2010 challenges and options

Dear All,

a lot happened since the past blog and I put myself into the position of an observer, digging data and reading news. After weeks of curing a flu, I can´t tell you whether it had been the swine, Mexican or standard winter flu as it passed the borders of my immune system without being scanned or showing any ID.

I only can tell you that I had no vaccination and apparently survived after four to six weeks being ill. Now we have a new year full of challenges and options and no flu fighting my immune system.

Today I had a long talk with one of my pals discussing my project “How to assist politicians”. After observing and experiencing the swine flu story, I learned that our politicians are quite good in keeping their status and organizing the scarce resources to some benefit but their ability to invent, create or develop are limited.

So, I decided to stop complaining, to stop saying: “‘No, this is not going to happen” and to start all over in my little town where I live.

1. What would you change in your area to create jobs?
2. What would you do to improve the live quality in your area?
3. How would you attract business in your city?
4. Where would you have the focus to spend budget?

Feel free to deliver your input. I will deliver you more in the next blog. Have a healthy and prosperous 2010.

We need to assist politics, but who assists us…

Hello,

this weekend high hopes of a few will turn into results at sunday evening. Nobody dares to forecast the elections in Germany, but there will be a change. My only doubt is that it will be another proof of: No, we can´t.”A professional show on an international stage like at the G20 should have been different. See this great article:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cc9abf6e-a93b-11de-9b7f-00144feabdc0.html

Instead of bashing other nations, the German politicians should have done their homework. Unfortunately bad performance isn´t yet obliged to receive a malus, especially not for politicians. I am far away from fighting for bankers bonus, but it is far beyond my understanding that exactly the same politicians dare to condemn the same bankers, they provided the legal frame years ago.

Let´s wait and see what Sunday bring.

High hopes – all the best – Robert

Investing in future technologies and boosting employment…

Hello,

In the past years I had to learn that negative energy is the key into a worse direction and investing into the past a waste of time. Changing negative energy into positive thinking is the key into a better future.  Stop complaining, develop a plan and take action.

Reading and listening the news about the discussed and more or less already planned closure of Opel Antwerp here in Belgium made me upset. Months of precious time had been wasted for a predictable result. Who will be next Ford or Volvo? Behind the dying of a the big names, uncounted jobs are destroyed and families are endangered, unemployment will boost.  This economical forecast really makes me angry. But I am getting more angry hearing in the same second that millions of tax payer money are going to be invested prolonging the decay of automotive industry here in Belgium and in Europe.

Due to election time in Belgium, The Netherlands and especially Germany, the national politicians show their lack of European esprit and cooperation by their attempts building  national budgets to save current employment in the automotive industry. These national attempts are understandable and showed significant success in Germany with the support of the new car sales with billions of Euros (Abwrackpraemie/cash for clunker). But everybody now is waiting for the decay of the German car dealer network estimating that 40 to 50% will not survive until 2013. We will see what will happen. I learned to distrust so called experts in the past months.

In case the language skill of the German politicians would be better, especially in understanding French and Dutch, they could have learned that with less money, more positive impact could have been achieved. The French speaking part of Belgium supports together with the Dutch/Flemish speaking part (sorry, I know it is Flemish but maybe not the rest of the world) to support new car sales for cars with less than 100 mg CO2/km with more than 15% of the price. Lets explain it in figures: The sales of economic cars as described increased by 50% in 2008.

The positive impact is:

• New less consuming cars are on the road
• The Belgium car dealers are still selling and are in a better market situation as in Germany
• The Belgium legislation forced car producers like BMW and Volkswagen to bring less consuming cars into the market as high performance cars became unsellable

Why taking this example? Going back to Opel Antwerp or Opel in Germany or Vauxhall in the UK, we need to assist our politicians to stop burning our money for national elections, but to invest into the future!

My plan is as simple as complex:

1. Invest in Education of unemployed and employed(!) in languages and new technology
2. Invest in infrastructure
3. Invest in green, decentralized energy production

More in the next blog.

I am happy to receive input and suggestions and wish everybody a great day.

Robert

Investing in future technologies and boosting employment, part 2

Hello,

Stop complaining, develop a plan and take action.

A vital part of my project is enhancing the infrastructure.

• What about 34MB access for any house hold?
• What about having free ADSL/lease line access for private house holds
• What about to have it in 2010 instead 2020

Currently I am still collecting data, case studies and any input in regards of implementing glass fiber and metropolitan area networks and wish the weather would be better today.

Robert

Hello world!

Welcome to my blog WordPress.com.

Who am I?

A German living since 2005 in Belgium. I worked for US and UK based companies with great interest in the automotive, information technology and telecoms market. Beside my business as project hunter/new business developer/project manager I am interested in history, travel and a lot more. Living in Belgium at the unknown neighbour is one of my most positive experiences. The people I met are extremely kind. The country offers a wide range of culture and historical monuments which I am discovering day by day better.

My business view is visible on Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/robertzumtobel

And you can follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/Rob2tob

All the best from Belgium – Robert