BRICS Business Magazine English Edition No.4(8)
But words rarely reach minds. We think that a universal problem means that it is no one’s problem. It is easy to forget that great oaks grow from little acorns. The absence of an oak tree for a century is significant, but it is only grasped by those with highly-developed abstract thinking skills, which are sometimes lacking among today’s problem-solvers. Foreseeing changes and recognizing that the future does not have to be better than the present is just the beginning. The next step is to realize that you may not see the results of your efforts, but the following generation will.
Given such horizons, questions become somewhat ephemeral, and investing one’s energy becomes difficult. It helps to consider the world’s greatest challenges: politicians hampered by inbuilt priorities of national interests, tough but not always honest competition, simple mistrust, and rising costs. All of this is plain to see even amongst countries that consider themselves to be natural partners.
Yet for all these challenges, I believe that the word ‘collaboration’ will largely define the 21st century. If we seek past experiences to rely upon, the best examples are scientific and quasiscientific projects that did not hold any immediate benefit: the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, the International Space Station, or CERN. The rewards of such projects, although perhaps not felt instantaneously, are spreading to everyone on Earth. It is of greatest importance are the ability to work for the long term, have a jeweler’s precision, agree on all actions, and commit to a goal which, upon first glance, is entirely impractical. Yet this is the only way to change the world for the better.
Authors & Experts
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Djibouti
Director of the Oxford Martin School, Professor of Globalization and Development at the University of Oxford
Professor of Economics at the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia, Canada
Research Consultant at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER)
independent policy advisor on strategies, author of the Nation Brands Index, winner of the 2009 Nobels Colloquia Prize for Leadership on Business and Economic Thinking
Deputy Director of the Russian Ministry of Health’s Centre for Planning and Coordination of Scientific Research
Project Leader at the Institute for Emerging Markets Studies at the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO
Deputy Director at the Institute for Emerging Markets Studies at the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO
Head of the Digital Technologies at the SKOLKOVO Institute for Emerging Market Studies
Analyst at the Institute for Emerging Markets Studies at the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO
Professor of International Economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva
