Archive for January, 2009

Ngozi Okonjo Iweala of the Wold Bank: “investing in girls and women is not just a question of fairness and justice, it’s plain smart economics”. Her comments, on the heals of similar comments by Muhammad Yunus and Melinda Gates, come right after a session of the Global Education Initiative discussing progress made by a “smart” coalition of governments (Jordan, Egypt, Rwanda, Vietnam, India), businesses (Intel, Cisco, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs) and a number of NGOs to roll out technology-driven innovations that are increasing school access and curriculum quality and relevance around the world.

Intel’s Craig Barrett shared results of a WEF poll showing that the majority places education as a top priority but few believe we’re doing enough.  Progress has been made, but tens of millions of children (mostly girls) remain unschooled.  Cisco’s John Chambers re-iterated a point made by Blair a couple days ago: it’s not just a question of just increasing budgets (mostly government budgets), but bringing different players together (including corporations) to find smart solutions.  Both emphasized the need to incorporate entrepreneurship education in the curriculum so that education can turn into opportunities, jobs and livelihoods.

Yunus reminds everyone that Grameen started off lending to both men and women but soon realized that the spillover effects on family health and education when lending to women were far greater than when investing in women.

Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu remembers how, as a little girl, she was discouraged by her mother to be (or at least seem) smart of fear of never getting married.  This is not uncommon in many developing countries, where a woman’s status is tied to her ability to marry well.  Her father however encouraged her to study (a path to personal independence) and she went on to becoming the first Indonesian woman to earn a PhD in economics and then first female Chinese-minority cabinet member.  She’s working hard to offer opportunities to all girls, but is worried that perverse incentives among the poor make girl schooling a low priority when things get tough.  (By the way, she’s happily married and her mother lived to see it!)

Education is the core engine of development.  And educating women has even greater multiplier effects through inclusion in the economy and through the education of new generations of children.

I was excited when Craig Barrett recognized publicly the work that Thunderbird is doing to educate women entrepreneurs in places like Afghanistan and Jordan, which is supportive of these key development challenges.

I was in good company this morning, discussing how critical education is in promoting entrepreneurship and what type of education can be most effective.  Panelists included Cisco’s CEO John Chambers, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon, and Mozambique’s Prime Minister Luisa Dias Diogo.  In the audience was also Ambassador Barrett, who was behind the creation of Thunderbird’s Project Artemis (women entrepreneurial education in Afghanistan), and some friends from Goldman Sachs involved in the 10,000 Women initiative.

Some conclusions: entrepreneurship can be taught; entrepreneurship training should be incorporated into the curriculum since early levels; entrepreneurship education is critical to drive innovation, economic inclusion and growth; entrepreneurship education must include business literacy, creativity/innovation, but most importantly, it must inspire students to undertake risk, and fully value the impact of business in society.

I was delighted to see Barrett and Chambers so committed to entrepreneurial education.  The work of their companies in enabling entrepreneurship through technology around the world is impressive.

Tony Blair dropped by during our Global University Leaders Forum meeting today (in the picture with the presidents of Yale, Georgetown and Monterrey Tec) to share his experience teaching a course in inter-faith collaboration at Yale.  The course is called Faith and Globalization and explores the political, economic and social implications of faith around the world.  Regardless of what religious beliefs any one may have, or whether or not we believe religion is the underlying factor fueling conflict between and within nations, Blair’s argument is that millions of individuals around the world believe the conflicts to be tied to religion.  Without incorporating religion into the analysis it might be impossible to find solutions.

Before Blair’s presentation, we discussed the various initiatives that western universities are leading in the Middle East.  The efforts by the Gulf countries to attract western universities has been remarkable and might reflects a real commitment to education, as well social and economic change.

We were heading last night to a dinner on “The anatomy of Epihany,” where I was asked to share a moment of unexpected discovery or inspiration, when we heard the closing panel being broadcast from the congress hall.  Israeli president Shimon Peres was visibly irritated, speaking very angrily about Israel’s commitment to peace and blaming Hamas‘ irresponsible attacks on Israel for the most recent conflict in Gaza.  When he was done (no one dared to cut him short), Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan disregarded the directions of the moderator and decided to respond to Peres, indicating that Peres’ tone sounded self-inculpating.  When the moderator tried to conclude the session, Erdoğan stood up and left, saying he would not come back to Davos if he were not given sufficient time to express himself.

As we discussed over dinner the conditions that make epiphanies emerge from a casual conversation I could not but think how some times the planets align for just the opposite effect…. not to inspire new solutions, but to amplify confrontation and block ideas.

Pretty sad scene overall.  I hope it provides some opportunity for reflection.

Amazing star power at today’s lunch on philanthropy and capitalism: Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Jet Li and Muhammad Yunus, moderated by my friend Matthew Bishop, head of the New York office of The Ecomist and author of Philanthrocapitalism.  Bottom-line: give more, give better, use gifts to innovate and try out new solutions.

Tony Blair argues that private philanthropy is not a symptom of government failure but a integral part of a well functioning modern society.  It is so because private philanthropy can be more innovative in its approaches than government, and because it is critical to fill gaps that are not covered by government or business.  Business leaders should not leave their business mind at home when they engage in philanthropy… they should in fact bring their full business creativity to help crack old problems in new ways.

According to Bill Clinton the key question to resolve the world’s toughest problems is not the usual question that is normally addressed by government “what are the important issues to address and how much money should be spent in addressing them, but HOW they should be addressed”.  That’s why we need to keep fueling private philanthropy, because they are the ones that can drive innovation and bring new creative solutions to old problems.

Bill Gates commented on his recent “first annual letter” and tried to lift the gloomy Davos spirits by reminding us of how giving is continuing to grow, science is improving and allowing to implement ever more effective solutions.

Yunus made the point that when everything is said and done, the real victims of the current global crisis will be the poor.  He also defended how social enterprises are needed to make sure philanthropy fuels sustainable solutions.  A good example is the Grameen-Danone initiatve in Bangladesh: yogurts are produced that are tasty for children, include all critical nutrients and are provided at low (but sustainable) price to the poor.  This solution, which required philanthropic investment to get started, is a now a viable business that can thrive without the need of ongoing philanthropic contributions.

I defintely leave inspired.

Interesting session this morning in the Davos Congress Center.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu insights on dealing with a crisis: don’t blame the outside world for your problems or you will paralyze and lose competitiveness (this applies to countries as well as to organizations).
Interesting metaphor: National competitiveness can be seen as a race between competitors running with public sector sitting a top of a private sector. If the private sector is not fit (low taxes, no barriers to competition, insufficient innovation), you won’t win the race. If the public sector is too big a burden, it will suffocate the private sector no matter how fit.
Finally, the leadership required to deal with a crisis includes: vision + power + courage.

British opposition leader Cameron also insisted on the need on not blaming exogenous factors for one’s problems.  From a leadership standpoint, recognize mistakes and accept and credit good ideas even if (especially if) they are not yours.  From a policy standpoint, excessive spending is not the answer and political courage will be needed to resist taking the easy path out.

JP Morgan Chase CEO Dimon argued that it is the CEO who needs to take “blame”, accept mistakes that have been made.

Banesto CEO and Santander board member Ana Patricia Botín emphasized the critical role of confidence and courage to make decisions and take action in the absence of complete information, and to remain committed to your values, your mission and priorities when times are bad.  Santander’s settlement to protect their customers victims of the Maddoff ponzi scheme is according to her a good example of remaining committed to your customers at times of crisis.

I almost froze doing this!

I arrived yesterday to a cold and gloomy Davos.  Every conversation starts with some version of the question “how are you surviving the crisis?”  After hitting around the bushes for a short while, a group of young global leaders quickly dove into a discussion about the causes, effects and possible principles that can help us get out of it.  Not surprisingly, our first reaction is to try to find simple explanations to a very complex phenomenon, and we each try to project our biases and experiences into our favorite narrative around what went wrong.

The fact is the global financial system and economy are hugely complex, non-dynamic systems, impossible to predict with any level of accuracy (most experts honestly didn’t see this mess coming), and very hard to understand, and much less correct.  The power of Davos is being able to look at this complex phenomenon through different lenses and to begin to appreciate how multiple interventions will be needed to restart the system.

Today I spoke on a panel on how corporations can begin to turn the corner (more on this later), and I participated in a workshop with Harvard Profs. Kurana and Nohria and a group of young business leaders trying to craft a business oath that could be serve as a standard of professional conduct for practicing managers and managers-in-training.  The idea seemed to get good traction.  This time around the planets may be aligning and the notion of an oath may hopefully expand beyond Thunderbird.  Very encouraging session!

Back in Switzerland after a couple of days in Saudi Arabia, I had a very productive meeting yesterday with our European board and council members and our Geneva staff.

The meeting was comforting and even inspiring in some ways.  In addition to many practical suggestions and leads, we reminded ourselves of how times of crisis are also times of opportunity and how rather than being defensive and operating in “survival mode” (which seems to be today’s mantra), organizations ought to use the current environment to be innovative and transforming themselves in ways that are just too difficult to face in normal times.  This applies to Thunderbird too, of course.

Our council members also discussed how the fact that the world is demanding responsible leadership, responsible competitiveness, responsible investment; an attitude towards markets and business that emphasizes sustainability in time and inclusiveness in scope, creates a natural competitive advantage for Thunderbird.  I agree.

Now, on the train to Zurich and then on to Davos, enjoying the ride, the landscapes, and a somewhat choppy, but neat wireless Internet connection.

I love Switzerland.

I arrived yesterday to Riyadh, invited to speak at the Global Competitiveness Forum about “responsible competitiveness”, a concept developed by Accountability (an international NGO) and now fully embraced by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (the governmental office in charge of the country’s competitiveness agenda and the host of the forum).

At first glance, it seems troubling that we must feel compelled to using the adjective “responsible” to describe phenomena which, in themselves, should have no reason to be considered “irresponsible”.  Concepts such as “responsible investment”, “responsible leadership” and “responsible management education” (for the sake of full disclosure I admit shared paternity of the latter) raise the question of why or under what circumstances should investment, leadership or management education not be responsible.

The fact is that this “responsibility fever” signals a radical shift in public perceptions about the role of markets and businesses in society and the emergence of a new set of expectations about the value that is expected from corporations and the limits to the harm that will be tolerated from them.  According to the Saudi Responsible Competitiveness Index report (to be presented tomorrow at the forum), responsible competitiveness is “the leadership, policies and practices that build sustainable development”.  In more concrete terms in includes issues about regulatory compliance and lack of corruption, treatment of human talent, active engagement in critical social issues, efficient use of natural resources, etc.

Compare that to the traditional conception of competitiveness as the relative ability to efficiently produce goods and services.  The term “responsible competitiveness” adds the missing notion of sustainability… the end game is not to achieve productivity today, but to create an environment where productivity gains and competitive advantages can be sustained in the long run, which requires a very different mindset.

Needless to say, Thunderbird’s mission to “educate global leaders who create responsible management education” seems to fit right in.  I think I will start there tomorrow.