How to become US Vicepresident

A few days ago I read an article written by Al Gore. The article's content doesn't  matters, what it really matters is the picture that follow the article. In the picture (that I post here) we can see Al Gore's Office in his home in Nashville, TN (Time Magazine).

Look at it!  Al's Office is a mess! With tons and tons of papers here and there.

It looks like your room, probably.  It looks like my home office!

So don't worry about how is your office, you can succeed in life even with a mess all over the table.

Have a nice day.    

Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development (FIELD)

In these times of global recesion and lack of employment, creative minds should take the initiative and move on self-employment.

 

If you are a Tiger and you feel that now, in your city, region or country you feel you cannot give your best, probably it's time to think twice about self-employment.

 

Just have a look on what Harvard Business School is including in their MBA programme:

 

“Learning by doing” will become the norm, if a radical overhaul of the MBA curriculum succeeds."

"The 900 students arriving in Boston this summer for their two-year course were told they would be guinea pigs. The new practical addition to HBS’s curriculum is known as “FIELD” (Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development)"

"...students will be given eight weeks, and seed money of $3,000 each, to launch a small company. The most successful, as voted by their fellow students, will get more funding. "

via economist.com

8 weeks and 3,000 $... Can you do the same with 3,000 € in your city?

If you feel now like a tiger in jail, with no future in your actual brand or if you're unemployed, think about it.

Entrepreneurship as a need

The time is over: XX century managers have shown themselves they aren't up to date to the new century. The last few years are the prove they cannot adapt themselves and their organisations to the new business model and therefore, create jobs and be competitive with emerging economies.

We, as young and well-prepared professionals, have the need to become entrepreneurs and stop waiting for an employment position in a brand.

What are you going to do?

The Year of the Dragon

Wherever you live, probably you can see there are hundreds of chinese people preparing themselves for the new year: The Year of The Dragon.

Chinese mandataries look at this year with hope and fear at the same time. As World's number one exporters, they fear the recesion in the tradicional buyer, which probably leads to a reduce in chinese production and increase of unemployment rates. Furthermore, the real state prices in China have decreased in 52 of 70 main cities and the new home prices in the nation’s four major cities of Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen have declined for a third month. Looks like Spain in 2008-2009!

But Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Primer Minister Wen Jiabao aren't worried about that. They hope that the Year of the Dragon it's going to be the year of Chinese World's leadership: Presidential Elections in USA and debt and political crisis in Europe have prepared the field for Chinese new year in World Leadership.

Should we start to learn Chinese?

Religion Inc.

I know that in these times of recesion and crisis, people need support and comprehension. We need help and guidance. I don't know how is the actual Church helping in these matters but what I know is that there are a huge amount of people that are atheist and don't believe in Church's doctrine so they don't have the way to get these benefits. Is there a way for these people to get it?

I think that in these days of need and 2.0 technologies, there is a posibility to combine these two topics and create a new religion but without the doctrines of common religions. Just with moral rules and guidance to improve and have a better life. All of it mixed with a touch of 2.0 tech.
Can we make it maybe with a daily Tweet?  Please, comment.

Innova vel mortuus est

"Renew or died" is a maxim for all companies these days, no matter what's your business.

As part of my lecture about Competitive Innovation, I carried out a research through the Oxford English Dictionay about the real meaning of Competitive Innovation. 

" Innova vel mortuus est "

 

Competitive Innovation:  to make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products in order to become as good as or better than others of a comparable nature (our competitors).

Innovation from Latin innovatio(n-), from the verb innovare

noun

[mass noun] the action or process of innovating:

innovation is crucial to the continuing success of any organization

Innovate (in¦nov|ate)

verb  

make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products:

the company’s failure to diversify and innovate competitively

competitive (com|peti¦tive)

adjective

As good as or better than others of a comparable nature:

a car industry competitive with any in the world



How is german fiscal health? Good question, indeed.

Just read Xavier Sala i Martin Tabú question: How is german fiscal heath? Good question, indeed.

Here you can read the whole article.

"La pregunta Tabú en Europa, la que nadie se hace por miedo a que le den una respuesta es: ¿cómo está la salud fiscal de Alemania? Todo el mundo da por hecho de que Alemania es el garante último de todas las deudas de Europa y que su AAA está garantizada para siempre. Los mercados siguen pensando que Alemania es el país más seguro y sacan su dinero de los países periféricos (Grecia, Italia, España, Portugal e Irlanda) para invertirlo en Bunds alemanes com un rendimiento minúsculo de menos del 2%. 

Pero la deuda alemana como fracción del PIB supera el 80% (en este sentido es MUY superior a la española, que no llega al 70%!) y todo indica que ese nivel de deuda va a empeorar, y mucho, en un futuro no muy lejano por la gran cantidad de compromisos explícitos e implícitos que Alemania ha hecho o se va a ver obligada a hacer.

Primero, la recesión económica que vive la periferia de Europa ya ha llegado al norte. Hasta ahora, Alemania se ha salvado de la crisis pero la cosa está empezando a cambiar. A medida que Alemania se hunde en su propia recesión, sus cuentas públicas se van a deteriorar porque sus ingresos fiscales van a caer y sus gastos por desempleo van a aumentar. Esperemos que Merkel no cometa el error de intentar solucionar su crisis con políticas keynesianas de demanda ya que eso solo empeoraría la situación, cosa que pueden atestiguar hoy sus amigos españoles (si es que los tiene).

Segundo, la población alemana está envejeciendo rápidamente y los babyboomers ya están a punto de jubilarse. El impacto fiscal de ese tsunami demográfico es gigantesco no sólo por las pensiones que van a cobrar sino por el gasto sanitario que una población tan anciana va a representar. A pesar de que Alemania exige reformas de pensiones y recortes en la sanidad de los países periféricos, no hay indicios de que ellos estén introduciendo esas reformas o practicando esos recortes.

Tercero, Alemania ya ha comprometido varios cientos de miles de millones de euros al fondo de rescate de Grecia, Irlanda y Portugal (unos 400.000 millones de momento entre todos los países del Centro). 

Cuarto, a medida que la crisis se expande a países más grandes como Italia y España, las necesidades de dinero público alemán aumentan. Grecia necesita unos 200.000 millones. Italia y España necesitan 1,4 BILLONES de euros para financiarse SOLO EN LOS PROXIMOS TRES AÑOS!

Quinto, pero la crisis no se expande solamente a Italia y España. Es un secreto a voces que Francia está a punto de perder su status de AAA y lo mismo pasa con Bélgica. Las primas de riesgo de esos países empieza a dispararse. Eso quiere decir dos cosas. La primera es que esos países están dejando de ser países del Centro (con capacidad de garantizar y financiar la deuda de los de la perder). El Centro se queda cada vez más pequeño. La segunda es que al dejar de ser países del Centro pasan a ser de la periferia. Es decir, no sólo no aportan dinero y garantías a los fondos de rescate sino que pasan a necesitar dinero y garantías. A medida que el Centro pierde países miembros y la periferia los gana, nos acercamos a un mundo en el que sólo hay un país que paga: ¡Alemania! No hace falta decir que esa situación generará un agujero fiscal en Alemania de dimensiones cósmicas.

Y sexto, todo apunta que la solución que se está gestando durante estas últimas horas en Europa es la expansión del fondo de Rescate (EFSF) con dinero de verdad (no con apalancamiento, que es lo que burdamente intentaron los líderes europeos en su último conejo de la chistera). Ese dinero vendrá de Estados Unidos, del FMI, de Alemania, de los BRICS y, sobre todo, del Banco Central Europeo (BCE). Parece que se va a llegar a una cifra de 600.000 millones para España e Italia, lo que permitirá dar un respiro de un año y medio (no se llegará a los 1,4 billones que se necesitan para un programa estable de 3 años). El problema es que, como no hay garantía de que Italia y España vayan a hacer los deberes (de hecho, nadie sabe exactamente cuales son las propuestas de Rajoy o cual va a ser su equipo económico), existe la posibilidad de que ambos países no sean “solventes pero sin liquidez” sino que sean “insolventes”. Si son insolventes, el BCE se quedará con una cartera de bonos basura que puede acabar llevándole a su propia quiebra. Si el BCE quiebra, alguien va a tener que recapitalizarlo. ¿Quien? Lo han adivinado: ¡Alemania!

Resumiendo, los compromisos fiscales de Alemania para los próximos años son enormes. Tan enormes que parece mentira que nadie en Europa se haga la pregunta tabú."

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/fah7k1

Happy new year

During last month I ate, walked, travelled, enjoyed and slept hours and hours - truly holiday time with the family -. But after these weeks of inactivity. I come back with more opinions and articles, comments and interesting facts of daily life.

As a small sum up, that is what happened in the world:

USA |  Mitt Romney has beaten his Republican rivals and looks to be the new candidate to be President of United States. He's charming and a political animal with more than 25 years of experience in management consultancy companies, making them more efficient and making a lot of money.

Europe | 2011 Germany data: 3% of growth and around 6% of unemployment. For sure the best place to find a job in Europe. We'll post about this topic in the following days!

Innovation | Next Thursday 19th January will take place in Göttingen (Lower Saxony, Germany) the Innovation Day. Highly recommendable!