1. World Business Forum<br />The World Business Forum was something I wasn’t truly ecstatic about when I heard it was mandatory to attend. Since I tend to pile far too much onto my plate as it is, the loss of a day is a rather big inconvenience for me. However it really only took about 30 minutes for it to sink in that this would be well worth my time. Right off the bat the speakers who were specifically talking about personal motivations and drivers, something I tend to struggle with on an ongoing basis, drew me in. On top of that were the speakers who narrowed in on creativity and the all to well known concept of looking outside the box, however it was Malcolm Gladwell who addressed a key idea that spoke rather clearly to me.<br />Malcolm was focusing on the idea of working hard for what you achieve. He was illustrating that it takes a lot of hard work to get to the top and those leaders who grew up with relatively nothing and had to scrounge, beg, and borrow from the beginning were the ones who truly achieved something great. The problem was that they didn’t want their children going through the same hardships as they did, so they grant them every advantage they can. It’s from that point that their children begin to have extraordinary expectations of what is entitled to them, as well as adopt the assumption that they deserve everything they are receiving. This whole concept is something I have struggled with, with peers who simply have no real concept of what it takes to generate these advantages; they are self-centered and lack the appreciation for these things. Gladwell really hammered down that this is something that must be avoided for future leaders to be as effective as their predecessors, the trick is finding a way to build off people who haven’t had to work for anything in their lives.<br />The next speaker who really had some beneficial points to touch on was Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks. He had a certain engagement when he spoke about his company, more of a deep passion towards the path Starbucks has taken. He touched on the importance of a strong moral compass in a company and ensuring the proper alignment of his company, specifically the mission of Starbucks. It was when they lost track of the initial goals and began to solely focus on the market share and financial standings of the company. He had the excellent point that if companies were to focus on their product or service and exactly what they were trying to achieve and less on the money, the money would simply follow and that less and less companies were doing this. I found it very impressive the steps that he took when he was repositioned as the CEO and that the risk versus reward stance he took played out so well for the company in the end. I struggle with the idea of giving individual stores so much power over there management styles and financial gains but it seemed to me that the more responsibility they gave someone the better there performance ended up being. The key idea though was that a company has a responsibility to give back to the community and of course the backside of that is that the community will support the company in return. The examples he gave in New York and California were great ideas that all the profits generated were to go directly into the hands of those in that community that needed it. On top of that, sending all their managers down to New Orleans not only is a great initiative that clearly is helping out a larger community but it also serves as a terrific company bonding situation, to help better unite the common goal of all the stores by building strong relationships through common experiences.<br />Finally was Tal Ben-Shahar, who talked all about the idea of observation. He outlined that goals steer companies and typically what happens is these companies get so caught up in what is happening solely in regards to the primary goal that they miss opportunities and are oblivious to things happening all around them. This really spoke to me, as I am someone who bounces around ideas like its no ones business but miss tons of things around me. Tal pointed out that most of us are not very observative and it is a skill we need to work on to be successful. Not only will it help in business but will certainly increase our emotional intelligence and give us a defined edge when dealing with people in our organizations.<br />In the end the opportunity was tremendous and I would without a doubt take advantage of it again. The speakers are certainly inspirational and provide insight not easily accessible just anywhere.<br />