Congrat to both, lets not be juvenile. both have done well! but to what end? go die on Mars? Why spend so much on the noah' ark to the pink desert, and try to save our own green but greying planet??
wonder for the millions & billions spent, when will Jeff & Elon & the rest of the paypal mafia to join forces to really FIX something and make money at the same time?
One can only hope for the new year of 2016? we should all challenge the likes of Jeff & Elon...
as Nobel Laureate Angus Deaton: «Development aid is cynical» – Swiss Television SRF
pointed out the problems of Gates foundation but without highlighting likely solutions..
We need to challenge the top guys to work on a solution together.. maybe to adopt #FixTheWorld narrative in 2016!? instead of non-directional #ChangeTheWorld ??
For sure. Our prayers are with all of our family & friends in Paris. As my sister-in-law says it best (in French), I'm paraphrasing here: "We must live normally & not live in fear." Vive La France indeed!
Be Strong and hopefully by 2016, we can all spare 10-20% of our spare time (lets ditch the trash TV) to help figure out ways to help #FixTheWorld, our present 21st century easy narrative of only "changing the world" & help the disadvantaged is sadly NOT working (very fine line between haves & have nots).
WE together must create some grass root activities to form some kind of 'Good-had' (reach those lost youths before they get brainwashed).
ISIS is winning with their Jihad "Engagement4destruction+hate", we must counter that somehow & create an Engagement4Good movement, what I called "Good R US" or "Be Champion". (for my CXO leaders/ family foundation friends who can make this a reality, please give me a shout!)
As it may only take the potentially lost people to challenge themselves physically (in martial art like Tai-chi or Parkour),or read a book like Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends... " or read/listen:
1.) @BBCNews Can psychology help solve long-running conflicts? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-34670525 or BBC podcast: Analysis, Will They Always Hate Us? http://bbc.in/1WHd0VD
Be strong, but hope people will be inspired to take appropriate actions if only initially to find out/investigate what are our world's "Wicked problems" and devise likely solutions that we all can collaborate on.
Hopefully we can together prevent further atrocities & massacres by building a stronger cohesive positive community worldwide.
great thought leaders mentioned, also elaborated by authors like Steve Kotler on his book called Superhuman etc. curious though that no one talk about the likelihood of and danger of 'addiction' to the adrenalin and Flow state, as Csikszentmihalyi (in Boniwell, 2008: 28) was aware of the dangers of flow and wrote 'enjoyable activities that produce flow have a potentially negative effect: while they are capable of improving the quality of existence by creating order in the mind, they can become addictive, at which point the self becomes captive of a certain kind of order, and is then unwilling to cope with the ambiguities of life.'
Parental advise for some language, a good podcast with Steven Kotler on addictiveness of flow state:
Separately, I was particularly impressed with your last comment about parenting, in order for kids to have/gain Grit & determinations, it means parents must have courage to empower them to challenge themselves & their children.. sadly most parents are too protective or prefer to take easier paths (why force the kids!?)... as Parents, do you dare to ban/limit your kids from Technology? Steve did! (Steve Jobs Was a Low-Tech Parent on NYTimes )
IMHO, I would like to argue that same analogy should also be extended to how entrepreneurs create and setup firms, in my proposed theory of @CorpParent (www.CorporateParenthood.org keen to have yours and others' feedback ) most firms would take 8 to 10years to become an independent, value adding and hopefully profitable firm, but sadly most do not survive past 18years of age.
Good firms need great entrepreneurs to create the right culture/goals/missions for not only the founders but also the followers, look at Steve, Tony & Jeff etc.
In our age of endemic short-term-ism, thinking along the line of parenthood might just be a better way of re-defining CSR/ESGs going forward, as we are faced with daily challenges as parents and as business leaders.
Its a thought provoking post, but thats because we might be comparing apple, oranges and other fruits that we do not know name of yet... thought provoking all the same.
Google is profitable (in search), as its the only game in town now that delivers (so far). so, can't blame them for restructuring for the future.. as their future could easily be taken away by something disruptive (e.g. a firm that only takes money when transaction is done, rather than eyeballs/click through).. I certainly hope they can do more to help #FixTheWorld rather than only trying to change it!
Warren's BH is also only game in town (in finance), but its a cash-flow and trust arbitrage, it is not even a conglomerate (as Warren is very hands-off as mentioned), so, it is trading for long term but mostly to prop up the share price of Berkshire Hathaway, as he can shift Cash-flow/Debt/Derivatives instruments to make sure everything goes well.. I'm told that just the news of Warren's investment itself is a market making event.. brilliant position to be in.. that is as long as the ratings and auditing markets continues not to deliver.
Conglomerates like "The old GE" does not exist much now (except family dynasties and family offices) as "church of new finance" of neo liberal economics meant maximising "Return on Investment"(keeping Debt as high as possible), "Share price" and return for shareholders takes priority over long term future of the company itself, hence the demise of major conglomerates like GEC/Marconi etc. That said, Jack Welch who presided over downsizing GE from hundreds of subsidiaries to 15. Jack might be a millionaire and celebrities now but some argue that he destroyed GE (The Man Who Destroyed GE http://www.businessinsider.com/the-man-who-destroyed-ge-2009-3 ) It took Jeff Immelt years to sort out GE ( https://hbr.org/2015/04/selling-ge-capital-was-both-a-brave-and-a-good-idea )
[Of course thats why the rich are not keen to reinvest due to this Capitalist's dilemma: which I have a solution of course, do ping me a message if you want to hear more or think you can help].
Sadly not many senior executives are given the long time horizon and ownership that Jeff Immelt afford, therefore, I totally appreciate and respect what Larry & Sergei is doing structure wise.
don't get me started regarding investments in R&D in telecoms.. I will have to do another blog post dedicate to that.
In summary, all these are too intricately linked.. as long as Google/alpahbet is investing for the future and truly do no evil and focus on helping to #FixOurWorld .. the more the merrier, I say!?
Many congratulations Davor Hebel, its been years since we met briefly in 2007, you've achieved much! ;-)
Indeed, the ecosystem in Europe (particularly UK has improved dramatically) given all the great works many others initiatives from privately hosted functions like mine to Brent Hoberman 's Founders Forum etc. We can certainly do more, but maybe not only have initiatives or gatherings, but entrepreneurs and VCs/PEs/Family foundations all should challenge themselves more.
(especially for those exited, I would say a good % of them would become tax exile and given the anonymity afforded, they would only engage within their comfort zone, thus less could be achieved. of course, vice versa, in the valley given the hugely competitive nature, everyone is investing into the limited supply of good companies, & thus we have either group think/lemmings behaviour or "Lets invest in 150firms this year" approach).
IMHO, it might not be Alibaba of Europe that we all are looking for, nor are we looking for the great Unicorns only (think coined by our friend Dan Primack & Erin Griffith)..
In order to learn why Alibaba become successful, I would recommend you & others to watch the eloquent Jack Ma explaining his personal & business ethos (馬雲與青年有約: HKG https://youtu.be/AMzeQgCxQfE Taiwan: https://youtu.be/_dUZzcoCcuk ) you can see that potential reasons for his success so far (its rather philosophical, sounds very normal & poetic in mandarin, not pretentious at all): paraphrasing: 1.) having the right goal/mission, 2.) challenge self 3.) play long term game and do something. Particularly he explains how DataTechnology 利他 (differentiated from IT 利自) becomes key & for people to take full responsibility, transparency & fixing specific social issues of the market (hence unless he can elaborate that in English and audience resonates... Alibaba might not be able to gain similar success in the western world).
It is certainly great to have all these buzz about FinTech, Ed/AdTech and unicorn talks.. but unless we challenge ourselves and aim a lot higher, we would sadly still end up with the so so me-too products/services.. (that might still be unicorn)
Case in point, given the accounting scandal of Toshiba/Tesco, any startup fixing that?
As Jack elude to, future great companies might be coming from firms that truly fix our world's problems ... and maybe those that are not created for valuations and good multiples in exits.. they would probably be forming in intersection of social/behavioural/responsible and business+tech..
Maybe it is time that we aim for having a few Trilicon (trillion dollar cash, not valuation) that fix our worlds' systemic problems/challenges? Your £150m could become the thought leader..! ;-)
(reposting from my LinkedIn pulse post. Lets see which one takes more traffic!?)
Despite some mixed reviews, I would recommend you to watch the new film Tomorrowland, but I would suggest you to have a think about the thoughts of this article and comment below to see if you agree with me.
For me, goal of this post is one of engagment: I would rather 100% of people that read this article would make time to read/internalise, and engage with the thoughts/challenges I am highlighlighting (like having a chat/coffee with me). Rather than this post becoming viral and no one cares, kind of a pay per click model, which most are bots and and no one really transacts? ;-)
My main comment, with the reach of Disney, mind-share/engagement of this film Tomorrowland and future releases: I would implore Damon Lindelof, Brad Bird, Jeffrey Chernov to do more, maybe director's cut of this film. Or create another new format/story that propose people with "Clear", "Actionable" challenges and "impactful goals" for all. Let me explain:
Other than Forrest Gump, "The Incredibles" has always been one of my most favourite film of all time. Love the feel good sentiments and acting of Tom Hanks in Gump (& great animations & storyline of The Incredibles), common to both are the simple messages, entertaining and for all ages!
I think Damon & Brad had their goals in the right place, as explained in their talk at Google (most might not have seen/aware of the key messages though, wonder if you noticed!? if you have seen the film?):
However, I would like to argue that ontop of great entertainment & having a good time (love that for sure!), more can be done in terms of "Call to Action" and how best to leverage media/entertainment power of Disney (& other studios) for good:
In 2015, almost all of the problems the world faced with are very intrinsically linked and interdependent, see the World Economic Forum's Global Risk 2015 report (pdf,interactive) highlights key concerns of major CEOs & business leaders worldwide.
(if I have time, I will blog more about a proposed universal equation of #HowToFixOurWorld #FixAnyProblems, would that be of interest to you? do tell me in the comments area below.)
We have so many great documentaries (1yr ago: YearsOfLivingDangerously Video to even in China this year: 柴静雾霾调查：穹顶之下 ), TED talks and films talking about climate change, carbon/water/land footprint, economy and political challenges of our world.
All of the programs mentioned serve to inform (but majority of people are not able to interpret the answers, let alone understand or identify with /or take action re best solution). I would like to submit that great films should not only be entertaining, emotive but also play a role in providing viable goals to help #FixingOurWorld(#ChangeTheWorld is so passé, as everyone can observed by scanning the news/researches that #ChangeTheWorld movement has failed, no!?!)
Therefore, I humbly submit that in order to start first steps of #FixingOurWorld, likes of Damon & Brad and other creatives can play major #WorldSaving role.
They can easily help by raising awareness of big issues of the world (from how to bring up children to how to stay healthy or lose weight to fixing Climate change), but it is important that they play a role in encouraging people to care enough (or be challengedor self-challenge) to make timeto
Engage (possibly via active learning/research) by entertainment (ART/media/literature)
Learn & Internalise (key issues & possible solutions): insights need to be assimilated (memorable entertainment/ fact based documentary!?)
Action: viable, and clear "call-to-action" (self-created after actions 1+2, or suggested by great films that people want to engage with)
E.g. We cannot get a better Motto/One-liner in a great uplifting Forrest Gump: "Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you are gonna get!" (guess we can interpret the motto as just be "focus", run and and work hard!?)
Idea and premise of Tomorrowland is brilliant, I would however like to see more CEEMA and get people to #AskTheRightQuestion and hope to choose to act and #DoTheRightThing.. but maybe it was an impossible task to achieve in two hours!?
Dreamers fails (without hardwork+grit)
Lets be realistic, if Brad, Damon & Jeffrey didn't work hard, we would not have had the pleasure of seeing The Incredibles, Lost and new StarTrek..
They have explained in the google talk above is to encourage people to dream and take control and go out to create.. not sure if the masses would get that message as clearly Frank was a genius (& sadly I am not!).
If I may, Dreamers that have no grit is like Tiger without teeth, useless and will starve to death (unless there is a good welfare state).
Indeed, we must stress that our world needs more dreamers that dare to dreamand work hard, but IMHO, we ideally should increase the dreamers' gene pool, challenge everyone to challenge themselves to be more meaningful and impactful.. (www.BeChampion.org ) thus we can have a bigger target audience for Athena 2.0 to pick to help #FixTheWorld? (those of you that have not seen the movie yet will understand once you have seen the movie).
If Brad, Damon & Jeffrey, you are reading this and interested, I have already devised a great story "The True Shangri-la vs Mind War" (could be adapted to The Incredibles Chapter 2) that should help this cause! we need to engage with behaviourial+ +economists+psychologists+scientists to devise best story line (based on solid researches) to aide the goal of #FixingTheWorld.
I would implore all creatives worldwide from singers songwriters, to authors and Captain of the industries (CXOs) and even politicians and True Philanthropists to challenge themselves to be better & more Impactful, but in a coordinated fashion, as per discussion by the 3 Buffetts (even billionaires who signed the giving pledge need to communicate & coordinate their efforts much more.) [Excerpt embedded below, but I recommend the full video here. ]
In our world where a lot of charities that has more cash/endowment than governments, why do most still fixate on raising more money and not focus on truly fixing the issues/problems and thus make themselves redundant?
Context & Scale is therefore also key question to ask, as William Shawcross, present chair of UK's Charity commission mentioned that in one of his speech people donate twice to animal causes than to help the homeless. Can we blame people if they did not know what question to ask? Paramount then that we all should learn to #AskTheRightQuestion, entertainment industry should be able to help!
WE have too many initiatives now (from new forms of capitalism to charitable foundations). Tech market analogy: worst thing our society need is thousands of startups that focus on creating for good valuations and exits, as best tools and initiatives could be used wrongly /to achieve wrong goals..
I have seen many community leaders and business leaders spent time (& resources) in supporting charity in exotic locations but neglecting to help those in need close by (who might have to resort to crime for food/shelter in the future?). It is common sense that people to first want to care, engage, search for, get to know and contribute via great initiatives like the Giving what we can initiative which aid finding the most efficient way to find the best charity to offer their assistance for the most impact.
Only then can we start looking at bigger question & world issues like Inequalities, & devise possible solutions. As mentioned by the WEF report above, world problems are not insulated any longer. For example, when the western world focused on "Fixing Iraq" by removing Saddam, they would not have know Camp Bucca could incubate the present ISIS. Some might argue that given western society did not promote core family values or society cohesion (President Lee of Singapore was right to have 1/3 racial rules!), the youth of the fringe are much more likely to sought out the 'ideal' society, and are easily enticed by messages of ISIS?
Surely with mind-share power of likes of Disney+other creatives, it is about time to energise youths and adults alike to find good + challenge/nurture themselves, the creation & promotion of a 'Goodhad Movement' might be the right thing to do in 2015 to secure a safe and sustainable future for future generations? (not Arabic speaker myself but what might be the positive word of "reverse of Jihad"?)
Given all the great minds of our world (all disciplines), we should mobilise them and challenge each other to find Solutions ToLast as Prof Jeffrey Sachs explain, the solution might come from Social (not the Arab Spring type though as they have succeed by wrong KPI I was told).
Real issues and problems of our world is in fact money and capital market (ontop of political & policies), as all the billions/trillions which are systemically linked. It must be fixed. I shall expand more in the coming post.
(A couple of great lectures included below as bonus for those of you that cared & want to make time to understand more.. I would like to argue that our world need truly cross disciplines viable solutions yesterday!).
If we can
truly rely on governments (who can think, act and implement long term policies),
ensure corporations cannot use trade deals (to be signed TTIP & TPP & ISDS) to bypass national laws and/or
find viable solutions to fix "Transfer Pricing",
then probably the proposed 15 points solutions by Prof Tony Atkinson (embedded below) would work (I am probably wrong as I have not yet read his new book yet.):
Timing
"It has taken less than eight months for humanity to use up nature’s entire budget for the year and go into ecological overshoot, according to data from Global Footprint Network, an international sustainability think tank with offices in North America, Europe and Asia." see rest of PR.
We don't have a lot time, as in 3months (August) we would used up more than our world's resources (overshoot).
WE need solution yesterday, only dreaming is not good enough anymore, the world need the right Coordinated Actions in 2015!
Final Question: Mr & Ms Creatives, you dare to have a CEEMA Year!? I Dare you!
Gareth Wong is Founder of GamBond®, arguably the only firm worldwide that aims to fix the financial market for good by creating a long term focused financial ecosystem (an alternative for mid-market+ firms to be rated, audited & listed). Ultimately GamBond® is creating nearly "risk-free" alternative & sustainable financial instruments, could be better than even government issued Treasury bonds. Our financial instruments are comparatively insulated by market volatility and true systemic market risks. When successful, GamBond® will break the "Capitalists' Dilemma" status quo, as perfectly described by Prof Clayton Christensen.
We do need more supporters, particularly from those think long & know full well how dangerous and pandemic the systemic risks truly are within the financial market (e.g. true systemic risk cannot be mitigated once aggregated asset under management goes beyond US$100bn, we aim to play a small role in fixing this). Therefore, major pension funds, family foundations that would like to protect their billions and help create a better financial long-term future, to opinion-former (Professors to broadsheet editors) that understands, we would love to hear from you, do email us at PossLinkedInFriends4GamBond@wong.org.uk
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We don't have a lot time, as in 3months (August) we would used up more than our world's resources (overshoot). 
Gareth Wong is Founder of GamBond®, arguably the only firm worldwide that aims to fix the financial market for good by creating a long term focused financial ecosystem (an alternative for mid-market+ firms to be rated, audited & listed). Ultimately GamBond® is creating nearly "risk-free" alternative & sustainable financial instruments, could be better than even government issued Treasury bonds. Our financial instruments are comparatively insulated by market volatility and true systemic market risks. When successful, GamBond® will break the "
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