Weekly Distillation No.10
Five day week; Harpers Letter; Moral Clarity; Censorship; Coronavirus; Recession; Cash; Inflation; AI; Venture Capital; Power Dynamics; Gin
Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash
This newsletter is written for entrepreneurial organisational leaders and aims to help identify themes of our current context and provide questions, tips and tools that can help in navigating that.
“The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away” - The Harpers Letter signatories
“Free speech is not just another value. It's the foundation of Western civilization.” - Jordan Peterson
“You know, Dr Fauci said ‘don’t wear masks’ and now he says ‘wear them’. And you know, he’s said numerous things: ‘Don’t close off China. Don’t ban China.’ “And I did it anyway. I sort of didn’t listen to my experts and I banned China.” - US President Donald Trump
"We are entering one of the most severe recessions this country has ever seen," UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak
“For the first time in 40 years, we believe we may now have to face up to the corrosive power of inflation.” - UK Hedge Fund of Funds - MAN Group DNA Team
“Infant mortality and life expectancy are reasonable indicators of general well-being in a society.” - P. J. O'Rourke
"If you work with your mind, sabbath with your hands, and if you work with your hands, sabbath with your mind." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
Skim it in a minute
Thematic insights from the news and the web to help you think about potential future and current contexts and how to be productive, creative and successful in your work now
Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash
The future of work: Is the five day week over? (Probably not - everything I can see is that the five day week for office workers is remaining and extending into the evenings and weekends). How are you rethinking work patterns personally and for your organisation?
Photo by camilo jimenez on Unsplash
The ongoing transformation of Media: A friend of mine wonders why people bother to write open letters. The Harpers Letter was a great answer - it provoked a firestorm of reaction and counter-reaction that is still ongoing and might last as long as Tuesday - it is good to see genuine debate. What kind of society do we live in if people can’t express opinions without being hounded into hiding? And yet….aren’t there some views which shouldn’t be given equal press? What role does moral clarity have in Western Society and in our media?
Reddit banned the r/Trump subreddit - is this a good thing? Where do you draw the line? Social Media is an amplification tool and brings people into debate that would previously have not engaged as broadcasters - so comparisons with pre-social media era guidelines don’t cut it.Photo by Melinda Gimpel on Unsplash
Coronavirus: As I watched a number of friends head to Florida and one of the hotspots of Coronavirus in recent weeks, Scotland continues to report very encouraging case numbers. One day this week we had 2 reported new cases out of 5.5m people. Cautious unwinding is continuing to pay off. I almost visited a shop this week to get a cake for my wife’s birthday but due to an administrative error on the shop’s side, that fell through (we got the cake eventually)- so I still haven’t been in a shop since early March. I’m seriously questioning the point of bricks and mortar retail at all - although I recognise it remains useful for rural and for those without equal access to technology and the skills to use it.
More importantly, there are ongoing questions as to whether the virus lingers in the air and could India almost have a vaccine ready to launch? Within the economy, this feels like the calm before the storm - government schemes are tapering off, job cuts are just beginning in Europe and the banks are hunkering down expecting a tsunami of insolvencies. Private Equity I talk to are seeing a mix of strong performers (D-T-C plays, home improvement plays, digital logistics plays) and others that are struggling (but have not yet made a cash call). This is interesting as to where the jobs are coming back in the US. I can’t remember the last time I used cash - I’m likely to continue to go digital where possible. And also - Why cash use is dying.How Technology is Transforming society - we’re extending ageing, how China is using AI for good and for bad (see these last few weeks in HK) - remember GIGO? Turns out this applies to AI also - but can make AI racist. And Why Venture Capital doesn’t help build the things we really need. We need to keep the critique high on tech - leveraging the good and not buying the lie that every problem in society can be solved by a better technology solution.
Inflation: I think this meme above pretty much sums up my view on inflation and the likely impact of the trillions of stimulus in 2020. Art, Stamps, Luxury Goods, Property, Venture Capital, Commodities, Crypto; Equities; Private Equity……….
A long read for the weekend
“In the Irish borderlands, Sean Quinn was always known as a tough businessman. But he was hugely successful and created thousands of jobs. A local hero. And then it all went wrong.”
This last year I’ve been reading a lot about several countries in Africa and also about Putin and Russia. It’s easy to think that corruption and corporations being associated with violence can’t happen in the west.
One of the strangest business stories I ever heard, in a meeting I had with a C-Suite executive of PetroKazakhstan was the tale of their battle with Lukoil:
”In the first quarter of 2004, LUKoil and PetroKazakhstan were involved in another dispute, leading to reduced production for PetroKazakhstan and forcing the company to lower its 2004 projected production by 3 %. LUKoil accused PetroKazakhstan of drilling horizontal wells at the edge of Kumkol South to tap oil from Kumkol North. Both sides went to the Kazakh government, which sided with PetroKazakhstan, and production eventually resumed.”
The story behind this involved one field split between two companies - one company accused the other of stealing their oil, the courts got involved but every time a judgement came down, a more senior legal authority was (allegedly) taken out for dinner and the verdict was overturned.
This sort of banditry never happens in the West. Or does it? I’ve been tracking the Sean Quinn story for a few years on and off but never really understood it - this is an extreme story of how a man became rich and then poor, but then allegedly used his power to coerce investors and executives to fall in line with his wishes.
What’s the relevance of this story to the entrepreneurial leader? Can power dynamics be harmful? Is the right response to power in being in the hands of the wrong person (in your perception) to respond with violence and destruction? When you lose power, either through taking on investors, or through failures, disposals or restructurings, how you respond?
The other weekly distillation
“the action of purifying a liquid by a process of heating and cooling.”
A light and quick look at Spirits that have caught my eye or tongue. This week’s gem comes from my friend Lincoln.
Anything with Suntory written on it reminds me of Bill Murray’s wonderful role in Lost In Translation. This isn’t the famous whisky though. This is their gin. I have no idea what Bill Murray makes of this gin, but I enjoy it. Roku translates to 6 in Japanese - its named after the 6 Japanese botanicals added to the traditional ones. These include cherry blossom & leaf, two different green teas and Sanshō pepper and Yuzu peel.
To my unrefined palate this gin is subtle, other reviewers say “elegant” or “refined”. It can suffer if there’s too much tonic. On it’s own it is very fresh and you can taste the pepper and flowery notes from the cherry blossoms. It’s great with tonic - is anyone not drinking Fever-Tree these days? According to more skilled tasters when tonic is added “Citrus leads and the green tea notes open out to initially give a dryer profile with a clear pepper bite and a long citrus bitter, dry linger”.
And not least, the bottle is lovely - 6 sided (of course) with the embossed outlines of the 6 Japanese botanicals. I’ll leave the last words to Mr Murray: “For relaxing times, make it Suntory [Roku] times.”
If you have a favourite spirit you’d like to write about, or you make spirits, please do get in touch as I’d love to share about them.
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