, TV, online etc.), the sector / section covered and the interest in speaking to you. This will help you enormously in the later stages of your media encounter preparation.
2. Gain time. After you make sure you understand what the journalist needs from you, you can tell the journalist you’ll be calling back as soon as possible with an answer. Don’t take more than an hour to call back. Particularly TV journalists need to know immediately whether they can count on your interview or not.
3. Inform your media desk. That’s why your PR and spokespeople are there, to advice you in this type of situation. Make sure they know you will be talking to the media and get advice on how to handle the call. Then, follow that advice.
4. Call back. If you decide to talk, let the journalist know about it as soon as possible. Journalists face tough deadlines on a daily basis. Every minute you save for them makes you more likely to become their friend.
5. Clarify the rules. When you call back, make sure you discuss clear rules about how the interview is going to take place. When? Where? For how long? On what topics precisely? Will there be a video camera / a photo session? You must count that the majority of interviews, direct or via the phone, will be recorded. Make sure you have all these questions answered before you get off the phone.
6. Do your homework. Get background on the journalist and the medium. Use the expertise of your PR department / agency to understand whom you’re going to meet. A little courtesy remark about the last article the journalist wrote might set up a positive tone of the encounter that might be reflected later in the final media outcome.
7. Prepare your media kit. This is not a sales meeting. Make sure you hand the journalist only those materials that contain relevant background for his subject of interest. Otherwise, be sure your kit will end up in the first trash bin.
8. Make sure your image and outfit suits the media encounter. You might have come by bike to the office this morning, but if you have an interview, you better take a shower and put on that suit that you have hanging in your office closet for this type of unexpected situations. Make sure your image corresponds to the message you’d like to transmit to your stakeholders via the journalist.
9. Prepare your key core messages. You shouldn’t strive to deliver more than three messages per encounter. If you’re a successful bank, that’s your message and you can tell that in various means. Building your key core messages will be handled in more details in a future post. For the moment, just remember that you must have at least two key core messages you want to transmit to the journalist – and stick to them.
10. Get yourself equipped with facts, figures and anecdotes. When the journalist will be leaving your premises, he will most probably like to know when your company was founded and by whom; who owns your company; how many employees you have; the main milestones in your company existence; your current economic figures (sales, turnover, net profit) compared to last year; and your plans for the future. Place facts and figures in a context; otherwise you might be facing a wrong interpretation. Use anecdotes to lighten the tone of the discussion and be visual when you speak. Those juicy parts of your speech will most probably make it to the final article.
11. Be ready to speak in sound bites. To express your key messages, get equipped with strongly visual comparisons, metaphors and images that can catch the attention of the journalist. If he’s quoting you with such a sound bite, you are sure that you got your message through in a correct manner.
12. Help with the encounter preparation. Have your secretary send the journalist an e-mail with clear directions about how to reach your location, where to park in your neighborhood etc. Stay available if background is required from you prior to the interview. That will only help the journalist prepare himself better – and avoid future misunderstandings.
13. Don’t take it personally. If the interview is cancelled for various reasons despite the amount of preparation you put in it, don’t take it personally. Journalists are under constant pressure from their editors, sources, deadlines and the type of media. Try to re-schedule. Tell the journalist that you put a lot of effort into your interview preparation and you’d like to meet him / her anyway. Stay available for the next call. The press will call again, sooner or later.

When I decided to write about Our Address, I called Roman Gallo, the managing director of PPF Media, a new unit created by the Czech financial group PPF in 2007 to coordinate media investments. I knew Gallo by reputation – an old school journalist with strong values, opinions and vision to do something differently. He used to be in charge of the largest Czech regional print publisher Vltava-Labe Press (VLP) and stood behind the launch of the online news server Aktualne.cz. When I called him, he was fast to react. “It’s not worth talking about it if you don’t see it. Why don’t you come with me this afternoon to see the project at work?” Sure, and off we went. On the way, Gallo was speaking about the realities of the Czech media market. Many things I could write afterwards, and many I could not. We went first to Teplice, then to Ústí nad Labem, both in North Bohemia. In both locations Our Address had already started publication. It was betting on the principle of citizen journalism and media generated in small cafes, when readers could come in and contribute at will.

Something new was cooking

Entering one of the cafes, one had a strange feeling. A tinny partition was separating the journalists from the people who were coming to have a coffee, take a snack, read their newspaper and have a chat with the author of a story. In short time, the weeklies had attracted a consistent number of subscribers. People were curious to join the social activities organized by Our Address and seemed happy to send little info about their events, pictures of their family celebrations or short announcements about their small businesses. After all, this is the basis of small communities – everyone knows everyone and they want to talk about things they consider common interest. The most surprising thing was the energy of the journalists involved. Under a constant pressure – they could be called upon by readers anytime given their physical exposure in the café during work – they were delivering content for the web and for the print versions. I was tired after the trip from Prague, but their enthusiasm was contagious. They seemed really engaged and willing to put extra-time and hard work to make the project function. We all know this isn’t a common feature of the Czech labor market… I was certain that, if they continue like that, they will redefine citizen journalism in Central Europe, despite the economic crisis.

Instead of growth, liquidation

Well, it was exactly the crisis – or the low volume of advertising triggered by the recent economic downturn – that has apparently made the project unprofitable. This Saturday, PPF announced PPF Media was being sold to Richard Bendýšek, a financial investor. Only that, according to the Czech economic daily Hospodářské noviny Bendýšek is known for buying companies to liquidate them. PPF wasn’t eager to give details on the deal and justified the decision with its new focus on projects larger than € 8 million. Right. The faith of thousands of people who put their energies in the PPF Media projects seems to have been sealed at the negotiations table. What happens beyond finance, this isn’t the concern of Czech media investors. After all, why should they care?

Why should they care?

Being owned by investors who know nothing about media is a bitter reality of the Czech media market and not only. Here, media – and particularly economic media – are concentrated in the hands of a few people who think that having some media in their industrial portfolios is fun. Yet, when the hole created in their budget by poor management and lack of vision isn’t funny anymore, they close the shop down. It’s as simple as that. The problem is that vision isn’t missing at the ground level of the people who manage the media projects. The vision and a deep understanding of the way how media markets work is terribly missing at the level of boards that can only understand oil and finance if they see it in a global perspective. This makes me wonder what they are doing in the media in the first place. Back in April 2010, Czech Business Weekly was closed following a similar scenario. An abrupt decision came over night, made on Monday, announced to the team on Tuesday and enforced in less than a week. After five years of hard work, the CBW team had four days to produce the last magazine, a weekend to clean up and a Monday to hand over keys, computers, pick up their staff and leave. Did it matter to anyone from KKCG, an oil, gas and financial group that their decision left a hole on the Czech and CEE market of English language business news? No. Did it matter that the closure could have been avoided by appointing competent people with vision in key positions such as management and sales? No. The only people who suffered directly following the decision were the CBW team and the readers. This is why it is sad to see Our Address closed down. Financial decisions made by big sharks – who are the only one who can afford to invest in the media in CEE these days – have nothing to do with the media or the democracy. In their hands, media are nothing but a toy to play with while it’s funny. When fun stops, the game is over. This is the reality of a small, immature and vulnerable media market, left at the will of financial sharks without imagination.

Ian Liška was born in Guatemala in 1983 from a Czech father and Guatemalan mother with Spanish forefathers. Three years ago after his studies, he moved to Europe. A top university graduate of chemistry, he decided to quit this professional orientation and listen to his heart. Inspired by his eldest sister Ana Liška who is a well-known painter in Guatemala, Ian started to paint as well. His first exhibition, symbolically called Metamorphosis, took place in Prague a year ago. The second, One Step beyond the Senses, was achieved one month ago in Casa Latina, a Prague 3 lounge bar focused on providing goods and art from Latin America. On September 9, 2010, Liška will launch his third exhibition in the five-star Boscolo Carlo IV hotel in Prague 1. Symbolic and profound, he melts colors and words into powerful messages. A citizen of the world coming back to his roots, the young painter is already preparing a fourth exhibition to be launched in June 2011 in Písek, the birth town of his father.

Q: What is the content of your exhibition that is about to open in Carlo IV?

A: The name of the exhibition is Tuning with Nature. I’m inspired by the elements of fire, water, air and earth and how they combine to form everything around us. In my paintings, I want to portray the message that humans are a part of the nature and they’re connected to the world and to each other. We’re all one living organism that affects itself. In my work, I send a general message that life comes out of people’s minds – the thoughts mould the world in a direct form through actions and feelings that accumulate, combine with each other and form what surrounds us today.

Q: What are your sources of inspiration?

A: It’s my life experience. Three years ago, I was inspired to have a big life change. At that time, I was in a world focused more on science. The numbers that surrounded me were not enough to portray my feelings, so I had to find something else. Life pushed me in the world of art. My eldest sister influenced me because she’s a painter and I’ve been watching her painting and having exhibitions since I was a child. She advised me to start with the acrylics I’m still using till today. My first exhibition was called Metamorphosis, a symbolic name for the changes I was going through. That’s the source of my inspiration – portraying my ideas.

Q: When did your first exhibition take place?

A: Last year in June.

Q: So, you’ve celebrated a year from your artistic launch already…

A: Yes, and it’s a really nice coincidence that my second exhibition [in Casa Latina] was also in June. Then, I have a very important exhibition next year in June as well in Písek [South Bohemia], in the birth town of my father. I’m looking forward to it and I’m already preparing it in mind and spirit because it’s a really big milestone for me.

Q: Do you have a mentor who’s leading you in your artistic development?

A: It’s a complicated thing because I have a different approach. I want to keep painting as a tool of expression of my soul, my spirit and thoughts. I want to keep [that tool] as pure as possible. I want to let myself learn from my experience with this method of expressing myself and I don’t want to get external influence into something that it very personal. My mentors are mostly the people I speak with or examples of the things I see. It can be anything – it can be the nature that surrounds me because I see many beautiful shapes and contrasts. The nature has many wonderful colors that I always get inspired by. Whatever surrounds me can be my mentor – the people I speak with, the thoughts those people bring into my life – that is a considerable source of inspiration and energy.

Q: Are there any symbols that keep coming back in your art ?  

A: Yes. It’s very easy to see the female forms expressed in a lot of my paintings. I have a big family and a big part of it is strong women. I am influenced by this image of strong women in my life and that is easily perceived in my paintings. There are strong women rising from the ground, strong women dancing – the female form is something that you can see everywhere.

Q: What does a strong woman mean to you?

A: A woman who knows herself, who is confident and has an inner voice stronger than the external influences. That’s a woman who knows herself and knows what she wants.

Q: How do you as a man cope with that type of feminine power?

A: I really admire it and I welcome strong women into my life. They are inspiration to me and I hope to have more strong women around me in the future. They’re shaping the world because they are mothers, they are wives and it’s true that behind every great man there is a great woman. I am happy to see examples of that in my everyday life.

Q: An important part of your paintings is the written message attached to them that is somehow explaining them to the public. In some cases, the power of your painting is several times enhanced by your words. How did you come up with the idea of offering your paintings together with their written expression?

A: At the same time when I started painting, I also started writing my thoughts. After a little bit of doing this, I started to think I’d write a book. My paintings and my book are going hand in hand. Sometimes, the book describes the painting I’m painting at the moment. I think the painting and the message behind the painting are equally important – they’re part of a package that helps me express myself twice as strong, because [the message] is expressed by words that are powerful by themselves and they’re inspired by colors and shapes that communicate directly to the people without words. I have a direct communication through colors and shapes to the spirit and then I try to combine it with my words.

Q: In general, artists have a very strong connection to their masterpieces. How do you feel when one of your paintings is finding an owner? 

A: It’s an honor, on the one hand. On the other hand, since a painting inspires more paintings, I try to absorb it before I say good bye. I watch it a lot and I try to get inspired before saying good bye to it. Then, when I do say good bye, I just welcome something new because I know that if I get attached to my old work, then I can’t create new original pieces. I have to let go and just try to absorb the most of what I can from my previous work and when it finds an owner, I say good bye proudly. There is an important part about being a painter and that’s sharing. That’s the end part of the process – if someone is taking it, that’s what is meant for: to share. So, I’m happy for it.

Q: What was the feedback you received after your first two exhibitions?

A: People like my paintings. This is what gives me energy for more. It’s building on itself and gives me more energy to paint. That’s what I like – it’s a constructive process that feeds itself. People who see my paintings give me the energy to keep going. That started with my first painting because I started to paint with one painting I needed to paint for myself. When people saw it, liked it and asked if I could do more, I started doing more and then I had the first exhibition and people welcomed my paintings and wrote beautiful things in my guest book and they inspired me for more. Painting changed me as a person, changed my views on many things and gave me a brand new world. So, painting changed me more than I can think of anything else.

Q: What will be the topic of your exhibition in Písek next year?

A: That’s a year in advance. I’m still not sure, but it will be something tied to my roots. My father is from Písek and I want to portray family and roots and this feeling of coming back home. I would like to portray these feelings of family and home in this exhibition in the Písek Museum. I hope I’ll manage it, but I still have a lot to paint, so it’s enough time.

Q: Where do you belong? Do you feel a Czech citizen already?

A: It’s a very sensitive question. When I’m in Guatemala, I don’t look like I’m Guatemalan, and here in the Czech Republic I don’t look like a Czech. Sometimes people ask where I am from and I don’t have to say anything. Sometimes I speak Czech and people listen to my accent and ask where I am from. In Guatemala it’s the same thing – I don’t look like a Guatemalan, so people are immediately asking where I am from. I think I’m a citizen of the world. I feel welcomed in both places. When I’m in Guatemala, I feel like home and when I’m in the Czech Republic, I feel the same thing. Both countries have so many positive aspects that are a perfect combination for me because I have the best of the two worlds.

Q: How do you see your development in the future?

A: I see myself painting and I see myself free – free to choose and to move and to settle wherever I want. I don’t see myself static in one place, I want to see myself free to choose and I see myself doing this from Prague. I want to build a base here in Prague.

Online art lovers can admire Ian’s work at http://www.ianliska.com/index.htm#img/ian-liska-carlo8.jpg

Leaders of several top Czech-based companies gathered on May 26, 2010, at a seminar organized by the executive search consultancy Williams & Partner to discuss these challenges. For Markus Köhler, HR director with Microsoft Czech Republic, the solution was to be prepared long time in advance. “It was a common challenge to do more with less. Besides, we set up the motto for our fiscal year 2010: Yes, we can,” he said. In 2009, Microsoft was nominated the Best Employer of the Year in the Czech Republic, according to a study published by Hewitt Associates; in 2010, it got the second place in the same competition, plus the first distinction as the best employer in the IT industry. Köhler said his company measures employees’ satisfaction four times a year. “This is how we receive feedback from our people and pinpoint the needs for new developments,” he said. Another essential issue for Microsoft was to focus on managers’ development. It implemented new assessment centers and tried to match people’s career development plans with the company growth perspectives. “We’re large enough to make sure our people can achieve their dreams within our company,” he said.

Another challenge pointed at by Barbara Frei, country manager with the automated technology provider ABB was that, normally, a manager spends some five percent of his time talking to employees. In crisis, this amount raises dramatically to over 30 percent. In these new conditions, the manager must show a good control over his emotions, in order not to let them influence employees’ mood.  “You become a role model for your people,” she said.

Jana Riebová, HR director with UniCredit Bank Czech Republic said that in 2009 her company experienced a loss of employee engagement. This was caused by several reasons. First, the crisis damaged the image of the banking industry heavily. Second, there is still a certain distance between the UniCredit employees and the new company brand. UniCredit experienced re-branding at the end of 2007, when two banks, HVB Bank and Živnostenská banka, a local bank with 139 years of tradition, were merged to create the fourth largest Czech back by volume of assets. “Before, people could identify easily with Živnostenská banka. Now that’s a challenge,” Riebová said. In the future, UniCredit aims to boost its share in the Czech retail banking from 22 percent of total revenues to roughly 50 percent. This means that engaged employees might be the key for the bank success. “We need to bring engagement back. For that, we need to stay simple,” Riebová said, adding that the UniCredit management came up with 10 “golden rules of simplicity” that will be used for a better communication with employees.

Finally, Branislav Hunčik, the director of the HR services department of the international consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers said that the golden rule in these new market conditions is trust. Managers need to inspire trust to employees and give them trust, in order for employees to give their best to the company. Clear goals are also an essential part of the picture, together with the fact that managers must be authentic. “This will boost a company’s competitiveness and set it ready for difficult times,” he said.

Overall, it can be said that engaging an employee is not very difficult. A person who joins a company or a project has already vision and enthusiasm to put things in practice. However, various factors such as the economic crisis, a challenging labor environment or poor management practices can decrease the initial engagement. This is why it’s more difficult to re-engage someone scared, frustrated or disappointed than to hire someone new. However, talent shouldn’t be lost in the process. Managers need to handle re-engagement among other challenges brought over by the crisis. It might be an effort to re-assess people’s dreams and see whether they match the company’s new development plans. For that, managers need to care for their people first, and see the bigger picture for their company second. Such an approach could raise managers from simple administrative roles to becoming true corporate leaders, the seminar concluded.

WSE, which is preparing its own initial public offering (IPO) that will take place in mid-November this year, has done a roadshow in Prague on June 21, 2010. The exchange emphasized its strong sides and put an accent on its outstanding figures. In 2009, WSE was the second largest European exchange by the value of its IPOs. It registered 16 IPOs valued at €1.4 billion, compared to 23 IPOs a year ago, raising € 555 million. The first player was the NYSE Euronext that led on IPO value with 13 IPOs raising €1.9 billion. The third European exchange by the value of IPOs was the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

WSE is thus the largest stock exchange in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Its growth has been recently fueled by the decision of the Polish government to start selling stakes in key state-owned assets such as the largest Polish insurer PZU or the power producer Tauron through WSE. The PZU listing, valued at roughly 8 billion zloty (€ 1.98 billion), was over-subscribed nine times and it was one of the largest IPOs in Europe this year.

In the Czech Republic, one of the companies queuing to be listed in Warsaw is Invia.Cz, the largest Czech online travel agency. Invia.Cz aims to be listed on the WSE main trading platform. The IPO should be done by mid-2011, according to Michal Drozd, Invia.Cz CEO.  The company doesn’t exclude the possibility of a double listing in Warsaw and Prague. However, this hasn’t been yet decided. If agreed, it would be done because of pure marketing reasons. “We are active in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania and we could use the marketing tied to the IPO to boost out image on these markets. When you’re publicly listed, any good news gets straight on the TV screens – same like any bad news,” he said.

Another local company that stepped on the WSE alternative trading system NewConnect is the integrated solar energy development company Photon Energy. The company, which focuses on generating solar power, is now preparing to step on the WSE main trading platform. This will be done by the end of September 2010, said Georg Hotar, chief financial officer (CFO) with Photon Energy.

Czech companies are taken to Warsaw by Cyrrus, a Brno, Central Moravia, based brokerage. Jan Procházka, a director and senior analyst with Cyrrus said that Czech companies have an interest in NewConnect, but they aren’t queuing for the platform as they do in Poland. “We do have a couple of companies in the pipeline, but it’s not a huge number like in Poland, where there are 50 companies waiting in line to be accepted on NewConnect,” he said. One of the reasons why it’s not possible to list more Czech companies on NewConnect is the financial situation of these companies. “They need to make sure they’re perfectly healthy, financially speaking, and that they have a bullet-proof business story to tell, otherwise we won’t accept them for the public listing,” Procházka said.

On the other hand, publicity is one of the major advantages a company gets when stepping on NewConnect. Critics of the WSE non-regulated alternative platform point at the fact that, after being listed, companies lie down with no one trading on their stocks. “It’s true that we don’t have the same level of trading on NewConnect as on the regulated platforms, but this is natural, given the criteria [a company must fulfill to be present on] NewConnect,” said Ludwig Sobolewski, head of WSE. This regards the size of the company – usually medium-size enterprises – and the volume available for free-float, which is usually 20 to 30 percent of the company value. “At these parameters, the trading volume is a decent one,” Sobolewski said. “Those companies that are successful get ready to step on the main platform,” he added, pointing at the fact that there are currently 14 such firms waiting to step onto the main platform from NewConnect.

If alternative trading really works, then why don’t we have such a platform in Prague? “It’s quite expensive,” said a source that declined to be named. “The Prague Stock Exchange (PSE) was too busy with being bought by the Vienna Stock Exchange (WB) and had all interests to keep costs down. So, PSE didn’t have a direct interest to develop such a platform that would bring returns only after some three years of investments,” the source said. Even if it doesn’t make sense for PSE, being publicly listed on an alternative platform may make sense for many a small and medium-sized company. “They get free marketing and they learn how to be more transparent. Practically, they get ready for stepping on a regular trading platform. And that is good for many of them,” the source said.