VCS - Value Creation Services

National and International Consulting Services

Value Creation Services

VCS is a Management Owned Consultancy Company focusing

=> Business Development (SME's)

=> Business Development Reform in Developing and Emerging Markets

=> Business and Project Management

Picture: VCS in Paramaribo with Economic Transformation Group (ETG) and Suriname Ministry of Trade and Industry.

National and International Consulting Services

VCS represents more than 25 years of public and private sector experience into company and project management in Norway and abroad.

Contact VCS: mail@vcs.no

Put Value Creation First

If you want to grow your way into greatness - put value creation first.

Value Creation Gives You the Capital and Talent to Grow.

It also Increases Your Capacity to Grow

Business and Markets

Value Creation

Creating value means earning a return on capital that exceeds the cost of capital over time;

or alternatively, it means earning a positive economic profit where revenue less expenses and a capital charge is greater than zero.

At the operating level, value is created by selling a product or service to a customer for a price that more than covers all of your costs, including the cost of capital, to support that customer relationship.

Foreign Market Entry Modes

The decision of how to enter a foreign market can have a significant impact on the results. Expansion into foreign markets can be achieved via the following four mechanisms:

See separate pages for more information on these market entry modes.

Central Securities Depository

The Central Securities Depository facilitates two functions in the financial sector:

a) to maintain the legal register of securities and owner's rights and

b) the executing of settlement of trades between buyers and sellers of securities.

The CSD is a cornerstone in the financial sector, interacting closely with the participants in the market, governmental bodies and other financial institutions.

Dyrkoren managend the implementation of the modern Macedonian CSD during 2001. The deisgn was based on a Danish model, Denmark being the first country in the world dematerializing shares in 1983.

The picture shows Stevan Sapceski, in 2001 a key team member in clarifying Macedonian CSD functionality. Sapceski was elected the first CSD director, a position he still holds.

Land Reform in the Dominican Republic

In 2003 NRD entered into a contract with Louis Berger representing the High Court in the Dominican Republic for “Automation and Management of a Land Register System”.

During spring 2004 Dyrkoren briefly assisted during a critical pahse of the project.

Albania

VCS mamagement has twice been involved in designing property rights infrastructure in Albania, first in 2003 for Norway Registers Development, then in 2006 for MillenniumIP3 Partners, Washington D.C.

Serbia

In December 2000 Per Arnold Dyrkoren, working for Norway Registers Development AS met with Serbian authorities under the newly elected Government to present and discuss establishment of register infrastructure in Serbia supporting property rights.

In 2004 Dyrkoren was contracted by Millennium International Consulting LLC (Virginia, USA) as Project Manager on the U.S. Agency International Development (USAID) funded Serbia Economic Policy and Economic Efficiency Project operated by IBM, Maryland.

Dyrkoren was to assist USAID in developing and instituting operating procedures for company registration (Business Register) and registration of secured loans and financial leases and for processing recurring events related to registered companies and loans and leases (Pledge Register).

Put Value Creation First

If you want to grow your way into greatness - put value creation first.

No company ever downsized its way to greatness. But no company ever grew its way to greatness either, without first learning how to make value creation second nature to the entire organization.

Value Creation Gives You the Capital and Talent to Grow

Value Creation Increases Your Capacity to Grow

Coca Cola and Lloyds Bank are two examples that have made value creation drive their growth for over a decade.

News

2011-01-25

Norway simplifies Business Frameworks

In Norway all businesses (legal entities) whatever size, need to have an auditor. The Norwegian Government has decided to simplify this. From january 2012, meaning for the 2011 accounting onwards, companies fulfilling the following requirements, may decide NOT to have an auditor:
a)... Read more

2010-12-02

EU COMMITS USD65B FOR AFRICA

The third Africa-European Union summit concluded with a euro50 billion (USD65 billion) pledge from the bloc to support the continent’s development initiatives in the next three years.

“We assume that over the next three years more than 50 billion euros of aid will be made available... Read more

2010-11-19

US - The Worlds Premier Development Agency

Picture: Rajiv Shah, USAID administrator.

In the coming years, the U.S. Agency for International Development will see its workforce grow, with new expert positions and a tripling of midlevel hires, based on the draft summary of the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review’s... Read more

2010-11-18

G20 ENDORSES GROWTH-FOCUSED DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Leaders of the world’s top 20 economies have endorsed an economic growth-oriented development strategy as part of an outcome document they adopted at the end of the G-20 summit in Seoul, South Korea.

The Seoul Development Consensus for Shared Growth commits G-20 member countries to... Read more

2010-11-18

Norwegian Billion Aid to Western Balkans

Norway gave 10 billion NOK (1,7 billion USD) in Aid to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and Kosovo, aid which has been effective and responded to actual need in the region, says evaluation report on Balkan Aid performed by NORAD.

62,5 % of Norwegian Aid to Western Balkans during 1991 to... Read more

2010-11-17

THE RISE OF CHINESE DEVELOPMENT AID, A THREAT TO Promoting Liberal Democratic Institutions?

The rise of China as an aid donor will create “profound implications” for traditional Western donors such as Australia, an academician says.

China’s no-strings-attached approach to aid delivery may undermine efforts of other donors, particularly those belonging to the Organization... Read more

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Reform Processes in Macedonia

During the latter half of the last millennium the Macedonian Government initiated a reform process in close cooperation with the World Bank and IMF. One of the reform processes was the replacement of the Yugoslav inherited banking and payment system with an open market capitalist system way of organizing property rights, payments, including the establishment of a Central Register, a bank owned centralized payment institution, a Stock Exchange and a dematerialized Central Securities Depository. VCS management coordinated and manged several big projects during 2000 and 2001.

Pictures: Central Payment Office directors: Left: Nikola Kacarski. Right: Goran Anastasovski. Key players implementing the Macedonian Central Register Institution and the Central Securities Depository.

Property Rights in Tanzania - Programme Design

During 2003 VCS management was responsible for designing the Tanzanian national property righs programme. The project was a coordinated NRD / ILD (de Soto) project.

Picture: Project Headquarter, the Norwegian Embassy Annex in Dar es Salaam

Property Rights

According to Hernando de Soto, a good property system goes far beyond the creation and protection of titles: it is the hidden architecture of rules that enables a government to organize the market.

It is property law that provides the records that identify and locate people, businesses, and organizations, and makes possible the creation of official records that underlie all the contractual mechanisms that allow economic agents to exchange goods and services in the expanded market.

It is this law that facilitates the procedures to transform assets into leverageable capital through credit and investment; to enforce rules and contracts; and allows for good governance within the rule of law. See more under Tanzania.

e-health in Poland

Picture: Director of CIOZ, former Minister of Health, Lezek Zikorski (left) and Dyrkoren.

In 2004 Per Arnold Dyrkoren initiated the establishment of Exponor Tromsø AS. This was a company focusing internationalization of Norwewgian eHealth and telemedicine competence and products.

In Poland large projects were initiated and concluded in several of the largest Polish cities, among which:

Institute of Cardiology, Warszawa
John Paul 2nd Hospital, Krakow
University Hospital, Krakow (Jagellonian)
CSIOZ, Warszawa; The Polish State Institution responsible for implementation of Information Technology solutions within the health sector in Poland.
Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center, Poznan
In addition, smaller projects were performed in Gdansk, Bydgosczs, Swidnica, and Wrochlaw

International Evaluations of work performed in Macedonia

The establishment of the two Macedoni CSD Team Members: Damjanovich, Nestorovska, Sapceski and Rumenov an institutions, the Central Register and the Central Securities Depository (CSD), has been subject to international evaluations, most prominently evaluations made by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu , and by the Norwegian Mapping Authority.

Picture: Damjanovich, Nestorovska, Sapceski and Rumenov. Key Team members implementing the CSD.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Evaluation of the Macedonian CSD

Picture: CSD key personnell (from left): Schmidt, Nesterovska, Blume, Dyrkoren, Bjanger, and Sciupakov.

In 2004 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu evaluated the "Macedonian Central Securities Depository and its Compliance with International Standards".

The Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu report was part of the Capital Markets activity in the Macedonia Financial Sector Project. The purpose of this project was to provide:

Assistance to the commercial banking system:
Assistance in investment promotion and in the building of a viable capital market;
Assistance in accounting reform and strengthened financial reporting among enterprises;
Assistance in pension reform to include strengthening of the pillar one system and design and implementation of a pillar two system; and
Assistance in a range of other areas, including insurance supervision, legal reform, SME finance, and NBFI development.

The report measured the Macedonian CSD against 6 international sources of standards and guidance. These standards comprise the threshold that any securities depository must meet in order to be "fully complaint" member of the international clearance and settlement, depository and custodial network.
The result of the analysis was that "the Macedonian CSD is in substantial compliance with the applicable international standards and norms.

The Norwegian Mapping Authority evaluating the Macedonian Central Register Projects

Picture: NRD director Olaisen, Dyrkoren, and Gruevski, then Min. of Finance, now Prime Minister during formal delivery of the CSD to Macedonian authorities.

The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs contracted the Norwegian Mapping Authority / Statens Kartverk to perform a "Review of the Macedonian Register Projects" (2004) i.e.:

Central Register (CR) for enterprises and real property (Register of Pledges,
Register of Legal Entities and Annual Accounts, Register of Rights of Immovable Properties)
Central Securities Depository (CSD).

The following conclusions were drawn:

The registers operated by the Central Register and Central Securities Depository respectively, have provided and continue to provide important services to the emerging market economy in Macedonia.
Norway Registers Development has delivered technically well functioning register systems, within the agreed time limits and prices.
The financial assistance from the Norwegian government to the development of the registers and related services has undoubtedly had very positive effects on the overall economic development of Macedonia, including facilitating establishment of private businesses and privatization of socially owned enterprises.

Value Creation Tells You Where and How to Grow

Understanding where, how and why Value is Created within your company and your markets is the best, most objective way to identify which of your activities and assets are distinctive enough to provide a platform for sustainable and profitable growth.

Value Creation Gives You the Capital and Talent to Grow

Putting value creation first gives companies two advantages over their competitors in driving for profitable and sustainable growth: the first is capital and the second is talent.

Value Creation Increases Your Capacity to Grow

To consistently put value creation first requires leadership skills, discipline and perseverance. We suggest:

Be patient when it comes to growth, and impatient when it comes to creating value.

Be better than your competitors at understanding where, how and why value is created and destroyed within your markets and your company.

Share information widely within your management teams to build a shared sense of where you are good, bad and indifferent at creating value for customers and shareholders.

Make clear to the organization that capital is plentiful but expensive, rather than scarce and free. Talent, on the other hand, is the scarcest resource of all: concentrate and develop it where growth is most likely to create value.

Wecas Market

In 2009 Dyrkoren cofounded the shareholding company Wecas Market AS.

Wecas has developed an IP based, plug and play trechnology for guidance and control of buildings. The technology is considered patent worthy.

The purpose of Wecas Market is bringing the revolutionary technology to an international market.

For more on this early phase technology company, see www.wecas.no, or mail to pad@wecas.no

Exponor Tromsø

In 2004 Dyrkoren cofounded the shareholding company Exponor Tromsø AS. The company aimed at marketing eHealth competence and telemedicine solutions to EU countries.

The market focus was primarily Poland and Latvia.

Other cofounders were (top down): Bjørn Kaldhold, Kåre Bjørn Kongsnes, Oddbjørn Eidissen, Arvid Øvergård.

Tromsø - Northern Norway

Value Creation through Strategy Planning

Create or improve a road map that outlines a course of action to achieve the strategic vision of the company, increasing the ability of your firm to create value

Work with management team and board to clearly articulate goals and measures of success for a 3-5 year period

Assess where the company is today relative to the measures of success and establish targets

Research best practices, benchmarks and industry data as necessary

Craft a plan that identifies the highest impact initiatives, defines implementation steps and determines accountability measures

Coach the CEO through the execution of the plan

Value Creation through Strategic Innovation

In high growth situations or situations with a high degree of uncertainly, planning for sustainability and risk reduction

Review and design processes, policies, and structures supportive of the organization’s goals

Work with leadership team to build and/or maintain capacity for continuous learning and innovation, especially focusing Product Innovation

Identify a set of high priority initiatives that can prepare the company for increased level of value creation

Create an implementation plan to execute

Business – and Project Management

Vision: Demonstrated ability to identify strategic issues, opportunities and risks. Ability to generate and communicate broad and compelling organizational directions; inspiring others to pursue that same direction.

Leadership/Execution: Demonstrated ability to drive for change and improvement, making tough project adjustments when necessary, empowering others to translate vision into results.

Judgment/Decision Making: Proven record of identifying the key issues in a complex situation, coming to the heart of the problem quickly and taking decisions with an eye to the impact on the Organization.

Technological Awareness: Shown experience in the usage of modern technology, keeping abreast of available technology. Over time applying technology to appropriate tasks.

Communication: Demonstrated ability to be persuasive, flexible, and a results-oriented negotiator.

Teamwork/Cultural Sensitivities: Shown experience in successfully leading culturally diverse teams. Good at Organizing Work and Motivating People.

Picture above: Sunrise in Greece

Project Funding

VCS has established funding for several projects in Norway and abroad, working with Norwegian and International funding institutions.

Picture: Innovation Norway day, London

Kosovo

In 2002 Dyrkoren managed the design and implementation of the Kosovo Business Register which also included a register of Annual Accounts. The solution involved a combination of digital and manual procedures according to the state of development of the Kosovo central and local government organizations. The picture shows some of the project team members outside the project headquarters.

Niger

Picture: Dyrkoren with Millennium IP3 Partners and the director of a milk producing copmpany in Niamey.

VCS was engaged by Millennium-IP3 Partners LLC (Maryland, USA) to assist in the Millennium Challenge Corporation Threshold Program for Improving the Control of Corruption and Streamlining Business Creation and Land Access Procedures in Niger.

VCS participated during the initial study in Niamey autumn 2008, especially focusing actions towards strengthening of the business environment in Niger. See under Niger for more reading.

Latvian Ehealth

Representing Exponor AS, VCS management in cooperation with Tromsø based eHealth competence, especially Risco AS, designed an advanced teleradiology solution centered on Stradins University Hospital, but also including Ventspils and Kuldiga hospitals.

Professor Veinbergs, (now managing director of the Stradins University Hospital) was contact person and initiator of the solution design based on Norwegian vendor applications and competence.

Picture: Stradins University Hospital.

Macedonian - Norwegian Joint Venture

Resulting from the cooperation between ZPP and NRD, 08.03.1999 it was agreed to establish a joint venture company, MANOR-LTD based in Skopje, with the primary goal of supplying technical support to the Central Register and participation in future development activities. The company was formally established during summer 2000.

Per Arnold Dyrkoren became the first Chairman of the Board, a position he held from the summer of 2000 until the end of 2002. During this period the company showed a nice growth and surplus. By the end of 2002 a total of 15 people were employed in Manor.