Even though the professional adequacy of quite a lot of gurus, as well as the credibility of well known institutions, like the LSE, is been questioned after failing to even forecast the recession.

So “personally” I have the sense that if Engineers, for example, had the credibility / adequacy of a businessman or an economist. Then air plains would crash every hour, large buildings would collapse every second day, and bridges would require to be re-engineered every time the level of water changes.

cheers for that, educating

i think assuming that a professor who is being heralded as one of the top 3 gurus in strategy and innovation has enough logic to be able to ‘understand’ both countries… no?

hehe

Despite the size of the two countries, we also have to take into account the bad shape of the Greek economy, which has been -and will continue in the long term to be- affected by two major factors.

Firstly, since its independence, Greece had been continuously engaged into large scale wars, 1821 – 1949. Think that the first “war” loan taken by the government of Greece in 1830s’ was paid off in the 1980s’. And there are much more yet to be paid off!

Secondly, both the Greek economy and entrepreneurship in Greece have been significantly harmed by the enforcement of policies by the socialists, in the ’80s and ’90s, which lead the country in a rapid deindustrialization, and an enormous growth of public sector.

At the same period almost all other European countries, including Cyprus, had proceeded to liberalization of their economies.

So, in my opinion, which is yet political but certainly justified, there is not any significant cultural diversity among the Greek and Cypriot businessmen.

This can be supported by the fact that Greeks of Diaspora have been extremely successful as well. So any differences are due to the socioeconomic conditions that favour entrepreneurship in Cyprus.

Finally, I’m not implying in any way that Cypriots should not interact with other Nations despite our own. What I’m saying is simple; before anyone claims any diversity between Greece and Cyprus, he should first have a clear understanding of both countries.

From my interpretation he intended that our business culture and the way we conduct ourselves is closely related to the Lebanese and Middle East.

This can be argued as true, due to the fact that due to migrations from these nations to Cyprus at times of conflict, businessmen from these regions brought their style and conducts with them.

Even though we have the same language and religion and family culture as our Greek cousins, the way we act in business is arguably different. We don’t stand up to our government like the Greeks do, but we are also a much smaller state which thrives on Schumpeter style economics.

I think you have only seen one answer instead of seeing the Professor’s advice to young people as a whole, and that was that young Cypriots need to travel through OTHER nations too, not only those who share the same language and beliefs as our home island.

“Naturally they gravitate towards Greece because they think we are Greek and we have the same culture and so on. Personally I dont think that is particularly true to be honest. I think that we are closer to lets say Lebanon and Middle East than the Greeks.”

The fact is, that most Cypriots are fans of a major Greek football team, like Olympiacos Piraeus, Panathinaikos, AEK etc. Unfortunately I can’t recall anyone who supports Olympic Beirut, neither Racing Beirut, nor Al Rayyan…

The fact is, that the vast majority of the Cypriots follow Greek television programs and series. Still can’t recall any Cypriot telling me about the latest gossips for Middle Eastern celebrities…

I guess if we adopt Professors Costas Markides personal views on who we are, we might end up believing we are the only African country with white people…