Finding the future

The Times is blogging from Davos--although judging from the paucity of comments nobody knows; so here are some tidbits:

This week, Andreas Heinecke, the head of Hamburg-based consulting firm Dialog Im Dunkeln, has been invited to Davos to try out his unorthodox management-training methods — which Bloomberg describes as involving a “pitch-black sensory deprivation chamber” — on the likes of BP’s chief executive, John Browne; Coca-Cola’s chief, E. Neville Isdell; Mr. Schmidt of Google; Citigroup’s chief, Charles Prince; and Daniel Loeb, the head of the hedge fund Third Point.

The purpose of this exercise, Mr. Heinecke explains, is to challenge business leaders with an unpredictable environment where they must accomplish tasks without relying on “ego and physical presence.” Bloomberg writes:

Heinecke says the [World Economic Forum] is the ideal spot to consign some of the world’s most influential people in a 70-square-meter (753-square-foot) room, where they must deal with the consequences of forfeiting power and control.

I think it'd be funny if when the lights went on all the CEOs were dead except for one.

A Chinese television news anchor, Rui Chenggang, has brought his campaign against the Starbucks coffee shop in Beijing’s Forbidden City to Davos.

Last week, the evening television newsman for the state-owned Chinese television network CCTV — an English-language 24-hour news network — touched off a firestorm of controversy by calling the Starbucks location, in the ancient home of China’s emperors, an “insult” to Chinese culture.

At a press luncheon here in Davos on Wednesday, he appeared stunned by the reaction to his attack, which he launched in a blog entry. Although his evening newscasts often have an audience far in excess of 100 million, he said, Mr. Rui, who spent last year in a academic fellowship at Yale, said nothing he had done on Chinese television had resonated as widely as the blog posting, which has now attracted half a million readers and over 2,000 responses.

Not all of those responses, even those coming from China, have been positive. One Chinese news site had taken to criticizing him, referring to him as “Lord” Rui.

Despite the controversy, Mr. Rui, a World Economic Forum veteran and one of the organization’s Global Leaders of Tomorrow, said he had no intention of backing down. At a dinner Tuesday night, he said he had spent time lobbying San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to support his polemic. – John Markoff

An audience "far in excess" of 100 million?! Are you kidding me?! The top-rated U.S. newscasts at best have around 10 million viewers--that'd be a rounding error to Lord Rui. Who on the side, according to his bio, also writes a column for Beijing Youth Daily, "the most widely read newspaper in Beijing."

My gosh, sometimes you forget how much bigger everything is in China, until you stumble across something like this. He has an interesting personality; here's his list of "Unforgettable Moments":

Successful walking back home all by myself when I was still in Kindergarten
Passing the College Entrance Exams without ending up in hospital

Failed the calculus final in college, have been having nightmares of that until today

First time being hailed as a great karaoke singer

Found out my dog was the biggest fan of Madonna in China

First time anchoring business show on CCTV International, with the make-up that resembles Dracula and the hairstyle of a highway bandit

First time interviewing a senior business leader, the Chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell, Sir Mark Moody Stuart, pretending to be as old as he was.

Finally understanding the essence of new institutional economics, thanks to Prof. Douglas North

Receiving the award of Global Leader for Tomorrow in Davos, Swtizerland, from Prof. Schwab

The successful fundraiser for Project for the Blind, Tibet

Yeah, if I were Starbucks, I'd close the store and ask Rui to join my board of directors.

There has been great debate in recent months about whether the conflict in Iraq can accurately be called a civil war. Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi offered his view Thursday in a panel discussion at Davos chaired by Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

At the session, Mr. Mahdi dismissed the notion that his country is in a civil war, saying instead that it is facing “a war against civilians” that “targets the whole society.”

At another point in the panel, Mr. Mahdi called the occupation of Iraq an “idiot decision.”

Adnan Pachachi, a member of the Iraqi Parliament, said that while there is “room for improvement” among Iraq’s security forces in terms of their training and equipment, “the main thing is really their loyalty to the Iraqi state.” The forces, he said, must be purged of “infiltrators.”

I'm glad one of Iraq's vice president, who owes his job if not his life to us, feels free to call the presence of our troops an "idiot decision".

I wonder how many days he'd last if us idiots went home?

Demonstrators are usually kept far from the action at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where security measures include barricades and barbed wire.

In the virtual realm, however, it is a different story. During a series of interviews conducted in the online universe of Second Life — in which a digital persona of Reuters’ Adam Pasick questioned the digital personae of various Davos attendees — a man carrying an anti-Davos placard apparently sauntered right into the virtual auditorium.

On its Davos blog, Reuters reported Friday that the interloper was Iuemmel Lemmon of the protest group DaDavos. His avatar, or online personality, sported a beard and what looked like a blue beret.

Did virtual guards leap up to eject Mr. Lemmon from the scene? Hardly. Reuters said that he “sat politely with his banner in the front row.”

There's a funny if small screen grab of the event; and the original Reuters article refers to the avatar 'conducting' the interview as Adam Reuters.

That'd be a hell of a future... 'Hello, nice to meet you, I'm John McDonalds, you must be Kimberly Disney.'

Uncredited photo of Rui found online.