Posts Tagged ‘planet’
euronews business planet – Incubating Spanish business
Posted by PuneStuff in Pune Videos on February 13th, 2013
www.euronews.com Everyone knows the terrible statistics of the economic crisis in Spain: with unemployment at a record 24%, the country is going through its second recession in 3 years. But there are also other, more encouraging statistics. In Barcelona, for example, one business incubator – a hyper-dynamic centre of entrepreneurship – last year contributed to the creation of nearly 700 jobs and generated turnover of more than 42 million euros. Barcelona Activa Business Incubators was set up in 1988 by the city authorities and last year won the European Commission’s top prize at the European Enterprise Promotion Awards. Every year they help 2000 businesses and three incubators host around 130 new small and medium-sized businesses, which stay there for a maximum of three and a half years. Some 80% of them are thriving four years later. Yolanda Perez Saez, the Director of Business Incubators, Barcelona Activa, said: “We organise around seven or eight investment forums every year. We also organise investment readiness courses for companies which are not yet prepared to access investors. We also give support in internationalisation, organising business trips, missions, technological missions to silicon valley. We have been there already nine times.” Bmat left the incubator three years ago. The company has developed a unique tool to identify all the music broadcast by radio and television, and sells it to music copyright managers in 50 countries. Not bad for a company created …
Video Rating: 5 / 5
euronews business planet – Business parties in Swedish countryside
Posted by PuneStuff in Pune Videos on December 8th, 2012
www.euronews.com Sweden is one of the top three most innovative countries in the world, along with Switzerland and Singapore. Marika Bonde made her dream come true. Three years ago, with her partner Tomas, this 45-year old ex-flight attendant set up her own company, an internet site selling party novelties. Marika discovered a new novelty from South America; piniatas. Her turnover so far this year is 500000 euros, up 20% from 2011. And she is planning to take on her first employee. She lives in the Swedish countryside, far from the hustle and bustle of the city. Marika, the owner of Partytajm.se, said: “I love the countryside. And E-commerce gave me the opportunity to work from the countryside. And that is where I love to be.” Marika’s business was born thanks to e-factory, a project led by the Uppsala region between 2008 and 2010, which won a European Enterprise Promotion Award from the European Comission, having helped create 200 e-commerce companies like Marika’s. Half of them are still operating. For Marika, e-factory especially helped with setting up the website. Marika Bonde said: “The e-factory helped us to believe in ourselves as entrepreneurs. And they believed in our project. They also helped us to fund our business. They connected us to the right people who could help us with e-commerce, because we didn’t have any experience at all of the internet.” Today Marika still works with the former e-factory project manager. Leo Padazakos is a Greek entrepreneur who has …
euronews business planet – EU grants for eco-innovation
Posted by PuneStuff in Pune Videos on November 20th, 2012
www.euronews.com Eco-innovation provides 3.5 million jobs across Europe, most of them in SMEs (small and medium sized businesses) which can apply for EU financing. This can help with the essential task of transforming an eco-innovative project into a real offer on the marketplace. Bamboo as a water treatment system was a creative idea for treating polluted water which was dreamed up by a small French company specialising in ecological water treatment plants. Bamboo filters water without creating bad smells or mud. The problem was, it wasn’t adapted for industrial use – until Veronique Arfi, the company’s deputy CEO realised that there were European grants for eco-innovation. Veronique Arfi explained: “We used this as an opportunity to gain access to the market, and to industrialise our process, and to get a shop window for future clients.” With three other SMEs, Veronique submitted her idea for “Briter Water” to the EU’s Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), which agreed to co-finance half of the 700000 euros needed to set up a pilot bamboo project. This was installed on the site of a large company which was also very involved in the projet. Romain Sadak, the Safety and Environmental Coordinator for Refresco France, said: “We put around 300000 euros into the project, so that it wouldn’t only be a pilot project but a project which later on, could be a real industrial business, which is exactly what interests us.” Since the launch in 2009, Veronique has …
Video Rating: 4 / 5
euronews business planet – Meeting targets
Posted by PuneStuff in Pune Videos on November 5th, 2012
How do you get finance when you’re a small or medium sized enterprise specialising in research? First you have to identify your needs, make the most of your potential and find great partners. And luckily the Enterprise Europe Network helps companies do just that! Electrical activity in the brain can be analysed using microchips connected to the neurons of mice. This small German company markets models of this electrical activity and sells them to laboratories which are developing treatments for diseases of the nervous system, for example. Launched with 4 people in 2007, the company now has 17 employees and their turnover doubles every year. Great results which are due to hard work and a little free help from the European network. Alexandra Voss, Chief Scientific Officer, Neuroproof, said: “With the European Network, we found partners for specific calls. So within these calls, we established specific models with our method. We had one project which was related to pain. So we established the pain model. One project is working with stem cells. We established models for stem cells. This is what had really helped to find the right partners for this kind of projects.” And thanks to these partnerships, the company has taken part in research projects and been awarded around 1.4 million in EU grants. These projects allowed them to update their technology. Alexandra Voss said: “Without this help, we would not have had the focus to establish new technologies and our methods like …
Video Rating: 5 / 5
www.euronews.com Thailand evokes images of endless, sandy beaches but there is a lot more to this South East Asian country. In the first edition of our four part series ‘Thai Life’, we take a look at the kingdom’s business spirit. To find out why Thailand is such a popular investment market, euronews headed to its capital, Bangkok. With a population of around 10 million, it can sometimes feel like all the city’s inhabitants are on the streets at once. Bangkok is at the heart of the Thai economy with 90% of the country’s export trade taking place in the capital. The Asian Kingdom is also becoming an evermore attractive production location for foreign businesses, which are attracted by its stable infrastructure and tax incentives. Stiebel Eltron, a housing technology manufacturer is one of the 500 German companies to start up operations in Thailand. It learned early on that doing business ‘Thai style’ requires a great deal of cultural awareness and tact; something the company’s Export Manager, Holger Palla knows all too well: “In Germany you can raise your voice (literally bang your fist on the table) and speak more openly and direct. Maybe even a little too loud and direct. In Thailand you can’t do that at all. You have to be careful not to embarrass other people — they shouldn’t lose face so you have to show respect and proceed more subtly.” Yupa Tassri, General Manager at Siebel Eltron takes care of the staff’s needs, bridging any cultural divides: “In Thai most people …
euronews business planet – Wired to the world
Posted by PuneStuff in Pune Videos on November 1st, 2012
www.euronews.com Tartu in Estonia is the country’s second largest city and is also Europe’s most online and technologically connected city. Here, you can set up a limited company online in just 24 hours. You can even vote via mobile phone. And the new Made in Estonia technologies are being exported worldwide. A company called Fortumo was founded in 2007 by a group of students to create mobile phone payment systems for young people who do not have credit cards, and for use in emerging economies. They very quickly realised they needed to expand abroad. To do so, they contacted the Enterprise Europe Network, a project set up by the European Commission which has 600 member organisations, from which SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) can get advice, contacts, and all sorts of help when moving into new markets. Martin Koppel, the CEO of Fortumo, said: “This has helped us to maybe take more risks and try to get into more markets than we would have done alone. That has given us a better financial background in order to do this.” Andrei Dementyev, the Head of Operations at Fortumo, added: “And we established several partnerships with other European companies through this partnership network, and through the contacts, through the meetings that we had with the help of various European programmes.” The company has now finalised partnerships with other SMEs in more than 60 other countries across the world. It has an office in San Francisco and works with the largest games …
Video Rating: 5 / 5
euronews business planet – Boosting Women Entrepreneurs
Posted by PuneStuff in Pune Videos on July 26th, 2012
About a third of entrepreneurs in Europe are women. It’s true that isn’t always easy, in the face of well-worn stereotypes, to construct a professional network and get access to business financing. But in Larnaca in Cyprus, 350 women got toether and created a cooperative bank which has revolutionised entrepreneurship amongst women in the country. Set up in 2000, this bank specialises in small loans up to 100000 euros, with flexible repayment plans, grace periods of up to 2 years, interest rates around 4%, and the possibility of accessing funds within 48 hours. Artemis Tourmazi is an ambassador for Female Entreneurship in Europe. CEO of the bank since the beginning, she is proud of their achievements: “In the ten years since we started, with all these combined efforts, we managed to increase our percentage from 10/12% at the begining to almost 30% in 2010. Which is amazing.” Anna Karyda’s company looks after, cleans, and maintains cars for passengers at Larnaca airport. When the company expanded in 2005, the bank lent her 60000 euros; 10% of the necessary investment. But as well as financing, Anna got advice and access to the bank’s professional network. Anna Karyda, Director of Drive and Fly said: “They supported our idea. They encouraged us. They helped us with the company’s business plan, and of course they gave us information when wanted financing from m other financial institutes. They gave us very good information about banking with them, and getting financing on …
Video Rating: 3 / 5
Our correspondent Gulay Ozkan talks to Duncan Clark, Chairman of advisory firm BDA in China and Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, about how investment in emerging markets is evolving, how China is moving to invest in the Middle East region, and why the world is becoming flat. While Clark cautions that “You should think about China as competition no matter where you are in the world,” he also notes that “Wherever there’s a smart idea in the world, now there’s a greater opportunity for it to be discovered.” His advice to entrepreneurs? You can learn a lot from people you never meet, but only interact with online. Yet it’s still crucial to adapt to your local market and understand your customer, so do your homework.
Video Rating: 5 / 5
Call Center Job Interview. How to answer this? I am a martian how will sell me your planet?
Posted by PuneStuff in Pune Stuff Questions & Answers on March 26th, 2012
Question by : Call Center Job Interview. How to answer this? I am a martian how will sell me your planet?
Selling Skills in a Call Center job interview. Please Help me Seriously.
Best answer:
Answer by The Interview Coach
This is a general selling skills interview question – just in a strange format!. You need to follow the accepted sales process. Ask questions to identify the needs of the Martian. Then describe the features and benefits of your planet and how they meet these needs. The site below helps you with this type of question and other sales interview questions.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!