Future of telecom companies and smartphones, mobile devices and why the telecom business model is broken. Patrick Dixon conference keynote speaker on telco issues and customer experience. Where will future telecom revenues come from and risks to future strategy. Future customers will be even more impatient about waiting for -- web pages to load, calls to be answered, software to update, mobile devices to reset. Future of customer services and...

Over 50 years ago, scientists noticed that people with some viral infections were sometimes cured of cancer in surprising ways.  They discovered that the viruses were able to kill cancer cells. These were called oncolytic viruses – onco means cancer, lytic means that cells burst open and die. All these oncolytic viruses made people ill, so scientists tried to make new types of virus that would be less harmful to normal cells. Then they made an extraordinary discovery:  almost all cancer cells in solid tumours work in similar ways.  They grow in an uncontrolled manner and lack all kinds of normal functions.  What if we could make a damaged virus, with useless genetic code, where the code only works if activated inside a cancer cell? Today there are many different types of oncolytic viruses that have been altered from natural viruses in the laboratory, so that they kill cancer cells, while not damaging (many) normal cells.

Video and article explaining about oncolytic viruses for a non-technical audience. We could be about to see the most dramatic advance in cancer treatment for 30 years.  A new form of treatment that is relatively easy to make, has virtually no side effects, with potential to treat a wide variety of cancers, when used in combination with more traditional treatments. That is the implication of early studies in laboratories and in humans, if all goes well in the next stages. Viruses are a common cause of cancer.  So what about creating a new virus to cure cancer?  Many natural viruses are known to be “oncolytic”. They destroy cancer cells but they damage normal, healthy tissue as well. Scientists have taken a variety of human viruses which normally cause illness, and altered their genes so that they are able to enter human cells, but cannot activate – except in cancer cells. 

One of the greatest challenges facing emerging markets like China and Vietnam is what to do about State-Owned Enterprises, or nationally owned industries.  There are 145,000 of them in China alone. They generate 35% of China’s GDP and 43% of profits. Many of them survive only with large government subsidies, which distort national markets. They may enjoy lower tax rates than privately owned competitors. They often rely on huge bank loans at preferential rates of interest, crowding out other borrowers, discouraging investment and adding to government liabilities. So what should be done?

Labour costs are only half that in China, for same job in same kind of factory.  But that only makes sense if productivity is half, which is unlikely, especially in any newly built manufacturing base.
Expect therefore that the investments will continue – although it may be a challenge to consistently top more than $10bn a year, as has been the case recently, because there are even cheaper destinations such as Myanmar that are opening up.Vietnam – time to catch up with rest of Asia.

Here is a fact beyond dispute:  China is set to become the world’s largest economy.  The only debates are by what date and by what measure?  According to the IMF, Asian economies will represent at least 40% of global economic output by 2015, adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity. Many economists expect that on PPP calculations, China will overtake the United States long before 2020, probably by 2015-17. All global economists agree it is only a matter of time, by whatever measure. Most people in developed nations are unprepared for an inevitable major psychological, economic, cultural and political shift, which will impact the rest of this century.