"Transformation
is everywhere. Due to changes in the economy, the climate, technology
and lifestyle we are transforming our infrastructure, our houses, our
companies our cities and ourselves all the time. This evening we will
discuss the future of transformation. Big plans and top down is over,
are we ready now for bottom up or are there other strategies to think
of?"
by
Maximilian Martin, Founder and Global Managing
Director, Impact
Economy SA
Impressions from the 4th Impact Economy Symposium & Retreat
The 4th Impact Economy Symposium & Retreat that was held from
June 13-15, 2014 on the shores of Lake Constance in Switzerland.
The event annually convenes key influencers, thought leaders,
and practitioners from the worlds of investment, business, government,
and philanthropy in order to surface the most effective solutions,
innovations, and opportunities that have surfaced in the promotion
of impact.
Global leaders of impact capitalism gathered last weekend to unpack
the theme of Daring
for Big Impact: Blending Inspiration, Innovation and Investment.
Impact Economy-the global impact investing and strategy firm-tasked
the group to work through five main topics that each have the
potential to drive much wider, mutually enabling impact: using
the power of storytelling and media to move global warming up
on the agenda of the world; mainstreaming impact investing through
market-building at the level of the G7 and concrete investments;
using Corporate Impact Venturing to enable companies to innovate
and upgrade corporate venture capital by investing for impact;
redesigning global value chains to achieve a sustainable future,
with a special focus on the future of the fashion industry; and
exploring the country frontiers with exceptional potential, namely
the EMICs (Ethiopia, Myanmar, Iran and Colombia), which Impact
Economy Founder and Global Managing Director Dr. Maximilian Martin,
who also moderated the event, has identified as a set of catalytic
countries.
The three-day journey was rounded out by the participation of
two spiritual leaders, Han Shan and Swami Nitya, who reminded
delegates that people are the true center of positive change,
and that improving the state of the world through private initiative,
business and investments remains an unlikely proposition if we
are not ready to also work on ourselves to unleash our full human
potential and give our very best.
An exclusive viewing session was conducted on Impact Economy investee
Years
of Living Dangerously,
a nine-episode television series on climate change that was produced
by David Gelber, James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger and stars
Hollywood A-listers such as Jessica Alba, Harrison Ford, and Matt
Damon. This documentary series brings to life the stakes in a
country like Bangladesh, where a one meter sea level rise would
flood 17 percent of the country, and what US president Barack
Obama, who was interviewed for the series by New York Times columnist
Tom Friedman intends to do about it, triggering an engaged discussion
with executive and co-producers.
Throughout, a rich, fast-paced program showcased the possibilities
in terms of impact, and challenged participants to aim higher
with their own pursuits. Some sessions were eye-opening. Dr. John
Cheh, Vice Chairman and CEO at Esquel Group in China, demonstrated
how an integrated textile and garment supply chain can achieve
remarkable competitiveness as well as social and environmental
performance. This presentation provided an aspirational example
for Impact Economy's work and ambition-setting for the industry
as covered in the report Sustainable
Apparel Value Chains,
which shows that boosting total resource productivity, working
conditions, and future-proofing profits need not be at odds with
each other.
In a world where impact investors sometimes focus on the single
deal at the expense of a wider country perspective, the new set
of countries presented by Impact Economy, namely the EMICs (Ethiopia,
Myanmar, Iran, and Colombia) triggered great delegate interest:
as high-stakes, high-opportunity countries, they allow impact
investors to make a key difference in contributing to achieve
inclusive growth. Speakers Ebrahim Afsah, Associate Professor
of Public International Law at the Faculty of Law, University
of Copenhagen; His Excellency Dr. Giulio Haas, Swiss Ambassador
to the Islamic Republic of Iran; Khin Lay, Former Leader of Central
Youth Wing of National League for Democracy in Myanmar; Frank
W. Michel and Meseret Moges, Co-Founders, FriendsUnited Foundation,
Ethiopia; and Philippe G. Nell, Minister and Head of the Americas
Unit at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs generously
shared their deep insights into what smart investors should consider
when aiming to invest for impact in the EMICs.
As a pioneer in impact investing, Impact Economy shared additional
pointers on how impact
can be made investible.
This presentation was followed by a fruitful discussion between
representatives from the UK Cabinet Office, UBS and Novartis concerning
what business and government are looking for, and can contribute,
to further market building. The way in which the changing tectonics
of value creation at the base of the pyramid, the rise of virtuous
consumers, green growth and the circular economy are creating
multitrillion-dollar markets and fueling a paradigm shift in the
corporate world was another central topic, examined through the
lens of Corporate
Impact Venturing;
a strategy that marries the worlds of corporate venture capital
and impact.
After three insight-packed days at a 450-year old Swiss castle,
complemented by power networking and time for reflection, the
delegates adjourned on Sunday-enthusiastic to bring fresh ideas
and connections to bear in their pursuits starting on Monday morning,
thus blending inspiration, innovation and investment.
Impact
Economy
is an impact investment and strategy firm based in Lausanne, Switzerland,
with overseas operations in North and South America out of New
York and Buenos Aires. Working with professional investors and
companies, the firm's mission is Making Impact Investible.
.June
Event: the future of Transformation
the
future of Transformation
Thursday,
June 26,
2014
Registration: 18:30-19:00, Conference: 19:00-21:15
The
event is supported by the Coop
MidWest and the Andragologie
Alumni Amsterdam.
Transformation is
everywhere. Due to changes in the economy, the climate, technology
and lifestyle we are transforming our infrastructure, our houses,
our companies our cities and ourselves all the time. This evening
we will discuss the future of transformation. Big plans and top
down is over, are we ready now for bottom up or are there other
strategies to think of?
With Evert Verhagen,
founder and owner, Creative Cities Transformation in cities
Karin
Jironet, co-founder
of In Claritas Things change all the time, but sometimes, things will never
be the same again.
Louise
van Schaik, Senior Research Fellow & Coordinator
Global Issues, Governance and Diplomacy, The Clingendael Institute The politics of climate change
Huseyin
R Demirhisar,
CIO, Managing Partner, Angel Wings Ventures The Impact Investment Now!
Technology and the world that we are living in is changing exponentially
and most of the time its hard to keep up especially
for those who arent experts, geeks or early adopters. Its
for this reason that Futurist Gerd Leonhard created this new web-TV
show which aims to present and explain the most pressing issues
and exciting future trends to the general public whether
theyre savvy consumers, worried parents or curious professionals
and business influencers. Every TFS episode is hosted by Gerd
and will deliver easily digestible insights in a critical, yet
engaging and exciting way.
TFSs goal is
to show how technologys exponential advancements will radically
alter and re-design the way in which we experience the world and
interact with each other in the immediate and longer term future.
TFS episodes are between 4-7 minutes in length and cover topics
that are timely and relevant, impactful and of strong interest
to the general public as well as to the global business community.
Themes include: Privacy Failure, Human-Machine Futures, The Future
of Jobs, Digital Obesity, Sustainable Capitalism, Big Data and
many more.
Is privacy really dead? Would a world without anonymity really
be desirable? Should we simply accept that our communications,
opinions, images, movements and actions are 99% public by default?
Will wearable computing devices such as Google Glass, medical
self-monitoring devices and smart watches and the rise of the
Internet of Things (IoT) make it even harder to adhere to some
kind of privacy standard? Will we really live in world where everything
that happens must be known (read Dave Eggers book
The
Circle)?
TFS host and creator Gerd Leonhard believes that in a world where
almost everything is watched, recorded and analysed, and where
information spreads like wildfire, we urgently need to strike
a personal balance between openness and transparency and a collective
standard of privacy, and frequently review our data-sharing paradigms
to avoid entering into truly Faustian bargains. Allowing for mistakes
and imperfections is what makes us human, but how would still
uphold this concept if we are being monitored and quantified
all the time?
The perceived value
of data, basic information and fact-based human knowledge is becoming
increasingly commoditised by the efficiency and sheer horse-power
of digital technologies. Any Internet user can now look up, find
out and tap into almost any information, anywhere, anytime
and very soon, artificial
intelligence
and so-called cognitive computing will become as normal as sending
an SMS. The traditional education paradigm of just-in-case
learning is being challenged by the just-in-time learning
approach that the Internet seems to afford. As a result, human
ingenuity and intuition (knowing without knowing),
creativity, social or emotional intelligence and a new kind of
wisdom will matter increasingly. Are we moving on from the industrial/information
age and its left-brain emphasis to a kind of right-brain renaissance,
and will we see a new triumph of creativity, storytelling and
imagination? Or will machines and software eat our world
and turn us into useless wetware? What skills do we
need to teach ourselves or our children so that they can he happy
and prosper 5-10 years from now? How will they be successful in
those jobs that havent even been invented yet? What will
happen to educational institutions, schools, colleges and universities,
and will degrees and certificates still be as valuable as they
are today? If learning is a lifelong flow and in-demand
instead of just-in-case, how will our educational systems evolve?
In the future, most
repetitive or machine-like tasks and jobs will be largely offloaded
to ultra-smart software and intelligent machines, wether in the
manufacturing, financial services, government, transportation
or technology sectors. By 2025, up to 45% of jobs might be automated-away
in many sectors making a redefinition of work and
jobs an urgent priority for governments, industry and educators
alike. Gerd believes that the trend away from the jobs-that-robots-can-and-will-do
will also free us up to re-focus on those tasks that only us humans
can do. Skills or character traits such as creativity, pattern
recognition, imagination and storytelling will once again become
increasingly important as machines are not yet suited to tackle
them, at least in the foreseeable future. As an example, whereas
travel agents used to spent the majority of their time searching
databases for hotels and flights in the past, they are now focusing
on putting highly-tailored travel packages together and offering
personalised advice the basic database of flights and hotels
is available to everyone, now. This trend towards the right brain
will of course pose significant challenges to those who were used
to doing pure human computing tasks such as statistics
and data analysis, or that were employed in mostly repetitive
manufacturing environments. In the future, we are very likely
to see what Gerd calls workupation and quite possibly
a lot more debate on the concept of the guaranteed minimum income
in response to rampant technological unemployment.
.Global
Entrepreneurship Summit
Club of Amsterdam
is a Knowledge Partner of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit GES 2014
October 10-11, 2014, Bangalore, India http://www.ges2014.com
Global Entrepreneurship Summit is a global platform to share experience,
learning & innovations in entrepreneurship & exploring
the global opportunities.
GES is the World's largest entrepreneurship summit specially focused
on global business scenario, emerging startups, women entrepreneurship,
youth entrepreneurship, global brand creation, innovations in
entrepreneurship & many more interactive sessions by renowned
top leading industrialists, global business leaders, policy makers,
entrepreneurs, investors, innovators, chairman, CEO & MD of
reputed organizations across the globe will gather and share their
experiences.
Members of the Club of Amsterdam network get 20% discount when
registering before July 10th!
The
impact of culture on education
by Huib Wursten, Senior Partner, itim International and
Carel Jacobs is senior consultant/trainer for itim in The Netherlands,
he is also Certification Agent for the Educational Sector of the
Hofstede Centre.
The Future of Government
Smart Toolbox demonstrates how technology can enhance government
performance by strengthening efforts to reduce corruption and
bureaucracy and enhance political representation, service delivery,
trust, leadership, security and innovation. The report highlights
successful state practices from around the globe in the digital
era. Report by the World Economic Forum.
Berkeley Lab researchers have demonstrated a technique for detecting
and controlling ultrahigh frequency sound waves at the nanometer
scale. This represents an advance towards next generation ultrasonic
imaging with potentially 1,000 times higher resolution than todays
medical ultrasounds. -
Consumer electronics and computer makers have long struggled in
a world of exponential technology improvements and short product
life spans. But until recently, hotels, taxi services, doctors,
and energy companies had little to fear from the information revolution.
Those days are gone
forever. Software-based products are replacing physical goods.
And every service provider must compete with cloud-based tools
that offer customers a better way to interact.
Today, start-ups
with minimal experience and no capital can unravel your strategy
before you even begin to grasp whats happening. Never mind
the innovators dilemmathis is the innovators
disaster. And its happening in nearly every industry.
Worse, Big Bang
Disruptors may not even see you as competition. They dont
share your approach to customer service, and theyre not
sizing up your product line to offer better prices. You may simply
be collateral damage in their efforts to win completely different
markets.
The good news is
that any business can master the strategy of the start-ups. Larry
Downes and Paul Nunes analyze the origins, economics, and anatomy
of Big Bang Disruption. They identify four key stages of
the new innovation life cycle, helping you spot potential disruptors
in time. And they offer twelve rules for defending your markets,
launching disruptors of your own, and getting out while theres
still time.
Based on extensive
research by the Accenture Institute for High Performance and in-depth
interviews with entrepreneurs, investors, and executives from
more than thirty industries, Big Bang Disruption will arm
you with strategies and insights to thrive in this brave new world.
The annual Communicasia conference
and expo in Singapore always turns out to be a good time to take
stock of local and global telecom changes, network with industry,
discover new startups, check out the latest gadgets and gizmos,
and party late into the night! Parallel tracks cover mobile, broadcast
media and enterprise IT. One key theme which seems to run across
many tracks this year is disruption: identifying, understanding,
surviving and leading exponential upheavals. Here are my Top 12
takeaways from the speakers discussions and insights on
dealing with digital disruption.
1. Understand the scale and speed
of disruption
In digital media space, the market value of the Top 15 Internet
and OTT (over the top) players is larger than that of the Top
100 publicly-traded telcos. And most of these Internet and OTT
companies did not even exist 10 years ago, such as Facebook, Tencent,
Baidu, Naspers, Salesforce.com, Twitter and LinkedIn. In just
a decade, these new entrants have been able to create as much
market value as incumbents did over a century. It is not just
this kind of scale that was unthinkable, but even the qualitative
aspects of digital life that seemed like science fiction just
a couple of decades ago such as Internet of Things and
smart cities.
2. Denial is not the answer
Trying to block new disruptors is not the answer: learn how to
work with them. Many telcos tried to block services like Skype
and WhatsApp, but that is not the solution. Just because voice
and SMS revenues are declining does not mean denial of OTT or
submission to them is the only option. More progressive solutions
would be AT&Ts deal with Pandora for mobile music streaming,
Verizon with Skype, 3 Hong Kong with WhatsApp and KDDI with Line
in Japan.
3. Startup alliances are a road to innovation and scale
Startups need partners like telcos for scale, and telcos need
startups and grassroots developers for their innovation energy.
For example, startup Evernote tied up with NTT DoCoMo for funding
and market scale in Japan; it tied up with StarHub to expand in
the Singapore market. It has a fulltime team of 15 people to manage
alliances with telcos around the world. SingTel bought three startups
in an acqui-hire arrangement, including HungryGoWhere (restaurant
booking app). In other domains, governments are sharing their
information assets with industry via Open Data models to help
spur local Big Data ecosystems.
4. Use crowdfunding to validate new ideas
Place a mix of a few large bets and many small bets to see which
would succeed in or disrupt the market. Test new ideas through
crowdfunding to validate them as well as raise funds. Singapore
telco Starhub runs a crowdfunding initiative called Crowdtivate
for emerging startups, with mentorship and regional outreach programs.
Angel investors themselves are turning to crowdfunding sites to
identify new bets and learn from the market.
5. Tap social media across the entire purchase cycle
Social media along with mobile are giving consumers even more
power than before, disrupting the older power equation of brands.
It is not just in pre-purchase research or post sales stages that
consumers are sharing their brand experiences but at every
single touch point including receiving the first bill, filing
complaints and resolving technical issues. Brands should understand
the consumer conversation at each of these stages.
6. Listen to customers and co-innovate with them
OTT players and startups are mastering the art of innovating along
with customer needs, in lean and agile models. Feedback is continually
solicited from customers at every stage, giving them a powerful
disruptive edge. In contrast, telcos make it very hard for consumers
to talk to their representatives and show little interest in learning
from them even though, ironically, consumers want to help
telcos provide better services. A few operators do try to learn
from consumer complaints, such as O2, which is even using British
humour in some of its customer response tweets. China Telecom
is tapping its consumers for ideas and getting hundreds of them.
7. Dont underestimate ecosystem challenges
Ten years ago, some industry players claimed that NFC (near field
communication) would disrupt the payment world. They are still
saying that. The ecosystem challenges in the digital acceptance
network have been complex readers, handsets, consumer friendly
security procedures, and so on. Digital wallets are still in transition
phase, but will eventually take off, eg. MasterPass, Google Wallet.
There will finally be ease of offline/online payment and delivery
in omnichannel e-commerce across any device, including ones such
as Google Glass.
8. Rethink old media
The broadcast era of spectrum allocation is not set in stone.
There are new frequencies available for satellite Internet, such
as TV Whitespace. They can open up new frontiers in bridging the
digital divide in rural areas, and change the previous equations
of access and distribution. Disruption is coming here too
who would ever have thought that Google and Facebook would one
day get into the Internet access business via atmospheric balloons
and drones?
9. Develop an Asia strategy
Asia is on the move. The rise of Japan and South Korea disrupted
the world order in the second half of the previous century, followed
by the rise of China and India. They are not just large markets
but launchpads of new global tech and media players, and are re-drawing
hardware, software and services maps. Now other Asian countries
are on the move: Indonesia and Vietnam, followed by Myanmar. IBMs
2014 Telecom Consumer Survey across 35 countries showed that Asian
consumers expect to spend more on mobile services in the next
few years, whereas much of Europe is in an economic downturn and
its consumers want to cut down mobile expenses. What is your Asia
strategy?
10. Progressive governments can make a difference
Smart city initiatives with Internet of Things and connected devices
are being launched in cities around the world, from Amsterdam
to Barcelona and the city-state of Singapore is also aiming
to become a smart nation by 2025. Its Smart Nation Platform (SNP)
will allow government agencies and industry to connect,
collaborate and comprehend the new kinds of services that
can be incubated and scaled up for mass markets in healthcare,
transportation, recreation and the like. Emerging markets which
dont have a Silicon Valley-like ecosystem will need government
support for incubators, eg. Indonesia.
11. Prediction is hard but you must try
Tech dominance in one era is no guarantee of understanding and
succeeding in the next. Almost 20 years ago, Bill Gates wrote
a book called The Road Ahead, talking about the emerging opportunities
for Microsoft which dominated the PC era. Today it seems to have
missed leadership positions in the mobile and cloud era. Google
led the world in Web-based search, but new players are outflanking
it in performance-based search, including psychographic models.
12. Dont forget analogue
Much as we are infatuated and habituated with digital media, there
is still a large segment of society which is in a predominantly
analogue world. Creative approaches like notice boards carrying
information from cybercafés will continue to bring alerts
and resources to rural communities but ultimately they
too will be disrupted by digital.
In sum, dealing with disruption requires a range of strategies
to engage emerging disruptors and existing consumers. Culture
change is tough, and a company or country may miss one wave of
paradigm shift but can regroup to catch the next wave if it is
nimble and savvy enough (see my review
of the excellent book Big
Bang Disruption by Larry Downes and Paul Nunes
and my interview
with the authors).
At a larger societal level, fundamental notions of data privacy,
ownership and usage are being disrupted, and will require new
kinds of interpretation and enforcement. Welcome to the Brave
New Digital World!
Madanmohan Rao is research director
at YourStory Media and editor of five book series (http://amzn.to/NpHAoE).
His interests include creativity, innovation, knowledge management,
and digital media. Madan is also a DJ and writer on world music
and jazz. He is in the Board of Advisors of the Club of Amsterdam.
He can be followed on Twitter at @MadanRao. The original article
can be found here.
.Futurist
Portrait: Danielle Nierenberg
Danielle
Nierenberg is President
of Food
Tank:
The Food Think Tank and an expert on sustainable agriculture and
food issues. She recently spent two years traveling to more than
35 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America
meeting with farmers and farmers groups, scientists and
researchers, policymakers and government leaders, students and
academics, and journalists collecting their thoughts on whats
working to help alleviate hunger and poverty, while also protecting
the environment. She has spoken at major conferences and events
all over the world and her knowledge of global agriculture issues
has been cited widely in more than 3,000 major publications including
The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the International
Herald Tribune, The Washington Post, BBC, the Guardian (UK), and
other major publications. Danielle served as the Director of the
Food and Agriculture program at the Worldwatch Institute. She
also worked for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican
Republic.
Danielle Nierenberg: "Our food system is broken. Some
people dont have enough food, while others are eating too
much. Theres only one way to fix this problemand it
starts with you and me.
Food Tank is for
the 7 billion people who have to eat every day. We will offer
solutions and environmentally sustainable ways of alleviating
hunger, obesity, and poverty by creating a network of connections
and information for all of us to consume and share. Food Tank
is for farmers and producers, policy makers and government leaders,
researchers and scientists, academics and journalists, and the
funding and donor communities to collaborate on providing sustainable
solutions for our most pressing environmental and social problems.
As much as we need
new thinking on global food system issues, we also need new doing.
Around the world, people and organizations have developed innovative,
on-the-ground solutions to the most pressing issues in food and
agriculture. Through years of field visits (and years of trying
to eat better in her own community) our President Danielle Nierenberg
has helped to highlight and promote these best practices. Today,
we hope to bridge the domestic and global food issues by highlighting
how hunger, obesity, climate change, unemployment, and other problems
can be solved by more research and investment in sustainable agriculture.
Food Tank will highlight
hope and success in agriculture. We will feature innovative ideas
that are already working on the ground, in cities, in kitchens,
in fields and in laboratories. These innovations need more attention,
more research, and ultimately more funding to be replicated and
scaled-up. And that is where we need you. We all need to work
together to find solutions that nourish ourselves and protect
the planet."
Club
of Amsterdam is a Knowledge Partner of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit GES 2014
October 10-11, 2014, Bangalore, India http://www.ges2014.com
Members
of the Club of Amsterdam network get 20% discount
when registering before July 10th!
Please email the registration to apply.ges2014@gmail.com
and send a copy to ticketcorner@clubofamsterdam.com
[only in then you are entitled to your discount].