Leadership

A while back I was sent a very interesting snippet by a good friend, on leadership. The simplicity of the four quadrants and its relevance to my own priorities in life was just awesome to comprehend.

This particular thought has references to the 'Core Values' at Sapient my current employer, where Leadership is one of the key values.
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Extract from the Harvard Business Review...


Interesting interpretations/questions thrown out here.
Do you want to be a good leader or a good coach or just good at delivering results? Do you even want to be a leader?

It's interesting to consider this theory in relation to Sapient's core values and incentive structure. If we ask the question "Are all successful people at Sapient good leaders?" then the answer is NO. So then is it just another ideal that we always strive towards and do the best we can? (while being great at other areas of the spectrum)

If so then not being strong in true leadership skills is actually just another SWOT analysis point, that each individual needs to figure out how to "make up for" to be successful.

Safer editorials!

And I had to settle for this. (as opposed to the Economics of Religion essay in the last blog)
I loved it as well, but its just so... Well for one you dig up numbers from other's surveys. Then you use researched trends as well. Not original enough in my book, even though you work just as hard to write it!

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Humanity has borne witness to a multitude of grave issues in the span of recorded history. On one side are the problems created by mankind, ranging from large scale wars, to massive genocide campaigns, the use of nuclear weapons and global climate change induced by deforestation and greenhouse emissions. On the other side are issues that nature has provided of her own largesse - from calamities like tsunamis and earthquakes, to diseases and non-human triggered destructive weather patterns.

It would be unfair to prioritize these issues based on casualties or causes, although there is one issue which has been growing in proportion alarmingly in recent years and is still eluding the focused attention of the world. This is the threat of communicable diseases (CDs). A recent study by the World Bank estimated that annually more than 10 million deaths worldwide are caused by CDs.

Even though there has been a very structured approach to known CDs during the 20th century, there are variants and newer diseases that have sprung up. While immunization and antibiotics were successful in eradicating small pox and widely controlling polio, newer diseases like HIV and newer strains of TB & malaria continue to wreak havoc. According to the world-bank survey, HIV has infected more than 60 million people worldwide and already claimed 20 million victims, and that TB is responsible for over 1.7 million deaths alone each year.

Changes in human demographics, dramatic increase in international travel and development of variant strains of microbes have made CDs a world wide phenomenon today. SARS and Avian Flu are two recent examples of global outbreaks of CDs that impacted countries throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas. Richard Preston’s “The Hot Zone” is a rude awakening to the reality that even a traditional safe zone like the Unites States is not insulated from the risk of extremely lethal and highly contagious diseases like Ebola and Marburg.

Today, international economics are closely linked to local public heath. In 1994 during the pneumonic plague outbreak in India, international travel came to a near stand still, resulting in millions of dollars in lost trade. A similar situation ensued during the 2003 SARS outbreak in S-E Asia. Today, more than ever, there is a need for global action to identify, control and prevent CDs.

For humanity to solve this problem, greater investment will be required in vaccine research, development and distribution. Global coordination in obtaining funding for research, in sharing the benefits of global R&D, and also in implementing disease prevention measures is another key step.

Several international agencies are currently involved in combating CDs. But the money, research and solutions available today are no where close to the scale of what is needed to really solve the problem. The World Bank, one of the largest financiers of international disease control programs committed $334 million in 2006. Compare this to the $441 billion dollar US national defense budget in 2006.

The need of the hour is a key revaluation of our priorities at a global level. The time has come to pool our resources, research and intellect to fight this gravest of threats to humanity.

Economics of Religion

A recent academic requirement drove me to write an editorial on the topic of "The most pressing issue facing humanity".
I loved the concept behind the write up, but funnily got a review that it was well too "Controversial". Life!
Of course it is controversial! Why do people want to forget that debate is the driver for a better society?

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One of the most pressing issues facing humanity today is the need for increased tolerance. This human ideal - stereotyped as a ‘greater good’; can actually be viewed in purely economic terms as a free market fundamental. A classic example of this would be religious tolerance.
Religion today is like a competitive commodity – no one religion is equipped to supply the entire market & its diverse needs. The demand for religion remains high, but markets are dramatically changing as information and global communications improve. This global change has led to accessibility of alternate religious products in remote markets and also to increased competition as new markets are made accessible to the large suppliers.
The marginal suppliers meanwhile are doing all they can to retain their market share. They are greatly helped by global support networks from similar products, something that was not easily accessible previously. The major suppliers on the other hand, are trying to redefine / standardize the market’s requirements to ensure uniformity of demand characteristics and to ensure that their product can meet the entire demand.

Add increased competition in an unregulated market, to other factors like:
- global energy sources & their availability – primarily oil and gas;
- economic growth needs of the major economies – requiring smaller economies to conform; and
- monopolistic actions by the largest suppliers of the product – influencing political policies, media control, propaganda marketing and unilateral actions
and you get a very volatile market on the verge on breakdown.

There is ample evidence of this advanced state of market distress across the globe.
- 12 cartoons – cost around 150 lives, $170 Mn in boycotted trade and billions more due to the international agitations and riots.
- Product conversion by local consumers – lead to riots in Alexandria, Egypt; to Patna, India; to Lagos, Nigeria – primarily incited by the local majority supplier
- Global polarization – Formation of cartels of nations and local organizations on the lines of the underlying religious commodity. The intricate relationships between the cartels have greatly increased chances of lengthy complicated wars – as precipitated in Lebanon, Kashmir (India), Chechnya (Russia), Iraq, Iran and Indonesia among others.

Assuming that the need of the world is a functional market place – or a peaceful world where cultures/peoples and nation states co-exist to allow real economic activities to proceed; then the need of the hour is a dramatic change in market fundamentals.

This correction of market fundamentals can only be driven by increased tolerance in humanity today. And it really does not need to be defined in terms of a greater good. In pure economic terms, the large suppliers will continue to strong arm the world till the marginal cost of the response overshadows their investments or until they are negatively incentivized to do so; and the marginal suppliers (who have achieved sufficient numbers to survive) will continue to use all means available till the market allows for their existence and growth as well.

The truth is that religious belief is not a regulated commodity, just like international politics; and in uncontrolled markets where the limits of survival practices are undefined, the first casualty is the market place. The catch is to figure out how to incentivize the market to incorporate this fundamental.

We can only hope that the marginal cost of actions for suppliers becomes too high before the entire market place, a.k.a humanity, is destroyed.