In Phil’s view: “NSW goes to the polls this week with the choice between one of the most unpopular Labor governments ever, and an opposition with policies that feel like they’ve been dreamt up on the fly.”

Phil’s view is that Australia faces a particularly deep crisis of public leadership, which we discussed in the interview. The interview is embedded in the below widget. Just click “play”!

The world, as we all know, faces a massive leadership deficit (see video below). This has become painfully clear in recent weeks across the Arab world, but has long been the case. Faced with crisis in issues of health, income disparity and climate change (to name a few) we now need great leadership more than ever.

At the same time, the pull of the private sector and frustrations with the inability of government to effect change has caused many of the world’s best and brightest to avoid serving in positions of public office. The world is a lesser place for it.

For more than a year now, I have been involved in an initiative done in association with the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders to find ways of encouraging better public leadership. Our small group of six has now raised the issue for discussion in small groups that have included presidents and ministers from several nations, as well as high profile executives from major corporations.

Our efforts at tackling the issue were noticed by PwC, who have sponsored a number of events including gatherings at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos.

PwC also worked with us to prepare the paper below on the issue that appears below the video.

Tackling the World’s Leadership Deficit

Conventional wisdom has it that today’s best and brightest shun public service to seek better-compensated and more exciting opportunities in the private sector. But a worldwide survey of Young Global Leaders (YGLs) conducted on behalf of the World Economic Forum found that many if not most of these talented individuals would like to work in public service if career paths in government were better aligned with today’s fast-changing knowledge economies.

In PwC’s 14th Annual Global CEO Survey, private sector leaders from 69 countries signalled their relentless focus on talent: the availability of key skills is their second greatest concern after economic volatility. They’re changing their people strategies in multiple ways to address that concern.

But the world’s public sectors are non-combatants in the war for talent. So the challenge to the public sector is clear: governments must rapidly adopt private sector best practices in recruitment, retention, leadership and talent management. The public sector must also embrace social media, portfolio careers, project teams and other workplace developments that a younger generation assumes and expects.

We’ve developed this paper to spark dialogue on workforce issues common to governments worldwide. Through a review of literature and interviews with select leaders with experience in both public and private sectors, we hope to initiate conversation on:

• How governments can maintain their competitiveness in the war for talent
• How private sector leaders can (and should) assist their public sector peers
• How aspiring leaders can prepare themselves for public service

Competing for talent
Today’s governments must learn how to compete in a lightning-fast labour market where qualified job seekers have many choices, and boring or slow employers cannot compete. Above all, government agencies need to market the unique reward of a public service career – the chance to work in an organisation that makes an identifiable difference in people’s lives. That’s already the perception in countries such as Singapore and Norway, where the government is viewed as a source of innovation in society.
Potential hires understand this. Of the more than 300 Young Global Leaders who participated in the YGL survey – from more than 65 countries – 76 percent said they would consider a position in public office. A leadership position in public service is attractive to many of these highly motivated and talented young people because it offers the opportunity to make a difference and contribute to social change.

But less than 5 percent are currently engaged in public office, and just over 10 percent said they had previously held public sector positions. Why so few? Respondents said that they are deterred from entering the public sector due to the high level of bureaucracy; lack of a true meritocracy; insufficient work-life balance; low financial compensation; widespread fraud and corruption; and constant public scrutiny including media exposure.

Overcoming this challenge, in particular addressing the perception that public sector work is dull and bureaucratic, will require a sea change in how government agencies strategise and operate. The workplace itself is a key driver behind those perceptions; governments might have to change not only their recruitment and retention practices, but also their fundamental operations, if they want to be more attractive to the best and the brightest.

Consider, for example:
• High-potential leaders are drawn to environments where managers have more authority, including the ability to announce vacancies, recruit and screen candidates, decide who are best qualified, interview, and negotiate salary and conditions. That is usually the case in the private sector, but represents a shift in the regimented approach to human resources of many public sectors.
• Young recruits are drawn to roles that allow them to make creative contributions. In the private sector, that often means pairing Baby Boomers with Millennial generation workers to combine the knowledge of experienced workers with the energy and technology capabilities of younger workers.
• While pay is a consideration, it is by no means the only concern for leaders entering public service. Government employers can attract and retain hires by providing appropriate recognition for contributions, offering flexible work hours, and promoting a better work/life balance than their private sector counterparts.
• Governments that seek the best of today’s young leaders must embrace social media and other Web 2.0 tools that the private sector already employs. A generation weaned on Facebook and Twitter does not look for career opportunities in the classified ads or willingly sit for antiquated civil service exams.
• Public sector employers must provide a visible path to promotion and on-the-job mentoring, because young people today expect to move upwards quickly – or move on.
• Similarly, many Young Global Leaders also stressed the need for an easier path between the public and private sectors, so that a career could more easily encompass meaningful assignments in both spheres. While there have been cases where the relationships between business and government have been criticised as too cozy, it is possible to structure secondments with adequate accountability to avoid conflicts of interest. Many more leaders would bring their skills to public service if they saw a secure path back to their established careers. And public service gives a leader knowledge and experience that can benefit future employers at both commercial enterprises and NGOs.

Snapshots of high-performers
Conversations with a few Young Global Leaders and other high performers reveal a wealth of ideas and proposals to help the government agencies around the world that are facing the reality that they need to attract and retain key talent in the decades to come. Below are a few excerpts, edited for clarity, that explain the barriers they experienced, ideas for governments, and advice for aspiring individuals.

Today, Leslie Maasdorp is president of Bank of America Merrill Lynch – Southern Africa. Prior to the repeal of apartheid in 1993, he was active in the African National Congress, for which he was jailed for a year and a half without trial. After multi-racial democratic elections in 1994, he joined the new government, where he became special advisor to the Minister of Labour. While he was thrilled to work in the administration of Nelson Mandela and by the opportunity to make a real difference, he was frustrated by hierarchy and protocol.

To me the public sector was an incredible learning platform. The exposure and experience that I gained during that period was just phenomenal. The first big plus was the feeling I could have an impact on a macro scale. The satisfaction that goes with that, money does not come into the equation. You know you’re part of history.

I don’t think the government is doing enough right now to attract people into public service. It’s just too attractive for youngsters out of good schools to go work for Goldman Sachs and so on, where you get very intense training with proper mentors, which was totally lacking in public service when I was there. If you really want to create people devoted to government work for the long term, you need to give them exposure to a few areas before they settle into their job. Let them see the bigger picture, how the different pieces have to work together.

As a member of the Canadian parliament, Scott Brison represents Kings-Hants, Nova Scotia. He is a key Liberal Party spokesperson on economic issues and currently serves in the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet as the liberal party critic for finance. He served as minister of public works and government services, and receiver general of Canada, from 2004 to 2006, as the youngest member of Prime Minister Paul Martin’s cabinet.

Brison also has had extensive private sector experience ranging from business start-ups and US market development to serving as vice president of a Canadian investment bank.

The most important issue, when I ask people to enter public life on the political side, is that people will enter government if they think they can make a difference. They have to know that. You can convince somebody to leave the private sector and take a personal and financial sacrifice and give up their privacy – you can get good people to do that if they think they can make a difference. That means the system must be functional.

Life in government can be frustrating as hell sometimes, but you can make a difference some days. It’s up to people like me to convince people who are bright and talented. It’s fine to say the system is broken, but that’s the easy way out. If you’re serious about the system getting fixed, then get in there and fix it.

Pierre-Olivier Bouée is managing director, office of the chief executive, at Prudential plc in London. After graduating from the École Nationale d’Administration, one of the prestigious French graduate schools entrusted with the selection and initial training of senior French officials, he joined the Treasury Department. He served in the French government for six years, but was frustrated by the pace of progress towards meaningful outcomes, and lack of opportunity for advancement.

I joined the Treasury because I was keen to work on financial matters. I was very keen to bring my contribution to changing France. But then as soon as you start seeing the reality from the inside, you realise that change is not that simple. It’s like moving a big elephant.

I was trained by the civil service, so I am very keen to give back at some point. But the government has to find a way. There has to be someone who I would see as a role model who could say, come, and we will make a difference.

In December, the government of Mongolia named Gankhuyag Chuulum, a former executive director of XacBank and now director of Tenger Financing Group, as the new deputy minister of finance. Gankhuyag has also been economic policy advisor of the Prime Minister since January 2009. This appointment marks a return to government work for Gankhuyag, who earlier worked as controller of commerce in the Mongolian Stock Exchange and as controller and state inspector in the Bank of Mongolia, before becoming an entrepreneur.

When I was called to serve, as a citizen, I thought, ‘I have to get involved to help these guys connect the dots, as it relates to efficiency, populism, all these things the government is criticised for.’ We are a democratic country and we have to do a lot of things for the economy to stand on its feet. Financially, I’m independent so I took this opportunity when the Prime Minister called me. I slept on it a while, but he didn’t have to call me three times.

After just one month at the new job, I have been able to inspire people to become open, to start using Facebook and Twitter, and I discuss things openly with people who report to me. Now that I am in a high-level position, I am much more satisfied than before. There is a feeling of real power to effect changes, and to help the leadership of the country steer in the right direction, faster and more efficiently.

In September, Jitesh Gadhia joined the Blackstone Group as a senior managing director in its Corporate Advisory Group, based in London. Gadhia has almost 20 years of investment banking experience, having held senior positions at Barclays Capital, ABN AMRO and Baring Brothers. On the public side, Gadhia serves as a trustee of the UK’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, and has also held a board position in public health service.

Because of my board work, I have a little bit of perspective on the intersection between public and private sectors, and finding a way to create a two-way traffic between the sectors. One of the things that’s been interesting, that I think has actually worked quite well, is people from the finance sector have been seconded into the Financial Services Authority and vice versa.

I was speaking on a panel in India in November, and said, ‘The whole talent management system that the private sector increasingly uses is absolutely something that the public sector needs to adopt and very quickly.’ It’s probably a cliché, but it’s true, that one of the most strategic things any CEO should be doing is having a talent management programme that creates sustained competitive advantage. You have to do that in the public sector, too.

The results of our survey of Young Global Leaders refute the conventional wisdom that they are more concerned about high salaries and work-life balance than about playing a meaningful role in society.

These young people have a strong sense of social responsibility, are very career focused, and are eager to contribute. They will demand greater job responsibilities earlier in their careers, and will seek out career development opportunities. For its part, the YGL network is organising a Master Class in 2011, to encourage tomorrow’s leaders to consider public leadership, and equip them to succeed in the drive towards public office.

Public sector organisations that tap this emerging workforce have a unique opportunity to enhance their performance. And collaborations between public and private sector organisations – particularly those that are needed to address global challenges like climate change – would improve their chances of success if leaders on both sides shared common experiences.

Not since seeing Gore present an early version of the presentation that became An Inconvenient Truth have I seen an environmental issue presented in such a compelling and urgent manner.

For context, this was a small session for the Young Global Leaders at the World Economic Forum’s Tianjin meeting. I first saw Al Gore present an early version of An Inconvenient Truth at a similar-style gathering in Davos. There were only 30 of us at the Al Gore meeting (so he did not use a cherry picker), several participants shifted their lives and companies towards addressing climate change. A similar feeling came out of this meeting, with several of us attending saying that something must be done.

We need “An Inconvenient Truth” about water.

Peter’s style was highly convincing from a statistical and data perspective (for a CEO audience), but we need to find a way that some of his data can be presented in a compelling manner to show people how it affects their lives. His presentation needs some more storytelling to it so that non-numbers people like me can relate.

Here’s some aspects of his presentation that I found most interesting, much of which comes from a study Peter worked with McKinsey to produce.

Based on current trends, water usage will be 40 percent above the current available water supplies by 2030.

Worse than this global figure, however, is the plight faced by many regions in the developing world. Roughly one-third of the world’s population is concentrated in countries where the water deficit will be larger than 50 percent.

Industrialization is a key drivers of the shortage, with withdrawals coming from:

1- Agriculture: 71 percent of global water withdrawals now, dropping to 65 percent by 2030.
2- Industry: 16 percent now, rising to 22 percent by 2030

But what about improvements in water usage? Unfortunately there is not much improvement going on. Efficiency of water usage takes place at an annual rate of roughly 1 percent per year for both agriculture and industry.

Already the supply/demand gap is prompting some communities to unsustainably tap aquifers, rivers and wetlands.

What can be done? Make An Inconvenient Truth for Water!

Anyone interested?

One of my favorite people in the zone of Social Media-meets-idealism, Nancy Lublin of Do Something introduces 3 trends to watch in 2010 for the use of Social Media for activism:

1- Crowdsourced philanthropy enables “the crowd” to decide to whom organizations and companies grant money. As the advisor of both Chase Community Giving and Pepsi Refresh campaigns, Lublin knows the power of this new model. As for Pepsi, they have decided to ditch the expensive SuperBowl ads and instead introduce an online project, where people can submit ideas and vote for others.

2- SMS fundraising: Texting to give has proven powerful during the Haiti crisis, where people have been able to donate money via text messaging. This model might have upset a few parents along the way as the generous children rarely pay the mobile phone bill themselves, Lublin says.

3- Slacktivism is the idea of clicking to give online. The concept has suffered from negative connotations, but Lublin says that the quick and easy way to make a difference appeals to the younger generations.

On land, do we eat tigers and lions?

No, of course not. In the oceans, however, many of us often do.

Sharks, tuna and similar ocean hunters play an important role by maintaining the health of the ecosystem. Saving them from human consumption is an obsession by National Geographic Ocean Explorer Enric Sala.

I have been on the receiving end of admonition from Enric on at least two occasions, so decided to do this video while at the World Economic Forum to assuage my guilt and explain the situation to others.

Enric’s point is that by eating from the top of the fish food chain we are destroying the ocean’s ecosystem in an unsustainable way. Other unsustainable seafood includes shrimps, of course. Unregulated shrimp farming has destroyed large swathes of Thailand’s coastal wetlands.

Instead of the lions and tigers of the ocean, we should eat lower on the food chain.

This means: Sardines, Herring, anchovies and oysters.

In addition to helping the ocean, they are more healthy to eat due to their lower levels accumulated mercury.

Enric also warns against Salmon due to the chemicals in the fish.

But what kind of Sushi should we eat? “Vegetarian Sushi, of course,” Enric will deadpan.

Fish to avoid: Bluefish Tuna, Caviar/Wild Sturgeon, Sharks, Swordfish.

In his work at the National Geographic Society, Sala has set a goal of preserving the ocean through a national parks-style system. Currently, only 1 percent of the ocean is protected, but in order to maintain sustainability, at least 20 percent should be protected by 2020.

An ocean preserve would create a buffer for overfishing and help the ocean survive for future generations.

Check out Enric’s page at National Geographic and you too will soon want to help save the ocean.

Thanks to Enric, my New Year’s resolution for the Chinese year of the Tiger? Stop eating the Tigers of the ocean!

First, the Ivy League model: Get as many highly paid Nobel laureates and great researchers as possible and select a small number of elite students. This model has been increasingly copied by many state schools, with the result of a somewhat inefficient use of resources. Many government supported schools, who have a mandate to educate the masses, get caught up in the race to have prestigious professors and selective admissions.

Now, enter the Internet, a total game-changer. Suddenly you now have scaleable teaching methods where one teacher can engage an almost limitless population of students over distance and time.

One of the best examples, Cabrera said, is the University of Phoenix, which offer online degrees using great materials and teachers.

These may be online degrees, but Angel says you would be wrong to dismiss them. Instead of concentrating on paying many professors, the University of Phoenix and others in this cadre of online universities concentrate on creating the best possible learning curriculum that can be taught online and then administered in-person by lower non-specialists.

The power of the model is that they now have scale. Another interesting implementation of these methods that I have experienced is Praxis Language with their Chinese Pod teaching method. Praxis combines podcasts, blogging and twittering in a very effective way to teach Mandarin and a range of other languages.

Ken Carroll, one of the founders of Praxis, speaks about how the Internet creates a new cadre of teachers who become almost famous due to the large following of students under their tutelage. I experienced this effect when meeting Ken and his colleagues in Shanghai. Their podcasts gave me a tremendous sense of intimacy with them, a near emotional bond, though we had never met before. Here is a video interview I did with Ken.

New media channels are opening up times for learning that did not exist before. Now I can glance at my mobile phone to review a lesson in an elevator, instead waiting to sit down with a heavy textbook. With an Amazon Kindle or other e-reader a child does not need to carry a 30 kg backpack of books.

Here in Hong Kong, with the regular threat of avian flu, many schools have invested heavily in some quite effective e-learning platforms. There is even talk about launching school within virtual worlds to make the learning a more immersive experience.

The problem, of course, is that many professors and universities are – by definition – highly conservative. Many need to wake up to the opportunities (and threats) of new styles of teaching.

As a side note, I am proud to claim credit for having converted Angel (photo on left) into a blogger!

Some years ago he was honoured as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. It is a little known fact that 2005 was the United Nations International Year of Microcredit, Bishop was part of the Advisors Group.

He has served on the faculty at the London Business School and was educated at Oxford University.

Speakers included the schoolchildren, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Richard Branson and Peter Gabriel, who sang Biko a capella.

Hearing Desmond Tutu speak was an incredible experience. I have rarely seen someone captivate and hold an audience with such simplicity, humility and light heartedness.

At the end of the event Peter Gabriel led the entire room in singing his tribute to Steve Biko.

As a non-musical person, this quest for the meaning of music has become a bit of a crusade. I asked the same of the Chinese composer Chou Wen-Chung.

The video is much better value, but here is a compressed resume of our discussion. (Which concluded with my opening question unanswered!)

Music is wonder, magic, life, without the limitations of words.
Music expresses emotion without the brain betraying the heart.
Music does not have the limitations of language because it is free of words.
Music allows you to communicate through time, allowing a composer from hundreds of years ago to move us to tears.
Don’t expect anything from music, just let it take you to places in your soul that you didn’t know existed.
We sometimes cry while listening to music and we don’t even know why.
Sometimes music just touches a string of the soul that needed to be released or relaxed.
The more you know the work and the composer, the more powerful the impact of the music.
The beauty of performing is that your relationship with the work changes as you change.
At the same time, music is close to science and based on mathematical ratios.
Why is it that Mozart’s requiem has such a profound effect on its listeners?
I don’t think we can really know what music is.

It is hard to fit the sprawling Outblaze empire into one sentence (or YouTube video), so here’s two videos and a few sentences to describe the company founded in Hong Kong by Yat Siu.

Starting life in 1998 as an email service provider for ISPs around the world (Currently 40 million users), Outblaze has branched out into everything from hosting the Sanriotown online community, the Hello Kitty MMORPG to redoing cartoons from Turner’s Cartoon network into 3D versions (see video on Dream Cortex below). In between that, they are involved in the FON wifi network, the Activ8 Worldwide online ad company and Typhoon games. (I am sure I have forgotten other key companies!)

Beyond their dayjob on the Internet, Outblaze and Yat have led advocacy on a number of online and offline causes, including the fight against Spam, Creative Commons, Open Source and generally supporting free expression on the Internet. More here.

Thanks for the tour of the company, Yat!

Technorati Tags: activ8worldwide.com, hellokittyonline.com, China, dream cortex, fon, Hello Kitty, Hong Kong, Outblaze, sanriotown, typhoon games, yat siu

Van Jones, a green economy activist and founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, describes how US corn ethanol subsidies have created a dangerous perversion of the food prices.

The great ethanol swindle:
Ethanol is supposed to saves the environment by offering a renewable source of energy (corn and sugar), but the truth about ethanol’s impact is far more complex.

Corn ethanol is inefficient
Jones explains that due to the fertilizer inputs for growing corn, the energy consuming conversion to ethanol and low output of usable fuel from corn, corn-based ethanol is not an efficient means of producing fuel. Corn-based ethanol’s return is roughly on a one-to-one basis, meaning that you are only getting out the same amount of energy you are putting in. By contrast, sugar-based ethanol produces something like ten times as much energy as it takes to create. The US is not, however, a good zone for growing sugar cane.

Linking food and fuel hurts the poor
By offering American farmers another market for selling corn besides food, ethanol subsidies more tightly link food to the price of oil and other fuels. The result is that rising fuel prices create a direct demand for corn, thus increasing the price of a basic food material. Jones cited Mexico’s food riots last January as a precursor to what we will see in the future. Angered at the rising price of tortillas, tens of thousands of Mexican’s took to the streets in protest. To draw an extreme image from Jones’ thinking: The poor will starve while the rich drive cars fueled by food.

Sugar ethanol also has risks
While sugar ethanol offers a far greater energy output than corn-based ethanol, there are environmental risks: A rise in the price of sugar cane could inspire Brazilian farmers to cut down more rain forest to grow sugar cane.

Technorati Tags: ella baker, ellabakercenter, ethanol, food, food prices, poor, van jones, vanjones

Jennifer Corriero, co-founder of TakingITglobal.org, describes innovations to their

Online service that helps young activists
The site, claiming hundreds of thousands of visitors each month from countries around the world, aims to help students and young people improve the world through organized community action.

Activist toolkit
TakingITGlobal gives advice and offers online tools for organizing collective action. This includes discussion groups, tools for email campaigns, petitions, etc.

Knowledge and inspiration
Those who are not sure of what causes need their help can log on and find out more information about the problems facing the world and what they can do.

Two sections of the site Jennifer emphasizes people to check out are Commit to a better world and Guide to Action

More details in the video…

Technorati Tags: Jennifer Corriero, takingitglobal, TakingITglobal.org, wef, World Economic Forum, ygl, Young Global Leaders

In this video, Leslie Maasdorp and I speak about the program we just attended that Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government created for the World Economic Forum‘s Young Global Leaders.

Entitled Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century, the program has been described by the World Economic Forum and written about by Harvard, so this takes the participant’s perspective.

Intended for those members of the YGL community considering the program, I invite other attendees to add comments that would help those considering the program this Spring.

Previous YGL postings can be seen here.

Thomas Crampton:

I found the program highly intense and extremely rewarding on several levels:

1- Knowledge: The Kennedy School gathered a range of A-team of faculty from across Harvard and MIT to present great overviews of issues ranging from global security and climate change to trade and demographics.

2- Skills: The Kennedy School brought in professors from at least three business schools (Harvard, Wharton and Stanford) to work on a variety of skills from negotiation and improved decision-making to the skills needed for creating and leading a team.

3- Participants: As in every YGL gathering, the participants themselves are a highlight. Really great group of people, each of whom has more than one amazing story.

Jennifer Corriero:

This program was incredible!

Through the many presentations and interactive sessions, we have been exposed to such a diverse range of perspectives on the problems facing our world today – with an underlying sense of hope in our capacity shape the future. The power of our individual and collective leadership is yet to be fully realized – and I know that coming together as a community has been an important step in a critical process of change.

Let’s continue to learn and grow together!

Technorati Tags: Davos, Harvard, ksg, Leslie Maasdorp, WEF, World Economic Forum, ygl, Young Global Leaders

Citing coalition-building tactic from Gulf War I, the 1985 Plaza Accord that revalued the dollar, Clinton’s NAFTA negotations and others, James Sebenius presents four key tips in an essay taken from the book Wise Choices. (I read the essay in preparation for a conference organized next week at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government by the World Economic Forum.)

Negotiations that involve a coalition or group decision can either be:

I – Simultaneous – All parties sit in one room.
Open and collective decisions encourage buy-in from all stakeholders and generate new options through brainstorming in debate, but can make original and controversial initiatives impossible to undertake.

II – Sequential – Many bilateral negotiations.
A sequential approach allow an innovator to overcome blocks and hurdles that would arise in general discussion, but the methods can be sneaky, manipulative and even unethical.

In selecting the approach consider:

a – Failure potential within simultaneous negotiations.

b – The value (or detriment) of getting some players on board first.

c – Cost in time and resources to conduct bilateral negotiations.

When undertaking sequential negotiation be wary of folk maxims such as:

- Isolate opponents

- Get allies on board first

- Start with easy parties and then get hard ones

- Get an internal consensus before negotiating externally

Instead, Sebenius argues looking beyond individuals and coalitions to actually map out relationships of key players:

a – Exploit patterns of deference – Convince those who can convince others through deference, influence or antagonism.

b – Progressively worsen the no-deal alternative – Make non-supporters feel their standing worsens by not joining.

c – Build inevitability – Create momentum by getting a series of parties to agree. Momentum can even be built outside those whose support what you need: Foreign leaders’ support of a presidential policy can be used to persuade a reluctant Congress and US population.

d – Reveal information selectively – Basic negotiation skill for someone trying to buy out small landowners to create a large tract. Don’t reveal your final objective too soon.

Interesting points, but is he a modern day Machiavelli? (If you like his ideas, it appears that you can employ him for consultancy work here)

Any further thoughts?

Technorati Tags: James Sebenius, Sebenius Lax, WEF, World Economic Forum, Young Global Leaders

In a video featuring many photographs of Young Global Leaders, David Aikman of the World Economic Forum explains in this video how, why, who and for what reason the group was formed.

Operating under the umbrella of the World Economic Forum – the Geneva-based organization founded by Klaus Schwab that has a high profile annual meeting in Davos – the Young Global Leaders group is described as

a unique, multi-stakeholder community of the world’s most extraordinary leaders who are 40 years old or younger and who are ready to dedicate a part of their time and energy to jointly work towards a better future.

Each year we identify 200-300 exceptional individuals, drawn from every region in the world and from a myriad of disciplines and sectors. Together, they form a powerful international community which can dramatically impact the global future.

As I get to know them (Disclosure: I am a member of the group) I have begun compiling videos and postings about the group and their often extraordinary stories.

So far, I have put up the following postings/videos (or check this link for the latest updates.)

Angel Cabrera pushes a hippocratic oath for business
Is the price of Jack Ma’s Alibaba too high?
Matthew Bishop on the Danger of Billionaire Philanthropists
Salman Iqbal on Ary and TV in Pakistan
Niklas Zennstrom’s first interview after leaving Skype
Jack Hidary turns the big apples car fleets green
Penny Low on Singapore’s Social Innovation Park
Raju Narisetti on why newspapers still work in India
A lighter moment: Mabel van Oranje and Jimmy Wales
Cory Doctorow on how to be an Uber Blogger
Adam Bly’s Rolling Stone Magazine for Science
James Kondo on fighting obesity of the rich and malnutrition of the poor

Disclosure: I am a member of the YGL group.

Technorati Tags: Adam Bly, Alibaba, Angel Cabrera, Cory Doctorow, Davos, Jack Hidary, Jack Ma, James Kondo, Jimmy Wales, Matthew Bishop, Niklas Zennstrom, penny low, Raju Narisetti, Salman Iqbal, seed media, social innovation park, WEF, World Economic Forum, Young Global Leaders

The oath:

Students at Thunderbird have voted to adopt a Professional Oath of Honor, which they helped formulate. Graduating students pledge to act with honesty and integrity, oppose corruption and exploitation, and create “sustainable prosperity worldwide.”

The rationale:

If executives are to have a functioning moral compass, Cabrera said, business schools have an important role to play.

“You may be taught right and wrong at home, like not poking someone in the eye, but you certainly don’t have conversations at the dinner table about stock options and backdating them, and is that good or is that bad,” Cabrera said.

Technorati Tags: Angel Cabrera, Hippocratic oath, Thunderbird

Listening to greatest hits queen (by WinAmp Windows Plugin)

Thomas Friedman highlights, efforts by Jack Hidary, a good friend who recently visited us in Beijing, to turn New York’s car fleets green:

Take the New York City taxi story.

Two years ago, David Yassky, a City Council member, sat down with one of his backers, Jack Hidary, a technology entrepreneur, to brainstorm about how to make New York City greener — at scale.

For starters, they checked with the Taxi and Limousine Commission to see what it would take to replace the old gas-guzzling Crown Victoria yellow cabs, which get around 10 miles a gallon, with better-mileage, low-emission hybrids. Great idea, only it turned out to be illegal, thanks to some old size regulations designed to favor Crown Vics.

Recalled Mr. Hidary: “When they first told me, I said, ‘Are you serious? Illegal?’”

Friedman hopes that:

When the Big Apple becomes the Green Apple, and 40 million tourists come through every year and take at least one hybrid cab ride, they’ll go back home and ask their leaders, “Why don’t we have hybrid cabs?”

Go Jack and Smart Transportation!!

Technorati Tags: Smarttransportation.org, hybrids, Jack Hidary, Green Apple

A new breed of super-rich is now facing the decision of what to do with their money and Matthew Bishop, US business editor of The Economist has been looking at their philanthropic activities.

They certainly have the potential to do a great deal of good, but they could easily pervert the current aid and development system (not necessarily a bad thing!).

They are rich
The new uber rich – Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and the Google boys, among others – say they will give away their money in newly creative and effective ways. In the last 20 years there has been a period of unprecedented wealth creation, with a huge portion of it collected by a small coterie of individuals. According to Forbes magazine, there are now 950 billionaires.

Correction: They are really, really rich
The wealth accumulated by these individuals goes far beyond the fortunes of previous famed philanthropists. In real dollar terms, Bill Gates is wealthier than Carnegie, Rockefeller or any of the great philanthropists of the past. Based on this, these super rich believe they can change the rules of the game.

But are they really doing good?
While Bishop agrees that skepticism is healthy when faced with claims of new forms of philanthropy and people doing good, the approach and style of this new generation is measurably different.

- They aim for change from the bottom, up…
These new rich approach their giving in a much more rigorous and demanding manner than earlier generations, Bishop says. “This is not about building a library with your name, it is about trying to educate people about things that we all take for granted,” Bishop said.

- …and they have time
Many of these super-rich are relatively young and can devote a significant portion of their lives to the task.

But the we are entering uncharted territory
This confluence of wealth, time and a desire to change things puts the current development model on notice: Things can and will change. This certainly could be good thing, but does require oversight.

The frightening result:
We currently expect governments, development-related institutions (The World Bank, UNDP, etc) or relatively ordinary people (voters in a democracy) to make decisions about public policy and the way forward, but these super rich can afford to make decision that will affect millions of people with little accountability.

“These billionaires genuinely think they are trying to make the world a better place, but they challenge the set of assumptions we base our politics on,” Bishop says. “We need a really good public debate about the way these people act so that we can allow them to do the good they wish to do, but not so that they act without accountability.”

Matthew’s book will be published next year.

Technorati Tags: Dalian, Davos, Matthew Bishop, The Economist, WEF, World Economic Forum, Young Global Leaders

Salman Iqbal, President and CEO of the ARY Digital Television Network, speaks about the vast changes sweeping through Pakistan’s television and media market.

Some background:
When launched in 1997, ARY was the first private television network and has been a key force in modernizing Pakistan’s television. The network operates out of Dubai Media City.

The website Pakaffairs.com said about ARY:

This channel has truly brought and depicted the media democracy of Pakistani origin where “everything goes” is the name of the game. Face to face hearty debates, sharing views and opinions openly, exposing issues of political nature, cleverly created political parody and comedy are the crux of this channel. Give it two thumbs up!

Iqbal himself is unencumbered with a traditional media outlook to his business: Prior to running the television station, Iqbal was involved in other businesses within the ARY group, including treasury, gold and jewelry, asset management and property.

The Interview:

IPTV remains distant for Pakistan
Due to Internet penetration and cost of cable vs broadband:
$3.50: Cable, monthly subscription.
$600: Broadband, monthly subscription (for shared connection that only reaches broadband speed sometimes)

But TV has opened up
When the Dubai-based ARY launched Pakistan’s first private TV station there were no competitors. Now there are more than 50 stations run by about 20 companies. ARY itself has 13 channels, including domestic production and international stations, such as HBO, Nickelodeon and Fashion TV.

Thanks in part to China
Cheap TVs produced in China have increased the number of televisions from 9 million a few years ago to more than 22 million television sets today.

But making money is tough
Almost all of Pakistan’s TV is delivered by cable operators, but with just $3.50 per monthly from subscribers, the cable companies do not share their revenue with the television broadcasters. The 90 plus channels available over cable (some pirate) are delivered for free to major urban centers. Outside major urban centers subscribers can only get 10 stations.

ARY’s satellite solution
Creating a direct-to-home service along the lines of Sky or Malaysia’s Astra is the solution that Iqbal sees ahead. The dish (the size a a dinner plate) and will be free to the customer, subsidized by monthly subscription cards bought by customers.

The challenge: The Government Legislation
The biggest challenge to moving ahead is convincing the government to open up for the media, Iqbal said. “The government was built on the media’s back and now the government says it was destroyed because of the media. We are saying the solution government needs to be media friendly.”

Technorati Tags: ARY digital Network, Davos, Dalian, WEF, FashionTV, Dubai Media City, World Economic Forum, Young Global Leaders, Ary, Salman Iqbal