Finding CEE’s Greatest Asset

Many western-based firms speculate what is today the growth market in Europe, namely the Central and Eastern Europe region. This has led to the development of a great interest towards the mechanisms that affect the development in this area, particularly towards predicting the course of this evolution. Terms such as “the catching-up effect” have vaguely defined the phenomenon that has occurred here by finding ways to relate them to the development patterns that could have been easily identified in Western Europe. I believe that it was a great misunderstanding of the particularities of this region and of the fact that over-generalizing does not offer real solutions but mediocre techniques to “survive the business day”.

I will focus next on what I believe to be the biggest competitive advantage of the CEE region: the adaptiveness of its people.

Recent “star-publications” relate to the increasing need of adaptiveness as a Musseigenschaft des Zeitgeistes (a mandatory asset) that should be cultivated in every society. Thomas Friedman in The World Is Flat, when speaking about “globalization 3.0″, which represents a man-centered world that allows every individual to be dynamic and productive, therefore changing the way we see jobs, families and state, suggests that adaptiveness is keen to the success of the individual. Also, Richard Florida and its views on the creative class underlines, indirectly, the need for flexibility in human behavior.

Particularly this is the greatest and most defining asset the people of CEE have: their adaptiveness. This, however, is not a traditional, well-rooted attribute for these citizens, but rather it has emerged relatively recent. The transition from socialism to capitalism in a period of under 20 years has stimulated severe changes in behavior. One good example is the attitude toward work, that is promoted in the society. If before the fall of the Iron Curtain, in a closed economy in which all companies were state-owned, employment (trough ideological inclusion) was seen as the only way to prosper, the introduction of western corporate culture and, more recently, the increasing demand for innovative entrepreneurship have shaped a more modern and flexible economy. I remind you that this was done only in a generation, and the speed at which the changes took place have made the people that live here adapt just as fast. And this is only from an economic perspective. If we take into account the political changes (and instability – Hungary, Poland and Romania being very good examples), the technological changes (from outdated soviet technology to modern-day gadgets) and cultural diversification (more and more people from CEE are being able today to communicate fluently in two foreign languages and have studied or worked abroad -mainly in the EU) we come up with an unique development pattern that fosters adaptability as it’s primal asset.

Recently I’ve attended a conference held by the dean of CEU Business School Budapest, an American marketing professor, that has expressed his excitement on the pace of change in CEE today. He declared that he felt amazed on how fast thing are growing here and how easily it is for the locals to face all these new challenges that appear in such a short period of time. Adaptiveness, I say!