Archive for the 'Veritas' Category
8W8: Taking Globalization and the Internet to the next Level
Yesterday evening in Munich I listened to a speech from the CEO of Boston Consulting Group Hans-Peter Bürkner about "globalization", an issue that has my natural affinity. Yet, the speech as such I found rather "moderately novel" as its main lines of thought were put forward by Thomas Friedman already 3 years ago in “The World is Flat”. Especially, Mr. Bürkner's part about the role of governments was more of wishful thinking than a reality-based account on the true interests of such a body which is depending on a free electorate.
Anyway, in case someone is interested on more vision and foresight in terms of "what's next" on the global scene, being addressed from an entirely different angle in the shape of a novel, I happily recommend 8W8. The author is Ralf Hirt whom I met in January after moderating the India-panel at the DLD-conference in Munich. It's instrumental to understand the background of Ralf to become clear on both his motivation and insight: He has held leadership positions in the internet industry for a decade and has lived all over the world, in his home town Stuttgart, Hong Kong, Sydney, London and currently New York. In crossing these two lines of experience extrapolating their status-quo plus visioning with lots of foresight, he conceived his first book 8W8. It is worthwhile mentioning that the book is indeed fiction, yet the concept of a "new world modelling engine" are not so far away that this book would fall into the category of "science fiction".
Well, what is it about? The storyline deals with 15 high calibre people from of the "Golden Sky", a community committed with the aspiration to change the world for the sake of good. These 15 people come from a whole array of diverse backgrounds, like Oskar Feller, an editor for a leading internet magazine, Maria who is a doctor developing high-scale programmes to fight HIV/AIDS, Priyanka from India who is an IT-crack working for a global media company or Emanuel, a philosopher and Taoist who has been named for the Nobel Prize. All the characters of the story are here on the 8W8-blog. This group of people is hosted by Winston Chee, a billionaire internet-entrepreneur from China in his island on Hawaii EA-RA.
In this serene and secluded environment, the 15 brains spend a whole week picking each other brains and inspiring each other to solve one crucial problem: How to make the interrelations of economies and people visible in a sort of virtual map-overlay on top of the existing geography. What they come up with is the new world modelling engine "8W8" which can be pictured as a virtual helicopter the "pilot" would use to fly over the terrain of the earth to make these invisible connections visible. Delving even deeper into the concept it transcends into a new form of radical constructivism as the vision the pilot would receive on his dashboard would be a crossover between absolute measurable truths and his set of values/selective perception. What the pilot would get to see is both on “earth level” and on “sky level” the “volumes” of a whole set of parameters. The former range from hard factors like population, GNP, metrics on infrastructure, public institutions to innovation, the latter comprise for example metrics for democracy, human rights, quality of living, level of terrorism and such.
Yet, what is more that beyond statistics on GNP or PPP which are available as top-level data today, 8W8 equally entails a bottom-up approach from the level of the “element” (individual) which will aggregate in “streams” into “Global Space Tribes” according to its interest, e.g. “MBA Jazz Wireless Tribe (MBAJWT)”, “Catholic Fast Food Blue Collar Single Mother of Four (CFFBCSMF)” or the “Taoist Tribe (TT)”. These become even more interesting if one looks at actual vertically positioned Web 2.0 platforms which either try to bring a community of like-minded people together like “Dogster” or provide a tool to define and organize a target group of any shape like Ning. Yet, both of these platforms have in common that they require someone to become a “member” by “registration” and do all these various steps actively online. In that context I do believe that there will be not in too far future a kind of “ambient computing” where the unconscious behaviour patterns will be able to bring people in a meaningful way together. Hence, aggregating this sort of behaviour and making it somehow visible is not that far away from 8W8’s concept of the “Global Space Tribe”.
One thing I had hoped throughout the whole story to occur, is a bit more of conflict, friction, sex: As Oskar and Theresa, a computer scientist, seem to come along very well, I waited for that forbidden kiss, the clandestine quickie to happen under the waterfall of perfectly pristine EA-RA. Not for the sake of sensation, but to portray people regardless of their brains and social status when they become most human: emotional to the extent of irrational. The figures appear prim and proper, and at best tease each other lightly in order to surely succumb to perfect harmony. Irrespective of that, what I liked from a storytelling point of view is the ability to portray a broad set of global citizens who find a common denominator to discuss a topic, be focussed in defining a goal, accepting each other’s variety of viewpoints, being non-judgemental and fully embark on the beneficial concept of diversity.
Altogether, I liked the book a lot as it is coherently able to explain the road ahead in globalization by the force of the internet and the road ahead of the internet by the force of globalization. What gave me food for thought via the concepts of “Global Space Tribes” was the decreasing influence of governments, because free people in a free world are able to cross-pollinate their ideas and aspirations regardless of the strangulating rigidity of what we call a country today. For someone like me who happily articulates his despise of today’s governments, the vision of 8W8 is one which deserves active pursuit.
Who is interested in buying the book, Amazon has it, either in print or for the Kindle.
Icebergs, Web 2.0 Expo and mental Freeze
Just arrived in San Francisco after that loooooooooong 12 hour flight from Munich in the loooooooooong Airbus A340-600, the strech-limo among commercial airplanes. Before heading to sleep to be as fit as possible - given the 9 hours time-shift - for the Web 2.0 Expo starting tomorrow, still wanted to share this fantastic picture from 34,000 feet north-north-west of Reykjavik. The icebergs of artica, standing proudly in their white serenity far beneath the engines of our Airbus. (Yes, and I am aware of the irony that the very same engines at that altitude might cause the icebergs to fade and that I am part of the problem …)
I am happily looking forward to the conference which I had attended last year already. It's a very hands-on event with learnings not so much like on the Web 2.0 Summit in November on the Big Business and Grand Talks of Bigwigs, but rather on getting things done. Not too bad either, if this is what the end matters.
So now I stranded here in San Francisco for a week, me, the "Digital Nomad" how a phenomenal special in "The Economist" has put together two weeks ago. Lots of worthwhile thoughts which had also made me think. For one, geography is definitely history. Many offices no longer have settings for each employee, but they rather provide space which can be instantaneously designed as an individual or collective place - with ubiquitous Wi-Fi. Or you don't really need an office at all, working from home or connecting from e.g. a Starbucks is increasingly becoming the norm. Anyway, the "Third Place" besides or between home and office is the new buzzword for both an infrastructural framework of the “homo mobilis” and a huge opportunity for innovative entrepreneurs. Thanks to tools like virtually accessible disk space, online social networks like XING or Skype the walls of a company and the borders of countries have been flattened alike.
Not really surprisingly, I could find myself very well in this portray. And I could second the downsides of this development. Being always on, everywhere connected but never there. I have been describing my state of mind increasingly like a self-selected semi-autism where I am cognitively in my own world with little influence of the real world around me. As a remedy I have actively sought to connect to friends whom I care for in person at these places to make that decisive difference. At the end, that's what I realized, nothing can replace the holistic experience of having someone you care for in front of you, with his or her mimic, gesture and kinetics. Poking someone on Facebook and poking someone on the shoulder is not one and the same thing.
Comments (2)
Visiting Vatsalya-Orphanage in Bangalore
Something I really don’t want to miss out on reporting was my visit to Bangalore’s Vatsalya Orphanage last Saturday. Thanks to my neighbour Shashi who is like a sister to me, takes care of my house when I am travelling and likewise of me when I am at home in Bangalore, has been involved for years into charity work for this place. The entire “Abhaya Ashram” of the compound has been handed over by the Maharaja of Mysore in 1948 then under the title of “Association for moral and social hygiene” - so says the inscript carved in stone at the entry.
I bow my head in deepest respect for all the work which Shashi and the other volunteers are putting into making this place a little oasis for those who would otherwise be forgotten and left behind. The place is neat, in good shape and very well run which is a challenge by itself: hiring some full-time staff, refurbishing things which need it most and constantly trying to find donors for funding.
I got such a very warm welcome by the around 50 children who were waiting in excitement for the “Uncle from Germany”, sitting row by row on mattresses. Many questions which I had to answer from “What do people eat in Germany” to “Why are you so tall”? I spend a good there, at some point solving some algebra equations with them (they really got all of them right). It was indeed for me very touching seeing all these bright, curious and energetic kids in front of me who certainly did not have the best start in the past, but thanks to Vatsalya could look into a brighter future.
Here is the bedroom of the children where they start their day really early at 5.30 am. And I could tell that they made a very robust and disciplined impression without missing out on giving them as much love as such a setting allows for. (Here are, by the way, a few more pictures on Flickr.)
My words in Vatsalya’s guestbook started with: “Where there is caring, there is hope”. Yet “caring” should not just remain an abstract metaphor on paper, but ought to translate into an obligation for myself to make a difference. For instance, reasonable money can pay for many clothes, books or desks in the classroom. And spending time there means equally doing a favour to the children as it doing a favour to myself for staying grounded to the realities of life and receiving these small little gestures that money can’t buy.
Open Letter to Mr. Rajiv Memani (Ernst & Young India)
On February 7th 2008, during the fantastic EO University in Delhi (I wrote about it here), Mr. Rajiv Memani, Country Head of Ernst & Young India gave a presentation which was insightful. Yet, the aftermath of that presentation was it it own way insightful, too, and I thought I write a few open lines to him.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dear Mr. Memani,
On February 7th 2008 you really excited a whole crowd of committed members of the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) with your appearance at our University in Delhi. You held a profound, analytical and highly competent presentation about the state of the Indian economy, its opportunities and its risks. For me (as I wrote on this blog ) and for many others it was one of the highlights of our learning programme. And, as entrepreneurs, we understood well that you were not just showing up for charitable reasons, but certainly also as the leader of Ernst & Young India. To describe company as a "for profit" would be stating the obvious.
So your company certainly took a good decision to act as the lead sponsor of the event, with your logo all around and a desk to start a conversation with one of your employees which could at some point lead to an engagement for your firm. The platform you selected for this kind of activity was without doubt in marketing terms "highly targeted" towards your potential client group.
Yet, what struck me more than strange is your personal and your organizational behaviour in the aftermath of the event. You held a presentation with insightful Power Point Charts where you promised to share them with whoever would require them. He or she should just drop you an e-mail. Smart move, unassuming and purpose-driven: permission marketing at its best. Also, you and I had a brief chat after your presentation, exchanged business cards and shook hands with the mandatory, easy-going "let's keep in touch".
Sadly, unlike Ratan Tata's famous words "a promise is a promise", your promise doesn't seem to bear any meaning. A week later, I wrote you a friendly e-mail reverting to your promise politely asking for the presentation. That I did not get any reply, did not diminish my perseverance. Hence, I addressed the super-helpful staff of EO who had coordinated your appearance. From the messages I received from them, I have not the slightest doubt that they tried everything to contact you directly as well as members from your staff. No reaction, nobody ever returned their calls and e-mails.
Isn't that ironic, Mr. Memani, that your organization spends significant money on customer acquisition on such an event, you spend your valuable time there - all for the purpose to build relationships with potential clients. And then right when when this purpose starts to materialize, there is just a black hole that swallows all the matter.
I wonder what I should make out of that. From any standpoint of business reason, you are clearly part of a dysfunctional organization which is counterproductive to its own alleged objectives. That you in your responsibility might not have the time to reply personally would be more than understood, but obviously there is the inability to establish and run a proper staff around you. Can it be that the headline of the Financial Express "Rajiv Memani ascends the EYI Throne" was by accident so right, because you are sitting in your ivory tower, detached from operations and devoid of the ability to lead by example?
Anyway, Mr. Memani, let's not make a diplomatic crisis out of that, I'll keep your presentation in good memory, yet felt the inner urge to share these thoughts as a sort of peer-to-peer feedback with you.
With best regards
René Seifert
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ADDITION on April 5th 2008:
Thanks Dima for your comment and moreover for sending me this dearly sought-after precious asset :-) As I try to the best of my abilities to stay fair: The presentation from Mr. Memani and Ernst & Young was really excellent. And potentially my intrinsic statement that the follow up on the event was generally crap an exaggeration. I also of course don't assume at all that there was any deliberate "discrimination" between Dima and me. Yet, my description of events on my end was still accurate. So overall, I'd suggest, "shit happens" and case closed.
On another line I find it a fantastic example of the power of blogs as a conversational medium with all its opportunity to fill gaps, straighten things out and make adjustments on the truth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPDATE on July 30th 2008
The events around this blog post don't stop neither online nor offline. 10 days back I got a request (not from Ernst & Young) to take this post down which I declined. Given the internal nature of that discussion, I feel unable to share its details here.
However, this particular blog post is a phenomenal example of what Clay Shirkey's book "Here comes Everybody" is dealing with: The power of blogs to make the invisible visible and through that the irrelevant relevant. Again, this mentioned presentation is not the navel of the world, but still interestingly this blog post does evoke action. Yesterday, I received a tremendously friendly e-mail from an an associate of Ernst & Young who wrote that he was "truly shocked" to learn that I had not received the presentation. In addition, he was so friendly to send it right across to me attached to his mail. For this my deepest most professional and most respectful thanks.
What happened by this blog post? A more or less vivid narration of an event mixed with my personal opinion received not just attention, but evoked action. For me personally, the case is closed for a long time with no bad blood or anger whatsoever against Ernst & Young. As I admitted in the paragraph above, I believe that the choice of my words - albeit true in facts - has been overly harsh. At the same time I believe, constantly updating on the "developing story" everybody involved becomes a winner: Obviously me for receiving the presentation :-) but over all Ernst & Young: Nothing else than the bottom-up commitment of smart associates can better refute my notion that their employer was a "dysfunctional organization".
Singapore rocks
I love this country, returned after 5 amazing days to Bangalore and this city-state has definitely taken me in. IMHO Singapore is a blueprint how a country should be run. Admittedly it is a special situation to run a sovereign state with just 4.5 mn inhabitants on an area of 45 km in length and 25 km in width. But you can equally screw it up what Singapore managed to do right, very right. Not just one time, but consistently re-inventing itself by looking from the outside in instead just to its own navel. Just one figure: This little tiny state is able to attract per year more foreign visitors than whole India! I guess Singapore is doing something awfully right.
Especially, as I somehow had expected a rigid police state which is omnipresent to subjugate or discipline its citizens - and nothing is further from the truth. People do “jaywalk”, they do cross the street when it’s red. And it’s a great place to hand out and party the whole night. But on the other hand, the country knows exactly what it wants, and especially what it doesn’t want: crime, drugs and illegal immigration. In respect of the latter, Germany for instance could learn a lot which people to let in and which rather keep away.
Here a few pics, the entire set is here.
SINGAPORE PARLIAMENT
BUGIS STREET JUICE STAND
WHITE TIGERS IN SINGAPORE ZOO
Rome: Mesmerized from the Eternal City
There was no doubt that it would be an amazing experience, but Rome topped even the biggest expectations with its ubiquitious historical beauty.Here is the picture set on Flickr. It meant coming to the place which, as no other, has laid foundation to our cutural heritage as well as shaped the way of our western thinking. Both from the ancient history of the Roman Empire and well as in the aftermath of its collapse the rise of the Catholic Church. Visiting the Vatican with a savvy guide was more than a worthwhile investment given his vast insights into architecture, history and arts. Like here the Laocoon Group which made the start in a huge collection of statues, pictures and tapestries.
Moving slowly through the richness of the Vactican I contemplated about the usual and mostly simplistic critisizm of the current Pope “to be conservative”. In the first place, in my view “being conservative” is rather a virtue than a vice. Morover, what do you think if you are a Pope who is on top of both the oldest and the largest organization of the world, if your name indicates that there have been fifteen with the same name before you, if you are among the most brilliant intellectuals alive, if your belief is that your organization epitomizes the concept of truth and then some “progressive” journalist in some local newspaper calls you conservative: You simply don’t give a shit. And right so.
Which should not mean that the Catholic Church can’t ignore an environment which, also thanks to communication technology, is changing faster than ever. But reading the latest publications of Benedict XVI. like his encylce “Deus Caritas est”, the Pope displays are very real understanding of today’s world when he explains his e.g.model for separating of roles between the state and religion.
Here’s the famous Trevi Fountain in which you throw a coin over your back which allegedly will bring you back to Rome.
And me being and old fan of Latin Language wanted to see the Colosseum where my Latin textbook began with “Marcus hodie in Colosseum est”. I didn’t make it “in” the Colosseum, but at least in front of it. So I can confidently say: “René hodie ad Colosseum est.” (German translation: Renés Hoden sind am Colosseum” - LOL)
++++++++++++++
One addition as I just came across Fabio’s (the guide’s) phone number in case you want to do the tour: +39 335 841 27 22 (kind regards from my side :-)
Does Intelligence drive Business Success?
There are many ways to express that business is about action and not about contemplation. Intelligence by itself can help, when it can prove to be some turbo-fuel to get the engine going. The best evidence comes from changing the perspective: I often wondered and admired people who were by no means kissed by the muse or intellectually attuned, yet both extremely successful in business and ethically immaculate. And the same time, I have met people who in spite of their supreme intelligence were not able to capture their entire potential. At the end, when looking back the road travelled of a succesful venture or project, it always has been a series of actions of not so much doing things right, but rather doing the right things.
In that respect, to avoid “paralysis through analysis, Prof. Zott from the business school Insead, recently during a lecture in Bombay dug out an inspiring poem from William Murray, The Scottisch Himalayan Expedition 1951 - latterally quoting JW v. Goethe
GENIUS
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back.
Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth,
the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans:
that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves, too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.
A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor
all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance,
which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, BEGIN IT.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. BEGIN IT NOW.
Happy Easter from the indolent Balkans
After the most intense, yet rewarding months of travelling in my life, I am happy to run on half cylinders in my Croatian home. Weather is nice, the fishermen’s village behaves as usually and the first tourists have poured in as well.
Just one thing sucks. The imbeciles from Croatian T-COM terminally switched off my internet at home. One could argue that it’s my fault as I failed to pay the bill for 3 months, although I had organized someone to do so. Shit happens. But what sucks even more is that you get lame answers from the service provider like: “prepayment is not possible” which would be obviously the easiest choice. And how about receiving the invoices per e-mail in order to become aware of outstanding debt? “Nema” (=does not exist) comes the a swift response. Welcome to the Balkans. Being half-Croatian and coming 36 years to this country, I feel reasonable safe to articulate a few blunt truths:
1. Work has certainly not been invented in Croatia.
2. Reliability is not a major trait either.
3. Service mentality to get the ass up for a customer is deeply stuck in a post-socialist mindset.
In most cases reputation is well deserved. Add other countries south of Croatia which have been part of former Yugoslavia, and you have them: The Balkans. Looking at the snail-like pace of their economic progress and correlating it to the multitude of personal experiences I have had, then they clearly are where they are, because they behave as they behave.
My view got amplified my meeting a devout Croatian Marko two days back here who was born and raised in Germany and is currently working in Offenbach, a city close to Frankfurt. “I love my country and if I had 8 mn Euro, I would move here immediately for living. But I would never want to make my living here.” You don’t need 8 mn Euro for a good life in Croatia, but it costst you at least 8 million nerve cells to get through the ever-prevailing indolence when you come with a “getting things done attitude.” Motherland, it’s wake-up time!
Bangalore: Wind of Change
The heat makes the air stand still, the skin feels washed from dust and in spite of unforgiving chaos, the pace of the city moves a few degrees slower than usually. It’s summertime in Bangalore; some call it bluntly “hot season”. Time to sharpen the remaining senses in sleepless nights without A/C and observe what is happening beneath the crust. The thoughts, their intentions and their results are alert as usually, so is the change sweeping through “Garden City”. Old one-story buildings in the centre are being vacated, the Mum & Pop stores are empty ; the wrecker’s ball is reporting for duty. “Sytematically organizing the retail sector is a huge opportunity”, the investment bankers say. Oh yeah, “so much value out there” and “the time is now”. Get a life, my small laundry shop around the corner has gone, too, where I confidently dropped my clothes. Where have the people gone who reliably used to wash my laundry in the scarce water of Bangalore to have it then dried in the hot air which is standing still? Wind of change.
Merry Christmas from Rovinj
Just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas from Rovinj, my little beloved home town in North Croatia. This sunset at around 4.50 pm I took the day before yesterday. And what is slightly visible on the top left corner as a sickle is the moon.
And this is the view on the town which is beautifully lit for the season with the tower of the St. Euphemia signalling the upcoming 2007.
God bless you.
Feeds