Brainforum

There is no alternative to regulation

The collapse of Lehman Brothers in midst of September 2008 made people become sensitive towards bonus payments in the investment banking sector.We all know that they are different from the ones in middle sized or big companies.
Of course, everyone was aware of the fact that investment bankers receive an especially high remuneration – but until the beginning of the crisis, it did not matter to anyone but a few people outside the sector.
With the collapse of Lehman and the start of the financial and economic crisis, lots of credit institutions had to get back to governmental interventions in order to not break down Lehman style.
It was then that the public realized what the bonus system in the investment sector really was about and how it worked.

Continue reading…

Importance of the developing world

Even though the recent crisis has affected the upliftment of poverty ridden people towards giving them a better life, the transition is still happening, even if slower than the crisis free scenario.

The global economic crisis will continue to affect the long term development prospects well beyond 2015 in terms of slowing down the momentum of achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), says the Global Monitoring Report 2010 released by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The crisis has slowed the pace of the poverty reduction in developing countries but the number of poor in India is still falling, says the report. As a result, 53 million more people will stay in extreme poverty in 2015 who otherwise would have been brought out of it. Similar trend is expected with other MDGs related to hunger, child and maternal health, water and health issues and sanitation.

Continue reading…

Can we really price nature: or what is the other version of the crisis we have today?

This article does not want to give the answer to the question, but rather wants to discuss the issue with the World Business Dialogue participants. The right answers are under development and many question raised in this article are the challenge for our generation to find the clue-solutions. At the World Business Dialogue, this challenge can be met by professionals and students.

Who can answer what our Earth is worth in money? What is the value of the air we breathe? It’s the same as to ask how much your life is worth. Seems like a very extreme comparison, but nowadays, when the modern world faces the financial crisis, it is becoming a more and more essential question.

Why? This question refers to sustainability or new fresh trends of economic development. Somebody can say that we already priced water. Yes, we did, but is the price right? Is it fair in every region? Won’t global warming correct these prices?

Continue reading…

The crisis and media strategies for marketing places – Part Two

The media information indicates that many destructive events occur every day; homicide, robbery, natural disasters, corruption and other afflictions. These kinds of «possible crisis in places», as the economic and financial situation, have a very high space in the broadcasting, newspapers, Internet websites and the social network, and an impact on the places image.

According to Glaesser (2006: 12) a crisis is “a critical change in an important variable that endangers or destroys either parts of or the entire system”.  In the line of the Avraham & Ketter (2008: 79) theory, “the systemic approaches offer a general definition, emphasizing the occurrence of a change in institutions, companies, groups or places that threatens to break the current equilibrium or routine”. Mansfeld & Pizam (2006) suggests a list of five possible crises in the places:

i)       “Crime-related events;

ii)     Terror-related events;

iii)   Political unrest events;

iv)   Natural disaster events;

v)     Epidemic-related events.”

Continue reading…

The crisis demands for more creativity …

Looking at the problems of today it becomes obvious that more of the same seems not to be the right cure. For The Times They Are A-Changin’, as Bob Dylan nicely put it, a fresh new approach towards business but also economic and societal problems is more important than ever.

But to date, the term ‘creativity’ in business has mostly been applied to the use of creativity techniques. While such techniques can be helpful to open managers up to new ideas, and while personal stories of artists can have an inspirational impact, both approaches are limited in their ability to help us appreciate peoples’ inherent creative potential.  If creativity is to add value to an organization, managers first have to understand its principles and develop the mindset, attitude and knowledge of where, when and how creativity emerges.

A look at the artist Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) might help us to grasp some of the underlying principles of creativity and how to make good use of it. Key to his approach are three core concepts for the path to creativity:

Continue reading…