Journal

As I have raced around town and the planet in recent weeks, I have been keeping a weather eye open for the signs of Spring – which are uncomfortably abundant.

Hania sent a link to the most extraordinary free diving film this morning. Watching it reminded me of my sometime semi-lucid dreams – and the time I would listen to Roger Payne’s remarkable whale song albums back in the 1980s, with the girls probably both under 10, sitting in the dark. It was as if the whales were nosing all around us. Extraordinary.

Here is the background:

In the film by Guillaume Néry, “the world champion free diver swims across the world in one breath, or at least creative editing and camera tricks present the illusion of this great feat. One Breath Around the World follows Néry to the spectacular scenes he explores without a snorkel or air tank, like a variety of underwater caves or a pod of clustered whales. The film is shot by his wife Julie Gautier who was also free diving as she filmed Néry throughout France, Finland, Mexico, Japan, the Philippines, and other oceanic destinations.

Came across to Exeter yesterday by train for an MBA Speaker Series session last night, open to public, and capacity audience. Hosted by the Exeter University Business School. Spoke on a title picked by Exeter U, “Capitalism: Does It Have A Future In A Challenging World”. My answer: Yes, but …

Dinner later with Adam Lusby and Stuart Robinson of the Business School. Then this morning I had breakfast with Tim Lenton of the new Global Systems Institute – and then went on to judge MBA student pitches, before doing one myself to them for support on our Tomorrow’s Capitalism Inquiry.

Graffiti can blight, but done well street art can enhance. That was my thinking as I walked past this wall across from Amnesty’s HQ, after a breakfast meeting today convened by the London International Development Centre (LIDC).

If the Triple Bottom Line was designed to capture value creation (and destruction) in economic, social and environmental terms, then a key part of our rapidly evolving Tomorrow’s Capitalism Inquiry involves taking our ‘trinoculars’ and turning them on the future—specifically the next deca

With the Inquiry still in exploratory mode, we are keeping all channels open. But three key themes are emerging: (1) doing business in the Anthropocene; (2) making sense of the shift in the centre of gravity of the global economy to Asia; and, (3), something of a wild card, how Adolescence—the stressful period where the world’s children will love into adulthood in the context of growing global challenges.

Some 1.8 billion people worldwide are now aged between 10 and 24. With adolescence turbulent enough in its own terms, how do we help these young people cope with wider turbulence—and help prepare them to drive more sustainable forms of development?

And in that context, thanks to a long-standing friend and colleague Patrin Watanatada, I was thrilled to take part in a fascinating event hosted by the Bernard van Leer Foundation and Arup this evening. The theme of the event is summarised in the slide below. A crucial question—and one that we will extend to the world’s adolescents, on whose shoulders the future will increasingly ride.