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From Kursk to Berlin by Book
A week (or two) of trying to get to grips with the future
19 August 2012
Much of the past week has been writing, among other things the latest blog for Guardian Sustainable Business, which I based around the tragedy of AF447. One of the things I find striking is how the anonymous comments on the GSB website skew towards the nasty, whereas those that come by email or Twitter are almost uniformly positive. Must have something to do with the sort of people who lurk behind anonymity?
Last weekend we had a last-minute lunch with old friends, Ian and Tina Bruce, and Marian (Min) Chen, a very bright oung Chinese woman who is focusing on CSR, has worked in the aviation space, spent a couple of years in Nigeria, and turned out to be a real pleasure to talk to. Reminded me of how much I like the best of China.
Otherwise, I have been churning through a bunch of books: The Battle of Kursk by Lloyd Clark (brilliant), Spies in the Sky by Taylor Downing, a rivetting account of the RAF's WWII aerial intelligence activities, and Dark Pools by Scott Patterson, which is mind-blowing. Am also about to start the pre-publication version of Pavan Sukhdev's new book Corporation 2020, on trains tomorrow en route to Lausanne to see Jochen Zeitz for a couple days and discuss our new book.
Have also been working through a somewhat eclectic mix of films that Elaine bought for £5 apiece a week or so ago, among them The Good German (atmospheric, but seemed less than the sum of its parts, with a lack of apparent chemistry between George Clooney and Cate Blanchett; I knew much of the history, particularly about the unbelievable treatment of forced labourers, including hangings instigated by Werner von Braun), Arabesque (wildly tongue-in-cheek, but thoroughly enjoyed it, with real chemistry between Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren) and Vertigo (what a strange man Hitchcock was -- really can't imagine how this film made it to the top of a recent survey of best films of all time).
At its best, The Good German put me in mind of one of my favourite authors, Philip Kerr, and his 'Berlin noir' series of novels featuring Bernie Gunther. Can't recommend them highly enough.
But, through it all, the past few weeks have involved endless thinking around where the the future is going to take us -- and what our agenda should be at Volans. Elements of it are very clear -- for example, Sam and I sent off a number of proposals this week for the next stage of our Breakthrough Capitalism program. But I have been sensing a much bigger tectonic shift coming in this space, and have been trying to get my brain around that.
One fascinating exercise the team did this week involved Susie (Braun) and I visiting various bookshops and magazine shops and hoovering up all the interesting magazines and journals we could find -- and then the team scanning and tearing them apart in the search for emerging trends and themes. The process (enjoyably) continues, thougb when you do this you get a sense of just how profound the changes are that are coursing through our societies and economies at present.
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