Need Speed And Greed

World-renowned economist Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran provides a deeply insightful, brilliantly informed guide to the innovation revolution now transforming the world. With echoes of Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma, Tim Brown’s Change by Design, and Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel, Vaitheeswaran’s Need, Speed, and Greed introduces readers to the go-getters, imagineers, and visionaries now reshaping the global economy. Along the way, Vaitheeswaran teaches readers the skills they must develop to unleash their own inner innovator and reveals why America and other wealthy, privileged societies must embrace a path of inclusive growth and sustainability—or risk being left behind by history.

Former Secretary of State George Shultz once drew a distinction between “problems you can solve and problems you can only work at.” These two types of problems have names: They are tame or wicked. Many people believe that their problems are “wicked,” yet few seem to understand what should be done with them. Wicked problems are messy, confusing, unstable, ill-structured, and ambiguous. This book explores the timely issue of wicked problems – what they are and why they are important. The authors open the door to a greater understanding of wicked problems and an appreciation for their complexity, sharing insights and recommendations on how to tackle them to make positive and productive changes in relationships, at home, and at work. Making one’s way successfully through the mess of obstacles and impediments that wicked problems present puts maximum pressure on our capabilities and stretches our tolerance for confusion, conflict, controversy, and chaos. Get guidance on grappling with the wicked problems in your life by increasing your knowledge about what they are and why they are so important to keep working at – even if they can’t be completely resolved.

Development Challenges, South-South Solutions is the monthly e-newsletter of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation in UNDP (www.southerninnovator.org). It has been published every month since 2006. Its sister publication, Southern Innovator magazine, has been published since 2011. ISSN 2227-3905 Stories by David South UN Office for South-South Cooperation Contact the Office to receive a copy of the new global magazine Southern Innovator. Issues 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are out now and are about innovators in mobile phones and information technology, youth and entrepreneurship, agribusiness and food security, cities and urbanization and waste and recycling. Why not consider sponsoring or advertising in an issue of Southern Innovator? Or work with us on an insert or supplement of interest to our readers? Follow @SouthSouth1.

We Need to Have a Word, Words of Wisdom Courage and Patience for Work, Home and Everywhere by John R. Dallas, Jr., is written and designed as a week-by-week reader. The 438-page volume contains 52 letters to readers for a full year of rapid immersion with high-impact key words. Personal purpose, passion and potential to be found within selected evocative words are honored as valuable buried treasure. Toward work-life alignment goals and objectives, the book leads readers to find themselves shining within the complexity and brilliance of 52 word gemstones. These are words to be. These words are action. These words support work-life alignment. From conference tables to kitchen tables, and from war rooms to locker rooms, these are words to support readers to dig, drill and think deeper so each person will reach, climb and stand higher. These are grown-up words for leaders of all ages. Some eager readers enjoy reading cover-to-cover, then again reading week-by-week for a full year of building value word-by-word.

Greed is a much-maligned quality these days. With everyone running off to Haiti or Africa to volunteer, and renouncing their corporate lifestyles, people have forgotten that greed is what drives this country. If it weren’t for our nation’s top corporate executives, we wouldn’t have gotten to where we are today. Someone has to speak out about the overlooked qualities of greed. There’s been too much whining the widening gap between the haves and have nots. It should be bigger! Ladies, do you want to go out with a guy who has no job and lives with his mother? Of course not! He may be good for a romp in the hay, but let’s face it, there’s no future there. Don’t you ever get tired of hearing about Mother Theresa or Bill Gates, and all the wonderful things they’re doing for nothing? What a bunch of idiots. And if I have to hear about another Hollywood moron who has jetted off to Haiti to “help out” for nothing… I’m going to barf. Who cares about people from Haiti? They don’t contribute anything to the global economy, anyway. So if you’re like us, you’re tired of the snivelers and the whiners. You’ll want to learn more about how you can promote the healthy qualities of greed. Embrace your greedy inner child. This book will transform your life and make you feel great about yourself!