FORUM: Strategies for Succeeding During Recession

Successful Business Forum by the EXED The Executive Education Centre of CITY College, in collaboration with the Thessaloniki Chamber & Industry (TCCI) successfully organised a forum entitled ‘Strategies for Succeeding during Recession’. The event took place on the 27th of April 2010 at the TCCI Conference Hall.
Mr. George Efstathiadis, Director of EXED and MBA programme, CITY College and Mr . Emmanouil Vlachogiannis, Vice President of the TCCI opened the event with a warm welcome address.

The forum presented a series of strategies for businesses’ survival and success during a period of recession like the one that the business world is currently experiencing. The panel comprised internationally renowned speakers with substantial experience in research and consultancy in Britain and Greece: Dr Dave Chaffey, Lecturer in E-business, University of Warwick, Dr Zenon Michaelides, Professor at the University of Liverpool, UK, Mr. Stelios Kehaghias, Lecturer at CITY College and Dr Vasilis Polymenis, Professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH).

The speakers covered the topic of the forum from four critical business aspects: marketing, managements, finance and logistics.

In his talk, Dr Dave Chaffey of Smart Insights said he believed that many organisations were using digital marketing tactics like search, social and email marketing, but few had a clear strategy. Dr Chaffey explained the key elements of an online strategy such as developing an online value proposition which appeals to different type of audience and developing a communications strategy. He also suggested that many companies were wasting their investment in digital media because they weren't tracking and taking actions based on their analytics tools like Google Analytics.

Talking about the economic crisis Dr Zenon Michaelides commented: “The global crisis has forced us to re-define those management principles which we had taken for granted and effectively shift focus from expansion at any cost to survival and sustainable growth".

Speaking about ‘open innovation’ Mr. Kehaghias said: “Businesses may adopt open innovation in order to create and develop their competitive advantage within the local and international markets. This strategy is vastly followed in Europe and the US. Of course, in order for this development to take place the business model and strategy of the company has to change.”

The forum brought together approximately 200 businessmen, professionals and university students.

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