FIRST INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS WEEK on January 26th - 29th, 2009

MONDAY, January 26th, 2009

Message from Kathy Ruiz:

Hi! My name is Kathy Ruiz, I come from Mexico and I'm currently in the 4th year of both my studies of International Communication and International Business.

Just when you thought you’re finally done with exams and off to a holiday, IBS came up with another new module worth one more credit. This week, the International Business Week will be taking place at IBS, with speakers from different countries addressing different issues in today's business world.

Today, the International Business Week kicked off with a good start. I was surprised to find that the lectures are starting at 10:00am (yay!) instead of 8:30am, which is most likely the case. At 9:30am, I went to check-in at the new Willem Alexander Sportscentrum; it was the first time I was in the sportscentrum.

The event was opened by Paul Ganzeboom, the Dean of IBS, who highlighted the importance of this week's lectures and the outstanding position of the IBS program at Hanze. Afterwards, some lectures were carried out by Cor de Ruiter (board of directors), Jan Kets (lecturer of IBS) and representatives from World Essence. I particularly enjoyed the presentation of intercultural differences by Ad Fernhout, World Essence founder, and Margaret v.d. Wetering, an IBS alumna currently working at World Essence. They were very enthusiastic and gave extraordinary examples of cultural difference situations by reenacting personal experiences of culture shock. They filled the room with interest and laughter, and established a great connection with the students, since many have gone through intercultural challenges while being abroad. At some point, they asked the audience about their own experience with the "equality" dimension of Dutch culture. I gave an example of my own personal experience during my internship and they impersonated this situation quite well, where Ad reenacted my character. Everyone found this quite funny, including me.
During the lunch break, we headed towards the atrium, and on the way there was a “War Child” campaign outside the tower. For 1 euro, you could participate in a “jump rope race” for the cause. Ad, Desiree(World Essence), Margaret, and Bram ten Kate (IBS Team Manager) went for the challenge, and all got a chocolate for their efforts. It must’ve been tough for the girls to jump rope on high heels—respect!

In the afternoon sessions, I had a lecture on the cultural aspects of doing business in China, with Linda van den Broek from the Kentfort Company. She gave nice descriptions and examples of Hoftede's cultural dimensions in both China and The Netherlands. It was nothing really new to me, since I've just finished a China specialization at International Communication, but I believe this is a very interesting topic for first-time listeners. I highly recommend it to those who have already experienced a big culture shock, since it will help them understand the 'why' aspect of cultures.
The second afternoon session I attended was given by Jacques Hémon, where he explained the concept of international law and its role in business. It was very interesting to see the complexity for international companies to deal with other international organizations.

Take note: when doing business with the U.S. choose the California law system, where basically everything is possible (‘The Governator’ should know) ;).

It was a good day, though now it’s time for some ‘lekker’ Mexican dinner. Let’s see what tomorrow brings… ¡Hasta mañana!
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Message from Kerstin Schulte:

An international career in Philips
The first lecture I attended during the International Business Week was “An international career in Philips”. The lecturer Frank Snellens studied economies and labour law and is now working as a Human Resource Director in the Consumer Lifestyle Department of Philips in Drachten.

Philips Royal Electronics was founded in 1891 and is one of the largest global electronics companies. It’s main drivers to growth is a solid R&D fund which helps in designing advanced and easy to use products. Probably most of us get regular in touch with one of these products – let it be a shaver, a Senseo or an MP3-player. The company is active in three different sectors: Healthcare (mainly B2B-business), Lighting, and Consumer Lifestyle (shavers, domestic appliances etc).
Philips is constantly looking to increase it’s talent pool by focussing on diversity. The employees experience this diversity not only on a cultural level, but also by the possibility to change sectors and collect a broad range of experiences within different market sectors. The company puts a focus on the so-called 2-2-2 experience which means, that high potential employees should have the opportunity to work in at least two different geographic regions, in two different market sectors and be able to work cross-functional, thus collect experiences in different departments.
Philips calls itself a people-centric company. In order to guarantee high potential employees the company makes use of a so-called “Leadership Competency Framework” that helps measuring all employees of the organisation. This means that every employee is measured under the following points: He should be able to create innovative strategies, inspire commitment, leverage capabilities, champion people’s growth, drive for results and pursue market insights. The latter point shows the companies customer focus: constantly customers are observed and interviewed to discover their needs and all products are created according to these needs.
In order to find talents, Philips offers so-called “European Business courses”, which are entry assessments for high profile employees. After applying via the company website, interested graduates will be selected and interviewed via telephone. Then, 30-35 graduates are allowed to enter the European Business Courses which take place in different departmental sectors (Marketing, Finance etc.). The ones that pass the assessment tests, will attend an intensive three-day course, where they are constantly observed in order to be finally rated by different managers. All participants who score over an 8.0 during this course are being insured to get a job at Philips. When a graduate gets a job, Philips insures every employee the opportunity to climb the career letter by a special procedure introduced by the company called “Talent Identification”. During this procedure employees are asked to rate their colleagues. Afterwards, the outcome is shared with the respective employee and a personal development plan is prepared together with a supervisor.
All in all this was an interesting lecture about the Management Career Options at Philips and everyone who is inspired now, should have a look at www.philips.com and check the Career Sector for further information.
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Message from Joost van Slobbe:

Hi all,
My name is Joost van Slobbe, during the first IBS international business week, I will describe some workshops/presentations, which have been given. Today I will talk about the workshop given by Mr. Snellens from Philips. First I will introduce Mr. Snellens, followed by a description of his presentation.
Mr. Snellens studied economics and law at the HogeschoolEnschede from which he graduated in 1989. After that he had a series of jobs as a HR manager at companies such as Vroom en Dreesman, FMO and KPMG. Later he worked as an interim manager for Yacht and ended up at his current employer Philips in October 2003. Within Philips he has worked at many different departments but currently is responsible for the Philips site in Drachten, where they havethe T&D groups Shavers, Grooming, Small Household Appliances and Advanced Technology,production site for Shavers and a Logistic centre.
The presentation, which was given by Mr. Snellens, focussed on an International Career at Philips. Philips was founded in 1891 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, but currently has its headquarters in Amsterdam. The company hadsales in 2007 of around €26,793 million with some 134,200 employees worldwide.
The way Philips does business is centred around the customer, they want to make live easier by looking at what customers want and making sure that their products can be used without having to read the manual first. That is why they changed their old slogan “Let’s make things better” in 2004 to “Sense and Simplicity”.


A good example of a product which fits this description, is the Senseo coffee machine, which is very easy to use but has a very sophisticated interior.
Philip has designed a special program in order to improve their management, but also to get new talent, or high/top potentials, to work at Philips. This is focussed on the following points:
· Grow people in becoming good leaders.
· Improve diversity (try to attract more women for management functions).
· Attract new (international) talent.
· Simplicity
· Make the step from good to great.
Mr. Snellens also showed how Philips handles its selection of new talent, what the steps are to start a career at Philips and what is expected from the employee, but also what he or she can expect to get in return. A special 3-day program is designed by Philips to make sure they get new talent in house, this is called the Business course. During these three days, an opportunity is given to show that you have what it takes to become a future leader at Philips.
The 1.5 hours during presentation gave a very clear and interesting insight on the career possibilities at Philips and showed that they are one of the top Global players in their field.