Was the current financial crisis predictable? Some content that it was. In his bestseller 'The Black Swan', Nassim Nicholas Taleb drew attention to the danger of a domino-effect in the financial world. Still, Taleb is convinced that, in spite of all the analyses, such a crisis is unforeseeable. So, what lessons can we draw from it? in a plea for maturity, Professor Herman Van den Broeck lays the stress on more realism and a tempering of blind ambition.
 

The macho paradox

Masculine thinking partly accounts for the financial crisis but is only one of many causes. It's a paradoxical phenomenon that managers and business leaders often argue for healthy competition, while their ambition is to capture the market. A few months ago, when the first signs of the financial crisis were already visible, AIG maintained that everything was just fine for them. In a global economy where systems are all linked together, that's a bold assertion. Look at the situation that the company finds itself in now. 

Russian Roulette

Innumerable small investors felt betrayed when they saw the value of their shares go up in smoke. They took a risk when investing their money, but the trust in their personal adviser must have been bigger.
Taleb's advice: "You are better off investing the greater part (90%) of your funds in businesses that are safe, and then perhaps you can play Russian roulette with the rest." You might hit the jackpot, but most people lose. Until recently people assumed that nothing could go wrong.  

Healthy ambition

It's good to be ambitious, as long as we keep in mind what the impact of our actions can be. A lot of companies (even in the top 500) go bankrupt. Why wouldn't this happen to you when you start up a business? When you are really focussed and follow the false guide, we only look at the elements that corroborate our choice. Investigating why we shouldn't do something might be a better idea and testifies of more realism and less destructive ambition.

Accumulation of market deception

The fear of being a loser is deep-seated in the competitive model, which you see in companies and in politics as well. The field of innovaion management has known for a while now that it's not important whether you are the winner or loser, but that you follow more than one road in order to arrive at a singular idea that can create added value.
As harsh as it may sound, 11 September was, for many companies with problems, a gift. Suddenly they had an excuse for laying poor results on the table. Shareholders that only want to hear nice stories about growth should become aware that they's also contributing to self-deception.
They need to pay more attention to  the lessons that a company draws from projects that have failed! 

Challenge of feminine thinking

It's time to take the step towards feminine thinking which is (by nature) more holistic and mature, and by which decisions are not taken at the expense of everything else. There are scores of companies that are focusing on their core activity and creating added value with that activity. Colruyt for example is able to apply ethical management in practice. You don't need any flashy stories from them, but they employ a long-term vision.
Others use ethical management as a PR tool, but it goes further than just observing the law. The higher you go in a company's hierarchy, the more you encounter people with an individualistic set of values.
By contrast, ethical management means that you do business as an organisation, as a manager and as an individual. Only if you evaluate the consequences of your decisions and actions on the long term, you will do worthwile things. 

Build-up of emotional scraps

We live in a society in which we have everything and that makes us worry about petty things and not about essentials. For example: if one teacher oversteps his/her authority, the Minister of Education is held responsible and resigns.
The past year, what we observed in politics is evidence least of all of maturity. Everyone wants to dominate in discussions and be put in the right without considering the waste of energy and money.
Newspapers are full of personal conflicts between politicians while a real drama might be going on.
Our society has an interest in everyone showing maturity, considering the impact of actions and searching for motivation do to something! 

The Interieur 2008-fair ended only a few days ago. This fair offers, on an annual base, a programme featuring a whole lot of exciting exhibitions and shows, presenting diverse design approaches and innovative products.
The Interieur jury voted Stefan Schöning, the Michelangelo of Belgian design, Designer of the Year 2008.

Schöning exhibited a Delvaux version of his 'Folder' chair during the contemporary furniture exhibition. Folder is an ingenious, handmade chair, using Japanese Origami techniques. Origami is a sophisticated folding technique, usually performed with paper to produce recognizable figures.
The Delvaux version of this chair is made from Taurillon leather. This is an exclusive, top quality leather that's applied to a flexible material to make it stiffer and more solid thanks to a system Delvaux and Schöning developed together. Thanks to this project, Schöning has been able to extend the potential of his talent in the area of luxury leather goods, which he hadn't explored before.

The Antwerp productdesigner redesigned the corporate identity of the NMBS, the National Railway Company of Belgium by restyling its railway clocks and signalisation signs. These were presented at the Interieur 2006 exhibition.
Because of these successful projectsin public design, Schöning got some new governmental assignments such as the redecorating of ticket office of the Flemish Parliament and the restyling of the trafficlights, that will shortly appear beside the Belgian streets.
The designer had a weakness for public design. He says it was a greater challenge to design a traffic light than to design a chair. The targetgroup you try to appeal to is much wider and very diverse. These people are obliged to accept your design.

The industrious Belgian has built up a varied array of work throughout years from grillpans to chairs to traffic signs,...
His design philosophy: ”If you draw a line it has to replace all other redundant lines, it has to be that line with all its characteristics.  This is absolutely necessary to keep the world free from clutter and excess.”
 

From May 28 until 30 Flanders DC is visiting Baden-Württemberg, one of our DC partner regions. Flanders DC is participating in the Reverse Mission together with decision makers, clustermanagers, institutions and economic development agencies from Flanders and from the other DC regions (namely Catalunya, Regione Lombardia, Québec, Nord-Pas de Calais and Oklahoma).

Baden-Württemberg is worldwide known for names and brands like Zeppelin, Porsche, Mercedes, Audi, Bosch, etc. But the region is also a very competitive, creative and innovative region. During these 3 days Baden-Württemberg wants to give us an insight in how innovation policies are made in their region and how the region stimulates creativity and innovation, with a special focus on “fostering creativity and innovation, entrepreneurship and internationalisation as main success factors for top creative locations in a global economy.”
 

During this first day we already were overwhelmed by a spectacular amount of interesting presentations and information that we want to share with you. We received an introduction to:

• The business location Baden-Württemberg – a location for “Creative Industries”
• Innovation- and cluster policy – cluster activities in the field of creative industries
• The Steinbeis Technology Transfer System
• The Fraunhofer Gesellschaft
• Film Academy Baden-Württemberg and Film and Media Center Ludwigsburg

Our visit to the applied research centre at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering was definitively the highlight of today. At the Fraunhofer we visited two labs: Virtual Reality Lab and ServLab.

The ServLab is a unique service innovation lab where virtual reality technology is used in the domain of architecture to visualise future buildings. We were able to have a look and walk around in the new railway station of Stuttgart that will be constructed in two years. This unique combination of architecture and virtual reality allows decision makers to easily visualise the plans of an architect, see how a future building will look like and make an easy decision rather than having to decide on plans. Moreover subcontractors in the construction sector have a better view on how they have to work together in order to obtain a good end result. But the technology goes further. Climate, light and sounds can be integrated and tested in this ServLab. And of course the ServLab can also be used in other fields i.e. car construction.

The Virtual Reality Lab is a 6 wall virtual reality lab mainly used in the end phase of the design process. For instance, to visualise a new car design before starting with the first prototypes.
 

The second day of the Reverse Mission in Baden-Württemberg started with a visit to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. A new initiative where research, innovation and education go hand in hand.

A next stop on our tour was made at the

. As a cultural institution, the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe holds a unique position in the world. It responds to the rapid developments in information technology and today's changing social structures. Its work combines production and research, exhibitions and events, coordination and documentation. It was a pity that we did not have enough time to visit the whole centre. But the first impressions proved that concepts like interactive, community based arts, virtual reality and sound technology are not unfamiliar for this institute.

Finally we visited the Pop Academy Baden-Württemberg in Mannheim. The Pop Academy Baden-Württemberg brings together all relevant aspects of popular culture and creates synergies in order to maximise the creative and economic output of the music business. After 50 years of pop music history, Germany is offering an academic education in pop music for the first time, focussing on popular music and music business. The Pop Academy Baden-Württemberg is not only an academy but also a centre of excellence for all aspects of the music business. This is supported by numerous projects ranging from European partnerships to the regional development and economic support for media businesses in the region of Baden-Wuerttemberg. If you want to find out more visit www.popakademie.de.

Read the report of the third day.

May 30, Baden-Württemberg, the third and last day of the Reverse Mission. The last day to discover how creativity and innovation are stimulated in our German partner region.

The day started with a visit to and presentation of the European Media Laboratory (EML). The EML is a private research institution working in the field of applied informatics. The aim of EML is to develop new information processing systems in which the technology involved is not perceived by users as an obstacle.

The innovative ideas developed at the European Media Laboratory GmbH have led to the establishment of offshoot companies by employees of EML. One of them is the Heidelberg mobil International GmbH, founded in 2007 that has developed several web-enabled location-based services for pedestrians. For instance: Deep Map City -a platform that connects all participants in today’s urban life- or Deep Map Venue -an information service for fairs, congresses and airports.
 

Next on our agenda was a discussion on ‘Creativity and innovation as success factors for companies and regions’ with companies from the Baden-Württemberg region. The companies involved in this discussion where Nec Laboratories Europe, SAS Institute GmbH, Verivox GmbH, United Internet, SAP AG, Metropol-region Rhein-Nechar GmbH.

In the afternoon we visited the Innovationsfabrik Heilbronn. The IFH formed itself and ranks since its establishment 1998 as an important initiator and image carrier in Heilbronn among the prominent technology centers in south - Germany. In the center meanwhile approximately 60 enterprises settled. They employ more than 500 coworkers. The IFH concentrates on innovations, which are derived from the potential in science and economics, existing in north Württemberg.