To be honest, the talk of the Swiss town was the massive fraud at the French bank Société Générale (for once, we, French, set a world class record in finance, let’s celebrate!)
Seriously now. I think the most interesting speech at this 2008 edition of the World Economic Forum was Bill Gates. Microsoft founder outlined what he called “Creative Capitalism”: the use of market forces to address poor-country needs.
> Gates’ interview in The Wall Street Journal
> and the report from Davos by Fortune
On the same subject, Business Week run a great cover story bluntly titled Can Greed Save Africa. Here.
And in this 2006 New Yorker’s piece, Connie Bruck outlined the connections between high stake entrepreneurship and microcredit. xw
Related columns:
- Advertising: real change must happen TweetThe brutal recession reveals how flawed the current Internet business model is. As advertising-only business models are falling apart, even the Google ecosphere is under stress. The search giant’s preservation of its margins at the expense of its media partners’ revenue stream could be shortsighted. –First of two parts. Sorry to be blunt, but Internet [...]...
- The real cost of genuine journalism TweetUpdated with a video on PolitiFact Guide to Fact-checking The idea for this column came to me last March; I was flying back from Stockholm. Schibsted, the Norwegian media group I work for, had asked me to be part of the jury for its yearly Schibsted Journalism Award. I was both honored and curious to [...]...
- Murdoch’s competitive metabolism TweetOn the same subject, Howell Raines, former editor of the New York Times, reminds us of the true drive of the new owner of the Wall Street Journal: competition. In 2002, in a discussion about how to compete against the WSJ, Murdoch gave Raines a piece of advice : “You ought to hit them where [...]...
- The Real iPhone 1.0 TweetSaint Peter offers a choice of hells to a recently dematerialized high-tech tycoon (pick your favorite sinner) with a long list of transgressions. The basic one, fire, floggings, and the premium one, plenty of music, drink, food and other pleasures of the flesh. Said tycoon picks the fun venue, Saint Peter pulls a lever, the [...]...
- Emotions or rational? The art of the deal decoded by psychology TweetIn a negotiation process, whether it is for a job interview or a commercial transaction, two related approaches are often used to understand the opponent: perspective-taking and empathy. The first is the cognitive power to consider the world from someone else’s viewpoint, the second is the power to connect with them emotionally. Adam Galinsky of [...]...
