Story: At the World Business Forum last week, former President Bill Clinton was asked about his lessons on leadership.  His answer was threefold:

. It begins with a vision of where you want to go: you have to articulate where you are, where you want to go, and how to get there
. A leader has to continually communicate and sell the vision
. Leaders need to understand people, not just policies

We can’t create a new business model that will be effective in the 21st century, accounting for its unique set of challenges, by “thinking outside of the box”.  It’s high time to obliterate the box!  As long as the box continues to exist, some form of the current outdated business model that has changed little in the last 150 years, will remain.  That was my biggest take-away from this year’s World Business Forum 2009 held in New York City last week.

What an incredible experience to blog from the 2009 World Business Forum at Radio City Music Hall in New York City to bring you insights from the world's foremost thought-shapers and opinion-makers. From Bill Clinton to Pat Lencioni, from George Lucas to T. Boone Pickens, there was no shortage of unique insight or rich perspective. From their powerful speeches and personal stories emerged these four main themes.

It’s Day 1 of the World Business Forum. I’m tucked comfortably into my puffy velvet seat on Radio City Music Hall’s third mezzanine.

It’s taken me a while to pull this blog together after the World Business Forum 2009.  I specifically left out the economists (David Rubenstein, Jeffrey Sachs, and Paul Krugman) because they really made such an impact on me.  And in some ways, this wasn’t a positive experience.  Needless-to-say, I have incredible admiration and respect for each and every one of the economists who spoke.  On the other hand, collectively they made me really question what their real role is and what it should be in guiding our economy.  I really questioned what each of you were trying to achieve.  Information without action just doesn’t seem enough to me.  (Nothing would thrill me more than to have them comment on this blog – actually, I dare ya.)

Chris Brady and I had the honor to be invited as a guest bloggers to the World Business Forum in NY City at the Radio City Music Hall.  The list of speakers included top economist, politicians, leadership gurus, and thought leaders.  One of my favorite talks at the conference was by Gary Hamel.  Mr. Hamel is a thought leader in the field of management and organizational change.  Gary stated that the most important innovation in the last 100 years was the science of management.  That floored me!  Even bigger than the automobile, the telephone, airplanes, radio, TV, and internet was management?  But as I thought more about it, I realized that he was right.  How you organize your company to respond to customer needs is more important than any specific technology. 

The energy level went up in the room here at the World Business Forum when Kevin Roberts, CEO of one of the worlds leading creative agencies, Saatchi & Saatchi, stepped onto the stage. From the videos he showed (see below), it is clear they really have down the formula for eliciting memorable emotion in advertising campaigns.

I knew from the moment Patrick Lencioni walked on stage and warned the audience about his ADD tendencies (look! A bird!)  I was going to like him. My first instinct was dead-on and as he went on to compare parenting to business (which validated MY BOOK), I began to like him more and more

One of the highlights of last week’s World Business Forum, for me, had to be the candid conversations with T. Boone Pickens and George Lucas. Both were couch-interviewed and held the audience captive with their stories and their wit.

Last week, Renee and I gave a talk titled “Getting to Shiny Penny Hell and Back” at the Global Creativity Economy Convergence Summit in Philly. For those of you who aren’t familiar with “Shiny Penny Hell(TM)”, it is that moment when you have so many new ideas – shiny pennies – that you’re overwhelmed into inaction. It is a good place to be if you know how to get out (which, of course we do!). The session went really well -  a packed room with over half the attendees requesting copies of our presentation. We had a lot of fun, too! Bonus.

Last week I attended the 2-day World Business Forum at Radio City Music Hall in New York. I was covering the event as part of the WBF Blogger's Hub. The list of guests at the event was impressive, and in summary the speakers provided the audience with advice and insight into the following different areas:

    * Trends and directions in managing people within global corporations
    * Must-have qualities for corporate leaders
    * Trends and directions in corporate marketing
    * Economic outlook from outside of the US
    * A call to action by former US President Bill Clinton

Last Wednesday at the World Business Forum (where I was a “featured blogger” and where I “tweeted” for the first time) President Bill Clinton was asked during his post-speech conversation a very interesting question, which went something like this: “What was one of your toughest decisions as President–i.e., as the chief decision-maker for the country?”

Last week I was blogging--actually, tweeting non-stop--from the World Business Forum 2009 organized by HSM Global. The roster and quality of speakers ranged from former Medtronic CEO Bill George to Kraft's Irene Rosenfeld, from movie magnate George Lucas to Nobel Economist Paul Krugman, billionaire entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens and former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Sprinkled in the mix to add a touch of leadership education were Patrick Lencioni on teamwork, Gary Hamel's strategic innovation, and Saatchi & Saatchi's Kevin Roberts talking about marketing and "lovemarks" (Google that one). Hats off to HSM Global and the speakers--everything was on time, ran just the right amount of time, and was in tune with the times.

Former President Bill Clinton struck a gloomy note in a wide-ranging speech at the World Business Forum that addressed everything from the financial crisis to global inequality to swine flu and climate change.

Former President Bill Clinton said the Bush White House should have rescued Lehman Brothers and it would have affected the economy and presidential election.

Day 2 of the World Business Forum was fabulous.  The speakers were great, but the best part was sitting in the balcony tweeting and blogging with some of the most interesting people I’ve met in ages.  It’s been a LONG time since I felt so at home.  The dinner the night before really helped to get to know folks only to find out I follow them or tweet with their siblings all the time.

The beginning of the afternoon at the World Business Forum can best be summed up as a sobering barrage of the pitfalls, perils, and problems ahead of us. David Rubenstein, founder of the Carlyle Group, the world's largest private equity firm, presented a non-stop litany of facts to drive home his admonition that "just because the recession will be ‘over’ soon doesn’t mean it’s all going to be OK." His command of the numbers and their implications was simultaneously amazing and numbing.

The bloggers hub got off to a slow start the morning of day 2 due in part to a tasty and lively bloggers dinner the night before. Nevertheless, we were treated to another action packed day capped off by an address by Bill Clinton.

What pulls people into conferences? Big name speakers, a nice location, and all of the trinkets that you can fit while not going over your luggage weight limit (or in yet another conference bag)?  Of course not, it is the information that is important.  At the World Business Forum this week, it was the connections to ideas and people that made the event worth attending.

We are roughly half-way through the World Business Forum’s agenda.  Below are some of my favorite nuggets to this point: Patrick Lencioni Life is simple, and really difficult.  It is not complex.

Orrin Woodward and I are attending World Business Forum 2009 at Radio City Music Hall, along with people interested in leadership from 54 countries.

Bill George, former CEO of Medtronics and now Harvard professor, was a great choice to open the World Business Forum 2009. Having attended a reception he threw for the Blogger’s last night (where he gave us a signed copy of this book, 7 Lessons for Leading in a Crisis), I was able to catch a glimpse into his philosophies and ideas. I have to admit, I liked what I heard.

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a reception hosted by Bill George, Harvard Business Professor and author of 7 Lessons for Leading in a Crisis. He hosted the party for members of the Blogger’s Hub, of which I am honored to be a part of.

Story: When Irene Rosenfeld took over as CEO of Kraft, she saw an anemic innovation pipeline. IrenePhotoThe company had 2000 corporate R&D staff — scientists, engineers and chemists — but new products weren’t flowing rapidly enough.   Her solution to encourage innovation?  To get everyone to “Think of Kraft as a $40 billion start-up,” she said at the World Business Forum on October 7, 2009.  One way to emulate start-up thinking is to be open to new ideas from anywhere and quickly turn them into something valuable. Kraft reached out beyond its corporate R&D to enlist the help of employees across the whole company, as well as suppliers and partners, to spur innovation.

Story: George Lucas, legendary producer, director and screenwriter of the Star Wars LucasPhotoand Indiana Jones blockbuster hits, shared these thoughts at the World Business Forum. Lucas described how he got his start making movies by going outside the insular Hollywood system.  When he graduated from film school, Hollywood was not receptive to new ideas and Lucas didn’t want to go there.  He and Francis Coppola moved to San Francisco to start American Zoetrope in 1969.  Befitting their 1960’s

So Phil and I have spent the last two days covering HSM's World Business Forum, happily posting and tweeting from the Bloggers Hub at Radio City Music Hall. We were flooded by a stream of brilliant insights flowing on leadership, team building, the economy, business futures, and global corporate responsibility and opportunities. If you haven't already, read up for the details here.

Dennis Nally (PWC Chairman) says "We have lost trust at all levels" "This causes investment to grind to a halt" He calls for increased transparency. "Transparency is the lifeblood of investors".

Not to be overly titillating, but the most successful company going forward may also be the most see-through. That's what Dennis Nally, global chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers said, anyway, at today's opening presentation at the World Business Forum.

Here in Radio City Hall, we are challenged to consider innovation as a way of life where we work.
Gary Hamel invites live, 5000 top global business leaders at Radio City Hall,  to rethink a new management model where you work. He also questions why we change so little. Have you seen it too?

It seemed to me that the message brought to us by the several international business leaders during HSM's "International Insights" segment of the World Business Forum provided an interesting counter-position to the heavily pessimistic views of both Jeffrey Sachs and David Rubenstein, yesterday afternoon. The other bloggers and people I talked with all agreed, that it seemed these business people, when they were talking about the future as it looks now, were fairly optimistic about their own prospects for growth. They each acknowledged the challenging environment, and the fact that margins are still under pressure, and the economy is still sluggish, but they each also felt that the worst was now behind us, and prospects are decent. Not super, but decent.

Thanks to the good people over at HSM, I’ve been invited to take part in the Blogger’s Hub at tomorrow’s World Business Forum – something I’m really quite excited about for a variety of reasons.

Today at World Business Forum I heard a great presentation by Patrick Lencione, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Here’s one creative way to tell if you’re a good boss: Can your employees do a good impression of you?
If not, you’re probably not talking to them enough. So said Patrick Lencioni, management consultant and author, at the World Business Forum this morning.

Borrowing ideas from singer Sheryl Crow, business-strategy guru Gary Hamel suggests change will do you, and your company, good

Reporting live on Day 1 as a featured blogger at the World Business Forum (#wbf09) at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. A beautiful day in the Big Apple for a Big Idea business conference.

The world’s business leaders would be remiss if they didn’t acknowledge the financial meltdown of the past 18 months. The opening statements at the World Business Forum were no surprise, with Patricia Meier CEO of HSM, kicking things off by calling the crowd to remember the challenges of the past year. She reminded people to think back to last year’s conference when the Dow Jones went below 1000 for the first time in years. This year, we’re 15 points lower than we were last year, but this time, we’re on the way up– we see opportunity despite the crisis.

There were three principle speakers the first morning of the World Business Forum - Bill George, Bill Conraty, and Patrick Lencioni, and they perfectly illustrate the generation-gap problem that afflicts discussions of management and technology these days.

Sitting in the front row in the Bloggers Hub at The World Business Forum. Wired, ready to go and surrounded by 50 of the best bloggers on the planet. A bit intimidating. These are some of the most savvy social media folks around, smart thinkers, great writers and they type a lot faster than I do

Blogging the goods from Radio City Hall turned out to be a sobering task if you take Jeffrey Sachs seriously, and I do. He speaks right into the urgent calls for rigorous renewal here at the MITA International Brain Center!

David Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlisle Group, a global private-equity firm managing more than $84.5B of equity capital, delivered a non-stop monologue today at the World Business Forum in New York City. His delivery was chock-full of statistics to illustrate his dark and sobering forecasts in almost every sector.

He still thinks CEOs care about the pay, perks, privilege and prestige of running a company and sometimes put themselves ahead of profits, shareholders and performance of the company at times. So Texas investor T. Boone Pickens suggested a more democratic way to pick company board members to make them less beholden to the CEO

Jeffrey Sachs, a prolific economist, author and professor at Columbia University, had unusually harsh words in his speech today directed at Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve — placing him with much of the blame for the current financial crisis

I’m part of the “Blogger’s Hub” covering the World Business Forum in New York City, and focus during the morning sessions was on Leadership.  Three well-known speakers, Bill George, Bill Conaty, and Patrick Lencioni, talked about Leadership in the context of crisis, performance, and effective team building.

If your co-workers, boss, and company's executives were "emotionally buck naked" what do you think you would hear from them?  That's the question that comes to mind from speaker, writer, and business consultant Patrick Lencioni at the World Business Forum.

What has struck me about the emerging theme here this morning is that more individuals in the business community are recognizing the importance of factors beyond the obvious tasks of business.

The opening sequence this morning at the World Business Forum highlighted the turmoil, crisis, and upheaval our business world has faced over the last year. It was ominous, one newspaper after the other headlining the dire events that have transpired recently, hitting close to home.

Bill George’s core competency is his deep experience, in-depth understanding of America’s major players and the intricacies of business economics. He led Medtronics, joining as CEO in ’91. He grew Medtronic’s market capitalization from $1.1 billion to $60 billion, averaging 35% a year, from 1996 to 2002. Today he delivered the opening keynote at the World Business Forum in NYC, where I saw him live.

Is your company the Ninth Ward in New Orleans?  Meaning is that a good metaphor for the financial status of your company these days, in the "aftermath" of the financial crisis?  That's one of the questions Bill George's talk this morning at the World Business Forum brought to mind. He said the "eye of the storm" has passed, but that, like Hurricane Katrina, we're now left with the aftermath, which may be even worse than the height of the storm. Namely, he was referring to the extraordinary number of unemployed people.

It's a gorgeous morning in NYC - upper 50s, sunny & clear. Radio City Music Hall is alive with activity as thousands assemble for the World Business Forum, bringing together some of the leading thinkers of our time to debate and share their views on global issues.

I am in New York City this week for HSM’s World Business Forum (WBF) at Radio City Music Hall, an annual event where top business, political and academic figures meet to debate the most pressing issues of the day. As one attendee put it, it’s like receiving a two day MBA from a line-up of renowned experts on the world’s hottest current topics. By the way, you should check out the WBF Bloggers Hub – that’s why I’m here at the event – I was invited to attend and blog away as one of 50 featured bloggers.

Irene Rosenfeld, chief executive of Kraft Foods, was probably signed up to speak at this year’s World Business Forum before news broke of her company’s bid to buy U.K.-based candy confectioner Cadbury PLC — an offer Cadbury’s board rebuffed last month. But now, as Kraft faces a Nov. 9 deadline to make a sweetened, formal offer, it’s certainly made Ms. Rosenfeld’s appearance here more buzzworthy

Last week Kathy, the founder of the Hot Mommas Project, presented me with the amazing opportunity to attend the World Business Forum.  I, of course, took her up on her offer and early this morning I headed to New York City for the big event.  Today was the second day of the forum.  Due to my class schedule, I was not able to make it to any of the first day’s events.  Kathy, however, was in attendance and blogged from the forum on the Hot Mommas insider’s blog

I’m new to this – being an official blogger at a conference.  I have to tell you I love it.  Hear ye, hear ye.  Anyone who needs an official blogger to share the conference with the outside world live and real-time, just let me know.  These are the fastest two days of the year!

My first job out of the Air Force was as an economist for an independent oil company. We were based in New York City at 50 Rockefeller Plaza, which is the building that backs up onto Radio City Music Hall. I spent a little over a year in a shared office on the fourteenth floor at 50 Rock, before being promoted and transferred to Houston. Our office had a great view over the roof of Radio City, and we became a prime destination for lunchtime meetings and get-togethers during spring and summer, because on clear days we could usually spot several of the Rockettes out on the roof, tanning their legs.