On October 2nd, 2015 Garry traveled to Helsinki, Finland to take part in Nordic Business Forum. He delivered two key-note addresses titled:
Morning session title: “New Challenges to the World Order”
Afternoon session title: “The Strategic Advantage of Thinking Big”.
In personal remarks on the forum, Kasparov stated:
“In Helsinki to talk politics in the morning and business in the evening! In both cases, the theme was the big picture and how to solve problems by looking for larger frameworks. My last topic was culture, a framework higher than strategy. In particular, creating the culture of risk-taking that makes our greatest achievements possible. Amazing events here at the Nordic Business Forum (https://www.facebook.com/nbforum.fi), my highest compliments to the organizers and the audiences!”
André Assarsson | Miltton
2.10.2015
There are only about 70 people on the entire planet with an IQ of 190. Garry Kasparov is one of them. The audience of Nordic Business Forum 2015 was spellbound today listening to his speech about strategy from a historical perspective, in different contexts and what we can learn from that in the future.
The main lesson to be learned was this: it’s all about taking risk and knowing your strengths. Perhaps this is more relevant now than ever. In an ever-changing complex world with digitalization we really can’t know the answers and that’s why we need to trust ourselves and our business ideas by keep on asking ourselves questions.
This has been a theme during the Nordic Business Forum 2015 among the speakers and maybe our Nordic culture will change into taking more risks in the future. What will happen if it doesn’t?
We will benefit more as a human race, as a company, as a family and as nation if we take more risks. History shows us this. But today we have created a culture of comfort and satisfaction. An environment of high risks enables high benefits and maybe we should stop pretending that a low risk environment is beneficial.
A Lesson on World Politics from The Disobedient Master of Chess
by Mikko Hakkarainen | Miltton Creative
2.10.2015
Garry Kasparov didn’t aim to inspire us. He didn’t take the stage to cheer us up, but to serve a load of harsh critique on the current state of Russian politics as a side for our morning coffee. “Don’t shoot the weatherman”, he asked us, “I’m just trying to give an accurate forecast”. We got quite a literal wake-up call in the morning of the second day of #NBForum2015.
“In chess it’s all about fixed rules and unpredictable results. In Russian politics it’s exactly the opposite.” To best understand the Putin regime he told us to read Mario Puzo’s The Godfather: Putin’s propaganda machine first needed friends and in the light of the events of the past couple of years he now needs enemies. And this is scary. Kasparov divided the world in his keynote into modernists and time-travelers, the latter ones being the regimes and individuals who fight against the development of a globalised, digital and modern world. This man has a mission and isn’t afraid of making it clear.
Kasparov recited Mahatma Gandhi’s famous quote about disobedience of evil states being a duty of good persons. Kasparov rallied people to disobey the current Russian regime on economic, strategic, political and civil levels. Philosopher Howard Zinn encapsulates it maybe best: “Disobedience is not our problem, obedience is.”
The bombings at Syria have shifted the focus away from Crimea – how convenient for Putin. A war in the Middle East is rising oil prices and leaving Europe in turmoil with a worsening refugee crisis – how convenient for Putin.
“Dictators don’t go away by themselves, the price we eventually have to pay rises the longer we wait to stop them. In the modern digital and global era good examples, encouragement, education and exploration can be instantly influential.”
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