Tim Williams, SLO Chamber Board Chair,
Inspiration breeds greater achievement and reminds us that possibility is an entrepreneurial drug, hooking us and creating a need for more.
As business leaders, it’s our role to be forward-thinking and set the vision, yet it’s far too common that we spend our time putting out the latest fires and push the vision off until tomorrow.
In early October I set out with a small band of SLO Chamber members to the World Business Forum in New York City. The minds we heard from left us, again, wanting more.
“Organizations are more like organisms versus a machine,” said Sir Ken Robinson, a globally recognized authority on creativity. “And the CEO’s job is to create a culture where organisms can grow.”
Columbia Business School professor, Rita McGrath told us to question what we think is competition. Dr. Ben Bernanke and analyst Ian Bremmer gave us a state of the geopolitical environment, and a historic look at one of our biggest economic struggles.
We heard from modern design guru Philippe Starck, brilliant thinker and counter-intuitive writer Malcolm Gladwell, and one of Fortune Magazine’s ‘40 Under 40’ Blake Mycoskie, CEO of TOMS Shoes, who’s moving story reminded us that “giving doesn’t just feel good, it’s good for business.”
Both days were packed with these thought leaders, but the consensus rallied around two favorites of the forum, Peter Diamandis and Simon Sinek.
Founder of the X Prize Foundation and Singularity University, Diamandis argued “if your innovation depends on only your internal team, you will die.”
Sinek had a pretty high bar set for him by those in attendance. But his talk on “Why leaders eat last” beat our expectations and cleared us for exploring how we can “be the leader we wish we had.”
A trained anthropologist, Sinek explained leadership roles through the chemicals in our body. The selfish chemicalsthat mask pain and reward task, versus an embrace of the selfless chemicals that embody pride, confidence, trust, loyalty and love.
There were 15 amazing speakers over the two full forum days, and we were thankful to be there. These are the creative exercises that help push a community to greater achievement. The SLO group spent the final evening together, sharing the excitement of the conference, the energy of NYC and how we want to share this with our friends at home.
It’s not something easily conveyed with a slide show, but we hope our enthusiasm and dedication to thinking beyond today will help all of us look for our own desire for improvement.
To help spread the enthusiasm and excitement the Chamber is considering organizing a trip to the 2015 World Business Forum for interested members and is expecting to open online registration in the coming months. Click herefor more information about next year’s program.
Tim Williams is the CEO and founder of Digital West Networks and the 2014 SLO Chamber Board Chair.