Brave New World

Author image
Prof.dr.sc. Mladen Vedris
Full Professor and Chairman of the Chair of Economic Sciences on Law Faculty Zagreb, University of Zagreb
Teaching Courses: Economic Policy, Political Economy, International Economic Relations

…started rapidly by means of globalization. It started with technological innovation called CONTAINER by which real content is transported and transmitted cheaply and reliably and it has continued with IT technology which globalizes information and financial circuits. How to find your own place in this Brave New World? How to (permanently) subsist and then be better and more successful, respectively more competitive than others, wherever others are? These are ongoing and opened questions. Challenges, not problems as it is said in classic slang; are real question now for those who want to be “straight-A students” of the new time. A lot of worldwide known names with great business accomplishments (dominating today), also manage foundations and damage control in this Brave New World, confirming that this is possible.

Today growth and distribution are enabled by new ideas which are becoming companies of one type or another: from IT platforms to the real goods. Because, UBER needs cars (and people, still!), NIKE needs (other’s) factories for production of shoes, t-shirts…, AIRBNB needs solid objects (hotels, apartments – also other’s). and so on.

Events have become faster and more explosive; even man is trying to fallow (imitate) those changes; the duration of the Olympic Marathon fell below two hours, everything is speeding up… Digital economy is becoming mantra, increasingly complex and difficult to manage. Something like capacity of the financial regulator (before and after) 2008 on the Wall Street.

And now the key questions: What kind of personal processor is that? What does social and emotional intelligence of every individual mean, in order to be capable enough to produce (ubiquitous – delivery syndrome) competitive product and achieve personal business result in this Brave New Word, something like win-win situation? This is the message with permanent and not really (dominant) technological character. Finally, to quote Hoffer (1936): “In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”

And to conclude, there is nothing more powerful than the old idea for which the (new) right time has arrived.