First of all, we would like to thank all our participants, sponsors, ambassadors and other dear helpers without whom Peak Time would have been simply impossible. Thank you all once more guys!

Moreover, new Peak Time organizing team has been elected Anete, Martin, Aiste, Modestas, Marta & Raivis are all more than happy to make Peak Time happen this year. Even more, they promise you all a lot of surprises, some changes and much fun! Actually, you will be able to find more information about each of them starting from Anete later on on this blog.

Wish us luck and let all of us meet in spring 2010 at SSE Riga for Peak Time competition again!

Cheers,
Peak Time 2010 organizers

From the left: Anete, Martin, Aiste, Raivis, Marta and Modestas

The first Peak Time stage out of three has already passed successfully. The on-line business simulation game introduced by CESIM has been running for more than two weeks including 5 decision making rounds during that time.
We are glad to announce that 530 teams in total have participated. 51 group have been formed consisting of 10 teams approximately which competed against each other.

The Peak Time organizers admitted that at the very beginning some difficulties arose. However, the problems were solved quickly and the players could enjoy smooth game.

It’s no wonder that some teams have forgotten to make decisions or simply didn’t meet deadlines, which resulted in automatically inserted default values in particular rounds. Surprisingly, some teams even managed to gain considerably higher results compared to the ones that didn’t miss any round. Thus, we can ensure that the results of the teams which missed all 5 rounds will be canceled. So some teams could even expect higher places.
Talking about evaluation of each team, points will be distributed according to the places taken in each small group. In case equal results appear in the end, absolute values are going to be taken into consideration. Be patient, results are coming soon…

Stay Tuned!

Yours,

Egle

Let’s see how another side of the world is doing;) A new article has come from Malaysia, where a Peak Time ambassador Xianjin Teo has found an interesting, innovative and fast growing business in IT sector.

Nuffnang

At the first glance, Nuffnang would seem like the average internet-based startup. However, from humble beginnings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, founders Timothy Tiah and Cheo Ming Shen have managed to achieve phenomenal growth in the span of three years, with offices spanning across Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Australia. A pioneer in the advertising industry, Nuffnang is Asia’s first and leading blog advertising community, with 80,000 bloggers who have signed up to their platform.

Co-founder Timothy Tiah, who had a deep-rooted passion in the recent phenomenon of blogging, lamented over the dearth of relevant and lucrative advertising dollars for the average blogger. However, he noticed that by pooling numerous bloggers’ traffic, advertisers would be able to reach a broad and yet specific market. Nuffnang also capitalized on the nature of blog-based advertising to offer audience targeting on various levels including gender, age group, blog categories and even custom additional targeting. That way, Nuffnang allows advertisers to serve targeted graphic or video based advertisements onto the thousands of blogs signed up with Nuffnang. Using the persuasion power of a select group of prolific bloggers, advertisers can also opt to request product or service reviews or advertorials to promote their product. Such the attractiveness of blog-based advertising that Nuffnang’s advertiser rollcall include bluechips such as Citibank, Honda, Walls, AirAsia, Nokia, Nike, Nescafe, and more.

One may wonder whether Nuffnang’s growth rate can be attributed to its unique business plan or the recent blogging trend. Co-founder Timothy Tiah begs to differ. He attributes Nuffnang’s success to its employees and their passion to make the company successful. Staff employed by Nuffnang are informally referred to as ‘Nuffies’ and they enjoyed a relaxed and fun albeit challenging working atmosphere. A candid view of the Kuala Lumpur office would show orange walls embracing employees and offices with glass walls. A Nuffie’s corner, furnished with comfortable beanbags, cushions and rugs emphasizes Nuffnang’s culture as not all work and no play. As fun as Nuffnang’s corporate culture is, bloggers under the Nuffnang umbrella often enjoy many perks from Nuffnang other than advertising dollars. Nuffnang often organizes company sponsored events and gatherings for bloggers, often requiring bloggers to write an advertorial for invitation to the event which would range from concerts to parties to movie premiers.

Nuffnang’s story is nothing short of inspiring. The now multinational was the brainchild of two freshly graduated university students who surpassed all odds in conservative Asia to seek the trust of both investors and advertisers. But now, with a solid blog community, passionate employees and an innovative idea behind it all, Nuffnang seeks to continue its tremendous growth in the future and expand globally.

Thanks for Teo Xianjins from Malaysia!
Go home!

Articles about innovative companies from the ambassadors of Peak Time are still very welcome to our blog. So, for this time it’s my pleasure to introduce a piece written by ambassador from Lithuania! This one is a bit different compared to the previous article as it is about a biotech company. Here it comes:)

BIOK

BIOK’s vision is to be a constantly creating laboratory.

The biotech company BIOK was founded in 1988. During the early years of Lithuanian independence, our country suffered from an economic embargo from the Soviet Union and underwent an era of total deficit. Imports were close to zero and local production was halting when these experienced scientists embarked on a risky skincare business.

In 1991, the company launched its first skincare product, the Margarita face cream. Today, BIOK Laboratorija carries several skincare brands such as Margarita, Rasa, Organic Trends, Faustas and Thai. Consumers have a choice of nearly 200 different skincare and personal hygiene products such as face and body creams, cleansing milks and tonics, shampoos, shower gels deodorants etc..

The underlying skincare manufacturing principle of BIOK Laboratorija is to take the best that nature can offer and use it for beauty.

BIOK’s lab is continuously improving the existing products and developing new formulas. Through partnerships with universities, research centers, beauty and skincare centers as well as dermatologists, BIOK’s R&D staff strive to develop reliable and high-quality products that will fully meet the needs of consumers. Before reaching the market, all products pass dermatological tests. The ISO 9001 quality management system introduced by the company in 2001 helps to ensure the quality of products at every production step.

In 2008 “BIOK laboratorija” won the title of Knowledge-Economy Company for searching and implementing innovative solutions and was declared as the most advanced company in traditional industry.

Thanks for Emilija Klovaite from Lithuania!

Go home!

Today I have something really special for you;) Ambassadors, who are working all around the world helping to promote Peak Time 2009 as I have mentioned before, have a special task. Each of them is supposed to write an article about innovative business in their local area. For this time an article comes from Giorgos Michaelides University of Cyprus. Enjoy;)

The Mall of Cyprus

“It’s a dream come true…which has become a reality after 26 years of planning, hard work, huge investments and most of all vision“.

These are some of the inspiring words of the entrepreneur Mr. Nicos Shacolas at the official launch of operations of the Mall of Cyprus. When asked about the incentives to proceed to a new investment, he said: “The idea came to me while on a visit to Canada where I was impressed by the shopping malls there and after I came back to Cyprus, I started work on the project”.

The Shacolas Group operates mainly through public Companies which are listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange. Major companies of the Group like Cyprus Trading Corporation Public Limited, Woolworth (Cyprus) Properties Public Limited, Christis Dairies Public Limited, are among the selected list forming the Cyprus FTSE index.

…and from 2007, a new era of investing potentials…The Mall of Cyprus.

The Mall of Cyprus, the first shopping center in Cyprus of international specifications where the customer can combine shopping with leisure, opened in 27 September 2007 and changed the retail trade environment and incorporated many new features. The Mall of Cyprus is part of Shacolas Emporium Park, which also includes the first IKEA of Cyprus which is fully operational since the 6th of September 2007.

Mall of Cyprus General Manager said the project took three years to complete and incorporates state of the art systems and is environmental friendly. When asked about the cost of this investment, he said: “The Mall of Cyprus cost the Group 100 million euros in investments in addition to the land, which was financed through the German Eurohypo Bank and by own funds committed by the Shacolas Group”.

This unique mall with so many shopping options will make your head spin. It is the flagship of the Shacolas Emporium Park spanning an area of 27.000 sq. metres, which houses a pretty diverse selection of 31 shops, ten cafés and fast food restaurants, five cinema screens, a children’s playing ground and parking space for 1,500 cars, of which 1,100 are covered. The Mall of Cyprus also houses the first Carrefour store to open in Nicosia. It’s great that you can do a lot of shopping all in one place. In addition you can spend the whole day in there when it’s raining outside and being carefree about the bad weather.

The shops within the mall operate the same working hours according to the relevant legislation in place but the cafes, restaurants and cinemas are open from 9am until 1am. These include Debenhams and Next, Carrefour, Zara and Zara Home, Bershka, Pull & Bear, Mango, Intersport (Fourlis), Public, Early Learning Centre, kiosks and speciality shops, as well as upscale national chains like… Lacoste, Cortefiel, Nine West, Massimo Dutti etc. This is to say that it offers to the consumer a range, where you can get great designer pieces or you can find more funky things - sport clothing and products- , electronics – from music instruments to personal computers -, home appliances, furniture, supermarket products and educational products for all ages.

And at last… when you are done with shopping you can satisfy your appetite by choosing to dine in one from the wide variety of stylish or fast food restaurants such as TGI Friday’s, Chopsticks, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, KFC etc. or have a break for a coffee at Starbucks, or even…both!!

“Every effort is being made to convince the authorities to agree to extended shopping hours for the benefit of consumers, who will want to enjoy the Mall of Cyprus experience” according to Mr. Shacolas. This strategic combination of operations – a variety of products and services – led Mall become one of the most attractive destinations for Cypriot and foreign consumers of all ages not only for shopping – food and clothing - but also for recreational purposes. Moreover, targeting all age groups widened the range of consumers visiting the Mall daily, for several purposes, and by this way promoting the creation of potential buyers-clients for all the firms operating under the Mall “umbrella”.

As Mr. Shacolas said, “The Mall of Cyprus created value for the local area, for the city of Nicosia and for the whole of Cyprus” and we would add, that the last chapter of Innovative investments initiatives is far from written.

Thanks for George and Anna from Cyprus!
Go home!

After such joyful and hopefully smashing holidays I expect all of you’ve come back to your day-to-day activities feeling tons better! We surely have.. With our batteries recharged and willingness to achieve the peak let’s get back to reality as I have some thrilling news for You!

Firstly and the most importantly, I am eager to remind you that PT is very close to the application deadline which is on 4th February! If you still hesitate, simply STOP doing that and APPLY!

Now it’s time for some news in PT organizing process. To this point Peak Time promotion is one of the most important parts that is already present for some 2 months and has reached its peak. The promotion team is working really hard by contacting the leading universities and forwarding information about Peak Time 2009 all over the world. What I consider to be really amazing in this job is e.g. calling to Australia or USA at midnight and exchanging GOOD MORNING!

What is more, PT posters have been distributed to the top European universities in the Baltics, UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and Finland and must have reached even Korea by now. If you are present in any of these countries check it out in your university!

By the way, promotion campaign is also being run in social networks (coming soon in facebook.com and draugiem.lv, wanna join?:)).

And last but not least, PT ambassadors are working actively in their home countries: making PT presentations, writing articles in local newspapers etc.

That’s it for now, stay tuned!

Yours,

Egle

Yes, it‘s Christmas! Time to enjoy, wait for Santa and get loads of gifts!;) It’s also the time to shower you near and dear ones with greetings and kisses Celebrate the joys of this wonderful time with your family, friends and loved ones, even though you might get a bit sick of everywhere playing Christmas songs..;)

Anyway,
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!

On behalf of PT2009 organizers,

Egle:)

I have some more useful information from the World Wide Web for those who might have not heard about www.youngentrepreneur.com yet. The site is beneficial for everyone who is at least interested in business. Entrepreneurs from all over the world are sharing their original ideas and making free use of them. There are several ways how to do that.

Firstly, there are forums that cover such topics as Hosting & Domains, IT & Internet, E-commercial, Startups and Business Planning, Management, Marketing & PR and many others. Secondly, loads of useful information is reachable in a blog that is available for all the website users without any restrictions, compulsory registration or payment. The visitors can also discover loads of information regarding various topics related to business in the experienced entrepreneurs’ interviews.

Of course, the biggest advantage is taken by the young entrepreneurs who are taking just first steps in entrepreneurial world, launching their initial start-ups or just looking for original business ideas. The site might even help to make useful social contacts or to get in touch with potential business partners. Having in mind that there are no strict rules that lead an entrepreneur to success youngentrepreneur.com is inexhaustible information source.

Try it:

Yours,

Egle:)

It’s high time to take over PT blog editor’s position from G.F. and let him concentrate on much more significant issues regarding PT2009.
That’s why I am here! So let me introduce myself:) I am Egle Guzyte, a year 1 student at Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and I am crazy about “Peak Time”!:) Let’s begin as I have some great news 4 U today:)

As most of you might already know, the PT participants have to deal with an entrepreneurial study case in the stage 2. I am happy to inform you that the case will be prepared by McKinsey&Company as it was last year (PT2008). Seems it’s going to be really challenging

Want some more? We are extremely glad to announce that the prize fund of 9000 euros is waiting for you @PT2009! Isn’t that motivating?;)

Now let’s find out how the organizing process is going on. Finally, promotion as one of the most important part leading PT 2009 to success has just started with a new ambassadors’ project.
There are more than 20 ambassadors (former PT participants) spread in different countries all around the globe.

We already take pleasure in realizing how a small Peak Time society is building up. Find out what Bastian Steinbach, student at RSM Erasmus University Rotterdam and winner of Peak Time 2008 has said:
“I ran randomly into two other Peaktimers while being on exchange in Hong Kong. That is a sign of a solid international network!”

It seems we are working to some purpose

Yours,

Egle:)

Finally You are able to apply for participation in PeakTime2009. It is not a great celebration issue for us as there is still a huge amount of work and dozen of sleepless nights, but we are glad anyway ;).

By this moment we got already 10 teams registered - first ones to register were guys from CZ - team “Czechoslovakia”. A round of applause for them and best wishes to succeed in the competition ;). By the way, our target this year is to attract around 8000 participants, so one should not expect easy way to Peak.

Also short notice to last year finalists (those ones who got to Riga), as some questions already arisen. No, you can’t participate 2nd time in PT with the team consisting of more than two people, who got to finals. There is no way how you can violate this rule.. Sorry

That’s all for now. got.questions? drop a message to info@peaktime.org &

sTay.tUned.

Yours,

G.F.