| "The key to successful leadership today is influence, | | | | agreements. |
| not authority". ~ Ken Blanchard. | | | | This set me thinking. As human beings we want |
| Ideas are a form of power. Ideas that upset the | | | | simple, neat elegant solutions that are familiar and |
| applecart of conformity can be especially powerful. | | | | comfortable to us. We naturally resist change. We're |
| This message was driven home to me at a recent | | | | afraid of the new and unfamiliar. We would like to |
| conference on the 'Power of Disruptive ideas' at Yale. | | | | have a single leader, a common vision, and a clear set |
| The two-day conference, organized by a | | | | of rules that everyone follows. |
| forward-thinking Swiss wealth management firm, | | | | Like it or not, however, the world keeps changing. |
| offered a rare interface between private investors | | | | The 21st century world is heterogeneous in culture, |
| and eminent academics. | | | | aspirations, and world views – a place where |
| I was there for the chance to straddle those two | | | | every person and every voice counts. Globalization is |
| worlds and exchange ideas with leading thinkers | | | | no longer just 'McDonaldization'. We need to respect |
| whose goals are closely related to our New | | | | and celebrate the diversity inherent not only among |
| Constructs initiative. Among the highlights were | | | | all humans but all sentient beings. |
| sessions on whether and how the world will | | | | If the WTO had been put in charge of promoting the |
| de-globalize, whether the BRIC countries will become | | | | Internet in 1990, where would the Internet be now? |
| the next superpower, and whether the concept of | | | | Conversely, why can't more global institutions mimic |
| superpower itself needs to be re-examined. | | | | the Internet – creating a global network that has |
| On the prospect of new geo-political realities, several | | | | no single owner, a minimal set of rules of operation, |
| key observations emerged: | | | | tremendous flexibility, and diversity in how each |
| - From a bi-polar world during the Cold War to a | | | | country, each organization, and each individual use it? |
| uni-polar world since the fall of the USSR, we now | | | | For anyone seeking to take charge and control it, the |
| live in a multi-polar world. | | | | Internet is very messy. But for people looking to |
| - The financial meltdown has eroded the US's | | | | collaborate and communicate across a diverse yet |
| legitimacy to lead the world, and has increased the | | | | interdependent world, there couldn't be a better |
| importance of countries like China and India. | | | | solution. |
| - While the US and Western counties have lost the | | | | Global leadership in the Connected Age cannot follow |
| legitimacy to lead the world, the Asian countries do | | | | a hierarchical, 'silo' structure of command and control. |
| not yet have the maturity to lead. | | | | Leadership in the Connected Age would be fluid and |
| - Governments and other global institutions like the | | | | issue-based. It would need to be as local as possible |
| UN and World Bank have proved incapable of | | | | and as global as necessary. Issues like climate change |
| delivering what the world needs today – in areas | | | | would cede decision-making to empowered global |
| like ecological balance, climate change, financial | | | | institutions; local decision-making would devolve down |
| regulations, maintaining peace, promoting trade, and | | | | to the village panchayat level. |
| alleviating poverty. | | | | Sovereign nation-states have proven unable to |
| At the conference, a World Trade Organization | | | | deliver on their social contracts with their citizens; the |
| official lamented the way the WTO's vision of a | | | | old applecart of nation-states needs to be |
| simple, neat, universal trade framework has | | | | re-examined for relevance and scope. What powerful |
| disintegrated into a messy version of globalization, | | | | ideas can you share for governing our world in this |
| with more than 400 bilateral or multilateral trade | | | | century? |