Thursday, April 2, 2009

Daivd Walker former Comptroller General of US comments

He began with a speech device that worked to describe a 300 year organization that exists without a plan, without outcome metrics and without competitive data. His litany of debt, revenue, missteps and tomfoolery awakened the post lunch audience to realize that it was the U.S. he described. His most memorable word was "laggership" the opposite of leadership to define the actions of the U.S. Congress and Administration. He usefully refers the audience to www.pgpf.org for unbiased, non-partisan information. For my students, he often used the term "young people" (18-36 related to the Foundation work)who must become involved with linking business with other institutions more in the traditions of previous decades. Watch for development here of a future seminar on coalitions of the future at NU.

In Hangzhou, China on West Lake, a group of CEOs met to listen to the American professor returning after only 3 months to stand by his predictions of a rapidly sloping economy. The metaphor that rang true with these Chinese business leaders was of the world economy being more like the Chinese Year of the ox where a laborious economic return very unlike the spiked fall would be the example. Not a bull, but an ox.