It is my pleasure to introduce guest blogger, Andrea Meyer. Enjoy her post below! -Seth Kahan
Many leaders are described as "visionary" -- I'm always curious as to how they got that way. Is it something they're born with, or something we can we all learn? I had a chance to participate in a Silicon Flatirons Q&A with media mogul Ted Turner as we probed this question with Ted.
Before CNN, people didn't think that a 24-hour-a-day news channel was viable. How did Ted prove them wrong? "It helps to see over the horizon," Ted said. "Most people can't do it, but I think your brain is like a muscle. And just like any other muscle, you can use it and your brain will improve."
Ted elaborated: "I have a 128 IQ, but 140 is genius. I was in the 97th percentile, so that means 3 percent of people were smarter than me. I knew I was going to have to work hard if I wanted to accomplish something in life. So I read a lot -- classics, warfare, Alexander the Great -- I used my brain all the time. Everything I did was education. Others just shot the breeze, wasted time -- nothing wrong with that, but you can't get to the top doing that."
Ted's answer points to a combination of aptitude and hard work. (I think it's interesting that Ted thought being in the 97th percentile meant he'd have to work hard if he wanted to accomplish something -- it reminded me of Andy Grove's "only the paranoid survive" philosophy.)
What did Ted see over the horizon? As Ted described it, the idea for CNN was born of his own desire to stay on top of the news but, as a busy executive, not having time to watch the news during the two times a day it was on during the 1970s. "I knew I was gambling with CNN, but I knew it would work," Ted said. "At the time, the news came on at 6:30 and again at 11pm. I never saw the news -- it was inconvenient. I knew that having news on 24 hours a day so you could check in anytime was something that people would want."
Beyond CNN, Ted was also working to build a multichannel universe. CNN fit into this universe perfectly. In the 1970s, three broadcast networks -- ABC, NBC and CBS -- controlled the programming people could see. For example, sports games across the country were televized, but they couldn't be seen outside the local area because the broadcasters had a monopoly. "The broadcasters had carved up the games," Ted said, dividing the NFL, AFL and Monday Night Football between them. "Everyone paid the same prices and made the same profit. All three networks were happy, but I wasn't happy" -- customers weren't being served, and incumbents had no incentive to change.
This is where Ted's reading and habit of learning came into play again. "It was in early 1975 that I saw an article about communications satellites in Broadcasting magazine," Ted recalled. Reading the article, Ted realized that he could use one satellite "antenna" in space to cover all of North America. He'd found a way to compete with the established networks.
There'd be more hard work along the way -- "We sweated payroll for ten years," Ted said -- but Ted relished the challenges. "The way to lead is with infectious enthusiasm, get everyone enthusiastic about what we're doing."
Call Me Ted, by Ted Turner and Bill Burke, Grand Central Publising, 2008
Andrea Meyer researches and writes about innovative people and companies. She tailors actionable ideas to clients' specific situations. Author of more than 450 company case studies and contributor to 28 books, she creates custom content for websites, blogs and executive education courses. Her clients include MIT, Harvard Business School, McKinsey & Co., and Forrester Research. Visit her blog, Working Knowledge® and follow Andrea on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AndreaMeyer
Do
you have a message deep in your soul that you need help getting out into the
world? Do you have a calling, a vision that you want to articulate with more
power? Do you want to learn how to express your inner intents in ways that
effectively communicate while at the same time motivating people to act? Then,
I have the book for you: Transformational Speaking - If You Want to Change
the World, Tell a Better Story by
Gail Larsen.
This
is no ordinary book, but an alchemical read that will transform your
relationship to your voice via the deepest stirrings of your soul. Larsen
combines her personal insights - she is former Executive VP of the National
Speakers Association - with a distinctly spiritual approach to help you explore
and uncover your most compelling material. She also provides valuable guidance
on execution. From her point of view technique is always second to the
inner resource from which your authentic self emanates.
Gail
said to me recently, I worked to
structure the book so it doesn't begin with tools and techniques. Until we do
the inner work, it is difficult to show up in a whole and confident way. Even
though that work takes some time and investigation, I think it's absolutely necessary
if we're going to bring the fullness of who we are to the speaking platform.
So, I started the book by going to the heart of transformational speaking,
which is literally in the heart.
I found tremendous resource in indigenous
teachings and I share these in the book. I find these concepts, like original medicine, so helpful to
people. Once someone can put their words around their core impetus and stand in
their power, they are less likely to shrink when they step up to the stage. I
teach a creative process that allows what we care deeply about to come up
naturally. Then it can surprise us! Material we have yet to make conscious is
often the best we have to give. Great speaking to me doesn't come from
dictation from an old mindset. Instead it allows life to move through us, to
speak not only from what we have prepared but also to trust what emerges in the
moment.
Gail highlights something that is
rarely talked about - the inner resource that informs our words, our actions.
Her book is less about technique and product. It is much more about learning
how to tap into the inner source of creativity that gives expression through
the spoken word. If you are looking for a journey that leads to better
expression from the platform, or anywhere else you happen to be standing, this
book is your ticket.
Seth Kahan (Seth@VisionaryLeadership.com)
is a Change Leadership specialist. He has consulted with CEOs and
executives in over 50 world-class organizations that include Shell,
World Bank, Peace Corps, Marriott, Prudential, American Society of
Association Executives, International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike
Association, Project Management Institute, and NASA. He is the founder
of Seth Kahan’s CEO Leaders Forum, a year-long learning experience for
CEOs in Washington, DC. His next book, Getting Change Right: How Leaders Transform Organizations from the Inside Out, will be published in Spring 2010 by Jossey-Bass. Visit his other blogs, GettingChangeRight.com for more info on the upcoming book and FreelanceFortune.com for tips on how to succeed as a free agent. Follow Seth on Twitter. Learn more about Seth's work at VisionaryLeadership.com
The original touchstone was basanite. It is a smooth, black
stone used to test the quality of gold and silver. It was rubbed across the
precious metal and the authenticity could be determined by the color of the
streak produced.The word touchstone now means anything that tests
genuineness or excellence.
Genuineness and excellence are at the heart of what drives
people forward in dramatic surges of progress. They are the roots. From this
powerful core, real transformation takes place. But, people will want to test
it. So, give them something powerful to test.
For this very reason I created Touchstone Events. These are gatherings that dive deep and make
contact with what is real, essential and core to the work of change in ways
that generate sudden, striking forward momentum. The purpose of a Touchstone
Event is to gain a perch in a particular culture by striking a keynote, like a
tuning fork, that causes the entire community to resonate in response with
powerful authenticity. Done well they move the entire community forward in one
giant leap, constructing the common beliefs and understandings that sustain
coherent activity into the foreseeable future.
In the mid-90s there was an internal perception that the
World Bank was a cold and uncaring institution, populated by the educational
elite who operated on poverty from a distance. There was a lack of warmth
inside headquarters. With over 10,000 people in a half-dozen buildings in
downtown Washington, DC, it was easy to feel lost among strangers. Perhaps even
more so because the multi-cultural diversity was so great, the ethnicity so
varied. No one culture dominated the population. There were many who were
concerned about this lack of community. This included President Jim Wolfensohn
and his internal communications team of which I was a member.
When I was interviewed for my job, I was asked what I could
offer to help create an esprit de corps
among all staff.There were open
discussions about bringing people together and creating greater camaraderie. I
was asked to use my background in street theater to create a special brand of
gathering that would be customized to our culture, assembling thousands in a
face-to-face experience that would enhance our professionalism.
1978- 1989 I
produced and performed street theater. In my work I brought together actors,
dancers, musicians, and poets, both professional and amateur, to improvise
performance art in public spaces. I led two troupes during that time and
delivered a series of original one-man shows. My goal was to create live events
that stopped busy people, caught their attention in irresistible ways, and
compelled them to participate.
My capacity to involve people, to engage them in compelling
ways would be put to the test inside a world-class, multi-national organization. Little did I imagine the
first large-scale gathering of World Bank staff I would produce.
During the attacks of September 11, 2001, our small communications team coordinated the World Bank’s internal response. We could
see the smoke from the Pentagon attack from a window across the hallway. It was
a challenge to separate rumors from the chaos in chaos that ensued. The
Internet was jammed, overloaded, and failed to download newscasts in a timely
fashion.
Our unit was new and we had not yet installed our television
sets to monitor world events. My wife at home held our telephone to
the television screen so I could hear what was being broadcast.
We liaised with the Department of Treasury, responsible for
coordinating emergency response in downtown DC, and our president’s
office.Before noon, we made the
decision to close our offices.As
the Director of Communications dictated to me, I hand typed the message to all
Bank staff members to evacuate headquarters.
Along with the nation and the world we struggled to figure
out what how to respond appropriately without enough information to know what
was really happening. Early the next morning, with everyone stunned and
grief-stricken, our team went into huddle and decided that in 48 hours, on
Friday, September 14, we would have an all-staff gathering.
The purpose was to bring people together, reminding them of
the community they belonged to in a time of anguish. We would openly
acknowledge the grief in our hearts, giving it a home inside the organization.
We were doing our best to set our sights on the uncertain, difficult road
toward healing and the new world we were tumbling into.
With short notice we brought about 2,000 people in our
atrium for a 20-minute gathering. By President Jim Wolfensohn’s request we had live music,
Bach’s Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G-Major, Sarabande. It is a powerfully
moving piece that is introspective, complex, and emotionally intimate.
Wolfensohn characteristically delivered his words straight
from the heart. He asked staff members to join hands, which had never been done
before. Then he asked for a minute of silence in remembrance. Open weeping
could be heard in the large, cavernous atrium. The event was
profound. It was a marked departure from the dispassionate and efficient
communications of the past.
In the weeks that followed there were a series of activities
unusual for the World Bank, aimed to establish a new, more humane ambience
inside the organization. A memorandum went out from the president encouraging
staff members to travel only if they felt safe. Vice Presidents and Directors
walked the hallways, checking in with staff and engaging in personal
conversations to see how people were doing. Clinics were set up where people
could go for counseling. Special events were hosted to educate people on
Islam.Security staff members were
made available to chaperone people upon request to and from our buildings. Leadership responded to the
tragedy by turning toward people instead of away from them. Months passed. Healing happened. Stability returned.
Throughout the next year and a half we brought people
together in the atrium to celebrate the work of our support staff, to explore
innovation together, and to review our year with all its ups and downs. The
atrium became a place for our community to assemble. We pumped the events out
to our thousands of employees around the world through the Internet. We even ate together, serving
cake, ice cream and juice on occasion.
We mastered the art of the Touchstone Event, delivering power by drawing deeply on authenticity, activating the core of what it means to be human and cope with change in ways that generate dramatic forward momentum.
Seth Kahan (Seth@VisionaryLeadership.com) is a Change Leadership specialist. He has consulted with CEOs and executives in over 50 world-class organizations that include Shell, World Bank, Peace Corps, Marriott, Prudential, American Society of Association Executives, International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association, Project Management Institute, and NASA. He is the founder of Seth Kahan’s CEO Leaders Forum, a year-long learning experience for CEOs in Washington, DC. His next book, Getting Change Right: How Leaders Transform Organizations from the Inside Out, will be published in Spring 2010 by Jossey-Bass. Visit his other blogs, GettingChangeRight.com for more info on the upcoming book and FreelanceFortune.com for tips on how to succeed as a free agent. Follow Seth on Twitter. Learn more about Seth's work at VisionaryLeadership.com
Get your scope right. Identify the area you will address. This will determine what is relevant and what is not as you move forward, untangling inter-dependent relationships.
Identify your Most Valuable Players Now you are looking at the group that is relevant to the logjam. Who needs to be in the room to find and initiate a real solution? This is your guest list.
Conduct the Interviews to Map the Territory Contact people and construct a Reconnaissance Report which chronicles what you learn. Capture high-value statements and include them without attribution. You want people paying more attention to the content than who said what. Note: Keep in mind that because you are operating on a logjam, initial contact begins the process directing peoples’ attention toward the obstacle. Movement will begin immediately. There is a tendency to view this as preparation. In truth, the operation has begun with the first conversation.
Set up the Breakthrough Session for Success All bets ride on the outcome of the face-to-face event. Do everything in your power beforehand to ensure it is successful. Pour your heart and effort into establishing the conditions for success.
Participate fully in the Breakthrough Session Each step of the way, do everything you can do to press for results. This requires focused attention to the group’s process. Your job is to ensure that the group takes up the challenge and deals with the issues as effectively as possible with a common intention to find the most productive way forward.
Be ready to provide support in follow-up When the breakthrough occurs, it will require support to be carried out. Be ready to jump in and lend it where needed. Follow-up is where the action takes place and requires everything you've got to see your breakthrough move from the initial freeing of energy into successful execution.
Seth Kahan (Seth@VisionaryLeadership.com) is a Change Leadership specialist. He has consulted with CEOs and executives in over 50 world-class organizations that include Shell, World Bank, Peace Corps, Marriott, Prudential, American Society of Association Executives, International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association, Project Management Institute, and NASA. He is the founder of Seth Kahan’s CEO Leaders Forum, a year-long learning experience for CEOs in Washington, DC. His next book, Getting Change Right: How Leaders Transform Organizations from the Inside Out, will be published in Spring 2010 by Jossey-Bass. Visit his other blogs, GettingChangeRight.com for more info on the upcoming book and FreelanceFortune.com for tips on how to succeed as a free agent. Follow Seth on Twitter. Learn more about Seth's work at VisionaryLeadership.com.
A select
group of people brings any change initiative to life. I call these
people, the Most Valuable Players (MVPs). They are not always
friends. They do not always have clout, political power, or resources.
But, they are powerful in the truest sense of the word and deserve respect.
MVPs midwife the future leaders work so hard to realize.
In sports
an MVP is often isolated from the team, recognized for the prowess and
performance that goes beyond team playing and exceptional individual
achievement. But, in a change initiative, MVPs include every person of
influence, anyone who plays for the cause.
Make no
mistake: change depends on people. The action people take is the
performance that makes things happen. MVPs are human beings, blood and guts:
hearts, minds, and hands. Treat them respectfully and appropriately to increase
the valuable impact they wield. The ability to wring results from an uncertain
future is theirs.
Some MVPs
will emerge completely unsolicited. You may never even meet them. Instead you will
hear about them far outside your own sphere of action. When change travels far
and wide and out paces you and your team, they are your unsung heros.
MVPs come
in all roles and functions. They make their appearance up, down, and across the
hierarchy. Some make the cut through the resources they command or their
political clout. Others earn it by delivering powerful results through other
means. Here are 14 categories of MVPs to consider:Political Leaders, Policy Makers, Resource Providers (time, people,
money), Influencers, Thought Leaders, Technical Experts, Researchers & Academicians, Practical Visionaries, Front Line Executers, Partners, Alliance, Supplier, Competitor, and Detractors.
Detractors? Detractors are often maligned and so
deserve some special elaboration. In brief, Bring
your detractors in the front door, or they will come in the back door and
bite you in the butt! Here are three benefits engaging with detractors can
bring to you: (i) They may educate you on your weaknesses. Then, you can
fortify and bolster your position by addressing the areas they identify. (ii)Some convert and become staunch supporters. Remember Paul
of Tarsus. (iii) If others appreciate your efforts, you may become a
magnet by virtue of your willingness meet with critics. Some detractors will
respect you for this as well. Though they may not support your primary effort,
they can become partners in other helpful ways.
All of the MVPs together form the web
of support that yields and sustains transformation. They are the social network behind every successful change.
Seth Kahan (Seth@VisionaryLeadership.com) is a Change Leadership specialist. He has consulted with CEOs and executives in over 50 world-class organizations that include Shell, World Bank, Peace Corps, Marriott, Prudential, American Society of Association Executives, International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association, Project Management Institute, and NASA. He is the founder of Seth Kahan’s CEO Leaders Forum, a community of CEOs working together to innovate through the current economy. His next book, Getting Change Right: How Leaders Transform Organizations from the Inside Out, will be published in Spring 2010 by Jossey-Bass. Visit his other blogs, GettingChangeRight.com for more info on the upcoming book and FreelanceFortune.com for tips on the art of success for freelancers. Follow Seth on Twitter. Fast link to this blog: SethFast.com. Learn more about Seth's work at VisionaryLeadership.com.
Assemble a Change Leadership Team to champion your initiative everywhere it's important for your presence to be felt. The members of the Change Leadership Team are drawn from
your Most Valuable Players - the people who will bring your new idea to life. They are the leaders of your most important constituencies. This
group is tasked with building a shared vision and coordinating the activities
of your change program. Building a shared view is the key to creating coherence
throughout the system.
It is the Change Leadership Team’s mandate to steer the
change as it unfolds. They take the initiative through to successful conclusion,
across the territory of the organization and under varying conditions. This
team is responsible for navigating the road, so to speak. They will deal with
unanticipated detours, potholes, and shortcuts. They will make the day-to-day
decisions responsible for arriving at your destination safe and sound.
Through collaboration they will bust silos, uniting people
from disparate functions and departments to create unique synergies.Because they represent all parts of your program, they have a unique capacity to connect to other stakeholders
including customers, members, and partners.
Seth Kahan is a Change Leadership specialist. He has consulted with CEOs and executives in over 50 world-class organizations that include Shell, World Bank, Peace Corps, Marriott, Prudential, American Society of Association Executives, International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association, Project Management Institute, and NASA. He is the founder of Seth Kahan’s CEO Leaders Forum, a community of CEOs working together to innovate through the current economy. His next book, Getting Change Right: Guaranteeing Buy-In from Your Most Valuable Players, will be published in spring 2010 by Jossey-Bass.Visit his other blog, GettingChangeRight.com for more info on the book. And check out Freelance Fortune: tips on the art of success for free agents.
Gary Hamel's message at the World Business Forum today is that your organization is not fit for the future unless it is fit for human beings. Hamel is a globally recognized expert in business strategy and performer extraordinaire on stage, delivering his message with verve and compelling stories.
He argues that the most important invention of the last 100 years is management, calling it the social technology of human accomplishment. He says, If you're not spending 80% of your time cultivating your own food, you have management to thank for it. Innovation in management has allowed us to cross fundamental thresholds in human performance.
Here are some snippets from his lecture:
We have lived in a world where our experience of management has been unchanged.
The technology of management varies little from firm to firm. That is why leaders can go from company to company and still have pretty much the same levers to push and pull.
Can management change as radically in the first part of this century as it did in the first part of the last? It can and it must!
The signature characteristic of our time is the pace of change. After 13.5 billion years of evolution, change went hypercritical in our lifetime.
The world is changing faster than companies can become resilient.
There are two kinds of change: trivial and deep. Deep change comes most often from crisis. A turnaround is a poor excuse for timely transformation.
Isn't it weird that organizations are so much less adaptable/inventive/creative/engaging/interesting than we are?
The next generation is going to demand a new style of management. For the 1st time you cannot create an organization fit for the future unless it is fit for human beings.
--------
Stay tuned today as I continue to cover the World Business Forum live from Radio City Music Hall.
Seth
Kahan is a Change Leadership specialist. He has consulted with CEOs and
executives in over 50 world-class organizations that include Shell,
World Bank, Peace Corps, Marriott, Prudential, American Society of
Association Executives, International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike
Association, Project Management Institute, and NASA. He is the founder
of Seth Kahan’s CEO Leaders Forum, a community of CEOs working together
to innovate through the current economy. His next book, Getting Change Right: Guaranteeing Buy-In from Your Most Valuable Players, will be published in spring 2010 by Jossey-Bass. Visit his other blog, GettingChangeRight.com for more info on the book.
Peter Voser began his work as CEO, Royal Dutch Shell, July 2009. Formerly he was the CFO. When he addressed the World Business Forum today in New York City he spoke about Shell's priorities in the years ahead supplying energy for the world. These included expanding oil and gas resources, lowering CO2 emissions, and developing alternative fuel. Here are some sound bytes from his delivery:
By 2050 energy demands will double. There will be 3 billion energy consumers added to our global population. At the same time we must manage greenhouse gas emissions successfully.
Historically it has taken new energy sources 25 yrs to obtain 1% of the market. Biofuels are reaching 1% of market and could do so by middle of next decade.
Deploying new technology on a massive scale is not easy.
Fossil fuels will still provide 70% energy in 2050
Shell has 3 responses to our current situation:
1 - We will expand the world's oil and gas resources, including deep sea and arctic.
2 - We will reduce CO2 emissions. We have now a process for injecting CO2 in wells to help us extract oil and gas. Today the primary constraints for doing this are public support and cost. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this alone will deliver half of what needed.
3 - We must develop alternative fuel - Shell will concentrate on biofuel.
The US produces 7% world's oil, and consumes 20% world's energy.
The US has a powerful contribution to make on world stage. Many nations are paying close attention to what happens in Congress. The US has a legacy of leadership: catalytic converters and Cap and Trade were invented in US.
Working together US & China would have powerful impact on climate change.
When Voser left the stage he had delivered a clear, consistent vision for Royal Dutch Shell. His message was concise, pointed, on message.
--------
Stay tuned today as I continue to cover the World Business Forum live from Radio City Music Hall.
Seth
Kahan is a Change Leadership specialist. He has consulted with CEOs and
executives in over 50 world-class organizations that include Shell,
World Bank, Peace Corps, Marriott, Prudential, American Society of
Association Executives, International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike
Association, Project Management Institute, and NASA. He is the founder
of Seth Kahan’s CEO Leaders Forum, a community of CEOs working together
to innovate through the current economy. His next book, Getting Change Right: Guaranteeing Buy-In from Your Most Valuable Players, will be published in spring 2010 by Jossey-Bass. Visit his other blog, GettingChangeRight.com for more info on the book.
George Lucas, the filmwriter, producer, and director known best for his Star Wars and Indiana Jones series, was interviewed at the World Business Forum in Radio City Music Hall yesterday.
Most striking was the number of inventions he generated to support his films, including multitudes of breakthroughs in technology.
We started making movies in San Francisco where there were no film resources. We had to create everything from scratch: cheaper, better, faster. We invented it ourselves. For example, in Star Wars, we needed a way to pan across star ships while they were moving through space. We invented a whole new way of doing it - we got involved with Silcon Valley.
The circumstances are impossible, the resources are completely limited, and you have to really get yourself out there to get things done.
Lucas revolutionized the film industry with technological inventions that were enormous in their impact and bold in their execution.
Movies are an artform. My definition of art is a way of communicating emotions from one human being to another. For the most part that includes technology.
Once you get beyond the spoken word and dance, you're into technology. You can see even on the walls of the French caves where they paint antelope. They aren't doing antelopes. They're doing emotional-spiritual depictions of antelopes.
Mostly art has been a popular medium. It's a way of telling stories to the populous in an emotional way. If you're trying to convert people to religion, you can't write it out - you do the Sistine Chapel. In order to do the Sistine Chapel, there is a huge amount of technology involved.
When the interviewer asked him if public education is a lost cause, Lucas responded, There is no such thing as a lost cause... unless you give up. We're drowning. Humanity is drowning. We have to continue. The single most important thing we have as a species is our capacity to create knowledge and pass it along to next generation. That's what we do. That's our thing. We don't have claws. We have these brains.
The conversation turned to the George Lucas Education Foundation: What I am trying to do is go into schools and find the best practices - nobody was actually recording the best practices. Teachers move on and those ideas get lost. We wanted to categorize them and put them on line, so that anyone wants to know, here they are. The focus is not on schools and education, but on learning, what is the best way to learn.
--------
Stay tuned today as I continue to cover the World Business Forum live from Radio City Music Hall.
Seth
Kahan is a Change Leadership specialist. He has consulted with CEOs and
executives in over 50 world-class organizations that include Shell,
World Bank, Peace Corps, Marriott, Prudential, American Society of
Association Executives, International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike
Association, Project Management Institute, and NASA. He is the founder
of Seth Kahan’s CEO Leaders Forum, a community of CEOs working together
to innovate through the current economy. His next book, Getting Change Right: Guaranteeing Buy-In from Your Most Valuable Players, will be published in spring 2010 by Jossey-Bass. Visit his other blog, GettingChangeRight.com for more info on the book.
David Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlisle Group, a global private-equity firm managing more than $84.5B of equity capital, delivered a non-stop monologue today at the World Business Forum in New York City. His delivery was chock-full of statistics to illustrate his dark and sobering forecasts in almost every sector.
He said that his firm's phenomenal growth would not continue at such a dramatic rate as it has previously because of the ravaged state of affairs in all financial areas.
A few excerpts from Rubenstein's delivery:
7.6 million people have lost their jobs in this recession.
The US government has $57 trillion in unfunded debt.
How much is $1 trillion? If you put $1 million in the bank on the day Jesus was born and then put $1 million in the bank every day after that for the next 2009 years, you still would not have $1 trlllion. You would have about $700 billion.
Emerging markets are much more important today as investment targets because of their rate of growth.
Inflation is coming.
Unemployment rates are rising to the point where 7 or 8 percent will become normal.
Benefits such as Medicare and Medicaid will undergo drastic cuts.
The US will be much less significant than we have been before.
Rubenstein went on rapid-fire. Here within the blogger community at the World Business Forum, few were able to keep up with him. He did not seem to pause for a breath.
Then something I thought strange happened. Toward the end of his presentation, he shifted into dispensing platitudes such as, "Think like a leader, be entrepreneurial, and give back to the community," and "If you don't love what you are doing now, do something else," and "You make your own luck; think like a leader." These, too, were delivered rapid-fire. It was as if he did not want us to be so discouraged by his previous delivery and was attempting to rectify the situation.
The caliber of people presenting is indisputable. David Rubenstein's acumen is staggering. It's interesting to see how he took the stage and formatted his presentation: fact after fact, followed by bromides. I would turn to him in a New York minute for input on the economy and decisions on where to invest. I'll look to some of the other speakers for inspiration.
--------
Stay tuned today as I continue to cover the World Business Forum live from Radio City Music Hall.
Seth
Kahan is a Change Leadership specialist. He has consulted with CEOs and
executives in over 50 world-class organizations that include Shell,
World Bank, Peace Corps, Marriott, Prudential, American Society of
Association Executives, International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike
Association, Project Management Institute, and NASA. He is the founder
of Seth Kahan’s CEO Leaders Forum, a community of CEOs working together
to innovate through the current economy. His next book, Getting Change Right: Guaranteeing Buy-In from Your Most Valuable Players, will be published in spring 2010 by Jossey-Bass. Visit his other blog, GettingChangeRight.com for more info on the book.
Many leaders are described as "visionary" -- I'm always curious as to how they got that way. Is it something they're born with, or something we can we all learn? I had a chance to participate in a Silicon Flatirons Q&A with media mogul Ted Turner as we probed this question with Ted. 
Andrea Meyer researches and writes about innovative people and companies. She tailors actionable ideas to clients' specific situations. Author of more than 450 company case studies and contributor to 28 books, she creates custom content for websites, blogs and executive education courses. Her clients include MIT, Harvard Business School, McKinsey & Co., and Forrester Research. Visit her blog, Working Knowledge® and follow Andrea on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AndreaMeyer
This
is no ordinary book, but an alchemical read that will transform your
relationship to your voice via the deepest stirrings of your soul. Larsen
combines her personal insights - she is former Executive VP of the National
Speakers Association - with a distinctly spiritual approach to help you explore
and uncover your most compelling material. She also provides valuable guidance
on execution. From her point of view technique is always second to the
inner resource from which your authentic self emanates.
Seth Kahan (
Gary Hamel's message at the World Business Forum today is that your organization is not fit for the future unless it is fit for human beings. Hamel is a globally recognized expert in business strategy and performer extraordinaire on stage, delivering his message with verve and compelling stories.
Peter Voser began his work as CEO, Royal Dutch Shell, July 2009. Formerly he was the CFO. When he addressed the World Business Forum today in New York City he spoke about Shell's priorities in the years ahead supplying energy for the world. These included expanding oil and gas resources, lowering CO2 emissions, and developing alternative fuel. Here are some sound bytes from his delivery:
George Lucas, the filmwriter, producer, and director known best for his Star Wars and Indiana Jones series, was interviewed at the World Business Forum in Radio City Music Hall yesterday.
David Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlisle Group, a global private-equity firm managing more than $84.5B of equity capital, delivered a non-stop monologue today at the World Business Forum in New York City. His delivery was chock-full of statistics to illustrate his dark and sobering forecasts in almost every sector. 
