| The
Clash of Cultures in a Changing World
Lunchtime Plenary Speech by
Dr Patrick Dixon, for Fortune event New York November 7th
2001, close to Ground Zero. Dr Dixon has been ranked as one of the 20 most influential business thinkers alive today (Thinkers50 - 2005 survey) and is author of Building a Better Business.
(Other speakers at event: Gary Hamel - Chairman Strategos, Kathleen
Turner - Actress, Mayor of New York, Jorma Ollila Chairman / CEO
Nokia, Tom Brokaw - NBC, Helge Wehmeier - President Bayer, Stephen
Case - Chairman AOL Time Warner)
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank
you for your warm welcome at this significant time.
As I stood at ground zero I was
reminded that during the Second World War my own city of London
was bombed, until one home in four was damaged or destroyed. And you stood with us to win that war, shoulder to shoulder.
And now we stand with you, in your own time of uncertainty about
the future.
And it is the nature of that future,
the deep desire for a better kind of future, that is my theme today.
We can have the greatest business
strategies, plans to profit from chaos and from market consolidation,
plans for faster decision-making, clever restructuring and all the
rest, but my experience is that these things have limited power
to capture and inspire the human spirit, to connect with the real
passions people have. And
the time to do so is now.
Never has there been a time of greater
restlessness in the workplace.
A crisis of purpose.
Faced with tragedy, the universal human response is to return
to the things which are most important in our lives.
This is a time for greatness - and
we have seen greatness,
This is a time for noble ideals
and the highest principles, for deep reflection, for fresh understanding.
I believe it is these very ideals
that will underpin sound long term economic recovery, restore energy
and confidence to consumers.
The old ways are gone and many are
standing around, asking profound questions about where we are going:
as individuals, as families, as communities, and as nations.
Out of evil has come great good
- and I see a great wave of concern and compassion sweep not only
across this great city but across every State in America.
There is indeed a passion, more
than perhaps we have seen for a generation, a deep feeling in the
depths of our being that something has to change, and that we want
to make a real difference, we want our children to have a different
kind of future. (And
you know, it has absolutely nothing to do with shareholder value,
bottom line profit or an annual bonus.)
I want to share with you the most
positive and encouraging four words that I have ever heard, when
it comes to corporate life or human motivation.
These four simple words, one single
phrase is the key to the future, to the biggest value shift in 50
years, a profound popular revolution NOT caused by Sept 11 but hugely
accelerated BY it.
These four words will be the basis
of all future marketing campaigns, every mission statement, every
political slogan, every business success and economic health.
These words explain all consumer
behaviour and attitudes, in every nation, and will determine our
future.
They have the power to transform
the global culture clash we see today, to unite very different peoples
in co-operation and understanding.
The light dawned for me as a result
of four common reactions to the future.
People call me a Futurist because I am often asked to guide
global corporations through tomorrow's headlines.
I guess my job is to live in 2010 and to see tomorrow as
history.
But one thing I know:
whenever I talk of the future, people want to talk to me
about themselves, the passions they have and the concerns they hold
for themselves, their families, their communities and the world
as a whole.
First let's take technology - in
all it's forms. I love
technology, I had my own IT startup in 1979, and today I have a
cyberbubble in my home: it's
a TV studio and a web TV station, enabling me to broadcast on satellite
or to link semi-permanently at almost zero cost to a client the
other side of the world. I surf the net at 2 megabits per second while floating on my
swimming pool. My personal
website has had 24 million requests in year.
In my pocket I carry the world's
first injectable PC: a
device the size of a grain of rice with software, hardware, processor,
memory, transmitter and receiver.
It carries its own power pack, which collects electromagnetic
energy from the air, and will last 100 years.
Hitachi's latest design is just 0.2 mm in size and this is
only the first day of the digital age.
In my country we use them to trace
our animals: outside
my country people tell me our cows are barking mad, our sheep are
frothing at the mouth and it's always raining cats and dogs..
Seriously though, these outbreaks got huge publicity, created
fear but in truth were limited and are over.
Similar biochips are giving sight
to the blind and hearing to the deaf.
The next generation will be able to control their environment
by thinking alone - now we have learned how to grow brain cells
into the surface of chips.
But the more I talk technology,
the more people talk to me about relationships.
It's the same
with biotech. The digital
revolution has the power to change what we DO but the genetic revolution
has the power to change who we ARE.
Your own genes
work in carrots and cabbages - as do scorpion poison genes which
mean cabbages kill caterpillars - but what about people?
Actually carrot genes work in your body too.
Human genes have
been added to pigs. They
have low fat meat, but are blind, impotent and suffer from severe
arthritis.
Human genes have
been added to Salmon - and they grow to four times their usual size
in just 12 months.
We have cotton
which is growing pure rabbit fur, insects with extra eyes on their
wings, rabbit embryos combined with human embryos to make hybrids
- just some of the million such experiments around the world in
the last year. And
we may be only weeks away from the birth of the first human clone,
or indeed from the first act of war using a genetically modified
virus.
You see, all
genetic code is written in Microsoft basic - and a word processor
is all you need to cut and paste.
You are 86% the same as an earthworm, 88% the same as an
insect and 98% the same as a gorilla!
At the same time
we are seeing real miracles of science and medicine.
It's now possible to take bone marrow from a mouse, treat
it and inject it back, so that the cells wander around the body
until they find damaged brain or heart or liver - and make a perfect
repair. A miracle indeed.
But as I say
whenever I talk of genetics, as a physician (I am one by my first
training) as well as a Futurist, people talk to me about their concerns
- not for themselves, but for the whole of humanity.
A sense that biotech is running ahead, out of control.
For years the
great fashion has been the pursuit of self:
self fulfilment, self actualisation, self realisation, as
if self was the only part of the human heart..
Well self-interest may be dominant, but it's not the only
driver ..
My second observation
is the huge growth of positive interest in work-life balance - an
unfortunate phrase because it implies that life is not work and
that work is the opposite to being fully alive.
If Work-life
balance is about anything, most people tell me it's about having
time for relationships outside of work, it's about family, their
special inner circle.
(Actually in
Britain I confess we have a particular problem in this area: on
current trends we will all end up divorced before we have time to
get married. and every child will be in a broken home.)
According to
large surveys, work-life balance is now No 1 or No 2 career priority
across America, the
UK and Japan, a huge shift.
Ten years ago surveys showed entirely different motivation.
And the younger these executives are, the greater
the value they place on getting a life.
Half of corporate
America wants to work four days a week for less money.
You know why? So
they can reduce their hours from 100 to 80.
This motivation
gap is the result of a total rethink about work.
And I tell you this: as people share
with me their own stories of personal pain, hard decisions and how
they feel their careers have damaged those they love - or once loved,
I am often deeply moved. I
know that these things really matter to people - more than selling
products or running organisations.
I'll never forget
Mark, a New Yorker in Europe for a two week course.
On the first day he interrupts me as I'm talking about value
trends, and says he wishes he was back home.
There's a sharp intensity in his low voice, eyes caste down.
He left in a
blazing row with his thirteen year old son who hates math.
"You must do it", dad says.
The cab is waiting for him and he's already late.
"You don't understand,"
son replies.
"You need it to do well and get
a great job."
And then flows the truth, the secret
feelings that would set a fire in Mark's heart and change his life
forever.
"I HATE your
job." His son is sobbing now.
"I'd rather sweep the streets.
I've seen what YOUR JOB has DONE to mum, and I HATE what
it's doing to ME."
In that moment
of truth, reality dawned. Deep down inside, Mark knew he cared a
thousand more times about his family than the next share bonus.
In any case, one more set of bad figures and he could be
out anyway.
When did he last
weep over sales figures? But when did the bank last ask him how
they could support his life at home?
Many companies treat families as if they don't exist, and
two career households as if they are from the planet Zod.
And the more senior you are, people often tell me, the greater
the active discrimination can be against anyone who seems to have
even a remote interest in life outside work.
Do you know more
than a quarter of your best executives have thought seriously of
turning down promotion, to get balance back.
It's a major issue in the War for Talent - what's the point
of attracting the best if they don't want to achieve THEIR best?
So family is
a vital positive motivator.
We see the third
reaction to the future in the amazing boom in volunteering over
the last fifteen years. Six
out of ten Americans give an average 200 hours a year each! - actually
it's risen yet again since September 11.
That's around
20 billion hours a year! If
each was paid for at an average industrial rate, that national gift
of time is equal to 4% of GDP or 12 % of the Federal Budget, as
much as spent on agriculture and space, education, training, technology,
employment, social services and transport.
This is a growing people movement.
But why do they do it?
Because they
really want to put something back. They CARE about their community,
their city, this great nation and beyond.
I've seen this spirit over and over in my own work in many
of the poorest nations in the AIDS field.
I
know company Chairmen who are frustrated
that a half million bonus still fails to keep someone from
pushing off. Everyone
finds they're paying inflationary salaries just to stand still.
But ask that same person what they do in their own time for
NOTHING, and you will find their REAL passion. Connect with that
same passion at work and they will follow you to the ends of the
earth - and you won't need to pay them a single dime.
The fourth reaction
to the future is seen in the prolific growth of activist and campaigning
groups. People aren't
interested in politics, hence only half America voted for a President.
Left right politics is dead.
Instead we have wars
waged by opinion poll and focus group.
People today are driven by issues which capture their imagination
and stir them up inside.
Response to terrorism,
animal welfare, child labour, nazi gold, human rights, environmental
damage, loss of natural habitat, global warming - there are thousands,
well served by the 1.6 million charities collecting money to save
the world.
And the reason?
Because there's a strong positive feeling across this nation
and in many others, that we should be concerned about the future
of humanity as a whole - indeed about the whole earth.
These concerns are often expressions of spirituality and
life-changing faith.
And I began to
understand:
Despite popular
myths that most people are only really concerned about No 1, most of the PASSION I was hearing was about these other areas,
or corners of the human heart:
concerns about special relationships, community and the greater
world. These concerns
vary hugely in strength from person to person, but all will be increasingly
significant in a future domestic and global market where every value
is being questioned.
Why am I doing
this? What's the point
of working for a company whose ways I don't respect, whose products
I disapprove of, and who treats its people and their loved ones
badly?
Life's too short
to waste on things that don't matter.
The light began
to dawn. I began to
see that the foundation stone of these concerns for self, family,
community and world was just one single thing:
The desire to
build a better world.
Building a better
world is the ultimate slogan and mission statement - in each of
Four Corners of the Human Heart.
A better world for myself in every way - why else do I drink that
cup of coffee
A better world for my family
For my community
For all humanity
Building a Better
World is a principle that is instantly familiar because without
knowing it, as I say, it's been inside us all the time:
Red Cross: Together
we can save a life
Wall-Mart: We exist to give ordinary
folk the chance to buy the same things as rich people.
Walt Disney:
We make people happy
Mary Kay Inc:
Enriching women's lives
Merck and Co: Business is preserving
and improving human life
But it's not
just about business, it's national leadership too.
JFK, M Luther King, Churchill and Nelson Mandela all knew
by instinct how to trigger all the passions people have.
FOLLOW ME AND
I PROMISE YOU A BETTER WORLD
Satisfying you
as an individual
Supporting family, those we care
for
Strengthening. our community
Sustaining. the rest of humanity
Actually, building
a better world starts at birth and is practised daily in almost
every American home
(Note to reader: Do you disagree? - you could win the $20,000 Challenge:
Enter the $20,000 Building a Better Business Challenge - online now)
We have four
teenagers and it's certainly practised in our own home. Every parent
seeks to build a better world - indeed it is the only principle
that works. The aim is to convert a naturally self-centred small child
into a wonderful, responsible young adult who is going to achieve
really great things, yet is considerate to others and a great citizen.
Every High School
rule abides by this same powerful principle backed by mutual consent.
"These school rules mean a far better world for everyone."
Failure to win the better world argument results in anarchy.
Every court
case in America today hangs or falls by the Better World
principle. Take Microsoft:
is it a better or worse world to have a powerful monopoly
or to break it up?
Or take drug
patents in poor nations in the last few weeks.
Does it build a better world when HIV medication made under
patent is so expensive a doctor in Uganda has to save all his income
for a decade to treat one patient?
One by one all the drug companies stopped their joint action
in South Africa for
breach of patents, after a huge international outcry - despite active
support for them from President Bush and our Prime Minister Tony
Blair.
The collapse
of this court case will impact the profits of multinational drug
companies for at least decade.
The greater the health benefits of your new discovery, the
greater the pressure will be to give it away.
So what went
wrong: these huge companies
had great products, a powerful business case, a clear moral and
legal issue - but misunderstood the new values shift.
Do you know that
your registration fee for this benefit two day conference in New
York is large enough
to employ an aid worker for a year in most countries of the world.
These kind of contrasts will mean many other industries come
under pressure - not just those making medication.
Building a better
world will stretch corporations to the very limits as they adjust
to the radical values revolution and a new kind of culture clash:
this time between consumers and corporations.
Good news: Great
values means great business.
That's why ethical investment funds are growing so fast -
and often outperforming the rest of the market.
Great investment,
low management charges, protecting your family's future security,
and every dollar works in the community to build a better world.
Our vehicles
are terrific to drive, keep kids safe, use less gas, are less polluting
and are built in factories which take great care of people.
All in all we are a great company.
But lousy values
means no business at all. See what happens if your company is found
employing loads of children 8,000 miles away in India.
People say -
you can't change the whole world.
That's true but you can change someone's world somewhere.
Together we can
make the difference.
Together we stand for hope and for
freedom.
Together we stand for compassion,
liberty and justice.
Together we stand for the sake of
our children and all children everywhere.
This is the ground on which I stand.
And I believe that this is the passion
of the American people.
It will be the passion of every
successful corporation.
These are the only foundations for
a sustainable future, for a successful, secure economy and a great nation.
These are the principles around
which cultures can co-operate instead of clash.
They are the root of every society,
every civilisation, and of every religion.
Appealing to all 4 Corners of the
Human Heart means that people will be proud to buy your products,
proud to work for you, proud to join forces with you.
Because they believe that you are
building a better future.
Building a Better World is the key
to our future business, our corporate calling and our path of destiny.
Together, we will find a better way."
Read Building a Better Business - book
Enter the $20,000 Building a Better Business Challenge - online now
The Truth about the
Iraq War
Why the War with Iraq is a sign of a new world order and what it
all means for the future of the Middle East, America, Europe, United
Nations and the coalition against terror
Press
/ TV | Lectures | Dr
Patrick Dixon | Future of Banking | Digital Consumers
Genetics and Cloning | Life
& Health | Global Change
| Search our site |
Video / Articles by Patrick Dixon - 24 million requests in year - 10 million visitors - Conference Speech/Event? 
