lunes, 28 de marzo de 2016

Realidad virtual (y aumentada)

La realidad virtual (y aumentada) ya es parte viva del panorama de las experiencias que vivimos cada día, como habitantes de un mundo dominado por tecnologías que cambian al ritmo de la Ley de Moore.

Comparto algunos inventos  que me parecen dignos de mención por ser pioneros y atrevidos en concepto y ejecución.

MINI: Corto muy experiencial



ROCA GALLERY (BARCELONA/MADRID): un nuevo espacio inmersivo



Loewe: holograma (visible en su Museo en Goya 8, Madrid) que representa 3 generaciones de artesanos creando el "Amazonas", bolso icono de la firma de lujo creada por Enrique Loewe (hoy parte del grupo LVMH).


Vivir un espacio con los 5 sentidos es la nueva frontera del "branded content", para un marketing pensado para "millennials" y las nuevas generaciones de nativos digitales.



domingo, 27 de marzo de 2016

Riesgos geopolíticos en la economía global




Reproduzco aquí por comodidad un artículo muy interesante de mi Maestro Marvin Zonis sobre las principales amenazas del mundo libre, un resumen brillante de una clase magistral de geopolítica, actual y con "final feliz".

Comparto con Marvin su visión optimista y su consejo de "invertir ahora", "cuando hay sangre en las calles", como decía Edmund de Rothschild en el siglo 18, "aunque la sangre sea la tuya".

Kazaksthan, Slovakia y Bosnia Herzegovina han sido los 3 principales beneficiarios de un sensible incremento de la inversión extranjera directa entre los primeros semestres de 2014 y de 2015, seguidos por 2 tigres del sur este Asiático (India y Thailand).

Sin embargo, en países con muchos conflictos abiertos (como Egypto) la inversión extranjera se ha mantenido casi intacta, mientras si es cierto que en  Turquía, China o Saudi Arabia el flujo ha disminuido, respectivamente un 25, 26 y 51%, éste sigue siendo muy relevante y se ha disparado globalmente hacía los países emergentes al finalizar 2015.

El futuro es mejor de lo que pensamos y el desarrollo exponencial de las tecnologías, el avance de la ingeniería genética, robótica y de la inteligencia artificial harán abundantes lo que hoy es escaso, como el agua potable, la energía renovable o las curas a enfermedades incurables hoy. 

La semana pasada Alphago, una máquina de Google, le ha ganado 4 a 1 al campeón mundial de "Go", un juego muy humano, con un tablero con más posibilidades que átomos en el universo y donde es muy difícil saber quien está ganando. Si las máquinas aprenden a esta velocidad es muy probable que en 20 años una especie de píldora cure la mayoría de los cánceres o nos permita aprender Chino. 

El terrorismo de todo color, el fanatismo, la incompetencia de muchos gobernantes o aspirantes, son males terribles, pero menores si los comparamos con el progreso costante, masivo, imparable de la mayoría de la humanidad, se mida por donde se mida.

Por cierto, la foto que encabeza este post no es de Marvin, sino representa una entrevista interesantísima a David Ignatius (director asociado y columnista del Washington Post) por The Chicago Council sobre las razones del terror en Bruselas y Francia, muy relacionada con éste artículo (y con Marvin).
 

Business Investment In A World Beset By Anxiety

By Marvin Zonis
“Folks are dumb where I come from,
They ain't had any learning.
Still they're happy as can be 
Doin' what comes naturally.”
Irving Berlin wrote the music and lyrics for the 1946 musical, Annie Get Your Gun that starred Ethel Merman. It was a smash hit with over 1100 performances in New York alone.

The advice in the song seems to me to be perfect wisdom for businesses today. “Doin’ what comes naturally” for business is to seek ever expansive markets at ever lower real production costs commensurate with levels of assumed risk.

That is precisely what businesses should be doing now despite the chilling terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels and what appears to be other insurmountable global obstacles.

China is the throes of a massive growth slowdown and a massive distribution of political power. President Xi is centralizing power in his hands in a fashion not seen since the days of Mao while militarizing the South China Sea.

The countries that had benefitted from China’s rise by supplying it will all manner of raw materials and minerals find their export revenues slashed and their economies dramatically weakened. What looked like the ‘Great African Boom’ has turned into more of growth as usual.

EU members are struggling with the refugee crisis, a possible Brexit, a possible Grexit, an increasingly authoritarian Poland and Hungary, a menacing Vladimir Putin, the threat of ISIS terrorism, and slow economic growth.

The Middle East continues to live through an Islamic civil war with Iran and Saudi Arabia supporting their proxies and also intervening directly in the wars in Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Power in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has flowed into the hands of the 30 year old, inexperienced son of King Salman, who has insisted on maintaining oil production levels. The result has been turmoil in global oil markets.

Even the United States, the bastion of political stability, has been shaken by the Trump phenomenon, the staggering increase in the wealth and incomes of the already rich, the hollowing out of the middle class, the slow growth of productivity, and the increase in the death rate of middle aged whites.

“Doin’ what comes naturally” for business in conditions of what looks like global political and economic turmoil would seem to suggest it’s time to batten down the hatches; to seal every company from the variety of risks that are everywhere in the world.

But to the contrary. It was Baron Rothschild, the 18th century member of the legendary family, who argued, “Buy when there’s blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own.” That explanation for what it meant to be a contrarian investor is appropriate for today.

For there is an entirely different story that can be told about the world and that story argues for a far more ambitious stance towards the global economy. Businesses should be investing now to acquire market access, shut down competitors, and boost profits. Globalization has not run its course but will strengthen once again as the economy passes through this current period of turmoil, driven by the inexorable logic of larger markets and facilitated by the exponential growth of technology.

But why not wait until then? For one thing, firms that operate in the dollar economy can acquire the currencies of many other countries at bargain basement rates. For another, in the slowdown, foreign investment has been particularly welcomed by most developed and emerging markets.

Where to go? One way is to look at where other firms have made foreign direct investments. According to the Financial Times, these are the developing countries that received more foreign direct investment in the first half of 2015 than the comparable period of 2014 ($ Millions):
 

Country

1H 2014

1H 2015

Change
Kazakhstan
699.30
2509.35
258.84%
Slovakia
524.46
1739.28
231.63%
Bosnia-Herzegovina
862.06
2834.47
228.80%
India
12286.00
30593.29
149.01%
Thailand
1734.42
4078.89
135.17%
Myanmar
1893.10
4066.19
114.79%
Bangladesh
755.37
1592.80
110.86%
South Africa
1749.14
3101.52
77.32%
Indonesia
8437.32
13665.99
61.97%
Czech Republic
1468.65
1903.80
29.63%
Taiwan
628.93
796.42
26.63%
Qatar
530.40
619.30
16.76%
Hungary
1685.39
1967.41
16.73%
Vietnam
7504.43
7532.42
0.37%
Other developing countries received substantial investments in the first half of 2015, but less than in the first half of 2014. ($ Millions)
 
Egypt
5664.00
5659.90
-0.07%
UAE
3486.22
3481.05
-0.15%
Mexico
14451.44
13967.39
-3.35%
Argentina
1480.61
1397.00
-5.65%
Morocco
3097.24
2872.56
-7.25%
Cambodia
794.80
665.94
-16.21%
Romania
2905.59
2413.47
-16.94%
Poland
3884.12
3069.27
-20.98%
Nigeria
6810.25
5211.05
-23.48%
Turkey
3872.29
2907.16
-24.92%
China
37666.24
27805.00
-26.18%
Chile
4633.20
3116.25
-32.74%
Oman
885.80
591.30
-33.25%
Pakistan
5884.30
3894.70
-33.81%
Hong Kong
2372.50
1531.50
-35.45%
Kenya
1484.09
829.56
-44.10%
Russia
5208.62
2806.23
-46.12%
Philippines
5353.21
2788.08
-47.92%
Malaysia
13812.72
7010.37
-49.25%
Saudi Arabia
9590.09
4632.85
-51.69%
Serbia
998.75
452.45
-54.70%
Honduras
524.70
234.40
-55.33%
Colombia
1402.17
622.52
-55.60%
Ghana
2080.73
910.31
-56.25%
Uruguay
575.50
239.60
-58.37%
South Korea
5250.45
1911.38
-63.60%
Brazil
13357.55
4661.78
-65.10%
Dominica Republic
506.72
172.50
-65.96%
Macedonia FYR
673.90
216.80
-67.83%
Iraq
1309.20
316.00
-75.86%
Tunisia
1263.41
274.20
-78.30%
Nicaragua
640.80
131.00
-79.56%
Antigua
2220.60
400.00
-81.99%
Jordan
1619.90
271.30
-83.25%
Peru
5022.90
816.20
-83.75%
Zambia
2485.50
341.70
-86.25%
Panama
7780.89
689.20
-91.14%
Costa Rica
1160.50
94.90
-91.82%
Ethiopia
1781.75
143.70
-91.93%
Croatia
567.59
24.60
-95.67%
Lebanon
1165.80
40.30
-96.54%
Angola
16071.30
214.30
-98.67%
Republic of the Congo
1659.30
5.80
-99.65%
Chad
628.66
0
-100%
Mauritania
1151.70
0
-100%
Montenegro
1096.50
0
-100%
Yemen
509.90
0
-100%
 Source: fDi Markets. *includes estimates
While total capital investment flows to developing countries diminished in the first six months of 2015, the total capital invested was substantial. Many firms are obviously not put off by the perceived increase of global risks.

The Institute for International Finance estimates that total private capital inflows to Emerging Markets, in 2015 were $981 billion – substantial – although less than in any year since the global financial crisis.
(https://www.iif.com/publications/capital-flows)

Moreover, it appears that as 2015 ended, the flow to emerging markets turned up dramatically.

Aggregate Net Capital Flow And Weighted Exchange Rate Index For Selected Emerging Markets


Capital flows to the developed economies also weakened considerably in 2014:
REGION

FDI INFLOWS
($ BILLION)



2012
2013
2014
Europe

$401
$326
$289
North America

$209
$301
$146

Nonetheless, it is still the case that firms outside Europe and North America were willing to invest billions in developed markets.
Not that Baron Rothschild’s advice need be taken literally. There are streets in which blood flows. Those streets in those countries can be bypassed. But there are a very large number of countries whose economies are still growing substantially, although slower than in the boom days, and whose political risks are not substantially greater than they were.
“Doin’ what comes naturally” – embracing the global economy -- is still the best advice.

domingo, 13 de marzo de 2016

Hablando de Positive Leadership en la educación en el TedxCibelesKids





Ayer la vida me hizo otro regalo y pude compartir con los asistentes al TedxCibelesKids mi visión sobre como podemos educar a nuestros niños para un futuro muy incierto desde el punto de vista profesional, que cambia con la rapidez de la Ley de Moore.

¿Estamos formando a nuestros niños para un futuro donde por primera vez las máquinas serán más listas que los hombres, donde los robots harán la mayoría de los trabajos que hoy hacemos los humanos, donde desaparecerá gran parte de la logística al imprimir los productos que hoy transportamos con vehículos que irán sólos, donde la mayoría de sus empleos todavía no existen?

Creo que la única manera para preparar a nuestr@s hij@s para que tengan éxito es aplicar Liderazgo Positivo con ellos, enseñándoles a ser felices, a tener el control sobre su vidas, a ser los capitanes de sus almas y los amos de sus destinos.

Mi charla dura unos 42 minutos y empieza en el minuto 1:14:30 de este video (que de todas formas os recomiendo ver entero).




martes, 8 de marzo de 2016

Porqué Donald Trump puede ser el próximo presidente de EEUU


Marvin Zonis  fue mi profesor de Globalización en el GSMP que hice con la Universidad de Chicago Booth e Instituto de Empresa Business School en 2008 y desde entonces es mi amigo y Maestro. Tiene una casa espléndida en Umbria (la región vecina de mi Toscana) y viene a vernos a Madrid al menos una vez al año, ocasión que aprovechamos para ponernos al día sobre los temas de actualidad política más rabiosa.

Marvin es sin lugar a duda el mayor experto mundial en geopolítica relacionada con Middle East y el mundo Árabe en general; ha sido asesor personal de los últimos presidentes Demócratas y no suele equivocarse.

Comparto aqui un artículo salido de una charla reciente suya sobre un tema que horroriza a todo Americano progresista del siglo XXI (en Silicon Valley hoy se habla más del ascenso de Donald Trump que de los IPOs de las start ups más cool o de los próximos unicornios, y es todo un decir).

¿Como es posible que tenga tanto apoyo popular este ricachón ignorante (que además presume de no haber leído un libro jamás en su vida), racista declarado, arrogante, super facha, enemigo declarado de la inmigración (Mejicana y más), que propone ejecutar a terroristas y a sus familias, que es capaz de hablar del tamaño de su pene en lugar de intentar hilar un programa político mínimo, ...?

Marvin explica el éxito de Donald Trump con el mismo concepto que ha creado la Intífada en Palestina y los territorios ocupados y movimientos como Al-qaeda en Arabia Saudí, Isis y el fundamentalismo radical en el mundo árabe. El sentido de humillación de un pueblo entero. 

Desde 1948 el mundo Árabe se ha visto vencido y sometido política y económicamente por un País pequeño (y odiado) como Israel y sus aliados, cuando hasta entonces ellos (y su religión y su cultura) habían sido los dueños de esa parte del mundo, al menos desde más de un milenio.

De acuerdo con Marvin, los Americanos quieren a Trump de Presidente por razones parecidas, por sus recientes y continuadas humillaciones.

Aqui van.

As so many have made so clear, the social and economic transformations of the United States have left many Americans on edge, dissatisfied with the status quo and searching for solutions. Donald Trump offers what many of them believe to be those solutions.
That Trump is a populist, outside the pale of the political establishment, is part of his appeal. But there are many other reasons why a large swath of the American electorate supports him so fervently. 
 
To understand the Trump phenomenon, one needs to start with those Americans. In the last 15 years or so, they have come to experience a deep sense of humiliation. That sense of humiliation stems from many diverse sources: 
 
*The brilliantly executed terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the loss of 3000 lives;
 
*The loss of the war in Afghanistan;
 
*The loss of the war in Iraq;
 
*The rise of Islamic inspired terrorism within the US; 
 
*The stagnation of cash wages;
 
*The transformation of the American economy, particularly the disappearance of the world’s once strongest manufacturing base; 
 
*The economic collapse of 2007-08;
 
*The failure of any of the moguls responsible for the collapse to go to jail but instead to have received government bailouts;
 
*The catastrophic collapse of house prices;
 
*The rise of the LGBT movement and the legalization of gay marriage;
 
*The rise of females to positions of greater power; and
 
*The election of a Black President and the increasing “blackening” of the U.S., starting with the President and many senior government positions but extending throughout the economy and society.
 
These and other factors have produced a world completely unfamiliar to vast numbers of Americans. The “disintegration” of their world as they understood it to properly be has been deeply humiliating. 
 
As with every deep humiliation, the consequence has been rage — an abiding anger that seeks to strike out at the root causes that have brought about that disintegration.
 
In so many ways, Donald Trump is the ideal leader for these Americans. What makes his appeal so powerful is precisely because he offers so many ways in which enraged voters can become Trump followers. As Freud would have put it, Trump’s appeal to his followers is “over determined.” 
 
Trump is a narcissist. It would be difficult to find an American politician who more clearly fits anyone’s definition of a pathological narcissist: grandiosity, shamelessness, entitlement, arrogance, need for affirmation and admiration, magical thinking. The list goes on. 
 
The consequence is that his sense of invulnerability and strength – his “I couldn’t care less” character – provides the solid foundation that so many enraged Americans seek.
 
Moreover, he effectively creates a new social order, transforming the existing order that has been so unkind to so many. It is no accident that he is white, super rich and a boor. His lack of manners, shamelessness and ignorance become an asset. Through this style, he effectively depreciates the old social order, represented by the two Presidents Bush and also Mitt Romney, who while white and super rich were hardly boors. 
 
Through his boorishness, his lack of any apparent intellectual interests, his seeming avoidance of reality in the formation of his policy positions – build the wall while deporting 11 million plus illegal Mexican immigrants – he speaks to the rage filled impulses of his followers. By being white and rich and invulnerable, he also legitimizes them. 
 
Trump’s appeal is bolstered because he is not a calculating political strategist but a show business star. His lack of deliberation has been an asset because it establishes distance from the calculations and political correctness of his opponents. 
 
Pundits point out how he risks a major misstep. But Trump couldn’t care less. His point is to mock the careful political grooming of establishment politicians (even while he is personally carefully groomed, at least coiffure wise). 
 
His mocking approach is not a thoughtfully devised strategy meant to win over the public. He is just too narcissistic to feel empathy for others. Rather, he is just doing his (genuine) thing, expressing his own emotions and worldview that, in turn, win him wide support.
 
Yet another powerful emotional connection with his followers is his simple-mindedness. All the well-chronicled developments that have humiliated Trump supporters also have left them dazed and confused. They find it difficult to digest the complexity of the new economic, moral, social and technological realities. Many of them are poorly educated or are evangelicals with simple frameworks through which to view the world. Trump’s simple-mindedness -- his magical thinking, obliviousness to consequences and poor judgment -- appear to these Americans as something they understand, and appreciate. To them he sounds like the only reasonable, straight-talking candidate out there. 
 
In his narcissistic grandiosity, then, Trump presents a figure of great strength — an invulnerable force to stand against all manner of enemies – perceived by his supporters. But, of course, it is impossible to actually pin down responsibility for the humiliating changes that have afflicted so many Americans. So Trump and his enemy list serves as a handy catchall collection. Whether or not they are actually responsible is less important than that someone can be blamed.
 
Trump’s popularity, in short, stems from the intense emotional bond that he has generated in so many Americans. That bond has two sources. First, he himself has managed to escape the humiliations that have beset so many of them. Second, he promises to “Make America Great Again,” that is to make them great again. That none of this is particularly rational or, indeed, feasible, is besides the point when dealing with the powerful emotion of rage.
 
 
Marvin Zonis is Professor Emeritus, Booth School of Business, The University of Chicago. Mike Kaufman is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at The University of Chicago’s Center on Aging.

domingo, 6 de marzo de 2016

Moonshot Talk: we choose to go to the moon


Llevaba años sin escuchar esta charla, estos 18 minutos que cambiaron el mundo para siempre.

JF Kennedy anunciando en Houston que antes del final de la decada (de los 60) EEUU enviaría una nave al espacio, a 240,000 millas de distancia, larga como un campo de fútbol, con materiales todavía por inventar, pero capaces de resistir a la presión, al calor y a niveles de stress nunca experientados antes, ensamblados con la precisión del mejor reloj, ... y capaz de devolver a la tierra a su tripulación sana y salva, a 25,000 millas por hora, resistiendo al calor de la mitad de la temperatira del sol, ...

Ahora sabemos que aquel discurso fue el primer gran ejemplo de lo que hoy llamamos una visión "moonshot", dado por un estadista de una talla muy superior a los pobres hombres asustados, mesquinos, inseguros, que escuchamos hoy en las tribunas políticas de medio mundo, que sólo piensan en su sillón, en su presente, incapaces de tener la generosidad de admitir su incompetencia, su ser un fraude, su incapacidad por liderar nada.

Gracias a este sueño, America ha liderado la tecnología desde entonces: la grandeza de un pueblo (y de una empresa) es proporcional a las promesas de sus líderes (y de su marca), a su capacidad de ver lejos y grande.

Necesitamos urgentemente a líderes (sobre todo líderes chicas) en Gobiernos y Empresas que estén a la altura de lo que podemos conseguir hoy con los medios tecnológicos a nuestro alcance, hoy cuando un tercio del planeta tenemos en el bolsillo aparatos 1000 veces más potentes que el mejor ordenador del que disponía la Nasa en 1969!

No hay excusas posibles: sólo tenemos que soñar en grande.

Reproduzco aquí la parte del texto más importante del discurso.

.... But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold. .....