The Lion and the Dragon

This past week, ICBC, the world’s most valuable bank (valued at $319 bn) took a 20% stake in Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank by assets. The deal is worth $ 5.5bn.

This is the largest foreign investment by a Chinese bank anywhere in the world. And it is the the largest ever foreign-direct investment in South Africa. The transaction is the latest example of China’s growing interest in Africa, and also illustrates the expanding web of trade and investment that links together emerging markets and their growing weight in the world’s economy. Other deals are now in the pipeline, with China’s mobile industry looking at African heavyweights, such as MTN.

Where are the American banks and telecomms companies? They seem to be focused on the Middle East – a much higher-value-per-person market. But, the future is likely to belong to those companies that seek the “fortune at the bottom of the pyramid“.

The Economist concluded,

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The Earth has Soul

I was sent this recently. It was written by an engineer from Venmyn, a big South African mining consulting company.

Are Geologists Goofy Enough? By Fiona Harper

At Venmyn, when our esteemed, eccentric colleagues come up with mad-cap mining methods or weird deposits, we have the tendency to shrug and exclaim just a goofy geologist. Well, maybe I have lived too long in Knysna, where tree-hugging and boom-smoking are normal, but my own goofy tendencies are alive and well. I have been casually reading laymans versions of the latest research in that queen of the sciences, physics, as well as in medicine and biology. Each of these has seen some significant re-adjustments in their views of the world, even if they are not fully accepted theories.

The inadequacy of the theory of relativity to fully explain observable and theoretical events has been recognised. The latest string theory and identification of eleven dimensions has certainly expanded our concepts of the material universe. The recognition that the smallest building block of the universe is a particle of energy and that everything is built from this same energy in different configurations, has massive ramifications.

Basically the weirdos and gurus have been saying for two thousand years that we are all one and physics is starting to wonder if they may not have a point. Medicine has seen that the body cannot be adequately understood in terms of a purely bio-chemical system but that mind exists throughout every cell in the body and that soul and spirit have powerful, unpredictable influences.

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Planet in Peril on CNN

I am sitting watching a documentary series on CNN, by Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Cupta, called “Planet in Peril”. See the related website here.

It starts as a list of climate change issues, from melting ice caps to rising sea levels, disappearing lakes to heating islands and malaria. It’s a great litany of the disaster awaiting us, and spans the globe. It would be tough to argue that we are in midst of a climate change crisis.

The question remains, though – are we causing it? Can we change it? What must we do? These questions are dealt with in the show, too.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN sponsored largest scientific report on climate change ever published, was released earlier this year. This is the group that won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Check out their website here. It’s tough to argue with the evidence presented in their reports. But some do, of course, especially those funded by big energy companies that have the most to lose from a global backlash against companies causing climate change.

This is a good documentary. Check it out.

Their website also gives great resources for students.

Why Ethical Consumption is Taking Off

Dr Graeme Codrington’s latest presentation is called “Hannah’s Rules” which alerts companies to an essential emerging trend: the ethical consumer. In this article, he explains WHY ethical consumption is such a growing trend.

Why Ethical Consumption is Taking Off

By Dr Graeme Codrington

Today’s consumers are not just looking for a good product at a fair price. They are looking beyond the product or service to the ethics of the company that supplies it. The symptoms of this shift in focus by consumers is evident in the concerns that these customers have about the companies they purchase from. There is growing interest, for example, in labour practices, diversity quotas, environmental policies, social responsibility, and even CEO salaries are under scrutiny.

So-called “triple bottom line” reporting, which gets companies to present not just financial results, but also social and environmental results and impact, too, is one way in which corporates are trying to respond. And they need to respond because are voicing their concerns, in everything from boycotting stores to suing corporations. Companies like Ford, Gap, Nike, Walmart and KfC have all experienced the wrath of ethical consumers in recent years, and have been forced to respond quickly to protect their reputations and their very existence as companies.

This growing emphasis on ethical consumption is a trend that cannot be ignored. It is not going to go away. There are some important changes in the world that provide indications that ethical consumers will continue to be a growing force in the next few decades. Companies would do well to understand this trend, and be proactive in dealing with it.

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Who’s Looking After Them?

Karin Wellman, co-founder and director of TomorrowTraining, asks, “Who is training your trainers?” Trainers and those in charge of the development of other staff members are often neglected as recipients of training and development themselves. Karin highlights this as a critical problem for businesses today, and suggests a solution.

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Do You Know Talent?

What is talent, and do you really want it? If so, how much talent do you want, where will you find it and what are you going to do with the talented people you manage to attract to your company? Barrie Bramley turns his attention to these and similar questions, as he helps companies to see talent as their most important competitive differentiator.

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Dear Yves…a conversation around Values

Following a presentation on Invitational Leadership at a two day workshop for senior leaders at a prominent multi-national, the CEO of the company and Keith Coats engaged in a chat about values and the role they play in a company. He invited Keith to email him some thoughts around the four values his company had framed. Here is Keith’s response. It is an excellent insight into the type of values-driven leadership required in companies today.

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“There’s a problem with Facebook”

At least, that’s what my favourite Talk Radio station (Radio 702) said during their half hourly news reports throughout today. As a regular facebook user (see my profile here, and challenge me to Rock, Paper, Scissors here, if you have nerves of steel), I was intrigued. Read the story here (not sure how long their archives last, so I have copied it in full below).

Now the story itself is a fairly newsworthy one – especially at this time of year, when final year High School students are writing final exams, and some are trying to find illegal shortcuts to success. BUT, to headline the piece, and add commentary to it, indicating that this is a Facebook problem is ridiculous. And that’s what the news readers did this morning.

What a load of rubbish!! This is such typical media hype. The type that breeds dangerous attitudes in parents, and really does more harm than good.

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The Airbus A380 is delivered – but will it deliver?

The long awaited monster passenger plane, the Airbus A380, is now ready for delivery. In fact, Air Singapore today took delivery of their first plane with much pomp and ceremony. Read about it here at the international airlines news, and read about the financial details at Forbes.com.

Some people have said:

• The plane is too late – the market has moved on, and there won’t be enough orders to pay for it.
• Given the delays and increases in development costs, they need to sell almost double the estimated number of planes to turn a profit.
• Its unlikely the market will be able to absorb the additional planes they need to sell.
• The plane will become obsolete before they sell 400 units.
• The plane is too big – no-one wants to fly with that many people.

In fact, these things were all said of the Boeing 747 when it was introduced to the market in 1970. Some people are saying very similar things of the A380 today. They have obviously not looked at the past and learnt from it. That’s a problem everywhere today, isn’t it?

Shinsedae – a new generation in Korea

A frequently asked question when we present “Mind the Gap” – a presentation about different generations – is whether these generations can be found all around the world. People battle to believe that the elegant simplicity of the generations model applies in different countries and across multiple cultures.

Of course, the generational model is not applicable to every single individual everywhere (which model is?), but it IS exceptionally robust. And more and more research around the world is showing this to be true. The latest piece of research I picked up comes from one of the students my colleague Keith had contact with at the Asia Pacific Leadership Programme he teaches at every year at the University of Hawaii (read more about this amazing program at Wikipedia).

The title is: Shinsedae: Conservative Attitudes of a ‘New Generation’ in South Korea and the Impact on the Korean Presidential Election, By Park Sun-Young – click here to read it in full.

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British kids showing what the new new things will be

I think the following report was originally from The Economist, 23 August 2007 edition:

AT FIRST glance, the annual survey of the communications market by Ofcom, Britain’s telecoms regulator, makes comforting reading for traditional-media executives looking for their future customers. Not only are children spending more time consuming media than their older siblings did just a few years ago, but they are also consuming more types. Three-quarters of British 11-year-olds now have their own television set, video-games player and mobile phone.

But this is where the comfort stops, because kids are abandoning old and not-so-old media for the new. Whereas two years ago 59% of those aged 8 to 15 regularly watched videos, only 38% do now. Two years ago 61% regularly played video games compared with 53% today. Most are abandoning stand-alone media, such as DVDs, and turning instead to media such as the internet and in particular social-networking websites. The trend seems to accelerate as children move into their teenage years. Nearly two-thirds of children between the ages of 12 and 15 use the internet, compared with 41% of those aged 8 to 11.

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Digital Generation is Losing Its Heritage

I was sent this recently:

The generation of young people who were born into the digital era may be more connected to each other, but less connected to their cultural heritage, warns sociologist Jos de Haan of Erasmus University Rotterdam. They are “chatting” more but reading less; playing more, but researching and learning less than preceding generations.

Though adept at finding their way around the virtual world, digital-era youth are not finding their way to institutions that connect them with the cultural riches of their past, according to de Haan.

The Internet is perceived as a rival to traditional culture, but it could become an ally: De Haan challenges museums, libraries, archives, and other institutions to do more to connect with the digital generation than merely digitize their collections.

SOURCE: Erasmus University Rotterdam, http://www.eur.nl/english/pressroom/detail/article/2177/

Reflections on life without reliable Internet access

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed the stand still in postings over the last month. This is largely (but not entirely) due to my not having Internet access at my home office. This is entirely due to South Africa’s telecomms provider, Telkom, not being able to supply me with a telephone in my new home for NINE weeks now. They have promised to have it in by this Friday! I will refrain from ranting, suffice to say that there is a website dedicated to people like me – its called Helkom.

My reflection, though, is on how much I rely on having instant access to the Net. My last few weeks have felt that low level functioning. This led me to wonder why hotels still insist on charging for Net access. They do not charge you extra for electricity (although some guests must surely use more than others). They do not charge for water usage (although some guests use more than others). So, why charge for Net access? At worst, they can put a cap on usage. At best, just build it into the price, like they do with other utilities.

For now, the coffee shops in my suburb are smiling – especially those that provide Internet access (free or otherwise).

MP3 stethoscopes

Earlier this month, researchers at a medical conference on respiratory diseases in Stockholm, reported that MP3 players with built in microphones are better than traditional stethoscopes.

In addition to picking up many respiratory noises better than the stethoscope, they have the added advantage of being able to record the sounds they’re listening to. These digital sound files can then be scrutinised and sent to others for a second opinion, as well as stored for later reference or comparison.

If this is accepted by the medical fraternity, it won’t be long before computer programmes are written to do the analysis of the breathing sounds automatically (similar to how blood tests are now done by machine, and not by lab coated technicians peering into microscopes). This is one step closer to complete home diagnosis, and just another reason why doctors need to understand (like everyone else in every other industry) that these days your value lies less and less in what you sell (or what you do), and more and more in who you are, the connections you make, and how you do what you do.

October ezine

Edition: October 2007 Available online at: http://www.tmtd.biz/articles This month at a glance… more details below :: Why Ethical Consumption is Taking Off (by Graeme Codrington) :: Who’s Looking After Them? (by Karin Wellman) :: Do You Know Talent? (by Barrie Bramley) :: Dear Yves…a conversation around Values (by Keith Coats) :: Featured Articles in October GraemeCodrington – Why Ethical Consumption is Taking Off Dr Graeme Codrington’s latest presentation is called Hannah’s Rules which alerts companies to an essential emerging trend: the ethical consumer. In this article, he explains WHY ethical consumption is such a growing trend. Click here to read the rest of this article KarinWellman – Who’s Looking After Them? Karin Wellman, co-founder and director of TomorrowTraining, asks, “Who is training your trainers?” Trainers and those in charge of the development of other staff members are often neglected as recipients of training and development themselves. Karin highlights this as a critical problem for businesses today, and suggests a solution. Click here to read the rest of this article BarrieBramley – Do You Know Talent? What is talent, and do you really want it? If so, how much talent do you want, where will you find it and what are you going to do with the talented people you manage to attract to your company? Barrie Bramley turns his attention to these and similar questions, as he helps companies to see talent as their most important competitive differentiator. Click here to read the rest of this article KeithCoats – Dear Yves…a conversation around Values Following a presentation on Invitational Leadership at a two day workshop for senior leaders at a prominent multi-national, the CEO of the company and Keith Coats engaged in a chat about values and the role they play in a company. He invited Keith to email him some thoughts around the four values his company had framed. Here is Keith’s response. It is an excellent insight into the type of values-driven leadership required in companies today. Click here to read the rest of this article Presentations and Presenters: TomorrowToday is a world-class provider of multimedia-driven, edutaining, strategic keynote presentations. Our team of keynote presenters and consulting futurists are consistently rated as the top presenters at industry events, conferences and strategy sessions. Let one of us be the highlight at your next event! Use one of our proven frameworks, or let us work with you to customise for your specific requirements. Our strategic insights have assisted hundreds of clients to understand tomorrow, and apply that understanding today. http://www.tomorrowtoday.biz/presentations/keynote-presentations.html © TomorrowToday.Biz 2007

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