The Global Human Capital Journal

New Life Sciences Accelerator Leverages Digital Social Network—Inspired by LinkedIn and Facebook

Healthcare systems worldwide are criticized for falling short of expectations, and countries like the U.S. which feature aging populations, are rapidly approaching a crisis. Demand and cost will grow, but the system as currently structured will certainly break down unless radical changes are made. Web 2.0's disruptive potential can be part of the remedy: we need to introduce much more accountability and collaboration into all parts of the system. We need to change the paternalistic attitudes that pervade the system, treat patients as active participants and encourage everyone to be more accountable. This series introduces healthcare Web 2.0 innovators.

Business Drivers

The Hershey Center for Applied Research KnowledgeMesh is a new initiative that unites healthcare- and life sciences-focused commercial, academic and government forces in a digital social network.  It is a cutting edge social networking and scientific mapping online community that will drive R&D in the life sciences and high tech. 

KnowledgeMesh is inspired by Facebook and business executive social network LinkedIn.  It is explicitly designed to create and enhance interactions among industry, government, academie, venture capitalists, intellectual property attorneys and the work force.

"Yes," Says Team of Healthcare Experts, Employer CEOs and Patient Representative at the Executives' Club of Chicago, "But You Must Change Your Ways"

Honestly Assessing Quality—Engaging Consumer Empowerment—Trading in the Ferrari for a Chevy

The Executives' Club of Chicago convened its healthcare reform summit at the Hilton Chicago on 20 February 2008, drawing on diverse expertise. Ian Morrison, Ph.D., healthcare futurist, gave the keynote and moderated two panels: first, the healthcare expertise panel with Dean Harrison, CEO Northwestern Memorial Healthcare; William Novelli, CEO AARP; Scott P. Serota, CEO BlueCross BlueShield Association; and second, the business executive panel with Andrew M. Appel, Chairman AON Consulting; John A. Edwardson, CEO, CDW; John B. Menzer, Vice Chairman and Administrative Officer, Wal-Mart Stores. Robert L. Parkinson, CEO, Baxter Healthcare gave an insightful point of view on recommended actions to close the event.

There was broad agreement that the U.S. healthcare system was broken, and speakers offered excellent insights and perspectives about how to fix the system. However, what they didn't say was as interesting as what they did, and I will address two key issues in Analysis and Conclusions: the pervasive lack of trust among all parties and the emerging consumer empowerment trend: what do Web 2.0-enabled consumers have to bring to the party?

New Global Economic Architecture Presages Economic Realignment—Thinking Beyond the Obvious to Tap Emerging Opportunities

Illinois leaders were addressed by His Excellency Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Republic of India. True to form, His Excellency struck chords of transformation, partnership, common interests and harmony at the lunch held in his honor at the University Club on 19 February 2008. Attending were Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Mr. Rajinder Bedi, Managing Director of the Illinois Office of Trade and Investment, The Honorable Susan Schwab, U.S. Trade Representative, Craig S. Donohue, Chief Executive Officer, CME Group and John Estey, President & Chief Executive Officer, SC Electric Company.

Reading between the lines, the U.S. and India stand at a significant turning point: India's impressive economic growth is a significant element of the ongoing redistribution of global economic power—which holds excellent opportunities for U.S. businesses and workers that are looking for it.

U.S. Economy Due for Sideways Year—Special Effects by Presidential Election—Uncomfortable Long-term Questions Waiting in Wings

The Executives' Club of Chicago assembled an all-star panel to give Midwest business leaders their guidance for various aspects of the U.S. economy in 2008. Diane Swonk, Chief Economist of Mesirow Financial and Robert "Bob" Froehlich, Chairman of the Investment Strategy Committee, Deutsche Asset Management returned, and the mystery panelist was Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer, Harris Private Bank. They broke out their respective crystal balls for 2008, along with comedic effects. The session was brilliantly moderated by Terry Savage, Financial Columnist of the Chicago Sun-Times who didn't miss a beat and extracted specific predictions from panelists.

Panelists agreed that the U.S. economy would struggle in 2008, but it would move mostly sideways, probably eking out a 1-2% gain for the year after an unsatisfying first half. All panelists predicted that the Dow would touch 14,000 sometime during the year. Froehlich again emphasized the importance of looking beyond the U.S. for investments. Swonk and Ablin were less outspoken but had high non-U.S. allocations in their recommended investments for 2008.

After reportage on the panelists conversation, I will add my analysis and points to ponder, about the economy, opportunities and the election.

Editor's Choice of the Global Human Capital Journal

As I reflect on 2007 and create strategy for 2008, several macro-trends come into sharp relief, and I believe that some of them might be helpful to you as you conduct your own planning. As always, I focus on emerging phenomena because they are areas in which disruption and discontinuous change are acting on markets, thereby elevating threats and opportunities. Helping leaders to create strategy to manage the risk of unusual market developments is the focus of my consulting practice.

In 2007 it became clear to me that we were entering a profound social transformation that would produce an unimaginable degree of change. Unlike the technology-precipitated change that I've been helping people with since the 1990s, technology is shifting to the background now, and pervasive social change is taking the stage. Look for disruption in all areas affected by how people connect, communicate, purchase and collaborate: business, politics, community and leisure. Moreover, these changes are completely global with all the variations that engenders.

I can't tell you how many acts this opera has, but 2007's themes can provide you enough clarity, at a minimum, to notice that the water is getting warmer. I have also included among the links some prescriptive market advisories I wrote this year. They give explicit advice and action steps to maneuver your organization so that you can become stronger as these changes unfold.

Thank you for your readership and support, and best regards as the curtain rises on the first act!

"Emerging" Market Companies Rapidly Becoming Global Players—New Owners for Jaguar and Land Rover

Emerging countries have long been regarded by globalizers as targets for exploitation, but 21st century market forces are turning legacy thinking on its head, which produces disruption and its sibling, opportunity.

The conventional thinking goes that emerging countries like Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) have talented knowledge/human capital resources that can be tapped in outsourcing and offshoring arrangements. Moreover, these workers' employment in high value knowledge jobs creates a new consumer class among large populations. Emerging countries' rapidly growing consumer markets stand in sharp contrast to developed countries', which are flat or shrinking. China and India have been relaxing restrictions on foreign ownership, which has increased FDI, especially in China, enabling foreign companies to invest in and buy BRIC companies.

However, the big story in 2007 was the opposite:

The automobile is a personal manifestation of the ultimate promise of the Industrial Economy—that physical power is essentially free—because it enables people to move quickly and easily. People just love cars because it is immensely satisfying to glide effortlessly (traffic notwithstanding ,^) from one place to another with a high degree of individual freedom.

However, as 2007 draws to a close, autos' current reliance on fossil fuels makes it increasingly obvious that we need to change the rules. First, new wealth in emerging markets is dramatically increasing auto ownership and its concomitant demand for oil. Increased demand and uncertain supply will undoubtedly prove unsustainable in the medium term. Second, and even more daunting, is the carbon/climate change problem, which is far more life-changing in the long term. Petroleum and coal are the largest contributors to man-made carbon emissions.

Since every challenge also means opportunity, entrepreneurs are busy with an increasing sense of urgency, trying to solve the problem. Here are two examples that I found particularly interesting:

Noodles represent a new kind of writing for the Global Human Capital Journal. Noodles are bits of thought that are unstructured and relatively brief. Most won't even be split into "extended" articles. They are partially inspired by twittering.

Yesterday I heard David Weinberger (one of the Cluetrain authors; his new book is Everything is Miscellaneous) talk at Big Frontier, and the big insight I took away doesn't sound like much but, peel the onion, and it's quite profound. Knowledge is inherently social. We vet our thoughts by sharing them with other people. Interaction helps us to refine thoughts and coalesce them into knowledge by knocking off the rough edges, and we co-design knowledge by collaborating.

One of the megatrends enabled by social networks and Web 2.0 is that "people like us" can connect and develop knowledge much more quickly than ever before. This is serving to rebalance the entire concept of "knowledge authority." Take the "university." The first European university was the University of Bologna, which was founded in 1088. It pioneered the concept in the West. The name, "university," refers to the fact that thinkers from many (virtually all available) disciplines gather to study and interact. Seen from the "knowledge is social" context, a big part of students' and professors' competitive advantage, and inherent in their authority, is this "universe" of thinkers in which they can all be social with knowledge. It's a high octane environment for creating and refining knowledge. Ditto for vaunted high tech areas like Silicon Valley.