Today was our first full day in Prague and we got a lot accomplished. The breakfast wasn't nearly as extensive as it was in the other hotels but it was still good! We started off with a visit to T-Mobile at 9 am and learned a lot about the company. We were greeted with the cutest black, white, and pink notebooks, pink frisbees, sandwiches, refreshments, and gummy bears so I was a happy camper. I loved that the room was filled with hot pink (their signature color) and other bright colors; it made the room and atmosphere more lively and exciting.
T-Mobile was established in 1996 and 4 years later in 2000 they already had their first 1 million customers. Talk about fast-growing! 6 years later in 2006 they had reached over 5 million customers and the number is still growing. Nowadays they have 5.9 million customers just in the Czech Republic which has a population of 10 million; that's over half! The Czech Republic is their target area and with 99.3% coverage I'd say they're doing a very good job of making sure of that There are a total of 230,000 employees and in 2012 their net revenue was 60.1 billion euros (81.95 billion USD)...that blew me away! Their main revenue comes from America and Europe.
A little fact that I found really funny was that T-Mobile decided to find the person within their entire network that sends the most text messages. Turns out it was a 12 year old girl in a small village that sends 17,000 text messages a month. As much as I wanted to be surprised; I have a 12 year old little sister and this seems about accurate.
We then had the honor of meeting the CEO of T-Mobile Czech Republic and he told us a little about himself and more about the strategies he has for his company. He started out in the marketing department and was promoted to Marketing Director before he was then promoted to CEO in Slovakia. He spent 4 years there and then was hired on as CEO of the Czech Republic location. He told us that he values the company on their customer service and social media team saying that they are excellent! His strategy was composed of 4 different parts: having the best data network, best customer service, innovating with partners, and promoting growth within the business. He once told all of his employees that if they met 3 particular goals that he would all buy them a tablet. Unfortunately they fell short by only two months but I thought that was really cool of him to motivate his employees that way. There were many other things we learned but there's the short and sweet version.
Next stop: AVAST Software!
I really enjoyed this visit because the guy who presented to us was very funny and definitely grabbed our attention!
He started off telling us that AVAST was the acronym they chose for the name of the software before they even knew that meaning was "to stop." How fitting for an anti-virus software, right? It was the very first company to come out with a software for Windows 94. Another significant fact of 94 was that they had 94 users in 7 months. Basically they thought about closing the doors to the company numerous times and thought the software was going to fail. They decided decided to do a free trial of the software to get the word out and within 39 months they had reached 1 million customers. Hooray! It was going to succeed. The most astonishing thing about this multi-billion dollar, highest paying, number one company to work for is that they do zero advertising. That's right....zero. They tried advertising once and spent $350,000 for a particular amount of ads and gained....wait for it......TWO customers. Crazy, right? Most companies rely primarily on their advertising to pull in their customers. AVAST relies primarily on the word of mouth.
A couple more fun facts before I wrap this up in time for dinner!:
Where does spam come from?....your own computer.
How many new viruses are developed each day for PCs?.....300,000
How many countries use AVAST?........234 (41 of them with over 1 million users)
I hope I was able to enlighten you all with tons of information and fun facts about these amazing, enormous, highly successful companies. Keep reading for even more on our business visits and adventures in Prague!
xoxo,
Cassie
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Bye Bye Vienna, Helllllloooooooo Prague!
Today has been an eventful day! We loaded the bus in Vienna and headed to the train station where we said a heartfelt goodbye to our amazing tour guide Manuela and headed to Prague on a 4 1/2 hour train ride. As we were sad to leave Vienna, we didn't know we wouldn't be too thrilled with out sitting arrangements on the train either. Apparently a toilet overflowed in one of the carts on train and we just so happen to be seated in the cart that came equipped with a floor covered in gross toilet water. High five us! But seriously it was pretty nasty and my cute little black flats became ridiculously drenched and I resorted to putting my feet in a plastic bag while I stayed in that cart. When I and a few others couldn't take anymore of the flooded floor I asked someone that worked on the train, what was up with all of the water and more importantly if and when they were going to clean it up. That conversation led to us Eurocats moving to a nice, dry cart with plenty of open seats to choose from.
After our slightly soggy train ride we arrived in Prague and met our new tour guide Petr. It took Petr a second to warm up to us but once he did, he allowed us to give him the nickname of "P-Money"! After that Petr was good in our book. He took us on a quick tour through the medieval and city center of Prague. While on our tour we saw the goregous sites of Prague and learned the history of a good portion of it! We started out at the Wallenstien palace which was just breathtaking. Every building had it's own unique detailing and were so massive but a bit subtle at the same time. The different color buildings made you feel like you were in a make-believe world. They were so picture perfect to the point that they seemed unreal.
From the buildings, we stumbled upon the famous John Lennon Wall. This wall was used as a type of rebellion by the youth against the communists back in the 1980s. The wall was used as a freedom of speech from the communists and was painted on by young Czechs; initially the first painting was of John Lennon. The wall was painted over by the communists and after two days it was painted again by those wanting to rebel. The wall eventually was boarded up to stop the painting but was taken down after the struggle with communism and now the wall is free and open to all around the world that desire to leave their mark.
Another historic perk about Prague is the Charles Bridge. The Charles Bridge was built in the year 1357 and was originally built with a paved ground. Tourists weren't allowed on the bridge until the year 1989 and on the bridge you can get lost in the beautiful view of the Vltava river. As you walk down the bridge there are tons of statues made out of different color stone which were pretty cool to look at.
Petr gave us a great tour around Prague today and I'm sure I'm not just speaking for myself when I say we got a lot of Praque historic exposure in all in just one afternoon. Day 1 in Prague was nothing short of amazing and I can hardly wait to see what the next few days here are like. We'll I'm getting my things ready for our business visit with T-mobile tomorrow. Don't forget to check back here with Cassie to see how that visit goes. As always keep up with the Travel Bugs because we are definitely going places!
All my love from Prague,
Gabbi :)
After our slightly soggy train ride we arrived in Prague and met our new tour guide Petr. It took Petr a second to warm up to us but once he did, he allowed us to give him the nickname of "P-Money"! After that Petr was good in our book. He took us on a quick tour through the medieval and city center of Prague. While on our tour we saw the goregous sites of Prague and learned the history of a good portion of it! We started out at the Wallenstien palace which was just breathtaking. Every building had it's own unique detailing and were so massive but a bit subtle at the same time. The different color buildings made you feel like you were in a make-believe world. They were so picture perfect to the point that they seemed unreal.
From the buildings, we stumbled upon the famous John Lennon Wall. This wall was used as a type of rebellion by the youth against the communists back in the 1980s. The wall was used as a freedom of speech from the communists and was painted on by young Czechs; initially the first painting was of John Lennon. The wall was painted over by the communists and after two days it was painted again by those wanting to rebel. The wall eventually was boarded up to stop the painting but was taken down after the struggle with communism and now the wall is free and open to all around the world that desire to leave their mark.
Another historic perk about Prague is the Charles Bridge. The Charles Bridge was built in the year 1357 and was originally built with a paved ground. Tourists weren't allowed on the bridge until the year 1989 and on the bridge you can get lost in the beautiful view of the Vltava river. As you walk down the bridge there are tons of statues made out of different color stone which were pretty cool to look at.
Petr gave us a great tour around Prague today and I'm sure I'm not just speaking for myself when I say we got a lot of Praque historic exposure in all in just one afternoon. Day 1 in Prague was nothing short of amazing and I can hardly wait to see what the next few days here are like. We'll I'm getting my things ready for our business visit with T-mobile tomorrow. Don't forget to check back here with Cassie to see how that visit goes. As always keep up with the Travel Bugs because we are definitely going places!
All my love from Prague,
Gabbi :)
Monday, June 23, 2014
Our last day in Vienna!
I always seem to get the posts that fall on our last day in each city. So it's always so bittersweet. It is so weird to think about this trip and how it is already halfway over! As much as I love Vienna, I am so excited to go spend time in Prague.
This morning, we visited BAWAG PSK, which is a major bank here in Austria. We visited the headquarters building which is located right here in Vienna. It is one of Austria's largest retail banking institutions. PSK was founded in 1883, while BAWAG was founded in 1922. They weren't merged together until just recently in 2005. After a financial crisis in 2007, they were sold to Cerberus Capital Management which is a very well known company over here. We even have a location in New York.
The BAWAG P.S.K. Headquarters Building
In the past few years, the bank has come a long way. According to their 2014 results, their net profit has increased by almost 77% over the last few quarters. Their operating expenses are decreasing significantly along with their risk costs and risk-weighed assets. One crazy thing that is way different than in the U.S. is that their mortgage rate is only 1.7%. Although, each customer at the bank has to pay a fee of about 25 euros per quarter just for maintaining an account.
Here are a few more very interesting and shocking statistics about the Austrian economy (when compared to the U.S.):
- The average retirement age is 53 years old.
- Austria has the lowest unemployment rate in all of Europe.
- Maternity leave is TWO YEARS. Your job is saved and you can come back part-time and build up your hours however you want until your child starts Kindergarden.
So aside from all that we learned at the bank, we also did some more exploring this afternoon. After tha bank, we went to the shops along the street of our hotel. After spending a little too much money, we took the underground subway to the Danube river where we sat and ate dinner on the beach and watch the wake boarders. Definitely a great way to end the day and our stay in Vienna. This trip is turning out what I hoped it would be plus so much more! The only thing I would change is being allowed free, ice cold, tap water at restaurants. Not the sparkling bottle they charge us $8 for.
Can't wait to head to Prague in the morning and see what that has in store for us!
~ Maddie Thibault ~
This morning, we visited BAWAG PSK, which is a major bank here in Austria. We visited the headquarters building which is located right here in Vienna. It is one of Austria's largest retail banking institutions. PSK was founded in 1883, while BAWAG was founded in 1922. They weren't merged together until just recently in 2005. After a financial crisis in 2007, they were sold to Cerberus Capital Management which is a very well known company over here. We even have a location in New York.
In the past few years, the bank has come a long way. According to their 2014 results, their net profit has increased by almost 77% over the last few quarters. Their operating expenses are decreasing significantly along with their risk costs and risk-weighed assets. One crazy thing that is way different than in the U.S. is that their mortgage rate is only 1.7%. Although, each customer at the bank has to pay a fee of about 25 euros per quarter just for maintaining an account.
Here are a few more very interesting and shocking statistics about the Austrian economy (when compared to the U.S.):
- The average retirement age is 53 years old.
- Austria has the lowest unemployment rate in all of Europe.
- Maternity leave is TWO YEARS. Your job is saved and you can come back part-time and build up your hours however you want until your child starts Kindergarden.
So aside from all that we learned at the bank, we also did some more exploring this afternoon. After tha bank, we went to the shops along the street of our hotel. After spending a little too much money, we took the underground subway to the Danube river where we sat and ate dinner on the beach and watch the wake boarders. Definitely a great way to end the day and our stay in Vienna. This trip is turning out what I hoped it would be plus so much more! The only thing I would change is being allowed free, ice cold, tap water at restaurants. Not the sparkling bottle they charge us $8 for.
Can't wait to head to Prague in the morning and see what that has in store for us!
~ Maddie Thibault ~
Sunday, June 22, 2014
We had the privilege to take a tour of 40 rooms on the first floor of the palace today. A brief history of the royal family was presented to us on a headset as we traveled from room to room. For example, Franz Joseph married his cousin Elizabeth when she was 15. She was known as one of the most beautiful queens of her time and rarely attended family dinners in order to keep her figure. Franz Joseph passed away in his bed in 1886 and Elizabeth was killed by an Italian at age 61. Marie Antoinette, who was one of Maria Theresa's 11 daughters, was killed during the French Revolution. Carl the first was the last emperor of Austria. The last of the Hapsburg empire was Otto Von Hapsburg and he died in 2011 at age 98. Franz Stephen was married to Maria Theresa and together they had 16 children (11 daughters & 5 sons). Stephen passed away in 1716 and Maria Theresa took this death very hard. So hard that she mourned for the rest of her life. In her memoirs, she reflects on how long her marriage lasted with Franz stating they were married for "29 years, 6 months, 6 days or 10,781 days." Schonbrunn was electrified in 1901.Schonbrunn is also connected with the oldest zoo in the world, Tiergarten. The group had the chance to visit the zoo and many of them thoroughly enjoyed it. For example, Gabbi was very happy that she had a chance to see the baby Cheetahs and the baby Panda.
Personally, I really enjoyed the palace especially the garden. I walked through the garden and took pictures of fountains and statues. I ventured all the way to the top of the garden and got some really great shots of the palace and the city of Vienna. I also saw some emu's and squirrels while I walked the trails of the garden. I even sat on a few of the benches and admired the beautiful scenery and hundreds of years worth of history around me. As I sat there, a delicate wind gently swept across the garden awakening the leaves and trees. The sound of the animal noises and the aroma of flowers made it easy for my to slightly fall asleep. I couldn't help but to think to myself I'm so blessed to be here seeing this! I just pray that one day my family can come and bare witness to the sight and appreciate the 300 years of history behind it.
After leaving the palace, I headed to the city center to visit St. Stephan's Cathedral. On the way there, I saw the Vienna School of Business and visited St. Elisabeth's Church on Belvedere street. I took pictures then made my way to the cathedral where I began my journey of climbing up 343 stairs. After reaching the top, I needed water and nice soft seat! Luckily, I had water on me but soft seats weren't an option. Only hard wood benches were offered (still no complaints or regrets). The journey was definitely worth the reward. Also, I went inside the cathedral and took some pictures of the centuries old church to add to my collection. I even paid the fee in order to light my candle and say my prayer.
Lastly, Allison and Terry came up with this brilliant idea to get everyone together to have dinner at a Venetian restaurant. I ordered the chef's pasta and it was great! My favorite thing so far on this trip has been the Schonbrunn palace and the attached gardens. Whenever I visit Vienna again, that will be one of the first places I go.
Until next time,
Ashley Cadenhead
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Today was a beautiful day in Vienna! This city is breathtaking (probably because Austria is the second richest country in Europe.) After a huge breakfast at our hotel, we met up with Manuela so she could take us to many different museums and buildings. One of these buildings was the Habsburg Palace where Maria Theresa lived and ruled. The palace is accompanied by many other beautiful buildings and 20 different gardens, as you'll see in the pictures, and all of them together are referred to as Maria Theresa Square. The square and the buildings are massive because all of Maria Theresa's servants and workers lived in them. It was actually very beneficial to be her servant because it was a steady job, provided a home, and ensured security. What a very small world because while we were here in the square we ran into a group of former bearcats that our professor Allison knows! Yes, we chanted B-E-A-R....C-A-T-S in the middle of courtyard :)
Maria Theresa had 16 children! And almost all of her children were named Maria besides her two sons; Joseph II and Leopold II. Maria Antoinette of France was Maria Theresa's most famous child who eventually became queen of France.
It was very busy today because tomorrow is a German Holiday, which also means all of the stores will be closed.
We also went to Hero Square just like we did in Budapest. There were only 2 major heroes but their statues were huge and very neat to look at. The main hero in the square defeated Napoleon and you'll see a picture of his statue below. Our last stop with Manuela was to St. Stephen's Square where the most prestigious and expensive shopping avenues are. There was everything from Armani to Coach to Versace. Needless to say, we went to a different part of town to eat lunch!
After our time with Manuela was up she sent us off to the outside market closer to our hotel and that was my absolute favorite. You would compare it to a farmer's market in America except WAY bigger and more diverse. They had fresh fruit, fresh veggies, dried fruits, meats, cheeses, handmade goods, teapots, and more. My favorite part was the end of the street which turned into an indian market which had everything you could think of from India. I bought a huge elephant (I LOVE elephants) tapestry to hang on my wall at home along with a few other things. Oh, and I've spent more in 6 hours in Vienna than I did in 4 days in Budapest so that's the only downfall.
Talk to you soon!
Cassie
Maria Theresa had 16 children! And almost all of her children were named Maria besides her two sons; Joseph II and Leopold II. Maria Antoinette of France was Maria Theresa's most famous child who eventually became queen of France.
It was very busy today because tomorrow is a German Holiday, which also means all of the stores will be closed.
We also went to Hero Square just like we did in Budapest. There were only 2 major heroes but their statues were huge and very neat to look at. The main hero in the square defeated Napoleon and you'll see a picture of his statue below. Our last stop with Manuela was to St. Stephen's Square where the most prestigious and expensive shopping avenues are. There was everything from Armani to Coach to Versace. Needless to say, we went to a different part of town to eat lunch!
After our time with Manuela was up she sent us off to the outside market closer to our hotel and that was my absolute favorite. You would compare it to a farmer's market in America except WAY bigger and more diverse. They had fresh fruit, fresh veggies, dried fruits, meats, cheeses, handmade goods, teapots, and more. My favorite part was the end of the street which turned into an indian market which had everything you could think of from India. I bought a huge elephant (I LOVE elephants) tapestry to hang on my wall at home along with a few other things. Oh, and I've spent more in 6 hours in Vienna than I did in 4 days in Budapest so that's the only downfall.
Talk to you soon!
Cassie
Friday, June 20, 2014
3 Countries In One Day!
Greetings everyone!
Today has definitely been a fast-paced one for the Eurocats! We started our day of traveling off by saying goodbye to Budapest at 8:00 a.m. and getting on the bus and heading to Bratislava, Slovakia. After a nice little nap on the ride there we arrived to the Volkswagen plant. My initial thought when we pulled up was, "whoa, this couldn't be any more cool". That was quickly changed when our tour guide Daniel led us inside of the body shop of the plant. This museum-like factory made it hard to focus on one thing at a time! There were robots that seriously could pass for Transformers that moved with such grace and well...human like qualities that it was easy to see why they are responsible for 85% of the car production process at Volkswagen. They seemed to be the complete opposite of the stiff, up and down, side to side moving bots that you might be invisioning.
Volkswagen is the only place in the world that produces 6 different cars from 5 different brands. They also don't have rooms to store the car parts in the factory. Once they receive the parts they put them straight on the production line, can you say "No Time Wasted?" I totally know your next question, "So if they keep the production of cars in constant rotation, how many cars can they produce in a day?" Great question! The Volkswagen plant all together can produce up to 2,100 cars a day, crazy right? Out of those possible 2,100 cars produced a day, guess how many are sent back for malfunctions or mishaps...one. Yes, they get only one car a day that gets sent back for repairs. These repairs can be simple fixes that are corrected and get put back on the line or bigger ones that winde up getting recycled. Another thing I thought was cool was that they have an on site fire department and medical center in case of anything serious. We were forbidden to take pictures of the inside of the plant so you're going to have to just trust me when I say this place was amazing and deserves a visit by any and everyone, especially those that enjoy Volkswagen cars or Audi or Porsche made cars (2 of the different cars they produce).
After our great visit we headed to the Bratislava city center where we were able to get a good lunch, some cute souviners and nice pictures. We headed back on the bus after our quick visit and made our way to Vienna, maybe not in the safest way (our bus driver George decided to reverse in the middle of a highway- now that's one for the books!) but we all made it alive and with all body parts! :) We met our new tour guide in Vienna named Manuela and we headed to dinner at Wiener Wirtschaft. Dinner wasn't too shabby; it definitely wasn't something I would order on my own but it was tasty nonetheless! Once we all finished dinner we headed on the tram toward the Amusement Park that hosted the oldest Ferris Wheel in Vienna! A bit of a chilly night coming back to the hotel from the park, but it was all worth it. I can already tell that Vienna is going to be spectacular. To learn more about our experience here, keep up with the Travel Bugs, because as usual we are always going places!
All my love from Vienna,
Gabbi Ray :)
Today has definitely been a fast-paced one for the Eurocats! We started our day of traveling off by saying goodbye to Budapest at 8:00 a.m. and getting on the bus and heading to Bratislava, Slovakia. After a nice little nap on the ride there we arrived to the Volkswagen plant. My initial thought when we pulled up was, "whoa, this couldn't be any more cool". That was quickly changed when our tour guide Daniel led us inside of the body shop of the plant. This museum-like factory made it hard to focus on one thing at a time! There were robots that seriously could pass for Transformers that moved with such grace and well...human like qualities that it was easy to see why they are responsible for 85% of the car production process at Volkswagen. They seemed to be the complete opposite of the stiff, up and down, side to side moving bots that you might be invisioning.
Volkswagen is the only place in the world that produces 6 different cars from 5 different brands. They also don't have rooms to store the car parts in the factory. Once they receive the parts they put them straight on the production line, can you say "No Time Wasted?" I totally know your next question, "So if they keep the production of cars in constant rotation, how many cars can they produce in a day?" Great question! The Volkswagen plant all together can produce up to 2,100 cars a day, crazy right? Out of those possible 2,100 cars produced a day, guess how many are sent back for malfunctions or mishaps...one. Yes, they get only one car a day that gets sent back for repairs. These repairs can be simple fixes that are corrected and get put back on the line or bigger ones that winde up getting recycled. Another thing I thought was cool was that they have an on site fire department and medical center in case of anything serious. We were forbidden to take pictures of the inside of the plant so you're going to have to just trust me when I say this place was amazing and deserves a visit by any and everyone, especially those that enjoy Volkswagen cars or Audi or Porsche made cars (2 of the different cars they produce).
After our great visit we headed to the Bratislava city center where we were able to get a good lunch, some cute souviners and nice pictures. We headed back on the bus after our quick visit and made our way to Vienna, maybe not in the safest way (our bus driver George decided to reverse in the middle of a highway- now that's one for the books!) but we all made it alive and with all body parts! :) We met our new tour guide in Vienna named Manuela and we headed to dinner at Wiener Wirtschaft. Dinner wasn't too shabby; it definitely wasn't something I would order on my own but it was tasty nonetheless! Once we all finished dinner we headed on the tram toward the Amusement Park that hosted the oldest Ferris Wheel in Vienna! A bit of a chilly night coming back to the hotel from the park, but it was all worth it. I can already tell that Vienna is going to be spectacular. To learn more about our experience here, keep up with the Travel Bugs, because as usual we are always going places!
All my love from Vienna,
Gabbi Ray :)
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Our last day in Budapest (cont.)
Forgot to include some pictures from the day...
This is a picture (noticed Markus, the managing director of SAP, in the middle) at SAP this morning.
This is a picture (noticed Markus, the managing director of SAP, in the middle) at SAP this morning.
This is a picture of the Castle Museum we went to, which is a former royal palace.
We took way too many pictures today and I think our tour guide was getting a little frustrated with us! Oops!
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