February 2011 Newsletter

Yoyah Group


Looking from the Future: The Daring Game
By Yoram Yahav

the-future In my lectures and work around the world my ability to predict certain events/trends is challenged quite often. Obviously, I cannot foresee the future, neither can I point to any individual who can, but I am able to arise certain scenarios with the hope that if they were to occur we would be better prepared, after thinking them through. So, I would like to present a few issues in random order which I dare “to put down on paper.”

The topic of building futuristic strategic models, is not only discussed in our day-to-day life at the office, but also on the many channels of communication and media around us. Being a prophet was a biblical profession. Nowadays however, no one can actually predict with any certainty what the new day, month nor year, will bring us. In essence, it becomes more complicated and difficult to predict the climate, stock market, health issues, geopolitics or whether a country, company or a leader will actually be present tomorrow. More>


Benjamin Franklin, Innovator: Back of the Bus, da Vinci!
By Prof. Shlomo Maital

ben_franklin
Recently I read Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography on my Kindle. I realized that while we attribute multidisciplinary creativity to da Vinci, in art, science, engineering, urban planning, etc., when it comes to practical needs-based innovation driven by a deep understanding of society, the Boston-born American innovator Benjamin Franklin (1709-1790) is far ahead.

Franklin was born and raised in Boston, on Milk St., but left at an early age to find his fortune. He was self-educated and read widely. Here are a few of his innovations, driven by an independent inquiring mind… More>

The Coming Flood
By David Miron-Wapner

earth-flood“Some of them were dreamers, and some of them were fools, who were making plans and thinking of the future…” Jackson Browne sang in the opening lines of his classic anti-nuclear hymn “Before the Deluge.”

Like Browne, I grew up in a sunny southern California nuclear reality of back yard bomb shelters and the blockade of Cuba; so my knee-jerk anti-nuclear stance went hand in hand with an appreciation for the extent of the victorious modern economic paradigm continued to burgeon its power to adversely impact the natural environment. Avoiding the direct plea to awaken humanity to the danger of nuclear holocaust, Browne chose, prophetically to my mind, to sing of a flood; an overwhelming demonstration of nature’s power to which humanity still has no answer. More>

Lessons Learnt from Disney’s Future Imagining Principles
By Debbie Meltzer

walt-disney

We’re pretty sure it was our generation that invented virtual reality. As far as we know, 3D HDTV, Augmented Reality and the other hyper realities are a product of the 21st century…. But in reality virtual reality began in the 1950s when Walt Disney and his Imagineering team unleashed their powers to create a true virtual reality world. Imagineering is a term that combines “imagination” and “engineering” technical know-how. In contrast to popular belief, it was neither founded by Disney, nor originated then but popularized by Alcoa around 1940. Then, a century later, it crept into the world of gaming and computer technologies. Still, the capacity to get into you, and make you feel you are completely into the experience, was launched in July 18, 1955 – when the first customer purchased an entry ticket and walked through the passageways into Disney’s Main Street. More>