What to Do if your Startup is about to Fail

A lot of CEOs with less than 12 months of capital left have been asking me for advice about what to do, given the massive economic turmoil we're facing. I thought I would take the time put these various conversations into one email to help those who are "up against it," as we say in Brooklyn. Rock out To This While Reading: Don't Stop Believing Forward To: Startups that are hitting the wall

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Mohammed Younis Talks about the Importance of Banking in Reducing Poverty

Mohammed Younis, Nobel Prize winner, has a uniquely creative way of looking at how financing and banking should be structured in emerging economies to reduce poverty. His model might not only apply to emerging economies> We could certainly adapt some of his thinking to first world economies given the current state of affairs. Worth reflecting on this when you listen to this interview.

Insights in Times of Turmoil

At its inception in Nov 2005, the Creative Leadership Forum presented a philosophy for creative leadership based on these principles. * Numbers are considered the measure for business success. * It is not the financial and performance targets that produce the outcomes or value. * It is the relationships and actions among people, clients, suppliers and their patterns of working and thinking together that produce the outcomes and the value. * A successful creative leader understands that to nurture the relationships between all stakeholders in order to satisfy customer needs is what produces immediate value and long term viability. When we presented these principles we generally received grudging acknowledgement spiced with a degree of cynicism around the numbers proposition. Still, the numbers have to work was often the parting comment!! When measured against the current backdrop in the world financial markets, this philosophy with its four principles not only holds up strongly, it proposes a way forward. Right now all the major financial media commentators agree on one thing - nobody knows where the world economy is going. It is in the area of paradox, ambiguity and uncertainty and there is no way out!! The most insightful commentary I have read on the current situation is George Soros' new book

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