LinKS blog

Tectonic Geopolitical movements are happening right on front of our eyes. I cornered senior editor at Forbes, Robyn Meredith, from Hong Kong and peeped into her new amazing book:

The Elephant and the Dragon: The rise of India and China and what it means for All of us.

In the 14th century China became the cornerstone of most international trade by moving goods along the silk road, across the Arab world and on to Europe. Today the silk road is renewed and the power nations of China and India is moving forward at a pace that is almost not understandable and only compares to the rise of the USA, 100 years ago.

With the brisk growth that the global economy has enjoyed since 2002, this should be the best of all times. There are many BUTs though. One of the greater ones is the battle on energy ressources that is tightening up and is an element in turning the 21st century into one of instability. New power landscapes are arising with China as the factory of the world and India as the Knowledge Center.We see the outlines of a power landscape where the US, China and India are the players.

DO NOT MISS THIS BOOK – it is about the present status of geopolitics and tells us a lot about the globalized future we have to prepare ourselves for.

I believe the book must soon be available on Amazon. And here is your chance to meet Robyn Meredith, who is an enourmous source of knowledge on Asia…..robyn.mp3

As usual this Forum was an extraordinary experience, businesswise, culturally and by networking opportunities.Steve Forbes and his team was in the usual top shape to set the scene for discussing the business opportunities in the Middle East, the new Silk Road across from Asia and the energy situation as a whole.

The host was the Emir of Qatar and the Foreign Minister bid us welcome in this extraordinary country. Small, like a city-state with about 850t inhabitants, maybe only 200.000 Qataris. Richest in the Middle East and the business life booming as never before. And this s not only about oil. The strategies are diversified and the future Energy City of Qatar hosts science within many energy solutions. On behalf of a questions of mine on the scope of sustainable energy ambitions, the Danish Oil and Natural Gas – DONG - immediately got a special invitation from the Energy City to participate in the development – I will take that home to DONG.

My impression of the Qatari business delegates that I met was top-professional extremely well educated and all perfectly fluent in Engligsh. I decided to do business here and I already started. I will tell you all about that in a special blog edition later.

One of the great moderators and leading editors of Forbes is Bruce Upin who is an expert within Innovation and has followed the energy industry in this perspective. Bruce is always a joy to be with and we had a coffee and a chat on the energy challenges of the world as well as innovation in general. bruce.mp3

Under the Christmas tree this year the LinKS network found the first Danish recording ever of this magnficent musical work.

The conductor is Per Enevold who is an enthusiastic Bach-interpreter. I talked to Per about conducting, leadership and Bach!

One of the key points I noticed from talking to Per is that the core collaboration between conductor and musicians is the experience that you send out a “message” of how you want this music to be interpretated and you receive the response which gives you inspiration back….and the learning circle goes on.  It is not a matter of dictatory instructing - it is a dialogue  and when it is brilliant and touches people, it is musicalart.

And Bach - how on earth can a piece of music be so incredibly fascinating an relevant almost 300 years after the piece is composed? Listen to per-enevold.mp3

I had a cup of coffee with Mads at the Royal Theatre to talk about how companies act responsible in the global perspective. This is a true top executive issue for companies acting even within a country and across borders. Mads is the former CEO and chairman of Novo and acting chairman of LEGO and the Danish Royal Theatre and now personally invited by Kofi Annan to participate as member in this important Board in the UN.

Do not miss this interview and message delivered with the wisdom and experience of Mads Ovlisen.

www.unglobalcompact.org is the site that will tell you that these requirements are already required by either national or international laws. By following the UNs Global Compact you are part of the worlds largest voluntary program on social responsibility - on your side you inform the UN on what you actually do. Please have a look….

Today I went to the final rehersal before the grand concertos on Sunday and Monday Nov. 27, in Trinitatis Kirke at 19.30. Several LinkS alumni will be there to follow the Blue Tone trail. They meet outside at 19.10 the latest.
Today, I will invite you on a journey into a new perspective - seen from the Alto. Last time I did this pice is 10 years ago as a soprano, so I am up for a change of view. So, I brought my recorder in the pocket to illustrate the experience from the inside.
The Maria Vesperae by Monteverdi is one of the very early pieces of classical music. Through this piece we understand the transformation of Gregorian music to classical music - this is a universe rather special and 400 years old. There are a few years to go before the Blue Notes where invented!
At the same time this recording is a live chance of looking into the world of the conductor and a choir, soloists and orchestra. Per Enevold is conducting Trinitatis Kantori - www.kantori.dk and is one of our beloved conductors in Scandinavian choir music. Several international honours belongs to Per Enevold who have been conducting both in Europe and the USA.
You can listen directly on your PC or find your earphones to catch the comments of a world class conductor - tells you a lot about leadership.
I will follow up with an interview with Per Enevold when the concertos has come to a grand finale…
Enjoy these selections…
Maria Vesperae Lauda Jerusalem
Maria Vesperae Ave Mari Stella
Maria Vesperae Finale

I had the most extra-ordinary experience this thursday - I met Ged at the INDEX: launch of awards 2007. Ged is in the Jury and I am in the Board. What is WEF and Ged doing in CPH? Well, I hope Kigge Hvid, CEO of INDEX: will chat to us about that. Kigge will be on W7 to Wharton. www.indexaward.dk

Ged Davis is a rare species. Sharp in scenarios and a background from Shell and a fresponsible, intelligent view on the future of this planet. The executive of the future. We talked for a long time - here are just the first couple of minutes to give you an impression. I hope to see Ged here at the LinKS Blog in the future. Ged Davis, CEO WEF

Last year 6 Danish people went to DAVOS and Anders Fogh Rasmussen flew in for a short while - not excactly an overwhelming Danish presence. I wonder if we should consider checking out DAVOS World Economic Forum, annual meeting, January 24-28 2007? www.weforum.org.

Mads Kjaer, chairman of KjaerGroup, www.kjaergroup.com, has started a revolutionary program, C4-World, designed as a new model of the world economics. Mads Kjaer is member of the LinKS Advisory Board and is one of the best thinkers I ever met. Listen to his key points about about C4 for your self.

It is about solving the problems of Africa to influence tomorrow’s Africa and the goal of creating sustainable development across continents. And guess what, Mads is taking this all the way through the UN, Bono, local African entrepreneurs and the greatest companies of the world. Keep an eye on this project, it will change the way the world goes around.

Great changes are happening in the field of employer organisations in Denmark. The competition is consolidating and merging to gain power and influence as well as supplying better services to members. I made this interview with CEO Søren B Henriksen right after the merger was announced.

We talk about the merger and why we need this new entity called Dansk Erhverv. This lead us to a discussion on how Denmark is positioned globally and the challenges and potentials that we have.

Next week will follow an interview on the personal experience of going through a merger, seen from the top executive perspective of Søren B Henriksen. And I promise - next one will be in English - this one is in Danish for starter…

IN LinKS we collaborate with brilliant people around the globe on subjects within leadership, strategy and innovation. We worked together with Paul Schoemaker for many years and I always wanted to know what Paul’s view of the future is, so I cornered him! Well, listen and enjoy Paul Schoemaker….

…and when you are ready - please feedback your view on the most important uncertaincies that you see from your perspective. Looking forward to hearing from you.

This is a continued interview with Soren B Henriksen on the perspectives of Denmark as a country and the behaviour needed to bring this country, with one on the strongest economies in Europe, into the global sphere. Soeren B Henriksen, CEO Danish Enterprises