fachhochschule Excursion to London and Dublin

Transcription

Excursion to London and Dublin
16 May 2011
- 26 May 2011
praxis verstehen - chancen erkennen - zukunft gestalten
understanding reality - facing challenges - creating future
Table of Contents
London - Dublin May 2011
1
BMW2
The Royal Bank of Scotland
4
Goldmann Sachs5
Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance
8
Lufthansa9
Chelsea FC11
Nord/LB13
Ernst & Young14
Sightsseing London16
Sightseeing Dublin19
Jelly Bean Factory20
Old Jameson Whiskey Destillery
22
Dublin Port 23
The Economic and Social Research Institute
24
Abbey Tours26
PayPal28
Wealth Management29
Alumni Report31
Sponsors34
Publisher: Professor Dr. Patrick Moore
fon +49 3831 455
fax +49 3831 45 66 80
Stefanie Wenzel
fon +49 3831 45 67 91 fax +49 3831 45 66 04
Fachhochschule Stralsund
Zur Schwedenschanze 15
D - 18435 Stralsund
www.fh-stralsund.de
Editor: Melanie Freistädt
London and Dublin: The centres of
the financial and the debt crisis
The financial crisis 2007/08 had a great impact on
the two financial centres London and Dublin. Due
to the different businesses that are done in the two
places they were affected totally differently – just
as different as the development has been since.
To experience this was the purpose of this year’s
finance excursion which led us to the capitals of
Great Britain and Ireland.
Since the winter semester 1998/99, when I started
teaching at the University of Applied Sciences in
Stralsund, after 15 years in banking, I regularly
take students from lecture class room to business.
I believe it is important for them to learn not only
theory ex cathedra but also to learn from those
who are actually involved in the business in banking, insurance, industry or trade.
This semester we decided to visit London and put
special emphasis on asset management – not only
this, we also talked about financial aspects of a
football club with the CFO of Chelsea, learnt about
the fundamentals of Islamic Finance, financial aspects of wind parks or financial problems airlines
have to manage. To round it up we also visited
BMW UK who are involved in an interesting project
connected with the Olympics 2012 – the trigger to
this, see below.
In Dublin we originally had thought of visiting the
central bank and commercial banks to discuss the
problematic phase Ireland is going through – it
didn’t work out. Whereas in London the RBS – re-
ally badly affected – was open and frank in discussing their mistakes and problems, the banks in
Ireland we contacted all refused a meeting. PayPal
– also holding a bank license – though compensated for this with a meeting that lasted over four
hours, where we had an interesting insight into a
modern financial institution. One day we concentrated on foodstuff and drinks (time was tight, we
unfortunately didn’t manage Guinness) – but I had
the pleasure to meet a company that since I have
been in Stralsund has regularly hosted interns from
our university and of which I had heard many, many
good things: Abbey Tours.
All in all: 14 exciting meetings on 7 days (we used
the weekend in-between for some well organized
sightseeing and getting from London to Dublin) –
the student reports will show you details.
This little introduction would be incomplete without
a few words of thanks:
• A thank you first of all to our hosts, who put unbelievable effort into showing us their companies
and discussing several interesting topics with us.
• A thank you to our alumni – involved in some visits like BMW, PayPal and Abbey Tours (not really
an alumnus, Ruth still has to defend her thesis),
others who also intended to show us “their” companies, but we just didn’t manage to fit them into
our schedule – sorry Sarah and Christine – but it
was great to spend some leisure time with you.
• A thank you to the sponsors of the presents we
passed on to our hosts.
• A thank you to the students who organized the
trip and who were a wonderful team in preparing
the visits and made the trip an enjoyable event we
shall all look back to with pleasure.
Now, please have a pleasant read!
Prof. Dr.
Patrick Moore
Professor for International Finance
and Capital Markets
1
BMW
Ms. Angela Konert
www.bmw.co.uk
The excursion in London
started with our first appointment at BMW (UK)
Ltd., in Bracknell. As the town of Bracknell is located 50 miles southwest of London, we had an early
start in order to catch a train at London Waterloo
just shortly before 8 am. Upon our arrival at the offices of BMW (UK) Ltd. we were warmly welcomed
by the receptionist and Ms. Angela Konert. Each of
us got a visitor pass and the tour started. Then we
went into another building, where a nice prepared
meeting room was expecting us.
Ms. Konert, who is an alumna from the University
of Applied Sciences Stralsund, had organized a
very comprehsive and interesting agenda for us
that started with the first presentation by Ms. Angela Stangroom, who is the BMW Group Communication Manager. She kindly elaborated vividly on
the Group performance, the UK operations and the
development of the sales performance development of the Group product portfolio.
BMW Group is split into three different business
areas: Automobiles, motorcycles and financial services. All three business sectors are developing in
a very positive way despite difficult economic developments in some key markets. Especially the
super-luxury brand Rolls Royce reported a 170.6
% increase in sales in 2010. BMW Group UK has
a very extensive production network in the UK:
The production facilities at Hams Hall, Oxford and
Swindon jointly produce MINI. Hams Hall plant produces BMW and MINI engines and Plant Oxford
does the body shell production, paint and assembly. MINI Plant Swindon produces pressings and
sub-assemblies. In fact, the UK is the only market
where all three BMW Group brands, MINI, BMW
and Rolls-Royce, have a manufacturing presence.
All together the BMW Group employs 8,000 people
directly across the different production sites.
In the UK, BMW Group is represented on over 7
places like Park Lane (London), Doncaster and
they also have a “BMW Group Academy UK” to
train dealers and apprentices. In 2010, BMW
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Group as a whole made a net profit of over € 3.23
billion and sold more than 1.46 million BMW, MINI
and Rolls-Royce vehicles around the world.
The current company situation is best described by
the following statement: “BMW breaks car sales record. BMW sold more cars in March than any other
month in its 95-year history, with its British brands
driving the record performance” (The Telegraph,
18 April 2011)
Before the next presentation started we had a
short comfort break and the chance to enjoy the
nice sandwiches and fruits. Thank you once again,
for that.
The first presentation provided us with a very good
introduction to the Group and its operations in the
UK. The following presentation, held by Ms. Suzanne Gray, the General Manager for Project i,
was about the sustainability and electro – mobility
roadmap of the BMW Group. The following factors
are the key drivers for the introduction of new technologies and different approaches in the sourcing
of supplied and the production and design of vehicles.
• Global warming
• Climate change
• Urbanization
• Politics (e.g. tightening emission regulations)
• Economics (lack of natural resources, increase in
oil prices)
• Shift of cultural norms and habits
• Customer preferences, sustainability
BMW Group which was awarded the Dow Jones
Sustainability index for six consecutive years is at
the forefront of developing new technologies and
researching alternative ways of personal mobility to meet those challenges and to satisfy their
changing customer needs. In 2013, the BMW i3,
and i8 will be launched. The BMW i3, also referred to as the MegaCity Vehicle, is an example
for „Purpose Design” as it is a completely new and
visionary vehicle concept. In a very similar way the
BMW i8 combines the energizing performance of
a sports car with benchmark efficiency. Both vehicles are the BMW Group answer to the need for
a new kind of sustainable personal mobility that
works on many levels. Both vehicles deliver an effortless and comfortable driving experience while
keeping emissions and environmental impact to a
minimum.
According to Suzanne Gray the key markets that
will drive the development and take-up of e-mobility solutions are USA, Western Europe, China and
Japan. Countries where learning projects about emobility started are China, France and Japan; in
USA, UK and Germany are already results conducted from the trial. All information generated during the MINI E field trials is being incorporated into
the ongoing development and refinement of our
first purpose built production car, the Megacity Vehicle BMW i3, due for launch in 2013. During the
UK trial around Oxford the MINI E was tested by
a mixture of private, corporate and public sector
drivers.
Ms. Gray gave the floor to Ms. Michelle Roberts
who is the Corporate Communications Manager
for London 2012.
In November 2009, BMW was appointed by LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) as the ‘official automotive partner’. BMW as a Tier One sponsor will
play a key role by providing ca. 4,000 operational
vehicles required for the of transportation athletes,
technical officials, media, LOCOG operational
teams, National Olympic Committees, International Sports Federations, the IOC and marketing
partners. BMW won the sponsorship bid by proving its ability to provide a diverse fleet of vehicles,
including electric vehicles, hybrids and efficient
diesels that meet not only demanding operational
requirements, but also the ambitious CO2 average
threshold of 120g/km established by LOCOG.
“Once in a lifetime opportunity” to attend, is the
motto for BMW Group at London 2012. Other key
sponsors for London 2012 are for example, Coca
Cola, McDonalds, adidas, British Airways, BT, Cisco and EDF. The Games will take place in summer next year and require an efficient organization,
where the London Organising Committee and the
Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA – for construction
of the venues and Infrastructure) are responsible
for.
BMW Efficient Dynamics is the name of a package of technologies that help mitigate the fuel consumption while delivering maximum performance.
Thus, “The athletic concept of delivering maximum
performance with minimum energy is at the heart
of BMW Efficient Dynamics.” (Powerpoint presentation, BMW Group UK, 17 May 2011, Page 59)
Clearly, London 2012 is a wonderful platform for
the Group to promote its vehicles, inspire employees and customers and help staging this megaevent in 2012 in London.
Unfortunately, we were running out of time, due
to the number of questions raised by the students
and vivid discussions with our presenters. Thus,
there was no time left to listen to Ms. Konert’s presentation on Government Affairs. We had to catch a
train in order to be punctual at RBS where our next
meeting took place.
I would like to give thanks to Ms. Konert once more,
for making so much effort to give us such a nice
morning with the interesting insight and discussion.
Franka Laudahn
BMS student, 4th semester
3
The Royal Bank of
Scotland
Mr. Scott Nygaard
www.rbs.com
Our first bank meeting led us to The Royal Bank
of Scotland (RBS) on Tuesday afternoon. Security
handling at the beginning took quite a long time
and everybody received a visitor’s pass with his/
her own picture on it. On our way to the meeting room we walked past the futures trading floor
which was quite impressive with each trader sitting
and working in front of at least 4 screens.
We met Scott Nygaard, who is the head of Global
Banking and Markets (GBM) in London. He used to
work for 20 years for Deutsche Bank before joining
The Royal Bank of Scotland 5 years ago.
The GBM department performs Investment Banking for corporate customers by means of money
market funds and RePo (Repurchase agreements)
which means the financing of securities. They are
also engaged in futures trading and trade for example currencies, credits and bonds. A trader’s life
can be fun and really interesting but is definitely
time-consuming. They work long hours in the evening and often still after they finished official work in
the office.
4
There are 200 people working in GBM in 17 countries across the globe, for instance in important and
large cities such as New York, Hong Kong and Singapore.
We talked about the financial crisis and learned
that RBS took in fact a government bail-out, since
they were facing serious problems. We learned
that there were two major problems that hurt many
banks most in the crisis. First, there was not sufficient attention paid to risk management in mortgage business, primarily in the United States. RBS
as well neglected their lending business strategies
and additionally bought another bank in the times
of the crisis which actually suffered from the same
problems as they did, as they recognised later.
The second problem lies in not carefully monitoring liquidity issues. RBS bought many assets at
that time which needed to be financed. But due
to maturity mismatches this caused some serious
problems and led to the necessary bail-out of the
government.
Concerning the US-market situation and current
trading opportunities, Scott told us that the recent
low-interest rate policy makes it difficult to make
money out of the market. When interest rates are
low volatility disappears and consequently no money can be made.
The best years for future trading were 2008 and
2009 where in fact billions of revenue was made.
RBS has a strategic aim to recover from the crisis
and build up a strong global bank again. They established a non-core division within the RBS group
to identify bad and toxic assets and businesses
which will then be outsourced. This strategy has
already been quite successful in reducing bad assets worth of £ 250 bn to £ 125 bn.
Being asked where GBM sees the largest potential
for the future, Scott answered that RBS focuses on
emerging markets and China where they already
established a joint-venture.
After the meeting while waiting for permission to
take our obligatory group picture we also met Kurt
who also works in GBM and Scott’s team. He is
originally from the US but used to live and work in
Frankfurt for many years and thus had a nice chat
in German with us.
The visit at The Royal Bank of Scotland was definitely the shortest one of our trip but we heard
some very interesting facts about the current situation of the bank and their dealing with the impacts
of the financial crisis.
On behalf of our group I would like to thank Scott
Nygaard very much for the meeting and his willingness to talk with us about the aftermath of the
financial crisis.
Melanie Freistädt
Goldman Sachs
Asset Management
Mr. Kevin R. Ng
Mr. Luke Barrs
www.gsam.com
Emerging and Growth Markets
On Wednesday, 18th of May at 9.00am we were
warmly welcomed by Kevin Ng in the Goldman
Sachs Asset Management building at 10 Newgate
Street, which is closely located to St Paul’s Cathedral.
Kevin Ng, who studied Economics in Boston, started to work in Asset Management at JP Morgan 12
years ago. Since 2004, he is specialized in equity
investments, which means that his clients like to
take risks. Last year, he moved from New York to
London and is glad to work in Europe, especially
because of the reduced travel times when meeting
with clients. Concerning our own career planning,
Mr. Ng recommended us to start an international
career within Europe, due to the fact that Europeans are much more concentrating on what is beyond their borders than US citizens and corporations do.
After this introduction, we were informed by Mr.
Ng’s colleague, Luke Barrs, on how Goldman
Sachs is redefining the emerging markets. A short
video from the Chairman of GSAM, Jim O’Neill who had coined the term BRIC in 2001 - provided
us with the basics of their concept of emerging and
growth markets. During the next hour, we had the
pleasure to listen to and talk with Luke Barrs who
gave a stunning presentation.
Luke Barrs
5
The idea is to classify some of the emerging markets as growth markets, in order to figure out those
countries which exhibit an increased productivity
and a potential for an above average growth rate.
The major requirement is to have a significant contribution to global GDP, meaning a GDP of at least
1% of the global GDP. Basically, countries are allocated to one of three buckets: developed, growth,
and emerging markets.
A new term that evolved in this context is the N-11
countries. The “Next 11” countries show a high
growth potential for this decade; from 2010 - 2019.
Besides the BRIC countries, four of the N-11 countries - Mexico, Korea, Turkey and Indonesia - already meet the criteria to be called a growth market.
Consequently, there are currently eight countries
labelled as growth markets. The seven remaining
N-11 countries are still regarded as emerging markets, but with the capability to gradually become
a growth market. Those are Iran, Egypt, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Vietnam, Nigeria and the Philippines.
GSAM has already launched a N-11 fund, however, as one cannot invest in Iran directly, it contains
only companies that have some of their revenues
there.
6
The emerging and growth markets play such an important role, due to the fact that 30% of the world’s
billionaires and 20% of the Fortune 500 companies
are located there, and more than 90% of all IPOs
during the last 10 years are from companies within
these countries. Furthermore, 49% of the world’s
population lives in the growth markets, whereas
only 14% lives in developed markets.
As the population is usually large and young in
these countries, the demographic situation looks
very promising in contradiction to developed countries like Germany.
In these markets, it is the huge amount of locals
who are expected to drive the domestic demand
and the growth. Considering China, one tends to
think about Shanghai, Beijing and flat screen TV’s,
however, it is a huge country where a lot of infrastructure improvements are necessary.
The situation in India is similar, it was unimaginable
to operate a pizza delivery service 20 years ago,
because there was hardly any landline available.
While it is still not available for many people nowadays, the mobile phone is available and is a main
growth driver in India.
A further indicator is the Growth Environment Score
(GES). It monitors the productivity and sustainability of growth, and ranges from 0 (worst) to 10 (best).
All N-11 countries have improved their score from
1997 till 2010, which reflects their potential.
Nonetheless, Mr. Ng pointed out that it is a
long-term prediction, accompanied by a higher
amount of risk. One should never forget the developed world when investing. Airbus and Boeing, for example, are facing more competition
from China and India, but it is uncertain whether
those companies will achieve a similar quality.
Therefore, diversification always applies, in order
to find a healthy mix that suits one’s risk appetite.
In the remainder of the meeting, Mr. Ng explained
several factors and graphs that indicate the potential for a coming bullish cycle in the stock market.
The P/E multiple is currently at 12, and below the
average of 15 to 17, which expresses the low expectations at the moment, but suggests a chance
for value investors. Beyond this, there were always
cycles in the historical development on a long-term
perspective, and when there were fears and doubts
in the market, a bullish market trend followed.
Thank you very much, Mr. Ng and Mr. Barrs, for
the very interesting meeting and for giving us an
insight into your daily business. We are delighted
that we had the possibility to visit and talk with you.
Lars Höxter
Kevin Ng and Lars
7
Institute of
Islamic
Banking and Insurance
Mr. Mohammad Shafique
http://www.islamic-banking.com
On Wednesday, 18th of May 2011 we were warmly welcomed by Mr. Mohammad Shafique, Programme Development Co-ordinator, and his colleagues at the Institute of Islamic Banking and
Insurance (IIBI) at 7 Hampstead Gate, 1 A Frognal,
London, NW3 6AL.
IIBI is a UK-based Charity and an independent
educational organization which is not involved in
the banking business itself. It aims to promote Islamic finance through education, training, research
and publications. Its major activities include online courses, lectures and seminars, conferences,
membership and publication of the New Horizon
magazine.
The Institutes’ aim is to create a wider base of
knowledge and understanding of the principles and
methodologies of Islamic banking and Islamic insurance by delivering the highest quality of professional education, training and research. Because
they are relevant to the needs of the industry and
raise awareness across all financial disciplines of
the positive benefits of incorporating moral and
ethical aspects in all dealings.
People working in Islamic banking do not need to
have deep knowledge of the Islam, but they must
have good understanding of the commercial banking sector, as well as global experience. In order
to meet the needs of human resources for the Islamic financial service sector, IIBI launched a PostGraduate Diploma Course to increase the number
of well trained workforce in Islamic banking. The
Diploma of the Institute has made a positive contribution to the Islamic banking worldwide by providing the students with an appropriate knowledge
emphasizing the practical aspects and the main
point of Islamic finance operations.
After a short introduction Mr. Shafique provided us
with a general overview of the Islamic Banking Sys-
8
tem and explained fundamental terms, the importance of the Shari’ah Law which is the foundation
for all transactions and refers to the laws contained
in or derived from the Quran and the Sunnah (practice and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad).
Another term was Takaful, a form of Islamic insurance based on the Quranic principle of mutual assistance (ta’awuni). It provides mutual protection of
assets and property and offers joint risk sharing in
the event of a loss by one of its members. Mudarabah, also mentioned during the meeting, is a form
of business contract where one party brings capital and the other personal effort. The proportionate
share in profit is determined by mutual agreement
at the start. But in case of a loss the owner has
to borne the capital, in this case the entrepreneur
gets nothing for his labour. Sukuk, has similar characteristics to that of a conventional bond with the
key difference being that they are asset backed; a
Sukuk represents proportionate beneficial ownership in the underlying asset.
One method of earning income is to participate in
a profit-and-loss-sharing, which means that the investors are considered as partners of the banks.
Hence, profit-and-loss-sharing is a form of partnership, where each side takes part in a project and
shares profits and losses on the basis of their capital shares and effort. Another method of earning
income according to the Islamic law is leasing (Ijara). Ijara is a leasing contract under which a bank
purchases and leases out a building or any other
facility required by its client for a rental fee. The
duration of the lease and rental fees are agreed in
advance. Ownership of the equipment remains in
the hands of the bank.
During the meeting we discussed highly interesting topics such as the post financial crisis and Mr.
Shafique also told us about the Shari’ah board and
the ISFB. The Shari’ah board is an authority appointed by an Islamic financial institution, which supervises and ensures the Shari’ah compliance of
new product development as well as existing operations. The Islamic Financial Service Board (IFSB)
is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and began its
operations in early 2003. The IFSB is an international organization that issues guiding principles
and standards for the Islamic banking, insurance
and capital market sectors in order to promote stability in the Islamic financial services industry. The
goal of the IFSB is to promote the awareness of
issues that could have an impact on the Islamic
financial services industry. It issues Shari’ah-compliant standards, holds conferences and seminars,
and provides guidance and supervision, among
other initiatives.
Mr. Shafique also introduced the official magazine
of IIBI with a readership circle in around 105 countries. The magazine gives its readers an informative insight of this rapidly-developing industry,
keeps them up-to-date on the industry’s changes
and publishes interviews with some of the leading
specialists in Islamic finance and academic articles
written by the industry’s distinguished scholars.
It was a great experience for all of us to see how
the IIBI is acting. It is a growing business which
is gaining more influence on the world’s financial
markets and that provides alternatives to the traditional banking system. It gives people with an Islamic background the possibility to combine their
financial businesses with their beliefs as well as it
is open for everyone interested in this well structured business.
It was a pleasure for the group to meet the IIBI
team and to gain knowledge from professionals of
the Islamic finance sector.
Nadja Doberstein
Lufthansa
Mr. Alexander Tolweth
www.lufthansa.com
Getting up at 6am is a usual time if one seeks to
work in one of the busiest metropolises in the world.
Still, we came almost too late after a ride through
the tube to the other end of the town, Heathrow
Airport.
Once we entered the Lufthansa office we experienced a friendly welcome by the general manager
(UK and Ireland) Marianne Samman.
Alexander Tolweth, corporate sales manager, had
a very happy and friendly nature right from the beginning. Right from the start we helped ourselves
with some cookies, doughnuts and juice, which
was a welcomed starter at all meetings. After a
short introduction to his person Alex told us more
about his job and responsibility for the UK and Ireland. In former times he was a key account manager and used to travel a lot more than nowadays.
He was highly interested in our background and
came up with the wish to hear more about our studies. He loved to hear about our excursion and the
idea behind it. He also told us that such initiative is
normally not usual.
Alexander Tolweth
Eventually, as he wanted to start with his little presentation about the aviation business we already
came across with plenty of interesting questions.
That led to a dynamic discussion without any red
lines in the background.
9
We learned about the fairly high risk that aviation
companies usually take, we talked about the ash
cloud last year and what the impact on Lufthansa’s
business was. In fact, there is no protection from
environmental circumstances and long delivery
times by airplane builders. Alex came up with the
example of an Airbus 380 – order made in 2006
and delivered in 2011. This is what we call unpredictable future, because nobody really knows the
demand in five years time in any business. Furthermore, other risks like political instability, tax
movements and oil price volatility can drive such a
business bankrupt. It turned out that if a company
like Lufthansa creates a margin of 5% related to
the turnover it experienced a good year. That is unbelievable low compared to other branches. Alex
seemed to love the part when he came to say that
one has to be kind of crazy to work at an aviation
company. He told us that one has to have a real
passion, because the streets are not paved with
gold. Alex kept us listening by funny stories taken
from his own experience. We had good fun as the
atmosphere became increasingly easygoing.
Lufthansa also deals with airplane leasing/renting
to other aviation groups as it is a good method to
securitize the usage of own airplanes. There is a
huge department in Frankfurt that controls all related issues to that part of the business.
We showed big interest in Lufthansa’s market entry
strategies, because there are serious restrictions
that lead to an interesting method to circumvent
those. The “freedom of the skies” for example is
a framework of rules that provide or forbid access
for a certain airline to a certain airport. In former
times an airline could only fly in and fly out from its
domestic market. That led to an increasing interest to create alliances such as the “star alliance”.
Another reason for alliances is simply the fact that
even a big global player like Lufthansa would not
have enough aircrafts to serve the entire globe.
Although, the European market is liberalized,
which means that a German airline could also fly
from Italy to England, the costs related to that are
too high. Even if the costs would be fairly low, it
is difficult to get the right to land and to take off,
because most airports are too busy. This is why
airlines keep expanding their partnerships in order
to improve their supply to customers.
Alex told us about difficulties regarding the different cultures alliances normally deal with. Lufthan-
10
sa’s philosophy therefore is to seek for locals that
know the domestic market before they try to establish new partnerships. Lufthansa also has a department that deals with internal intercultural trainings,
which is still not often to find.
Establishing a network in the domestic market is
not even more unimportant, because regional aviation groups help big operators like Lufthansa to fill
their airplanes. For example Augsburg Airlines is
perfectly matched with the departure plans of Lufthansa, mainly operating from Frankfurt Airport.
Bottom line: small operators collect passengers
all over the country to get them into one big airplane and work closely together with bigger aviation groups.
Our discussion, still without the prepared presentation, made its way to the research and development department where Alex has a slight insight.
Regarding the appreciating oil price we asked him
about alternatives for fuel production and indeed,
Lufthansa has a budget for research on alternative
fuels. Coming back to environmental issues Alex
told us that European law makers had the idea
about an equal environmental tax throughout Europe. That, in fact, would kill cheap offers by Ryan
Air or Easyjet.
In the end of the meeting he realized that we covered almost all topics that he wanted to present.
His impulsive and friendly nature made us very
confident to ask all those questions and run the
meeting more to an active exchange of information.
Thank you Alex.
Marko Sieber
Chelsea Football Club
Mr. Chris Alexander
http://www.chelseafc.com/
The Finance side of Football
On Thursday May 19th at 13:30 we were welcomed by Ms. Sarah von Rendsburg at Stamford
Bridge, the stadium and home of Chelsea Football
Club. We were guided through the stadium, seeing
many interesting places – such as the press room,
the changing room of the players and of course the
pitch - and getting to know the Chelsea Football
Club better.
After our tour of Stamford Bridge and a refreshing cup of tea or coffee we were welcomed by Mr.
Chris Alexander, who is the Finance and Operations Director of Chelsea, to discuss the financial
side of professional football.
Mr. Alexander is a trained chartered accountant
who studied for an MBA from one of Europe’s leading business schools. After working in a number of
different senior financial roles and a lengthy spell of
expatriation in France, Mr. Alexander joined Chelsea FC as Finance Director in early 2003, shortly
before it was taken over by Mr. Abramovich, and
was appointed Finance and Operations Director in
2009.
Chelsea FC is one of the most well known football
clubs today with superstars such as Fernando Torres, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard. Not only
is Chelsea known for its superstars and coaches
such as Jose
Mourinho, but its
owner, Mr. Abramovich, is also well
known throughout
the world for his
passion for football and the millions of dollars he
has invested in
buying new players for Chelsea.
As Mr. Alexander
started the meeting off with some figures on the
financial status of Chelsea, including figures such
as the turnover and the profits of the previous
years – a financial year in football runs until the
30th of June – the relation between the financial
losses Chelsea has made over the previous years
and the investments of its owner, Mr. Abramovich,
and the new “fair-play” policy of the UEFA sparked
some questions. These questions ranged from Mr.
Alexander’s own opinion on the subject to the possible problems Chelsea might face concerning the
new regulation.
The new regulation – which forces the clubs to
balance their books without the outside help of
wealthy individuals such as Mr. Abramovich – will
come into force in the season 2013-14. Mr. Alexander is very confident that Chelsea will not face any
problems in abiding by the new regulation, however, Mr. Alexander finds it strange that the UEFA
is trying to limit the spending of wealthy owners, as
they initiate a trickledown effect of which not only
the Premier League clubs, but also other foreign
leagues and their clubs benefit from, as the club
from which Chelsea has bought a player is able to
spend more money on new players.
The previously mentioned losses Chelsea has reported over its financial year, which often result in
the purchase of a new player, do not necessarily
result into a negative cash flow or profit and loss
account, as players are amortized over the lifetime
of their contracts, for example, Chelsea bought
Fernando Torres for 50 million pounds and has a
contract of 5 years, this would mean that each year
10 million pounds of the transfer of Fernando Torres is amortized.
Mr. Alexander also elaborated on the sources from
which clubs like Chelsea derive their money. There
are three main pillars that generate cash, and these
are: football activities, TV-money and commercial
sponsorship. Football activities can be divided into
three different categories which approximately
all account for one third. The categories are the
ticket sales, box office and hospitality sales. Even
though there are only a few hospitality boxes and
tens of thousands of seats, the hospitality boxes
are a great source of income, as the price for rent
is 1 million pounds per season and a box has to be
rented for at least 10 years.
The second pillar is the TV-money which comes
11
from the FA Premier League and the UEFA Champions League. The money which comes from the
FA Premier League is 50 percent fixed and the other 50 percent is based upon the performance over
the season, which means that it is very important
for clubs to end as high as possible in the league.
This is not only true for receiving more money from
the FA Premier League, but also holds true for the
UEFA Champions League, as only the 3 highest
ranked clubs directly qualify – and the fourth has
to play qualifying matches – for participating in the
Champions League which is a very attractive tournament. Participation secures an approximate income of 15 million pounds and winning the Champions League can generate as much as 40 million
pounds for the club.
The third pillar for football clubs are the commercial sponsorships. The main sponsors of Chelsea
are Adidas and Samsung; additionally, there are
many more sponsors that sponsor Chelsea, such
as Coca Cola. A question from the group, related to
the financial crisis and the income from commercial
sponsors, was how secure the income from commercial sponsorships is. Mr. Alexander explained
that companies are very eager and happy to sponsor big and successful clubs such as Chelsea and
the contracts are signed for a longer period of time.
12
Though the crisis did not affect the income from
commercial sponsorships, the team performance
is the main factor affecting the income from commercial sponsorship deals as a bad league performance will weaken the negotiation position of the
club when negotiating a new contract.
In the end of our conversation and responding to
the question of how Mr. Alexander got into football,
he responded with a word of advice for those interested in getting into football or perhaps other niche
areas of business. Mr. Alexander told us we should
constantly ask ourselves: “Am I learning anything?”
instead of “How do I get into football?”
We would like to thank Mr. Alexander for the interesting meeting.
David Stomps
Nord/LB
Mr. Heiko Ludwig
Mr. Marco Wedemeier
Mr. Lars Ammermann
https://www.nordlb.com/
Project Financing for Renewable Energies and
the City of London
in the United Kingdom. There exists less capacity
for wind parks than for instance in Germany. This
is not due to the fact that there is less space for
such parks, as one could wonder. Instead it was
simply in the past not possible to build many parks
due to the fact that in the UK people could prevent
building these parks and would rather return to use
conventional energy, derived from atomic power.
It was on Friday, May 20th, that the group of students and Prof. Patrick Moore visited probably one
of Germany’s most established banks at its London branch. It was time to take a closer look at
Nord/LB in the “City of London”.
Being warmly welcomed by Heiko Ludwig and
his colleagues, Marco Wedemeier and Lars Ammermann, it soon became clear that an ingenious
and thrilling meeting lay ahead of everyone. The
three men were being part of a fascinating Nord/LB
team: Structured Finance in the sector of Renewable Energies.
This team seems to be on a growing path in times
of a general changing behaviour towards the usage of energies. Their daily job is determined by a
crawling business: the financing part in the areas
of Wind power onshore, Solar, Biomass but also
Wind power offshore.
The excitement in this business lies especially in
showing that it can be worthy to invest in renewable energies, especially when facing current risks
lying in government bonds, as seen in the example of Greece. There is not only one alternative
when investing in renewable energies. But one of
the possibilities that took shine on the group was
certainly investing in wind parks. The fascination
lies probably in the wind itself and its huge powers,
which can take anyone’s breath away. Famous for
this and its high efficiency is the region of Ireland,
which Mr. Ludwig and his team was clearly fascinated by.
But within every innovative business idea there
are also some complications in the general renewable energy sector as well. Whereas in Germany
nowadays the awareness of the need for the alternative technique is well accepted, there are still
some smaller setbacks in the rest of Europe, i.e.
Many discussions upon this fascinating topic arose
during the meeting. But the three men had another
clue to present. It was literally served up on a plate:
the excitement of working and living in London.
It seems to be a little like the icing on the cake to
work and live in London, probably the most important financial centre of Europe.
The London branch of Nord/LB is situated in the
“City”, also referred to as the “City of London” or
“Square Mile”. Apparently about 8,000 people are
living in the inner city, where once a Roman wall
used to guard its population. Nowadays this area
is characterized by a mix of something green, old,
new and a lot of banks, of course.
Working in London can be attractive to anyone due
to its high diversified population. More than 300
languages are currently spoken in London, among
the folk about 100,000 Germans are living, spreading the German language.
What attracts them and the big businesses of the
world is the fact that English is the language that
everyone speaks and understands. It is easy to
learn and is used as a “global code”. London can
also be attractive to everyone as it seems to be
lying in the centre of the world, with its negotiating
13
time being right in the middle.
And at last everyone seems to be hypnotized by
the magic of London, as barely any city in the world
has so much options and potential to offer.
At the end of the meeting at Nord/LB it became
clear that the London fever had infected everyone,
the team around Heiko Ludwig, the students from
the University of Applied Sciences Stralsund and
their Professor Patrick Moore.
Susann Angierski
Ernst & Young
Mr. Michael-John Albert
Mr. Mark London
Dr. Anthony W. Kirby
Mr. Kamran Salahuddin
http://www.ey.com/UK/en/home
Risk Management for Asset Management
On the 20th of May at 4pm we had our last meeting
in London with Ernst & Young. The meeting was
in the city centre of London at a very interesting
location. The organizers of this meeting booked a
room for us on the 9th floor in their building with a
fabulous view over the River Thames and the city
of London.
First, Mr. Michael-John Albert gave us a short introduction toward the work of Ernst & Young.
Ernst & Young is one of the global big four professional services firms. The firm helps their clients to
reach their potential by providing financially based
assurance and advice, and offering solutions to
complex problems.
Moreover, the firm offers a full range of services
which begins with consultancy and ends with
mergers and acquisitions advice.
Today, Ernst & Young has 130,000 employees in
140 countries under its Global Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer Jim Turley. These 140 countries
are sub-divided into five areas, whereas the location in London belongs to the EMEIA (Europe, Middle East, India, and Africa) area. This area employs
62,500 people in 87 countries and is led by Mark
Otty.
Furthermore, Ernst & Young works for example in
the sectors of Asset Management, Banking and
Capital Markets, Insurance, Media and Entertainment, Automotive, Biotechnology, and Pharmaceutical.
Secondly, Mr. Mark London spoke about Financial
Services (FS) Risk Advisory. This sector of Ernst &
Young offers strategic and operational services toward their clients. These services shall help clients
14
to assess, improve, and monitor their systems of
internal control. Additionally, the Financial Services Office (FSO) covers all elements of the financial
services sector. This includes the Asset Management, Banking and Capital Markets, Insurance and
FS Government.
Moreover, all professionals working in this sector
have a profound experience in areas such as credit, market and operational risk, quantitative analysis, and corporate treasury.
In addition, he gave a closer insight into the Quantitative Advisory Services (QAS) Team, where financial and risk modeling services are provided.
The main clients of this team are banks, insurances, and asset managers.
Mr. Mark London also discussed the tasks of operational risk within QAS and the trends and needs
within the sector.
Lastly, Dr. Anthony W. Kirby gave us a preview into
the 2011 Ernst & Young survey about “Risk Management for Asset Management”.
He firstly explained that the financial crisis was
a ‘perfect storm’ because at this time there was
a lack of understanding of risk/return dynamics.
Moreover, there was also a lack of transparency
and too much reliance on the rating agencies. Also
the markets were unregulated and there were weak
capital and liquidity standards. After this introduction he spoke about the meaning of risk management and the importance of the risk management
function.
In the 2011 survey one can see that for most of
the polled heads of risk and chief risk officers, who
were taking part in the survey, the desire to avoid
reputational impact and the increasing regulatory
interests/concerns are of high importance.
Furthermore, Dr. Anthony W. Kirby stressed out
that common issues and challenges for the strategic focus for firms are for example the investment
in the euro-zone, BRIC countries, and Asia/Pacific.
Additionally, he discussed with us, how Governance issues impact the work of firms, how the
product risk and market risk influences them, and
the future of Risk Management.
The fabolous view out of the meeting room
He also pointed out that the investment in risk is
a key for the future, that an effective risk management is important and that everyone needs it.
The whole survey with all the explanations on these
15
topics can be found from June 2011 onwards, on
the Ernst & Young UK webpage.
On behalf of Prof. Dr. Moore and our group, I would
like to thank Mr. Kamran Salahuddin and the three
speakers for the interesting presentation. All of the
students enjoyed the topics covered by the speakers very much and gained a lot of new information
and knowledge.
Westminster Walk through London
On Saturday 21st May our group had the chance to
walk a professional guided tour through Westminster London. This included different locations.
We started at Cleopatra’s Needle – one of the
unique landmarks in London. It was re-erected in
1819.
Kristin Koßmehl
The tour then went on to Downing Street via the
Ministry of Defence. Since several terror threats it
was not possible any longer to visit Downing Street,
where the Prime Minister has his office. We also
passed the first and only memorial for the women
suffering from the damages of the bombardment of
London and during the Second World War.
Then as the tour went on, we took a stop at the
Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Big Ben is not,
as many think, the name of the clock tower, but
the name of the biggest bell within it. It was built in
1858 and put into the clock tower. The Houses of
Parliament consist of the Upper House, the House
of Lords and the Lower House, the House of Commons. Formerly this was the Royal Palace.
The next stop was Westminster Abbey where also
the latest royal wedding of Prince William and Kate
took place.
16
The group then passed St. James Park and the
Royal Treasury with a stop at the Horse Guard
Building. The tour went further through St. James
Park, a very idyllic park in the centre of London.
The speciality about London’s parks is that they
all are, more or less directly, connected with each
other.
The next stop was the Marlborough Road where
Queen Mum used to live until she passed away.
One of the highlights of the tour was the Changing
of the Guards at Buckingham Palace – the next
stop. This ceremony which lasts for more than one
hour is a must for every sightseeing tour in London.
Taking a walk down “the Mall” the tour stopped at
Trafalgar Square. The Mall is the parade road of
London inspired by the Champs Elysees in Paris ,
with the difference that the Mall is longer and wider
than its equivalent in Paris. The Trafalgar Square is
topped by a statue of Lord Nelson. It was build after the victory of the English over the French troops
at the battle of Trafalgar.
We would like to thank you again for giving us this
opportunity to get a deeper insight into Westminster London, its sights and its history.
Arved Quade
17
18
Sightseeing Tour Dublin
The next and final stop was the Dublin Castle which
is the heart of the historic Dublin. It was originally
Dublin is the largest city and the capital of the Republic of Ireland. Dublin is situated at the mouth of
the River Liffey and encompasses a land area of
approximately 115 km2. We had the great opportunity to explore this beautiful city by ourselves.
On May 24th 2011 our tour
started at the Spire of Dublin, which is a 120 meter high
landmark in the heart of Dublin
City. The monument was built in
2002 to signal the start of the
reconstruction of a new public
domain for O’Connell Street.
Our next stop brought us to the
O’Connell Bridge. The bridge
was completed in 1795 to the designs of famous
James Gandon. The bridge is fairly unique in that
its width is slightly greater than its length.
built in the 13th century on a site previously settled by the Vikings and it functioned as a military
fortress, a prison, treasury, courts of law and the
seat of English Administration in Ireland for 700
years. It was rebuilt several times and is now used
for important State receptions and Presidential Inaugurations.
We had a great time in Dublin and its sights. We
On our way to the Molly Malone statue we passed
the Bank of Ireland, in former times called the Irish
House of Parliament, followed by the Trinity College which was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I. As we arrived at the Molly Malone statue
some of us took pictures or were just watching
some artists who showed their work on the street.
The tale about Molly Malone says that she was
representing a typical hawker by day and a parttime prostitute by night, which is also how the song
“In Dublin’s Fair City” has occurred.
After taking pictures and waiting until the rain
passed we moved further to the City Hall. In the
vaults of the City Hall is a multimedia exhibition
which traces the evolution of Dublin City. Treasures
of the city such as the Great Sword and mace of
Dublin and the Lord Mayor’s chains come together
with video medieval manuscripts, interactive computer displays and period costumes to tell the story
of the Capital city.
enjoyed the Irish atmosphere and the more than incredible nightlife in this beautiful city. Furthermore,
we were overwhelmed by the warm and polite welcome by the Irish people that we can recommend
a visit to the fair city of Dublin and the beautiful
country of Ireland.
Nadja Doberstein & Claudia Peske
BMS students, 6th semester
To get to our final destination, the Dublin Castle,
we also passed the Dame Street/ Temple Bar. This
area is a popular meeting spot because it offers a
welcome calming alternative to the rush and bustle
of the busy city centre, with its outdoor cafe terraces, delicious eateries and plenty bars with great
music.
19
Aran Candy Ltd. –
The Jelly Bean
Factory
Mr. Niall Tonge
www.jellybeanfactory.com
www.facebook.com/JellyBeanFactory
On Monday, May 23rd 2011, we made our way to
visit Aran Candy Ltd., probably better known under
their brand name Jelly Bean Factory. The company
is located in the Blanchardstown Business & Technology Park run by the Irish Industrial Development
Agency (IDA), about a half hour bus ride from Dublin’s city centre. Incidentally, the weather was just
as we had always imagined: Cold and windy with
occasional rain showers. However, getting wet was
not that bad as we were welcomed by the team of
the Jelly Bean Factory very cordially.
Niall Tonge, Trade & Product Development Executive, gave us a short but interesting introduction of the company. Aran Candy Ltd. was established in 1998 by father and son team Peter and
Richard Cullen. In 2008, the company moved to
a modern, state of the art factory. Nowadays they
employ 50 people and produce more than 10 million jelly beans a day, making them the largest producer of this kind of candy in Europe, with still a
lot of upward potential. Nonetheless, there is still
a very familiar and entrepreneurial atmosphere in
the company. At the time of our visit, the owners for
instance were en route to the USA in order to open
up new markets.
Unlike the early days, when the sale of private label
products was the principal business of Aran Candy,
nowadays more than two-thirds of the production
volume is sold under the Jelly Bean Factory brand.
It is remarkable that 97% of sales are generated
outside of Ireland, making their jelly beans available in almost 50 countries all around the globe.
These impressive achievements are also reflected
in a number of awards from different institutions,
most recently the owners for the example were
among the finalists in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year competition held in Ireland.
Marketing plays an important role in this context.
20
To maximize success in each of these countries,
a lot of effort is undertaken to understand every
single market and its specific needs. In the most
important markets, like the UK, the USA or in the
Middle East, the company established an own
sales office, whereas the remaining countries are
served by exclusive distributors. A key factor why
the products are that successful is their high quality. Thus, only natural flavours and colours are
used. All jelly beans are gluten, nut and gelatine
free, making them Halal compliant as well as suitable for many allergy sufferers.
One of the highlights of our visit was certainly the
factory tour. Guided by the production manager
and the plant manager, we were able to follow the
different stages of the production process. All of us
were really surprised by the fact that the production of a single jelly bean takes two weeks from
the first step to the final product. During the tour,
we learned that the company applies the highest
standards concerning hygiene and food safety.
The whole production process is monitored by a
comprehensive quality management system. The
Jelly Bean Factory is certified BRC Global Standard GRADE A by the British Retail Consortium.
This is one of the highest worldwide recognized
certificates in this area. The compliance of these
strict rules is audited regularly by external inspectors.
Another memorable experience was the visit of the
development laboratory. Beside the 36 different
varieties sold under the Jelly Bean Factory brand,
we got the chance to taste a number of pretty nasty
flavours like fish, onion, cheese or sausage.
Those crazy tastes are only produced as a private
label and marketed as a fan article of Harry Potter.
Beside the possibility to bring in our own ideas for
varieties yet to be invented, it was interesting to
learn that the creation of a new taste takes up to
one year.
When finally the time had come to say goodbye, we
were surprised by a bag fully packed with mouthwatering jelly beans for each of us. For this as well
as for the great time and the valuable insight all of
us appreciated, we would like to thank a lot.
Before our visit came to an end, of course we had
to take a souvenir photo, wearing our fashionable
protective clothing. As the Jelly Bean Factory is
quite active in social media marketing, our photo
was uploaded on Facebook only seconds later, our
excursion group becoming famous among more
than 5,000 followers.
Stefan Bohmeyer
21
Old Jameson Distillery
Mr. Graham Caulwell
http://www.jamesonwhiskey.com
The Financing of Whiskey Production
On May 23rd our group of 15 students and our
finance lecturer Prof. Moore had the outstanding
possibility to visit the Old Jameson Distillery and
to meet its Senior Production Accountant, Mr. Graham Caulwell.
Jameson as a member of the Irish Distillers was
awarded as one of the Top 30 brands by the “Impact” magazine and is the top ranked Irish whiskey.
Globally, Jameson is currently facing a growth in
excess of 10%, with a strong growth rate in the
USA.
In 1988 Jameson was acquired by the globally
operating and in 80 countries represented drinks
conglomerate Pernod Ricard. Within Pernod Ricard the brand Absolut Vodka is the largest. One
case equivalent (9 Litres) respects twelve bottles
of 750ml, respecting 3.6abv (40% proof) per case
equivalent. Jameson Whiskey is sold with three
million case equivalents.
For a maturing product like whiskey the sales forecast is crucial. Additionally to this challenge, the
Angel’s Share, the part of whiskey that evaporates
must be considered. The longer the whiskey matures the higher amounts the Angel’s Share. This
loss has to be taken into account when planning
the future sales.
Due to the scarce commodities the right return is
important as well. The growing Asian markets demand for whiskey in a growing amount. Therefore,
the right balance between sales forecast, return
and maturation have to be taken into consideration.
During the production of whiskey, different other
aspects have to be taken in mind. The different
by- products not necessary for the whisky production are sold to the farmers. This creates additional
revenue and releases parts of scrap. Whereas the
whiskey production takes place in the Middleton
Distillery, a bottling site is situated near Dublin.
22
Within the cost of whiskey the production costs are
substantial. In addition to that, dry goods have to
be taken into consideration. Dry goods are goods
like glass, labels, closures, gifts and cartons.
Furthermore, the bottling costs appear with labour,
overhead and depreciation. Finally, the sub contract costs have to be minded. The input costs of
whiskey contain cereals, energy for milling, brewing and distilling, overheads like laboratory, maintenance, human resource, finance and IT, and
depreciation of the distillery, the casks and the
warehouses. In contrary, the production costs can
vary, depending on the commodities, capacity, energy and yields.
The financing of whiskey is managed by Pernod
Ricard through cashflow management with the affiliate (Irish Distillers). The interest implications and
cost are managed at group level.
After the interesting presentation the group went
on to a tour through the Old Jameson Distillery and
enjoyed it really much. The guided tour provided
further knowledge about the production of whiskey
and made it possible to see the information given
before in daily production.
We would like to thank you again for the possibility
to get a deeper insight into your company and the
outstanding possibility to meet one of Jameson’s
managers.
Arved Quade
Comhlacht
Chalafort άtha
Cliath
Mr. Charlie Murphy
http://www.dublinport.ie/
On 24th May 2011 at 10 o’clock it was time for the
Dublin Port Company. We had this meeting, which
was in the area of the port of Dublin, where we had
afterwards a tour, with Charlie Murphy, the Community Liaison Officer of this company.
First of all, Mr. Murphy told us general things about
trade in Dublin and the business of the Dublin Port
Company. The first company in the port was the
Ballast Office in 1708, being responsible for all
actions in the port. After that there were the Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of
Dublin since 1786, then the Dublin Port and Docks
Board since 1867 and after that there was the
Harbour Act since 1946. The Port Company itself
was established in 1996. In this year the company
could act as a real company by giving shares and
dividends.
In general the type of goods and the manner in
which they are transported fall into different main
categories. The first one is Roll-on Roll-off Road
freight, vans, passenger cars, coaches as well as
new car imports. In addition to that there is the Lifton Lift-off category with the containers.
Important is also the Liquid Bulk with the refined
oils of different types and the Solid Bulk with for
example grains, animal feed, aggregates, bulk cement or petroleum coke.
At last there are the Cruise Liners and the new and
pre-owned car imports which have a great importance for the Dublin Port. Ships transporting such
freight could only have a depth of 12 meters.
Moreover, Mr. Murphy provided information about
the history. The historical development of Dublin
Port has created a modern multi-modal facility capable of handling the trade needs of the city and its
hinterland.
The challenge for Dublin Port over the next 30
years is to continue to modernise, adapt and develop to serve the needs of Ireland’s trading economy
well into the 21st century.
After 2002 the nature of the Irish economy changed
significantly from the so-called Celtic Tiger period.
This period was characterised by strong levels of
foreign direct investment into the economy and a
very strong export performance.
Between 2000 and 2008 Ireland experienced a 33
per cent loss in international competitiveness. This
reflected adverse exchange rate movements. But
Ireland’s export performance was starting to improve in 2010. There was the value or merchandise export expanded by 4.5 per cent, so there was
a trade surplus of €37.4 billion.
Futhermore Mr. Murphy presented us data to compare the tonnage throughput of the last two years
to get a better view of the trade of Dublin. Therefore there is a growth of tonnage noticeable.
Ro Ro
2009
2010
in tonnage
in tonnage
15,272,000.00 17,106,000.00
Lo Lo
Bulk Liquid
5,436,000.00
4,051,000.00
Bulk Solid
Break Bulk
Total Tonnage
1,587,000.00
1,471,000.00
108,000.00
73,000.00
26,454,000.00 28,114,000.00
5,676,000.00
3,788,000.00
Anticipating and meeting future trends is important,
particularly given the lead time for the commissioning of new port facilities. Addressing this challenge
is a key issue to the preparation of the Masterplan
to 2040. Such key issue is to ensure the Port remains at the heart of National, Regional and Local
Policy.
Another core operation is to identify lands surplus
as well as the future land use. Other issues being
very important for the Port are Transport, the Environment, Sustainability and the Port itself with the
local communities like the Community Gain.
23
The Economic and Social
Research Institute
Prof. Joe Durkan
http://www.esri.ie/
On Tuesday May 24th at 14:30 we were welcomed
by Mr. Prof. Joe Durkan at the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin.
So in the future over the period out to 2040, Ireland’s potential GDP growth rate should be around
3.5 per cent. To achieve such growth exports will
need to record annual average growth of around
5 per cent and import growth of around 3 per cent.
After the meeting we went by bus, and of course
with Mr. Murphy, through the port. Moreover, we
were lucky with the weather because on every stop
we made, the sun was shining. The first stop was
at the Cruise ship “Queen Victoria” where we had
an awesome view and possibilities for wonderful
pictures. This place was also great to thank Charlie Murphy for the whole meeting full of interesting
information and the tour through the port. The second stop was the building of control. Hereby the
whole traffic in the port is monitored. This means
every ship near the port is captured with all information needed for the port and in addition to that
the weather conditions like wind is mentioned in
the control systems.
Nevertheless it was an exciting visit for all of us
which gave us a greater insight into the trade sector.
So we want to thank Mr. Charlie Murphy for an unforgettable visit in the port and the wide range of
information provided to us.
Vicky Haß
24
Prof. Joe Durkan joined the ESRI in 1969 and was
a Research Officer until 1983. He was the main author of the Quarterly Economic Commentary from
1973 until 1983. Prof. Durkan spent six years in
business, with DKM; with National and City Brokers (NCB); and then with Coopers and Lybrand.
Afterwards he became a lecturer at the UCD from
1989 till 2002. He joined UCD as a lecturer in the
Department of Economics in 1989 and following his
retirement in 2002. After his retirement he returned
to the ESRI in February 2011 to join the Quarterly
Economic Commentary editorial team.
After introducing himself Prof. Durkan talked with
us about the Economic history of Ireland and explained us the financial crisis in Ireland. “The histo-
ry of Ireland equals a roller coaster with many ups
and downs.” This view characterizes the economy
of Ireland very well.
Six million people living in England today have
their origins in Ireland, which shows a strong relation between Ireland and England. This started all
after World War II, when Ireland became a free labor market and 1/6 of the population went abroad.
In the mid 50s some officials realized that Ireland
had to start
exporting
to face the
competition
with
other econo m i e s .
The United States
were fully
employed
during this time, which was the reason for some
companies to go to Ireland, knowing that they
could export their products overseas.
The government thought that high exports will increase the imports too, so they decided to start the
so called no tax regime. This was a big advantage
for exporting companies, because they have been
treated tax free in Ireland. This was the reason for
many companies to come to Ireland. The result
was that many domestic companies had to close
their business because they could not compete anymore at this huge exporting tax free market. But
the earnings still increased daily.
In the 70s the economy was increasing very well,
which led to a payment increase with flexible exchange rates. But the result was inflation with a
strong domestic demand as impact.
In 1977 Ireland did the second big mistake, because the government tried to reach full employment, which was financed by their budget. After
they blew out their budget, they tried to correct their
mistake and tried to stop the deficit. So the government started to recover from this industrial shock
with lowering taxes and increasing in expenditure.
But the domestic demand was weak which led to
an export boom to the United Kingdom.
During the 80s a new government came into force.
The policy of this new government led to a new
economic growth especially in the export sector.
A huge replacement by younger people was another result in the 80s. In the years 1988/89 the
wages were lower than the price inflation, until the
government increased the productivity.
But the 90s should bring a big boom to Ireland. The
Maastricht treaty as a consequence of the single
market in the EU had at first some disadvantages
for Ireland, because Agriculture policies were not
included, which was seen as a trade barrier.
Moreover, Ireland had less benefits from this treaty
then other countries, but Ireland had one big benefit, because many new companies came to Ireland,
especially in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. But the domestic demand for tablets had
only a capacity of 30%, which changed dramatically with the single market entry. Before this entry,
companies in Ireland were not allowed to export to
France, Germany and other countries.
This opened new perspectives for many multinational companies, which were already placed in
Ireland, because of the no tax regime times.
Ireland became the new place to be, because
of the low costs. Ireland became finally fully em-
ployed and had growth ratios from 8.9 and 10%.
Only New Zealand had a better growth than Ireland
over these times. This was the so called “Celtic Tiger”.
After Ireland joined the EURO, the pressure on the
domestic market and the labor costs increased.
The interest rates fell which led to a higher exchange risk. Ireland had access to Frankfurt and
thus access to an unlimited market. Ireland borrowed € 300 billion which was 2.5 times of GDP
and put this money in housing and property development. The result was 250,000 unsold houses of
a total number of 1,400,000 and therewith a huge
financial crisis in Ireland.
The EU and IMF reacted and gave Ireland a bailout of finally € 140 million. Now it is up to Ireland to
stabilize the debts and to bring the interest ratios
down. Ireland is aiming a GDP growth at the earliest in 2013.
But many companies left, as for example Dell in
2009, and unemployment of 14% across the country hinder this targets strongly.
We hope that Ireland can handle its debts to start
the roller coaster going up.
Carl Sandmann
25
Abbey Tours
Mr. Brian McColgan
Mrs. Marina Finn
Ireland and the Tourism Industry
Our last day of the excursion began with a meeting
at Abbey Tours, one of Ireland’s longest established
and best known incoming Irish tour operators. It is
privately owned and works in a close partnership
with travel trade and event organizers.
The company provides a wide range of services for
Group & Individual Travel, Association Conferences and Corporate Events in Ireland. The company
is located in 22 Bridge Street Lower, Dublin 8 – in
the heart of Ireland’s capital.
The group was greeted by Ruth Lohrke, who is
also a student from Stralsund and worked during
her internship and her bachelor thesis for Abbey
Tours. She organized the meeting and welcomed
us very warmly in front of the company. The current
office was initiated in 1991.
26
The presentation was held by Brian McColgan,
the chairman, and Marina Finn, the joint managing
director. They started with some interesting facts
about the history of the company. Abbey Travel
was founded as a new Dublin based tour operator
in 1978.
A few years later, Brian McColgan and Jerry Leahy
bought Abbey Tours, the inbound travel department of Abbey Travel in 1983. The board of directors changed in 2004.
The co-founder Jerry Leahy retired, and Patricia
McColgan, Jane Magnier and Marina Finn bought
his 50% share.
Abbey Tours took one step further, when it bought
the inbound business of O´Mara Travel, and the
managing director, John Healy, joined also the
board of Abbey Tours in 2007.
One year later, Brian McColgan sold his shares to
Patricia, Jane and Marina due to the regulation that
he remained with the company in the position of
the chairman.
During the year Abbey Tours Scotland was founded and the managing director is Julie Morris. The
company ´Abbey Tours´ was named as one of
Ireland´s 20 Best Managed companies by Deloitte
in 2010 and the first office of Abbey Tours Scotland
opened in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Marina and Brian continued the presentation with
the current situation of the company. Nowadays
Abbey Tours is the largest inbound tour operator in
the whole republic of Ireland with an annual turnover of € 31.5 million.
The experience of 32 years in business guarantees
the handling of more than 75,000 visitors to Ireland
in 2010. The 70 full time employees (75% female)
can offer the services in 6 languages fluently and
a rational handling with the culture and traditions.
70% of the clients are from Europe and the focus is
on France, Italy and Germany.
Quality is very important for the company, emphasized Brian McColgan. He added that Abbey Tours
offers a wide range of professional reliable services in Ireland and Scotland.
Similarly important is the immediate reply to all enquiries, pricing advantages and guaranteed hotel
spaces.
A special service of Abbey Tours is the after hours
emergency phone contact and the technological
tourplan system.
Tours Scotland, additional sales and client familiarization trips, and the focus on business tourism
and on markets with high returns like the USA.
The sales targets for 2011 in Ireland are +6.5%
and in Scotland +30%.
We would like to thank Brian McColgan and Marina
Finn and to express our gratitude for the interesting meeting and the explanation of the working philosophy of Abbey Tours.
In addition, we would particularly like to thank Ruth
Lohrke who organized the meeting.
Abbey Tours - a strong company in a tough trading
position.
Ann-Cristin Nowottny
Especially proud is the company of the establishment of Abbey Tours Scotland. After increasing inquiries of their customers, the board of directors
decided to found a sister company to Abbey Tours
Ireland.
So Abbey Tours Scotland was set up in 2008. It is
working only with travel trade and can offer a full
range of services in Scotland like group travel, FIT
& online bookings and corporate travels.
Apart from other issues, the product quality and
supplier contracting are the focus for the employees. The company expanded successfully into
Scotland. The turnover was £ 5.1 m and about
11,000 clients in 2010. In the first quarter of the
year 2011, the turnover was £ 5.4 m and about
16,100 clients. Due to that fact, Abbey Tours Scotland is recruiting additional staff.
At the end, the presenters explained the effects of
the tourism industry during the recession in Ireland.
More than 100,000 people visited Ireland in 2007,
while the number of visitors decreased during the
last 3 years. So the turnover also declined. Due
to those facts, Marina explained further arrangements of Abbey Tours like the expansion of Abbey
27
PayPal
Mr. Martin Hennig
https://www.paypal.com/
On Wednesday May 25th 2011 we were welcomed
by Mr. Martin Hennig, Supervisor CS – Limitations
at PayPal in Dublin.
PayPal enables any individual or business with
an email address to send and receive payments
online, securely and easily, using a bank account,
credit card, debit card or stored balance. Because
PayPal allows customers to shop online without
sharing their financial information with merchants,
privacy is built into the service.
websites, including eBay. PayPal is also being increasingly used at other e-commerce sites for the
sale of goods, such as electronics and household
items, the sale of services such as web design and
travel, and the sale of digital content.
PayPal’s service, which lets users send payments
for free, can be used from PCs or web-enabled
mobile phones.
After the presentation we started our office tour
through the three building complex of PayPal.
After we all got our visitor badges we were led to
a conference room. Here, Mr. Hennig gave us an
overview of PayPal and presented us the most important facts about the enterprise.
PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, California,
US. Their European headquarter is in Luxembourg
and the international headquarter is located in
Singapore. They have four operation centers located in Chandler, Arizona; Dublin, Ireland; Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia; and near Omaha, Nebraska.
Furthermore, PayPal has development centers in
Austin, Texas; Scottsdale, Arizona; Chennai, India;
Singapore; and Tel Aviv, Israel.
PayPal’s purpose is: “We are pioneering new communities around the world built on commerce, sustained by trust, and inspired by opportunity.”
During the presentation we also had a cup of coffee and we were able to ask any kind of questions
about PayPal we were interested in and Mr. Hennig was glad to answer our questions.
PayPal’s network builds on the existing financial
infrastructure of bank accounts and credit cards to
create a global, real-time payment solution. They
deliver a product ideally suited for small businesses, online merchants, individuals and others currently underserved by traditional payment mechanisms.
The size of their network and widening acceptance
of their product have helped them to become one
of the leading payment networks for online auction
28
PayPal is divided into several departments which
are responsible for different tasks. Such as their
Ops Support Departments:
• Merchant Technical Support team
• Global Content & Knowledge Management Team
(GKM)
• Training and Organizational Development Team
(Training, L&OD)
• Internal Consultancy & Advice (ICA)
• CS level 2 support, product specialist (ticket system)
• Customer Solutions Technical Support team (CSTS).
Furthermore, there are other departments like the
Operational Excellence & Project Management
Teams, Workforce- and Real Time Management,
Talent Acquisition (recruitment), Human Resources, Regulatory Compliance or Executive Team
(Director and VP Level).
Our tour took us into all areas of the company.
In each department an employee presented to us
the staff area and their duties. They explained
the procedures and approach to customer support and maintenance of websites or examination of customer data. In another department we
were told how the security and verification of
customer data functioned. We were also introduced to the fraud department.
Today PayPal is accepted in over 165,000 websites across Europe. Offline businesses, including
lawyers, contractors and physicians, have increasingly begun to receive payments online through
PayPal.
Wealth Management
Mr. Steve Hartley
One part of the course Capital Markets with Prof.
Patrick Moore was a three day seminar with Steve
Hartley on Wealth Management.
Prof. Patrick Moore and Mr. Hartley got to know
each other at the excursion to Zurich in November/
December 2010, where students had organized an
appointment at Swiss Business School.
PayPal’s mission statement is: “The world’s favorite way to pay and be paid.”
PayPal has just below 100 million active accounts
(close to 250 million total accounts). The company
currently supports payments in 25 currencies and
has local websites in 21 markets and is available
in 190 countries.
PayPal Europe is duly licensed as a Luxembourg
credit institution in the sense of Article 2 of the law
of 5 April 1993 on the financial sector as amended
and is under the prudential supervision of the Luxembourg supervisory authority.
We were in the fortunate position to get introduced to a lot of interesting people who gave us
an insight into their work and their work environment.
After the office tour Mr. Hennig asked us to fill out a
comment form so he could get a review if we liked
the tour or had any further suggestions.
In the end it is to say that we were overwhelmed of
the complex department structure and the diverse
working areas at PayPal. It was great to get an insight to such a successful enterprise like PayPal.
Steve Hartley and Professor Moore
Mr. Hartley held a presentation about Wealth Management, Prof. Moore was delighted and invited
him for the block week in May to Stralsund.
Steve Hartley is originally from the US and has
been living in Zurich for about 5 years.
At the Swiss Business School he is working as a
lecturer and does his DBA. Beforehand he worked
in New York (US) at Pfizer; in Mürten (CH) at Johnson Electric; and in Baden (CH) at Alstom.
We would like to thank Ms. Maria Haupt for organizing our appointment and of course, we would like
to say thank you to Mr. Martin Hennig for the informative presentation and the great office tour as
well as for answering all our questions patiently.
Claudia Peske,
29
The first day started on the 9th of May with a three
hours introduction to Wealth Management.
Before starting with the theory, we presented ourselves to Mr. Hartley. He was very keen on learning
our names and did very well.
Finally we discussed the question how to plan a
comfortable retirement.
It is important to start to plan early, try to diversify
the portfolio and review the retirement plan regularly and in case have an estate plan.
Wealth Management is “a consultative process that
engenders close client relationships and provides
customized solutions tailored to individual needs.”
(ppp, Steve Harley)
We would like to give thanks to Steve Harley, for
giving us such a good insight into the world of
wealth management.
The key drivers of the Wealth Management market
are: Economic growth, Asset prices, Wealth allocation and Demographic factors.
We discussed the 15 steps of Wealth Management
and the 5 phases, which are:
•
•
•
•
•
Recognition/Awareness/Discovery Phase
Wealth Accumulation
Wealth Planning
Wealth Preservation
Wealth Transfer
The second day, on the 10th of May, Steve Harley
explained the four-steps of the Wealth Management process, which are:
1. Share information with your team so they can
help you identify your needs and goals. What are
or might be your needs and goals within the next
five, ten, twenty years?
2. Develop an action plan.
3. Evaluate, select and implement your action plan.
4. Monitor and adjust your plan as needed.
On the second day we discussed the question why
everyone needs an estate plan.
Some reasons are to transfer assets to beneficiaries in the most tax-efficient manner, to provide income-tax-free benefits to your beneficiaries and to
make provisions for incapacity.
Another question which was analysed was: How to
manage debts?
Firstly it is important to save, then there are 14
steps, how to manage debts. Some of them are:
1. Spend less
2. Aim to retire debt free
3. Pay down your mortgage
4. Be careful with credit cards
30
Franka Laudahn
Alumni Report
It always seems to be something special to meet in
a foreign place, in a foreign country and realizing
that he or she is not so different from oneself.
Being in London and Dublin we were lucky to relive
just the same situation. Special about this was that
we were not just meeting anyone, but surely some
people, who once had been at the same position
like we were at that point of time.
We were the lucky ones to meet some of the alumni of the University of Applied Sciences Stralsund.
These people were not just living there, the girls
that we met in Dublin and London seemed to have
sought the spirit of the cities and made it a special event for us to meet them, sometimes directly
at their workplace and sometimes in a typical Irish
or English pub and bar. In London we met Sara
Phieler, Jana Kühne and Angela Konert.
Now wondering, how these girls made it, we were
keen on asking them a million things. One of the
girls in London was Jana Kühne, a former Leisure
and Tourism Management student, who made her
diploma in September 2009 and did her Master in
European Tourism Management in Bournemouth,
England and Chambéry, France straight afterwards.
Apparently she was working with Wine Intelligence,
a company which offers service to help wine businesses make better and more profitable business
decisions. Jana held the position of a research
analyst, which meant that she would analyse data
gathered in Wine Intelligence’s consumer surveys
and create reports about the findings. Sometimes
Jana would also be involved in desk research.
But what was it that took her to London? Was it
the fabulous weather, the nice food? “I think the
idea developed towards the end of my master
programme. I had enjoyed my time in England so
much that I wanted to come back.”, explains Jana.
She seems to be delighted when talking about her
job. But it is not only the job that is fascinating her.
One can see that she loves the City of London.
And even though she knows that London is one
of the most expensive cities one can imagine, she
could at the moment not imagine going back to
Germany. The expensiveness is the price that has
to be paid, that’s what she knows, but that is not
the point. Jana knows “I wanted to come and work
here, so it’s my dream come true.”
Another delighting girl whom we met in London
was Angela Konert, who once studied Baltic Management Studies, did her degree in Summer 2008
and later did a master degree at the Hertie School
of Governance in Berlin and the London School of
Economics. Angela did various internships during
her studies. Starting with DaimlerChrysler Middle
East in Dubai in the Network Development department and moving from there to Auto500 GmbH, a
company inside the Volkswagen Group. She then
wrote her bachelor thesis with the European sales
division of the Volkswagen Group. “Looking back I
need to say that all of them helped me finding out
what kind of job I would like to, what kind of work
environment and company culture I enjoy.”, knows
Angela.
But how did Angela get to London? “In 2009,
I moved to London to do the second year of my
2-year master degree programme.”, explains Angela. Then in autumn 2010, she moved to Woking/
Surrey, in order to be closer to her actual workplace
in Bracknell/Berkshire. But what is she actually doing there? She is working for a famous known automobile brand: the BMW Group UK.
We were in the lucky position that Angela made
it possible to visit the side of BMW Group UK in
Bracknell, where she is now holding the position as
a Government Affairs Executive. Her job involves
planning and coordinating visits of high-profile
political stakeholders to UK production sites, representing the BMW Group in relevant industry
associations but also political institutions and circle, organizing events and meetings, which aim at
political stakeholders and providing information on
all relevant political developments at national level.
Working abroad in a foreign culture will always be
something special. That is something that Angela
appreciates. “I have to say that almost every day
I learn something new about London, Great Britain and the English culture, humour and heritage!
I enjoy living in the countryside now (after a year
in London) since it is a very different and interesting perspective on England. Living and working
amongst Brits is enjoyable and exciting – such
lovely people. London is so cosmopolitan and has
its very own flair and culture.”
When Angela was asked about a few last words for
our students she was answering nicely and offering her help for future questions.
31
“Try to experience and do as much as you can during your studies: join excursions to unknown places, do internships in different business areas and
different regions/countries, get to know different
(corporate) cultures, use the BMS alumni network
and do not hesitate to approach people for help,
advice or insight!”
That is something that Christine is about to do in
the near future. Christine is apparently working for
Lidl Ireland, and has been living in Ireland for about
eleven years. As a former BMS student she was
delighted to see her former Professor Mr. Moore
and just as delighted to see some students who
are now in the position that she once had as well.
We also had the chance to meet some girls in
Dublin. But time is money, and unfortunately at this
point it shall be mentioned that it was not possible
to interview everyone. Nevertheless, we had a nice
evening with our two alumni and one Leisure and
Tourism student from Dublin: Ruth Lorke, Maria
Haupt and Christine Rittner.
There was one thing that all three girls had in common: an internship with Abbey Tours, a company
which we visited in Dublin. When these girls met
and this little secret was uncovered, a delighting
chat about Dublin, working, studying and many
other things evolved.
When Christine studied, she did her internship in
Sweden and studied for one semester in Finland.
After she wrote her Bachelor thesis in 2002 with
Abbey Tours in Ireland, she started working with
Lidl in Newbridge, Ireland. Nowadays she is responsible for about 45 Lidl stores.
A few days before meeting all three girls in a typical
Irish pub, we had the chance to see Maria at her
workplace: PayPal. Maria, a former LTM student
who finished her studies in late 2009, did her internship in Dublin in 2008. This was the time when
she gained first experiences in Ireland, which “was
definitely an add-on for my CV”. With an exemption
of 4 months, when she moved back to Stralsund
for her sixth semester, she had not left Dublin.
We could see that Christine was not only working
in Ireland but also living there. When she told us
about “her” Ireland one could see that she enjoyed
living there, as like to go surfing on the west coast,
hiking in the Wicklow mountains or typically simply enjoyed having a good time in a traditional Irish
pub.
That is what we had with every alumni: a good
time. Therefore, we would like to thank everyone
for meeting us, and making our trip to London and
Dublin an even better trip.
Susann Angierski
Maria met a lot of people from all over the world
since she moved to Dublin and she clearly seems to
enjoy it. “Since everyone speaks English, there are
no problems in communication, and therewith no
problem in getting in touch with people.”, explains
Maria. But as she is working in a German department for PayPal with her German colleagues and
talking to German customers, “...it can from time to
time feel like living in Germany for at least 40 hours
a week.”, says Maria and smiles.
Maria recommends going abroad for every student
after graduation. “Living and working in a foreign
country, meeting so many different kinds of people is a great experience that will influence your
personality and life in a very positive way.” But she
also says that after more than four years abroad,
she starts missing her friends and family back in
Germany and can therefore imagine moving back
to Germany any time soon.
32
Christine Rittner, Susann Angierski and Maria
Haupt
33
34
35
Fachhochschule Stralsund
D - 18435 Stralsund
fon +49 3831 455
fax +49 3831 45 66 80
[email protected]
www.fh-stralsund.de
Baltic Management Studies
Ms. Stefanie Wenzel
D - 18435 Stralsund
fon +49 3831 45 67 91
fax +49 3831 45 66 04
[email protected]
www.baltic-management.de

fachhochschule Excursion to London and Dublin

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