Jack Welch, one of the most renowned and controversial CEOs of all time, earned 250,000 euros for his lecture in Bucharest two weeks ago, according to market estimates. The second position in the ranking of the highest paid "business gurus" to visit Bucharest is held by Michael Porter, considered the world number one in business strategy, who is rumoured to have been paid between 180,000 and 230,000 euros. In addition, the father of marketing, Philip Kotler, who visited Romania three years ago, received 150,000 euros.
It takes around 250,000 euros to persuade the former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan to speak for one hour at a conference.
Sir Richard Branson requests a similar fee, whilst fourth comes Stephen Covet, who received around 100,000 euros for a one-day conference, organised by ZF and Human Capital Solutions in the autumn of 2006.
After organising a series of "paid" business conferences, the Pantis family hosted another hit event two weeks ago, when they persuaded Jack Welch to come to Palatul Parlamentului (Parliament Palace). Mihaela Pantis,managing director of training firm Qualians, which organised Welch's conference, says Welch came first on the list of preferences of participants at Kotler's conference.
The Pantis family worked together at both the Kotler and Welch events. Octavian Pantis,managing director of TMI Romania, one of the biggest training firms on the market, handles direct negotiations with speakers, while Mihaela is in charge of organisation.
Most business thinkers who speak at conferences, i.e. most businessmen who have entered the best-paid and elitist field of consultants, get between 10,000 and 15,000 dollars for a one-day conference.
However, in the case of the leading business thinkers in the Top Thinkers ranking things are different. "We know the fees on the market, but we cannot disclose them," says Mihaela Pantis.
The biggest gains for such business "gurus" comes from consulting services, where fees start from 8,000-10,000 euros per day, but can get much higher.
Business thinkers that speak at conferences are quite strict about cashing in their money. Transportation and accommodation costs are added to the speaker's fee. Thus, final investments in such a business event can reach as much as 400,000 or even 500,000 euros. Organisers' costs are lower when they team up with a media group, whilst profit margins revolve around 10%.
Besides it being quite difficult to persuade thinkers to come to Romania and the huge organisational efforts, the main difficulty about such events comes from the high risks organisers take on.
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