Get Creative!

From this month's Business Week Special ...

"Get Creative! How to build innovative companies

Listen closely. There's a new conversation under way across America that may well change your future. If you work for Procter & Gamble Co. (PG ) or General Electric Co. (GE ), you already know what's going on. If you don't, you might want to stop what you're doing and consider this:

The Knowledge Economy as we know it is being eclipsed by something new -- call it the Creativity Economy. Even as policymakers and pundits wring their hands over the outsourcing of engineering, software writing, accounting, and myriad other high-tech, high-end service jobs -- not to mention the move of manufacturing to Asia -- U.S. companies are evolving to the next level of economic activity.

What was once central to corporations -- price, quality, and much of the left-brain, digitized analytical work associated with knowledge -- is fast being shipped off to lower-paid, highly trained Chinese and Indians, as well as Hungarians, Czechs, and Russians. Increasingly, the new core competence is creativity -- the right-brain stuff that smart companies are now harnessing to generate top-line growth. The game is changing. It isn't just about math and science anymore. It's about creativity, imagination, and, above all, innovation."

Read more ....

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BBC backstage & BBC Open Source support Internet innovators

Go BBC .... ?

Media Network Weblog: 24 July 2005

"The BBC will support social innovation by encouraging user's efforts to build sites and projects that meet their needs and those of their communities ... The BBC will also be committed to using open standards that will enable users to find and repurpose BBC content in more flexible ways' (Page 9, BBC's response to the Graf Report, November 2004).

backstage.bbc.co.uk attempts to encourage and support those who have provided most of the innovation on the internet - the passionate, highly-skilled & public-spirited developers and designers many of whom volunteer their time and effort.

In the past the BBC has not always encouraged such 'amateur innovators', however public-spirited their intentions and products. backstage.bbc.co.uk aims to foster a newly constructive and open dialogue with the wider development community using BBC content and tools to deliver public value."

Read more ...

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Leading change ...

It is always interesting to hear today's leaders talk about their roles, and I found this one quite refreshing.

The McKinsey Quarterly: Leading change: An interview with the CEO of P&G

"Outrageously high targets for revenues, earnings, and market share; a bold vision based on a striking new business model or groundbreaking technology; major strategic moves, such as acquisitions or partnerships, that change the game in an industry; a new CEO, freshly arrived from the outside and committed to shaking things up. Such shocks to the corporate system are widely assumed to be necessary for transforming a company's performance.

Yet Alan G. Lafley's first five years as CEO of P&G show that none of these things is strictly necessary for achieving this sort of change. A large global company that has stumbled and lost some of its confidence can be led to new levels of performance through a more subtle form of leadership exercised by a long-term insider. Lafley's experience sheds particular light on two of the biggest challenges facing CEOs in this situation: the pace of change and the need for 'stretch' aspirations.

Lafley recalls vividly the market's initial disappointment when he took the helm, in June 2000.

'I remember being in the basement of the television studio here in Cincinnati at 6 PM on the day [my appointment] was announced. I was the deer in the headlights, being grilled about the company and about why it was doing so badly. And the stock price had gone down a few bucks that day because I was a total unknown'

....."

Read the rest of the article... particularly as I used to work with AG during his tiime in Japan!

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Customer Centric Organizations

I am working with a client right now on how to lead and organize truly customer centric enterprises - and came across this comment from Nick Wreden (on his Fusion Brand blog) concerning the work of Ranjan Gulati and James Oldroyd.

"The two most important elements in establishing a customer-centric organization are an enterprise database and a workforce that can both willingly share information and make a willing commitment to customers, rather than to products or organizational fiefdoms. It is a long, hard slog to become -- and maintain -- a customer-centric organization, but the result is a much more profitable brand.

Based on a two year study of Continental Airlines, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), telecommunications giant SBC, casino Harrah's and 13 other firms, "The Quest for Customer Focus," by Ranjay Gulati and James B. Oldroyd, outlines four steps necessary to become a customer-centric organization.

One key conclusion: it is the organization, and not the marketing department, that shapes and drives the brand: "Getting close to customers is not so much a problem the IT or marketing department needs to solve as a journey that the whole organization needs to make," the authors wrote....

The difficult journey to a customer-centric organization consists of four steps:

Communal coordination: A central, enterprisewide database is key. This is a two-part process. The first involves retrieving and standardizing information from all customer touchpoints. It sounds easy and logical, but the technical and cultural challenges are immense. It took Continental four years of dedicated work to achieve this goal; almost a year was spent on data standardization alone. Harrah's took six years.

Serial coordination: Essentially, this step consists of creating business analytical capabilities that leverage the customer information repository. The business analysts then pass the analyses to the appropriate unit. Sounds easy on paper, but the authors point out that "serial coordination is not spontaneous and is fraught with obstacles. Traditional roles and structures create natural barriers to spreading information and lessons learned. Some changes to a company's social and organizational structure will be required to overcome them".

Symbiotic coordination: Now the task grows even harder - from analyzing past customer data to predicting future customer behavior. This requires a two-way flow of information among the analysts and multiple business units. They collaboratively participate in four activities: "creating models to predict customer behavior; experimenting with various interventions designed to alter customer behavior; measuring the results of these interventions; and using feedback from the front line to improve the models and subsequent campaigns".

Integral coordination: In this stage, the organization can use customer information in daily interactions with customers, aided by employees who do more than pay lip service to customer service. One example: a flight attendant apologized to a customer for a flight delay he had experienced earlier that day. Continuous training is key. SBC conducts almost continuous training programs while Harrah's is putting more money into an enterprisewide marketing training program. Changing incentive programs helps. Harrah's spent $40 million in 2004 rewarding employees who demonstrated a customer focus, while SBC changed its compensation structure to encourage cross-unit cooperation".

Read more ....

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We Are Not Afraid

21st July 2005 - London

With police car sirens in the air across London, the same determination is in place not to let the city's way of life be changed. It is good to see the way the web is also standing firm ...

"Today's coordinated acts were designed both to cause harm and spread fear - not just amongst Londoners, but amongst people in every city around the world. We're Not Afraid stands in defiance, and we will not be cowed by terror tactics.

www.werenotafraid.com stands for the global community of citizens defiant in the face of terror tactics. We remain united in our fearlessness, and will maintain our resolve in seeking understanding and clarity of events as they unfold".

Read more ...

Big thinkers show the way forward

"The BBC News website reporters attending the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in Oxford sum up their impressions as the gathering ends.

The brains of delegates at the conference were left buzzing with shared ideas about how to use science, design and technology for sustainable development, environmental regeneration and ending global poverty.

But what was evident by the close of the conference was how the smallest ideas can sometimes have the greatest impact.

It was an experiment to hold such a top-drawer event in the UK but it worked, TED chairman Chris Anderson told the BBC News website.

Brits, he said were usually suspicious of lofty ideas that claim to change the world, he said. But that reputation has turned out to be inaccurate.

'What has really excited me is the conversations that have happened outside [the sessions].

'People have taken what they have heard to a new level and have come up with real ideas,' he said. 'It has inspired people.' "

Read more from the BBC Website article ...

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TED Global Oxford Day 4

This last day started with a theme of "Small Matters".

Paul Bennett of IDEO captured our attention by asking us to look at problems from different angles - e.g. designing storage for childrens' toys under the table rather than in the cupboard, as that is where children play. He suggested a four point mantra for creativity. 1. Look from the person out. 2. Find yourself in the margins. 3. Use a beginner's mind (see this blog's heading!). and 4. Pick battles small enough to win, and big enough to matter. Cool ideas throughout.

Vijai Viathesswaren stressed that micro power sources already provide more energy than the world's nuclear power plants, and built a strong case that the future was indeed micro - from fuel cells, to unique one-home generators and so on. He believes that the oil industry in particular will change for ever as a result.

Niklas Zennstrom (who founded file sharer Kazaa) lead us through the development of Skype, how the network is enabling ever faster adoption of such ideas, and why VOIP is the future.

Taking the "Long View" ...

Nick Bostrom is a philosopher who highlighted that we face three big problems - death, existential risk ("will an asteroid hit earth"?) and the fact that life is not as good as it should be. Whilst he suggested the possibility of multiple universes (domains?) where things are better for us, it was hard to reach conclusions on what to do.

Peter Diamandis helped set up the X-Prize for the first private spaceship reaching suborbital height. His intense enthusiasm and careful business thinking made most of us believe that, yes, by 2025 we will indeed be taking holidays in space, and that space travel really is in our future best interests. His ideas around using prizes as a major motivational device and the inevitability of human lives being lost as we explore new frontiers sparked an interesting discussion.

And so it all started to draw to a close, with an hilarious conference summary from Tom Rielly, and some words on the future of TED and the TED prize from Chris Anderson, Ted's curator.

A great conference, with a great deal of food for thought, and many personal and intellectual linkages now to be made.

And I am making no apologies for including TED in a "leadership blog". We need to understand where science and society is going, if we are ever going to effectively lead. And we need to understand the problems as well as the opportunities if we are going to make a difference.

TED GLOBAL

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TED Global Pictures

See the great set of pictures on Flikr from The Kitten's Toe ...


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TED Global Oxford Day 3

A little blurry from late night conversation, animation (and wine?) - so now it is back to TED.

Let me start by saying why I am reporting on this conference for a "leadership blog". It is because I really believe that understanding the current state of innovation and "big picture" thinking should be a part of every leader's job today ... I should also add that I loved the event (despite some of my earlier misgivings) and just want to share the sense of challenge and learning I had.

Yochai Benkler talked about the continued explosion in computing power ... and the power of the web as an information medium. But the real issue is P2P file sharing - more than sharing illegal music downloads! It is about the democratization of all things via technology, including business models. Social production is not a fad, but here to stay .... which means the old ways challenge it.

Jimmy Wales went beyond this, and talked of how Wikipedia allows everyone in the world to both contribute to and have access to all human knowledge. It has only one employee, and costs only $5000 a month in servers. The "neutral point of view" and the votes for delete, and the open ended nature of the software help ensure quality control. Governance is a mixture of democracy, aristocracy and monarchy (Jimmy himself). Wiki is about the quality of the work, not the process used.

Clay Shirky as always makes a strong case for the power of decentralised work, and the power of on line sites (like Flickr and its tags) to both create communites and ensure that everyone gets a voice - and nothing is missed. His "power law of people sharing photos on Flickr" was very telling. Traditional institutions can't handle the single contribution that comes from most people - these communities can, and make it accessable and searchable. What a great way to think of tapping innovation.

Charles Leadbetter (a PowerPoint free zone!) talked of users actually becoming producers - provided they had a common platform, some rules, a few tools, and the will. He contended you don't always need traditional organizations to get great ideas and results - think Mountain Bikes, invented by enthusiasts. Creativity is not about "special people in special places" .. it is bottom up, built by users.

Sasa Vucinic noted (in Ingenious Solutions) that 83% of people lived in countries without a free press. He founded the equivalent to a venture capital firm to help build independent news media in emerging democracies. Now he is working on a terrific idea to build a bond market to fuel this and other development ideas.

Alex Steffen changed the subject and talked of "worst cases being unthinkable, yet solutions currently being unimaginable". If everyone had the same usage of the planet's resources as the developed world today, we need at least 6 more planets! But he want to show how things could happen for the best - his website has dozens of fascinating, real world projects, dealing with the challenges of megacities, the southern cultural explosion, the new superpowers, grassroots solutions and more. My favourite - the "straw" which purified dirty water even as you sucked it up.

James Cameron detailed how after 18 years working the issues, his new company (Climate Change Capital) is using funds and VC techniques to help entrepreneurs access cash to do the right kinds of projects. His comments on the profitability of the carbon market were very insightful - he expects strong financial returns. And I liked his description of 750 scientists in a "public tug of war" with a few lobbyists - which makes the media's role as moderator of the debate crucial. How can 1 have more say than 750 (or even equal say)?

Marko Ahtisaari from Nokia Design did a nice job of examining what he called the social primitives present in every human interaction - and which therefore need to be in the design of all mobile devices - ranging from offering gifts, handshakes, signalling to others, tuning out, peer production , remixing and even hacking. He also stressed the importance of open endedness and common platforms.

The afternoon got really interesting - with a clear statement that death was / is a big problem we need to fix ...

Aubrey DeGrey led this charge. His passion for turning back the tide and his quick wittedness made for an entertraining session (Q: How can I get started on living longer - A: Loose weight now ;-). Aubrey's critical arguments seemed to be that living causes damage to our bodies, and that this damage ages us. Yet, there were "only" 8 real processes which cause damage and which are in fact quite well understood - so let's fix them. He also described "longevity escape velocity", in which early therapies should extend our lives and give us a bit more time to reach better therapies etc etc. Hmmmmmmm.

Which led to a pretty intense debate with ...

Kari Stefansson of Iceland. Kari has been studying Iceland's uniquely detailed family tree for years, and is discovering many new facts about our genetic makeup. Did you know, for example, that Western European wmen who have an above average number of children and who live longer than most of us are likely to have a small DNA inversion .... On the ageing issue, he argued that death was an essential part of species renewal if environmental adaptation is to occur. As I said, intense.

At this point TED was opened to the public (great idea, Chris) to hear three excellent speakers.

Craig Venter, who lead the decoding of the human genome, described his new ventures. One is mapping new species - having found thousands of new by searching methodically across the Earth's oceans (microbes are 50% of the Earth's biomass, whereas animals are only 1/1000th). The goal is partly to establish the patterns in the Earth's huge genetic bank. This leads to the second project - to create life. With only just over 300 genes thought essential to life, Craig suggested that the first simple artiifical life would appear in 2 years, made possible by rapid advances in biological understanding and computational power.

He also dicussed in some detail the ethical challenges involved here. It was reassuring to hear that there are real laboratory safeguards in place in such "creational" activities.

Sir Martin Rees shared two subjects. First, a gifted astronomer's view of the universe, although he admitted that we still do not know "what banged" at the big bang and "why it banged". He also suggested that there may be many such big bangs in alternate universes. Yet, so much is now being understood that the major challenge may be to unify our understanding of the "micro" with the "macro" - and string theory may be the answer once we invent the appropriate mathematics!

Second, he laid out his views that we face so many challenges today (environmental, social and political) that we might only have a 50% chance of surviving the 21st Century as a species. Very worrying - we need to get our collective act together was the message.

Eve Ensler ("The Vagina Monologues") was inspirational, describing her work on helping to stop violence to women all over the world. With a determined grass roots focus, women all over the world are making changed behaviour happen, whether that be in US High Schools (we all loved the story of the student who was threatened with expulsion for wearing an "I love my Vagina" button - untill all other girls did the same, and the boys joined in with "I love her Vagina") or in Africa campaigning against genital mutilation.

I should also note some great musical performances during the day by Caroline Lavelle (with Thomas Dolby) and Susheela Raman.

Crossover, multicultural, inspring - and beautifully sung and played.

TED GLOBAL

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TED Global Oxford Day 2

The second day was, if anything, even more interesting than the first.

Barry Schwartz was funny, insightful and on a roll with the audience. Starting at the end, his "secret to happiness is low expectations" (said before?). But Barry made a strong case that we simply have too much choice in the world (at least in the developed world, as the developing world needs more choice). This 1) causes paralysis and inaction; 2) makes us miserable because we regret, confuse the opportunity cost, escalate our expectations unnecessarily and then end up blaming oursleves anyway!

His cartoons were funny - but so was his description of the choices facing the USA. You can have any of 175 different types of salad dressing in a small supermarket, but you only get to choose between Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee for the highest office ...... hmmmm.

So, unlike the accepted paradigm of freedom - choice - happiness, we all need to live in some kind of goldfish bowl which constrains our choices for our own good - the question is, how big should it be?

Steven Pinker was equally insightful on the subject of language, in the "Bugged Minds" session. Language allows us a container for our ideas, and he demonstrated the logics of space, causality, time and movement as they play out as fundamentals to all languages. He also highlighted the "competitive" nature of our expressions (how is "invading Iraq" different to "liberating Iraq"?).

In essence his case was that language either conceptualizes our realities, or it provides the room for negotiation ("would you mind passing the guocamole - that would be awesome") without being directive. Vagueness may indeed be the key tool of diplomacy and getting to mutual solutions.

Erik Spiekermann stressed the importance of the fonts we use to express our ideas, and suggested that this will become an ever more useful way of "branding" ourselves (and our e-mails?). "Type is what language looks like" was his mantra.

Iqbal Quadir once more demonstrated the brilliance of his Grameen Phone venture - using network effects and good old fashioned business savvy to get women out of poverty in Bangladesh. What an inspirational story. He is (rightly) suspicious of Aid to Governments, although recognises the role of partnerships between clever sustainable business ideas and responsible NGO's - provided it is all built "from the ground up" with the real interests of the poor centre stage.

Dan Gilbert offered a simple piece of advice to the audience - "How to do the right thing every time". Easy, Huh? It is all based on Bernouli - weighing the odds of making a gain with the value of the gain.

Problem is, we all define the odds wrong, or make errors in the value of the gain. And in calculating the odds, we tend to do use what we know of best from our experience - i.e. we choose to use the past and not the possible.

He used great examples. We all seem to prefer immediate results, even if waiting would get a better result. $50 now, or $60 in 12 months - we take the $50. Yet we would take $60 in 13 months rather than $50 in 12 months .... go figure. And we would cross town to save $100 on a $200 stereo, but not $100 on a $30,000 car. It is the same $100, but we attache relative value to it.

Ze Frank was hilarious - I will never be able to look at either an air sickness bag or the aeroplane safety card again without smiling ....

Peter Donnelly made us all look silly by demonstrating that we so easiliy misinterpret statistical truths. Whilst humourous (in the case of which is more likely: Heads-Tails-Heads or Heads-Tails-Tails - we all guessed wrong), misinterpretation can have terrible effects. Witness the case of Sally Clark wrongly imprisoned on murder charges on bad statistical evidence when the children actually really died of "Cot death". She won her second appeal, fortunately.

Too often we fall into the "fallacy of the expert" or "compounding probabilities without establishing the right context".

Dawn Danby made an impassioned plea for designers to look at the total system they are working with - the delivery of a stand alone "sustainable / green" product is essentially impossible. And only when we apply multiple "green" technologies to the same product will we start seeing real success - witness the PC Printer business.

Carl Honore learnt the hard way that we all need to slow down to get better health and in fact get better results. This applies to cooking, reading to our kids, reflecting, having sex or simply living life rather than letting life live us.

Of course, everyone wanted some quick tips on how to slow down (!) - how about e-mail free days, 10 minutes thinking time every day, joining the Slow Movement for support, or simply reading your kids bedtime stories properly and with your full attention. No more playing football with the kids whilst juggling a cell phone ....

Wow .... and I unfortunately missed the last session.

Now off to the Natural History Museum for dinner, and then the Sheldonian theatre. TED certainly packs stuff in ...

Talvin Singh entertained us, with his unique crossover improvisations. The intensity in his face was itself inspiring, and the music fillled one of the finest halls anywhere. A great performance - very "TED", very Talvin.

Chris then led an energized and inspiring debate on "Making Poverty History", with many different views expressed by the panel and from the floor - although with only one goal. To help do it. Let's see what action will emerge from TED ....

The debate spilled onto the streets, into the QI Club, and onto the Randolph Hotel until the small hours ....

TED GLOBAL

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TED Global Oxford Day 1

So here are a few impressions from "the TED front"......

Juan Enriquez (Harvard) made an impassioned and data driven pitch that there will be more national flags tomorrow than there are today - and what happened to the British Empire, after 1905? Could its demise have been forseen? Juan's point is that what we do today puts in motion the events of 50 years from now. He thus challenged the conventional wisdom that the US will exist in its current form mid century. For example, the US is the first country that has the worlds' reserve currency, yet it is also a debtor nation. China makes, India computes, Japan innovates - and the US borrows for shopping trips?

Irshad Manji (Journalist, Muslim, Lesbian) took quite some personal risk to challenge the audience to seek a more moderate form of Islam, reverting back to "Ijtihad" (pronounced "ij-tee-had") as Islam’s lost tradition of independent thinking. She made the telling point that it seems that Islam today is the most literal religion in interpreting its scriptures, assuming that the Q'uran is religion 3.0? Yet most every other religion has moved on (via interpretation). She also argued strongly for pluralism ....

Stephen Levitt was his usual clear self, buildng on his outstanding book ("Freakonomics"). He made the telling point that Science runs new experiments to establish the truth, whereas Economics studies the historic facts .... For my taste however he was too narrow in making his case ( .... against car seats in cars for children over 2?).

Alison Jackson managed to delight, challenge and even annoy with her exploration of the theme of celebrity - she creates photographs with look alikes that suggest what might be behind the scenes - the Queen on the toilet, Sven in his underpants, Michael Jackson fussing with his nose.

Seth Godin challenged the audience to define 1) what are they really working on right now and 2) what is their personal story that will make a real difference? Stories which come alive make the world go round.

Richard Dawkins was his usual thoughtful and uniquely insightful self, in stressing that, as humans, we can only intuitively understand the middle ground - neither the "nano" nor the "cosmic". He suggested that humans invent their own realities to make sense of the complex world we live in - which gets ever more complicated as new knowledge unfolds. "Successive generations have to come to terms with the increasing queerness of the Universe."

He also suggested that different species have different software to allow them to handle their world - consider the two dimensional world of a pond skater whose life is ruled by surface tension ....

And his later comment on the irrelevance of religion was classic!

Jaqueline Novogratz made an impassioned and well argued case that business models which work for developing countries are the key, not traditional aid. She is the CEO of the Acumen Fund, a non-profit focused on creating sustainable solutions to improve the lives of the poor.

David Deutsch was brilliant - with only a dark stage as his "prop" he completely convinced the audience that we live in just one of trillions of possible worlds. We need Matter, Energy and Evidence to create new knowledge - and the universe has an abundance of all three.

He also challenged us to address problems properly. For example, if Global Warming is for real, then dealing with the last 50 years of "why" is not enough (i.e. Kyoto gas protocols). The issue is how we lower the planet's temperature. Mirrors in space? David's thesis - problems are both inevitable and fixable - is compelling.

Asraf Ghani re-interpreted the problems of the developing world (he is finance minister of Afghanistan) ... and his comment that $1 of entrepreurial investment is worth $20 of traditional aid was pivotal.

Hans Ulrich Obrist showed great passion for getting artists in front of the general population, in both traditional and novel forms. However, his case for the uniqueness of Chinese Museum Construction was less compelling.

Kate Walsh was wonderful - a voice for the future and a song writing skill we will hear more of.

A thought provoking day, with the richness and complexity that the agenda promised. And several "calls to action" helped ground the proceedings in the real world.

More anon.

TED GLOBAL

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Second thoughts ...

Now I see the US military has rescinded the "avoid London" order ...... good.

London is open to everyone, and that is how it must stay.

What to think?

I have just read that the US has banned its air force personnel stationed in the UK from visiting London .... is it too dangerous?

Now it is up to every country how they behave in the face of terrorist attacks. For most of us in the UK, the overwhelming reaction has been "let's get back to business".

Maybe the US military sees business as being in Iraq, but not in London. Hmmm.

I recall that I had to be at a Board meeting in New York on 9/18 - which meant I had to scramble like many others to rearrange flights from the UK (leaving on the first day that flights were allowed back into New York, in fact). I cannot recall ever considering that I would not make the flight. Of course, you look around a bit more suspiciously than before, and there were a few glances over the shoulder. And the security checks were dreadful. But it had to be done.

I have many American friends, and I know the vast majority would agree with the "back to business" sentiment.

Excuses are now being offered - I just heard on the radio that the decision to keep US service people out of London was designed to allow the UK police to do their job .... 10,000 service personnel in a city of 10 million. Interesting reasoning.

It seems a pity that the US Military is afraid to visibly support Londoners at this important time ....

Technorati London bombing ...

Tom Peters' Tomato

I came across this re-vamp of Tom's Manifesto, made available under a Creative Commons license. Quick, cute - thought provoking.

You can download it here if you have Acrobat Reader installed.

Leading brains take on big ideas

From the BBC website ....

By Jo Twist

"Luminaries from the worlds of technology, entertainment and design are gathering in Oxford to share their thinking about our future.

The big thinkers include leading authors, musicians, playwrights, and pioneers in technology and science.

Bob Geldof, top political author Charles Leadbeater, and biologist Richard Dawkins will be among the distinguished delegates at TED Global.

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is already a top US event. TED Global will be the first time the US conference is held in Europe.

The aim of the event is to explore the three main arenas that shape and influence people's future.

But it also considers how politics, the environment, and other social issues impact daily life in the 21st Century."

Read the rest of the article ....

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Going to TED Global

Now, here is something I have a range of feelings about. I am attending TED Global from tomorrow, at Oxford - the first TED outside the US.

It features an outstanding range of speakers, from all disciplines - nominally "Technology, Entertaintainment, Design" - but also "Business, Arts, Science". Just the kind of mixture I really enjoy, though I don't always understand.

It is a unique event, fast paced, eclectic, thought provoking etc. etc. - and it gives the opportunity to meet with good friends which is always fun. Of course it's great to be in Oxford again .... so I feel very lucky to be going ;-)

On the other hand, people "posing" (even semi-accidentally) is always hard to listen to. And, more to the point - can we go beyond talk, spread the big ideas and get action on a wider stage?

Let's see how the blog unfolds ....

TED GLOBAL

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Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt

By John A. Bryne

A candid conversation with the CEO of General Electric about leadership, creativity, fear -- and what it's really like to run the world's most influential company.

The year Jeff Immelt's career almost blew up was 1994. He was vice president and general manager of GE Plastics Americas, and his division was caught in a classic profit squeeze -- the crunch that comes when raw-material costs rise and a company is locked into fixed-price contracts with customers. Instead of making his 20% profit-growth goal, he delivered earnings growth of just 7%. The upshot: Immelt missed his net-income number by $50 million.

At General Electric's annual leadership meeting in Boca Raton, Florida, in January of 1995, Immelt arrived late for dinner each evening and went to bed early -- hoping to avoid a tough talk with his legendary boss, Jack Welch, about his poor performance. But on the last night of the meeting, he felt a hand on his shoulder just as he was rushing off to the elevator and his room. It was Welch.

"Jeff, I'm your biggest fan, but you just had the worst year in the company," Welch said sternly.

"Just the worst year. I love you, and I know you can do better. But I'm going to take you out if you can't get it fixed."

"Look," Immelt answered, "if the results aren't where they should be, you won't have to fire me because I'm going to leave on my own."

The story, of course, has a fairy-tale ending. And that's probably why Immelt often tells it. "It was definitely the most painful period of my career," he says. "Even though I came close to being fired, I never considered quitting. I knew the issues were my fault, and I didn't want to let my people down." Besides, he adds, "surviving a failure gives you more self-confidence. Failures are great learning tools -- but they must be kept to a minimum."

Read the rest of the interview ...

The benefits of thinking out loud

From the Innovation Weblog ...

"In his excellent brainstorming book, Five Star Mind, author Tom Wujec includes a page on the benefits of thinking aloud. Many of us are deeply scripted in the mindset of the lone entrepreneur, dreaming up breakthrough ideas. But the fact is that having a conversation with someone else is a terrific way to bring new thoughts to life:

'Conversations give us a chance to refine ideas of which we previously had only a vague concept ... We clarify ideas by putting them into words. When we pass ideas back and forth (in a conversation), we create a rhythm in which one remark stimulates another. An off-hand comment prompts a distant memory. Conversations divide and unite unrelated concepts into relevant thoughts. Dialogues become collaborations, a concert of thought, the creation of a common understanding.'

Wujec also cautions that conversations can kill ideas, especially when a lack of symmetry exists between you and another person - such as if the other person is more powerful or is carrying a hidden agenda. He also points out that when we stop listening, we lose the ability to learn.

So the next time you're trying to come up with some new ideas, why not find a kindred soul to kick some thoughts around? You might be surprised at the results!"

G8 leaders agree $50bn aid boost

From the BBC Website

The G8 meeting has ended with an agreement to boost aid for developing countries by $50bn (£28.8bn).

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said there was also a commitment to find an end date for farm subsidies and a will to find agreement on trade liberalisation.

On climate change, he said an agreement had always been unlikely, but crucially the US had accepted that global warming was an issue.

NGOs are critical of the deal, calling it a 'vastly disappointing result'.

'The people have roared but the G8 has whispered,' said Kumi Naidoo, chair of the Global Call to Action against Poverty.

But Live 8 organiser Bob Geldof spoke of a 'great day'.

'Never before have so many people forced a change of policy onto a global agenda. If anyone had said eight weeks ago will we get a doubling of aid, will we get a deal on debt, people would have said 'no',' Mr Geldof said."

Read the rest of the article ...

My thought? Both good and bad news .... because Bob is right, yet more could have been done especially on the environment.

But in the context of the week, with bombs in London, it is good to know that we can all continue to conduct business as usual. It is good to know that leaders can continue to lead, and can stay focused, even as we want ever more of them.

Terrorists won't win

From the BBC website - July 7th 2005

"Tony Blair has vowed the British people will not be intimidated after blasts hit London's transport network.

Speaking in Downing Street, the UK prime minister said: 'It is a very sad day for the British people but we will hold true to the British way of life.'

Mr Blair earlier returned to London from the G8 summit in Gleneagles, but has made clear the talks will continue.

A statement from the G8 called the blasts 'an attack not on one nation but on all nations and civilised people'."

Read the rest of the story ....

Our thoughts and heart-felt feelings go out to those famililes who today so cruely and unexpectedly lost loved ones, and to those people wounded who are now in London's hospitals.

Our praise goes to the terrific professionalism and selflessness of the emergency services, and their preparedness for this awful eventuality.

What a terrible, callous atrocity - made even worse by its close proximity to the peaceful weekend determination to end global poverty in Edinburgh, and the UK's euphoria yesterday around the Olympics decision.

Yet, as the news unfolded in the West London office I was working in, the overwhelming sentiment was "make sure everyone is safe, grieve, keep going, keep things normal - otherwise the bad guys win".

Let us hope that this inspiring "London spirit", which has risen above so many challenges over the centuries, will continue to prevail - not only in the UK but in civilised society worldwide.

Technorati London bombing ...

Coe's greatest race

From BBC website ... By Mark Orlovac

"Lord Coe has won his greatest ever race by bringing the 2012 Olympics to London.

He may have won two Olympic gold medals and smashed 12 world records, but Coe's achievement in leading London to a stunning victory eclipses them all.

'This is almost entirely on a different planet to winning the gold medals,' Coe admitted. His jubilation is understandable as it is his leadership which has been pivotal in helping London claim sport's biggest prize.

For so long the London bid was regarded as way off the pace and when the five candidate cities were originally shortlisted, London was rated third behind Paris and Madrid. And Paris was universally regarded as such strong favourites that the contest was seen as effectively over.

But with the exquisite timing that he showed so often in an illustrious career, Coe helped London produce the late charge which saw them pip their French rivals."

Read the rest of the article ....

Now, like many people in the UK I think this is terrific. And I certainly do not want to doubt Seb Coe's work here. A great leadership job.

I'd just like to note that it takes an amazing team effort to do things like this ... and then an even more amazing team will be needed to deliver the Games itself!

Building a Top of the Table Staff

AT/Web Exclusive Articles/Building a Top of the Table Staff

By Sarah J. Kaelberer and E. Dennis Zahrbock

A very good staff gives you a very good team, and a very good team gives you outstanding results. Here's how to build a Million Dollar Round Table "Top of the Table" (TOT) staff.

Finding the right fit

The first step in building your team is finding the right people. The key to choosing the best employee is to focus on the person, not the resume. For example, we have an employee, Lisa, who did not have a resume at all when we hired her. We hired her away from a company that was going out of business. We offered her the job because we knew what kind of person she was and how she worked. Over the years, we'd seen her demonstrate that she had a heart of gold and the desire to do anything it took to help a client or teammate. Those qualities made her a good fit for our team. If the spirit and ability is there, procedures and processes can be taught.

The old saying, "One bad apple spoils the bunch," can prove true in an office environment. One negative person or nonteam player can seriously damage a team's morale. One way to combat this is to get to know the candidate for the job as well as possible. Our office is small enough that we can have a job candidate meet with all the current team members.

Read the rest of the article ...

Edinburgh

I was lucky enough to be part of the "Making Poverty History" event in Edinburgh on Saturday, with Victoria, Michala & Phil.

It was a spectacular day - a huge crowd, incredibly well organized, with a great sense of humour and camaraderie. The old, the very young, from all parts of the country (and across Europe) - some just "regular people", and some a little bizarre! Everything was done with such a light touch - the word "polite" seemed to be the word of the day. The police smiled at the marchers, and the marchers smiled back. Everyone learnt something. I think our kids will remember the day for the rest of their lives.

But don't mistake the determination to make a difference. You could feel it in the air. All 225,000 people shared the same goal - make a point about making a difference.

And it seemed the Hyde Park Live8 crowd were on exactly the same wavelength. Good for Bob Geldof, Bono and others - and look at the terrific job Will Smith did in Philadelphia. Who will ever forget the 3 second finger clicking to signify the death of a child ....

On the other hand, I read with anger that the week is now being driven by anarchists and others with no agenda to help others - and unfortunately that may now take over the headlines. I just urge the media to put this into context.

The real big news is that ordinary people are politely but firmly wanting change for the poorest people on this earth.

World's biggest challenges

I found this interesting ... last month's LeaderValues poll question was:

What are the world's biggest challenges today?

And the answer surprised me a little ...

• Global poverty 34%
• Inadequate political leadership 21%
• Environmental sustainability 15%
• Terrorism 13%
• Cultural prejudice 10%
• Business globalization 4%
• Other 2%
• Ethical dilemmas in science 1%

I can't argue for the scientific nature of the poll, although I do know it is a global audience. And maybe it is the power of the recent publicity on Poverty and the Live8 impact ....

But maybe the concern is real? Anyone know? Views?