1. Capability Creativity Maturity
Moldova ICT Summit 2011
Empowering Development through Information Technology
George BRASHNAROV Country IT Branding
Vice President, PIN-SME Important Players and Activities
Chairman, BASSCOM
19 May 2011
Chisinau, Moldova

2. Important factors 1/2
1: Globalization 3.0 2: “Demographic” change

3. Important factors 2/2
3: Mass collaboration & Social networks

4. Why is a Country Brand important?
The Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index
( “Places”, © Simon Anholt 2010 )
… The way a country is perceived can make a critical difference to the success of
its business, trade and tourism efforts, as well as its diplomatic and cultural
relations with other nations….
The effect of national brand image is plain to see.
Countries that are lucky or virtuous enough to have acquired a positive
reputation find that everything they, their companies or citizens wish to do on
the global stage is easier: their brand goes before them, opening doors, creating
trust and respect, and raising the expectation of quality, competence and
integrity.
Places with reputation for being poor, uncultured, backward, dangerous or
corrupt find that everything they or their companies try to achieve outside their
own neighborhood is harder, and the burden is always on their side to prove that
they don’t conform to the national stereotype.

5. Why is a Country Brand important?
The Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index
( “Places”, © Simon Anholt 2010 )
Compare :
• The experience of a Swedish and an Iranian manager on the
international job market…
• The struggles of an exporter from Moldova with one from
Canada…
• The way consumers from Europe or America will pay more for
unknown “Japanese” product than for an identical “Korean“
product…that is probably made in the same Chinese factory

6. How is Moldova positioned compared to
other countries from the region?
WEF GCR GCR WEF eGov E-participation
index innovation GITR development Rank (value)
Rank Rank (value) Rank Rank (value)
(value) (value)
Albania 88(3,94) 121(2,57) 95(3,27) 85(0.4519) 86(0.1286)
Armenia 98(3,76) 116(2,63) 101(3,20) 110(0.4025) 135(0.0429)
Azerbaijan 57(4,29) 61(3,16) 64(3,75) 83(0.4571) 68(0.1714)
BiH 102(3,70) 120(2,59) 110(3,07) 74(0.4698) 135(0.0429)
Georgia 93(3,86) 125(2,51) 93(3,38) 100(0,4248) 127(0,0571)
Macedonia 79(4,02) 97(2,88) 73(3,64) 52(0.5261) 55(0.2143)
Moldova 94(3,86) 129(2,49) n/a 80(0.4611) 58(0.2000)
Montenegro 49(4,36) 45(3,48) 42(4,10) 60(0.5101) 76(0.1571)
Romania 67(4,16) 87(2,94) 59(3,80) 47(0,5479) 64(0,1857)
Serbia 96(3,84) 88(2,93) 84(3,51) 81(0.4585) 135(0.0429)
Ukraine 89(3,90) 63(3,11) 82(3,53) 54(0.5181) 48(0.2571)
Sources:
http://www.worldbank.org/;
http://gcr.weforum.org/gcr2010/ ;
http://www.networkedreadiness.com/gitr/;
http://www2.unpan.org/egovkb/global_reports/10report.htm;

7. Why is a Country Brand important?
The Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index
( “Places”, © Simon Anholt 2010 )
Conclusion : Countries have their brand images which are
critical to their success in the modern global economy
Problem : Replacing BRAND with BRANDING
Governments having big enough marketing budgets and
hiring the best marketing and branding agencies are just
having WRONG expectations to create/alter national
image by simple mar-com campaigns

8. Country Brand Measuring
The Anholt-GfK
Roper Nation Brands Index

9. Country Competitive Advantages

10. What to do ?
Whilst governments cannot hope to manipulate the perceptions of
millions of people in other countries, there are three important things
that they can do about their national reputation:
1. To understand and monitor their international image, in the countries
and sectors where it matters most to them.
2. To collaborate imaginatively, effectively and openly with business and
civil society and to agree on a national strategy and “story” of who the
nation is, where it is going and how it is going to get there.
3. To assure that their country maintains a stream of innovative and eye-
catching products, services, policies and initiatives in every sector.

11. How to do it ?
The concept of three S : Strategy : knowing who a nation is
and where it stands today
Substance : effective execution of
Strategy
that strategy in the form of new
economic, legal, political, social,
cultural and educational activities
Symbolic Symbolic actions : particular
Substance
Actions species that might be innovations,
structures, reforms, investments
which are especially remarcable,
memorable, touching, surprising or
dramatic

12. Examples
• Slovenian Government donating financial aid to their Balkan neighbors in
order to prove that Slovenia wasn't part of the Balkans
• Spain legalizing single sex-marriages in order to demonstrate values
diametrically opposed to the Franco period
• Estonia declaring internet to be a human right & the eGov success
• Buildings as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao or the Sydney Opera
House
How about ICT ?
• Companies as Nokia, positioning Finland as the country of the modern
telecommunication industry
• Research & Innovation centers – Israel
• Volume and quality of work force – India as cost-effective destination for
large IT projects

13. Where one can “find” the IT brand of a
country?
• International surveys and reports
• Fairs, conferences and exhibitions
• International organizations
• Market

14. How do the Global companies measure Regional
IT competitiveness?
“…we saw double-digit growth in university enrollment in
countries like China, Brazil and Egypt, and the number of
firms with quality endorsements like Carnegie Mellon's
CMMI certification and the ISO 27001 data-security
certification almost doubled in several emerging markets.”
Source: Source: AT Karney, WASHINGTON (15 March 2007), http://www.atkearney.com;

15. Share of companies certified to comply with
international standards in the CEE region
%
Six Sigma
SPICE
Cobit
ITMark
SAS70
TickIT
CMM/CM…
ITIL
ISO 9xxx
Source:CEE_ITO_Review_201

16. Fairs and exhibitions
• Participation in selected events relevant to the brand
• Detailed planning and continuous preparation not
short campaign just before the fair
• Regular participation of companies and high level
government official with common message to the
audience
• Realistic expectations and focused efforts to achieve
them

17. Membership in International
Organizations and Networks
• Active participation
• Continuous commitment
• Expert qualification of the participants
• Motivate the best to participate in contests and competitions

18. Market
• Promote good cases of market success in the country
• Inform about the strengths of the market environment
• Support the market competition
• Dominant IT buyers such as Government, Banks and others
have to promote open international quality and technology
standards instead of creating their own

19. General Conclusions
• Good planning and coordination among
stakeholders is a key for creation/altering of
successful nation brand
• Position the country based on real strengths
not based on wishes
• Be prepared for long journey…..

20. Global Services Location Index 2007-2009
Central and Eastern Europe:
New Contenders Climb the Rankings
….The trend from last year continues as the established
service providers in the region—the Czech Republic,
Hungary and Poland — lose ground while emerging
locations move up the rankings (see figure 5).
Bulgaria replaces the Czech Republic as the only country
from the region in the top 10.
Both Bulgaria and Romania see big jumps in their
business environment scores as a result of reforms
carried out to qualify for European Union membership, a
process that was successfully concluded January 1, 2007.
Despite a larger population base, Romania’s relatively
higher average wages put it among the middle of the pack
at 33….
More on
http://www.atkearney.com/shared_res/pdf/GSLI_2007.pdf

21. Off-shoring & Near-shoring Destination

22. A Voice for ICT SMEs in EU
Founding members of PIN-SME

23. The supporters
Mobilize supporters for industry excellence -
direct and indirect incentives and help:
USAID/RCI
national USAID competitiveness projects / CEED / CEED II
GTZ (National, regional – ORF: Western Balkans)
EBRD/BAS & TAM
WB/IFC
National funds, competitiveness initiatives, export promotion
EU programs – ex. EU Operational Program for SME
competitiveness (Bulgaria): certification in CMMI, ITMark

24. Capability Creativity Maturity
Thank you for
the attention!
George Brashnarov
VicePresident, PIN-SME
www.pin-sme.eu
Chairman,
BASSCOM
www.basscom.org
ESI Center Eastern Europe
www.esicenter.eu