The world is changing. Damn, THE WORLD NEEDS CHANGING.
Here’s how:
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A desperate failure in the financial system – The Guardian
A great piece from Jo Confino writing in the Guardian about the blocking role that the financial community appears to be playing in holding back the fundamental change required for business to become sustainable:
At its heart, the answer is simple. The vested interests who control the financial architecture, and have an extremely powerful voice in the corridors of power, simply don’t want to change because they still benefit hugely from the status quo, despite seeing the ruin they have brought on all of us.
And the possible answers:
So could it be up to civil society to generate change? The Bank of England governor quite rightly wondered why there wasn’t more outrage at the behaviour of the big banks, but the Occupy movement did show there is a river of anger below the surface that may well turn into a flood.
Or maybe it will just be the case that the financial markets will implode under the weight of their own hubris.
Personally, I think it is only to going to change as a result of real action from civil society. In other words, us. No single institution is going to face up.
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In Culture Shock, I wrote about Tech DNA, and about how all businesses need to break technology from out of its IT and R&D silos to truly enable the whole organisation. This story isn’t quite that, but it’s still provocative because of the scale.
In fact, this is just about giving people access to a particular mortgage app. But what else is possible now? What more does the trojan horse of a new technology bring when rolled out like this?
And this is happening widely – my dad, a teacher for 35 years, was given an iPad mini today… All change. As the article says: The IT supplier independently confirmed that it was seeing “significant interest in the take up of Apple iPads in large enterprise.”
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How social media supports Israel’s military and political goals by Neville Hobson
Fascinating, odd and slightly scary account of how Israel is using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even Pinterest to: “to get Israel’s narrative out in real time, as people read about red alerts in Tel Aviv and rocket landings in Gaza on Twitter, and to cut out the middleman of “old media” in communicating with pro-Israel activists”
In fact, we turned down a defence company last week. I guess that world is changing too…
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The Brightoneers vision for Brighton: to pioneer in creating an employee owned economy
Inspiring and perfectly-timed movement to propel Brighton’s already different-and-better business cluster into a truly radical, employee-owned hotbed, driven by co-founder of NixonMcInnes, Tom Nixon (link to his blog in righthand sidebar):
Wouldn’t it be great if the economy in Brighton existed to make life in our city better for everyone, now and for future generations, in harmony with the natural world?
Wouldn’t it be great if the local economy was not just for the people, but owned by the people – the workers and citizens?
Wouldn’t it be great if businesses that worked in this way collectively became the largest employer in the city, creating jobs that deliver happiness and meaning as well as a salary?
Wouldn’t it be great if we created a model that inspired other towns and cities across the world to build better local economies for the benefit of everyone there too?
If you’re in or near Brighton or London, and into this stuff, come to the launch party thing, I’ll see you there. This is where it starts.
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Creating happiness at work by Alexander Kjerulf
Alex is a master of happiness at work. This talk at Meaning 2012 was one of the highlights for many people I’ve spoken with since. This is Alex in top form: 30 minutes of funny, poignant Danish brilliance.
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Further reading: For a book that wraps these ideas up into 8 chapters, check out Culture Shock. It has a five star rating on Amazon, I wrote it and I believe in it.
Onwards! Will.
Will McInnes 