Amel Karboul

After the opening of the ESMT Annual Forum by Michael Diekmann, leading CEOs such as Dr. Josef Ackermann, Håkan Samuelsson, James S. Turley, Narayana Murthy and Dr. Dieter Zetsche discussed the effects of the financial crisis on the real economy. The strongest mindset change I could sense was that “I do not know and it is helpful to ask others for support – I am not a genius” became OK for a CEO to say. Personally I do think the discussion could have been more interactive (German way of dealing with authorities may have played a role) and the questions more challenging.

The video shown by the artist Marina Landia was great, she managed to develop a sequence where you could see and feel global leaders behind their faccade – a virtual discussion as a patchwork of interview pieces. This video could have been showed before the panel discussion, it would have surely changed the tone and brought a more reflective and holistic view! Read the rest of this entry »

Sitting now in a house – that was build by my grand-grand father – on an African island. Having lunch with my ex nanny Zohra (the flower).
I ask her: how old are you?
She answers: I don’t know.
Amel: Why not? How can you not know how old you are?
Zohra: Why should it matter? I am living my life and one day I will die, why should knowing my age matters anyway? Others will come after me and live their life, it’s a circle.
This conversation made me contemplative for some moments …

In western countries people tend to “hide” their age because being young is the desired state. You should never ask – especially women – about their age!  In the Arab world it is even desired for a woman to become old. You get more respect the older you are!  Personally I enjoy that. Everything is getting better so far. I am more experienced, more mature, have fewer complexes, better s… and so one. I definitely do not want to be 18 again.
We can also ask this question for companies. The common understanding is that the older a company gets the better. Why actually? Steve Jobs said in a speech in Stanford: Death is the change agent of life.  Perhaps it is time nowadays for some companies to die and leave space for new ones to emerge.
Perhaps it is nicer for people to be old and for companies to be young! Or even to forget about age, it does not matter after all ☺

Common sense but not common practice!

Today’s crisis has a major characteristic: no body knows what is going to happen in the future. From a philosophical view – we never knew what is going to happen, but we could at least pretend to know in the past.

7 years ago I did write an article on communities of practice as a powerful organizational form and intervention – after many frustrating experiences with an IT approach to knowledge management. In today’s environment they may become very useful. It is vital for every organization, in complex or even chaotic situations with many unknowns, to develop a leadership community that exchanges information, knowhow, views, and scenarios and stays alert to what is happening. Read the rest of this entry »

Wir bereiteten eine kleine Feier, ich wollte einen traditionellen tunesischen Kuchen mit Mandeln backen. Deanne*, unser wunderbares und lustiges amerikanisches Aupair, half mir Mandeln zu schälen, manchmal fiel eine Mandel auf dem Boden, die dann auf einem extra Stapel landete. Am Ende stand Deanne auf und wollte diesen Stapel in den Mülleimer werfen. Meine Mutter, zu Besuch aus Tunesien, hat fast eine Herzattacke gehabt, sprang auf, nahm die Mandeln, wusch sie und tat sie zu den anderen. Es war ein andauender „Kultur-Kampf“ um das Nicht-Wegwerfen von Lebensmitteln – in Tunesien nimmt man das Brot was auf dem Boden fällt auf und küsst es, als Entschuldigung. Read the rest of this entry »

What does good Leadership really mean in the current crisis?
Obviously you have to get costs under control, but leadership in turbulent times is much more than that if you want to secure the future. Read the rest of this entry »