Business success storyA new concept of fitness centers -Liberty Fitness- is breaking the records in USA and now in the rest of the world. Founded by Liberty Harper , a San Diego 24 years old American fitness trainer ,Liberty Fitness propose a fitness place dedicated to women with specific training concept and equipments.
The concept is based on a 30 minutes training program on a "for women" designed equipment on the sound of energizing music.
No usual weight lifting there but hydraulic machines developed for women and fitting their specific morphology, endurance, strength and workout requirements. A personal trainer, a woman of course is assigned an coaching your dedicated programs
No feeling to be observed or surrounded by men's eyes here, they are "persona non grata ". Women can open talk, laugh, be themselves. .
In a time where loosing weight is also growing concern for women, the concept does not end at simple exercising. Nutrition and Wellness are emphasized with specific program and amenities such as Hydro massages or Sunlight saunas.
The concept is now a major success with franchises all through with 14000 centers. With aver 60 % of american women overweighed and a Fitness clubs growth rate of 7% per year over the past 15 years and are forecast to grow 14% per year near-term, there is continues expending perspect.
Women focussed well-being with specialized press like "Women Fitness and Health" is increasingly popular, more and more article are also making national and international magazines covers.
This concept has recently been launched in
Lets guess that same success will knock the door.
A new comer is heavily investing into Paris area and building Residential Complex:
Stroimontage is arriving directly from - In 2008, they will deliver their 700 first “high class “ residential apartments" , 400 in South Paris and 300 in the Eastern suburb close to Euro Disney Paris, at a price of approx 3500 Euro/m targeting Middle to High Class investors.
Stroimontage President Artur Kirilenko said they would have completed the construction even earlier than 2008 if they would not faced a half-year delay from the town government, which decided to re-organize its general plan, but also a psychological reluctancy from some french decidors.
They are subcontracting the construction to Bateg ( Vinci Group) and using very innovative sales methods like late evenings opening hours at their sales offices. Competition is watching this new comer , with increasing interest ( and maybe fears !) :
The total investment in property acquisition for the Stroimontage means “Building” in Russian (Spasiba Svetlana -J). It is a typical example of the success of these new Russian entrepreneurs who now developing outside their country and expanding West. Founded in 1994, this road and building construction
In
Today Stroimontage is a very profitable company (40 € millions Net Profit for 350€ millions Turnover , 4500 Employees) that already built 1 million Sq/m. Founding partners Kirilenko and Polonsky appeared on the Russian millionaires list today.
What is their next move? Stroimontage said it will diversify its business activities to the fields of aerospace technology, medicine and ecology. As an example Kirilenko cited Stroimontage's partnership with the Senchin institute in
So, are you ready to invest you next Dasvidania!
Emmanuel Facovi
Do you know the BYO restaurants ? Yes BYO not BIO
BYO goes for Bring Your Own (Bottle) . This new restaurant concept is coming right away from New Zealand and Australia , and yet a new BYO opens every day in big American Cities.
Originaly BYO restaurants are the ones not having the licence to sell alcohoolic beverages and liquors, so that they permitted their clients to bring their own bottles.
Believe it or not , those restaurants are about to become the most popular and trendy in the US . Customers get tired to pay high price for "dirty" wines or do not want to pay a fortune for good ones.
(it is a rule in restaurant to price a bottle 6 to 20 times its cost)
Now in the US hips and Urbans like the idea to select their own wine at reasonable price at the streert corner winecelar.
As a matter of fact BYO restaurants are basically providing good food, some of them vegetarian or natural products . Their design is very modern and stylish , with cool music.
Many people who would not go to a restaurant are BYO addicts now. W
Wealthy peoples and VIP are going there because they love the concept of coming with their own great wines and have an "happening" there.
I have not seen one in Europe so far , what do you think a new Eldorado businesss idea !!!I wonder if this can cope with french way ?
Napoleon said ? se faire battre est excusable, se faire surprendre est impardonnable?
Economic Intelligence sounds a difficult concept for you ? It is simple things behind hard words
On April 24th, I did participate to the Economic Intellingence conference with the most renamed specialists of multinationals, universities, state or private consulting firms at ESCP Paris
What is competitive Intellingence ? It is about to know your environment by collecting, sorting, storing information that will permit you to win the competitive race or at least not to loose your business by missing the crucial information, so in this sense to protect yourself.
Lets take some examples where Economic Intelligence would have been safe. Kodak One of the most successful multinational has been ruling the Photos and picture world for decades making billion profits with the paper photography. Today they are loosing all of their shares, laying off thousands employees, closing their factories ? simply because they did has the sufficient E.I methodology to anticipate the technical evolution to the digital photography.
We could mention the case of GEMPLUS a nugget of the French innovation with its Smart Card technologies now fully control by investors.
Other Examples could be taken with the Pharmaceutical industry and the explosive use of Generics, that bring famous companies to very difficult situation and the emergence of new actors in
Parallel to the anticipation of technological Risks , I.E permit to anticipate Political and Geopolitical risk, Administrative or Legal Risks ( new Regulations , Taxes?), Sanitary Risks (ex Bird Flew ) , Acquisition Risks (ex Mittal / Arecelor Case) , Competitive Risks ( Prices and market evolutions)
More and more tools permit to do this, from the most common and simples ones, using Google search or creating Google News Alerts, building up a network of peers or experts in a field that will exchange the relevant info . But also a very dedicated methodology is now required
The information for a company can be of 3 kind: the one controlled (released by corporate on a web site for instance; or financial statements) the one semi-controlled (Press articles; Employees, Market institutes?) and the one your are subjected to (competitive Environment, Partners , Schools/universities..;) so that to gather all those information you better build up a system or networks with different type of informers , like Correspondents , Observers or Experts.
It will permit to drag an enormous quantity of information, some well-structured, other very erratic. To collect and sort the information software from companies like Cognos or Digimind may help you.
So getting information is not the most difficult task. Once you get this info you need the double check it with multi-sources, to analyse and evaluate (sometimes to minor it) , to build up several scenario with the potential impacts or effects.
Last stage consist in to communicate to the right level of decision and convince so that an appropriate action can be driven.
From the state levels ( Alain Juillet leading the mission for France ) to large Multinationals (Schneider electric, Areva, Rodhia, Danone, L?OREAL, EADS ) more and more resources are employed to manage the E.I.
Japan, Korea, Israel, or are well in advance on I.E . is now making a big step. The subject is part of education programs in Harvard or other top schools in US, and
I have been working with Nokia for a over a decade , and it is certainly also one of the key element of their success , and they did not hesitate for instance to create a Venture Capital group to invest or participate in start up or partner with famous university to maintain their technological advantage, or to create virtual communities around software topics, as such building up a considerable network.
The I.E business is anyway expanding a lot, large consutancy companies like Kroll , Blueprint in , Atlantic Search, GEOS in
Emmanuel Facovi
Diplomacy as understood today has very little in common with the Diplomacy from King Louis 14th or Diplomacy during the Cold War.
Globalisation of world economy has moved Diplomacy from Political to Economical field with increasing number of actors. Today world is ruled by global companies and cross national alliance between those companies who need diplomats to lobby on international organizations and governments.
The states themselves are engaged into the economic competition requiring this new type of diplomacy, sometimes State Presidents take a direct part into it acting as Super Salesmen
From the scope of Borders and Defense we have seen diplomatic action growing n the field of Energy, Transportation Industry (Car, Planes), Telecommunication, Biology and Technology (Hard and Software’s). Some of the more powerfull managers wear a dipmomat cap today.
Bill Gates himself has moved from a Genius Engineer to a Brilliant Entrepreneur to the leading Microsoft Chief Diplomat , spending much times with Gouvernments and Political representatives.
Looking at the traditional diplomacy , What are the most active diplomatic issues between countries today?
What about Nuclear policy in Europe vs. Green Parties?
What about Petrol in Iraq?
What about Internet freedom in China? What about Gas power in Russia?
What about sending Western waste in Africa? Or Ships Wrecks in India? What about Forest in Brazil? What about Cocaine in Colombia?
Let’s be clear! most of it about Money, and Money is what is driving the diplomatic games
On the Economic field, doing business in India, China, Middle East, Japan … can simply not be done by importing US or Western best practices.
Global Business Men are good in managing their operations with other Business People but in most of the cases are not efficient to manage Non-Business actors. It often can lead to crisis, conflicts or missed business opportunities.
At the same time that the economic world is globalizing, the political world is decentralizing and more and more power is moved from Central Governments to Regional States or Provinces.
Instead of State to State negotiations, local or regional authorities are now leading the Games.
New diplomats are now required at State levels: they are named Economic Diplomats and Commercial Diplomats.
At Non-Sate levels, Companies or Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) they are named Corporate Diplomats and Business Diplomats.
Who they are??? …. to be followed in the New Diplomacy -Part 2
Ethical coffee was first to be seen on the racks of your supermarket and give you the opportunity to participate to fair a reward of local producers form the south or low cost countries.
Graph source Max Havelaar
As for food industry Max Havelaar labelled products already represent 1, 2 Billion Euros in 2005.
Less industrial made more handmade products, the ethical business is now spreading in all other consumer areas.
From 1995, the USA “sweatshop” group is condemning the social condition of textile workers and children in
Multinational Companies have now understood they can also make their business by marketing ethical products made of cotton and wool with no pesticide or chemical treatments and worked out with a strong social care.
This year Rica Lewis is launching a new range of ethical Jeans, made of cotton from Cameroon, with the objective to make 10 % of its total sales within 3 years. Already this year 50000 jeans should be sold in at a price below 40 Euros, this representing 5 % of Rica revenues.
Veja of Brazil is launching ethical tennis shoes and traniers , made of biological cotton and rubber. Already a geat success amoung teenagers of the world. Major brands such as American Apparel who is selling for approx 250 million Dollars of ethical T shirts
A group of 8 manufacturers (La Redoute, Celio, Harcot et Colombier, Hydra, Kindy, Armor Lux et Heider) have committed to use at least 80 % of ethical cotton in their products
Ethical fashion has now its Exhibition in Paris the “Ethical Fashion Market®,” on May 12-14 and an Ethical Fashion Show see www.ethicalfashionshow.com in l’ Espace Pierre Cardin on October 2006.
Emmanuel Facovi
On March 29th, a conference on Managing a Team from Home and Home working was organized by FRES ( see www.fres-asso.org )
Marie Anne Achin from Genesys
Jean Luc Lefevre from Duo Formation,
Ulf Avrin from Microsoft Lars Lindren from Venture Securities
Some of the key learnings from this conference are implied by the development of new technologies that permit to access to new modes of communications and managements. Bill Gates Statements about 80' being the decade of Quality, 90' of Engineering and 2000' of High Speed or Velocity are featuring the debates. Working at the speed of the Thinking is enabled with new equipments and organizations in a "global" world :Internet communication, emails, messengers systems, teleconferencing systems , skype , on line interactivity. In many cases the performance of a company is no more assessed by its core competences but its ability to act and respond faster than competitors , and new communications technology offer a shortcut for remote managers. Some studies by the
So, this being said what are the major challenges of managing a team from a remote place or from home ? At first the distance would not permit the same level or kind of authority than would be implemented in a proximity situation. To get to the goal it must be considered than the collaborators are themselves enforcing authority on their professional behaviours, meaning they must have a strong organization of their time, a communication and understanding skills and be result focussed. Something you must be capable to deeply train, as well as getting them to find satisfaction in the accomplishment of the given tasks, more than being the authoritative boss provides the good and bad points.
Remote management amplifies qualities and weaknesses, as such using it to resolve conflicts is extremely difficult. In this mode of relation , the anticipation of an emerging conflict is absolutely key .Once the conflict occurs it is almost impossible to cool it down and the face to face mode becomes mandatory.
Prior deploying a remote management, it is preferable to go through exercise building an efficient team spirit with the members of the team.
Distance perfectly suits to Rolling out a project , briefing and making reviews and the existing wiith new NTIC tools, but brainstorming, interactivity sessions, motivation, or negotiation better result via a face to face meeting.
In order to cope with the difficulty of the formalized distance meetings , it is recommended set up in parallel very systematic but informal conference calls, where the participants can freely exchange. The "on the phone" coffee break where self-censorship of a formal meeting can be sided out. To sum up, remote management is rapidly expending, it permits enhanced efficiency and speed, but it needs particular attention. Only knowledgable users, with experience and awareness of the threats of such management mode can fully benefit from it. Also it require a strong discipline and organization , it can never totally subsitute to the "one to one-face to face" relation.
The most expensive places in the world
When selecting the place to live ,work, make business , grow your family , and access to a real life quality you may have a look at how much it will deplete your revenues.
The Mercer consulting firm releases the reference ranking on the World's most expensive cities... The screened criteria are 200 product and services (food, lodging, transport, leisure, clothing ….).
Japan is once again on top of the list with
In
so check your wallet and make up your mind...
Can you surf the Networking wave ? Are you an efficient “Networker” ?
Get use to it, those are now the questions to be answered to get a successful professional label.
So you are better to start from now.
Reading the numerous press articles, books, TV shows or miscellaneous web communications on the subject, once could believe this is here a new miracle discovery in establishing business or social relationships.
Nothing brand new here, except maybe that the networking Gurus are now promoting more systematic methodologies and that internet is providing the perfect tool to manage encountering process. The
Among the top recommendations, do not start to pick up you phone unless you are thoroughly prepared, review your personal project or objectives,get trained , go to the point of obtaining information and a new leads, have a strong follow up of your interviews.The networking exercise is definitely setting up a 2 ways , where “trust is the governing rule.
New powerful tools now permit to have broad access to wide people databanks and links to multiples services, hubs, blogs. The are the sucessors of the first alumni websites that aimed to search for your school pals. The selection criteria also permit to start a search base on names, companies or interests, or features. The most efficient Networking websites are currently www.viaduc.com n ; or www.linkedin for international profiles. Other like www.e-oudinot.com is less user friendly but more selective.
The promoters of Networking are telling us it is the necessary mean to get a new job , that is partly right , but do not forget that none of networking techniques will not supersedes your true personal assets. Get ready an Happy Networking ...!
Plus de 2 Millions de francais vivent en dehors de nos frontières
Le Samedi 4 mars 2005, le Senat a organisé, la journée des français à l'étranger.
Tables rondes, conférences, expositions, forums, l'occasion d'échanger sur la présence de
Ayant passé ces 15 dernières années, aux USA, en Chine, en Inde, dans les pays de l'est ou au Japon, ou plus proche de nous en Allemagne ou en Finlande, confronté à nos différences culturelles et économiques, comment ne pas me sentir concerné. Comment se situe
Aujourd’hui 12 sénateurs représentent les français de l’étranger auprès de ses institutions.
En terme d’emploi, la commission européenne a mis en place l ‘EURES, une agence pour l’emploi ou l’un peux consulter des offre, avoir accès a des dossiers comparatifs sur l’ensemble de L’Espace Economique Européen, accessible sur le site http://europa.eu.int/eures
Pour les aider et les accompagne sur les marchés étrangers, les entreprises et les entrepreneurs français, peuvent compter sur une nouvelle structure UBIFRance (Agence Française pour le développement international des Entreprises) regroupant les services du réseau international des Missions Economiques regroupant les informations pour l’accès aux marchés étrangers, et la promotion des entreprises françaises www.ubifrance.fr Les entreprises Francaises exportatrices présentent leur offre sur le site www.Firmafrance.com
ou sur les 2200 Conseillers du commerce Extérieur de
L’offre éducative, culturelle et linguistique n’est pas en reste avec le réseau des alliances françaises qui diffusent notre langue ou le projet de nouvelle chaine française d’information internationale (FCII) autre site d’interets : www.expatriés.senat.fr
