The Big Picture

ON INNOVATION

In the next five years, more than 200 new airports will be built in Asia Pacific, and 140,000 hotel rooms will be added. (1)

The top 10 in-demand technology jobs did not exist in 2004. (2)

Years it took to reach a market audience of 50 million:

Radio: 38 years
TV: 14 years
iPod: 3 years
Facebook: 2 years (3) 

ON GLOBALIZATION

In the next 14 years, the world will increase by one billion people — that is equivalent of adding the population of Dubai to the world map every 11 days. (4)

One fifth of the world’s GDP comes out of the top 10 cities in the world. (5)

ON THE ECONOMY

“The world has been reset. Today’s uncertainty feels like the ‘new normal.’ We will not return to the relative tranquility of the pre-crisis world. Growth will be harder to come by, trends will be more volatile and constituent voices will be louder.” (6)

— Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE

“Global economic growth requires the services of big financial firms. It also requires that big financial firms be allowed to fail.” (7)

— Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase.

The United States federal deficit is projected to reach $20.3 trillion in 2020 — that’s the equivalent of more than $65,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. (8) 

ON LEADERSHIP

“In my view a board of directors of a huge financial institution is derelict if it does not insist that its CEO bear full responsibility for risk control. If he’s incapable of handling that job, he should look for other employment.” (9)
— Warren Buffet, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

Research by Pricewaterhouse-Coopers has found that although the best organizations pick at least two possible successors for each key position, in practice only 40% of roles are filled by those identified for promotion. (10)

By country, confidence in leadership is highest in India, followed by the United States, Canada and Australia, according to the 2010 Korn/Ferry Confidence in Leadership Index. (11)

India.....78
U.S......76
Canada.....76
Australia.....75
Brazil.....70
China.....70
Spain.....67
U.K......66
Italy.....64
Germany.....62
France.....62
Russia.....62
Japan.....58

According to Korn/Ferry’s 34th Annual Board of Directors Study of Fortune 1000 organizations, 84% believe the importance of having a CEO succession plan in place has increased. However, the sad truth is that only about half of all boards have a succession plan. (12)

ON THE LABOR MARKET

“The basic message today is that with small business — which is the primary source of jobs — we need to figure out the loan problem. The banks aren’t really lending to them and anything that the government can do to accelerate that, needs to happen right now.” (13)
— Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google

The U.S. economy will need 7.6 plus years of hyper job creation (2.2 million jobs per year) to replace all of the jobs eliminated in this recession. Based on that unrealistic job growth projection, it would still take until 2017 to get back to the 5% U.S. unemployment rate experienced prior to the recession. (14)

The 25% of India’s population with the highest IQs is greater than the total population of the United States — India has more honors kids than America has kids. (15)

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(1), (15) Shift Happens, Initials. (Designer). (2009). “Did you know 3.0.” [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r21629872-Did-you-know-30

(2) Gray, Amelia. (2009, October 26). “Top 10 Ways to Prepare for the Future of Technology.” http://encarta.degreesandtraining.com/articles.jsp?article=featured _top_10_ways_to_prepare_for_the_future_of_technology.

(3) World Bank. World Development Report 1998/99: Knowledge for Development. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999; Mansell, Robin and When, Uta. Knowledge Societies: Information Technology for Sustainable Development. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999; International Telecommunications Union. Challenges to the Network: Internet for Development. Geneva: ITU, 1999.

(4), (5) Weir, Tommy, Ph.D. (2009). “CEO Shift: Recovery, the Changing Dynamics of the Future, and Success.” Dubai School of Government. July 23, 2009.

(6) GE 2009 Annual Report: Letter to Shareholders. Retrieved from http://www.ge.com/ar2009/letter.html

(7) Dimon, Jamie. (2009, November 13). No More ‘Too Big to Fail’. The Washington Post, Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/12/AR2009111209924.html.

(8) Dickson, David. (2010, March 26). Cbo Report: Debt Will Rise to 90% of GDP. Washington Times, Retrieved from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/26/cbos-2020-vision-debt-will-rise-to-90-of-gdp/.

(9) Buffet, Warren. (2009). Letter to Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders. Retrieved from http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2009ltr.pdf

(10) Simms, Jane. (2010, January). Regime change. Director Magazine, Retrieved from http://www.director.co.uk/MAGAZINE/2010/1_Jan/succession_63_05.htm

(11 )2010 Korn/Ferry Confidence in Leadership Index.

(12) Korn/Ferry’s 34th Annual Board of Directors Study

(13) Brodie, Lee. (Producer). (2010). CEO “Eric Schmidt Reveals ‘Centerpiece’ of Google’s 2010 Strategy.” [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/id/34264616/CEO_Eric_Schmidt_Reveals_Centerpiece_Of_Google_s_2010_Strategy

(14) Greenhouse, Steven. (2009, September 30). Wait Until 2017 Before Job Market Recovers, Report Says. New York Times, Retrieved from http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/wait-until-2017-before-job-market-recovers-report-says/?src=tp#commentstw