The importance of a work-life balance | George Vella

What do you see as your greatest leadership strength?

"First of all I would like to thank MaltaToday for this opportunity to discuss my role as President of the Malta Business Bureau and our plans for a stronger and more relevant organisation for the benefit of Maltese businesses.

"I am very fortunate to work closely with a number of business leaders and have over the years acquired first-hand knowledge of what leaders need to do in order to be successful. The leaders I work with are all very hard workers, lead by example, persevere especially when the odds are stacked against them, give immense attention to detail, are exceptionally skilful at turning threats into opportunities and are all quick thinkers.

"I obviously try to emulate as much of these qualities as I can, but unfortunately I do not manage to do so as much as I would wish."

What do you see as your primary role as the new president of MBB?

"My primary role as President is to build on the foundation that the organisation has established for itself in recent years and focus on becoming more effective - both on the issues and projects that are currently underway as well as on new ones that we intend embarking upon. I believe that the Bureau's three main roles - Informing, Safeguarding and Promoting - remain crucial to its future success."

How do you intend keeping up the development and increasing the bureau's service to the Maltese private sector?

"In the coming months it is our intention to see the bureau improve its relevance to business by becoming more effective in the way we manage our consultation processes.  In my view, it is essential to understand businesses' challenges, if we want to be effective in communicating to and influencing policy-makers at EU level.

"We will be focusing our work on important themes for our economy which include the need for continued growth in employment, the importance of operating in an environmentally sustainable manner and the continued improvement in our manufacturing, tourism and services industries competitiveness.

"We have also started a process of knowledge acquisition from institutions representing businesses established in other EU Member States. We are doing this with a view to increase our lobbying capability both in Malta as well as in Brussels."

Can you tell us more about MBB's European Studies students' traineeship programmes?

"This is indeed one of the biggest achievements that the MBB is proud of. We have made it part of our mission to provide prospective students with an opportunity for a practical experience working in EU affairs which is related to their studies.

"After a pilot project whereby we invited students reading for a Bachelors in European Studies degree to undergo a voluntary traineeship at the MBB, towards the end of last year we concluded an agreement with the University of Malta to accredit students of the Institute for European Studies when participating in business-academia internship experiences which we offer in our Malta and Brussels offices."

Can you elaborate further on MBB's EU-funded projects - SHIFT and AMIE?

"SHIFT, which stands for 'Supporting Human resources In Family-friendly Training', is an EU-funded Leonardo Mobility Programme that provides a number of HR Managers that are members of MBB's parent organisations - Malta Chamber and MHRA, with training opportunities in Denmark and Germany. These are two European best-practice countries in the areas of flexible-work arrangements and family-friendly measures.

"We are pleased that the first visit in Denmark was highly successful, and are currently undergoing preparations for the second visit in Germany. This will be taking place later this year.

"Our interest in creating awareness in this field came about following the bureau's stand on EU proposals to extend maternity leave.With regards to this debate the MBB's position was that government should view work-life balance from a wider perspective. The extension of maternity leave is not a solution on its own. In this respect as a Bureau, we advised government to establish support structures to families, including more affordable child-care centres and to also seriously consider the setting-up of after-school programmes.

"MBB's advice did not end there. We believe that the private sector has an important role to play in work-life balance; and thus the aim of the SHIFT project is to introduce flexible-work arrangements and family-friendly measures at the workplace as these should lead to a win-win situation, providing a work-life balance for employees while helping an increasing in productivity for employers.

"As you noted, the MBB is also playing an active role in AMIE (as part of a consortium coordinating this EU-funded project), aiming at promoting female entrepreneurship in Malta through the establishment of a network of Women Ambassadors. During the coming weeks the MBB will be coordinating a series of interactive sessions between the local and European stakeholders of the project, where various themes concerning female entrepreneurship, the EU framework, current challenges and opportunities will be debated."

Service water used in hotels accounts for between 38% and 86% of hotels' total water consumption, according to a benchmark study conducted by the MBB. Can you brief us about the Bureau's EU LIFE Investing in Water project?

"The EU LIFE Investing in Water Project aims to help businesses and hotels save water by identifying opportunities for water saving in industry, and propose solutions which will help enterprises reduce their water consumption.

"The project has just carried out the first set of about 40 water audits amongst enterprises and the results have been very useful. As you pointed out, service water accounts for up to 86% of a hotel's consumption. Interestingly it can also form up to 65% of a factory's consumption. The good news is that by intervening on showers, wash-hand basins, and toilet flushing cisterns enterprises could reduce their water consumption by up to 10%. The MBB and project partners Malta Chamber and MHRA are committed to helping enterprises reach this goal as part of our drive for sustainable business. I encourage enterprises to get in touch with the MBB's EU LIFE Investing in Water Project to see how we can help them save water."

The Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) Directive is the latest in a series of EU-level attempts to converge the calculation of corporate taxation across the internal market. What is the bureau's position on the Directive?

"The MBB took the issue of CCCTB very seriously. Since when it was published as a Communication by the European Commission, the Board of Trustees expressed its reservations to the proposal. We thought that its potential impact could be so serious that we felt the need to conduct an impact assessment to study in more depth what this would in fact mean for Malta in real terms.

"The report was concluded in April this year and after considering all aspects of the European Commission's proposal the Bureau concluded that if adopted at EU-level, a CCCTB would be detrimental to Malta. This position was communicated both to the Minister of Finance, the Economy and Investment, as well as to a Labour Party delegation. The feedback received from both Government and Opposition was in line with the MBB's position that is a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base, as it is being proposed, would be disadvantageous for Malta.

"In our view, the CCCTB proposal undermines the competitive edge of EU economies such as Malta, which are reliant on the use of corporate taxation, amongst other factors, for attracting overseas business investment.

"Furthermore, it is very likely that Malta will be placed at a disadvantage from a public revenues' perspective, when the share of the consolidated tax base is attributed to the Member States, due to the fact that the composition of the Commission's CCCTB formula - based on companies' tangible fixed assets, employees' payroll costs and the revenues generated in a particular state - will ostensibly favour the Member States endowed with larger-scale manufacturing endeavours rather than services-oriented economies.

How would you strike the right balance between consumer protection and the gambling industry to expand?

"This is a very delicate issue. Whilst on the conservative side one could easily say that gambling should be discouraged, we are surrounded by a number of examples that this type of policy leads the industry to go underground and end up in creating even greater social issues.

"I therefore believe that the twin objective of improved consumer protection and growth in the gambling industry is achievable through proper and robust regulation. This however cannot be achieved if the regulator actions are not firmly grounded in high social and ethical standards."

What are the current major challenges businesses are facing?

"I believe that the major challenges that local businesses are facing include the acquisition and retention of talent; operating competitively while still having to deal with ever increasing costs mainly relating to the environmental costs of energy, water and waste disposal.  

"Businesses with an international dimension are generally engulfed by challenges resulting from the turbulent times that Europe and North Africa are going through.

"Access to finance is still limited to all and sundry. Whilst our banks are flushed with money, our businesses are still finding it difficult to get the money they need to fulfill their ambitions. I therefore believe that the local stock exchange and MFSA's listing authority both play a key role in trying to unblock the present situation where the stock market is not acting as an effective facilitator of business and an alternative source of finance.

"The MBB will be doing its part in supporting business to overcome some of the challenges."

What role has the Bureau in helping Maltese businesses exploit the vast opportunities offered by the European Single Market?

"Access to the European Single Market has been one of the main reasons why Maltese business representatives were in favour of joining the European Union during Malta's EU-accession debate. It is well known that our market is very small and thus for our firms to grow at some point they need to internationalise.

"Maltese businesses need to take more advantage of the opportunities offered by the European Single Market. At present we are far from exploiting its full potential. In this regard, the MBB will continue striving to promote business opportunities in the EU."

Do you have any advice regarding how to best use all of the information provided to businesses by the Bureau?

"At the MBB we have a dedicated team of Executives who are at the disposal of our businesses to support any queries relating to EU-policy developments in Brussels. We also have a very busy calendar of events with numerous business conferences and seminars organised throughout the year in order to disseminate our message further.

"Naturally I invite all stakeholders to make use of our services by consulting us on any EU business-related issue and to actively participate in our events."

What is the secret to sustainable expansion in a business?

"In my view, sustainable expansion in a business is only achieved if there is a genuine belief that the business is in it for the long-term. Business owners that purposely take a short-term view of their activities cannot and will not be willing to expand in a sustainable manner.

"Conversely, if business owners, their boards and their management teams all take a long-term view, it becomes very clear that long-term growth through sustainable practices becomes the number one priority."