infocus 2013 volume 4

INFOCUSMagazine of the Financial Study Association SCOPE|FOCUSVolume 10 Issue 4 June 2013 4

Malte SiewertTrivago’s success story

Entrepreneurial finance:Crowdfunding

Thomas BlekmanCorporate Effectuation

Entrepreneurship

INFOCUS - Volume 10 - Issue 4

Editorial

SCOPE|FOCUS is the financial study association of Maas-tricht University for students interested in finance, account-ancy and controlling. Our aim is to be the best possible in-termediary between students and potential future employers

INFOCUS magazine is distributed freely by SCOPE|FOCUS among its members and relations four times a year

Circulation 950Composition/Design Paul Nuscheler

Mailing Address SCOPE|FOCUS P.O. Box 616 6200 MD MaastrichtVisiting Address Tongersestraat 43 Rooms 0.012 & 2.012

C.O.C. Number 40205432E-mail [email protected] www.scope-focus.nlFacebook facebook.com/scopefocus

Dear INFOCUS readers,

As soon as you start entering the School of Business and Economics on your first day of class, you get in touch with all the basics on how to survive in a fast changing and extremely exciting business world. Most of us students start university with the one goal of becoming the next Bill Gates, the next Richard Branson or the next Larry Page. Being a little bit more realistic, the chances of achieving all this are slim, very slim. However, one should never give up hope already before starting. Entrepreneurs are the persons who keep our economy striving and bring to us the innovations that will dominate the economic and social landscape of the future.

This year’s SCOPE|FOCUS Congress picked up on this red-hot topic and made “En-trepreneurship” its theme in order to enable Maastricht University students to learn and discuss about entrepreneurship and their business ideas.

Also, this fourth and last edition of the INFOCUS aims at passing on the knowledge and advice that were provided during the event. First however, we will hear from PwC how they accelerate business growth. Second, Rabobank will give advice to en-trepreneurs on how to prepare for a fast changing world. Then, Prof. Philip Vergau-wen, the future dean of the SBE, will share his thoughts on entrepreneurial finance and crowdfunding in particular. Finally, the speakers of the Congress, Oliver Gajda, Malte Siewert, and Thomas Blekman, will inform about crowdfunding, Trivago’s success story, and corporate effectuation.

Again exclusively in this fourth INFOCUS magazine is the world of SCOPE|FOCUS content, which provides you with interesting details about the most seen people at the SBE, FOCUS alumni, and various activities such as the Financial Experience Düs-seldorf, the Alumni Day, and many more.

Finally, I would like to thank all companies, alumni, university staff, active members, and especially the INFOCUS committee for their contribution to this magazine. Fur-thermore, I would like to say goodbye to all readers, since this will be the last maga-zine for which I will be in charge of.

I wish you an enjoyable time reading and an amazing summer!

Best regards, Paul Nuscheler


Content

Entrepreneurship

PwC’s accelerator

Prepare for a changing world

Entrepreneurial Finance: Crowdfunding - Philip Vergauwen

Crowdfunding - Oliver Gajda

Trivago’s success story - Malte Siewert

Corporate effectuation - Thomas Blekman

The world of SCOPE|FOCUS

Most seen people at the SBE

Sigma Investments

Alumni Talks

PwC Luxembourg

Congress

Kempen & Co

Financial Experience Düsseldorf

Alumni Day

Casino Night

Active Member Day

Advertisers

Achmea | werkenbijachmea.nl MyTalkinBusiness | talkinbusiness.net

AIM | maastrichtuniversity.nl

6

8

10

14

16

18

23

27

28

30

32

34

36

38

39

40

5


Word of the Chairman

Word of the Chairman

„All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage

to pursue them.“ Walter Elias a.k.a. ‘Walt Disney’

Dear readers,

‘Entrepreneurship: is it better to create a job than to find one?’ truly is a question that is relevant to all of us in the current economic situation. On the one hand, the importance of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises to sustained growth and performance of the European economy cannot be denied. Entrepreneurs and their start-ups clearly contribute in the form of employment, prosperity and sustainability as is proven and explained in key policy declarations. On the other hand, large multinationals also benefit from entrepreneurial behaviour of their employees. Studies show that intrapreneurship can be considered as a vital corporate strategy. The aim of intrapreneurship is to develop a new venture within organizations in order to exploit a new opportunity to promote economic value and or-ganizational performance improvement. In the end, both situations grea-tly benefit from the vision of the people involved and especially their cou-rage to pursue this.

Important characteristics of entrepreneurship are the capacity and wil-lingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks. To this extent I am convinced that all our active mem-bers are great entrepreneurs and due to their courage made 2012-2013 a successful year for SCOPE|FOCUS. Without their effort we would not have been able to improve our existing events, introduce new ones and brainstorm on future opportunities. I also would like to thank our general members, the SBE, the Finance and AIM departments, alumni department, our colleagues from the other SCOPE associations, our sponsors and last but not least my amazing board.

Over the course of the past academic year we have established a strong corporate brand, introduced efficient internal communication systems, maintained our good relationships with current stakeholders and engaged in many new relationships. I am confident that the newly formed board will do it’s utmost best to build on this legacy and bring SCOPE|FOCUS to a next level in 2013-2014. On behalf of the entire board I therefore would like to wish them all good luck for the upcoming academic year.

Finally, I would like to wish everybody a great summer and I hope to see many of you at one of SCOPE|FOCUS’ future events.

Kindest regards, Luc Nelissen


6

PwC‘s accelerator

PwC´s accelerator

Answering the Call.

First launched in Luxembourg, PwC’s Accelerator was created to answer the resounding call of European high potential companies and Entrepreneurs who need as-sistance in their international expansion. Breakthrough technologies and business models originating in Euro-pe are extremely scalable and require suitable solu-tions. With the expansion of PwC’s Global Network of Accelerators and Innovation Centres, PwC is even bet-ter placed to help high growth companies quickly scale by providing access to the tools needed to become mar-ket leaders. Fulfilling global aspirations is more possib-le than ever with PwC’s Global Network. The latest studies conducted in Europe have confirmed two key challenges faced by European Innovative com-panies and Venture Capitalists:

• Investors lacking qualitative projects; • Entrepreneurs looking for smart Investors to bring additional value along with their invest - ment.

PwC’s Accelerator acts as a trusted third party to help bring Investors and Entrepreneurs together. The finan-cing of innovation in Europe is one of the main levers to stimulate sustainable economic growth. Therefore, the ability of investors and the financial system as a whole to support investment innovation has never been more important.

PwC’s Accelerator and the European Commission: Suc-cessful Business Innovation.

Europe’s 2020 initiatives clearly states that Europe’s future wealth depends on how effectively its busines-ses innovate in the face of major issues. To tackle this crucial challenge, the European Commission has selec-ted PwC Luxembourg and a consortium of companies to launch its ‘Business Innovation Observatory’. This is a micro-perspective and multi-dimensional intelli-gence division designed to measuring innovation per-formance and analyse novel business and industrial innovation trends, activities and models. The mission of the observatory will be to improve awareness among policy-makers at European, national and regional level

on how successful business innovation can foster eco-nomic development and growth. The key objective for the project will be to create a bridge between the needs of companies in terms of support for growth and inno-vation and what policy makers are currently proposing to implement.

For the next three years, the observatory is conducting both thorough quantitative and qualitative research on the most innovative and fast growing companies. Out of 30,000 company cases that will be screened all around Europe and beyond, 70 candidates will be se-lected to participate in case studies. They will benefit from the visibility and credibility the publication stu-dy will provide them and the influence on policies they will obtain. Moreover, we will give those companies the opportunity to pitch in front of investors and decision makers during semi-annual workshops.

PwC’s Accelerator Community Events

Events are held regularly within PwC’s Accelerator community. Varying in size and format, these events liven up the community and create a dynamic atmos-phere in touch with industry trends. PwC’s Accelerator events are designed to create a melting pot of indus-try experts, corporate community, entrepreneurs and investors.

Below is an example of our most recent event, PwC’s Accelerator held its third “Local to Global” Expo held on 21 March, 2013.

Investors and key Policy Makers team up with PwC‘s Accelerator to help boost 23 International Innovative Companies

Luxembourg Minister of the Economy and Foreign Trade and the CEO of European Investment Fund push for favo-urable regulatory frameworks in keynote addresses

On Thursday 21 March, PwC‘s Accelerator held its third „Local to Global“ Expo, attended by 23 high-tech com-panies from Europe, North America and Russia. The-se high-growth companies presented their disruptive technologies and innovative value proposition to an audience of over 200 potential business partners (i.e. institutional investors, multinationals and academics).

7


PwC´s accelerator

„The latest studies conducted in Europe have confir-med two major challenges - investors lack qualitative projects and entrepreneurs look for smart financial so-lutions. We‘ve organised the third ‚Local to Global‘ Expo to bridge the gap between them,“ said Laurent Probst, partner, PwC Luxembourg.

The objective of this event was to provide an overview of what European high-potential companies need to ex-pand while bringing them expertise, business networks and fundraising solutions. These firms represent the economic development that Europe needs, however a rethinking of the financing models in place is requi-red. „PwC Luxembourg allows innovative companies, willing to achieve an international reach to adapt their current strategy and business model,“ highlighted Alex-andre Rhea, partner, PwC Luxembourg, and CEO, PwC‘s Accelerator.

Etienne Schneider, Minister of the Economy and Foreign Trade, presented the competitive advantage for both investors and entrepreneurs of doing business in Lux-embourg. Minister Schneider noted: „PwC‘s Accelerator highlights one of the key strengths of Luxembourg; our country provides a perfect bridge for European compa-nies to develop internationally and a proven platform for foreign companies looking to expand in Europe. (...) PwC‘s Accelerator can create further value-added to Luxembourg.“

In his speech about the challenges and opportunities for both the funds industry and companies, Richard Pelly, CEO of the European Investment Fund (EIF) said: „Capital investment is (re)emerging, bringing new mo-dels and new teams.“

According to him, European and national public initi-atives on the one side and the involvement of private investors on the other side are the right combination to create a favourable environment for the economic de-velopment of companies.

Finally, Carlos Ramón, a recognised expert in globalisa-tion, moderated a roundtable which brought together representatives of large funds including Eurosia, Ber-telsmann Digital Media, Texas Pacific Group, Zouk Capi-tal and Iris Capital. Together they tackled the essential topic of the mid and long-term evolution of the rela-

tions between investors and entrepreneurs.

The day ended with the Local to Global award cerem-ony, in which the investors‘ audience voted during the course of the day.

The Best Elevator Pitch prize, which goes to the best presentation, was awarded to Abionic by Loïc Kubitza, Corporate Finance director, PwC Luxembourg. Abio-nic develops and sells diagnostic device that provides user-friendly allergy diagnoses. The Swiss-based com-pany was founded by young engineers of „Ecole Poly-technique“ of Lausanne.

The Most Promising Company award went to TruEner-gy, handed out by Alexandre Rhea. This Belgian com-pany provides solutions for the efficient and clean con-version of all kinds of biomass and carbon containing waste into useful energy, i.e. electricity and heat.

The Jury‘s Favourite Prize was awarded Wacht & Troy by Laurent Probst. The Swedish company is a jewellery brand owner; with the business idea to offer a range of high-end jewellery brands standing for novelty, quality and contemporary style.

To be kept up-to-date on the latest publications and news from PwC‘s Accelerator, please join our group on Linke-dIn http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=4304326&trk=anet_ug_hm


8 Prepare for a changing world


The world is in a period of transition, full of count-less political, economic, technological and social changes at both the national and international le-

vels. Entrepreneurs who want to flourish in the future will have to make clear choices and adapt to a number of supranational trends.

Would you like to reach the top in this new era, how America did in 2007, England in 1912 or the Nether-lands in the 17th century? Those with the greatest chance of success will be the ones who are able to keep abreast of an accelerating rate of change, who can surf along on the waves of each new trend, and who can deal with the intensity with which all of these transforma-tions will manifest themselves. Anticipating changes and flexibly adapting: that will become the new norm.

People are ‘inline’

One trend that companies clearly cannot ignore is that of the digital society. It has enormous consequences for entrepreneurs. More and more products and services are just ‘a mouse-click away’ via computers, smartpho-nes and tablets. And not just during office hours, but around the clock. More and more people are not ‘on-line’ or ‘offline’, but ‘inline’; they are connected to the Internet 24/7. This digital experience creates a pattern of expectations; not just for the online world, but eve-rywhere else as well. Everything, including the real, material world, should be within reach 24 hours per day. Consumers are more impatient and demanding than ever before; they believe that their wishes should be satisfied instantly and everywhere. This pattern of expectations is called “#IWIN”, an acronym for ‘I Want It Now!’.

For entrepreneurs, a virtual presence and online searchability is essential. But since #IWIN has begun manifesting itself in the physical world, a mere online presence is not enough. A company must link its online and its offline activities the same way that consumers do. An increasing number of facts and figures are be-coming available about consumer behaviour, and this wealth of data presents some interesting opportunities: entrepreneurs can use it to focus their marketing and communications to reach the right target group. They can also examine which operational changes would benefit their organisation, such as changing staffing le-vels, stock management or logistical solutions.

The world is close at hand

Another trend that entrepreneurs have to take into consideration is that of increasing internationalisation. Current developments do not stop at national borders, so borders are disappearing; not just between Euro-pean countries, but on a global scale. Today’s emerging markets will soon play a prominent role in the interna-tional economy.

To survive in this playing field, entrepreneurs will need a broad, international focus. The online revolution has brought events a world away much closer to home. This makes companies that were once isolated in their own market into new competitors. But it also creates oppor-tunities for entrepreneurs to expand into new markets. And Dutch entrepreneurs can fall back on centuries of tradition, as the Dutch have long been known around the world for their mercantile spirit and international business experience.

In addition to new opportunities for export, interna-tionalisation also offers opportunities in the fields of import and outsourcing. There is a world to win: only a small percentage of Dutch small- and medium-sized businesses are currently geared towards the interna-tional market. They overcome language barriers and cultural differences, a lack of face-to-face contact and invisibility, for example by working together with local partners. These combined efforts make it much easier to take the step to expand across national frontiers.

9



International orientation is vital

Since 2010, foreign trade has become the main driver behind the growth of the Dutch economy. But many companies can still improve their export orientation. That is not just a pity; it is almost incomprehensible considering the limited domestic market (low consu-mer spending and limited business investments) and the relatively high levels of economic growth in emer-ging markets such as China, India and Brazil.

However, this will require more of an international ori-entation from entrepreneurs. Under normal circum-stances, a company would not just expand to the inter-national market. It would have to change its attitudes and learn new skills first. And of course, the company’s individual competitive position is a determining factor. A cheaper Euro might help, but companies will main-ly have to develop smarter products and services than their foreign competitors’, and then market them ef-fectively. This means that entrepreneurs will have to continue to invest, even in turbulent economic times – not only in products and services, but also in emplo-yee competencies. And of course they will have to take environmentally sustainable and socially responsible operations into consideration.

Help across the border

Rabobank enjoys helping Dutch entrepreneurs take advantage of the opportunities available around the world. Companies that do business abroad can bene-fit from our global network of more than 600 offices in

48 countries – the largest international network of any Dutch bank. Besides, Rabobank has a global network of ‘International Desks’, where Dutch-speaking professio-nals abroad support Dutch entrepreneurs who want to invest locally. Rabobank has 19 of these International Desks in Europe and around the world. But Rabobank also supports entrepreneurs with its expansive and up-to-date expertise about individual markets. We have drawn up (and constantly update) market reports for more than 80 countries. Thanks to our thorough know-ledge about the most diverse markets, our expansive networks and our experienced specialists, our clients can count on receiving the best solutions available.

The ‘new dynamics’ of international business will de-mand a great deal from entrepreneurs. To support them, Rabobank has published a detailed vision for small- and medium-sized businesses. It explains seven trends that businesses will face in the world of tomorrow. Download the vision: http://www.rabobank.nl/bedrijven/kennis/mkb_visie/

Dutch entrepreneurs who are already active abroad or are planning on expanding internationally can take ad-vantage of Rabobank’s experience and expertise. Go to: www.rabobank.nl/internationaal for more information.


10 Entrepreneurial finance - crowdfunding

Entrepreneurial finance - crowdfunding Opening speech by philip vergauwen

Can banks – or do banks – still play their role in providing finance for entrepreneurs, small busi-nesses or innovative activities? Or can the “ato-

mic” free market play a direct role in funnelling financi-al resources to value creating economic agents?

The last question will evoke an immediate positive answer from business students who are traditionally the most strong believers in the market economy. But the question in itself is not a “no brainer”, in the sen-se that banks or financial institutions are themselves answers to a “market failure”.

You need to be an economics student to know what business students often regard as theoretical brain-waving: the theory of the firm and transaction cost eco-nomics clearly describe that the firm, as a nexus of con-tract and as a unique set of organized and disciplined assets, can achieve much more effectively and effici-ently what the free, atomic, market cannot realize. In this sense, organizing the financial investment function through entities such as banks or investment firms is optimizing transaction costs and bringing together the essential knowledge to funnel financial resources from “owners” to users.

If this is so, why then does crowdfunding seems to be a movement “back to free, atomic market basics”?

Crowdfunding, or alternately crowd financing, equity crowdfunding, or hyper funding, describes the collec-tive effort of individuals who network and pool their money, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initi-ated by other people or organizations. Crowdfunding is used in support of a wide variety of activities, including disaster relief, citizen journalism, support of artists by fans, political campaigns, startup company funding, motion picture promotion, free software development, inventions development, scientific research, and civic projects. The concept is, thus, not that new, but is la-belled a “novelty” in finance today, where it refers to the funding of a company by selling small amounts of equity to many investors. This form of crowdfunding has recently received attention from policymakers in the United States with direct mention in the JOBS Act or with investments in clean energy projects as part of a crowd. There is also a clear link with “micro-finance”.An important element of the explanation for the “rebir-

th” of crowdfunding is to be found in the availability of the technology that can make it happen in an effective and efficient way. Indeed, information and communi-cation technology is paramount when it comes to the gathering and dissemination of the knowledge needed to fill the information gap between investors and entre-preneurs. In other words, technology is a means to the end of mitigating the problem of information asymme-try. And we know from Akerlof ’s paper on the market for lemons that information asymmetry is a major pit-fall for free-marketeers.

A second element has to do with the emergence of in-equalities on the so-called free market. Inherent to the capitalist transformation of the free atomic mar-ket, is the rise of big corporations, multinationals, and economic power-broker institutions. These “big fish” outcompete the small fish in the rat-race for access to capital markets. In other words, access to the financial markets is only in theory – and according to economists not even in theory – equal to all players.

A third element of the explanation concerns the nature of the economic activity itself that needs financing. Innovative entrepreneurs raise the call for entrepre-neurial finance. In other words: risky business seeks risky finance and banks love “risk” if they can package the risk and sell it to others. This is often not possib-le with respect to small, innovative businesses. Hence, the most effective answer: go to the ocean if you do not want your bucket to make the difference; go to the gi-gantic market of unlimited resources if you need only a fraction.

Why did I say “rebirth” when I introduced crowdfun-ding as a “back to basics” story? Well, let us look at his-tory…• Crowdfunding has its origins in the concept of

crowdsourcing, which is the broader concept of an individual reaching a goal by receiving and levera-ging small contributions from many parties.

• Crowdfunding is the application of this concept to

Why then does crowdfunding seem to be a movement back to free, atomic market basics?

11


Opening speech by Philip Vergauwen

the collection of funds through small contributions from many parties in order to finance a particular project or venture.

• Crowdfunding models, per definition, involve a vari-ety of participants: (1) people or organizations that propose the ideas and/or projects to be funded, and (2) the crowd of people who support the proposals. Crowdfunding is then supported by an organization (the „platform“) which brings together the project initiator and the crowd.

A clear first precursor form of crowdfunding is the Subscription business model which was used in the 17th century to finance book prints. Similar to crowd-funding an additional benefit to donors was offered like the mentioning on the title page. Further, in 1884, the American Committee for the Statue of Liberty ran out of funds for the Statue’s pedestal, the Statue itself being a present from France. Newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer urged the American public to donate money toward the pedestal in his newspaper New York World. Pulitzer raised over $100,000 in six months. More than 125,000 people contributed to the cause with most donations being $1 or less. As a more recent examp-le, fans underwrote an entire U.S. tour for the British rock group Marillion in 1997, raising $60,000 in dona-tions by means of a fan-based Internet campaign. The idea was conceived and managed by fans without any involvement by the band, although Marillion has since used this method with great success as a way to fund the recording and marketing of its albums from Ano-raknophobia (2001), Marbles (2004) Happiness is the Road (2009) to Sounds That Can‘t be Made (2012). The

United States based company ArtistShare (2000/2001) is documented as being the first crowdfunding web-site for music, followed later by sites such as Pledgie (2006), IndieGoGo (2008), Kickstarter (2009), Rocket-Hub (2009), Fundly (2009), GoFundMe (2010), App-split (2010), Microventures (2010) and Fundageek (2011).

Ok, so far for the history of crowdfunding. Essential to today’s congress theme, is that individuals in the crowd (1) trigger the crowdfunding process and (2) influence the ultimate value of the offerings or outcomes of the process.

Each individual acts as an agent of the offering, selec-ting and promoting the projects in which they believe. They will sometimes play a donor role oriented to-wards providing help on social projects. In some cases they will become shareholders and contribute to the development and growth of the offering. Each indivi-dual disseminates information about projects they sup-port in their online communities, generating further support (promoters).

Motivation for consumer participation stems from the feeling of being at least partly responsible for the suc-cess of others’ initiatives (desire for patronage), stri-ving to be a part of a communal social initiative (desire for social participation), and seeking a payoff from mo-netary contributions (desire for investment).

An individual who takes part in crowdfunding initiati-ves tends to reveal several distinct traits:(1) innovative orientation, which stimulates the desire to try new modes of interacting with firms and other consumers;(2) social identification with the content, cause or project selected for funding, which sparks the desire to be a part of the initiative;(3) monetary exploitation, which motivates the in-dividual to participate by expecting a payoff.

The individuals interact on a specific market, or bet-ter, on a market with a specific format: a crowdfunding platforms. There are more than 450 well-established, institutionalized crowdfunding platforms. Typically, project creators need to do their own due diligence in order to understand which platform is the best to


12

Entrepreneurial finance - crowdfunding Opening speech by philip vergauwen

Entrepreneurial finance - crowdfunding

use depending on the type of project that they want to launch. And, there are fundamental differences in the services provided by many crowdfunding platforms.

For instance, there are the internet platforms which enable small companies to issue shares over the In-ternet and receive small investments from registered users in return. A second difference concerns whether users investing small amounts acquire shares direct-ly in start-up companies, or whether users “pool” the gathered funds to invest in new businesses, as a nomi-nated agents. Crowdfunding platforms thus essentially serve as “network orchestrators” creating the necessa-ry organizational systems and conditions for resource integration among other players to take place.

A third difference concerns the presence or absence of relational mediators acting as intermediaries between supply and demand. These mediators substitute a tra-ditional intermediary such as a venture capitalist or business angel. These relational mediators try to link new artists, designers, project initiators with commit-ted supporters who believe in the persons behind the projects strongly enough to provide monetary support. On the other hand, “growth engines” focus on the strong inclusion of investors and essentially disintermediate by eliminating the activity of a service provider previ-ously involved in the network. These platforms that use crowdfunding to seek stakes form a community of high net worth private investors and match them directly with project initiators.

Anyway, crowdfunding is being experimented with as a funding mechanism for creative work such as blog-ging and journalism, music, and independent film, for funding a startup company, and even for funding public projects.

Crowd lending from non-banks is gaining momentum globally as banks have either increased their interest rates or – more importantly - pulled back from len-ding to consumers and small businesses; however, as of early 2012, the non-bank sector of crowd lending is yet to be considered a threat to the big consumer len-ding businesses of the largest global banks. A variety of crowdfunding platforms has emerged to allow ordina-ry web users to support specific philanthropic projects without the need for large amounts of money.

One of the challenges of posting new ideas on crowd-funding sites is there may be little or no intellectual property (IP) protection provided by the sites themsel-ves. Once an idea is posted, it can be copied. As Slava Rubin, founder of IndieGoGo said: “We get asked that all the time, ‘How do you protect me from someone ste-aling my idea?’ We’re not liable for any of that stuff.” In-ventor advocates, such as Simon Brown, founder of the UK-based United Innovation Association, counsel that ideas can be protected on crowdfunding sites through early filing of patent applications, use of copyright and trademark protection as well as a new form of idea pro-tection supported by the World Intellectual Property Organization called Creative Barcode.

There are many non-financial pros and cons of crowd-funding. Engaging in crowdfunding can boost your re-putation as it shows you can raise money. It can show there is an audience and market for your project and in case of an unsuccessful campaign, it provides good market feedback. It engages your audience as it crea-tes a form where project initiators and their audience can interact in the production process by following pro-gress and sharing feedback via comment features on the project‘s crowdfunding page. Finally, offering pre-release access to content or the opportunity to beta-test content as a part of the funding incentives, project initiators have instant access to good market testing feedback.

Proponents of the crowdfunding approach argue that it allows good ideas which do not fit the pattern required by conventional financiers to break through and attract cash through the wisdom of the crowd. If it does achie-ve „traction“ in this way, not only can the enterprise se-cure seed funding to begin its project, but it may also secure evidence of backing from potential customers and benefit from word of mouth promotion in order to reach the fundraising goal. Another potential positive

“To wrap up: crowdfunding draws a crowd, investors, and other interested observers who follow the progress. Somtimes it proves easier to raise the money for a project than to make the project a success.”

13


Opening speech by Philip Vergauwen

effect is the propensity of groups to „produce an accu-rate aggregate prediction“ about market outcomes as identified by James Surowiecki in his book The wisdom of crowds, thereby placing financial backing behind ventures likely to succeed.

Proponents also identify a potential outcome of crowd-funding as an exponential increase in available venture capital. Proponents also cite that a benefit for compa-nies receiving crowdfunding support is that they retain control of their operations, as voting rights are not con-veyed along with ownership when crowdfunding.

There are, of course, also disadvantages or risks and barriers. As already mentioned, one major challenge concerns IP protection. Many content producers are reluctant to publicly announce the details of a project before production due to concerns about idea theft and protecting their IP from plagiarism. There is also the risk of donor exhaustion at a crucial moment in your growth process. And, last but not least, there is the pu-blic fear of abuse, meaning concerns among supporters that without a regulatory framework, the likelihood of a scam of abuse of funds is high. The concern may be-come a barrier to public engagement.

To wrap up: crowdfunding draws a crowd, investors and other interested observers who follow the pro-gress, or lack of progress, of a project. Sometimes it proves easier to raise the money for a project than to make the project a success. Managing communications with a large number of possibly disappointed investors and supporters can be a substantial, and potentially di-verting, task.

The increase of crowdfunding initiatives calls for legis-lation and regulation. Legislation initiatives are taken in the USA, the UK, Sweden, Norway and Finland, Aus-tralia and Germany, to mention the most noteworthy ones only.

More importantly, crowdfunding is alleged to be the motor, the source of a new industry of crowdfunding services, the trigger to further development of ICT-soft-ware, the originator of questions of academic and pro-fessional nature, the epicenter of new entrepreneur-ship, and so on, …

Remember when you were a kid and thought eve-rything is possible? It still is: become an entrepreneur! For finance and accounting professionals, this will und-oubtedly lead to exploration and exploitation of crowd-funding or related tools and tricks as crowdfunding may become essential transforming your idea into va-lue added.

If you guys cannot find a job, create one yourself; if you cannot find the financial resources, create them your-self using your network.

We no longer need a travel agency to find a travel des-tination. Why would we need a job agency to find us a job?

Let us enjoy this 2013 Congress and already start pre-paring for the 2020 Congress where you will be expert speakers.

This was the opening speech of the Congress 2013 held by Philip Vergauwen. Philip Vergauwen chairs the Accoun-ting & Information Management Department of the SBE and is professor in Management Accounting & Control. As of September 1st, 2013 Prof. Dr. Vergauwen will assu-me the dean position for Maastricht University‘s School of Business and Economics.


14 Oliver Gajda - Crowdfunding

Oliver Gajda - Crowdfunding

What is the European Crowdfunding Network? What are the benefits for investors?

The European Crowdfunding Network (“ECN”) is a Belgian international non-profit organisation (“AIS-BL”), which promotes and supports the development of crowdfunding mechanisms as a viable funding source for European entrepreneurs, projects and investors. The ECN has been established via voluntary commit-ment from the industry over the past two years and was incorporated in early 2013 with the financial sup-port of 18 European crowdfunding platforms. Our net-work spans nearly 1,000 entrepreneurs, crowdfunding platforms and investors.

So far, the network has focused on raising the public discourse on crowdfunding to a political level through intensive public affairs work, but we have also been very lucky to have the support of key people within a number of influential European organisations and in-stitutions. In October 2012 we published our white paper, “A Framework for European Crowdfunding”, in which we showcased the potential of crowdfunding as a solution for some of Europe’s economic challenges. We are now engaged with policy makers at European and member state level and are quickly seeing a change in attitude that gives the ECN hope for the positive de-velopment of crowdfunding in Europe. Commissioners Neelie Kroes, Antonio Tajani and Michel Barnier have publicly indicated their interest in crowdfunding and have followed through with actions such as the Startup Europe initiative of Neelie Kroes. We also received sup-port from the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee at an early stage.

Our next step is obviously to connect our members, the European crowdfunding sector at large, in order to form a common position on good and bad practice and behaviour within the sector, covering all forms of crowdfunding: donations, rewards, debt and equity. From this we hope the industry will be able to create a high level of transparency with regard to investor and customer protection, but also with a view on providing aggregated open data sets for the academic analysis of crowdfunding.

While financial regulation has so far put a high degree of hope in self-regulation, and therefore in a trust-based partnership between the regulator and the financial services industry, we fear that certain actions and scan-dal-related, irregular behaviour within the financial services industry over the past years might negatively impact the view of new and innovative ways of alloca-ting funds, especially the funds of regular citizens.

Do you think crowdfunding can make bank financing redundant?

I neither think it will become redundant nor that it should be the goal of crowdfunding to make banks redundant. For example, what we currently have is a funding gap for creative and innovative projects, micro-businesses, seed companies and start-up businesses, especially if they are not technology focused. The Eu-ropean Commission estimates that there are some 23 million small and medium sized enterprises (“SME”s) in Europe, which is 99% of all businesses.

SMEs account for around 67% of all jobs and some 80% of all new jobs created over the past decade. Yet 90% of these SMEs have 10 or less employees. The European Investment Bank estimates that only one third of SMEs use bank finance at any given time. If we only look at the roughly 20 million SMEs with 10 or less employees, this leaves us with some 12 million businesses that are not bank financed. It is hard for small businesses to raise funds through high street banks, as their require-ments are not necessarily favourable for entrepreneuri-al activity. The lending issue ultimately revolves around banking regulation and the banks’ reluctance to lend to small business due to high transaction costs. Already today crowdfunding can help to access currently unde-rutilised capital for direct lending activities to indivi-

15



duals and businesses while providing higher interest rates, but at the same or very similar risk than banks.Also, there is no formalised equity investment for most small businesses. Venture capital, according to indust-ry statistics, invests in around 5,000 businesses a year - or 22,000 accumulated at any point in time - and busi-ness angels in around 1,000. Of these 12 million SMEs that are left without access to finance, some will be able to benefit from organic growth and profitability, others will be able to smooth income fluctuations, which are normal in seasonal business, through supplier credits or factoring, for example. But most will not benefit from any of this. Those millions of SMEs left out rely on their own wealth, their family, friends and fans to support them through economic difficulties, help to purchase new equipment, finance stock and so on.

It is here that crowdfunding immediately has the po-tential to create a funding flow from a source of funds that is available and has in all likely hood already in-vested informally. We have a very similar situation with private loans, where crowdfunding has already gained some impressive foothold through so called peer-to-peer lending platforms. Consumer finance is likely to be an area of exponential growth for the crowdfunding sector. In summary, crowdfunding is only proposing to forma-lise a part of the financial services market and make it transparent and therefore accessible. I think banks and other investors can learn from the potential of crowd-funding. The model can be used to lay the foundation for taking on more funding, sharing appropriate risk and, consequently, is complementary to the banking system and the early-stage equity finance ecosystem.

Do you see regulation on a European level as a threat or an opportunity for crowdfunding?

The regulation we have today regulates financial ser-vices as they have grown over the past decades, even centuries. They are paper based, face-to-face executed business models that are slowly becoming outdated. Computer technology and the internet have changed how we do business and how funds are allocated. Hol-ding periods of stock have decreased form some seven years in the 1940s to a few months today – there is a ru-mour that it is as short as 22 seconds – due to computer generated high frequency trading. But also in other as-

pects of life, the digital economy is changing how busi-ness is conducted. The impact can be seen, for example, in the music, newspaper, retail and software industries.I think current regulation is neither a risk nor a threat to crowdfunding. It is a limitation that for some part can and will be circumvented. Much of the focus in the discussion on crowdfunding regulation today centres on aspects of marketing private equities, asset and fund management as well as banking. This reflects first of all the perceived higher risk of investments in compari-son to donations or reward based transactions and se-condly the underdeveloped financial services offering for most SMEs with regard to debt and equity funding. However, there are also significant regulatory burdens with regard to tax and company law, electronic money management and electronic commerce that impact crowdfunding. Some hurdles in existing regulation can for now be circumvented by forming partnerships with third parties, others restrict the sector in its develop-ment.

However, it is important to remember that crowdfun-ding should not replace any other form of finance, but be viewed as a means of potentially of opening the in-formal funding market. As such, crowdfunding needs to be seen in a different light than current regulation provides and some adjustments would be very benefi-cial. These do not need to be excessive at the beginning, but there should be some. In the end, it is the job of the regulator to make an educated decision on what is the best regulatory framework for the different forms of crowdfunding. So we at the ECN are very happy that the European Commission is also engaging on this level with us and the crowdfunding sector as a whole, so that we can help create a better understanding. We have also been in direct communication with the financial services regulators of a number of European countries, which I hope reflects an interest and willingness to help crowdfunding on its way to changing our perception of how money should and can be invested.

You have been involved with technology and social en-trepreneurship in both Europe and the USA. What do you see as the biggest differences between entrepre-neurs in Europe and the USA?

In general, and this I believe is also widely acknow-ledged, there is a different mind-set and culture with


16 Oliver Gajda - Crowdfunding


regard to acceptable risk and failure in the U.S. as com-pared to Europe. In the U.S. the acceptable risks are fairly high, and while the rewards are also high the downside can also be much deeper. Still, failing is not a mark of incompetence, but one of a lesson learned. A failure gives you the right to try again, to start over. In Europe this is not as easy.

These differences are not only cultural, they are also manifested in our laws, for example how we deal with bankruptcies. This creates a very different attitude to-wards risk and innovation, but it also creates a very large gap in social equality. For example, employee in-centives such as stock options are very common in the U.S. and bind employee’s wealth directly to the success of their employer. In Europe we are more protective of established organizational structures, safe long-term but low rewards and social cohesion. I am not saying this is a bad thing, quite the opposite, but we should un-derstand that different systems create different results.Because in the U.S. a higher risk is taken, the expected rewards are also higher. A typical first venture funding round lies at around $5 million, compared to Europe where you would struggle trying to find someone pre-pared to give you even $2 million. Failure is part of this too, in the U.S. prior failure in a start-up can be like a reference to an investor, because there are certain as-pects of building a business that you will have learned the hard way. It is one thing less the investor has to worry about when working with you. Many of the suc-cessful so-called “serial entrepreneurs” are also serial failures.

The modern college dropout or “geek” as successful en-trepreneur is a vibrant reality, think Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. In Europe, if you fail once or twice it is hard to convince people to trust you with their money again. On the positive side, some European countries have now revisited their insolvency laws, as a result of the economic crisis, and have made it easier for entrepreneurs to restart their business.

This cultural difference is echoed in every aspect of life; in Europe we are still largely of the cultural perception that you learn a profession for life as the generations before us have done. In the U.S. you learn transferab-le skills; you can jump careers more easily. Cultural is-sues are hard to answer in a few sentences, but if we

look at how start-ups are funded, we see U.S. venture capitalists happy to have one outperforming success in a portfolio of 10 or 15 companies, whereas their Eu-ropean counterpart would prefer to have 5 or 6 com-panies that only perform well. The long-term average returns might be similar in comparison, but the ways they are achieved are very different.

What key tips would you give to future entrepreneurs?

I believe most people do not know if they are entrepre-neurs until they have tried it. But there is also quite a bit of risk attached to this. And maybe the first trait of an entrepreneur is to value personal independence and the wish to be in charge of your own creation and fu-ture more than a regular pay-check and the very com-forting benefits, pension and security that employment can bring with it. And many entrepreneurs are not suc-cessful at all. Though they might survive or build them-selves a small business that is able to support their life-style. While I believe this is just fine, I am not sure this is what they set out to achieve in the beginning. So for any budding entrepreneur, I would advise that they be really clear about their expectations, motivations and idea of success. Aim high and work hard, then see whe-re it brought you and do not be afraid to fail.

Good entrepreneurs are execution focused; they are not distracted by too many outside influences. If you want to create your own business, stay focused on yourself and on what you are doing. Do not think too much about what your competitors are trying. Believe in your idea, frame your vision and focus on execution. Next comes the idea; good ideas are disruptive and change some aspect of your life for the better, though you might not know that of your idea at the time. Such ideas have a huge market and large growth potential, though they might also be quite banal. Finally, the most important aspect to any entrepreneur’s success is dif-ficult to influence: somewhere on your way you will need a lot of luck.

What advice can you offer regarding pitching your idea to investors?

The pitch needs to look good to the person you are pit-ching it to. There is no “one size fits all” solution. For crowdfunding, the pitch is to a large number of peop-

17



le so you need to think how you can convince as many people of your idea as possible. It should not be too complicated, yet still convey a strong story.

A pitch to specific investors, such as venture capitalists or business angels, is different. You need to understand what the investor wants, where they are in their overall investment cycle, whether they have money to alloca-te right now, and how much they usually allocate. You have to do your homework; you can prepare to a certain degree and focus on the key aspects. You really need to address the market problem and show how you aim to solve it, how you are going to execute and, ultimately, how you are going to monetize your proposition.

Your pitch is strongly based on your personality and whether the investors think they can trust you to exe-cute your plan. If they do not think you can deliver, the investors will not give you money. A common rule of thumb is: rather a mediocre business idea with a really good team, than a really good business idea and a weak team. So gather a team of people that are good at what they individually do, but who also work extremely well as a team.

How have you learnt from your previous experiences of failure and what have you taken from that?

Apart from those things I already mentioned above, my experience of having worked a lot with smaller orga-nisations has made me value people very highly. Inter-personal problems in a founding team, with their inves-tors or within the management are probably the largest source of failure for businesses. If you cannot deal with people on a personal level you should not partner with them in a business. Go with your potential business partners away on a weekend, play golf together etc… and see how you get along, see if your egos, your moti-vations and your expectations are aligned.

Building a business with someone in a team means to stick it out together for a fairly long time. You have to get along, be able to discuss and solve problems together, but also to just follow somebody else every now and then. This also includes embracing conflict positively. You need to be able to trust your business partners, but there is always a necessity to be open and cooperative.

Where do you see business changing and the implica-tions of it?

The world is increasingly becoming managed through digital devices and we are just scratching the surface of possibilities. This is a great opportunity for change, but I hope people start thinking about the impact of these innovations and consider how they will affect our fu-ture behaviour and social interactions. I believe they can foster democracy as it has never existed before, but they can also become a source of manipulation and ex-ploitation.

Indeed, already today too many businesses focus on ex-ploitive practices that leave the social or environmental cost to future generations or societies at the other end of the world. It is short sighted to amass financial value at the cost of others. As a society we live off each other, in and of our environment. We need to understand that societal, environmental and economic impact are linked and must be measured as such. If we fail to do so, it will be to nobody’s benefit. Maybe this is where crowdfunding can also play an active role, because it is about democratising decisions of where to allocate funds. Currently, these decisions are controlled by a few selected organisations controlling scarce assets and ex-ploiting information asymmetries: investment funds, pension funds, banks, insurance companies, govern-ments. Digitally enabled open collaboration, collective and democratic decision-making and open sourcing of ideas could bring us a more equal and harmonised way of developing and innovating Europe.

The most fundamental and true innovations were open, unprotected properties that thrived through iterations of collaborative development and funding: the wheel, the written letter, the printing press to name but a few. Nothing of today’s society as we know it would exist without these. That this is still possible today has been proven by, for example, a great European technology success, the development and open distribution of the Linux Kernel. I hope we will see many more such fun-damental, open innovations change and improve our world - funded directly by Europe’s citizens.


18 Malte Siewert - Trivago’s success story

Malte Siewert - Trivago’s success story

Why did you change from investment banking to entre-preneurship?

The main reason was to introduce more freedom into my life and more creation. It was difficult to be creative in investment but being a founder drastically changed that, giving me more work based on creating.

In an earlier interview it said you were not a huge fan of the internet during your first encounters with it. There-fore what was the trigger for creating an online service?

I am not such a big fan of actually using the internet myself, in my leisure time I try to avoid being online. But, building an internet company and working in an internet company is a totally different story. It still holds true that I am not such a huge fan of the internet in my leisure time but I loved the experience of building an internet company

What are the components of the Trivago DNA?

The DNA is to test and measure everything we do and build the company mostly in an evolutionary approach whilst being cautious about where a revolution isn’t ne-cessary. But also being aware that there can be a neces-sity for a revolution which you can miss out on if you are not careful which acts as a constraint. But we are a very evolutionary company that does small improve-ments on a very frequent basis and constant develop-ment of the website.

What makes Trivago superior to other meta finders in the industry?

Our strong technology which delivers fast search result is key. We also have a larger area of partners, worldwi-de we have 130+ partners which is not found on other meta searches. We have more accurate results with a lower fraction of wrong offers, which always happens but it is a question of trying to reduce these mistakes and thereby reduce user frustration. The strong tech-nology is a value proposition to travellers as they are able to see all the suppliers and the best rates. The third very important aspect is that we were able to build a brand and put Trivago in people’s mind. In 2006 when we started it was already hard. And then in 2008 we started to build the brand which was even harder with

already so many other online travel companies in the market. Never the less, with a superior product we were able to build our own market and generate a lot of direct traffic to the website. We did this through brand advertising and offline advertising which gives a lot of direct traffic and created loyal customers, which in my perspective is extremely important.

If you would have the chance to start your career again would you do anything differently?

No! I think the career worked out quite well, maybe a little bit faster but it is fine.

Where do you see Trivago going in the future and the potential of the company?

We are very much at the beginning still, not at the very beginning as we are already a significant player in the market, but there are definitely still huge growth op-portunities. Last year we had €130 million revenue and we expect revenues above €200 million this year. How-ever, the market is much larger now so in relation to the overall market size we are still extremely small. We have to think what we want to do overall. Do we want to diversify as a company, yes if you have a large chunk of the market that becomes easier and makes a lot of sense. But if you only have a small piece of the market but something going for you, and a high growth rate then I think it is wise to allocate all your resources to the growth opportunity you have and you do not want to get distracted by thing where you have absolutely no clue whether you can make it work or not.

In your presentation you frequently mentioned the words SCOPE and FOCUS as key entrepreneurial skills. Can you elaborate on these skills and their importance? Especially as an entrepreneur you are constantly cons-trained by limited resources and that means you have to allocate your resources and focus on things. One of the biggest challenges is not to get distracted too much with opportunities or the possibilities of where to put your resources to work. Doing one things right espe-cially in a crowded market and especially in the internet market where another web service is one click away, it doesn’t make sense for an entrepreneur to build a mul-tiple web service. That is my thinking nowadays. The

19


Malte Siewert - Trivago’s success story

tab thinking of packages for travel, I question what is their value proposition if you do a number of things equally good but none really proper. But the possibili-ty to do one things right and get a larger market share in that one area is more beneficial. I think that is im-portant for an entrepreneur, to focus on the value pro-position, more so now where things are so tight with competition and a lot of products are already there and you have to convince a consumer to like the service or product you bring to the market.

But when you choose a certain path the question that is out there is, are you focusing on the right thing, and that is where scope comes in. You have to be able to take a broader perspective and put things in context of what is surrounding you and what are the threats and if your path for whatever reason doesn’t appear to be the right one, is there a way to change paths. This is whe-re the ability to put things into scope is beneficial. It doesn’t help to get distracted and do everything at the same time being very broad and doing too many things. If you have the right positioning and your key perfor-mance indicators (KPI’s) show you are on the right path and things come to action and you have the right recipe, stick to it! Improve that one; don’t do anything else any-

more, you have something going. If you are working on something for too long and it doesn’t work out it may be good to go back a step and think am I doing the right thing here or should I change something drastically. We learnt both lessons at Trivago.

Can you explain the concept of your most recent project Monkfish Equity and how you came up with it?

Monkfish equity is a venture capital firm that invests into start-ups, mostly the early stage but defiantly also later stage. It doesn’t have a clear focus at the moment but it is our learning entity, it is in the early stages at the moment with a wider scope. We are currently learning a lot from it, where we can deliver value and where not as significantly. The concept is to offer a fast and lean investment process through offering cash; the wider notion is to have an investor on board from the company’s perspective that is cutting edge in terms of internet B2C. It does not mean we only invest in inter-net companies but we have a lot of experience there so we can be very helpful to internet companies in par-ticular. Since we have a mobile app those companies provide a lot of opportunities for us also. Our advice is a more passive approach; we tell any investment com-pany where our skills are and what we think they are but then it is up to the founders to approach us and ask the questions. We are not a very formal investor, what we do not do and do not want to do is have any formal meetings or constant presentation material to discuss. We are available for specific questions and challenges which is where all the Trivago founders’ strengths lie.


20 Thomas Blekman - Corporate effectuation

Thomas Blekman - Corporate effectuation

How did you get involved with corporate effectuation?

My corporate background started when I began wor-king for ING. A few years in I also joined the De Beu-kelaar group as an entrepreneur; however, as the com-panies did not want me to combine the two, I had to choose between being an entrepreneur and working in a corporate setting. I chose to be an entrepreneur and therefore I had to leave ING. I had already started wor-king on entrepreneurial projects within various corpo-rations when I met a professor at Erasmus. He asked me to become a lecturer at Erasumus where I taught about my experience and shared my expertise. As a re-sult I was featured on the university’s website, which lead to more invitations to host lectures in other parts of Europe to improve entrepreneurial teaching there. During a session in Leuven I was presented with the ef-fectuation principles by Michael Faschingbauer. I could immediately combine them with the experience I had in the corporate world. After eight years of searching for a solution to combine the corporate and entrepreneurial world, I finally found what I was looking for. I invited certain speakers to come with us to visit our clients and they were really enthusiastic about it. We started to de-velop effectuation for entrepreneurs to incorporate ef-fectuation for corporate managers and leaders.

You are one of the leading experts in the field of cor-porate effectuation. Can you tell us more about the ap-proach and how it can help companies in fast changing markets?

There are five effectuation principles, which explain how expert entrepreneurs should think, decide and act. These principles are really good to apply within a cor-

porate setting because if companies want to keep up with changes in the market, they need a paradigm shift to an entrepreneurial mindset. This means being both efficient and effective. Being effective leads us to ent-repreneurial innovation and that‘s what you need the entrepreneurial mindset for.

You could be considered as a living example for corpo-rate effectuation as you work with science at university and also practice in organizations. Did you choose jobs with these perspectives on purpose, or how did you get to this point in your career?

In the beginning, I was really proud of being asked to come and hold a lecture at Erasmus as it meant that more people recognized what I was doing. After that it even became a blessing because it gave me the oppor-tunity to meet people and actually get to know more about effectuation. Had I remained in the corporate world and not connected with the academic world, I wouldn‘t have come across effectuation and maybe someone else would have introduced it to The Nether-lands. I don‘t know. But I bridged that gap and I think that gives me a unique position. I connected academic knowledge to practice in the corporate world.

How do you see the future impact of corporate effectu-ation?

We are working with really interesting and large cor-porations that also teach us and keep us improving our body of knowledge in corporate settings. So as long as we keep doing what we do best and stay ahead by continuing to develop and not slow down, we will be successful. We also have to make sure that effectuation

21


Thomas Blekman - Corporate effectuation

does not become a hype. This is the biggest risk we face. If effectuation becomes a hype, its true worth will not be realized. A bit like the blue ocean strategy. The blue ocean strategy and business model generation were hy-ped. They haven’t disappeared completely but they are certainly used less. I really want to have an impact on organizational cultures and create organizations that are as entrepreneurial as expert entrepreneurs.

You are managing-founder of destination unknown. On your website you state: We work for money but die for a cause. What do you mean with that?

What we mean is that that we need people who are pas-sionate and will go the extra mile to achieve something. In the corporate world the focus is too much on sala-ries, bonuses and financial gains. What you see is that this model is breaking down. It brought us the crisis and everything bad about the current economy. People who choose where they work now, did so because they want to have an impact and really make a difference in the world. They are still enjoying their jobs and they are not busy trying to scam the market in the hopes of earning a better salary elsewhere. They are in it be-cause they want to get something happening and create something. That is the cause. You have to feel the rea-son why you are doing something. This belief is the bird in hand principle in effectuation.

Can you give some general tips for entrepreneurs, espe-cially regarding today’s rising competition?

Stay close to home when you start an initiative. That might seem likely a cowardly thing to do especially be-cause young entrepreneurs are really focused on achie-ving outstanding results but the failure rate is really high. That is failure in the sense of ending the pursuit of the entrepreneurial dream. There is this show in The Netherlands on TV called „Ik vertrek (I‘m leaving)“ and it is about people getting on a plane and starting a ho-tel in Africa. When they come out of the airplane, you can see they have never been to Africa. When they start cooking a meal in the hotel, you can see they don‘t even know how to cook an egg. Yet they are perceived as en-trepreneurs. We have to start perceiving entrepreneur-ship as a discipline and start with available means, stay close to home and build upon that. Then you can create things in future that you cannot even imagine by now.

What popular entrepreneurial advice do you disagree with?

That it is good to fail. Failure only teaches you failure. I think that even the word failure is about things that do not happen as you had planned. It is not a failure; it is a learning point on the path to success. We have to ap-proach failure in a different manner. We should see our downfalls as learning points and not as failures. If you talk about failure, you talk about stopping an initiative. Then it becomes trial and error, where error means fai-lure. If you do not go on, you do not learn anything at all. I hate the phrase: „fail often“. A failure only teaches you what doesn‘t work. You should leverage the contin-gency and find something that actually works.

Can you give an example of a corporation, which signi-ficantly improved its operations by incorporating cor-porate effectuation?

PostNL is a perfect example. It is often perceived as a bureaucratic, old-fashioned dinosaur conglomerate but there are people within the company, such as the com-mercial director for logistics, who are achieving insa-ne results. They have put effectuation to work, created new businesses lines and within three years they have earned €15 million in revenues as a result of employing the effectuation principles. One of these new business lines is the extra@home option, which is now the core strategy of PostNL. Rabobank is another great examp-le. They have recognized that they are in a knowledge intensive environment and that they need to nurture their employees and train them to think with an entre-preneurial mindset.

You mentioned the problem with people being linear thinkers. How do you teach them to think in non linear ways?

If you do one of the bachelor minors at Erasmus you learn how to start a business using effectuation prin-ciples. By actually getting your hands dirty, sticking to your bird in hand, making use of your network and con-nections, and leveraging your contingency, you will see that effectuation actually works and it will get you to places that you could only dream of.


22 Sponsor Overview

Sponsor overview

23


Sponsor Overview

FOCUS

The World of SCOPE|FOCUS

25



Most seen people at the sbe

The Most Seen People at the SBE is an established series containing identical questions that will feature in total 20 persons from the university, who are seen the most by students. This fourth edition will bring to you interviews sixteen to twenty with Leann Poeth-Chervenic, George Chioran, Bram Foubert, Leon Timmermans, and Paul Jacobs.

Leann Poeth-Chervenic is External Relations & Alum-ni coordinator at Maastricht University‘s School of Busi-ness and Economics and is always incredibly helpful at establishing valuable alumni contacts for the SCOPE asso-ciations and SCOPE|FOCUS in particular.

If you could choose any job position for one week, which one would it be? Why?

CEO of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Think about it….everyo-ne is happy when they are eating ice cream. Wouldn’t it be great to be part of all that happiness? Surrounded by happy people all the time! And you could experiment with flavours and create all these crazy, funky ice cream combinations. Ben and Jerry completed an ice cream course at my alma mater, Penn State (USA) and that is where their dairy adventure started. Ben & Jerry’s do a lot of great socially responsible things like eco-pint packaging, the “one in a million” project and they were the first brand ice cream to be taken into outer space aboard the Space Shuttle.

What do you like about your current job?

As SBE alumni officer, I really enjoy connecting and re-connecting with our graduates. It is so rewarding to fol-low the professional careers and personal successes of our alumni. And our alumni “Go Places” so I can reach out to them around the globe. And I actually start buil-ding these relationships with some students while they are still at the university. A good example is the team work that I have with all the boards of the study asso-ciations.

Tell us, what book we should definitely read!

Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind (Re-vised and expanded 3rd edition, 2010) by Professor Ge-ert Hofstede. Or the first version that came out in 1994. He defines “culture dimensions” along which cultural values can be analysed. It is a “must read” for all glo-bally minded individuals. I am a huge fan of Professor Hofstede. He is the number one cited academic in the world and professor emeritus at Maastricht University.

The craziest food you have ever eaten? Where have you done so?

Have you ever seen a chocolate fountain? It is this ama-zing two or three tiered fountain where chocolate flows creating a “waterfall” of rich, dark, chocolaty liquid. You can dip fruit or bits of pastry into it. Chocolate flows endlessly. As a choco-holic, I love this invention!

What has been your biggest success?

Truly my biggest success was my graduation from my university, Penn State (USA). Your university graduati-on is a milestone and a rite of passage. It opens doors to new adventures and challenges. I was an exchange student at the SBE so my university education brought me to Maastricht too!

What three advices would you give every student along?

1. Join a study association and become active.2. Make contacts while studying at the university (fel-low students, professors, alumni). These contacts will last a lifetime. Add me to your contact list.3. Keep in touch with the SBE after you graduate!

If you are a current alumni, feel free to check out the website of the Maastricht University Alumni office!


26 Most seen people at the SBE


George Chioran is junior lec-turer with the Finance depart-ment at the SBE. George will represent the Finance depart-ment at the International Fi-nancial Orientation in Beijing and will be course coordinator for this special skills course.

If you could choose any job position for one week, which one would it be? Why? Haha, this feels like a job interview. Hmm, might be an overused theme, but I want to travel more around the world. So any job position that gets this done: flight at-tendant, sailor, archaeologist…

What do you like about your current job? That I never check to see how much time I got left until teaching is over. I love that due to students, every class has its own atmosphere and different perspective on each topic so time always flies.

What has been your biggest success? Graduating the level 3 salsa class.

The craziest food you have ever eaten? Where have you done so? Haha, crazy good? In that case sushi! At sashimi.

Tell us, what book we should definitely read! Orson Scott Card - Ender’s game! (Literature)Dan Ariely – Predictably Irrational! (Personal develop-ment)

What three advices would you give every student along? 1. Ask why are you doing what you’re doing - in your study as well as personal life. 2. When you start something then give it your best.3. Smile!

Dr. Bram Foubert is assis-tant professor and teaches Retailing Management and Consumer Behavior. He holds Master‘s and PhD de-grees in Applied Economic Sciences from the Universi-ty of Antwerp. His research interests lie predominantly in the area of retailing and consumer response mode-ling.

If you could choose any job position for one week, which one would it be? Why?Given that the position would only last for one week, I would like to work in a day-care center. I have two children myself and really learned to appreciate what day-care workers do. I think I would gain lots of satis-faction from working with children. However, doing the job for more than a week would probably be too much of a good thing.

What do you like about your current job?Well, there are many things. I cannot think of another job in which you have to tap into so many different skills. I have to develop and teach courses, write research pro-posals, collect and clean data, run statistical analyses, write up academic papers, present at conferences, su-pervise master and PhD students, and occasionally do some consulting. I can imagine that in companies such tasks would be assigned to different people. I’m some-times surprised by how diverse and challenging my job still is, even after more than 15 years.

What has been your biggest success?Actually, as I worked very hard, I would have loved to be a bit more successful. However, I am proud of some good publications and the usually nice feedback from students on my courses. The most important thing to me is that I am satisfied with my job and (sometimes) manage to strike a balance between work and family life. I try to invest as much time in my family as my wife does. I’m proud that my wife, who works as an associ-ate professor at the University of Leuven, can pursue similar ambitions as I do.

27



The craziest food you have ever eaten? Where have you done so?I once tried fried chicken feet in L.A., where I spent a year as a Fulbright scholar. On a regular basis, we or-ganized so-called potluck parties, where every partici-pant was supposed to bring some traditional dish. Ful-brighters come from all over the globe and so did the food at those parties.

Tell us, what book we should definitely read!I can recommend “Milan’s first day at school,” “Dora and her potty,” or „Tiny at the children’s farm,“ all books I read to my kids. It is often very refreshing and funny to hear kids’ reactions to such stories, which usually involve some lesson. Very unfortunately, there is little time left for reading novels. As part of my job, I read a lot of academic books. If you’re interested in statistics, you may want to try a book on Bayesian stati-stics, an approach that differs quite considerably from the kind of statistics that students learn in a regular ba-chelor or master program.by Walter Isaacson, although I am not even an Apple user.

What three advices would you give every student along?1. Students should realize that their time at university is probably the only period in their lives that they can fully invest in themselves. When you choose an elective just because of its limited workload or you decide to skip tutorials to sleep off your hangover, think again. Use the available opportunities, there may not be a se-cond chance.2. At the same time, everybody should be aware of the fact that there are more important things in life than a job or a career. 3. Once you have your bachelor’s or master’s degree, also consider jobs outside the private industry. In our courses we too often exclusively refer to examples or cases in which the bottom line is a company’s short- or long-term profitability. However, public institutions and charities need managers too. And did you ever en-vision a career at a university?

Leon Timmermans is lec-turer and program mana-ger for the Accounting and Information Management Department. He freely ad-mits that he submitted his answers before this year‘s Championsleague semifi-nals.

If you could choose any job position for one week, which one would it be? Why?I guess I would love to be the manager of Barcelona Football Club, just to talk to and work with Lionel Messi and his teammates. I really admire their way of playing and their soccer skills. I would choose a week with a clasico against Real Madrid at the end of the week. If Barca does not win, I might be fired anyway….

What do you like about your current job?I like the university atmosphere here in Maastricht and I like to work with young and intelligent people and to prepare them for a successful and nice career by teaching them our bachelor and master courses.

What has been your biggest success?Pff, I don’t know, I don’t like to talk about my successes, but what I like a lot is when I meet students who gradu-ated years ago and still remember me as one of the tu-tors, where they learned most from during their study.

The craziest food you have ever eaten? Where have you done so?This is probably snake and fried grasshopper some-where on an outdoor food market in Beijing, China. The snake was nice, it tasted a bit like chicken, and the gras-shopper? Let’s just say that I was glad that it was fried.

Tell us, what book we should definitely read!For me, there is no particular book which stands out of all other books, but I like to read thrillers to relax. My favourite authors are Jo Nesbo and Harlan Coben.

What three advices would you give every student?1. Take your study seriously, but also take time to enjoy. 2. Don’t rush your study period too much. You have so many years of working ahead of you.3. Don’t always listen to others, listen to yourself!


28 Most seen people at the SBE


Everyone gets his emails, everyone knows his name, but only few people really know him! Thanks to Paul Jacobs, Data manager at the SBE and amongst other things respon-sible for course evaluations, SBE students are able to pro-vide feedback and enhance the overall value of the cour-ses.

If you could choose any job position for one week, which one would it be? Why?

Well, everybody has some heroes in his life. For me that is Vicente Amigo, a great guitarist from Spain who com-bines Flamenco with Jazz. On the other hand however, I would like to be a minister of foreign affairs because I’m still not capable of grasping the concept of the Eu-ropean Union. Bringing nations together is one thing and of course it may avoid wars in the future, but the differences between the economies are so massive that I still cannot see this work. So, a job in foreign politics could provide me with insights that may solve this enig-ma for me.

What do you like about your current job?

I really like the experience to work in a group and be part of a team at Maastricht University. It is nice to collect data of student perceptions and to be able to evaluate education and ensure a high quality and also continuous improvement of education. To be part of education, I am proud of.

What has been your biggest success?Feeling okay and having a balanced life, which is more important than material things in my point of view. In my job life, it was a big step for us to change the evalu-ation system from paper based to online evaluations. It turned out well and gave us the opportunity to work more efficiently, although I must say the downside is a lower response rate. This is still a matter of concern but we’re doing okay.

The craziest food you have ever eaten?

I have a tendency of being rather conservative con-cerning food. I very much like Indonesian and Italian food, but also want to try some crocodile meat, if I get the chance sometime. But certainly no fried spiders or bugs for me.

Tell us, what book we should definitely read!

“Honger, een Zwartboek” written by Karel Roskam. I don’t know whether it was published in English. The book deals with famine and the unbalance of rich and poor. For me this book had a huge impact because it taught me not to take life and everything that’s in it for granted. Bear in mind I was twenty when I read this book. I’m not saying everybody should read this book, but read books that put things into perspective.

What three advices would you give every student along?

1. Evaluate the courses and programs, so that future students can benefit from it just like you did.2. Don’t let only your CV be the compass of your live, but also follow your heart3. Have and keep a passion aside your career.

Note of the chief editor:

This will be the last interview of the section the „Most seen people at the SBE“ for the academic year 2013 - 2014. The INFOCUS team would like to thank all inter-viewees for their participation!

29


Sigma Investments

Sigma investments - a snapshot of sigma‘s portfolio

Most students at SBE have heard of Sigma Invest-ments before, the student investment club of Maastricht University. Some of them are awa-

re of the fact that besides organizing educational and recreational events, the club actively trades securities. Yet the least of them actually know details on Sigma’s investment portfolio. In the following, you will be ta-ken behind the scene to see how your fellow students have decided to invest in these turbulent economic times. Perhaps it will inspire your personal investment choices or you may in fact decide to join us at one of our weekly meetings.

Sigma Investments currently manages more than 16,000 Euros. Although most of it is typically invested in stocks, bonds, commodities and investment funds, a few thousand Euros are always held in cash. This cash reserve allows new investments to be made whenever we feel that the moment is right.

The securities are chosen in a 2-stage filtration proce-dure. We implement a top-down approach following the belief that “a rising tide lifts all boats”. Accordingly, in the first step a promising industry is selected and carefully analyzed in a “macro analysis”. If the evalua-tion yields that the industry is attractive to us, we then aim to find the firm in that industry that best suits our investment profile. This is achieved by studying the ge-neral features of the company and its business model in a “micro analysis”. In addition, the financials of the firm are examined through a multifaceted approach. In particular, the profitability, stability, working capi-

tal management and multiples of the firm are assessed and compared to those of its most direct competitors. Finally, to round off the security analysis, a technical analysis is conducted using Bollinger Bands, Moving Averages and other indicators. The analysis is typically followed by a heated discussion, as the final decision whether or not to invest in the security is attained through a democratic vote of the active members.

At the moment, we have 9 securities in our portfolio – 7 stocks and 2 investment funds. The portfolio is dy-namic as securities are continuously bought and sold. Recently, we sold Knight Capital Group and Richemont, both with a profit of more than 30%. Almost all the cur-rent investments in our portfolio are rewarding us with good performance, as shown in the following overview. The country flags on the left of the table indicate which currencies we are exposed to.

At Sigma Investments, students of different back-grounds and stages of study meet to share their com-mon interest in trading and investing. From first year bachelor students all the way to PhD students, all aca-demic levels are represented at Sigma. It is an excellent way to exchange theoretical and practical knowledge and directly apply it on the financial markets around the globe. If reading this has sparked your curiosity, we would be glad to welcome you to join one of our meetings. We meet in front of the SBE every Tuesday at 7pm.

Clarissa HauptmannTreasurer Sigma Investments


30 Alumni talk - Roy van Wel

Alumni Talk - Roy van Wel

Roy van Wel

Age: 23

Residence: Düsseldorf

Employer: CEMEX

Current Position: Analyst Strategic Planning

FOCUS Committee: FS FOCUS Board 2010 - 2011 (Chairman), Congress 2011,

Council of Advice 2011 - today

Studies: BSc IB & MSc IB (Finance track)

Year of Graduation: 2012

Favourite Drink: Coca-Cola, or anything mixed with it

Craziest Food: Poutine: French fries with brown

gravy and cheese curds, a com-mon dish of the Canadian Cuisine.

Life Motto: Under Construction; would go

with any motto that suits me best at any given point in time ;)

So that was it then…”School’s over.” I remember handing in my thesis, ha-ving my defense, and walking out of the SBE after a handshake confir-ming that I just graduated. How it felt? A bit sad, like having to put away

a good book that one just finished, but would have wanted to read on. But I put the book away with a smile. I crossed a finish line, and I had a great way to get there.

I truly loved Maastricht, I liked my studies, had a great time abroad, and then of course: FOCUS. What an awesome association. All those things we pulled off, a great chapter in my book.

But all good things come to an end, and I had to focus on my master thesis, especially since I already had put a signature under a little thing called an “Ar-beitsvertrag”, a contract. Unlike some others, I did not want to start working for a bank, a consultancy, or the bigger well-known firms. I wanted to work abroad, in a strategic position using my finance skills, and preferably in the construction sector, where the roots of my family lay. So, with just a weekend between my defense and my first day of work, I started working in Düssel-dorf, for CEMEX, the world’s second-largest building materials supplier.

Now I’m working in the financial planning team, within the Strategic Plan-ning department. My main job is analyzing the financial development of the concrete division of CEMEX in Germany, the Netherlands and Scandina-via. Building forecasts based on the past months, the market development, competitor’s moves, or any strategic initiative we are planning to take. In addition, I am involved in writing the business plan, quarterly and annual reports, and cover the financial side of any strategic idea or initiative CEMEX wants to undertake such as working capital management, cost optimization, takeovers or spin-offs, or any other idea I came up with myself.

I am in close discussions with the management, work in a department that is multinational, and am in touch with CEMEX headquarters all over the world every day. And even though the construction industry is not the most flou-rishing industry at the moment, it is challenging me to be creative and adap-table and definitely generates opportunities to learn from for the future.

Switching to work-life is a big change and keeping up with one life motto therefore did not work out for me. But I do know, that my FOCUS experien-ces have helped me well ahead in the way I am living my life right now. After writing this text I would suggest: think of yesterday, dream about tomorrow, but live today.

Best regards,Roy van Wel

31


Alumni talk - Johannes Martin Wagner

Johannes Martin Wagner

Age: 29

Residence: Düsseldorf

Employer: PwC

Current Position: Senior Consultant Risk Assurance

Solutions - Industrial Services

FOCUS Committee: Head of Finance and Control Tour Germany Committee 2007-2008

Studies: MSc in IB - Accounting

Year of Graduation: 2008

Favourite Drink: Killepitsch

Craziest Food: Undefinable green soup with

crumbly reddish chunks eaten in a Czech canteen - luckily I am still

alive

Life Motto: Believe you can and you are half-

way there seriously!

Take some sunglasses, because our love is blinding you” - read a sign at the entrance of the picturesque castle Hoogenweerth in Maast-richt where I had returned to in this year‘s April to attend an alum-

ni event of SCOPE|FOCUS. The majestic aura of the high-necked castle rooms, the spacious bloomy garden area, and the cozy, loyal atmosphere I was confronted with on this warm spring day let me forget that already five years had gone by since I had graduated from Maastricht.

It was in October of 2008 when I finished my IB study in Maastricht and started working at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Düsseldorf. The rough entry into working life during times of economic recession let me fearfully assume that a new phase of life had begun. A new phase with a shifted, more practical-oriented focus with different people in an unk-nown environment which would not leave much room for those uncoun-table memories of built friendships and networks with former fellow students, won experiences during classes, and unforgettable, amusing SCOPE|FOCUS events. Maastricht would definitely become a past legacy - at least that‘s what I thought.

Yet, it didn‘t take all too long until I was proven wrong. Soon after I had started at PwC I was asked to assist in hosting the SCOPE|FOCUS visit at PwC as part of the German Accounting Tour. Although only nine months had gone by since I left Maastricht, the visit felt like a great relieve to see former fellow students again and learn from them all about the latest news from Maastricht. Over the following three years I was happy to at-tend this SCOPE|FOCUS tour, annually connecting and sharing interests with new motivated people. Apart from these experiences I was more than delighted to be part of the PwC team to host the Financial Expe-rience Düsseldorf Tour last month - the event which I firstly organized myself in 2008 as a student. Again, I was overwhelmed by the joyful and ambitious attitude SCOPE|FOCUS represented during this event. Retros-pectively the most striking experience however is the surprisingly large number of random encounters and experience-sharing chats with colle-agues at PwC or clients who used to be actively involved in SCOPE|FOCUS during their studies in Maastricht.

Letting all these events gratefully sink in I more and more realize that SCOPE|FOCUS represents more than just a study association. It is a joyful body of ambitious individuals connecting students and companies even beyond student life thereby embodying a distinct, resilient link to the Uni-versity of Maastricht. For me joining SCOPE|FOCUS has been like planting a tree which prospers over time and which yields larger and larger fruit the longer you stick with it. I can therefore just urge all current students to make use of this great opportunity to build up fun, valuable, and long-lasting relationships - and make sure you get that pair of sunglasses!

Best regards,Johannes Martin Wagner

Alumni Talk - Johannes Martin Wagner


32 PwC Luxembourg Inhouse Day

PwC Luxembourg inhouse day

On the 17th of April a group of 25 students were the first people at the Vrijthof at 6am in the mor-ning, to take their bus to Luxembourg and to ex-

perience a great day at the PwC In-house day. After a 3 hour ride we arrived at the PwC assessment center in Luxembourg. For most of us it was the first time that we set a food on Luxembourgish ground.

The In-house day started with a small breakfast and get-ting to know some of the people from PwC who should lead us through the day. In the following a short presen-tation was given about the company and the business fields it operates in. Further we gained some insides about life and work at PwC in Luxembourg. Before the last presentation of the forenoon was coming up, a small task was given to five different groups. It should illustrate, how hard it can be to decide in what order to treat clients in the field of auditing. All groups came up with different solutions and were happy to learn more about auditing methodology in the upcoming presenta-tion. Afterwards, the hungry students from Maastricht could enjoy tasty buns and have a chat with the emplo-yees of PwC about the company, work routine or just the weather. As most of the employees who joined the

event had been students at the SBE Maastricht themsel-ves, it was even more interesting to have a conversation about how they made it to PwC.

After a long and interesting lunch break, the workshop started. We received a case from a client and had to assess, whether all financials were correct. It was not just a theoretical, but very interactive and close to re-al-life workshop. We had to talk to the client about his profit forecasts, and to the bank about the short-term accounts of the client. After solving the mistakes and having talked to client and bank, we had to present our work to our manager. We had to tell her about the mis-takes the client made and that we informed the client about the changes.

After this very interactive workshop, which was quite valuable for us to get an idea about the tasks and work an auditor has to accomplish, we left the PwC assess-ment center. The next target was the city of Luxem-bourg. In a short one hour city tour, we should get to know the core of Luxembourg city, especially the Ca-thedral Notre Dame and the Parliament buildings. We further learned about a close relationship between the Dutch and the Luxembourgish history. Due to the long day, we were all hungry and looking forward to dinner. PwC had reserved a table for us at Boos K‘fé, a very nice bar in the surroundings of Luxembourg city. Here, conversations between the students and the PwC employees could be continued and experiences could be exchanged. In the great atmosphere of Boos K‘fé the day came to a very nice end. Many new impressions had been gained during the day and we all received a good insight in the „real life“ of auditing.

Christian Peters

Permanente Educatie Seminars voor Professionals Uitnodiging voor:

Food for Financials Seminar Thema: Shared Service Centers – Journey and value 13 juni 2013, 15.00 – 20.00 uur, kosten deelname € 195, 4 PE punten Sprekers: Geert Jan Nieboer (DSM), Peter-Jan van Ham (ASML),

Prof. Hans Strikwerda (UvA), Edwin Lustermans (APG) Verplichte Training Beroepsethiek voor Accountants in Business

27 juni 2013, 13.30 – 21.00 uur, kosten deelname € 495, 8 PE punten Voor inschrijvingen voor PE seminars, aanmeldingen voor de nieuwsbrief en overige vragen kunt u contact opnemen met Tanja Konings: [email protected] T 043 3883755


34 Congress - Spring 2013

Congress - Spring 2013

“In a down market, is it better to create a job than to find one?” was the central question for 80 busi-ness students from Maastricht University on May

8th, 2013. This day the tenth annual edition of the SCOPE|FOCUS congress was to be held at Amrâth Grand Hotel de l’Empereur. This year’s theme, to which the to-pic of this edition of the INFOCUS is dedicated, was ‘En-trepreneurship’. As we felt entrepreneurship is often talked about, but seldom fully understood, we wanted to approach the topic in a unique way. By giving students different perspectives into an entrepreneur’s career we hoped to learn more about this intricate path. The sub-topics were set as such, that we would cover the entire spectrum of topics in entrepreneurship; from the point of funding, to building an organization around an idea, all the way up to ‘corporate intrapreneurship’. With the experience and enthusiasm of our three speakers the students gained insights that go beyond the definition of entrepreneurs!

The students were welcomed at 13.30 in the afternoon and at 13.50 Chairman of the Congress Committee, Ni-klas Peulen, officially opened the tenth SCOPE|FOCUS congress. We were very happy to welcome the chair of the Accounting and Information Management Depart-ment, and soon to be Dean of the SBE, Philip Vergau-wen, as the host of the event. His introduction to the topic, and especially his focus on the history of crowd-funding, proved to be a perfect bridge to our first spea-ker of the day. Oliver Gajda, founder and chairman of the European Crowdfunding Network, took stage to share his view on the funding resources of entrepre-neurs. Having worked as an independent consultant on sustainable, innovative and open projects, start-

ups and non-profits, he is now lobbying for more at-tention on crowdfunding as a vital financing strategy for start-ups. Especially micro businesses can greatly benefit from crowdfunding in the financing gap left by large commercial banks. Ultimately, creating your own job would be made more inviting by the available funds and stimulate overall economic wealth.

After a short break in the lobby of the Grand Hotel, which gave opportunity to reflect on the newly gained insights while enjoying a cup of coffee, tea and freshly baked muffins, we were kindly asked to take place in the congress hall for the next speech. Malte Siewert, co-founder and CFO of Trivago, was ready to share his success story. Trivago is founded only 8 years ago and in December 2012 Expedia bought a majority stake in Trivago in a combined cash and stock deal worth €477 million. His passion for the business, the open atmos-phere during the discussions and his clear vision on

being an entrepreneur were a great addition to the con-gress. I am convinced that after his story, many of us be-came aware that everybody has the capacity to become a successful entrepreneur as long as you have a clear vision and strong character.

Up to here, all great stories on why it might be better to create a job. But how about finding one? Thomas Blek-man, part-time employed at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, teaches with great passion and dedication the topics of Corporate Effectuation & Strategy. Next to that, Thomas is successful serial entrepreneur, and as a member of the Beukelaar Groep gives workshops to large companies. Having introduced Effectuation The-

35


Congress - Spring 2013

ory to the Dutch corporate world, made him the perfect speaker to address the importance of intrapreneurship (i.e. corporate entrepreneurship). His key message is: “when life gives you lemons, try to make lemonade”. The reasoning behind this quote is that we should en-courage optimism and a can-do attitude in the face of adversity or misfortune.

To end the day in style we gathered at the ballroom of the hotel for some canapés and drinks. This network event was the perfect occasion for asking some more questions to the speakers or to get in contact with Maastricht University Alumni that recently set up their own company: Studydrive. During the network drink, the committee and the speakers got great feedback from the participants. We also thought it to be an in-teresting, challenging and inspiring day. On behalf of the SCOPE|FOCUS board I therefore once more want to thank the committee (i.e. Niklas Peulen, Caroline Bruls, Lars Duerselen, Helen Yearley and Frederieke van Op-pen) for their effort in organizing the event. Finally, I would like to thank the speakers and our host Philip Vergauwen for their great contribution and the partici-pants for their presence and active involvement during discussions!

On behalf of the SCOPE|FOCUS board,

Luc NelissenChairman SCOPE|FOCUS 2012-2013

The interviews with all the speakers can be found in the first section of the INFOCUS magazine. Furthermore, Dr. Philip Vergauwen shares his view on entrepreneurial fi-nance and crowdfunding in particular.

The next edition of the SCOPE|FOCUS congress will alrea-dy take place this fall on the 4th of December. Stay posted for more information!


36 Financial Experience Düsseldorf


May, 16th 2013, twenty five selected students in-terested in Finance, Accounting and Controlling were waiting in front of the SBE, to experience

two thrilling days at Vodafone’s, PwC’s and Henkel’s headquarters in Düsseldorf. Despite the poor weather and heavy rain showers, everything was set up as anti-cipated and we left Maastricht with a busload of enthu-siastic students. The ride to Düsseldorf went by quickly as everyone was busy getting to know each other and speculating what to expect in the next two days. Final organizing announcements were made to guarantee a smooth event and the well-being of all fellow students.

The bus arrived in Düsseldorf at noon and we were dropped off at the cozy IBIS hotel right at the main train station. After checking-in and inspecting the rooms, we directly went to a nice restaurant to get some lunch and further socialize with our fellow students. However, the lunch did not last long as we had to go to our first com-pany: Vodafone. With their headquarters located in an entirely new and impressive campus, we were warmly welcomed by the staff. Five Vodafone employees intro-duced the company, its history as well as Vodafone’s role in the current development of the telecommunica-tion industry. The program continued with a Control-ling case competition “Decision Support for the Sales Department”. We were divided into five groups, each competing with the others to develop the best soluti-on. After one and a half hours of intensive group work, each group had to present their solution to a committee consisting of four Vodafone employees. All groups re-ceived overall strong positive feedback. However, there was only one team to win. Five second year students won the competition with an overall thorough solution, and were compensated for their efforts with a Vodafo-ne umbrella reflecting the ongoing weather conditions. Following, the Vodafone staff presented their own so-lution to the business case which was then openly dis-cussed with all students involved. Challenging questi-ons by Maastricht’ students impressed the staff during this discussion. The stay at Vodafone’s headquarter campus ended with a final presentation about career opportunities within Vodafone. We left sight and got taken to a restaurant with its own small brewery. Five Vodafone employees took their time to sit with us in small groups to enjoy some traditional German food, talk about their own experiences and gave us the chan-ce to ask all kind of questions. The room was filled

with enthusiastic conversations, good jokes and happy faces; mainly due to the pleasant conversation, but of course also due to some tasty, fresh brewed beer. All good things come to an end, so did this dinner with Vo-dafone. We left the restaurant and took the tram back to the hotel. The first day was already a success and we all got our own impression of the way Vodafone does business. Excited what the next day would bring us, we went to sleep past midnight.

With some limited hours of sleep, the next day started off early in the morning with a generous breakfast buf-fet at the hotel. The schedule for the second day con-sisted of visiting PwC in the morning and Henkel in the afternoon. Thus, we headed off for PwC immediately, whose headquarters were located just around the cor-ner. After being taken up to the top floor, we were warm-ly welcomed by eight PwC employees – ranging from recent graduates to partner level. The day began with a presentation of what the three letters we all heard about before during our business studies were actually all about. Hence, the partner guided us through PwC’s current positioning, their operating sectors and, most importantly, their career opportunities and employee support. This was followed by a case study dealing with the valuation of a target bank on behalf of a potenti-al acquirer. For this matter, we were divided into four groups and had one and a half hours time to prepare the presentation. Having discussed the task fiercely in se-parate rooms, every group had the opportunity to pre-sent their findings in front of the organizing PwC staff that, in turn, represented the client acquirer and ques-tioned our results accordingly. All in all, we were left with numerous valuable impressions about the work in

37



an accountancy’s financial service department before heading for lunch. While enjoying the variety of dishes prepared by PwC, the students also had the possibili-ty once more to address important questions in more informal conversations with the company’s employees. Specifically, this allowed the students to get even more insight into the daily work routine of a financial advisor as well as varying answers to the ever-lasting question what Big Four company to choose for and why. Howe-ver, there was yet another exciting multinational to vi-sit that day: Henkel.

After every student had been accredited and was allo-wed access to Henkel’s headquarters, we were guided to the conference room where we would spend the rest of our day. The presentation was firstly held in English, but, having clarified that every participant was adequa-tely capable to speak German, the presenters continued

in a mix of both. In accordance with the initial impres-sion, we also learned that Henkel was in fact the most international German company with more than 80% of its employees working outside the country. While waiting for the actual workshop to start, the company representatives vividly presented to us Henkel’s orga-nizational culture, their vision and goals, the career op-portunities as well as an extensive discussion on what issues the financial department in particular tackles in their daily work. The workshop itself elaborated on a case in point that allowed us to solve one of the grea-test financing and hedging problems in the company’s history. This was followed by a short discussion of our results. Afterwards, the students had the opportunity to ask questions to the head of investor relations who took her time for us to get a deeper insight into topics such as the challenges involved in investor communi-cation, attraction and retention. The students used this opportunity extensively and seemingly enjoyed the conversation. For the evening program, Henkel had or-ganized a bus that would take us to the old city of Düs-seldorf, where we were to end our tour with a delicious three-course dinner and drinks. As with Vodafone, six managers and trainees of the company were available for everyone to answer more specific questions about what distinguishes Henkel as an employer. Since the staff rotated from table to table during the course of the evening, no question was left unanswered. Despite the cheerful and enjoyable atmosphere, we had to head off for the hotel at 10:30 pm to catch the bus back to Maastricht where we arrived around 1am. Eventually, we would like to thank all participating companies and students that have contributed to make this event a me-morable experience.

Max Weynand, Anne Kircheisen, Christopher Kimmig & Jan-Rasmus Künnen

Financial Experience Düsseldorf Committee 2013


38

Kempen & Co inhouse day

Kempen & Co inhouse day

On Wednesday April 17th 2013, 20 motivated students from the School of Business and Eco-nomics gathered at Maastricht Central Train Sta-

tion for a trip of two and a half hours to Amsterdam. Unless a short delay of 30 minutes we arrived on time at Kempen & Co’s office at Amsterdam’s Zuidas. After a warm welcome at the building’s top floor, with a stun-ning view over the city and a sweet afternoon snack, the official program could start. The program got ki-cked-off by Michel van de Coevering, CFO at Kempen & Co, who gave some insights in the working areas of the merchant bank.

Kempen & Co is a daughter company of F. van Lanschot Bankiers. The main focus areas are corporate finance, securities, asset management and investments. Moreo-ver, Kempen & Co distinguishes itself from competitors by focusing on niche markets and sectors such as real estate, life sciences, cleantech and maritime. Interes-ting fact for SBE students is that Kempen & Co is making big progress in becoming more international. Where-as most communication previously has been in Dutch, they are now adopting a more English-based commu-nication system. Although the majority of employees are Dutch, the acquisition of young international talent is key to the internationalization of the organization. Within Kempen & Co the focus is on people; they are al-ways looking for passionate and talented students, who dare to get the full responsibility to go out and talk to clients and who are driven and independent. In turn, Kempen & Co will stimulate your development by in-tensive coaching.

With this knowledge in mind, the program continued with a unique visit to the dealing room of Kempen & Co. Standing on the bridge overlooking the “Chinese wall”, separating the research department from the trader’s floor, we got a good impression of the different services provided by the company. At 15.30 it was time to put all our energy and knowledge into a challenging case pre-pared by Kempen & Co. Four teams had to compete to give three investors the best advice on two investment opportunities. With a typical information overload and complex database, it was our job to filter out the most important data and to combine this in an integrated

advice. Time pressure, team discussions and meetings with CEO’s and CFO’s made it a very realistic experi-ence. One team stood out and was the lucky winner of a very nice bottle of red wine.

An informative and challenging day was ended in style with nice drinks and a delicious Italian buffet at Kem-pen & Co’s own, inhouse, bar/restaurant. The intimate atmosphere at the bar provided us with the perfect set-ting for asking the employees some last questions and to hear stories by current interns. Satisfied and with our minds and stomachs well stuffed, we left for our 2,5 hour train ride back to the South. During the ride back we have been able to reflect on a successful day and a great first Kempen & Co inhouseday as organized in cooperation by SCOPE|FOCUS and SCOPE|Vectum.

Luc NelissenChairman SCOPE|FOCUS

39


Pictures

Pictures

Financial Experience Düsseldorf Active Member Day Nederlandse Kantoren Dag

Congress

Active Member BBQ Alumni Day Congress

Active Member Day Wall Street Party Big4 Cycle

Alumni Day Wall Street Party


40 Alumni day

Alumni day

“En garde. Prêt. Allez”. “Attaaaaack!!!” “Get them, get them, there is still a white balloon over there!” The peacocks at Kasteel de Hoogenweerth did not un-

derstand what was happening on Saturday the 13th of April. It was this year’s SCOPE|FOCUS Alumni Day.

After two years of silence, and with the upcoming lust-rum in the back of our minds, the board decided it was time to reconnect with our alumni. So the process of inviting former active and board members started. It was an elaborate but super interesting process, as it was another indicator of all the amazing places and companies our alumni end up. Next to getting “Delive-ry failure” messages from emails sent to addresses en-ding with @lehman.com and @fortisbank.com, we also got cancelations with some good reasons. Like the one from ’06-‘07 Chairman, Leoni van der Chijs, as she is currently working for Doctors without borders in the Central African Republic. Or the one from ’07-’08 Chair-man, Catherine van der Wielen, who lives in Singapore these days. Luckily enough, there are also alumni who decided to work a little closer and thus were able to join our alumni day!

When the day finally arrived we were blessed with one of the first beautiful spring days of the year, which was perfect for the program of the day. After welcoming everyone at the enchanting chateau, it was time for a very ‘short’ update on the current affairs within FOCUS. Our Chairman, Luc Nelissen, explained the new SCOPE structure and presented the new activities of FOCUS, after which it was time for the real fun: catching up with old friends while watching the sometimes embar-rassing pictures of the past two years.

After everyone had been able to reconnect with each other, we got to the part of the day most people had been

waiting for. It was finally time for the fencing workshop. Former coach of the German national women’s team, Guus Coonen, taught us the basic moves that are es-sential in a fencing battle. After testing the athleticism, agility and stamina it was clear that we are a study as-sociation and not an athletics club. Thus some more work was required on our footwork and the speed of our defence and attack moves. After this training how-ever, everyone was ready for the final battle. The coach divided the group in two opposing teams: FOCUS|BLUE versus the white team. Both teams carefully discussed tactics and strategies, but both ended up implementing the good old strategy of just running and finding out what happens! As expected, FOCUS|BLUE prevailed and was able to achieve the victory after an intense and ex-hausting battle.

Luckily the next part of the program was a drink, as everyone was really thirsty from the great workshop. The day ended with a great dinner and more time to laugh about crazy stories of the FOCUS past.

On behalf of the FOCUS board I would like to thank you for coming to the alumni day and I hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did. It was a great pleasure and honour to organize this day. Before saying good-bye till next year, we would like to ask you to save the date for next year’s alumni day as this will be another day you’ll never forget. On Saturday the 26th of April, SCOPE|FOCUS will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a special lustrum alumni day and a lustrum gala in the evening. Therefore, it might be advisable to save the 27th of April as well.

See you next year!Thur Opgenoord

As our alumni database is not complete and not up to date, it is possible that you have not received any emails. In case you would like to stay updated about our alumni events, please send an email to [email protected] with you current contact details. Please also forward contact details of other former active or board members of whom you know they are currently not in touch with FOCUS.

Join our SCOPE|FOCUS Alumni Facebook group!

41


Casino night

Casino night

It was the 20th of April, and 27 lucky SCOPE|FOCUS actives met at the train station in Maastricht to go to the casino in Valkenburg. After a short trip with

train and bus, we arrived at the casino. Two poker ta-bles were reserved for us. Five people were not able to attend the poker tables, because only 11 people per table were allowed. However, they received twice the amount of chips and could start gambling at the casino immediately. The other 22 started with an introduction round, as some of them had never played poker before.

The two tournaments started (no re-buy is possible in a tournament, as it would be in a normal cash game) and the winner at each table could win 25€ worth of chips. About 10 to 15 rounds were played. Some clever people even brought sun glasses with them to look like professional poker players and have the perfect poker face. The behaviour of the players varied a lot in terms of risk, because there are no theoretical frameworks for poker, such as the efficient frontier in finance. Most rounds were decided on the last card and with a lot of luck, so there was much fun and excitement in the game. On both tables, the last round should be the most interesting one. The players who were still in the game all took their last chance on the big win and challenged their luck with going “all in”. Both last rounds decided who should be the winner. In the end, the 25€ worth of chips went to Australia and Holland. Concerning that these nationalities are a minority, this was a very good rate. One of our group, who proved to be a real online poker fan, was brave enough to join the big guys at the

poker tables later that night. Unfortunately, he did not win the pot, but enjoyed playing with the real poker afi-cionados.

After the tournaments and a short break, all of us star-ted to play at the casino. The most favoured games were black jack and roulette. Black jack seemed to be the most liked game and also a good source of making some money. Some gamblers, approached the machines and were quite successful with that. The highest win of the evening, nearly 90€, was gained at a machine. This small jackpot was one by our lucky Lisa. Some chal-lenged their luck at the money wheel or just watched other people gamble after they reached their upper li-mit, While listening to some life music, the two and a half hours we still spend in the casino after the amazing poker tournament passed by very quickly. A few people were happy about their gains, but the ones that did not make money also had a very enjoyable and fun night.

After leaving the casino the luck for the night should not fade. This time our group had to walk to the train station. The last members arriving should just arrive on time for the train. We all enjoyed a night full of fun and more or less luck. This night proved to be another great event of our awesome SAC committee that will hopeful-ly be repeated in future.

Christian Peters


42 Active Member Day

Active member day - Meeting of the boy bands

Saturday, the 4th of May was a special day in Maast-richt. Six famous boy bands announced to visit the city and take part in a boy band battle. There were

the “spicy4”, “the D“, “wrong direction”, “#YOLO”, “sugar boys”, and “Take that Village People and FOCUS on One Direction”. It was almost noon on that especially sunny and warm day, when everyone met and since these six boy bands are in the lap of luxury a limousine (a nice and cozy bus) was waiting for them to get them to the secret location where the first round of the battle took place. Since the bus driver was so kind to park the bus directly at the meeting point which was in front of the SBE and the streets there are not really constructed for buses, the bus drive started kind of adventurous, name-ly backwards until the bus could turn and finally go on in the right direction. What doesn’t one do for a famous visit?

Passing by gorgeous landscape and a bicycle race, the destination was a small cottage surrounded by beauti-ful flower meadows and fields for animals. For refresh-ment, after the long bus drive, there was delicious apple pie, as well as tea and coffee. While having a break, each boy band group could prepare themselves in order to get the first points in the battle. The TtVPaFo1D team earned the most points before the first games even started, while having prepared a real boy band outfit, slogan and for some bribing issues bringing Jaeger.

Subsequently, the first part of the battle, the hunger games, could finally start. They consisted of four diffe-rent games, where each game was played by two dif-ferent boy bands groups at a time. The winning team got twenty points. The first game was the wheelbarrow

race and egg-and-spoon-race. One member of each boy band group had to sit in a wheelbarrow while another member ran the route which was quite up hill, kicking the wheelbarrow down the road. Once at the top, one person of each team had to do the egg-and-spoon-race. In case the egg fell down which happened quite often, one had to start over again. The second game was sack race. Here, each boy band group member had to run the route once. The first part of the route was up hill, plus relatively steeply and thus fairly tough. The second part of the route was slalom. Since one had to do the sack race there and back, the hardest part was in the end, where one had to go downhill with the sack which was really difficult when trying not to trip and fall flat on one’s face. The third game was kind of “Takeshi’s Cast-le”, an inflatable castle for grownups. The first part was a wall with knobs on both sides some of them could be moved to the opposing side to try to push off the com-peting boy group players. Having mastered this rela-tively easy part, the second part of the inflatable castle consisted of big lined up balls with two flexible palms on top of each ball which looked like little palms is-lands. One had to jump from island to island in order to master this part. Some boy group members coped with the islands part quite well; however some others had to perform impressive acrobatic feats. Each boy group could throw water balloons at the competitive boy group’s course which made the whole thing even more complicated and slippery, but also funny to watch. The fourth game was rope pulling which was quickly sub-stituted for another round of “Takeshi’s Castle” due to unequal and unfair ground conditions.

43


Active Member Day

After the hunger games battle finished, all boy band groups earned a relatively similar amount of points ex-cept wrong direction who seemed to take their name for granted and actually went in the wrong direction and lagged far behind the competing boy bands. For a little while, everyone could enjoy the sun and dress up for the second part of the competition.

Back in Maastricht, the final destination, a nice and cozy bar, was soon reached. Since everyone was qui-te hungry, the BBQ was already prepared and quickly everyone was happy and refreshed for the second part of the competition, karaoke which aroused enthusi-asm among every boy group. Every boy band sang two

songs previously performed by (real) boy bands and got points awarded on the basis of their singing and dan-cing performance. The highlight was the performance of the song gangnam style by wrong direction. The en-tire crowd sang and danced along. The atmosphere was just amazing. Even though the song gangnam style was not previously performed by a boy band, everyone tur-ned a blind eye to this fact and Wrong direction got an incredible amount of forty points which finally was a step in the right direction and led them back into the match. However, it was insufficient for the overall vic-tory of the competition. The overall winning boy group was spicy4 and their price was a sixpack of Smirnoff. After the battle officially, everyone moved on playing Karaoke, singing and dancing until late at night. It was an amazing and funny day!

Many thanks to Kay, Pascal and Thur for organizing this great event.

Britta KraemerMultimedia Committee


44 SCOPE|FOCUS Activity Agenda

SCOPE|FOCUS Activity agenda

June & July

International Financial Orientation, June 17th - June 27th

The International Financial Orientation is a 10-day study trip full of both company visits, presentations, and workshops, as well as several cultural activities. This year’s is going to take place in Beijing, China, where students will get the chance to visit companies like Volkswagen, London Stock Exchange, SAP, Canon, PwC, and Booz&Co.

End-of-year activity, June 20th

General Members Meeting, June 28th

During the 21st General Members Meeting, SCOPE|FOCUS will present its annual report including its financial state-ments. Moreover, the old board will be released from its duties and the new board for the academic year 2013-2014 will be elected.

International Financial Master Class, July 1st - July 6th

September

Active Member Information Evening, September 3rd or 10th

Big Four Recruitment Dinner, September 18th

Frankfurt Banking Tour, September 25th - 27th

During the Frankfurt Banking Tour students will have the chance to attend company visits, excel in workshops/presen-tations, and build networks during informal drinks & dinners. Seize the opportunity to secure an internship or a job offer as the first step towards your upcoming career.

October

Walking Dinner, October 1st

Maastricht Finance Day, October 9th

The Maastricht Finance Day is the largest financial recruitment event at Maastricht University. We will be welcoming at least 12 major companies who are actively looking for new employees. On a day with challenging workshops, one-to-one interviews, recruitment dinners and a top-notch speaker you will be able to get acquainted with top financial companies from both the Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg.

For more information about all upcoming SCOPE|FOCUS activities and career opportunities, visit

scope-focus.nl or follow us on Facebook or Linkedin!

Thank you all for an unforgettable & amazing year!

SCOPE|FOCUS Board 2012 - 2013Paul, Luc, Thur, Raphael, Carlijn, Bram, Luisa

Kunnen we jou een balanstotaal van 100 miljard toevertrouwen?

A G I S

AV É R O A CH MEA

C E N T R A A L B E H E ER A C H MEA

F BTO

I NT E R PO L I S

Z I LV ER E N K RU IS A CH MEA

Met een eigen vermogen van ruim €10 miljard en een premieomvang

van €20 miljard zijn we het grootste verzekeringsbedrijf van Nederland.

Dat betekent een enorme verantwoordelijkheid als Financieel Management

Trainee bij Achmea. Een uitstekende start van een veelbelovende carrière

bij Achmea. Kijk op www.werkenbijachmea.nl voor meer informatie.

solliciteer als Financieel management trainee

Kunnen we jouonZe Klanten toevertrouwen?

11501776_Adv_Traineeship_FS Focus.indd 1 09-05-12 12:18

infocus 2013 volume 4

Documents

maastricht university

world of scopefocus

fast changing world

exciting business world

university staff

alumni day

infocus committee

business growth