The Future

One thing I try to see is the future. Capitalizing on future trends is part of our business.

I attended a YPO event last week with many high power speakers like Alan Greenspan, Jack Welch, Craig Barrett(founder of Intel), Herb Kelleher (founder of SW airlines), Scott McNealy(Sun), Fred Smith (Founder of Fedex), Kifi Annan (UN)etc. Trying to distill the main points on what is important and what will be increasingly important in the coming decade. In no particular order:

1 - The environment is huge (did not have to attend a conference for that)
2 - Education
3 - Company Culture is key (I have been thinking a lot about that lately)
4 - Food Production
5 - Energy (sort of ties into 1)
6 - Security and stable government
7 - Poverty
8 - Be healthy and fit or you cannot handle the stress of being a CEO or President.
9 - Enjoy what you are doing.
10 -Don't take yourself too seriously but take the business and competition seriously.
11 - have courage.

Of course a list summarizing a bunch of presentations is not very inspiring compared to being there.

One thing I like about YPO events is the number of friends I meet. People I know and people I meet.

One of my new friends - Jonathan Graff President of Kaboose.com particularly liked Chris Anderson (author of "the Long Tail" and editor of Wired). He owns a lot web sites like Amazingmoms, birthdayinabox, funschool, babyzone etc. so it particularly applies to his business. Although Chris was not the biggest name speaker, his message about the power of the longtail is a powerful one. Also speaks to a trend.