Free Market in Its Twenties: Modern Business Decision Making in Central and Eastern Europe

3.7. Rethinking CEE: Authors’ Discussion of Part III

– 231 – CHAPTER IN BRIEF:   New business thinking should help managers navigate the current environment, but also challenge structural inefficiencies underlying this environment.   New thinking is needed at many levels: regional, national, and organizational.   Oftentimes, new business thinking will have to originate in CEE and not be automatically replicated from the West. M aciej Kisilowski: Thank you for participating in our final discussion. This third part of the book is somewhat different from the previous two but also particularly important. Because academics and teachers in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) often need to find a balance between two distinct objectives. On the one hand, we search for and teach short-term prescriptions on how to survive in a highly imperfect business environment that managers must face every day. On the other hand, we always harbor the ambition to become change agents and to help managers whom we teach to become such agents. How do you improve the crooked world in which you operate? How much do we simply help to navigate among the sharks and how much do we encourage CEE business leaders to become shark hunters? And if we pursue this latter objective, introducing new, innovative ways of thinking would seem to be one of the first steps to take. RETHINKING CEE: AUTHORS’ DISCUSSION OF PART III C h a p t e r 3 .7. i6 FM.indb 231 2014.06.05. 12:20 – 232 – Periphery and Breakthrough Paul Marer: This tension between “world as it is” versus “world as it should be” is visible from the very first chapter of Part III. If I understand it correctly, Mel argues (in Chapter 3.2) for a rather fundamental redesign of the managerial and political attitudes of the periphery members as well as those at the core of the EU. The periphery members can and should use the new and tried methods of developing innovation clusters and smart business strategies to catch up and perhaps even leapfrog the more developed core of the EU. Mel’s related argument is that the EU’s institutions are too inflexible and the EU’s policy frameworks insufficiently suitable to help promote innovation clusters and supporting business strategies for that purpose. Attempts of the periphery countries to catch up with the economically more advanced Western European countries have been repeated and generally unsuccessful for two centuries, as has been chronicled in dozens of books and hundreds of articles. Furthermore, because even today the medium-term growth projections for the periphery countries are modest, Mel is correct that it is time for the periphery to seek new sources of convergence, along with new EU policy frameworks and institutions to assist them. Realizing the space limitations of a chapter, Mel’s advice would have been even more useful with hints about how the sweeping changes he postulates should begin to be implemented. Which agency should do what to promote the implementation of his suggestions? How should managers change their approach and attitudes to leverage the advantages of being located in the periphery? Noémi Alexa: I would also be concerned about the feasibility of implementing your proposal, Mel. To establish the kind of macro-policy environment you envision, we would need major structural changes in the use and redistribution of state resources in CEE. And if our recent history can teach us anything, it is that such changes only happen in this region under pressure from the EU. Without such pressure, the innovation-related initiatives will remain window dressing. Maria Findrik: Unfortunately, it is characteristic of the entire EU that it could not break through and become the innovation-driven economy its leaders envisioned in the Lisbon Agenda adopted in 2000. If we do not want to lose the values and the attractiveness of Europe, we have to rethink how to redefine and restructure the EU, how to allocate and manage resources—but jointly! CEE’s progress relies on a strong and efficient EU. Maciej Kisilowski: I agree with Maria. Whatever Central Europe has accomplished after 1989—in fact, whatever Europe has accomplished since World War II—has happened only because of European integration. Perhaps we are too quick to take peace and stability in this continent for granted. Yusaf Akbar: Let me supplement Maciej’s comments here. We must be extraordinarily careful in recognizing that the EU project has two ongoing feai6 FM.indb 232 2014.06.05. 12:20 – 233 – tures. First...