PEACE through ENTREPRENEURSHIP  - How Businesses can be a Force for Unity.  

​During the Cold War, Germany’s Bavarian Forest National Park and the Czech Republic’s Sumava National Park were separated by electric fences, barbed wires, watchtowers and heavily-armed guards. In 1989 these barriers were removed, so protected animals such as red deer could roam safely and freely in the entire territory. Despite the change, herds of deer on either side of the border still remained hesitant to cross the Cold War line. Czech and German zoologists monitored the deer migration behavior with GPS satellite collars. Even after a generation, where no living deer would have encountered the barrier in their lives, Cold War behavior persisted among these otherwise thriving herds. *

For those not familiar with Cyprus politics, the country is politically divided, movement is restricted and there are two different  authorities and sets of laws. A “Green Line” with Turkish, Cypriot and UN troops’ presence, constitutes a physical barrier between the two sides. Negotiations for unification and peace have not to date succeeded. The people of Cyprus, who are mainly of Greek or Turkish culture, live mostly apart. Most real contact between the two sides happens through NGOs, political and peace activists advocating re-unification. Efforts to initiate meaningful business relationships have floundered on laws and political positions jealously guarded by each side.

Enter CyprusInno, an intercommunal organization founded by Burak Doluay and Steven Stavrou, a Turkish-Cypriot and a Greek-Cypriot, committed to promoting innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the island. CyprusInno and the British High Commission, with the help of data analyst Aysem Zorlu, conducted an island-wide survey published in March 2020 on the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Cyprus**.

Ανταποκρινόμενο στις έκτακτες ανάγκες που προκλήθηκαν από την πανδημία του κορονοϊού (Covid-19) το Τμήμα Διοίκησης Επιχειρήσεων του Πανεπιστημίου Αιγαίου εγκαινιάζει την νέα πλατφόρμα επικοινωνίας Financial Business Forum (FBF), η οποία θα διοργανώνει ανοικτές και ελεύθερες συζητήσεις της ακαδημαϊκής κοινότητας και των φοιτητών μας με όλο τον κόσμο των επιστημών.

Στόχος του νέου εργαλείου επικοινωνίας του Τμήματος μας είναι να φιλοξενεί διαλέξεις και συζητήσεις υψηλού επιπέδου που ακολουθούν τις αρχές της ανοικτής πρόσβασης στη γνώση. Ο σχεδιασμός της πλατφόρμας καθώς και η υποστήριξη της έγιναν υπό το καθεστώς των συνθηκών αποκλεισμού που προκλήθηκαν από την πανδημία. Το υλικό αναπτύχθηκε με εθελοντική προσφορά των συντελεστών, σε συνθήκες περιορισμού της κυκλοφορίας και με περιορισμένα διαθέσιμα μέσα και χρόνο στα πλαίσια της πρωτοβουλίας του Τμήματος μας να επικοινωνεί με τους φοιτητές του συνεχώς.

Την Κυριακή 24 Μαΐου 2020 στις 19:00 μμ., ξεκινά με την φιλοξενία της πρώτης δημόσιας διαδικτυακής συζήτησης (webinar) με θέμα: «Covid-19, Καινοτομία και Νέες Ευκαιρίες Μέσα στην Κρίση»

Η συζήτηση θα μεταδίδεται ζωντανά στην ιστοσελίδα του Τμήματος Διοίκησης Επιχειρήσεων του Πανεπιστημίου Αιγαίου και στα Κοινωνικά Δίκτυα (YouTube και Facebook), ώστε όλοι (φοιτητές, απόφοιτοι κλπ.) να έχουν εύκολη και ελεύθερη πρόσβαση όπου κι αν βρίσκονται.

Στόχος της συζήτησης είναι να παρουσιάσει στρατηγικές καινοτομίας και εμπειρίες από τη διεθνή και την ελληνική πραγματικότητα για τη δημιουργία νέων επιχειρήσεων, τη βιωσιμότητα τους και να αναδείξει τη σημασία της ευρηματικότητας μέσα και μετά την κρίση πανδημίας Covid-19.

Στην συζήτηση συμμετέχουν οι κ.κ.
• Μιχαηλίδης Ντίμης, Συγγραφέας και Σύμβουλος Καινοτομίας Επιχειρήσεων
• Σάμιτας Αριστείδης, Καθηγητής Χρηματοοικονομικής, Τμήμα Διοίκησης Επιχειρήσεων του Πανεπιστημίου Αιγαίου

Τη συζήτηση θα συντονίζει η δημοσιογράφος και παρουσιάστρια κ. Πόπη Τσαπανίδου, η οποία θα δέχεται ερωτήσεις από το ακροατήριο και θα τις θέτει προς συζήτηση.

Για να συνδεθείτε μέσω της πλατφόρμας Ζoom με δυνατότητα συμμετοχής στη συζήτηση κάντε απλά κλικ εδώ:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84207686013
You are invited to a Zoom webinar. When: May 24, 2020 07:00 PM, Athens
Topic: Covid-19, Καινοτομία και Νέες Ευκαιρίες Μέσα στην Κρίση

Για να παρακολουθήσετε τη συζήτηση ζωντανά στο ΥouΤube θα βρείτε το σύνδεσμο στη σελίδα Facebook (πατήστε εδώ):
https://www.facebook.com/samitas.aristeidis

Contact me if your answer to any of the above is yes. From May 1st I shall be offering online training customised to your business needs in my areas of expertise – leadership, creativity and innovation. From 5 to 50 participants. From 30 minutes to as long as you like, one hour at a time, maximum of four hours in a day (with breaks).

Spending too much time watching a screen and listening to one voice is tiring and boring. This is not how good strategy is crafted or how organizations and teams can evolve.  So much more is achieved by energizing the knowledge and skills brought in by each member and forming a shared vision. Whether it’s time for strategy or time for customer care, time for disruption or time for consolidation, time for serious thinking or time for fun (or both), the best outcomes arise when short and feisty collaborative sessions alternate with individual reflection. 

All my sessions are engaging and interactive with your organization’s requirements and your people’s moods in mind, and with my own expertise.

Contact me for a conversation at dimis@dimis.org or tel +357 99 67 11 73.
Training for Cyprus-based companies may be eligible for HRDA subsidies. 

By the turn of the 21st century the reality of the accelerating pace of change is sinking in. Learn how to better confront change with creativity. 

During this webinar we will offer
•    Various insights into different levels of change
•    Five tips to boost your creativity

and you will be invited to share your ideas on the challenge:
In what ways might work change as a result of the coronavirus crisis? 

This 60-minute webinar is free and open to everybody. It will be held in English through the ZOOM platform. Connect online with a computer or other device with video and audio 5-10 minutes beforehand. You may prompted to download the ZOOM app.
To register please click here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FYeyQ2ZxRZycHbKzx3mJEw

World Creativity and Innovation Week is an international community dedicated to seizing the infinite creative potential that awaits us every day. Its purpose is to encourage people to use new ideas, make new decisions, and take new steps towards making the world, and your place in it, better through creativity.

WCIW begins on Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday, April 15th, as an homage to his revolutionary vision. Founded in 2001 by creativity expert and Canmore resident Marci Segal, the celebration has now flourished to people celebrating in over 50 countries every year - in their businesses, schools, associations, organizations, communities and homes. The UN has recognized April 21st, the last day of this week, as World Creativity and Innovation Day.
​
www.wciw.org

Creativity does not have values, people do. Even as the biological effects of Covid-19 are the same for all, its overall effects on the haves and the have-nots, the well-governed and the badly-governed, the selfish and the altruistic, the close-minded and the open-minded will be quite different. Even when fighting a common enemy the creative faculties of people in different situations with different values are bound to be deployed differently. Here are some realities that impact the depth and breadth of our creativity.
 
Global creativity and local reactivity. Two different realities in our present world order have become obvious. The first is of a world that is highly interdependent and, indeed, there has been unprecedented exchange of knowledge between countries on Covid-19. The second, is that the forces of execution of public policy are governments of nation-states and this has led to a dogged concentration on the plight of one’s own. These realities could produce reasonably efficient mechanisms for dealing with coronavirus on a global scale, only if the spirit of international collaboration does not yield to xenophobia, which is also raising its ugly head.
 
Technical know-how and human skills. Two other realities affect the ways we operate in this crisis. Our advanced specialist know-how and practice in many areas – medicine, health management, equipment, essential supply chains, security, communications and much more – are invaluable in helping us cope with this crisis. However innovation is shaped by culture – the way people absorb and use technology. We would be nowhere without the human skills needed to relate to others, to win people’s trust or to gain acceptance for public programs which involve sacrifices. Without these our innovations will be at best underutilized.
 
As we face Covid-19 can we help open values win the day and can we use our human skills to ensure our technology is serving humanity?
 
Dimis Michaelides                          
Keynote speaker, author, trainer and consultant in Leadership, Creativity & Innovation.
www.dimis.org                                                                                               dimis@dimis.org

It takes a lot to transform fear and dismay into resourcefulness and optimism. And a lot more to make a creative idea go live. Consider how vital it is to:
 
Choose the best solutions. You have great ideas. Which are the best ideas based on the value they will bring when implemented, their originality and their feasibility? The spread of coronavirus is forcing us to make very big decisions with knowledge that is highly imperfect. Every option has pros and cons and time seems to be a luxury. This makes us nervous as to the risks of what we are undertaking in matters in which we have zero experience. But we cannot avoid making the choices rapidly.
 
Get buy in for your ideas. We may think selfishly – ourselves, our families, our countries first. However when an invisible threat lurks at close quarters we are all better off in ensuring our choices are taken with others in mind. The best way to sell creative solutions is with a spirit of positivity and community even if the time for consultation and dialogue is absolutely minimal. This will also help further effective implementation and risk-sharing.
 
Make your solutions happen. Whether learning new things online or deciding what restrictive measures to impose on others, action is paramount. Creativity is not only a thought experiment, it is realized only in practice. It is best to transform your ideas into reality sooner rather than later.
 
Which of your ideas is now ready to go live? When do you start? Good luck!
 
 
Dimis Michaelides                          
Keynote speaker, author, trainer and consultant in Leadership, Creativity & Innovation.
www.dimis.org                                                                                               dimis@dimis.org

«Πενία τέχνας κατεργάζεται» comes from the Greek poet Theokritos (3rd century BC), and roughly translates into “necessity is the mother of invention”. Our creativity is indeed reacting to the coronavirus framed by many problems we seek to resolve. Let’s recognize how important for good creative outcomes it is to:

Understand the context. Never before have we been privy to so much information so fast. Our big data analytics are OK but we genuinely need more to make sense of things. The information we want is not only on the virus itself but also on its impact on the economy, politics and society too. Working with good information is crucial for good outcomes.

Define the challenge(s). We are faced with a huge number of challenges: understanding the malady, minimizing the spread, coping with the infected, minimizing deaths, keeping health professionals and supply chains alive and well, making the best of isolation,  finding a vaccine, getting back to work, getting back to (a new?) normality and so on. Clearly defining the challenge you want to address is the best basis for finding creative solutions.
 
Seek imaginative solutions. We have plenty and keep them coming everybody. Many valuable ideas come from where there is already some expertise – 3-D printing, scuba-diving for masks and ventilators, online forums for teaching, meetings, music, theater, comedy, deliveries – or those that come when suddenly small things in family and social lives become vital. The best ideas however come from purposeful imaginative thinking. They can be sparked by humor, dreams, unexpected connections and a healthy relationship with the impossible.
 
What are your analyses of the situation and challenges these days? Are you actively seeking impossible ideas to transform into valuable solutions?
 
Dimis Michaelides                          
Keynote speaker, author, trainer and consultant in Leadership, Creativity & Innovation.
www.dimis.org                                                                                               dimis@dimis.org       

On 11th February 2019 a very unusual event marked the latest man-versus-machine challenge: a debate on whether we should subsidize pre-schools or not. In a quite unique public gathering attended by hundreds of people, IBM’s female-voiced AI system, formally known as Project Debater but lovingly nicknamed Miss Debater, opposed Harish Natarajan, a debating champion of international renown.  

The human won, this time. What stole the show though was the sophistication of the debate and the outstanding argumentation of both contestants - see highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJXcFtY9cWY - and the apparent humanity of Miss Debater.

Debating requires expert and general knowledge, reasoning, creative thinking, eloquent expression   and the skilful appeal to emotions, all skills once considered unattainable by machines. No longer. In this case both the computer and its adversary showed ample evidence of mastering these competencies. Interestingly Natarajan was expecting emotional arguments from Miss Debater and it was his readiness to address these with spontaneity that helped him win. I am sure she has learnt from this and she is probably thinking about how to outdo her opponent next time.