Allard Touwen, Chief Executive Officer of Philips in Ukraine, is a 58-year-young Dutch gentleman brimming with energy, easily amused, and with an enviable sense of humour. His innate optimism survived twenty years in the tropics and living in Communist Bulgaria and Soviet Ukraine. He worked on the Fiji islands, in Tanzania and on Curacao in the Carribbean. In fact, Mr. Touwen enjoys the memories. When asked which of the environs was the hardest to cope with, exotic or Ukrainian, Allard Touwen replied without hesitation:

"Work the same everywhere, except that your business climate - well, it's totally differenr, considerably less favourable".

Philips has been in the Ukrainian market since 1993, running offices in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Donetsk. Allard Touwen freely admits that he would want his firm to take the lead, but the Koreans are ahead in the market, probably because their prices are more affordable for the lean Ukrainian family budget. Yet he is convinced that with time Ukrainian consumers will appreciate the Philips advantges.

Mr. Touwen has lived in Kyiv for a year after transfer from Bulgaria. He believes the atmophere in both countries has much in common; the people are not optimistic and not sure of what happens tomorrow. Business is done slowly, discussing problems can take hours whereas a solution can be found in minutes. Also, he is extremely disappointed to see no golf boom in Ukraine - the game dominates almost all of Europe and North America.

There are so many golf clubs in Holland that a ball can easly fly over to the next course.

Despite the presence of an official golf federation and even a national team vying in certain tournaments, there are no golf courses. Now this is a real problem for the director general. True, lawn tennis is another favorite pastime, but he can't play tennis now because of a knee trauma. So he has to make do with bridge which, in Mr. Touwen's view is "a good training for the brain".

For some reason golf is considered a businessman's game in Ukraine. Allegedly, it provides the right atmosphere for solving a lot of business problems. Mr. Touwen resolutely opposes the idea. He is conviced that the game requires utmost concentration, leaving no time for talking shop. Actually, winning is not important for him, because he enjoys the very process. In golf, the adage about the best man winning is not always true, as each player has his own handicap which often proves victorious. And he hates cheating players (do you know, I'd always thought golf a gentleman's sport and gentlemen are not supposed to cheat!).

By the way, Mrs. Touwen is also a devout golf-player, a better one than her husband at that. Both consider golf the best entertainment and most enjoyable pastime, because it offers sufficient physical exertion, a lot of fresh air, and an opportunity to meet interesting people.

"I'm to spend another two years in Ukraine," says the director general. "I'm not looking forward to leaving, because I have an excelent work team. Besides, the local business climate is a real challenge I'm eager to meet.Yet the first thing I'll do back in Holland will be a visit to the golf club".

April, 2001
Magazin"The Ukrainian", 4/2001