{"id":259,"date":"2009-03-27T12:25:16","date_gmt":"2009-03-27T09:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/en\/?p=259"},"modified":"2014-03-12T16:41:12","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T14:41:12","slug":"memories-from-cannes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/2009\/03\/27\/memories-from-cannes\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories from Cannes\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First day of exhibition, a very quiet one. So instead of sitting on a chair and waiting \u201cthe clients who never appeared\u201d, I decided to walk around. Soon my walk brought me in front of the impressive stand of a big company, coming from East\u2026 a major project was displayed, big tall buildings with nice designs. \u201cIt could be interesting for my client who searches in more \u201cvirgin\u201d countries than Romania\u201d I thought. So when the first hostess came to me, asking me how she could help me, I was really interested and started asking questions. I found out the city, the location, how good was the company.<br \/>\nThen I asked something more difficult, I asked to be presented the uses of each building. \u201cSo, here you have apartments? Offices? Hotels? All?\u201d I asked. \u201cYes, yes, all\u201d. <strong>\u201cOk, there are so many buildings here, which of them have which use?\u201d<\/strong> (I know, some people consider me mean when I ask questions like this, impossible to be replied). The answer was something like \u201cyeah, sure, the weather is lovely\u201d, <strong>so I decided to bypass it and ask another one, which proved to be lethal<\/strong>\u2026 \u201cOk, you have a nice project and you are here at MIPIM. What exactly are you selling? One can buy a block or apartments? The rights for the hotel? <strong>What do you have for sale?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat do you mean what are we selling?\u201d \u201cI mean what you have for sale. I have a client interested in markets like yours, what could I tell him that it is for sale here?\u201d After 3-5 minutes of negotiations on what I meant with my question, she said \u201cI am sorry, I don\u2019t know this. One second to bring a colleague of mine\u201d. (If the ranks in the company are measured by the height of skirt, the new lady was a bit higher in rank, as her skirt was lower\u2026)<br \/>\n<strong>\u201cYes, hello, how may I help you?\u201d \u201cHello, I have a simple question: What do you have for sale here?\u201d<\/strong> \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d \u201cI mean what can I buy if I come with the money here?\u201d \u201cThis is something I can not tell you\u201d \u201cWhy? You came from your country here, paid all this money to be present and promote a project. What is the purpose? What do you sell?\u201d. (When a beautiful woman realizes that her beauty doesn\u2019t count and the answer is still expected, she usually gets upset and feels uncomfortable\u2026) \u201cYou know, let me bring my colleague, who can help you with this question\u201d. If skirts were the measurement standards, the lady with the highest rank appeared (and a skirt under the knees\u2026)<br \/>\n<strong>\u201cHello, how can I be useful to you?\u201d \u201cHi, in a very simple way, just by sharing with me what do you have for sale in your project\u201d<\/strong> \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d \u201cWhat is for sale here? I see many buildings, what do you sell, what is your target audience? Which clients do you want to attract?\u201d \u201cAll the clients, mister, we don\u2019t have a problem with the clients\u201d \u201cGood. And what would you sell to them? What are the clients\u2019 options to buy in this project?\u201d. \u201cOne second please, let me bring here the director of sales\u201d \u201cok, I wait him\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The sales director appeared, with an attitude of someone really proud of himself. <strong>\u201cSo what do you want from us?\u201d<\/strong> \u201cI have some questions regarding your very nice project\u201d \u201cok, then I should go, the ladies here can answer without a problem\u201d \u201c<strong>Unfortunately it looks like they can not, as I am asking for what is for sale in this pro<\/strong>ject\u2026\u201d \u201cWhat do you mean what is for sale?\u201d \u201cI mean that if I come with a client and we have 10 million euro, what can we buy?\u201d \u201cOk, first come with the client and then we will see, we will find something to give him\u201d \u201cI am sure, but I need to know what is for sale, I have to present to the client the project, to explain to him the potential and let him understand why he should invest in it\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cAh, why didn\u2019t you say this before? Ladies, the gentleman just wants the brochures of our project, give them to him so as to study please\u201d he said and he was ready to depart, proud once more for fulfilling his duty. \u201cNo, no, sorry, I have them here, in my hands, all of them. I want to know what do you have for sale, one apartment? One hundred apartments? One thousand apartments? <strong>What is for sale here and also as you are the sales director, what are the prices?<\/strong>\u201d \u201cOne second please, I will bring here someone who can help you\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cHello, I am the CFO of the group, how may I help you?\u201d<\/strong> said a very well dressed gentleman, who probably measured my\u2026 money power by trying to break my hand while hand shaking and staring at my eyes. \u201cHello and I am sorry we had to disturb you. <strong>I just ask what is for sale in this wonderful project<\/strong>\u201d. \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d <strong>\u201cWhat is for sale? What can I buy here?\u201d<\/strong> \u201cWe will have many things to buy, residential, hotel\u2026\u201d \u201cOk, how many sq.m. of hotel space will be available? Are you selling the hotel itself, are you open for us to bring you a multinational brand to collaborate with?\u201d \u201cDepends, how much you offer?\u201d \u201cBut I don\u2019t know what is available, how can I offer?\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cMister, please don\u2019t lose my time, when you will have a concrete offer, let me know\u201d \u201cYes, but I need to know what is for sale. For example, you speak for residential units. <strong>If I come with a client who has 10 million euro, what can we buy with this amount?\u201d \u201cI am sorry, 10 million is too small for this project, maybe you can find something else, this is a project worth hundreds of millions of euro<\/strong>\u201d \u201cOk, I will come with another one, who has hundreds of millions. But what is for sale?\u201d \u201cOne second, one second, stay here\u201d. He walks couple of meters, picks up his mobile and dials a number\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cHello mister\u201d<\/strong> I heard the voice over the phone, <strong>CFO had called the boss of the company<\/strong>. \u201cHello to you too and I am sorry I disturb you\u201d. He didn\u2019t know English, so the CFO took back the mobile and started translating. I was informed that I didn\u2019t disturb him, actually he was in a spa, at Monte Carlo. He informed me that as I have a client with hundreds of millions, we are ready to sign the final contract anytime. He also told me that he will be flexible and will not ask for a big advance, just 35% of the total amount. \u201cIs the project built yet?\u201d I dared to ask. \u201cit will be developed in several phases, for the next 7 \u2013 10 years, but you can buy it all from today, or a part of it\u201d I heard the translation.<br \/>\n<strong>\u201cOk, and what do you have for sale? How many apartments we can buy? What are my options?\u201d<\/strong> \u201cWhat do you mean what we have for sale? You don\u2019t see the project there?\u201d (the boss replied and as he was shouting, I think he probably cursed the CFO, thinking that he didn\u2019t present to me the project, I guess he was saying that he spent a fortune to be there and they didn\u2019t respect his money etc). \u201cYes, I saw but no one here tells me what precisely is for sale, how many sq.m., how many residential units etc. I search to find out the basic info\u2026\u201d \u201cI also don\u2019t see the money, my CFO says that you don\u2019t have with you any money, why you talk for a deal? Come with the money and then I will tell you more\u201d \u201cBut what money are you talking about?\u201d \u201cMoney, dollars, CASH. Without the money, nothing is for sale\u201d \u201cI will come back with the money and the clients, when I will know what\u2026\u201d \u201c\u2026 we don\u2019t sell to you mister, bye, bye and don\u2019t disturb us anymore\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>I left their stand pretty confused and thanking God I had plenty of time available, either wise I would have missed the best sales seminar of my life\u2026<\/p>\n<p>PS. (I don\u2019t understand why I had this weird feeling that there are plenty of this kind of people in Romania too\u2026 probably it\u2019s just my impression\u2026)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p align=\"left\">\u201cWhen the going gets tough the tough get going\u2026To the south of France!\u201d Boris Johnson is a unique personality! The new Mayor of London came to MIPIM this year and gave a speech on day 1. \u201cSpeech\u201d is not exactly a description of what people heard\u2026 It should be more appropriate to compare it with a stand up comedy show. He was joking non stop, maybe because the whole atmosphere was new for this controversial politician. The guy knows ancient Greek (for an English man this is a clear sign of intelligence, as ancient Greek is very difficult even for the majority of Greeks themselves\u2026) and he gave us some pure examples of smart approach of today\u2019s world. To be honest with you, his words don\u2019t really solve any issue, but they were a beautiful change, between the endless discussions for problems etc.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p align=\"left\">Tuesday night, Carlton Hotel, the big reception of MIPIM. The invitation was for 19.00, but I don\u2019t think it is difficult for you (the readers of this blog) to guess that I was late, due to work. Together with my brother, a colleague and a friend, we walked down the Croisette, reaching the location, where we had a small surprise. Last year you could reach the hotel\u2019s entrance and then enter inside (\u201cwrestling\u201d with another 300 \u2013 500 people who had the same idea in the same time). Now the boulevard was blocked and there was a checking point with around 200 people waiting in the queue. The guards didn\u2019t let them pass, until some of the people inside Carlton would had left first. But in the same time there was another party, organized by MIPIM too, down at the beach, at a big tent, right across the hotel! To reach it, you had to simply walk on the right pavement and go down to the beach. Or\u2026 we left the queue, turned right, walked on the pavement, reached the level of the tent. Instead of going down there (freezing cold), we headed left and walked across the boulevard, finally entered in the hotel!\u00a0Even myself I was surprised of how it was possible to exist a checking point and a queue, when you could walk around and bypass it\u2026 After about 40 minutes inside the hotel, we left to meet some friends and go for dinner and noticed that finally the checking point was open\u2026 (yeah\u2026)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p align=\"left\">In 2007 and 2008 this reception was sponsored by a Russian region. This is why there were Russians singing and dancing folklore there (and as I was a folklore dancer myself in the past, I simply adored listening and watching). Now this was not the case. MIPIM paid by itself for the party. In the past the event was very crowded, you could barely walk or breathe there. Now, you could almost play football, not even one third of the people present\u2026 (maybe because the tent hosted a part of the guests too\u2026) The food was better though, plus there were some kind of small entertainment points. Games which asked you to smell some wine and guess from which part of France it comes from, card games etc. I think that this should be the atmosphere in a reception, if the real target is to network and meet new people. Even due to wrong reasons, it happened this year and this is an important progress.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p align=\"left\">As I mentioned Russians\u2026 they were almost absent, as well as the guys from Dubai. There were few companies present, some nice impressive stands, but nothing like the past. I didn\u2019t have the chance to discuss with anyone about a rumor that I heard\u2026 Many people told me that Dubai faces very big problems nowadays: Thousands of people who had bought (by leasing) very limousines, simply left the cars at their parking, with the keys on the engine and the contracts on the driver\u2019s seat and disappeared from the country. The same situation is described regarding thousands of apartments. I also hear that Abu Dhabi has succeeded to avoid this kind of problems. I would really like to find out more about these. Not because I plan to invest there, but I constantly search to discover the true reasons of every problem and failure, especially in business. Everything we decide, every direction we take, leads to somewhere and from there to somewhere else. If we reach a dead end, or (even worse) if the road ends to Grand Canyon\u2026 it is very important to go back, think again and evaluate every decision, until we will find the initial one, which caused all the rest of mistakes and led to the \u201ccatastrophe\u201d. So, if my feedback is correct, Dubai and Russia are perfect case studies. If you have anything to add on, you are more than welcome! (Hopefully not only for me, but for Romanians as well, the similarities were too many\u2026)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>Last but not least.\u00a0 As my time was plenty, I walked around the exhibition, went to stands of other companies, discussed with people. I would like to share with you that now, during the crisis, you can find excellent opportunities for almost all kinds of business ideas. Except this, people now can hear you better, \u201ctolerate\u201d some of your disadvantages and spend more time to realize your potential. I found many great business ideas at MIPIM, sometimes I felt pity I am not able to develop all of them myself. But, closing the \u201cMIPIM topic\u201d, I want to insist on something: Keep your eyes open, NOW you can find genuine ideas, major opportunities, things that can change your life. If you study the past, you will find out that the crucial historical moments create the necessary circumstances for the future\u2019s success stories.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First day of exhibition, a very quiet one. So instead of sitting on a chair and waiting \u201cthe clients who never appeared\u201d, I decided to walk around. Soon my walk brought me in front of the impressive stand of a big company, coming from East\u2026 a major project was displayed, big tall buildings with nice [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[204,240],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}