 The Potential of Female Leadership explores what lessons we may learn from bonobos’ matriarchal social structure, so we can build stronger, more collaborative human communities and groups. Bonobo Handshake is an enthralling insightful book, which I review here. A tremendous bonus is its similarities to and significant differences from Chimpanzee Politics (reviewed yesterday).
Bonobo Handshake was on the same library shelf as Chimpanzee Politics, but it is a very different book, and in delightful ways. At the same time, it offers intriguing insight into bonobos’ behavior, which differs significantly from chimpanzees’ and holds interesting lessons for human societies and groups. Although Woods is not a primatologist per se, she has conducted extensive research with her husband, who is, so explaining scientific experiments forms a key part of this book.
Bonobo Handshake is rare in a surprising way. Deftly and subtly, it contrasts the joy, harmony and matriarchal structure of the bonobos with chimpanzees’ and humans’ patriarchal societies and violence: the wars in and around the two Congos result in the […]
In the knowledge economy, people are motivated by greater autonomy, mastery, and purpose—not by carrots or sticks.. connectivity is second only to a water pump in its significance to a village.. It will not be enough, as it was back in the early Web, to just leave a website lying around to be found. Business has to become a travelling exhibit, a movable market stall that can be adjusted and placed wherever people are or want to be.. Marketers have begun to view social networks as a significant marketing contact point (and perhaps even more important than traditional channels) for procuring consumer data and knowledge.. people are diving into the Web 2.0 and 3.0 pools before they even know with whom they are swimming.. In 2010 we will see more public agencies taking risks to engage in this sort of “flat” information sharing and insight gathering.. sociology will rapidly become the new economics. […]
President Bill Clinton challenged IIT alumni to use their ingenuity in the service to mankind: “Being a good citizen no longer means paying your taxes and depending on your government. We can use innovation to help the less fortunate directly.” His message fell on ready ears and was deeply appreciated by 2,500 graduates of the Indian Institutes of Technology at PanIIT, their annual global conference, which was held in Chicago, Illinois. […]
Year in Review 2007—Editor’s Choice of the Global Human Capital Journal
 As I reflect on 2007 and create strategy for 2008, several macro-trends come into sharp relief, and I believe that some of them might be helpful to you as you conduct your own planning. As always, I focus on emerging phenomena because they are areas in which disruption and discontinuous change are acting on markets, thereby elevating threats and opportunities. Helping leaders to create strategy to manage the risk of unusual market developments is the focus of my consulting practice.
In 2007 it became clear to me that we were entering a profound social transformation that would produce an unimaginable degree of change. Unlike the technology-precipitated change that I’ve been helping people with since the 1990s, technology is shifting to the background now, and pervasive social change is taking the stage. Look for disruption in all areas affected by how people connect, communicate, purchase and collaborate: business, politics, community and leisure. Moreover, these changes are completely global with all the variations that engenders.
I can’t tell […]
Disrupting the Automobile explores how several ventures are changing the rules of an intractable industry.
The automobile is a personal manifestation of the ultimate promise of the Industrial Economy—that physical power is essentially free—because it enables people to move quickly and easily. People just love cars because it is immensely satisfying to glide effortlessly (traffic notwithstanding ,^) from one place to another with a high degree of individual freedom.
However, as 2007 draws to a close, autos’ current reliance on fossil fuels makes it increasingly obvious that we need to change the rules. First, new wealth in emerging markets is dramatically increasing auto ownership and its concomitant demand for oil. Increased demand and uncertain supply will undoubtedly prove unsustainable in the medium term. Second, and even more daunting, is the carbon/climate change problem, which is far more life-changing in the long term. Petroleum and coal are the largest contributors to man-made carbon emissions.
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Will China’s Rise Lead to an Environmental Catastrophe? summarizes The Economist Chicago debate, examining the environmental fallout of the Chinese economic supernova—sibling rivalry rears its ugly head.
 In 2007, nary an RSS feed or the page of a newspaper (for those still inclined ,^) does not mention China’s exploding impact on the global stage: China is truly an economic supernova, and it is breaking almost any record for development that is laid before it. However, China’s breakneck development is accompanied by grave environmental fallout: for example, as the host of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the city is designing extreme measures to ensure that the air is clean enough for the athletes to breathe. The chief culprit is coal, a key source for China’s insatiable need for electric power, and a resource that the country has in abundance. For key facts on China, I suggest The Economist’s Country Briefing or CSRA’s Emerging Markets category (in depth) or China tag (mentions).
The Economist and WBEZ 91.5 FM presented an Oxford-style debate on the effect that China’s rise […]
China Analysis and Outlook 2007 offers political insight into the global knowledge market.
 The Strategic Management Association, the Harvard Business School and the CDMA sponsored the 2007 China Outlook, which was given by Lyric Hughes-Hale, Founder China Online in Chicago 9 January 2007. Her presentation was preceded by David Hale’s 2007 Economic Forecast.
As a long-time China watcher and analyst, Lyric has rare and unusual insights to which I’ll try to do justice before giving my observations. The Global Human Capital Journal also covered the 2006 China Outlook.
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Dr. Clotaire Rapaille served a delectable elixir to a packed room of B2B marketers at BIGfrontier yesterday. His talk spanned business in China, investing in India, a new value proposition for shampoo (think “breastfeeding”), why people drive Hummers to the mall, why French people don’t work and myriad others. Rapaille (“Rah pEYE”) lists half of the Fortune 100 has retained clients because he has a track record with helping them understand the inner structures of consumers’ minds and, therefore, how to communicate with them. Moreover, many of these inner structures hold true across cultures which can enable companies to develop offerings that will hold true globally. Sound impossible? Read on.
As usual, I will share my notes from the meeting and follow those with some of my insights but, unlike the usual custom, I have also interspersed some material from one of his major books to fill gaps. The topics he addressed were intricate and complex, and there wasn’t time to delve into the details of the background research.
Background
Rapaille, a Frenchman who subsequently became virulently American, began his career as a psychoanalyst working with autistic children in Switzerland, which gave him insights into how the brain worked and […]
China Analysis and Outlook 2006 reveals an emerging opportunity to rebalance economic and political influence.
 Part II of the 2006 Economic Forecast featuring David Hale (presented Part I) and Lyric Hughes-Hale. Here, I present my notes of Lyric’s talk, followed by my observations.
Background: China’s development and situation are far more complex than U.S. news sources report. It has seen significant economic liberalization during the past 25 years, and it shows every sign of continuing on that trajectory. However, the country is politically conservative. There is no freedom of the press. That said, the authoritarian government may produce reform much more quickly than if China had been democratic because the democratic process often slows reform. China is far more open and engaged on the world stage than it has been in many years. […]
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