Do we have the guts to be wrong?

By Yoram Yahav

“Either you are wrong or I am right”? How many times have you met or spoken to people that all you heard was their “right” point and your “wrong” point? How many times have you walked away from an individual only because you felt that he or she was too invested in hearing themselves?

I believe this is global phenomena that skips over countries, cultures and borders.  I also believe, that most of the conflicts of the world, exist because people are not willing to stop the train, get off, wait for the next one and meanwhile do some reflection on themselves.

I have decided to re-visit this topic I wrote about years ago because it is so relevant today. Good management, in my mind, has a lot to do with one’s capacity to seek, search and select the “truth” by listening at least as much as speaking. We send a message in everything we do, everything that we say and everything that we represent. We are what we are but we can always be better just by listening and hearing the other side. Can we do it without help? Can we do it just by realizing that we need to do something differently? More>

Israel! Don’t imitate America

By Prof. Shlomo Maital

Some books are fun. Others are entertaining, educational, or informative.  A few are just plain scary. Clyde Prestowitz’s new book; “The Betrayal of American Prosperity: Free Market Delusions, America’s Decline and How we Must Compete in the Post-Dollar Era”, is scary.

It recounts in painful detail how America, with sweat, brains and imagination, rose  from 1800 to 1950 to become the world’s wealthiest nation − and how since then, American political leaders have betrayed that prosperity with massive folly.  It is scary, because Israel may be blindly marching down the same footpath of folly based on “free market delusion”.

The book opens by describing how indolent Romans imported carts full of goods from the Empire, while slaves did their labor.  The carts left Rome − carrying dung.  The fat and lazy Romans were easy prey for barbarians.

Cut to Long Beach, California, today.  Containers from China carrying sophisticated electronic goods are unloaded.  They return to China carrying waste paper for recycling.  The comparison is intentional. More>

Future Aging Shock?

By Debbie Meltzer

• Some countries may grow old before they grow rich (U.N dept. of economic / social affairs)
• There will be an explosion of the number of centenarians worldwide
• Inheritance will dwindle as parents outlive their savings. The drop in this source of income will  lead to declining venture investments (“2048″ by Prof. David Passig)

Global aging in the 21st century – Suddenly its the topic, trend or talking point dominating Davos 2010, the latest EU summit and even the dinner table. Truth is, while heated bureaucracy discussions have surfaced in the last decade, global aging has been increasing as a percentage of our population since the turn of the century. It’s been silently creeping up, impacting policy changes, health reforms and workforce restructuring.

Whether you choose to face it or ignore it, aging is changing the entire economic agenda of the 21st century.

But while aging population statistics maybe startling, the changes in trends and attitudes over the past five decades are borderline scandalous: In 1950, approximately one in every three people aged 65 or over was in the labor force. In 2010 the ratio of over 65 year old workers decreased to less than one in five (“World population aging 1950– 2050″).What does this mean? Did we push too early for pension?

By doing so did we begin to slowly erode the workforce while increasing pressure on government pension funds? More>

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